“The Many Faces Go To War: Chapter 9”
By = Fayanora

Chapter Nine: Unofficial Self-Defense Club

Notes: Whoops! Forgot to post this last time! So you'll be getting two in a row!

Started putting dates on these chapters where possible, it helps me keep track of where I am in the story. (Something I figured out when writing my original fiction.) Dates are provided by HP Lexicon's Order of the Phoenix calendar.

FORMATTING FOR INTERNAL VOICES = 'Single quotes with no italics' will be Adira/Addy unless someone is quoting something, ~Text in tildes~ will be Chandra, (Parentheses for Al,) [Brackets will be Hypatia], % Percentage symbols for Iliana %, # Pound signs for Mother/Avani, # * Asterisks for Zoey, * and {curly brackets for Tier.} Apologies for any confusion this may cause.

Text in 'Italics and single quotes' is Parseltongue.

J. K. Rowling owns this sandbox, I'm only playing in it.

This chapter may contain some quotations from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

*FAYANORA*

September 22nd – 28th, 1995

Making up for lost time, there was another Quidditch practice the next day, a Sunday. But Iliana only made them practice during the morning, giving the team the rest of the afternoon off.

Adira was glad to hear from Cedric and Luna later that they hadn't gotten any more detentions from Umbridge. “Honestly,” Cedric had said, “that time in the Room for all those hours got really old pretty fast for me. It may have been a more effective deterrent than the quill.”

Luna, for her part, didn't want to risk the figures somehow failing or being found out somehow. Especially after Iliana told her that Hypatia had said the figures can't cast magic of their own, even with a real wand in their hand. So all it would take to expose them is for Umbridge to tell the figure to heal itself with its wand, to expose it wasn't real. That would be bad, if it happened before they could get past the compulsion charm she'd put on the thing. So she didn't want to risk any more detentions, to which Adira and the others all agreed, including Cedric.

Of course, part of preventing this was that they all had to appear suitably defeated to Umbridge. If they looked defiant, or too happy, she might work extra hard to goad them into doing something detention-worthy, and they couldn't have that. Luckily, she seemed to be satisfied with their performances in class. Hermione noticed their attitudes and asked them about it later. Adira only said the detentions were “truly horrible” and she didn't want to risk any more of them. Voldemort would come out in the open eventually, there wasn't anything to be gained by openly defying Umbridge.

“Interesting wording, that use of 'openly,'” Hermione said when she and Adira were taking a break from homework one night. She cast some privacy spells and continued, “Do you have something to tell me? Have you found a way to secretly defy her?”

“Um... well, kinda. Cedric and Luna and I have managed to find some time to meet up together, and I've been teaching them some spells Hypatia invented.”

“Hypatia invented some new spells?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn't teach them to me?”

“Er... no. But we didn't leave you out deliberately. I don't know when Cedric can meet with us next, but I can ask him. Hmm... Cho's been giving me and Iliana looks like she's jealous Cedric might be interested in me instead of her, so I'll have Al ask him instead.”

“Where have you been meeting?”

“The Room of Requirement.”

“Oh, right. That makes sense. So it's just you, Cedric, and Luna so far?”

“Yes.”

She thought about this a moment. “Hmm... yes, I can see where that would be defying her. She's been giving Sirius a hard time lately. The last class we had with him, she was trying to get him to teach from a book by some guy named Wilbert Slinkhard.”

“Yeah, Luna reckons Sirius will be the first teacher to get the sack from Umbridge. And that his replacement will be some duffer who's in her pocket.”

Hermione nodded. “I agree. I see now why Luna is in Ravenclaw. A lot of the things she says sound daft, but she's clever, I'll give her that.”

“Yeah. So, I'll ask Cedric about meeting some time, okay?”

“Thank you, Adira.”

“You're welcome.”

“By the way... if Sirius really does either cave to her pressure or get the sack, and we're still doing those meetings by then, we should go recruiting other people. Because if that happens, Defense is going to become a joke, and nobody will pass it. I got a copy of that Slinkhard book from the library out of curiosity, and the thing is a bad joke. Mr. Slinkhard's entire defense strategy is to run and hide, there's nothing in the book about fighting back if that isn't an option, and he's very dismissive of any kind of offensive magic, even simple jinxes. With that book on the syllabus, the class would be worse than useless.”

“Well let's hope Sirius can hold out until Umbridge gets booted.”

“I wouldn't hold my breath. Fudge's smear campaign against you, Cedric, and Dumbledore was a lot more effective than I would have thought possible. Though I guess Cedric is still a student, which means he can't be out there telling the truth. And Skeeter had you pegged as a mad delinquent last year, and it took Fudge less than an hour to decide you'd Confunded Cedric. So I guess I shouldn't be as surprised as I am.”

“Yes, the astonishing and terrifying power of paranoia.”

She nodded. “Yes. She's even got Percy Weasley convinced, and I thought for sure he'd be on your side, with all you've done to help him with his family.”

“Ah, yes. That's uh, that's gratitude for you.”

Hermione nodded absently. “But you know, it's weird. Some of his wording felt strange, in those quotes in the paper. One quote even had me half convinced he'd read George Orwell and was trying to send a subtle message.”

“That's an interesting interpretation. If true, it would suggest he's undercover for some reason.”

“Really? I was thinking maybe he was having second thoughts.”

“Er... well I guess we won't know unless he tells us. But uh... either way, second thoughts or undercover, what would you do if it was true? I'm not sure what I'd do.”

Hermione paused to think a moment before responding. “Well, I suppose either way, I'd watch the situation for more data and work on the problem more later. It's not like he'd tell us if he was undercover.”

“You wouldn't tell the Weasleys? They're furious with him right now, and Molly is really sad about it. Wouldn't telling them, in that situation, be best? You know, to ease their minds?”

She shook her head. “No. His father works at the Ministry. If he were undercover, and Mr. Weasley knew for sure... well okay, I guess Mr. Weasley could pretend, he's in the Order after all. And Mrs. Weasley almost never leaves the house. But Umbridge might get suspicious if the Weasley kids acted unusually for knowing that. I mean, he's Fudge's personal assistant. What if Fudge and Percy came here to the school for some reason, and the Weasleys saw him? Fudge and Umbridge would expect them to be angry or sad with him still. Or both.”

“Wouldn't that be true if we knew he was undercover and ran into him, too?”

“Hmm... I doubt it. As far as she knows, we didn't know him as well. Older brother, known for being a stickler for rules, Prefect and head boy, was only here with us for three years before leaving. I don't know about Fudge, but Umbridge would think if we knew Percy, either we'd be good little Ministry-loving toadies like him, or else he'd have been obviously corrupted by our lawless influence, and never would have gotten that job.”

“So if you knew Percy was secretly under cover for the Order to keep an eye on Fudge, maybe protect him from being Imperiused by Death Eaters, you wouldn't tell anybody about it?”

“No. Maybe you, Addy, but... but not...” Hermione turned to look narrow-eyed at Adira, who pretended she hadn't noticed this. “You know something, don't you?”

“What? Me? No, don't be silly. It's all hypothetical.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Adira even more. Adira was pretending to do homework, but was staring at her open Potions book, on the edge of her seat, figuratively speaking.

“Adira Lily Potter, are you keeping secrets from me?”

“Of course not!”

“You are! You... this wasn't hypothetical, was it? Percy really is a spy for the Order, isn't he?”

Adira sighed. “Yeah, you're right. Which is why I'm glad you wouldn't tell the Weasleys. Percy is--”

“DON'T TELL ME! Oh my god, oh my god, that was just hypothetical! I didn't think... no, oh damn, now I know that, and that's such a burden of pressure. I'll never be able to act normally around Mrs. Weasley again! Oh why did you tell me that? Why??”

