Facing Danger
Chapter 21: Share Your Deepest Feelings (Year 5)
By Anne B. Walsh
Chapter 21: Share Your Deepest Feelings
"All right, everyone," Harry said, raising his hands for quiet. "Today we’re going to try something special. A full-scale mock battle, like Combat Club was, but with a twist."
"What sort of twist?" said Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, attending his fourth meeting of the DA. Every few meetings, one or two new attendees trickled in, and Harry’s heart gave a queer double thump as he looked again at the crowded Room of Requirement, then at the list on the wall with its bold heading of "Dumbledore’s Army". Names nearly filled the parchment, and Hermione had been talking about working out a Lengthening Charm to add space for new members.
If we keep growing like this, by next year we’ll be our own House. The DA House. Wonder what animal we’d have as mascot? Maybe a manticore, it’s as funny-looking as we are...
Harry pulled himself out of his thoughts. "Invaders and defenders," he answered Roger. "Half of us will be defending the objective. They can only shoot to incapacitate, or to wound, to start out with. The other half, the invaders, will be shooting to kill from the start."
"No one’s ever taught you the meaning of the word ‘subtle’, have they, Potter?" Blaise Zabini drawled from the back, drawing snickers.
Harry felt a surge of anger. "Takes one to know one, Zabini," he said a bit more harshly than he’d intended, and the laughter got louder. "You volunteering to lead a team?"
It was the first time he’d ever seen Zabini taken aback. "Er—what?"
"He asked if you want to be captain," Ginny said, turning to look at Zabini where he sat with one arm around Colleen Lamb. "And I think he’s going to be leading the other team himself. Right, Harry?"
Harry stared at her for one instant, then looked up to see every eye in the room fastened on him. "Of course," he said, hoping the shock still vibrating his nerves didn’t carry over to his voice. He hadn’t been planning on taking part at all, he’d thought he would sit out and referee—
But maybe it’ll be good for me to get in there and fight again. I’ve been keeping up with my sparring, magic and non, but I haven’t been in any of the running fights in at least a month and a half. I need to stay in practice.
"So if you’ll all take out your Galleons," he went on, pulling his own from his pocket. "In a second, half of them will go off, a random selection, and that half will be Zabini’s team. Don’t give him any trouble."
A few mutinous looks greeted him, but nobody grumbled out loud.
"All right, then." Harry drew his wand and put its tip against his Galleon. "Proteo inusitatus semis!"
xXxXx
"A good match," Blaise said some time later, shaking hands with Harry. "Of course, it had a flaw."
"What kind of flaw?"
"With Harry Potter, the true champion of their beliefs, at their head, how could your defenders lose even their mock Hogwarts against the invaders and their leader?"
"Why don’t you just say Voldemort and be done with it?" said Ron, causing waves of shudders all around the room.
"Perhaps another time," Blaise said, his eyes not leaving Harry. "If you had not led the defending force, but the attackers..."
"You want to swap sides and play again?" Harry asked.
"If everyone else is amenable."
"How about it, everyone?" Harry said, turning to catch people’s eyes. "Want to change sides and go again after a breather?"
The DA cheered and clapped, some of them bouncing up and down in place.
"Sounds good. Ten minutes!" Harry glanced at the wall, which immediately sprouted a large hourglass.
"Whoo," said Anthony Goldstein, sitting down hard. "I thought I was going to learn to fly, that last one hit me so hard. Good shot, Macmillan."
"Thank you." Ernie nodded to the Ravenclaw. "I expect we will both do far better on our Defense O.W.L.s than we ever could have without this sort of practice."
"We’ll do better on N.E.W.T.s as well," Alicia said. "Just think of Umbridge’s face when we all get our scores back!"
"She’ll be expecting Ps and Ds, and we’ll get Es and Os!"
"She thinks we haven’t learned anything, and we’ve learned more than we would in normal classes!"
"She’ll scream!"
"She’ll flip!"
"She’ll croak!"
"Perfect!" Lee held out his hands as though displaying a newspaper. "Can’t you see the headline in the Prophet? ‘Toady Umbridge Croaks’!"
