When Dumbledore flooed in as they were finishing up dinner, Heather caught Sirius' eye and gave him a significant look. He looked confused for a moment before his memory caught up with him. Nodding, he told her to bring Dumbledore to the Blue Room. It had recently been declared entirely curse-free, showing that the walls, which were previously thought to be a drab grey, were instead a nice shade of pastel blue. She mouthed a 'later' to the others when they shot her perplexed looks. She'd tell them about it later.
"Professor Dumbledore?"
He turned towards her, smiling his usual twinkly-eyed smile. "Yes, my dear?"
Heather rolled her eyes internally. "Could Sirius and I have a word with you please? We found a suspicious item while cleaning the house and would like to request that you take a look at it. Sirius has gone to get it."
"Of course! I would be delighted to." He gestured for her to lead the way. As they walked, he commented, "I find myself anticipating this artefact of yours. The Blacks had something of a reputation. I used to be quite the collector of odd knick-knacks myself."
"Yes, your office has a lot of interesting objects, sir."
"Oh, do you have a favourite? I am rather fond the remembrall which glows strobe lights. Much more eye-catching than the typical red smoke, do you not think?"
"Indeed, sir," Heather said politely. She didn't even know what Dumbledore had in that in his room. It was all just a messy pile of contraptions to her.
"Albus!" Sirius greeted when they entered the room. Remus was with him, holding the glass case with the locket. After the obligatory pleasantries, Sirius' smile slid off his face, replaced with a solemn look. "We have this locket that just absolutely reeks darkness, but even Bill couldn't find out what was wrong with it." He grimaced sheepishly. "I was thinking of just chucking it out, but Heather pointed out how dangerous that would be."
The old wizard nodded sagely. "Yes, that would not have been the wisest decision. Could I have a closer look at it?"
Remus handed the box to him. "We thought it best not to touch it." Dumbledore nodded distractedly, gaze fixed on the locket.
Heather watched with interest as he paled dramatically and clutched at the box tighter. Somehow, there was a bizarre mix of horror and excitement in his eyes. Abruptly, he flipped the box open and touched it. She could feel a huge clash of magic emanating from that single point of contact. She jerked forward, as if to stop him, but halted her steps. Of course, what did she know compared to the century-old wizard? If he thought it was fine to touch it, then who was she to stop him? The man nodded grimly to himself, withdrawing his hand and shutting the box up tightly. The oppressive magic lingered in the air, causing her to frown. And after they had finally cleared this room, too.
Dumbledore seemed to have aged a decade after his contact with the locket. His blue eyes were dimmed with exhaustion, his shoulders slumped over slightly.
"Would you like to take a seat, Headmaster?" Remus asked worriedly.
"No, that's quite alright, my boy," Dumbledore sighed. "Just a little drained. I know what this is. It doesn't surprise me that none of you could figure it out. Fret not, I know how to destroy it."
Heather's eyebrows raised incredulously. Destroy it? Why not just remove whatever it was on the locket? It was probably a precious antique. "Is there no other way to neutralise it, sir?" She knew it sounded a little impudent to question his decision like that, but she was honestly curious.
"Unfortunately, Heather, such a spell cannot be rid of unless the vessel is destroyed," he answered mournfully. He looked at her, grief shining in his eyes. She shifted on the spot, unsettled by the depth of his emotion for what she believed was just a simple locket. It didn't seem like they were just talking about the piece of jewellery anymore.
"So how are you going to get rid of it?" Sirius asked.
"It is notoriously difficult to destroy an item of such nature. However, I have narrowed down the possibilities to either using fiendfyre or basilisk venom."
She blinked in shock. That seemed extremely heavy-handed. Fiendfyre was uncontrollable and highly destructive while basilisk venom was the most potent of its kind in existence. Must be some spell to require such methods to be destroyed.
Remembering a Christmas present of hers from Hadrian, she enquired, "Would a basilisk fang suffice?"
The Headmaster looked at her curiously. "Yes, it would. Basilisk fangs are imbued with the venom as well."
A sudden mischievous urge shot through her. Without any warning, she removed her necklace and whipped out her wand to unshrink the pendant on it. Holding it up - still-sheathed, of course - she presented it to Dumbledore with a guileless smile. "Here you go, sir."
Sirius and Remus looked taken aback at the appearance of the gigantic, lethal fang. "Where did you get that?" Sirius sputtered.
"Oh, Rian gave it to me for Christmas two years ago," she said cheekily.
Remus sighed in consternation. "Yes, but how did he get a basilisk fang? Basilisks parts are horrendously expensive."
