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CHAPTER EIGHT
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"NEW DEGREE HAS BEEN ADDED." CEIL said. Then added in an undertone, "Unsurprisingly." Corvus raised an eyebrow.
"There's a new degree?"
Vincent nodded, but Ceil spoke. "Yeah. How did you not see it? It's on every common room." Corvus furrowed his eyebrows before remembering that he was half asleep when he and Vincent reached the common room and went without Vincent to breakfast. Corvus threw his hands up in defense.
"In my defense I was half asleep. Actually, I think I was asleep." He hissed. Vincent nodded.
"Yeah, it was like you were sleep walking, despite being awake." Vincent agreed. Verenity snorted.
"Corvus Black sleep walking? Wouldn't be the first time. Pass me the pancakes."
Corvus noticed Harry, Ron and Hermione had barely taken their seats when Neville, Dean, Fred, George and Ginny descended upon them.
"Reckon theyre asking about the new degree." Ceil hinted. Corvus nodded.
"There's no way they aren't." Verenity agreed. Vincent nodded.
"I wouldn't be surprised if Smith told Umbridge about Dumbledore's Army." He added the last part in the whisper. Corvus noticed Verenity and Ceil's eyes go dark in anger and annoyance and he couldn't blame them.
"That wouldn't be surprising." Corvus said, then paused. "Though I bet Ron has his galleons on Corner."
Ceil looked confused. "Why Micheal? He isn't mean."
Corvus snickered slightly. "Because he's dating Weasley."
"Which Weasley? There's like — 4 of them attending Hogwarts."
"Ginny. Don't know why I didn't just say Ginny." Corvus answered. Ceil raised his eyebrows evenly.
"Ginny's going out with Corner? I thought she was going out with Violet." Corvus nodded in agreement.
"Same, but apparently they're not. Vi's going out with Hector Dawson, Hufflepuff in the year below." Ceil made an 'o' face.
"I've heard of Dawson." Verenity said. "He's the muggleborn with more siblings than the Weasleys, right?" Corvus nodded.
"He's nice, he doesn't really talk though." Corvus added. Vincent furrowed his eyebrows.
"Since when were you friends with Dawson?" He asked. Corvus put his hands up in mock defense.
"We aren't really friends but one night when I walked into the kitchens ladt year. He was in there." Vincent nodded and mumbled a 'makes sense, you're always in there.' Corvus playfully smacked his arm.
"Arsehole."
"Bitch."
"Cunts."
"We don't have —"
"Shut up!" Ceil told Vincent, Corvus, and now Verenity. Verenity stuck her tongue out.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Oh because that's not obvious. Tell them to go away." Corvus hissed down the Gryffindor table. Ceil and Verenity broke their banter and looked to where Corvus was looking which was by Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Hermione was already on it.
"Thank you, Hermione!"
"No problem."
It was the first class of the day, unfortunately Potions, and Corvus, Vincent and Ceil took their usual seats at the middle of the class, pulled out parchment, quills and their copies of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. The class around them was whispering about what the new degree, but when Snape closed the dungeon door with an echoing bang, everybody immediately fell silent.
"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 Corvus saw Professor Umbridge sitting there, clipboard on her knee. He glanced at Vincent and Ceil, his eyebrows raised. Snape and Umbridge, the two teachers he hated most. It was hard to decide which one he wanted to triumph over the other.
"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. Corvus was very interested in hearing her question Snape, but didn't let that effect the potion.
"Shit, where'd I put the Salamander Blood." Vincent ticked then spotted it. He raised his eyebrows and made an 'ah' sound before putting some of it in his potion
Corvus glanced at where Snape and Umbridge were. Umbridge had just got to her feet. She strode between two lines of desks towards Snape, who was bending over Micheal Corner'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. Corvus nudged Ceil and Vincent, both of them giving him a 'what' look, but Corvus gestured to Snape and Umbridge after he put in the next ingredient he needed.
"Fourteen years," Snape replied. His expression was unfathomable.
"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 Ceil snickered. Snape shot him a deadly glare.
"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. Corvus wanted to break out in laughter but refrained.
"Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?" asked Umbridge.
"Because he's not dumb." Ceil murmured, focused on his potion. Corvus nodded in agreement, also focused on his potion.
"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 Susan Bones and began questioning her about the lessons.
"You can't skive off Divination," Corvus heard. Confused, he walked towards Harry, Hermione, and Ron.
"Who's skiving off Divination?" He asked, sitting down. They gave him a shocked look before Hermione pointed to Harry.
"He wants to skive off Divination to do his Potions essay. But he can't."
"Hark who's talking, you walked out of Divination, you hate Trelawney!" said Ron indignantly.
"I don't hate her," said Hermione loftily. "I just think she's an absolutely appalling teacher and a real old fraud. But Harry's already missed History of Magic and I don't think he ought to miss anything else today!"
"I don't blame you for skiving off History." Corvus said to Harry. He shook his head.
"That's not why I missed it. I missed it because Hedwig got hurt."
Corvus looked confused and bewildered.
"How? Who would hurt Hedwig?"
Harry had a distant, bitter look and muttered "Umbridge." without looking at Corvus but instead at the wall.
As Corvus and Violet walked into the Gryffindor common room since they were invited in, Fred had closed the doorway to the boys' dormitories behind him, rattling his box of Galleons ostentatiously so that Hermione scowled. Harry, who was making very little progress with his Potions essay, decided to give it up for the night. As he put his books away, Ron, who was dozing lightly in an armchair, gave a muffled grunt, awoke, and looked blearily into the fire. Corvus blinked.