“I'm sorry! But it's been eating me since I found out. I hate not being able to tell the Weasleys. I didn't want to tell you, either, because I thought you might tell them. But you started getting suspicious of his quotes, and you brought it up, and I thought... sound her out, see if she's safe to tell. Which it sounds like you are. Or you were, until you started freaking out.”

Hermione was flapping her hands anxiously. “Oh no, oh no oh no oh no...”

“Hermione, relax. If you really think you can't handle keeping the secret from the Weasleys, I could Obliviate the memory of it for you. I know how to do it.”

“You do? How could you know unless--” she gasped. “You've done it before?”

“Not to you. Never to you. I've only done it once to anyone, and that was Filch. I only did it after he caught Luna and me – er, Iliana did it after he caught Luna and Iliana – past curfew on the night of one of Umbridge's detentions, and of course she never gives us a note excusing us, nor escorts us herself. Which, now that I think of it, is really strange, seems a bit out of character for her...” As Adira spoke, her hair color kept shifting back and forth between black and red.

“You modified someone's memory, though!”

“Yes, I did. Well, Iliana did, but I agreed with her. If we hadn't, Iliana and Luna would have gotten into more trouble, and I'm sure Umbridge would have found out and given us more detention, and I couldn't let that happen to Luna, I just couldn't. So yeah, I Stunned him and his cat, and modified both their memories. Which I guess means I've done it twice, technically.” Her hair was fully red now, her eyes hazel, but still otherwise looking like Adira.

“Well don't you dare do that to me, Adira! Not ever! Promise me!”

“I... well of course I – we – wouldn't do that, Hermione! Not without your consent, anyway.”

She crossed her arms, looking very dangerous. “Oh, but Filch is alright, is he?”

Adira paled, fully herself again. “Oh shit. This is one of those times where we thoughtlessly did something messed up, like we were doing to Draco and his bookends, isn't it?”

Hermione blinked at her. “'Draco'? Since when have--- you know what, never mind, I forgot about Hypatia for a moment. But yes, you're right, you messed up. Nobody should ever mess with someone's memories.” Hermione shuddered as she said it.

“Muggles get Obliviated all the time. I admit they went way overboard on Mr. Roberts last year at the campsite, but otherwise I doubt anyone gets it done often enough to be harmful.”

“That's not the point! My mind is important to me! I had nightmares for months after Lockhart nearly made us 'tragically lose our minds'!”

Adira took Hermione's hand in both of hers. “I'm sorry, Hermione. I didn't know. I promise I'll never Obliviate someone ever again. With the exception of Death Eaters, if it becomes necessary at some point.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow, but sighed and nodded. “Okay, that's an acceptable exception. Of course now I'll probably have more nightmares that you won't keep your promise, or that you've promised before and broken it and I never knew, or something.”

“I wouldn't Obliviate you without your consent. I don't even know what could possibly motivate me to Obliviate you without your consent. Filch was a heat-of-the-moment, snap decision. But yeah, maybe I could have talked him down, or asked him to take us to McGonagall so I could explain.”

“Right. Well think of that the next time something like that happens.”

“I will. It hurts seeing you not trust me.”

“Good.” Hermione sat back down again with a sigh.

“You'll tell me if you have those nightmares, right? And more importantly, if you don't have them, right?”

“I... yes, I will.”

“Good. Now maybe you should see a Mind Healer. Now that I think of it, you and Ron and I should all have seen Healer Young after the Chamber of Secrets debacle.”

“I did see one. A different one than you did. I had to. I was having nightmares of being petrified for most of the year anyway, even before the whole Chamber business. And then there was the troll incident the year before that, and the dementors and Sirius in our third year.”

“But?”

“But I'll owl my parents about seeing her again, if I have more nightmares. Though between Umbridge and Voldemort, maybe I should see her again anyway.”

“Maybe hold off on that until it becomes really necessary. Umbridge might find out and use it against you.”

“Oh god, she's just the sort that would do that, too. Right. Only if I have more nightmares, then.”

“Good. And again, I'm sorry.”

“Please don't mention it again. No really, truly don't mention it again.”

“Mention what?” she asked with a grin. Hermione rolled her eyes.

~
October 1st, 1995

Sirius wasn't at all cooperating with Umbridge, even after she put him on probation on the 27th of September. He knew he didn't really need the job, and he had known he'd be out of it before the year was over anyway one way or another, so while he did try hard to keep the Potters from going nuclear in his class, he wasn't cooperating at all, otherwise. He was teaching dueling magic, essentially, and getting into a lot of arguments about it with Umbridge. Hypatia was working overtime trying to keep them calm in his classes now, as the old toad kept writing down more and more nasty things on her clipboard about him, and Adira only got through each one without more detentions by concentrating on the unofficial self-defense club she was in with Cedric and Luna.

Thus, they felt very lucky that they got through three weeks like that without any more detentions. When they weren't training for Quidditch, they were meeting with Cedric and Luna. Luna talked about adding more members, and Iliana agreed, so a week before their first Hogsmeade trip, Iliana brought Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville into the group. Neville was especially keen to learn defense, and his new wand was making him by far the best caster of the lot of them. It took him longer to memorize the wand movements and incantations, but once he got those down he was able to cast some pretty powerful magic. In one meeting, he cast a Sleeping Beauty Stunner so strong that Iliana had to overpower the counter-charm by double to lift it from Hermione.

On Tuesday, October 1st, Adira woke up to find both of the Protean journals on their desk. How Hypatia had gotten Luna's copy, she didn't know. But she looked inside and found a mirror on the inside cover of the book. There was a note stuffed into the journal as well, which read simply “You're welcome. - H.” Clearly, Hypatia had added a two-way mirror to the Protean journals. And judging by the sloppiness of Hypatia's writing, she'd likely been exhausted when she'd written the note.

“Thank you, Hypatia,” she said, tucking Luna's copy into her pocket for later.

It took Adira a while to figure out how to get the notebook back to Luna. She couldn't just give it to her at breakfast or lunch without rousing Umbridge's suspicions. So she went to Padma Patil in the corridor and asked her for Luna's schedule for the day.

“I dunno, Adira, I'm a Prefect, not a teacher. Ask Ginny, she has several classes with the Ravenclaws.”

“Oh. Thanks, Padma.”

At lunch, then, Adira sat next to Ginny.

“Do you have any classes with Luna this afternoon?”

“One, yeah. Why, Addy?”

“I have to return something to her. Er... it's a Protean journal.”

Ginny narrowed her eyes. “You want me to give Luna a journal?”

“It's not a dark artifact, it's just got Protean charms on it among other things. Write in one, the writing shows up in the other. I added a two-way mirror to it as well.”

“You made a two-way mirror? So you reverse engineered the one Sirius gave you?”

[Yes,] Hypatia said.

“Yes,” Adira relayed.

“Alright, well if you made it, Addy, I trust you.”

“Great, thanks.” Addy said, handing the notebook to Ginny. She carefully looked at it when it was between her and Adira, and thus out of Umbridge's sight.

“It uses parchment instead of Muggle paper, like... like the other one did. Are you sure it won't talk back to me?”

“The only way anything will appear in there is if Luna or I write in it.”

“Right. Okay, I'll give it to her this afternoon,” she said, slipping it into her pocket. “But you'll owe me for this. I haven't used any kind of notebooks or journals since... since after my first year.”

“Sorry about---”

“Don't apologize. There's no need.” Ginny smiled at her.

“Right. Thanks again.”

Ginny nodded. “So, you and Luna going to Hogsmeade this weekend? Er, Iliana and Luna, I mean.”

“Yes, they are.”