"Didn't you know? Hadrian killed a basilisk in his second year. Its carcass is still in the Chamber of Secrets." She smiled brightly. "Which reminds me, I should ask him if I can harvest all those parts. Think of all the potions I could brew with them!" Antivenin being the top of that list. Since basilisk venom was the most potent venom in existence, its antivenin was like a venom panacea. With Voldemort around, that would probably come in helpful.
Dumbledore coughed lightly. In a strained voice, he suggested, "Perhaps it would be safer if Professor Snape accompanied you on this task."
A thrill ran through her. Headmaster-sanctioned time with Professor Snape? Well, she would be a fool to reject it. Affecting indifference, she shrugged and agreed. "So, will you be destroying the necklace now, sir?"
"Yes, the sooner the better. I would ask you all to step out of the room for a bit. The backlash will be quite unpleasant."
While Heather was reluctant, she knew Dumbledore wouldn't budge on this. She, Sirius and Remus went out of the room, staring at the closed door anxiously. She was somewhat worried about the old man, seeing as he was still weakened by his earlier magical struggle with the locket, but he probably knew his own limits.
She was alarmed to feel waves of malicious magic seeping out of the room. If there was so much of it that it was overflowing, how thick must it be in the room? She could hear some kind of struggle in there, the sounds of chairs overturning and things falling from the table. Fortunately, the door opened within minutes to reveal a haggard but victorious Headmaster Dumbledore.
"It is done," he stated tiredly. He returned the sheathed basilisk fang to Heather, who immediately shrunk it and put the necklace on again. "It was fortunate that you came to me regarding this matter. Who knows what trouble the locket could have caused otherwise. I apologise for the mess; it was being quite stubborn." He shifted so that they could all look into the room. 'Mess' was a gross understatement. It looked like a tornado had blown through the room. The curtains had been ripped from the hangings, chairs toppled over and at the eye of it, a fractured locket hanging open limply.
Remus was quick to reassure Dumbledore that the mess was of no consequence. "Don't worry, it's just a few spells to put the room to rights, Headmaster."
The old wizard nodded. "As you say." Chuckling a tad weakly, he continued, "I believe I will be heading downstairs for one of Molly's biscuits. I'm not as young as I used to be!" He turned to retrieve the remnants of the gold locket, but something made Heather speak up.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, if it's alright, could I keep that? It's not dangerous anymore, right?" She was surprised at herself. The thing was little more than a misshapen lump of gold at that point. It certainly had no use to her. Still, she felt like she should hold on to it.
The man gave her a searching look through narrowed eyes. She plastered on a neutral expression, shoring up her Occlumency barriers. After a drawn-out moment, he murmured, "Yes, that does seem fitting." He handed the broken locket to her and left.
Heather pursed her lips in frustration. That damnably cryptic old coot!
~~~
While the grown-ups congregated downstairs in one of the studies for a little 'chat', the younger bunch were once again gathered in the boys' room. Heather looked around the room. Ginny, bouncing in her seat excitedly. Hermione and Ron, at loggerheads as usual. Hadrian, trying to stay out of it. Gred and Forge, having one of their psychic conversations. She sighed, wondering if they were being ridiculous about setting up another group to oppose Voldemort. One comprising mostly children, for Morgana's sake!
Rian cleared his throat, garnering the attention of everyone in the room. "Hey there guys. Welcome to our very first official DA meeting!" Cheers and clapping could be heard. Thank goodness she'd had the foresight to set up privacy and silencing barriers first. "Okay, first order," the twins chuckled at the unintended pun, "of business. We should establish what we want to do with the group."
"Shouldn't we elect the leader first?" Hermione suggested when a pause ensued. "Someone who can keep us on the right track and lead the discussions."
Hadrian snapped his fingers. "That's right! Makes sense. So who should be the leader?"
One by one, everyone turned and looked at him consideringly. Heather smiled wickedly and raised her hand. "All in favour of Hadrian as our leader, say aye!"
As one, six voices rang out, "Aye!"
"All against, say nay!"
The silence spoke volumes.
"Well, looks like we have the new leader of the Defender's Alliance!" She winked at her brother, who was smiling bashfully.
He cleared his throat and straightened his spine. "Thanks for putting your confidence in me. I'll do my best as leader, but this operation will require everyone's contribution."
"So what exactly is this 'operation' anyway? What exactly will the DA be doing?" Ginny asked. She took the words right out of Heather's mouth.
"Precisely. We're supposed to be opposing Voldemort," Heather ignored their shudders, "but we can't exactly spy on his movements or drive him off at raids. We're still Hogwarts students," she pointed out.