The DA collapsed into helpless laughter. People lay on the floor howling, drumming their heels and waving their hands, gasping for air.
"Lena, breathe, love," Roger wheezed after a few minutes, catching a coughing Selena Moon by the shoulders. "You can do it, just breathe..."
"Don’t you usually want her not to breathe?" Parvati said wickedly. "I mean, it breaks the suction."
This set everyone off again. Despite the large presence of Roger’s Housemates in the DA, Selena was the one who had brought him for his first meeting, as they’d been dating since the Yule Ball the preceding winter. Roger had originally attended the ball as Fleur Delacour’s date, but her charms had apparently worn off at some point during the night. Harry made a mental note to remind Ron and Ginny that this might happen to Bill.
"She’s turning blue, though," Roger said, chuckling a little at himself. "And House pride only goes so far. Come on, love, breathe... deep and slow, in, out, in, out..."
Selena coughed a few final times, drew one deep and slow breath, then grinned at her boyfriend. "Isn’t it a bit early to be telling me that?" she said.
"Ooooooooo," the girls chanted together, while all the boys groaned in sympathy. Roger looked petrified for one second, then grinned back at Selena, though the grin was a little shakier than it could have been.
Just then, the hourglass rattled against the wall. Harry looked up to see the sand filling the bottom half. "Let’s go, people!" he called out. "Defenders are now attackers, attackers are now defenders! Same teams, same captains! Defenders, get inside Hogwarts, attackers, follow me!"
xXxXx
"But that doesn’t make sense," Meghan said in a half-whisper, so as not to be overheard by the excitedly chattering DA. "He wants us to win at Hogwarts! It’s what he’s trying to do, or part of it—prove we can still win, even against the Death Eaters, even when they want to kill us and all we want to do is stop them, even if he’s not there with us!"
"Yeah, but this time his team lost," said Ron. "Harry hates losing anytime, even when he knows he should’ve."
"And thus, he goes off and sulks." Draco glanced at the firmly closed door of the model Hogwarts still occupying one corner of the Room of Requirement. "Does he have any idea how bad this looks?"
"I don’t think he cares," said Hermione with a sigh. "On a personal level, I don’t blame him, he deserves some time to rest and get over losing—but everyone expects him to be our leader, to be out here taking apart the battle like he always does, and they’re going to start wondering why he’s not pretty soon."
"Let me deal with it," said Ginny. "Luna, can you see him?"
"He’s chasing his tail in the little Great Hall," Luna said. "Growling a lot."
"Excellent." Ginny started for the door.
xXxXx
Wolf had just changed tailchasing directions for the seventh time and was working himself up towards number eight when a hissing ball of fur slammed into his back. He yelped, rolled to throw it clear, and came up Harry, facing a panting Ginny. "What was that for?" he demanded.
"For you being silly. So is this." Ginny stepped in close to him, reached up, and slapped his ear.
"Ow!"
"You can’t always win," Ginny said tartly. "Isn’t it better to lose here, in training, than it would be out there in real life?"
Harry growled instead of answering.
"Besides, win or lose, you still get the prize." Ginny reached up again, but this time her hand had a loop of gold around it. "I’ve been wondering something," she whispered. "When we share pendants, we know each other’s thoughts... can we feel each other’s feelings, too?"
Harry looked down into milk-chocolate eyes and felt his bad mood slide away like ice on a rooftop. "I don’t know," he said, pulling his own pendant chain from under his robes. "There’s only one way to find out."
"What a terrible thing for us." Ginny ducked inside the chain he held out to her, and dropped her own around his neck. "But we all have to make sacrifices sometimes, don’t we?"
xXxXx
THUD.
Ginny pulled away with a little gasp. "What was that?"
"I don’t know. Let’s go find out." Harry quickly unlooped a pendant chain from around his neck, felt the other one come free as Ginny did the same, and conjured a small ball of fire over their heads. "Fix your hair."
He emerged from the front door of the model Hogwarts swiftly, left hand tucking the pendants away, wand already in his right. "Accio Map." The battered parchment soared into his hand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he recited rapid-fire as another dull THUD shook the walls. "Come on, come on, show me—"
He swore, four other voices echoing his an instant behind.
