Malfoy glared from Harry to the article in his hands, his knuckles turning white from his overly tight grip.
Harry studied Malfoy cautiously, unsure whether he would give in or keep fighting.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes before throwing a hand up in the air.
At first, Harry thought Malfoy was going to resort to physical violence.
He stood up defensively, but in the end, Malfoy only threw the article at Harry's face.
"You win this round Potter," Malfoy said. "But if that picture gets out, anywhere..."
"You hold your end of the deal, I'll hold mine,"
Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry.
"I mean it, not just my parents; I'm talking Hogwarts and Walker High."
Harry nodded, turning to Hermione.
She and Ron both had their eye fixed on Amber.
Harry ran a hand through his hair.
If Amber told anyone, it wasn't just he and his friends who'd be in trouble this time, but Malfoy as well.
He didn't mind the snake getting kicked out of Hogwarts, but if she said anything about Malfoy, he was sure the Slytherin would drag them down with him.
As much as he hated him, Harry had to make sure she didn't rat on him or them equally. He looked at Malfoy, and could tell he was thinking the same.
"What now?" Hermione asked. "I've never tried a memory charm. If it goes wrong, I might accidentally cause permanent brain damage."
"Or erase all of her memories," Ron chimed in.
"That could work," Draco smirked.
Amber's eyes darted madly across each of their faces. Her knees shook as she sank deeper into the realization that this wasn't a dream.
She was surrounded by what she'd always known as evil, heartless monsters in the shape of humans.
On top of that, she was alone, defenseless, as they plotted how to dispose of her.
"P-please..." She croaked. "Don't hurt me!
"I'll do anything you ask! I won't tell anybody!
Just please d-don't kill me!"
Tears began to stream down her face, but she made no attempt to wipe them away. She didn't even seem to notice she was crying, even when the tears began falling to the ground.
Hermione took a step towards her, probably in attempts to comfort her, but Harry pulled her back.
They had fear on their side now, if Hermione assured her that they meant no harm, the fear would be lost.
There was no way Amber would reveal their secret if she believed her life was on the line.
Not only that, but with a muggle on their side, they could use that fear in order for him to investigate Cole and how much he really knew about them. This could help them protect their secret from the muggles at school. She would be a useful spy and ally during their time here.
Harry could see it clearly, written all over her face. She would do anything to keep herself alive.
He looked over at Malfoy, who nodded. Once again, they were thinking the same thing. Harry was showing more of his Slytherin roots than he'd ever wanted to.
Use fear..Use Amber?
Would he really go that far to protect their secret?
It's not like they had any other option. It was that, or a memory charm which could potentially get them in more of mess than they were in now.
Harry looked to Draco, signaling for him to do the talking.
Draco nodded, and soon changed his expression to one of pure hatred tinged with wickedness. It resembled the ones of the witches in WICCA.
He walked closer to her, pointing his wand straight at her face.
Amber's face turned paler. Harry thought she might pass out, but she simply backed up slowly until she was touching the wall.
"Give us one good reason to trust your word."
Amber paused. She knew if she gave the wrong answer now, it would mean her death.
At least, that was what they would let her believe.
"I-I could help you!" Amber said. "I could make sure no one at school believes the article!"
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Harry asked.
"I'm the most popular girl in school; they'll believe what I tell them to," She answered.
Even though she still appeared terrified, Harry could still hear a hint of smugness in her tone.
She was scared enough to say anything to save her life, Harry knew that. Still, he had no proof that once she was safe she wouldn't expose them.
"Maybe so, but we still have no reason to trust your word."
Draco took the hint and lowered his wand, pointing it at her chest.
He sneered. "I don't think you understand, Amber."
"U-understand what?" She said, standing up slowly.
Draco's arm followed her movements, his wand still pointed to her chest.
"You don't understand how easy it is for us to make someone disappear.
"We just say the words and you're gone. You don't even need to be around us for it to happen.
If I were you, I would think twice before betraying us."
Amber nodded shakily, not knowing how to reply. She seemed to be at loss for words, probably picturing them to be way more powerful than they actually were.
"Good," Draco said, lowering his wand. "I think she's understood."