"Why did you lot invite us here if you're about to go to s -"
"Sirius!" Ron exclaimed. Corvus and Violet whipped round. Sirius's untidy dark head was sitting in the fire again.
"Hi," he said, grinning. Corvus' eyes were widened.
"What, the fuck." "Hi," chorused Harry, Ron, Corvus, Violet, and Hermione. Harry, Ron, Violet, and Hermione were kneeling down on the hearthrug. Crookshanks purred loudly and approached the fire, trying, despite the heat, to put his face close to Sirius's. For a second, he thought he saw Verenity's cat, Lottie (who was already in the room but on the stairs) give Sirius a cold look, but he knows he was imagining it. Corvus sat down and gestured to his lap for Lottie to sit down on, if she could even see it, but apparently she did because she came running down the stairs to sit in his lap. He stroked her fur.
"Not that good," said Harry, catching Corvus' attention. Hermione had pulled Crookshanks back to stop him singeing his whiskers. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams--"
"Oh yeah when Ceil processed that he was pissed, as well as —"
"I'd expect Ceil to be —"
"Or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?"Said Sirius. Corvus raised an eyebrow.
There was a short pause.
"How did you know about that?" Harry and Corvus demanded, though Corvus' had a more softer tone to it. Lottie snuggled closer to Corvus.
"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," said Sirius, grinning still more broadly. "The Hog's Head, I ask you."
"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" said Hermione defensively. "That's always packed with people--"
"Which means you'd — "
"You'd been harder to overhear," finished Corvus before cursing. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because you never think." Violet teased. Corvus smacked her on the head.
Sirius grinned. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione.'
"Who overheard us?" Harry demanded.
"Mundungus, of course," said Sirius, and when they all looked puzzled he laughed. "He was the witch under the veil."
"That's who that was!"
"That was Mundungus? What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"
"What do you think he was doing?" said Sirius impatiently. "Keeping an eye on you, of course. And Violet."
"I'm still being followed?" "He's still being followed?" asked Harry and Violet. Harry's had a angry tone to it while Violet's had a stunned tone.
"Yeah, you are," said Sirius, "and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organise an illegal defence group."
But he looked neither angry nor worried. On the contrary, he was looking at Harry with distinct pride. Corvus rolled his eyes.
"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron, sounding disappointed. "We'd've liked to've seen him."
"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago," said Sirius, Corvus muttered an 'ah, that makes sense' "and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately ... anyway ... first of all, Ron--I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."
"Oh yeah?" said Ron, sounding apprehensive.
"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defence Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also" (Sirius's eyes turned to the other four) "advises Harry, Violet, Hermione, and Corvus (his voice got bitter when he said Corvus' name) not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."
"On duty doing what?" said Ron and Violet quickly.
"Never you mind, just stuff for the Order,' said Sirius. "So it's fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me to."
There was another pause in which Crookshanks, mewing, attempted to paw Sirius's head, and Ron fiddled with a hole in the hearthrug. Again, Corvus could've sworn he saw Lottie give Sirius an extremely dirty look but he knew he was wrong.
"So, you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the Defence group?! he muttered finally.
"Me? Certainly not!" said Sirius, looking surprised. "I think it's an excellent idea!"
"You do?" said Harry.
"Of course I do!" said Sirius. "D'you think your two's" He gestured to Violet."— father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?'
"But--last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks--"
"Last year, all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!" said Sirius impatiently. "This year, we know there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea! And plus, about Corvus, I don't know why Molly acts like she's your mother when she's nowhere near your legal guardian." He added the last part bitterly. Corvus gave a small, reassuring smile.
"Me neither."
"And if we do get expelled?" Hermione asked, a quizzical look on her face.
"Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" said Harry, staring at her.
"Harry's got a point." Violet added.
"I know it was. I just wondered what Sirius thought," she said, shrugging.
"Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," said Sirius.
"Hear, hear," said Harry, Violet, and Ron enthusiastically.
"So,' said Sirius, "how are you organising this group? Where are you meeting?"
"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," said Harry. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go."
"How about the Shrieking Shack?" suggested Sirius. Clrvus shook his head furiously.
"Hell no, not with over twenty-eight people." Corvus disagreed. Sirius frowned.
"Fair point," said Sirius, looking slightly crestfallen. "Well, I'm sure you'll come up with somewhere. There used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind that big mirror on the fourth floor, you might have enough space to practise jinxes in there."
"Fred and George told me it's blocked," said Harry, shaking his head. "Caved in or something."
"Oh ..." said Sirius, frowning. "Well, I'll have a think and get back to--"
He broke off. His face was suddenly tense, alarmed. He turned sideways, apparently looking into the solid brick wall of the fireplace.
"Sirius?" said Harry anxiously.
"Sirius, what —"
But he had vanished. Corvus gaped at the flames for a moment, then turned to look at Harry, Ron, Violet and Hermione.
"Why did he--?"
Hermione gave a horrified gasp and leapt to her feet, still staring at the fire.
A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings.
The five of them ran for it. All Corvus and Violet had to do was hope they didn't get caught by Filch or even worse, Umbridge.
wc: 2553
first written: 06/22/21
first published: 06/27/21
surprise surprise, im not dead! i was just being incredibly lazy
and yes ik the whole potions dialogue between snape and umbridge is from ootp but im too lazy to change it and thought it'd be interesting so just act like snape's had to say all this stuff twice