Chapters 41-50

The Most Noble and Venerable Knights of Dumbledore’s Army

‘Remember that you must tell the truth, Miss Granger. You must always tell the truth. If you lie to me, it shall cost you dearly.’

‘If you are quite finished? My apprentice has other duties to attend to yet today.’ A silky voice slithered into the room.

Hermione’s heart skipped a beat, but she didn’t dare to move, fixing her gaze on the dragon feet of McGonagall’s desk instead.

‘Not until I am finished with her.’ There was nothing girly to Umbridge’s voice now.

‘Leave my apprentice out of this,’ Snape snarled.

Umbridge snorted. ‘Or?’ she asked with an evil smirk.

Snape never missed a beat, ‘Or you shall suffer the consequences.’

Umbridge’s squat figure recoiled as if struck, her broad, flabby face whipping up and around towards the door. Hidden in the shadows of the doorway, Snape loomed, his black eyes blazing.

‘Is that a threat?’

‘Wouldn’t it be very…foolish…for a man in my position to utter…threats?’

Umbridge’s mouth dropped open.

‘Yes,’ she squeaked at last. ‘It would be. Very foolish.’

Black eyes bored into her and underneath the pink rouge, her cheeks went pale.

‘If that is the case,’ Snape said softly, ‘then by all means regard my words…as a joke.’

oooOooo

‘If we want to be proper knights, we need to have an ordeal,’ Alina declared and looked imperiously at her friends. A motley group of First Years and Second Years had squeezed into a linen closet on the third floor. There were four Slytherins, two Hufflepuffs, three Ravenclaws and four Gryffindors. Yet somehow the linen closet managed to be just big enough for all of the would-be knights to find a stack of blankets to perch on.

‘Yes,’ Myrrdin agreed importantly. ‘Some kind of vigil at least. I’ve read in the Quibbler that the ritual for entering the Order of the Phoenix demands that you stay a whole night all alone in the Chamber of Secrets.’

Geilis and Prue clung together, looking scared. Percely Parkinson frowned, but there was a look of determination on his face.

Ebenezer Sibly-Style, a First Year Slytherin, steepled his fingers in his best imitation of his head of house. ‘If we want to belong to Dumbledore’s Army, I should think a vigil at the tomb of the most reverred hero of our order would be an appropriate ritual to determine if someone is worthy to join our ranks.’

‘A vigil at the tomb sounds good,’ Alyah, a well-read Ravenclaw girl agreed.

‘And afterwards,’ Terrwyn Bevan suggested, ‘just before sunrise we could have the initiation ritual, you know with handing over our seal and so on.’

‘But that means we’ll all have to be out of bed and out of our houses!’ Prue sounded scared.

Percely threw her a disgusted look. ‘If you want to be a hero, you need to take certain risks.’

‘Are you sure you’re in the right house, mate?’ Barret Cruddace asked, grinning, while Percely scowled.

‘Well, maybe we could have the initiation conducted only by our grandmaster and the two seneschals,’ Alina suggested sensibly. ‘That way only four of us would need to slip out at night. If we’re careful, no one will notice. Professor Snape is still recovering from that potions accident. His rounds are much shorter than they used to be.’

‘Yes,’ Cruddace put in, ‘because the great git is afraid that Umbridge will catch him and ship him directly to Azkaban.’

‘DON’T SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT, YOU JERK!’ Alina jumped up, balling her hands into fists, ready to defend her head of house in battle or brawl.

Myrrdin quickly stepped in front of Barret, while Geilis hung on to Alina’s arm.

‘Calm down everyone,’ Ebenezer said softly, but with astonishing authority. ‘Crudass, remember rule number two. There will be no house-rivalry among the knights of our order. And that includes insulting any head of house, no matter how many points they may have taken from any house on any given day.’

‘Crudass?’ Myrrdin prodded his house-mate. ‘I think there’s something you want to say.’

Barret glared at Myrrdin, but the effect was spoiled by the embarrassed red flush on his face. ‘I’m sorry, Alina. He’s not a git. He’s a hero. I wish I was as brave as he is.’

He gnawed on his lower lip, then he added, ‘But I bet that cow would love nothing better than carting him off right away.’

Gloom settled among the prospective knights of the Most Noble and Venerable Order of Dumbledore’s Army. They all knew about the conditions of Professor Snape’s probation.

‘I wish I was of age,’ Terrwyn whispered. ‘I’d propose to him in a jiffy.’

‘Me, too,’ sighed Alyah.

‘Me, three,’ added Alina and frowned, as an idea struck her. Her heartbeat quickened, and suddenly she was quite impatient for the Order meeting to end. Decisively she turned to Barret and offered him her hand. ‘Forgiven and forgotten, Barret.’

‘Now,’ she turned to the appointed grandmaster. ‘Who’ll do the first vigil?’

Ebenezer looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then he smiled. ‘You, of course. Since it was your idea to re-establish our order.’

Alina swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly dry. She would be a worthy knight to Dumbledore. She would bring honour to her house.

‘How do we go about it, then?’ Percely asked.

Everyone turned to Cato. Although only a First Year, the Ravenclaw boy was already known for his brilliant strategies at wizarding chess. Cato put a finger next to his nose, a sure-fire sign that he was thinking, and thinking hard.

‘The first thing we have to do,’ he announced, ‘is to find out the patterns of the teachers’ rounds. We need to know exactly who of the staff is where at any given moment. We’ll have to watch them carefully, and note down everything we see. That way, we will know when it’s safe to slip out.’

He sniffed contemplatively. ‘Maybe we could even bewitch a map or something for that purpose.’