"Yeah." Harry said grimly.
He felt sick. Even though Amber wasn't the nicest person in the world, he knew what they were doing was wrong.
He could already feel Ron and Hermione's disappointed stare burning into his back.
Either way, they wouldn't object. If they were going to, they would've done it by now, but they must've realized there really was no other choice.
Now she could convince all the students that the article was a fake.
Ron walked closer to Amber, not even looking at her as he bent over to pick up his wand.
Harry did the same as he picked up his invisibility cloak.
They all turned to leave, Amber remaining frozen on the spot, tears streaming down her face.
Harry could feel Mike's words from their first day here echoing in his head.
'Wizards all seem like monsters to me'
Harry eyed Darren with slight suspicion. He knew Darren had been unconscious when the Dementor incident occurred, but after all that had happened, he couldn't help but feel slightly paranoid.
Yet, as far as Harry could tell, Darren seemed to be his usual self. He seemed to have recovered from yesterday as he devoured the breakfast Linda and Mike had brought him to the infirmary. The only thing that had seemed strange was when Mike had tried to see his sketch pad. He'd been drawing in it as soon as he awoke this morning. He was usually reluctant to show his drawings, but today more irritable than usual.
"Is the nurse letting you leave today?" Hermione asked
Darren nodded, taking the last bite of his breakfast.
Linda made a move to pick up the tray, only to be stopped by Harry.
"We'll take it," Harry said "It's the least we could do for taking so long to get here."
Linda raised an eyebrow, but didn't object.
"We're joining up at the student lounge later for a study session," Linda said "I can help you and Ron with Mr. Short's assignment."
"Thanks, but we actually finished it already," Harry lied.
"Oh," Linda said, slightly surprised. "Well, you could still join us, I could revise it."
"We would, but we to meet up with some relatives nearby today, sorry."
Harry knew he couldn't have looked less convincing, as he fidgeted and looked everywhere but at Linda, Mike, and Darren.
Still, the muggles didn't seem to have noticed. They had simply shrugged as the bid them goodbye.
Harry waved , heading out of the infirmary, Ron and Hermione followed.
Harry could tell they were mad about him not explaining the sudden plan to ditch their muggle friends and 'visit some relatives', but in his defense, he was pretty mad too. He still couldn't believe Hermione had just completely excluded him from the whole 'D.A. text message' plan.
Hermione had explained to him that she'd only done it to teach him a lesson for his recklessness. He knew she had a good point, but was still pretty irritated that he was the only one with consequences even though Ron had been flying his broom on campus too.
Of course, he didn't tell Hermione that. At least it was a better punishment than her taking his broom away (not that she hadn't tried).
Once they were further into the hallway, out of earshot, Hermione finally spoke up.
"Harry!" she hissed. "Why would you tell them that?"
"You don't actually plan on visiting the Dursleys, do you?" Ron asked, slightly alarmed.
"Because, we aren't finished yet," Harry explained "We still have one more witness to take care of."
He hated how cold he sounded as the words left his lips. It was almost as if he were talking about a mere object rather than a person.
"What are you talking about?"
"The Cole kid?" Ron asked "He's the one Mike and Darren were talking about, right?"
Ron's face turned slightly pale as he recalled what they'd said about him.
"The kid who took the picture..." Hermione said, recalling the article. "But he couldn't have seen you, you were wearing a cape."
"Maybe he didn't see me, but he knows about us. I wasn't sure at first, but he seems to know more than I imagined."
"What do you mean?"
"Mike and Darren had said he was checking out a book on 'witch hunting'," Harry explained.
Hermione paused, thinking about the situation.
"It doesn't mean it has anything to do with us." She said "He could've just been caught up in that whole 'WICCA' excitement."
Ron seemed to relax a little when she said that. Harry ran a hand a frustrated hand through his head, knowing that they weren't seeing the full picture.
"Well...There's something I forgot to mention," Harry said. "The day of the pep rally, he gave me a note."
"A note?" Hermione and Ron said in unison.
Harry nodded biting his lip as he reached into his pocket.
He handed them the note, watching as their eyes scanned the paper. Their eyes widened in shock.