"What?" demanded Zacharias Smith. "What is it?"
"Umbridge." Harry pointed at the door. "She’s right out there, with a load of Slytherins—you know the ones I mean," he added as Blaise glowered and Selena glared. "And she’ll be in here in a second. She’s found us."
Bitter anger fumed up inside him again. This would be a true defeat, worse than any training game—they’d all be expelled for this, the Prophet would play it for everything it was worth, Dumbledore would lose any credulity he might have had left, Fudge’s hold on government would be cemented—
"What do we do now?" someone asked, a high, worried voice. One of the younger girls, Harry thought, and fought against letting the anger spill out at her. This wasn’t her fault.
No, it’s mine, for being too sure the castle would protect us, too sure we could never be found here. I should have had people watching the Map all the time, or sentries. I won’t make that mistake again.
Assuming, of course, he ever got a chance.
He looked up at the DA, at the worried and frightened faces all around him, all looking to him. Panic swelled up in him—the pendants under his shirt flared hot in response—
No. I can’t. He swallowed, then reached out to one side, and a thread of courage twined around his heart as Ginny’s hand slipped into his. More threads joined it as he saw the Pride ready to one side, Ron flexing his wand hand, Neville standing behind Meghan with his pendants around both their necks, Draco between Hermione and Luna holding both their hands.
"We wait," Harry said, and his voice was clear and unshaken. "If we had the chance, I’d tell you to run. There’s no shame in retreating if you’re this outmatched. But we can’t get out of here." He let a little of the anger surface, the portion directed at himself. "You’ll all remember this, I’m sure. Never let yourself get blocked into a corner, no matter how well hidden you think you are."
Fred and George snorted in unison and came to stand beside the Pride, the blonde Ravenclaw Danielle hand-in-hand with Fred. Lee Jordan and Maya Pritchard joined them, then Lindz Jordan and Dean, Seamus and Lavender—Parvati and Padma and Marietta Edgecombe, Su Li and Terry Boot, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein and Kevin Entwhistle—
"She can find us," Harry said, watching his troops, Dumbledore’s Army, assembling in battle order. "And she can try to break us. But that decision lies with us." Roger and Selena, Blaise and Colleen, Matt and Amanda Smythe, Graham and Natalie, Colin and Dennis Creevey, who squeaked as a rumbling BOOM made the floor vibrate. "No matter what she does to us, as long as we are loyal to each other and to ourselves, she can’t win."
Angelina and Alicia nodded together. Katie Bell was comforting Hannah Abbott and Eloise Midgen, while her friend Leanne hugged Tessa Malloy and Demelza Robins handed a tissue to little Elayne Kreger. Justin Finch-Fletchley held Heidi’s hands, and Ernie Macmillan seemed to be edging closer to Susan Bones every second. Zacharias Smith stood a little aloof, but his eyes were fixed on Harry, showing only a hard curiosity.
"So I guess what I really want," Harry said as Ginny squeezed his hand, "is just to thank you all. For being here, for believing in me, for showing we can do this. Thank you, everyone."
Another echoing BOOM, but as it died away, Harry thought he heard another sound, much more familiar, the grinding of stone on stone—and everyone’s eyes were fixed on the wall behind him, most of them very large and round indeed—
He turned to look.
A fireplace had materialized behind him, and beside it glowered a hole, about waist height on Harry, a bar set into the wall above it.
"Does that go where I think it does?" he said aloud, glancing down at the Map.
The one word Yes gleamed as though it had just been written.
Harry’s chest loosened all at once as a wave of relief/disbelief rolled over him from the Pride.
The DA all seemed to recover their ability to speak at once. "What is it?" "Where’d it come from?" "Where does it go?" "Can we use it?" "Is it safe?" "I’m scared of the dark!" "I’m scared of holes!" "I’m scared of—"
"QUIET!" Harry bellowed, cutting through the noise. "There isn’t much time. That passage will take you somewhere safe, somewhere you can get back to your common rooms—you can claim you never left, no one will be able to prove you did—but we have to move, people. Come on, let’s go! One at a time, make a queue, go as soon as the last person’s clear!"
