star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

"Well," Faustus began a few minutes after Umbridge had left with Harry and Hermione, "this is awkward..."

"And whose fault is that, Black?" Warrington asked in a condescending tone.

"Well, I could put the blame on a number of people, including you, Cassius, but there's no point, really."

"Say, Warrington, how's Montague?" Olivia asked.

"He's recovering," Warrington said.

As Olivia continued on to taunt Warrington about Slytherin's failure at winning the Quidditch Cup, inadvertently distracting the other Slytherins from the members of the DA they were holding, Arabella caught Ron's eye, and the two of them turned their heads to look out of the window behind them that looked out over the grounds. They were just in time to see Harry and Hermione leading Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest. Small smiles appeared on their faces, proud of Hermione's quick thinking.

They then turned their attention to their sister, who was using the Inquisitorial Squad's distractedness to her advantage. While consistently checking to make sure the sixth-year girl who was holding her wasn't noticing what she was doing, Ginny was slowly freeing one of her arms from the girl's loosening grasp. Eventually she succeeded and removed her wand from the girl's pocket.

"Stupefy!" she shouted, Stunning the girl who held her and ultimately freeing herself.

Despite everything now happening, Arabella was aware of Pansy's grip on her loosening due to her being shocked by what had just happened. She was able to free herself from her grasp, but by doing so brought Pansy's attention back to her. Before Pansy could react, Arabella punched her in the face for the second time that school year, causing Pansy's hand to immediately go to her now bleeding nose, leaving Arabella room to retrieve her wand. She easily Disarmed Pansy and was able to escape Umbridge's office unharmed with the others.

"Where are we going now?" Neville asked as they ran away from the office as fast as they could.

"The forest!" Ron and Arabella answered together.

"The forest?" the others asked.

"That's where Harry and Hermione went with Umbridge," Ron explained. "We saw them through the window."

The eight of them ran until they came across Harry and Hermione on the grounds, running out of the forest.

"How'd you get away?" Hermione asked them.

"Liv and Faustus talked Warrington's ear off," Evelyn said with a proud smile towards her cousins as Ron handed Harry and Hermione back their wands. "Distracted them all so that we could get our wands back."

"It was brilliant," Neville said.

"Oh, well..." Olivia and Faustus trailed off, blushing slightly.

"So, how are we getting to London?" Neville asked.

"Look, it's not that I don't appreciate everything you've done, all of you," Harry began, "but I've got you into enough trouble as it is."

"You're not serious?" Olivia asked.

"Dumbledore's Army was supposed to be about doing something real," Neville said. "Or was that all just words to you?"

"Maybe you don't have to do this all by yourself, mate," Ron said.

"Yeah, come on, Harry," Arabella said. "We're in this together."

After a moment, Harry said, "So how are we going to get to London?"

"We fly, of course," Luna said.

"Like... on brooms?" Faustus asked.

"Not all of us have our own," Olivia pointed out. "Last I knew, Harry's was being guarded by a troll."

"Some of us could share," Ginny suggested.

"If you think our Cleansweeps are going to hold more than one person, you're out of your mind," Ron said.

"Liv and I have got pretty good brooms," Faustus said.

"'Pretty good'?" Arabella repeated. "Olivia's got a damn Firebolt!"

"Yeah, but there are five of us that don't have our own," Evelyn said. "So unless your brooms have got room for two or three more people..."

"I wasn't talking about broomsticks," Luna said.

"Then what were you talking about?" Arabella asked her.

Luna looked pointedly at Harry before shifting her gaze to something behind him. He turned around to see what she was looking at.

"Of course," he said, reaching out and seeming to pet the air. "Luna, you're brilliant!"

"Oh, thank you," Luna replied politely.

"I feel like I'm missing a key bit of information here," Arabella said awkwardly.

Harry turned back to the group at large. "Thestrals," he said. "Remember? Hagrid taught us about them."

"You mean those horse things that people can only see if they've watched someone snuff it?" Ron asked.

"You truly have a way with words, Ronald," Arabella said sarcastically.

[word count: 762]
[written: 8/25/20]
[published: 8/25/20]