“You want any suggestions what to do?”

Adira looked up at Ginny with confusion. Ginny shrugged. “I've been dating Michael Corner. I met him at the Yule Ball.”

“Ah. They were just gonna wander around town, see what it has.”

“Well, they could always go to Madam Puddifoot's. It's the most popular spot for couples in town. Michael and I are going there on Saturday.”

Iliana shrugged, their form shifting to hers. “Oh, well that'll be better than talking in third person all the time. Anyway, Luna doesn't like Madam Puddifoot's, she told me that on our first ever date. She said it's too cramped, too many other couples.”

“I guess that's a good point. But on the other hand, it could be good to remind people you two are together. After the Yule Ball, and then again after it became common knowledge you two were an item, most people bullied Luna less. And with the Prophet telling everyone you're a mad criminal, well... it might help. It's hard to tell, she doesn't talk about it, but I think the bullying incidents are increasing again. They can't get into her trunk now, so I think they've been doing... other stuff.”

“Thanks, Ginny. I'll ask her about it. She usually tells me these things when I ask.”

“I'm glad for that. I wish I could do more for her myself. But she has you, and you make her happy.”

“I do?”

“Yes. Luna's been more happy since starting to date you than she ever had been before. Those detentions with Umbridge notwithstanding.”

Iliana nodded, and went back to her lunch with a smile and a blush.

~
October 5th, 1995

After several days of being almost exclusively Adira, Iliana woke up on Saturday morning early and excited for the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. A chance to get away from Umbridge and spend some time with Luna outside the castle? Why yes, please, she wanted that very much. So much so she rushed her shower – not bothering to wash her hair this time – threw on a one-piece dress and a hoodie because of the cool weather, and was done eating before Luna even arrived for breakfast, and so Iliana sat next to Luna and talked with her while she ate. Umbridge didn't look pleased about it, but it was a weekend and they weren't disturbing anyone or engaging in public displays of affection, so all they got from Umbridge was a lot of glares and suspicious looks.

Iliana tried not to look guilty as they approached Filch later, and mostly succeeded. Filch didn't notice anything weird, at least. Neither did Luna, or if she did she hadn't said anything about it.

Casting Muffliato and other privacy spells first, including a spell Iliana had learned for detecting animagi just in case, the two girls talked all the way down to town.

“So, Iliana, I was thinking about our little unofficial club, again.”

“Oh? What about it?”

“Well, after you told me Thursday night about Sirius's latest fight with Umbridge, I wouldn't be surprised if he's sacked by Monday. And then we'll have someone teaching from that horrid Slinkhard book.”

“Ah, yes. I agree. I spoke with Sirius the next day, and he also reckons he's about to be sacked. He's already begun packing his things. I tried to convince him not to, but he wants to be ready when it happens.”

“Yes, I'm not surprised. Which is why I think we should recruit more people to the club at some point soon. Everyone is going to be affected if Sirius is replaced by someone in Umbridge's pocket.”

“Yeah, but most people think I'm crazy. If they didn't before Rita Skeeter, they sure do now.”

“True. But you're a metamorphmagus. They don't have to know you're there.”

Iliana cocked her head in the way that meant she was listening to one of the others sharing headspace with her. Luna looked at her, waiting.

“Hypatia says that if Umbridge finds out what we're doing, and finds out we're expanding, that she'll shut it down and everyone involved will be expelled. So we should keep it a secret. She's going to think some more about it for now.”

“Well yes, that's obvious,” Luna said, confused.

“What I think she means is that she's thinking of ways to minimize the damage if the secret gets out. Maybe even prevent people from talking about it.”

“Oh. Alright, then. That makes sense.”

The two girls dropped the privacy spells and began talking about other things as they got closer to the village. Mostly discussing what they were going to do all day long. One of the first things they agreed on was to avoid the big hill they'd gone to during their first date, so Umbridge wouldn't have any chance of finding out and declaring the place off limits. And because the last time they'd gone there, they'd fallen asleep.

By the time they entered the village, they had plans. They started out by wandering around the high street to window shop, going into the book store for a while, then looking around the inside of the wizarding equipment shop, Dervish and Banges. They also ducked into McHavelock's Wizarding Headgear and had a fun hour trying on the various hats and wigs. Iliana quite liked the look of Luna in a rainbow-colored wig that glowed in the dark, and they laughed as Iliana sported a lime green bowler hat and did an unflattering impression of Minister Fudge talking about cooking goblins in pies.

After that, they stopped by an art supply store for Luna to get a few things. The Room of Requierment would make a great art studio for Luna, and she could hide her art in her trunk now. Or, well, there probably wasn't a lot of room there, but she could have Iliana hold it in their trunk instead.

When they were finished there, they stopped by Scrivenshaft's for some quills, then Honeyduke's before going to The Three Broomsticks for lunch.

As always, The Three Broomsticks was crowded and noisy. When Luna and Iliana came in, they spotted Hermione, Ron, and Neville at a table together, and decided to join their friends.

“I thought for sure you two would be going somewhere more private,” Hermione said. “Like Madam Puddifoot's or Brews and Stews Cafe.”

“Luna doesn't like Puddifoot's. I've never been there, so I wouldn't know myself, but from what she's said, I doubt I'd like it either.”

“But why sit with us?”

“It's not like there's anywhere else for us to go, Hermione. This table was the best option.”

“Oh. Well, let me get your orders for you, anyway.”

“Sure,” Iliana said. “A butterbeer for me.”

“Gilly water for me,” Luna said.

“Grab a menu, too, Hermione? We're hungry.”

Hermione nodded and went up to the front to wait for Madam Rosmerta or one of her employees to have time to help her. As she did that, the others talked.

“So, what'd you lot do on your date so far?” Ron asked in a gently teasing tone.

“Nothing much. Popped into a few stores, got a few things.”

“Iliana made a couple very obvious attempts to get me distracted so she could get me something for Christmas, and I very politely let her think she'd been subtle about it.”

Ignoring Ron's reaction to that, Iliana said, “And what about you lot? Neville?”

Neville shrugged. “This and that. Nothing too interesting.”

“Neville's been leading me along while he followed Hannah Abbott around the village. Not all the time, and she hasn't caught on yet, but he's got the hots for her, don't you, Nev?”

Neville just blushed and looked down at his bottle of butterbeer.

“Well she's quite pretty,” Luna said. “And quite nice. I've never once heard her call me Loony, and she's always been kind to me when we've met. She helped me find my shoes, once.”

“Hear that, Nev? Even Luna thinks you've got good taste,” Ron said.

Hermione came back, then, with a menu in one hand. One of the other employees of the pub, a plain man Iliana didn't recognize, followed behind Hermione and set a butterbeer and gilly water down in front of them. “I'll be back in ten minutes to take your order,” he said, and left.

“They're really busy today, aren't they?” Iliana said.

“It's that toad, Umbridge,” Ron said. “Everyone wants to get away from her, so even the students that normally would stay behind because the novelty's worn off have taken their chance to get out from under her pouchy stare.”

“Well at least with it this busy, we can talk about whatever and not be overheard.”

“Yeah, except then we'd have to shout.”

Iliana got her wand out, pointed it straight up in the air, and made a conical spiraling motion with it, saying, “Kónos siopís.”

Immediately, the noise of all the competing voices around them fell to a sort of diffuse background noise.

“Wow, Iliana,” Neville said, “is that another new spell?”

“Yes. I call it the Cone of Silence. And it's a two-way spell, works just as well for muffling our own conversation into gibberish as it does muffling everyone else's conversations around us. So there's no chance of being overheard, now. But wait, one more thing. Labia abscondam.”

Hermione blushed and giggled at that spell's incantation. Iliana rolled her eyes at Hermione.

