Back at Hogwarts, it was like Chang and Potter had never even known each other. Potter must have said something to her, which I was grateful for, because she only gave me occasional ugly glares when I passed her in the corridor.
The four of us were sitting in the common room, working on our piles of assignments to catch up on from the break, when I noticed something out the window. Hagrid's hut had smoke coming out of the chimney. That could only mean...
I gasped and sprang up from my chair. "Hagrid's back!" I shouted. The three of them looked up at me in surprise.
"How do you know that?" Hermione asked. I pointed out the window and watched it register on each of their faces.
"Bloody hell, Hagrid's back!" Weasley jumped up.
"Let's go!" Potter said excitedly. We ran through the corridors, getting yelled at several times by professors and prefects alike to slow down. We ignored them, and didn't stop down until we were right at his door. I raised my fist to knock, but hesitated when I heard a familiar voice.
"I will say this one last time," Umbridge said frustratedly from inside. I shared a horrified glance with the three of them. "I'm ordering you to tell me where you've been."
We all made our way as quietly as possible to the side of the hut and peeked through the windows. Umbridge's lips were pursed in annoyance and she held her infamous clipboard under her chubby little arm. Hagrid stood facing her, looking worse than I had ever seen him. He was bruised, bloody, and was holding a ginormous piece of meat to one of his eyes. Fang was growling at Umbridge like all he wanted to do was use her pink lace bow as some sort of atrocious chew toy.
"I've told you," Hagrid replied. "I've been away for me health." It was hard to believe that in the state he was in.
"Your health?" Umbridge asked, a small, cruel smile curling at the corners of her lips.
"Yeah, bit o' fresh air, you know?" Hagrid asked hopefully.
"Oh, yes. As a gamekeeper, fresh air must be difficult to come by." Even as Umbridge was forced to crane her neck to look at Hagrid she managed to look intimidating. "If I were you, I shouldn't get too used to being back." She giggled. "In fact, I might not bother unpacking at all."
Hagrid had no response as she walked out of the hut and took out a perfume bottle. She gave herself a couple spirts, and then sprayed the front of the door with enough to drench the average human. When she was far enough away I hurried to the door again, coughing through the cloud that smelled of kitty litter and sickly flowers.
"What do you want know?" Hagrid grumbled, pushing open the door, but his eyes widened when he saw us. "It's you four!" He exclaimed. "Come in, quickly now."
We followed him inside, and I noticed his travel coat looked like it had only just been taken off, thrown across his bed carelessly. He can't have been back for more than ten minutes. After we had been made cups of tea and were all sitting around his table, he leaned in close.
"This is top secret, okay?" He began seriously. We nodded in agreement. "Dumbledore sent me to parlay with the giants," Hagrid announced, his tone of voice easy, like Dumbledore had only asked him to go pick some fresh green beans for dinner.
"Giants!" Hermione exclaimed. Hagrid shushed her hastily. "You found them?" She whispered.
"Well, they're not that hard to find to be perfectly honest," Hagrid admitted. "They're so big, see? I tried to convince them to join the cause. But I wasn't the only one who was trying to win them over."
My gut scrunched together painfully. Death Eaters that my father was in correlation with had been trying to sway the giants to the Dark Lord's side. No, Voldemort's side. I was trying to say his real name more now for Potter's sake.
"Death Eaters?" Weasley asked unnecessarily. Hagrid nodded glumly.
I couldn't stop myself from asking, "Hagrid, did you maybe see..."
"I didn't see Lucius, no, if that's what yer askin," he assured me, and I let out a little sigh of relief. At least my father was in the background somewhere, not openly trying to get Hagrid's half relatives to murder anyone who supported Dumbledore.
"Did they persuade them?" Potter asked. I braced myself.
"I gave them Dumbledore's message," Hagrid answered reluctantly. "Some of them remember he was friendly to them, I suppose."
"And they did this to you?" I asked angrily, gesturing to the many cuts and sores on Hagrid's puffy face.