Ron frowned thoughtfully. "Let's face it. Snakeface isn't going to care that we're kids. At one point, he'll probably try to attack Hogwarts, or even Hogsmeade. Strategically-speaking, Hogwarts will be very beneficial for him to take over. With most of Britain's wizarding children as his hostages, it'll be a cinch threatening the Ministry to obey his orders."
They all stared at him. This coming from Ron Weasley. Mr-does-homework-two-hours-before-it's-due and King of Laziness. Heather looked at him with a tiny glimmer of respect. Who knew the boy had it in him.
"What? I have a brain too you know!" he blustered under the weight of all their stares.
Hadrian nodded, grinning. "Ron's right. Since we aren't in a position to actively work against Voldemort, what we need to do is prepare ourselves for when he decides to attack."
"So our job is to train to protect-"
"-Hogwarts from his Snakeyness' evil clutches?"
"Seven students won't be able to fend off an army of Deatheaters!" Hermione protested.
Heather nodded in agreement. "But we could send out feelers amongst our classmates to see who would be willing to join us." While she wasn't best pleased with the idea of training children for war, they didn't have much choice if Voldemort decided to storm the castle. Which was highly possible, as Ron had pointed out.
"You mean we should bring other people in?" Hermione asked.
"Luna and Neville would probably agree," Ginny said after a pause. Ron snorted at the idea of Loony Lovegood and timid little Neville joining. His sister glared at him, causing him to raise his arms in a gesture of surrender.
"I-I suppose Dean and Seamus would be game too," he offered quickly.
"Don't forget Lee!" Fred and George added.
"Cedric and his friends too," Hadrian said. While the rest of the people in the room gave him knowing looks, Ron wrinkled his brow.
"Why Pretty Boy Diggory? I get that you two were in the tournament together, but it's over now. And 'sides, he's graduated Hogwarts hasn't he?"
Heather groaned at the cluelessness of the boy. Sure, Hadrian and Cedric hadn't announced anything, but they were so obvious. To those who knew them well, at least. And Ron was one of Rian's best friends.
"Ron," Hermione said slowly, "Hadrian and Cedric are dating." She waited patiently as his face cycled through confusion, disbelief and shock before finally landing on 'I'm-going-to-put-my-foot-in-my-mouth'.
"Blimey, Hadrian, you're a poofter?"
Fred, George and Ginny each socked him in the arm. The youngest among them sighed. "Sorry about him. I hear Mum dropped him all the time when we were kids."
"Must've been because of-"
"-all the explosions we caused!"
"Hey, ow!" Ron exclaimed, "I didn't mean it like that!" He looked beseechingly at Hadrian. "Just surprised was all, mate. S'long as you don't give me any details, we're cool."
"Wait!" Hadrian yelled. He waved his arms around frantically. "How did all of you know? We were trying to keep it under wraps! Only Heather had a hint of what was going on."
Bursting into laughter, Heather said, "A hint? I set you two up! Neither of you would have taken the first step without me running interference. Also, you were hardly subtle. You two couldn't walk past each other without a sigh of longing." Her brother blinked in bewilderment. "Hadrian," she said, "we all knew. The only reason the school at large doesn't is because the world is filled with fools."
"Oblivious-" George chimed in.
"-unobservant-" Fred added.
"-fools!" Ginny said with relish.
With every insult, Ron winced a little. "Oops, no offence Ron," the boy's sister stated cheerily.
Chuckling, Heather went back to the topic at hand. "Anyway, moving on, I know some Slytherins who might be interested. No, Ron," she said, cutting the boy off before he could say anything, "not all Slytherins support Voldemort. Shocking, isn't it?" He sat back down, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Not that I'm saying anything against the Slytherins," Hermione began, holding a hand up, "but perhaps we should have some way to ensure none of the members divulge anything. By accident or otherwise."
Heather tapped her chin thoughtfully. Hermione made a good point. All it took for the secret to be spilt was a careless word or a well-timed Legilimens. "I could try to research a way to keep everyone silent. I'm pretty sure there are magical contracts we could draw up for this."
"Okay! Maybe we can have everyone be in charge of something, so that if we know who to go to for any given issue. For example," Hadrian smirked, "Heather can be Head of Research."
While everyone nodded, Heather shook her head. "What about Hermione? Wouldn't she be the obvious choice?"
"You're the one with a permanent pass to the Restricted Section. I think you would do a better job," Hermione demurred. Heather shrugged and accepted, seeing that Hermione was truly fine with it.