“It's just a spell to disguise our lips so nobody can lip-read what we're saying. I found it in a book of privacy spells.”

“What's so funny about 'labia abscondam'?” Ron asked, confused. Neville looked confused as well.

“Labia is also a word meaning... something that only girls have.”

“Only girls have lips?” Ron said, disbelieving. “Bollocks!”

“No, but you're in the right neighborhood,” Iliana said. Hermione and Luna burst out laughing at her comment.

Ron silently mouthed 'in the right neighborhood' a moment. Then he got it, and turned red. Neville got it as well, for he too turned red. Iliana burst out laughing too, now.

“Sorry I asked,” Ron said.

With Luna and Iliana busy looking at the menu, and the two boys too embarrassed to speak, Hermione sipped her butterbeer and waited. A few minutes later, the waiter returned. Judging by his expression when he did, the Cone of Silence was an area effect spell, and he'd just stepped into its range.

“Er, are you ready to order, yet?”

“Well I am,” Iliana said. “I'll have the lamb stew and another butterbeer.”

“Okay, lamb stew and another butterbeer. And you, Miss?”

“Hmm... what would you recommend?”

“Well, the lamb stew is pretty good, and fairly popular.”

“No, I don't want to eat lamb,” Luna said.

“In that case, I'd suggest the beefy onion stew, it's on special today. Comes with a side of garlic toast.”

“Yes, I'll have that, thank you. And you can refresh my gilly water when you get a chance.”

“Beefy onion stew and another gilly water. Any of you three want anything?”

The three of them all ordered the beefy onion stew as well, and everyone but Ron ordered more drinks (Ron asked for some water, looking embarrassed). Guessing he was either out of money or was being careful with what he spent money on, Iliana offered to get him another butterbeer. Reluctantly, he agreed, likely because it was relatively cheap.

“Okay, I'll be out in a jiffy with your orders.”

He wasn't kidding, either. It took him less than five minutes to return with their meals, Madam Rosmerta herself and another waitress carrying the drinks and the other stews.

“This stew is delicious,” Ron said between bites.

“Yes, it is quite lovely,” Luna said.

“Mine's pretty good, too,” Iliana said.

After that, they ate mostly in silence, except of course for the dull roar of the muffled crowd, the Cone of Silence spell still in effect. When they were done, though, they all felt quite full, and sat back, relaxed, and talked.

“Oh. Hy-- er, I have an idea for our unofficial defense club, if Umbridge replaces Sirius.”

“Yes?” Luna prompted.

“Well the idea is, we organize into smaller groups when we recruit people. That way, if we get to be really big as a whole group, if someone forces us to give up who's in the group, we can only rat out a few people. We won't know everyone in the group, and we can't blab about things we don't know. Each of you would be the leader of your own cell, as would Cedric and Ginny. You each bring in, say, five or six other people into your cell, but no more than that.”

“That sounds like resistance fighter tactics,” Hermione said. “Resistance fighters and some terrorist groups do similar things. It's an effective tactic.”

“I'm not good enough at this to be a group leader, Iliana,” Neville said. “And even if I was, does that mean we in the main group wouldn't meet each other anymore?”

“Um... I don't know. I guess we could still meet.”

“But doesn't that mean we could rat out the other cell leaders?” Hermione asked. “If Umbridge got one of us, she'd get the whole group.”

“Okay, so maybe it doesn't have to be one of us, necessarily. Or... hey wait, I have a better idea. What if I recruit new people, pretending to be one of you lot, and we all meet up still, but whenever one of the other cells meets, it's me in disguise leading the cell? No, hear me out. I... okay, Neville, I'm trusting you with this secret, but there's another one of my collective who remains secret because she's friends with... a Slytherin student, and she's afraid he'll find out she's with us. Her name is Hypatia, and she can hide certain memories from the rest of us. So if I pretended to be one of you when I recruited someone new, you wouldn't know who was in that cell. Only I would, and if I get given Veritaserum, Hypatia can hide that information somewhere it can't be retrieved, so I'm the safest person to keep the secret of who all the members are.”

They all sat there thinking that over a few minutes. Finally, Hermione spoke.

“But you'd be stretched pretty thin, wouldn't you? Or each group would have to meet on a different day and time, increasing the odds of getting caught.”

“Okay, then what if I pretend to be one of you when recruiting, and then I give control of the cell over to one of the recruits? They'd do their own thing, we wouldn't even know about it.”

“That doesn't address the issue of too many meetings, though.”

“Hey,” Ron said, “if these 'cells' are small, like 7 people apiece, then why not just have them divided by House? The Griffindor cell could meet in the common room or something, and so on for each other House.”

“Then everyone in the House would know what we were up to,” Neville pointed out.

“Well there are two possible meeting places we have at our disposal. The Room of Requirement, and the Chamber of Secrets. There's some other rooms down there that are clean, spacious, and inaccessible to anyone or anything but wizards and witches. I and the other girls could go down there, and---”

“Ha! Like Ginny would ever go down there willingly,” Ron said.

“Hey, it might be good for her to face the place and realize it's not this big scary thing anymore.”

“How does the Room of Requirement work, exactly?” Neville asked. “Would it be possible to have multiple meetings in there without any of the cells running into each other?”

“Oh that's really clever, Neville. We should find out. That'd be wonderful if we could!”

“Thanks, Hermione.”

“So have we agreed on anything yet?” Iliana asked.

“The 'cells' idea sounds good, if we can manage it without increasing the odds of getting caught. It's not against the rules, what we're planning. Not yet, anyway. But as soon as Umbridge finds out, well that's it,” Hermione said.

“Griffindor cell could meet in Iliana's room,” Ron suggested.

“Pardon me?”

“What? You let me in there a lot. And you could lock everything away. You could, I dunno, invent a new locking spell that keeps everyone out of your wardrobe and whatnot.”

“But it's not big enough for that, anyway.”

“What about your trunk?”

“None of the rooms in the trunk are big enough, either.”

“So? Hypatia's brilliant. Have her expand a box or something so it's big enough.”

Iliana cocked her head a moment, listening to Hypatia. Then she said, “Hypatia says she hasn't gotten that far in her studies, she hasn't the foggiest idea how that would be done, yet. And it would take her weeks if not months to work out how to do it.”

“Dobby,” Luna said.

“Well, love, that would settle the transportation issue, but--”

“I mean, Dobby might know somewhere else to go. Assuming the Room can't provide us several rooms at once, like Neville suggested.”

“I guess.”

“There's also the Shrieking Shack, mate!” Ron said.

“Yes, and the entrance to that is under the whomping willow,” she pointed out.

“We know how to get by it, though.”

“I think her point, Ron, was that Umbridge would see anyone using it. The willow is visible from many rooms of the castle, after all.”

“Oh. Right.”

“I think we should test Neville's suggestion before we waste any more time arguing,” Luna said.

“Well said,” Iliana agreed.

“Yeah, and who knows? Maybe Sirius won't get sacked after all.”

“Sure. And tomorrow the sun will rise in the west.”

With nothing left to say for now, and their meals done, the five friends soon got up, lifted the privacy spells, and went about the rest of their day. They split up, Luna and Iliana walking arm in arm along the High Street.

“Where to now, Luna?”

“I'm in the mood for something quiet. I've been to all the shops I want to go to... maybe we can go back to the castle? Not inside, but maybe on a walk around the Black Lake?”

“You sure? Umbridge is probably still at the castle.”

“Hmm... good point. But I don't want to go to Lookout Point, she might have spies following us.”

“The lake, though... she might hassle us if we walk around the lake.”

Luna blinked slowly, as though thinking of something. She looked at Iliana and smiled. “I may have an idea.”