"Not exactly, no," he grunted, dabbing his bruised eye again with the thick piece of meat. Fang barked. "Go on, have it then, you dopey dog," Hagrid sighed, throwing the meat to him. Fang caught it in his fangs and chewed on it happily. I pushed my teacup away in disgust.
Suddenly, there was a boom of thunder. There was no rain, but a strong gust of chilly wind could be felt whistling through the cracks in the glass. The dust and stray leaves on the grimy floor stirred.
"It's changin' out there," Hagrid commented grimly. "Just like last time. There's a storm comin, and we'd best be ready when she does."
The next morning, the front cover of the Daily Prophet displayed the worst news in a while. A mass breakout from Azkaban. Ten high security prisoners had broken out, and they were all Death Eaters. One was my completely insane Aunt Bellatrix.
In one specific interview with Fudge it was written that he says the breakout was engineered by Sirius, who had given the others enough hope to escape just like him. It was all so preposterous, I was appalled how many people still couldn't see through the Ministry's lies.
"Dumbledore warned Fudge this would happen," Hermione sighed as we walked through the Great Hall, passing the house tables.
"He's going to get us all killed because he can't face the truth," I agreed aggravatedly. Then a voice behind us made us all stop.
"Harry?" Finnigan called out. The Gryffindors around him stopped talking to watch this interaction. He stood up and stepped in front of us. "I, erm... wanted to apologize. Now even me mum says the Prophet's version of things don't add up. So what I'm really trying to say is that... I believe you."
"Thanks," Potter's mouth twitched.I stared between the two of them in shock. Did boys really make up that easily? Just a sorry, then a thanks, and it was over. I looked exasperatedly to Hermione.
When we finally sat down I noticed Longbottom holding a copy of the newspaper, his face blank and eyes glazed over. He was pale and had a full, untouched plate of food in front of him.
"Hey, Longbottom," I began quietly. He snapped out of his trance and looked at me nervously. "You good?" I asked.
"Can I tell you all something?" He said randomly, voice surprisingly steady. We looked at each other curiously and nodded. "Fourteen years ago, a Death Eater named Bellatrix Lestrange used the Cruciatus Curse on my parents." I winced. That's why Longbottom had reacted like that during fake Moody's first lesson with the spider. That's why he lived with his grandmother. That's why he had looked so horrified by the Azkaban breakout. And it was all because of my aunt, my mother's older sister. I felt sick.
"She tortured them for information, but they never gave in," he continued quietly. "I'm quite proud to be their son, but I'm not sure I'm ready for everyone to know just yet." We all were quiet for a moment, digesting his words.
Then Potter said firmly, "We're going to make them proud, Neville. That's a promise." His words gave me a flame of hope. Of confidence.
I couldn't help but let my mind drift to one of the only other nights I'd ever been confident in my life. The night that I grabbed Potter's face and kissed him in Sirius's house, right outside my bedroom where Hermione and Ginny were standing behind the closed door, silently squealing. It was stupid, but I felt a little angry with Potter at the moment.
He hadn't spoken to me at all about the night, and so I figured he thought it was a mistake. He was treating me completely normal, like nothing ever happened. Except it was impossible to convince myself of that when there was so much tension between us. I couldn't even brush my arm against his accidentally without embarrassing eye contact and eventual clearing of throats and total avoidance for an undetermined amount of time.
I absolutely hated it. He was my closest friend, and then I kiss him once and suddenly we can't even breath near each other anymore. He was the one that came to my room in the first place. He just wanted to talk to me. I was the one who got too sure of myself and ruined everything, as always.
I knew Hermione and Weasley could sense the tension too, but they were wise enough not to say anything, and I loved them for that.
At the next DA meeting, Potter finally agreed to teach us how to make a Patronus. I was over the moon about it, until I realized that the Patronus Charm was the only spell in these lessons so far that I was having trouble with. And I mean serious trouble.