They continued to divvy out roles. Hermione ended up being the Secretary, whose job was to keep records of their activities and keep the group organised and efficient. Fred and George claimed the position of Logistics Heads, eager to supply them all with cool inventions and gadgets. Unsurprisingly, Ron was the Head of Strategy and was tasked with coming up with battle plans and defensive tactics. After further discussion, Ginny was assigned Head of Outreach, since she had a more neutral stance than the rest of them and was generally well-liked by all the houses. Hadrian also doubled as Head of Training, being the one most avid about duelling and DADA.
They continued to flesh out their plans. The DA was more than just a spur of the moment idea now. It was becoming reality. Heather retracted her statement about them being mere children. These were wizards and witches who had stood up to Voldemort and survived.
Seven founding members of the Defender's Alliance. A good, strong number. The most magical of them all. She smiled a little at the coincidence. (Though privately she thought that perhaps it was Fate working its threads.)
Voldemort had better watch out.
~~~
"Heather, you in there?"
Hand jerking slightly at the interruption, Heather breathed a sigh of relief when none of the flobberworm mucus she had been holding dripped into the cauldron. An extra drop would have rendered the Murtlap Essence unstable. Perhaps she should have put a sign outside the lab to prevent this from occurring.
"What is it Rian?" she asked distractedly, making three and a half counter-clockwise turns. There, now she just had to let it simmer for two minutes before adding the pickled murtlap tentacles and adding her rune of choice.
Hadrian walked into the lab. Upon seeing the bubbling cauldron, he frowned guiltily. "Sorry, did I disturb you? I know you hate that."
"It's fine. Lucky for you, this is just a simple potion. If it had been the Wolfsbane you interrupted, I might have accidentally caused an explosion. So why were you looking for me? Bored now that we finished cleaning the house?" She made a show of glancing over at the dirty cauldrons in the sink. "I'm sure I can find something for you to do."
Holding up his hands, her brother shook his head quickly. "No, that's alright. You remember me asking about animagic a few months ago?"
She nodded. He had been quite interested in learning it, as she recalled. She had suggested he owl Sirius, for obvious reasons. "Oh, yeah. How are you doing with that? Did you start learning?"
"Nah. With the tournament and all that, I didn't have much time. I just remembered my plans to start the process during the summer."
"That's great!" she enthused as she dropped six slices of murtlap tentacle into the potion. "So did you need my help for something? I'm afraid I don't know much about how to become an animagus," she admitted. She had been quite intrigued about it a few years back, but other things had come up, taking up all of her free time. Her Runic Potions project, for one. Speaking of which, she quickly sketched out the rune Jera with magic, channelling the feeling of peace. Since the rune had several meanings she needed to guide it using her intent.
"Oh no. I know how to become one. Sirius told me. First, I have to keep a mandrake leaf in my mouth for a month starting the night of a full moon then use it to brew a potion. I wanted to ask if you had any mandrake leaves and if you could help with the potion? I would try it myself, but it seems pretty complicated."
After taking the cauldron off the fire, she held her hand out to ask for the animagus potion recipe. It was quite tricky, but nothing on Veritaserum or Wolfsbane. "Yeah, I can do this."
Eyes shining excitedly, Hadrian said, "So I can begin the process today? Being an animagus will be amazing! I'd be able to sneak around without anyone knowing!" It amused Heather to no end that he didn't even consider the Animagus Registry. Clearly he was a Marauder's son through and through. "Especially if I have to make a quick escape because I was trapped by Voldemort or something. You sure you have enough ingredients?"
She smiled at his eager expression. "More than. Enough even for you and the rest of the DA to make a potion," she teased. At her comment, her brother tilted his head and regarded her consideringly.
"You know, that's not a bad idea..."
Confused, she asked, "What is?" She ran through the previous words in her head. "You don't mean..."
"The whole DA should learn the animagus transformation!" He started pacing and gesturing wildly as his excitement level rose. "Think about it. It would be really useful to get out of tight situations, or to spy on people!" He clapped his hands. "And we'd be like the second generation of Marauders! Except the pranking thing. Let's leave that to the twins." Pivoting on his heel to give her a wide-eyed stare, he pled, "Isn't that a wonderful idea?"
She sighed, already won over by his enthusiasm. "You're the Head of Training. You convince the others. I'm game if they are."
He had already run out of the lab before she finished speaking. Shaking her head, she started ladling her finished potion into phials. She would need to tidy up and get the mandrake leaves out before the others joined her in here. She didn't doubt her brother's skills of persuasion.