GOLDEN || T. NOTT ✓

ten | the sword

Paz sighs as she gains entrance into the common room.  The two girls continue up to their dormitory.  Astoria falls backwards onto her bed.  Paz places her bag on her desk and pulls out a chocolate frog collectable card.  She flips it around in her hand several times before turning to Astoria.

"Joining the D.A. is no joke, 'Storia."

Astoria immediately sits up, facing Paz with a smile on her face as Paz continues to speak.

"Yes, we make our presence known in the school, but we are to never give away anything, not even if one of us if caught.  We try to meet as frequently as possible.  The Carrows have been on our tails lately, following us around and such, so when we do have meetings we have to make sure we aren't being followed."

"So you're allowing me to join?" Astoria asks hopefully.  Paz lets out another loud sigh as she hands the chocolate frog card baring Albus Dumbledore to Astoria.

"Yes, yes I'm allowing you to join." 

Astoria grabs the card excitedly, her face then turning to a look of confusion.  "What's this?"

"That is how we communicate.  I charmed them.  When you want to see when a meeting will be held, just say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'.  That'll clear the card of its normal state.  Then tap the right corner three times and it'll show the last two messages sent.  Don't send a message unless it's very urgent, usually only Neville sends messages on when we have meetings.  To bring the card back to normal once doing checking, just say 'mischief managed'.  You have to remember to do that, if you misplace it somewhere and the wrong sort gets a hold of that, we're done for."

Paz continues to explain what the D.A. does and how important it is not to give information away to anyone, not even her sister Daphne.  Before the two leave for dinner, Paz has Astoria sign the enchanted piece of parchment, then rolling it up and placing it back in her bag, which seemed to be overflowing with books, parchment, and chocolate frog cards.

"Hmm, that won't do." Astoria states, grabbing Paz's bag and placing it on her bed.  Paz is unable to make out the words Astoria is mumbling towards her bag, but once she hands it back to her, nothing it sticking out anymore.  Paz reaches her hand inside, and realizes the bag is much deeper than before.

"What did you...?"

"Just a little charm I picked up recently, gives you a lot more space in there, right?"

Paz smiles at Astoria, them finally leaving for dinner and arriving to the Great Hall.  Astoria bids Paz a goodbye, walking over to her older sister and taking a seat with her.  Paz takes her normal seat at the edge of the table, helping herself to a small serving of food.  

She notices three sets of eyes on her, looking up to see all but Pansy, Blaise and Theo standing opposite from her at the table.  She focuses her attention back to her dinner.  

Pansy takes a seat next to her.  "You haven't talked to me in nearly a month."

Paz stays silent, mushing around her mashed potatoes.

"What happened to sticking together?"  Pansy asks, placing a hand on Paz's shoulder.  Paz shrugs it off, then grabbing her bag and getting up from her seat.  She doesn't look at any of the three as she turns and walks out of the Great Hall.  

As the walks down the corridor, she hears loud footsteps growing closer.  Soon enough, Theo is on her left side.

"You haven't talked to me since that night, Paz."

"I know."

"You can't just kiss me and then not speak to me for a week, you know."

Paz stops walking and turns to face Theo, who follows her actions.