~

Luna's idea turned out to be a long walk up the road back toward the castle, and then a left turn Iliana had barely noticed in the past, and an even longer walk up a different road until they got to Hogsmeade Station. It took them over an hour to get there, though they hadn't been walking terribly fast.

Iliana wondered what Luna had brought them here for, until they got close to a set of piers on the lake. There were several boats on the pier, some of them recognizable as the boats the first-years travel across the lake on, while others were slightly larger than those.

She was about to ask Luna what was going on when a middle-aged woman stepped out of a shack by one of the piers.

“Hello there. We don't get many visitors over here after the first of September. Students?”

“Yes, we're students,” Luna said. “Daddy told me you rent boats to people. Is that correct?”

“Er, yes. Mostly in the summer time, though. Hogwarts gets a bit protective about not letting anyone inside its wards unless they're a student.”

“But as students, we could take a boat out on the lake?”

“Yes, you could. The wards would let you in no problem.”

“Isn't that a bit of a security risk?” Iliana asked.

“No, not at all. The wards only let students and staff cross the ward line by boat. Everyone else has to use the front entrance. I understand the last fellow who tried sneaking onto Hogwarts by boat got eaten by the giant squid. Oh, not fatally. Just stored for safe keeping until the headmaster could investigate. That was way back in Headmaster Dippet's day.”

Iliana looked at Luna and shrugged.

“How much to rent a boat for the afternoon?”

“Just a single galleon,” the woman answered. Iliana shrugged again and handed the woman a galleon from her coin purse.

“Good. Now, what kind of voyage were you wanting?”

“Er, a romantic one. Preferably something serene.”

“Ah, young love. Right. Follow me, I have just the thing.”

It was a walk of less than five minutes to get down one of the piers to a cozy little self-paddling dinghy. It had a reclining seat built into it, taking up almost all the space inside the boat, and there was just enough room in said seat for the two girls to lay side-by-side in it.

“Now before you go, you should cast warming spells on yourselves, and feather-light charms in case you fall out. The boat is charmed to keep you in, but no charm is perfect, and it fails if the boat capsizes. So a feather-light charm will keep you floating easily on the water if you fall in. Then the giant squid will usually put you back in the boat if it can.”

“Thanks, uh... I didn't catch your name?”

“Miss Hanson. And I didn't catch your names, either, dearies.”

“I'm Iliana, and my date is Luna.”

“Nice to meet you, Iliana and Luna.”

Iliana got onto the boat first, checking its soundness, and then she helped Luna onto it.

Ms. Hanson told them how to control the boat with their wands, and when they had it down, they thanked her and began making it drift away from the pier.

“Well, Iliana and Luna, enjoy your trip on the lake,” Miss Hanson said with a wink at them as the boat left the pier.

“We will, Miss Hanson. Thank you.”

Iliana tapped the boat on the spot Ms. Hanson had shown them to make the boat surge ahead to get them out of range. She maneuvered the boat to the middle of the lake in a matter of minutes, then made it stop and stay there, peacefully floating on the water. They reclined the seat and Luna snuggled up against Iliana.

“You didn't tell her our surnames.”

“No, I did not. She hadn't noticed my scar, didn't know who I was. I wasn't about to attract her attention to that fact. And it would be weird if I gave her your surname but not mine.”

“I thought it might be something like that,” Luna said with a smile.

“This is nice, but do you mind if I put up some shade?” Iliana asked.

“It's October.”

“Yes, but sunburn is still possible on October, especially surrounded by all this water.”

“Ah. Alright, then.”

“Circulus umbra,” Iliana cast, and a circle of shade magically appeared over their boat. It was enough shade to prevent sunburn, but still let the day feel beautiful and nice.

“Another new spell?”

“Found it in a book.”

“Nice.”

“If you like that one, you'll love this one. Ab aliis abscondam,” she cast, while waving her wand in a wide circle around them.

“Don't tell me, I want to figure that one out,” Luna said. “Hmm... 'ab aliis abscondam.' That's a notice-me-not spell, correct?”

“Indeed it is. Now we're not going to attract any attention. Well, not any attention we haven't already attracted, if anyone saw the boat coming out here to the middle of the lake. It's another one I read in a book.”

“Does that mean nobody can see us?”

“It means if they look this way, they won't notice anything. Their eyes will pass right on by. And if, for some reason, they manage to look right at us, they won't see anything but a blur.”

“And what about the others? Inside you, I mean.” Luna's finger tapped her twice on the forehead for emphasis.

“They're all hiding down in the subconscious. They're not watching. And uh, I've been working on how to hide memories of mine from them. They'll know something happened, that I was Out, but they won't know what happened. Unless I tell them, which I won't if you don't want me to.”

Luna – grinning – shifted position so she was lying right on top of Iliana. “Good. Now that means we can practice a different sort of magic.”

Iliana blushed over her entire face and neck, turning as red as her hair (if not redder), and nodded, eager.

~

Hermione, Ron, and Neville were just getting to the carriages when Neville got their attention. The other two looked where he was looking, and they saw Iliana and Luna coming up towards the carriages themselves. The two girls were happier than anyone could remember seeing either of them, laughing and chasing each other like young children at play, casting spells at each other that seemed to consist of spells like Accio or the tickling jinx, though Hermione also caught the incantation of an unfamiliar spell, “Calidum femur,” cast by Luna that made Iliana shriek with delight even as she buckled over, crossing her legs and casting it back at Luna. Hermione blushed at this and looked away.

“No fair! You can't dodge if I couldn't!” Iliana shouted, running after Luna, who was shrieking with laughter and running toward the carriages.

“Accio Luna Lovegood!”

Luna stopped making forward progress, but didn't move back any. She gave up trying, and instead spun on her heel and cast something back at Iliana, who batted it aside with an easy flick of her wand, cast something else on Luna, then surged forward and grabbed her, lifting her off her feet and carrying her in a bridal carry – kicking and shouting in half-hearted protest – the rest of the way to the carriage.

“I see you two had fun,” Hermione said with a grin as they approached.

“Yes, quite a bit of fun, didn't we, Luna?”

Luna giggled. “You might say that. I couldn't possibly comment.”

“How much fun did you have?” Ron asked, grinning.

“None of your business, Ronald,” Iliana said.

“Well, it's good to see you enjoying yourselves so much for once.”

“More like 'enjoying each other,' right Luna?”

Luna blushed but nodded, smiling. Neville and Ron also blushed. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

“Anyway, might as well have fun now,” Iliana said, “before Umbridge makes it against the rules to have fun.”

“'Having fun is a frivolous waste of otherwise productive time that could be spent learning how to be boring, and will not be tolerated,'” Luna said, mimicking Umbridge's voice almost too well.

“'The beatings will continue until morale improves,'” Iliana replied.

“More like 'The beatings will improve as long as morale continues,'” Luna said. Then she paused. “Oh, I think I made myself sad.”

“Well, better give you a Cheering Charm. Vos laetificet,” she cast, and Luna started on one of her signature laugh attacks.

Iliana set Luna down on the step of the carriage. “Crud. Too powerful. Et cessabit.”

Like the last time she'd used this spell on Luna, Luna glowed blue and stopped laughing within about 20 seconds. Hermione, who hadn't seen this spell before, went wide-eyed at the sight of this.

“Where'd you find that spell?”

“What, the calming spell?” Hermione nodded. “We invented it,” Iliana explained. “You know, a certain library-dweller, I mean.”

“Amazing,” Hermione said.

“Can we all get into the carriages before we're late?” Ron asked. “I'm getting hungry.”

“You're always hungry, Ron,” Iliana said, but she climbed into the carriage anyway.