'I know what happened to Amber'
The library of Walker high was very different from the one at Hogwarts. It contained a lot less books, all of them placed on newer looking shelves.
Not only that, but it was noisier than the average library. Every couple minutes you could hear the mechanical buzzing sound made by the printers.
Harry could guess it would be especially noisy today, as student shuffled around the library, trying to get their last minute homework done before tomorrow.
There were also a row filled with computers, something harry would never see at Hogwarts. He'd barely ever had the opportunity to explore all the functions a computer had to provide. His only chance to ever use one was when the Dursleys weren't home and he'd sneak into Dudley's room to use his. Harry guessed it was a shame that he, being raised by muggles, never really explored their world. He couldn't help but feel jealous whenever muggle borns talked about simple things like their trips to the movies, arcades, amusement parks, and the list went on.
Harry wished he could use some of this time at this school to explore the muggle library, its technology and literature.
However, that's not what they came here to do.
Harry's eyes scanned the library until he finally spotted him.
Cole was in the back corner of the library. His face was barely visible as he stared down at a piece of paper, jotting down notes.
"That's him?" Ron asked. "He doesn't seem like much of a threat."
Harry nodded. He'd always pictured people who were into witch hunting to be these intimidating looking humans with sinister appearances. Yet, Cole looked like a simple kid. If anything, he was a bit less than the average muggle teen. Cole was slightly baby-faced, making him look younger than he probably was. And the freckles on his face resembled those of cute cartoon characters.
On top of that, he was probably one of the shortest kids in school.
You would never expect a kid like him to be into such dark studies. Still, Harry had learned throughout his years at Hogwarts that appearances can be deceiving.
"Okay, we found him," Hermione said "Now, what's the plan?"
"We spy on him," Harry said. "Find out how much he knows."
"That's it?" Ron asked. "We just spy on him all day?"
"Well, we can't deny he knows something.
"We just have to find out how much he knows. If he's not a threat, we leave him be."
"And if he is?" Hermione asked.
Her face was tinged with worry as she remembered Amber, and their encounter with her.
"If he is, then we do what we have to do to protect our secret," Harry said darkly.
They walked further into the library, making sure to keep out of Cole's view. They had to keep a lookout for their muggle friends as well. If they caught them here in school, they'd probably assume that they just blew them off because they didn't want to be around them.
Cole looked up from his paper, causing Harry and the others to duck. At first, Harry thought they'd been spotted, until he realized Cole had been startled by something else.
The dark haired boy reached into his bag, pulling out a ringing cellphone.
It looked much more expensive than the ones they were given, with more buttons and complicated looking features. In other words; it was Ron's worst nightmare.
They crawled closer to him, hiding behind a nearby bookshelf. Harry looked in his direction, surprised to see him staring reluctantly at the phone ringing rather than answering it.
That's when he noticed Cole's face. It was filled with fear.
Not as much fear as Amber's face had been before, but it was pretty close in comparison.
He looked hesitant to answer the phone, but harry could see in his eyes that he feared more not answering it.
Cole took a deep breath and pressed the green button.
His hand moved slowly towards his ear, eyes remaining on the phone. Almost as if wondering if it was too late to hang up now.
"H-hello?...Yes, this is his son..."
There was a long pause. Cole only stood there, listening to the person on the phone. Harry wished he could listen to the conversation.
He looked to Hermione, wondering if she could do anything.
She nodded reluctantly.
"I read the spell in a book once," She whispered. "But...I never tried it. What if I hurt you?"
Harry waved her off. "There's not much time, we'll worry about the consequences later... as usual"
She bit her lip, and nervously pointed her wand at Harry's hand.
"Escuchum!"
Harry felt a stinging pain in his hand, accompanied by a vibrating sensation on his palm.
It felt almost as if someone were as if only his hand were suffering slight electrocution.
Hermione sighed in relief; almost as if glad it hadn't blown his hand to bits. She signaled for him to place his hand to his ear.
He did, immediately hearing the conversation as if he were on the other end of the line.
It only took Harry a couple seconds to identify who was talking. Cole's voice sounded as scared as he looked. That, and the fact that he could still see his lips moving from where he sat.