George was the first to move, scooping Dennis Creevey off his feet and carrying him bodily to the tunnel. Fred followed with Tessa Malloy, Danielle shepherding Natalie and Graham behind them, and then the DA was queuing up, whispering and staring and hanging back a little but moving.
The Pride spread out, Ron and Neville standing one either side of the hole to give the smaller ones a leg up if they needed it, Draco hurrying up and down the line answering questions as best he could, Hermione and Meghan gently chivying people into position. Luna was staring at the door, her eyes unfocused.
"What do you see?" Harry asked, approaching her, Ginny still beside him.
"She’s starting to break through," Luna reported dreamily. "All our wanting the Room not to let her in is still holding her off. It won’t hold much longer, though. The fewer of us there are, the weaker that gets."
"So we could have just stayed here, not wanted her enough, and she couldn’t have found us?" Ginny asked, her hand tightening on Harry’s as a third BOOM shook dust from the timbers of the door.
"Can’t be," Harry said, shaking his head. "We never wanted her to find us, but she did anyway." He frowned. "How did she, though?"
"Someone is not here," Luna said, turning a little to get a different vantage point of the inside of the door, though Harry knew she was looking through it at the people on the other side. "Betrayed and not betrayed, tricked and not tricked, the black swan is fallen from the sky..."
"The black swan," Ginny repeated under her breath. "There’s a ballet, with a sorcerer’s daughter..."
"Talk about it later," Harry said, glancing back at the line, half the length it had been and shrinking rapidly. "We have to go..." His words were cut short by a fourth BOOM, this one accompanied by a sharp crack. "We really have to go. Reparo!"
The wood of the door, which had begun to splinter, popped back into place, but Harry knew it was only a temporary fix. "Go on, Luna," he said, letting enough snap into his tone to make it an order. "We know all we can right now. You have to get to safety."
"Yes, sir." Luna nodded to him, then trotted over to join the end of the line.
"You go too," Harry told Ginny. "I’m the last one out."
Ginny’s shoulders squared, her chin came up, and her eyes flashed. "I’m an alpha too, you know, Harry Potter—"
"A war operation can only have one leader," Harry said softly. "And right now, that’s me. Tomorrow, it could be you, but right now we don’t have time to argue about it. You can be second to last out, but I will be the last."
"If you’re just trying to protect me—"
"Of course I’m trying to protect you. I—" Harry stalled on the word. "I care about you a lot," he substituted, backing away from the door, which had just cracked again. "But I have to care about everyone, the whole Pride, the whole DA, and protect them all. And that includes you. So go. I’ll be right behind you. I promise."
"As long as you promise." Ginny leaned up and kissed him quickly on the lips. "I’ll be waiting for you," she whispered, then ran to catch up with the line.
The cracks on the door were visible now, and Harry thought suddenly of the den-night story of Danger discovering she was a werewolf tamer. He couldn’t help but laugh.
She and Moony made it through that, and I think we will too. The DA was almost gone, Amanda was just climbing into the hole, Blaise and Colleen were the only people left in the room who weren’t Pride—
The door splintered, the fragments blowing inwards under the force of the spell.
"Protego!" Harry shouted, and his shield blocked the two Stunners shooting in at him. "Stupefy, Stupefy, Expelliarmus!" One of his attackers went down, two more yelped indignantly as their wands flew from their hands, but more were crowding into the gap—
"HARRY!" shrieked Ginny’s voice behind him. "HA—"
Her second scream cut off in the middle. Harry snapped his head to one side and let out a whisper of breath in relief as he saw Ginny fighting Ron furiously. They didn’t get in some other way, they haven’t got her—
"Get her out!" he shouted, whirling back to the fight just in time to block a Disarmer and a pair of Body-Binds. "Get her out and lock it behind you!"
"What about you?" Ron shouted back. "We can’t leave you!"
"Get the list and go! That’s an order!" Harry went to one knee, shielding himself against a barrage of spells, then diving to one side to avoid new ones and firing back at the forms shrouded by wood dust in the doorway. Faintly, he heard Ginny’s muffled screams dying away, then the grating of stone against stone and the gentle thump as the passage sealed itself.