Besides Potter, and the unfairly smart people like Hermione, everyone else was at least able to create some sort of shapeless vapor. Not me. I couldn't even create a rain drop of the weird, glowing mist, and I was getting frustrated with Potter's constant encouragements to the class.
"Make it a powerful memory, the happiest you can remember," he was instructing. I figured that was the problem—I just couldn't think of a happy enough memory. But I had racked my brain for the past hour trying to think of one that would suffice, and so far there was no luck.
It was even Finnigan's first meeting and he was already doing better than me.
"A full-bodied Patronus is the most difficult to produce, but shield forms can also be equally as useful against a variety of opponents," Potter continued, walking around the room and commenting on everyone's successes.
Ginny finally got hers, and it was some kind of stallion.
"Fantastic, Ginny!" Potter and everyone else around her congratulated. Maybe Potter would remember I was alive if I made a stallion appear out of my wand. "Just remember, your patronus can only protect you for as long as you stay focused," he continued. That could be my problem too. I was so focused on my sheer annoyance with Potter at the moment, I could hardly think of anything else.
Hermione laughed as her otter flipped around her. Weasley yelped as his Jack Russell Terrier ran through three student's legs and knocked them all over in a row. Luna smiled dreamily as her white rabbit hopped around everyone's heads, beams of light trailing after it.
Then the chandelier above Weasley's head moved, clinking its diamonds against each other noisily. The walls rumbled and the floor shook beneath our feet. The lights flickered as another thud echoed off the walls. The last Patronus, Luna's, disappeared. Everyone gathered around the middle of the room, and I stepped forward, distantly aware of Potter close behind me.
The glass covering the stone wall that the door to the Room of Requirement always appeared on shattered, falling in shards to the ground. I flinched, but it remained eerily dark. Potter stepped closer and looked through a crack in the wall.
I heard Umbridge's shrill, smug voice say, "I'll make short work of this."
Realizing a second too late what was about to happed, I yanked Potter away. "Bombarda Maxima," I heard her giggle, before the entire wall blew apart in an explosion of debris and smoke. Potter fell to the ground next to me, and he rolled me over onto my stomach. I covered my head with my hands until the cloud of dust disappeared, and when it did we were met with a terrible sight.
Through the new gap in the stone we could see Umbridge, standing as haughtily as one could wearing all pink wool and tiny, lace-lined high heels. Flitch and the rest fo the Inquisitorial Squad stood behind her, all smirking triumphantly.
Umbridge had a crazed glint in her eyes when she demanded "Get them," that I had never seen before. It was quite honestly a little terrifying.
Each Inquisitorial Squad member took a few of the DA members and took them down to Merlin knows where. The remaining ones, Draco, Zabini, Nott, Riddle, and Parkinson, all took one of the rest of us. Draco took me, Zabini took Weasley, Nott took Potter, Riddle already had a tearstained Chang, and Parkinson took Hermione. My stomach churned when I saw Chang silently crying, and it all clicked. She had betrayed us to the Ministry and she was the one in tears? I really despised that girl.
We were taken to Dumbledore's office, and the entire way there we were prodded at by the Slytherins. Every time Weasley tried to break free from from Zabini's grip he would get the back of one of his knees kicked out. Parkinson was saying things like "The teacher's pet is in big trouble now," and, "Do you think they'll lower the grades on your OWLs because you broke the rules?" in Hermione's ear. Nott was chuckling, relishing all the time he could get feeling superior to Potter. "You look really heroic now, Potter," he would hiss in his ear every once in a while, or, "I'm sure Alexandra's swooning."
I squeezed at Draco's fingers that were holding my hands behind my back. "Please," I pleaded, my voice low enough so no one else would hear. "Father's going to..." my voice cracked. Draco's steps faltered, but he inhaled shakily and pushed me forward. He didn't care that father would hurt me for this, he just cared about impressing the Minister. Ouch.
When we finally stepped into Dumbledore's office like we were some kind of weird conga line, Dumbledore and Fudge were already waiting for us. Oh, joy.
