White Heather for Protection

Umbrage

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN!

Her eyes swept subtly across her table over the paper, taking in the reactions of her housemates. Those she saw that had a glint of satisfaction in their eyes she made sure to avoid for further DA recruitment. She was relieved to see that most of them, including all the DA members, looked dismayed. She might have cheated a little with Legilimency for those with perfectly diplomatic expressions. Though it was unintentional, she swore. She hadn't known about this little skill most Legilimens had until Professor Snape mentioned it. To those with unguarded minds, she could pick up just the slightest hint of their emotions when she looked at them, even without casting a thing. No wonder Professor Snape had seemed so all-knowing in his classes. She didn't even put it past him to outright use Legilimency on his students.

Putting that aside for now, she went on to read the rest of the article. Ten Deatheaters had been broken out of the wizarding prison yesterday. Yes, 'been broken out of'. While the article didn't state it, Heather knew they must have had outside help in the form of a certain crazy snake-wizard amalgamation. She didn't know how those in the Ministry could still deny Voldemort's existence after this. Somehow they were blaming it on a defecting Dementor, which, okay, was a pretty solid theory. (There was one line insinuating Sirius had been the one to help, given that he was the only known escapee from the prison, but the reporter knew better than to slander the newly-instated Lord Black.) It was the height of foolishness to use creatures that held no loyalty to wizards as guards for the nastiest of criminals. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

She tried to put the facts together. She knew Voldemort had a part in this scheme. And to do all this unimpeded likely required the Dementors' help. She could only infer that Voldemort had somehow bribed or recruited those wraiths to his side.

She knew what spell the DA needed to be taught next.

~~~

"Have you been meditating like I taught you?"

Hadrian, seated facing the fantastic view the window in the Den offered, nodded. "Every night, like you said."

Heather smiled approvingly. "Good. Any success in clearing your mind? Not sure how rowdy your dorm room is, since I'm alone in mine."

Fred and George, experimenting in the other corner of the room, grumbled about the unfairness of it all. Heather shushed them, reminding them that they needed a quiet space for their lesson.

"Oh, I just shut the curtains around my bed and put up a Silencing Charm."

This time, her redheaded friends guffawed loudly, earning a glare from her. They put their hands up. "Just find it hilarious, is all, that your brother is the only teenaged boy using a Silencing Charm for meditation."

Confused, she turned back to her brother, only to find him blushing up to his ears at the comment. "I don't think I want to know," she said eventually and shushed the twins again.

"Okay, let's focus. I'll start off like how Professor Snape taught me. I'll cast a light Legilimens so that you can feel how it is like."

And so the lesson went. There wasn't much progress by the end of it, as she had expected, but she assured her brother that she had been the same. For not the first time, she thanked the fact that she hadn't left Hadrian to the tender mercies of Professor Snape's one-on-one tutoring. He was a hard taskmaster on any other day, but coupled with the fact that they weren't exactly on friendly terms, she didn't think Rian would have survived.

"Okay, remember to finish reading the book I lent you." She glanced at the tome in question anxiously. It was irrational, she knew, but she was uneasy about leaving that in her brother's care. It wasn't like he was careless with his possessions - far from it, in fact - but she couldn't help but feel no one but her could keep Professor Snape's books safe enough.