They’re safe. They’re all safe. Umbridge won’t have anything on them, she can’t prove who they were or that they were helping me, and she’ll have me, so she won’t bother with them—
Maybe, if the Room helps me, I can hold them off long enough to get to the passage myself—
"Absumo animum!" cried a shrill voice.
But why should I bother? Harry’s wand drooped slightly. Why should I keep trying? I can’t do anything right. I always get everyone in trouble.
He stared at his hands, overcome by doubt and guilt. Why am I even fighting back? I deserve to get caught, I deserve to be punished, for being such a horrible person—
Red washed over him and knocked him backwards, and black swarmed around from behind to claim him.
It was almost a relief.
xXxXx
"Let GO of me!" Ginny shrieked, clawing at Ron’s arms as they skidded down the long slide. "Let go, let go, I have to go back!"
"Why, so you can leave us without an alpha?" Ron caught her wrists in one hand and brought them down to pin them at her sides. "So you can make us decide what to do next, and probably do it wrong?"
"You don’t have to do anything next! Just go back to the common rooms and stay there—"
"So we’re not allowed to help Harry?" Ron split his feet open and braced the bottoms of his trainers against the walls, scudding them to a halt. Ginny writhed in his grasp, but he had a hand in her hair, and she couldn’t squirm too hard without pulling it painfully. "Or don’t you think you’ll need help? There were at least ten of them there, Gin, and it was all Harry could do to hold them off long enough that we could get away—if we’re going to take him out of wherever they’ve got him, we’ll need all of us. We’ve done it before, we can do it again, but that’s us, all of us! Not you alone!"
She snarled at him for one second, then suddenly crumpled and started to cry, and Ron pulled her close and took his feet off the walls, letting them start to slide again.
"We’ll get him back," he whispered into her ear. "You watch. This is our home ground, and nobody steals our alpha from us here."
Ginny hiccupped. "I know," she said shakily. "It’s just... it happened so fast..."
"I know. But that means we can unhappen it fast too. You watch." They were starting to slow down, getting close to their destination, and Ron scooted down so that his feet would hit the floor first when they landed. "We’ll get him back," he repeated. "You’ll see."
Behind his back, he crossed his fingers and prayed he hadn’t just turned himself into a liar.
xXxXx
"They don’t see us," Elayne whispered in awe, staring out at her common room and the students sitting in front of the fire, reading or talking or eating sweets. "We’re right here, and they don’t see us at all..."
"That’s right," Draco said, helping her climb out of the hole. "And they won’t see you for a little while yet. Can you get to your dorm quickly? Or do you see your friends anywhere here?"
"My friends are the DA," Elayne said softly. "But I sometimes sit with those girls." She jerked her head towards a small knot of students near one of the water-swirled windows. "I don’t think they’d notice if I came over and sat down..."
"If they’re not your friends, then never mind." Draco gave her a little push into the room. "Just go to your dorm and get your homework or something..."
"We’ve been together," said Matt Smythe, sliding past Draco and out into the common room. "Working on that one tricky bit from Charms today. I’ll get my book and we’ll start going over it together."
Elayne flashed him a smile, and he returned it, then hurried off towards the boys’ dorms.
"Thank you," said Selena to Draco as she left the tunnel. "You’re very kind to them."
"If things had gone differently for me, I could have been them. Stuck in a House with a bad reputation, and just trying to do my best."
"Or not sure how to do that, and settling for less," added Blaise from behind them. "Though one of my yearmates, at least, seems to be learning."
"Yeah, well, keep an eye on him, will you?"
"Always." Blaise stepped out into the common room, drawing a piece of paper from one pocket and his wand from another.
Selena nodded to Draco, who climbed quickly back into the tunnel. "Stealth mode, thank you, Salazar," he murmured, and the hole in the Slytherin common room wall sealed itself once more.
They should be safe now. There won’t be any evidence they ever left their common room—well, not unless they have a portrait like we do, but Umbridge won’t listen to a portrait, especially not if it’s telling her they left and never came back when she can see clearly where they are!