Luna had gotten up and was petting the thestral's head. When she saw Iliana was getting into the carriage, she gave the thestral one more scratch behind what was probably its ear, and got into the carriage with the others. Soon, they were all heading back up to the castle.

When they got back into the Great Hall, Luna looked like she very much wanted to eat at the Griffindor table with Iliana, but glanced up at Umbridge, and sadly went over to the Ravenclaw table. At this, Iliana heard a whisper in her head from Hypatia, and she smiled. Very carefully pointing her wand at Luna in a way Umbridge wouldn't be able to see it, Iliana whispered, “Eímai dípla sas.”

She heard a faint gasp of surprise from Luna, and knew from both it and what Hypatia had said, that the spell was making Luna feel like Iliana was sitting next to her, their sides pressed together. She held it for a few moments before putting her wand back, breaking the spell. But she'd given Luna something to keep her spirits up.

After dinner, she and Luna went to the Room of Requirement and she taught the spell to Luna. It would become a habit of the both of them, as long as Umbridge was there, to cast that spell at each other whenever they were both in the Great Hall together.

~
October 7h, 1995

Such was Iliana's happiness from the weekend that she got through Umbridge's History of Magic class without getting a detention or attracting any attention to herself at all. She had to suppress her happiness and pretend to be downtrodden, but she still remembered how to do that from her years with the Dursleys. It helped that Hermione had apparently given up on butting heads with the woman, probably for Adira's sake. Whatever the reason, the class was the calmest Umbridge class they'd had all year.

After History of Magic was double Potions, which wasn't too bad anymore, ever since Snape stopped picking on them so much. He still didn't like Adira's father, but Adira didn't look so much like him anymore, and Snape got on alright with Iliana.

Adira, Ron, Hermione, and Neville took their usual seats in the back of class, Neville partnering Adira because Iliana could help keep Neville from exploding their cauldron. Ron was partnering Hermione, naturally, for somewhat similar reasons.

Snape came in with his usual dramatic flair – door slamming closed with an echoing bang, Snape's robes billowing as if in a special-effects breeze. Alastair imagined the man's hair billowing in a breeze as well and started singing internally 'Maybe he's born with it. Maybe it's Maybeline.' This made it rather difficult to concentrate on her work without laughing.

“You will notice,” said Snape, in his low, sneering voice, “that we have a guest with us today.”
He gestured towards the dim corner of the dungeon and Addy saw Professor Umbridge sitting there, clipboard on her knee. She glanced sideways at Neville, Ron, and Hermione. Snape versus Umbridge, this was going to be good. She silently cheered on Snape, in her head.

“We are continuing with our Strengthening Solution today. You will find your mixtures as you left them last lesson; it correctly made they should have matured well over the weekend — instructions —” he waved his wand again “— on the board. Carry on.”

Professor Umbridge spent the first half hour of the lesson making notes in her corner. Addy was very interested in hearing her question Snape; she let Hypatia listen and inform her of the results later as she was busy listening to Iliana telling her what to do for the potion, and relaying relevant advice to Neville, who she'd set to preparing the few ingredients he couldn't mess up with his clumsiness. She was glad to note he'd been getting better since she'd started partnering him. Occasional surreptitious uses of the Calming Spell Hypatia had invented helped, too, keeping Neville calm around his greatest fear.

“A little less salamander blood, Neville. Salamanders are fire elementals, after all.”

“How much less?”

“Hmm... maybe a milliliter less.”

Neville used a clean eye-dropper and took out some of the salamander blood from the flask.

“Is that enough?”

“Yeah, that should do it.” She put a stopper on the flask until she was ready to use it and checked his powdered griffin claw while he put the rest of the salamander blood away. “And this griffin claw should be ground a little finer. But it's the right weight. Just try not to lose any when re-grinding it.”

Addy's attention shifted for a moment; Umbridge had just got to her feet. “Ha,” she said softly, as Umbridge strode between two lines of desks towards Snape, who was bending over Dean Thomas's cauldron.

“Well, the class seem fairly advanced for their level,” she said briskly to Snape's back. 'Though I would question whether it is advisable to teach them a potion like the Strengthening Solution. I think the Ministry would prefer it if that was removed from the syllabus.”

Snape straightened up slowly and turned to look at her.

“Now . . . how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?” she asked, her quill poised over her clipboard.

“Fourteen years,” Snape replied. His expression was unfathomable. Addy, watching him closely as she could without splitting her focus too much, added the salamander blood to the potion and stirred gently. Neville, beside her, was re-grinding the griffin claw with his mortar and pestle.

“You applied first for the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?” Professor Umbridge asked Snape.

“Yes,” said Snape quietly.

“But you were unsuccessful?”

Snape's lip curled. “Obviously.”

Professor Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard.

“And you have applied regularly for the Defence Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?”

“Yes,” said Snape quietly, barely moving his lips. He looked very angry.

“Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?' asked Umbridge.

“I suggest you ask him,” said Snape jerkily.

“Oh, I shall,” said Professor Umbridge, with a sweet smile.

“I suppose this is relevant?” Snape asked, his black eyes narrowed.

“Oh yes,” said Professor Umbridge, “yes, the Ministry wants a thorough understanding of teachers' — er — backgrounds.”

She turned away, walked over to Pansy Parkinson and began questioning her about the lessons. Snape looked round at Addy and their eyes met for a moment. She smiled at him. His lip twitched ever so slightly. Snape came over to examine their potion.

“Potter seems to be a good choice of partners for you, Longbottom,” he said. “Excellent color and texture. The smell is ideal as well. I see you used slightly less salamander blood than called for in the recipe. It seems to be a good choice. If it pans out, I shall be adding that change to the recipe I put on the board, in future. Carry on.”

She nodded, smiling faintly as he stalked off. Neville looked at her in awe.

“Wow, Addy. He complimented you! He actually complimented you!”

“Iliana is really good at Potions, it seems.”

“Yes, but... wow. Wait, Addy? Why are you grinding up gorilla toenail clippings? It's not on the recipe.”

“I know that,” Addy said, feeling Iliana speaking instead of her. “But I made you grind less griffin claw than in the recipe, too. Griffin claw and salamander blood are magical enough that the amount in the recipe would make the potion decay too fast to be useful for long. Adding the gorilla toenail clippings has the same strengthening effect as griffin claw but counteracts some of the magic, making the potion shelf stable for as much as another six months.”

“But it's not on either the book or the board,” Neville complained. “I know Snape's recipe on the board often contradicts the book, but you're contradicting both.”

“You just heard him say I did something similar with the salamander blood, Neville. Trust me on this. I know-- I mean, Iliana knows what she's doing.”

Sure enough, when they took their finished potion up to Snape at the end of class, he looked at the phial carefully, opened it to sniff it, then re-sealed the phial, nodding at her in that way she recognized meant 'I'd say 'good work,' but I can't be too friendly with you in view of all these people.' She gave him an understanding nod and joined the throng leaving the classroom.

~

After lunch that same day was Divination. Al made sure to be in front, he always loved to be the one to do so, and he was a genuine Seer, to boot. It didn't take him long to rethink the wisdom of that, though, for Trelawney was slamming copies of The Dream Oracle onto the tables in a fury. She threw a copy of the Oracle at Seamus and Dean, narrowly avoiding Seamus's head, and thrust the final one into Neville's chest with such force that he slipped off his pouffe.

“Well, carry on!” said Professor Trelawney loudly, her voice high-pitched and somewhat hysterical, “you know what to do! Or am I such a sub-standard teacher that you have never learned how to open a book?”

The class stared perplexedly at her, then at each other. But Al and company had a shrewd idea what was going on. As Professor Trelawney flounced back to the high-backed teachers chair, her magnified eyes full of angry tears, he leaned his head closer to Ron's and muttered, “I think she's got the results of her inspection back.”