"I've been watching them for weeks," Umbridge announced, like she was proud of stalking children. "And see, 'Dumbledore's Army.'" She held out the paper all the members had signed that day in the Hog's Head. The words were written across the top in Hermione's small, even print.
"Proof of what I've been telling you right from the beginning, Cornelius," Umbridge said giddily. "All your fear mongering about You-Know-Who never fooled us for a minute," she directed at Dumbledore. "We saw your lies for what they were—a smoke screen for your bid to seize control of the Ministry!"
"Naturally," Dumbledore agreed calmly.
"No, professor," Potter protested, trying harder to pull himself out of Nott's grip. "He had nothing to do with it. It was me."
"Most noble of you, Harry, to shield me, but as has been pointed out the parchment clearly states 'Dumbledore's Army,'" Dumbledore said. "Not 'Potter's.' I instructed Harry to form this organization and I, and I alone, am responsible for its activities." I looked on, horrified, but he sent a pointed glance at us to keep quiet.
"Dispatch an owl to the Daily Prophet immediately," Fudge said, excitement beginning to seep into his voice. "If we hurry, we should still make the morning edition. Dawlish, Shacklebolt, you will escort Dumbledore to Azkaban to await trial for conspiracy and sedition."
I looked at Kingsley, waiting to see his reaction. How could a secret member of the Order bear to send Dumbledore to Azkaban? I didn't think I would be able to do it if I was put in that position. Still, his face remained blank as he nodded.
"Ah, I thought we might hit this little snag," Dumbledore said airily, stepping out from behind his desk. "You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I'm going to... what was the phrase? 'Come quietly?' Well, I can tell you this. I have no intention of going to Azkaban.
"Enough of this!" Umbridge shrieked, slowly advancing up the steps to Dumbledore's relaxed figure. "Take him."
Dumbledore glanced at us and winked just as his phoenix, Fawkes, came swooping down over his head. Dumbledore clapped his hands around the bird, and the two both disappeared in a flash of fire and a blast of ashes.
Everyone in the room was thrown backwards. We finally tore ourselves out of the Slytherin's grips and shakily stood up. Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley and the other Ministry worker Dawlish were all doing the same, looking around the office in horror.
"Well, you may not like him Minister, but you can't deny Dumbledore's got style," Kingsley sighed. Fudge looked up at him, appalled.
When the new Educational Decree went up, it was number 119, and it declared that Delores Jane Umbridge had taken the place of Albus Dumbledore as head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
A new PA was installed, allowing speakers to be placed on every wall in the castle. Constant announcements were made, interrupting the professor's lessons and annoying everyone in general.
"Boys and girls are not permitted to be within eight inches of each other."
"Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit need only come to the headmistress's office to sign up."
"Students will be submitted to questioning about suspected illicit activities."
"Any student in noncompliance will be expelled."
It was even worse than her being the High Inquisitor, which wasn't even a real thing in the first place, because now there was no one who could tell her no. She just created whatever old-fashioned, pointless rule she wanted and could enforce it with threats like expulsion and Veritaserum induced questioning.
Even the classes, especially Defense Against the Dark Arts, were more awful then they should have been. DADA classes were held in the Great Hall, which was dark and forbidding and probably not the most encouraging learning environment.
Everyone was furious but no one said anything, and that was the sad part. Chang was known as the girl who had betrayed Dumbledore's Army, and despite my grudge against her I was beginning to feel a little sympathy. She had just felt guilty and ran to Umbridge. It wasn't the right thing to do, but it was understandable. At least I knew Potter hated her now too, and that made me feel a little better.
The only think was, Potter hated me as well, which was a slight problem. I could barely even talk to my best friend. Every time I tried, he would respond in dry, one-word answers. I didn't know what his problem was, but I figured it was because of our little moment. And I didn't like it at all.
The school was in complete ruins. Draco was blinded by our father's views. I couldn't talk to Potter. I needed one good thing to happen before I pitched myself off the Astronomy Tower.