Neville had undertaken to guide the Hufflepuffs back to their dorm, and Luna was handling the Ravenclaws. Meghan was instructing the Gryffindors how to open their passage, and Hermione was using her experience as alpha to keep the crowd of nervous students under control.
And Ron and Ginny will be here when they’ll be here. And once they are...
Draco bared his teeth and looked down at his pendants. They were warm with the overall worry of the Pride, but no more than that, and the wolf cub’s carving held no light. He hoped that meant that Harry had gotten away, not that he’d been rendered unable to feel fear or anger.
But whichever it means, we’ll find him.
This time, Umbridge has gone too far.
xXxXx
Minerva McGonagall knocked briskly on the door of Dolores Umbridge’s office, her face stony. In any other circumstances, she would have discounted a wild tale brought to her by a student of an attack by a staff member on another student. But in Minerva’s opinion, Dolores Umbridge was capable of almost anything, especially where Harry Potter was concerned, and Hermione Granger-Lupin would never have lied about something so important.
I sent a Patronus to Albus, but of course he is away, on one of his endless trips... where does he go that is so important? What can he be doing? It will take time for the Patronus to find him, time for him to understand the message, time for him to return here...
And it was taking time for Dolores to answer her door. Far too much time, in fact.
Minerva knocked again. "Dolores!" she called. "Dolores, let me in!" She paused, listening. "I know you’re in there," she said sharply. "I know you’re not alone." Another pause. "Dolores, I am taking out my wand—"
The door flew open. Minerva froze.
"So nice of you to tell me, dear," said Dolores, smiling fixedly, her own stubby wand pointed straight at Minerva’s chest. "Do come in."
Minerva stepped stiffly into the tiny office, incongruously grateful that Dolores had not obtained the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. It would have been more humiliating, somehow, to be ushered at wandpoint into the office where she had once laughed with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Their memories, and that of Alastor Moody, would certainly have been quite offended by Dolores’ decorating.
And why am I bothering about that now, when Dolores herself and several of her tame students are holding their wands on me? Minerva’s eyes narrowed as she took in the crests embroidered on robes. Slytherins, all Slytherins, except for the girl in the corner—a Ravenclaw. She must have played on their dislike for Albus and Harry Potter, offered to give them extra powers...
"I assume you’re looking for Harry Potter, Minerva?" Dolores laughed brittly. "Here he is. Over here. Bring her over, Warrington, and be polite—she is a teacher, after all..."
Minerva came around the corner of the desk and felt her heart shudder. Harry Potter lay on the floor behind the desk, his eyes half-open, his breathing labored and heavy. He twitched as though in the throes of a bad dream, but he looked as if he were not asleep but delirious, or perhaps in the drowsy state produced by certain illegal potions...
"What have you done to him?" she demanded, whirling on Dolores. "What is this?"
"Oh, just a little spell I found all on my own." Dolores giggled, the high-pitched sound seeming precisely calculated to irritate Minerva beyond all bearing. "It’s not illegal—it might be, if anyone who made laws knew about it, but you see, I am the law here at Hogwarts. And young Mr. Potter is a lawbreaker of the highest degree." She regarded Harry’s restless form with a nauseating look of affection, and bent to pat his cheek. "Such a naughty boy..."
As her hand touched Harry’s face, his eyes snapped open, and he screamed.
Minerva took a half-step forward, but the burly Slytherin beside her dropped a hand on her shoulder in warning. She barely controlled a hiss of fury at him, and told her body sternly that changing into her Animagus form would not help, satisfying though it might be to sink her claws into her prey. Her job at the moment was to observe Harry.
Dolores took her hand away, and Harry’s cry subsided. He was still shaking, though, and suddenly he flung out an arm. "Get away!" he shouted, his voice slurred. "Leave me alone!"
"Perfect," Dolores cooed. "Absolutely perfect..."
Minerva shuddered, trying to keep her mind away from a little green-eyed boy and his delighted laughter as she batted with her paws at his messy black hair. "What have you done to him?" she repeated, using the voice that worked so well to compel truth from her students.