“Professor?” said Parvati Patil in a hushed voice (she and Lavender had always rather admired Professor Trelawney). “Professor, is there anything — er — wrong?”

“Wrong!” cried Professor Trelawney in a voice throbbing with emotion. “Certainly not! I have been insulted, certainly . . . insinuations have been made against me . . . unfounded accusations leveled . . . but no, there is nothing wrong, certainly not!”

She took a great shuddering breath and looked away from Parvati, angry tears spilling from under her glasses.

“I say nothing,” she choked, “of sixteen years of devoted service . . . it has passed, apparently, unnoticed . . . but I shall not be insulted, no, I shall not!”

“But, Professor, who's insulting you?” asked Parvati timidly.

“The Establishment!” said Professor Trelawney, in a deep, dramatic, wavering voice. “Yes, those with eyes too clouded by the mundane to See as I See, to Know as I Know . . . of course, we Seers have always been feared, always persecuted . . . it is — alas — our fate.”

“Preach it, sista! Down with The Establishment!” Al shouted, fist in the air. Everyone stared at him in astonishment, Trelawney included. Al shrugged and ignored them, all except for Trelawney.

Trelawney half-smiled at him, but gulped, dabbed at her wet cheeks with the end of her shawl, then she pulled a small embroidered handkerchief from her sleeve, and blew her nose very hard with a sound like Peeves blowing a raspberry.

“Professor,” said Parvati, “do you mean . . . is it something Professor Umbridge — ?”

“Do not speak to me about that woman!” cried Professor Trelawney leaping to her feet, her beads rattling and her spectacles flashing. “Kindly continue with your work!”

“Yes,” Al said just loud enough for the others at his table to hear, “let us not speak of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”

Trelawney spent the rest of the lesson striding among them, tears still leaking from behind her glasses, muttering what sounded like threats under her breath.

“. . . may well choose to leave . . . the indignity of it . . . on probation . . . we shall see . . . how she dares . . .”

After class, Ron came up to Al and said, “You're on her side? But she's a horrible old fraud!”

“So? Umbridge's existence is an affront to all that is good and right in the world. If a Dementor Kissed her, it either wouldn't find anything there to suck out, or it would choke to death on her pathetic excuse for a soul. Trelawney is my best friend by comparison to Umbitch.”

As Ron and Neville laughed at this, Al said, “Anyway, on to Ancient Runes for me. See ya!”

~
October 10th, 1995

It came as a shock to nobody at all when Sirius was sacked that week, given his complete lack of cooperation with his probation. What was slightly surprising was that there was already a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts by that very Thursday. As Luna and Hermione both thought, the new teacher was worthless. In fact, he had written the new textbook, “Defensive Magical Theory” by Wilbert Slinkhard.

Professor Slinkhard looked like a drowned rat even when dry. Shorter even than Umbridge, he had a limp, pale gray mustache and thin, pale gray hair. His watery eyes – which were a pale shade of blue that reminded Adira of the color Dudley's old jeans had gotten when she'd worn them so ragged they were barely there anymore – darted around the room as though always on the lookout for an escape route, and his robes hung off him like a circus tent. His skin – which was wrinkled and sagging with age – looked so pale she thought he might get a sunburn from the candles in the room.

What was more, Professor Slinkhard's wand, which was a pale yellow the same color as teeth stained by tobacco smoke, somehow seemed to be limp and drooping in a way that was making all the boys snicker at it with suppressed mirth. He clutched the handle of it so tightly that Adira was astonished it didn't break under his grip, and his body was so tense she didn't need to be an empath to know that he was regarding his own students the way a young rabbit might regard a hungry tiger.

Even his voice reflected his timid nature, as it was so quiet that he struggled to be heard or understood at his usual volume. By the middle of Adira's first class with the man, he was using a 'sonorous' charm on his throat, and even then the people in the back had to cup their ears to hear him. The man was so pathetic that even Peter Pettigrew looked like a great brave warrior by comparison to Professor Slinkhard.

His classes were a bad joke, as predicted. He seemed too scared to do more than introduce himself and outline a few class aims, and then assigning them to read chapters from the book silently. When Hermione raised her hand to ask him a question about when they were going to do practical work in the class so as to learn the spells, he stared at her like a mouse staring at an owl and proceeded to completely ignore her for the rest of the class. After the first few other people followed Hermione's lead, he managed to get upset enough to tell them that if anyone raised their hand for anything but needing to use the loo or go to the hospital wing, he'd give them detentions... with Umbridge. That shut up the few of them who knew what that meant, though it took awhile for the others in class to give up trying to ask him anything.

“Luna was right,” Hermione said later in the Griffindor common room. “This new Defense teacher is worse even than Quirrel, even before we knew he was evil. We need to speed up our plans. Have you had any more ideas?”

“Neville and I tried the Room last night. It can make extra doors and can divide the room up like we thought. He experimented with it for hours, and found it can also make doors go to other parts of the castle! That will help loads.”

“You mean we could move the entrance around at random?” Hermione asked.

“Yes.”

“Wow! That's amazing! Neville figured that out?”

“That he did. He's got a knack for knowing what to ask it, apparently.”

Before they could get any farther on that question, though, Addy noticed Fred and George coming her way.

“Can we talk with you, Addy?”

“More accurately, can we ask Iliana a question?”

“I can relay information between you and her, yes. What do you want?”

“Well you see, we've got a new Skiving Snackbox.”

“The Puking Pastille?” Addy asked, remembering with disgust several nights ago when they'd been demonstrating their new product and selling it.

“No, different one. Fever Fudge. Anyway, we heard from Neville that Iliana is a whiz at Potions, and since--- well, since that's the case, we wondered if you'd look over our recipe for Fever Fudge.”

“Why?”

“Well, they give us these massive, pus-filled boils.”

“I don't see any boils,” Ron said.

“No, well, you wouldn't,” said Fred darkly, “they're not in a place we generally display to the public.”

“But they make sitting on a broom a right pain in the — ”

“Right, right. Let me see.”

They looked at Hermione and Ron in a way that spoke volumes.

“Fine, we'll go. Hermione, there's another table over there.”

Fred and George watched them leave. When they were out of range, they turned back to Adira and handed her a parchment with the recipe on it. It was very hard to read, which they'd probably done on purpose.

“Oh, well that's simple enough,” she felt Iliana saying with her voice. “Add essence of myrtlap at this stage. Here, I'll write down the dosage for you.”

When she was done scribbling down the right dosage, Fred said, “Thanks, Iliana. Any other thoughts about the recipe?”

She considered the page thoughtfully. “Hmm... no, this looks good as is. Just add the myrtlap essence like I suggested, and you'll be golden.”

“Thanks, Iliana! You're a peach.”

“Yeah yeah, you're welcome. Send Hermione and company back this way when you pass them, okay?”

The left, and soon Ron, Neville, and Hermione were back.

“I know you're apparently really good with potions, Iliana,” Ron said, even though their form was still Adira's, “but why are they trusting you with the recipes for their potions?”

“I guess they just trust us,” Adira said, getting back to work on her Transfiguration homework. “We're trustworthy people.”

“Hmm...” Hermione said, looking at Adira. Adira tensed up a little, but after a minute, Hermione seemed to decide she didn't want to know any more about that.

“What's Sirius doing now he's been sacked?” Ron asked.

“He's moved back into... the place he was living before. He's annoyed Umbridge sacked him, but he's glad to be away from her at last. Can't say I blame him.”

Adira was still working on her homework when Hermione moved her wand in a familiar upward spiral with the incantation Kónos siopís.