"It’s a very simple spell, as I said." Dolores picked up a quill from her desk and began to brush her fingers along the feather. "Here, let me show you..."
She bent down and drew the soft end of the quill across Harry’s throat.
xXxXx
Pearl galloped along the corridor, conscious of weight on her back but not letting it slow her—the king stag was in trouble, they had to save him from the hunters, even the eaters were with her in this—two humans and two smaller eaters ran beside her, and a large eater bounded ahead, her fur on end and her scream a sound of pure fury as she launched herself at the door—
Meghan changed back, yanked her wand free of her robes, and slammed herself against the wall, letting Hermione, Draco, Ron, and Luna flood past her and inside. Neville paused in the hall only long enough to make sure no one would see Umbridge’s door open, then charged into the office, and Meghan flung herself around the doorjamb and into the room after him.
She had only time to see a confused mass of robed bodies before a hissing, spitting shape struck her on the shoulders, and she fell, hearing the whistle of a spell above her. "Thanks, Neenie," she panted, rolling over—
To see grey-striped fur, and a spectacle-marked face.
"Professor!"
Professor McGonagall waved an imperious paw behind herself, then began the change back into her human form. Meghan ducked behind her as it finished. Automatically, she shifted into what she thought of as her healing-looking way, sliding a hand through the rips in McGonagall’s robe to touch skin and get a better view. Her eyes widened.
Oh no, oh no, her heart isn’t working right—she saw something that made her so angry or so upset that it hurt her there—
Meghan leaned into the power around Hogwarts, drew what she needed, and strengthened the faltering beats of the Professor’s heart. Then she added a tiny surge of extra power, and sent a similar pulse out to the Pride through their pendants.
I’m not a good fighter yet, maybe I never will be, but I can do this.
The battle was over very rapidly after that.
xXxXx
Umbridge bent down and drew the soft end of the quill across Harry’s throat.
Harry’s back arched, his teeth clenched, his hands closed into fists. "Moony, no," he moaned aloud. "No, please, what’d I do, I didn’t mean it, don’t, don’t..." The words trailed off into a sound that was half a child’s pain-filled cry, half a wolf cub’s forsaken howl.
"It takes the input from his senses and magnifies it by a factor of a hundred," Umbridge said, stroking the quill across her own fingers again. "Every little draft is a freezing wind, every seam of his clothing a dull knife. So when I touched him with the feather’s barbs..." She giggled once more. "And it adds the occasional random input as well. I assume he thought he saw someone or something called Moony a moment ago—I can’t imagine who it could have been..."
McGonagall stood rigid, her own hands clenched. "How dare you," she forced through her lips while keeping her teeth clenched together. "How dare you. What has he done to you?"
"Besides defy my authority, then make vile game of me in front of the entire school?" Umbridge asked, dropping her girlish manner in an instant. "Besides attempt to drive me away from the place I have sacrificed and fought to help? Oh, no, Minerva, don’t try to make him the innocent martyr here. He knew what he was doing, and he will pay for it. He is already paying, but he must pay in full. And that cannot happen here."
She checked her watch. "My contact will not be ready for another hour, but better early than late. Warrington, I’m leaving you in charge, with Dursley as your second. I’ll modify her memory myself, just before I leave, but you’ll have to move quickly once that’s happened. Stun her, as many of you as can manage the spell, and then one of you discover her in the corridor. It will look as though her heart simply failed, not uncommon in a witch of her age, and by the time the Healers get through with her, the Memory Charm will have taken full hold."
"Where are you taking him?" McGonagall asked sharply.
"Somewhere safe, and that is all you need to know," Umbridge said with authority. "Even the best Memory Charm can be broken, and Dumbledore will doubtless put his best effort forth on you. If he is able to put forth effort on anything by the time you’re found." She smiled widely. "Personally, I hope the Healers patch you up just enough so that you can join him in Azkaban. I understand those with weak hearts never last long around dementors."
Harry whimpered, and Umbridge looked down at him, her smile becoming fond. "It hurts, does it?" she said softly. "That’s good. That means you’re learning." Her wand, still in her hand, came up to touch the quill. "Now then, as for our leaving—no one in the Ministry would dare question me, so I may as well use the simplest method. Portus!"
The quill trembled in her hand and glowed blue for an instant, then was still, and Umbridge laid it on Harry’s chest. "And now," she said, looking up at McGonagall with undisguised glee, "now to take care of you—"
The scream of a hunting cat tore the air, and the door of Umbridge’s office slammed open. A shrieking red-haired devil charged in, wand out, eyes wild, with Hermione and Draco on her heels, and Ron and Luna a step behind them.
"Get them!" Umbridge shrieked, dropping to her knees beside Harry. A flash of blue light, and they were gone. McGonagall twisted away from Warrington, shrank into her cat form, and raced around the room just in time to fall on Meghan’s shoulders, knocking her flat before Dursley’s spell could fell her—
"I think we have seen enough," said Dumbledore. "Come with me, Miss Weasley?"
Ginny nodded wordlessly and put her hand in Dumbledore’s. A moment later, they were soaring upwards through darkness, and then they were standing in Dumbledore’s office again, having just raised their faces from the rune-carved stone Pensieve. McGonagall sat to one side, speaking quietly into Draco’s Zippophone. The Pride sat or stood behind Ginny, Hermione’s burning hot chain around everyone’s necks (Ginny had found herself unable to control her magic even enough to stretch her own chain). Their faces, as she turned to look at them, held the same vicious anger she could feel on her own.
"Can you find him, Professor?" Ron asked the question for them all.
"I believe I can." Dumbledore turned to a shelf behind his desk and took down a golden quill and a scroll of parchment. "During the summer, while he stayed with his relatives, I gave Harry a Portkey for use in case of emergency."
"I’ve seen it," Ginny said. "It’s shaped like a little gold phoenix. He wears it on his pendant chain, with the locket he and Mr. Moony exchanged when they did the blood-bond."
Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed. That talisman, besides being a Portkey, holds a charm resonant to the one in this quill. When activated, the quill will describe the location where the talisman can be found, and by derivation, the location where Harry currently is."
He tapped the quill twice with his wand, and it rose up, hovering over the parchment, then began to write rapidly.
"Albus!" Mr. Padfoot crashed through the door of the Headmaster’s office, followed closely by Mrs. Letha, Mr. Moony, and Mrs. Danger. "What the hell is going on?"
"Exactly what I told you is going on," McGonagall snapped, standing up. "Dolores Umbridge has overstepped her bounds beyond all belief—kidnapping a student from school grounds, placing him under a spell that amounts to torture—"
"Torture?" Mrs. Danger’s face paled.
"What is it?" Mrs. Letha demanded.
"Can we find him?" Mr. Moony asked calmly, cutting through the rest of the sounds in the room.
"I believe so," said Dumbledore, looking down at the quill, which had stopped writing. His eyes widened. "Or perhaps not, or at least not in the way I had thought."
"What’s wrong?" Mr. Padfoot asked, coming to the desk. "What is that thing?"
"It should have located Harry, through the Portkey talisman he wears with the pendants you created. Instead..." Dumbledore turned the parchment around so that everyone could read it.
The talisman is currently located in the Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, one foot from the front right corner of the Headmaster’s desk.
Everyone’s eyes turned to Ginny, who would not have been surprised if she’d gone up in flames like a phoenix. "Me?" she said weakly. "I’m not Harry."
"No, but..." Dumbledore looked past her. "Hermione. Why did you expand your chain to share Miss Weasley’s experience in the Pensieve, rather than letting Miss Weasley do it?"
"Ginny’s chain isn’t working for her, Professor. She can’t make it grow or pass through her neck or..." Hermione stopped, her face suddenly fearful. "Oh no."
Ginny scrabbled at the neck of her robes, found the chain, and yanked it free.
Four pendants, a gold locket, and a tiny gold phoenix swung before thirteen appalled sets of eyes.
Author Notes:
See, since this is all one continuous work, I don’t have to stick with JKR’s formula of the Summer Surprise. So I decided to have this climax right about now! Stay with me, folks—it only gets better!
If there’s something you’d like to see, or not see, or did see and liked, or did see and didn’t like, please review!)