“Figured that one out on your own, I see,” Addy commented, as she heard other conversations around them blur into an indistinct noise.

“Yes, it's quite clever and useful. And I was going to ask you when we're going to meet for that unofficial defense group, now that Neville's got the Room figured out.”

“Well Iliana and Ron have Quidditch practice tomorrow, but I think after dinner tomorrow we could do it.”

“Okay. Who all is going to come?”

“You three, of course. Then Luna, too. I'll invite Cedric over as well.”

“Anyone else?”

“I might see what Dean and Seamus have to say about the idea.”

“They'll probably go for it, after the class we had with Slinkhard.”

“Reckon a lot of people would, but we have to keep it low profile,” Hermione reminded them. “And to that effect, I had an idea. I haven't worked out how to do it yet, but I was thinking a magical contract. It'd be simple enough; it'd set Adira up as the only person who could recruit new people. Anyone else who blabs about it would get cursed.”

“A cursed contract?” Neville said in horror.

“Nothing major,” Hermione said. “Just something that would make it quite obvious who had blabbed.”

“What specifically?” Addy asked.

“Oh, I found this fascinating curse in the library that lets you write a word on someone's forehead in pock-marks. I've been working on the arithmancy to change the word it writes to 'Sneak.' The word the curse currently spells out is rather rude.”

Neville paled, but Addy and Ron laughed. “That'd discourage people alright,” Addy said. “But I think a tongue-tying curse would be better. Prevent anyone from saying anything in the first place.”

“Yeah, but couldn't they write it down still?” Ron asked.

“Good point. Well, I guess we could do both. By the way, do you have the book for the curse you mentioned, Hermione?”

“Sure, let me go get it.”

She got up and hurried upstairs. Addy went back to her homework while they waited, as did the boys. A few minutes later she returned, opening the book to the right page in front of Adira and handed her a parchment with lots of maths on it.

“There's the curse, and my attempt to work out the arithmancy of changing it.”

Hypatia, without changing out of Addy's form, looked over the curse, Hermione's arithmantic breakdown of the curse, and her attempt to work out how to change it. While she was at it, Hermione also handed her the notes for the arithmancy on a magical contract like the one she'd mentioned.

“Pretty good. Another day or two and you'd have a pretty good contract and curse here. Just make some changes here,” she said, doing some maths on the parchment, “and here. Yes, there we go. That's the curse sorted out. But the problem is that all the names would be visible on the paper. Let's see, if I'm going to be the only one who can recruit, then I should be the only one with access to this list. Or... no, Hermione will need access, too, since she's the one making the contract.”

She did a bit more maths on another parchment, Neville watching in impressed fascination as she did. When she was done, she handed it to Hermione. “There you are, Hermione. Now you'll be able to make a version of the contract that only you and I will be able to activate. In anyone else's hands, unless they're signing it after activation, it will look like an arithmantic breakdown of the tickling hex. Well, you have to write out the arithmantic breakdown of that hex first of course.”

“Thank you Hy-- Addy.”

“No problem. Anything else?”

“Well,” Hermione said, “I had also started on a project to put a Protean charm on a fake galleon, because if the group gets big enough, we might need a way to communicate with the others to tell them when the meeting is, and where the entrance of the Room of Requirement is going to be.”

“A fake galleon? No no, too much chance of that getting lost or spent. You should make it a ring instead. Rings can be charmed to be invisible until the user wants to be able to see it, and they're harder to lose if you don't take them off.”

“But galleons have writing on them already. The serial numbers could be changed to reflect the time and date.”

“And location?” Hermione's face soured. “Thought not,” Addy said. “Anyway, if I choose the right font, I could make the font of the text be hard to tell apart from the ring's usual pattern. So even if someone was looking over a ring-bearer's shoulder when it was being looked at, they wouldn't be able to tell what it said from a distance. If I find the right font.”

“Right,” Hermione said, thinking. “You know, now that I have those ideas to work with, I could make the rings myself.”

“We could share the load. We don't know how many we'll need, after all. Anyway, you can make a proof of concept ring and we'll figure the rest out later if we need to. I have other projects I'm working on already anyway, so yeah, you can do most of the work if you want. But if you need help, just ask me.”

~
(Later that night)

The Hogwarts' grounds were still and dark and quiet, it being midnight. The only movement, aside from the wind and a few nocturnal animals, was something scuttling on many legs toward the Forbidden Forest. Carved with runes to make its transfiguration permanent, it was a tiny moving stone spider with a modified set of omnioculars attached to it, and it wasn't alone. With it were three others of identical build, all of them having been dropped out a window earlier in the day, hiding, until sent to head toward the forest by a remote command. Not that anyone on the grounds would see any of this, of course; they were all Disillusioned as well, with such a powerful Disillusionment Charm that they were invisible. The only sign of their passing was where they disturbed the grass and then the underbrush.

They existed because for as impressive as the magical monitors in the Chamber of Secrets' Command Room were, the monitors had their limitations. The area covered by the monitors was impressive, but the spells that made it possible acted as though there were fixed cameras in a grid pattern around the school and grounds. There were 'cameras' that looked both directions on this grid, but Hypatia's “omniocular spy-ders” – each of the four spy-ders showing a different view on four mirrors Hypatia had removed from Myrtle's bathroom – were mobile, which had numerous advantages.

Tonight was the first night these spy-ders would be spying on the acromantula nest. Hypatia was gathering intel about the acromantulas. She wasn't sure yet what she wanted to do about them. They were dangerous, of course, and given how adamant Dumbledore had been about Voldemort wanting to ally himself with werewolves, giants, and dementors, it seemed logical that he'd try to ally himself with the acromantulas, if he ever found out about them. Which, honestly, they were something of an open secret. He had to know about them by now, or he likely soon would. One of his closest followers had been on the school board for a time, after all. Even if he hadn't known of them before, he might now; Hypatia had accidentally mentioned them to Draco once. She still felt stupid for doing that.

Oh well. What's done is done. So maybe she could get them on her side instead, before Moldyshorts could. After all, Death Eaters were made of meat. They would have no problem killing other people, so why shouldn't she?

The only problem with that, of course, was that the acromantulas would still be there, and still hungry. Also, feeding them might encourage them to make more of themselves. Then there was that pesky fact that the government might view directing man-eating monsters to eat her enemies as murder and put her in prison for it, even though it's what the Death Eaters would do.

Hypatia sighed. “Looks like extermination is the route to go, then. 'Operation Aragog' now officially renamed to 'Operation Arachnophobia.'”

Endnotes: All new spells are made using Google Translate, so any errors are its fault.

Kónos siopís [ko-no-s so-piece] = Greek for “cone of silence.” (Yes, that's a “Get Smart” reference. I watched a lot of Nick at Night when I was a kid.)

Labia abscondam = Latin for “hide lips.”

Circulus umbra = Latin for “shadow circle.”

I also want to note that nothing of a sexual nature happened on the boat between Luna and Iliana. Probably. They were, after all, out in public. Even with magic, it's still possible someone could have seen them, especially with teachers like Snape and Dumbledore working there. They were just 'making out,' or 'snogging,' as the Brits say.

Calidum femur = Latin for “hot thigh.” Creates a pleasant warmth in the thigh region. (Wink wink nudge nudge say no more say no more.)

Vos laetificet = My guess at the incantation for the Cheering Charm. Means “cheer you up.” “Me laetificet” means “cheer me up,” and I tried “tu laetificet” at first, but “vos” seems to work better, at least in terms of getting Google Translate to say 'vos laetificet' means 'cheer you up.' Anyone who knows Latin, let me know if I'm wrong.

Eímai dípla sas [ee-may deep-la saas] = Greek for “I'm next to you.” Latin didn't work so well.