"Y-yes. I understand."
"Good. The meeting will be on Tuesday." Harry heard a man say.
His voice was gruff menacing. It reminded him of the voice of Professor Mad-Eye Moody.
"At what time exactly?"
"Don't think you can escape us boy!"
"I-I wasn't! I was..just wondering!"
"W.S.S will be there at midnight," said the man "Your father is counting on you."
There was silence. Harry looked over at Cole.
He was hesitating, his lips trembling. Yet, despite his fear, he spoke.
"I'm not sure I can do this."
"You mad boy!?" The man growled. "You can't back out. These were orders from your father!"
"Y-yeah, But-"
"No 'buts'! If that picture is true, we're gonna need that address. Or is that problem?"
"No, it's not."
Address? Harry thought. Picture?
Harry pressed his hand closer to his ear, mouth slightly agape. They're talking about the article...about us.
"If that'll be all-"
"Wait!" Cole shouted.
A couple people in the library turned his way. Cole put his head down, and began whispering once more.
"You're...Not going to hurt him...are you?"
"Hurt him?" the man spat "Of course not! He'll just be missing for a while."
"For how long?"
The man laughed maniacally. "Until we exterminate the problem."
Harry heard the sound of a phone being slammed against its base. The man had hung up.
He could still feel the stinging pain in his hand, but he vibrating sensation was gone.
"W.S.S... What is that?" Ron asked. "Is it a muggle thing?"
Hermione shook her head.
She sat on the floor of Harry and Ron's dorm. Sneaking in here had been easy enough.
Girls weren't allowed in or near the boy's dorms, and vice versa. However, most people ignored that rule during weekend since most teachers had gone home.
The few security people at the school usually let it slip, especially if you were wearing an invisibility cloak.
"He also said someone would go missing," Harry said "And something about exterminating a problem,"
"Blimey Harry, you're telling me that that scrawny kid is going to kidnap someone?" Ron laughed.
"No, not exactly," Harry replied, yawning slightly. "It was more like they needed him to get the location of the person."
"Why would they need Cole for that?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione said, looking at Ron. "He's probably planning on kidnapping someone in the school."
In the school? Why would he want to do that?
Harry looked at Ron; he appeared to have the same bewildered expression on his face.
To add to Harry's frustration, Hermione seemed to have already figured it out, as she stared at each of them, expecting them to comprehend.
"Listen..." She said, sighing impatiently. "What he said about 'if the picture is true', and 'exterminating the problem' can only mean one thing."
"And that is?" Harry said impatiently.
"Cole is a witch hunter."
As soon as the words escaped Hermione's lips, deafening silence echoed throughout the dorm room.
"A witch hunter?" Ron mumbled, breaking the silence. "There's no way."
"Mike and Darren did say he checked out a book on witch hunting," Harry replied.
"Yeah, but he's probably just some nosey kid! Not a witch hunter!"
"Maybe not him," Hermione said. "But his father could be one. Didn't you say these were 'orders from his father'?"
Harry nodded grimly. This was one of the many reasons he believed Draco would become a Death Eater, even more now that Voldemort had returned. Kids tended to follow their parent's footsteps, even if they weren't aware of it, especially if they had fear on their side. Draco would probably have Voldemort as the source of it, the pressure being too much, causing him to join. From the look on Cole's face, the visible anxiety the possible witch hunter on the other line caused him, it was almost a sure thing he would cave into dark ways as well.
A 'witch hunter'... Harry smiled tiredly. Add that to the list of things trying to kill me.
"Well, we can't know for sure" Hermione added. "Not until we have enough proof."
"What are you suggesting?" Ron asked "That we keep following him all day?"
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of attending that meeting Tuesday."
"Sneak out of campus? At midnight!?" Ron gasped.
"Who are you, and what have you done with Hermione?" Harry said in amused disbelief.
Hermione rolled her eyes and got out her phone, hiding a smile.
"What are you doing?"
"Texting the D.A," She answered "I'm going to ask them if they can look up what W.S.S is."
"You mean like use a computer?" Harry chuckled. "We're lucky they can use a cell phone."
Hermione laughed, shooting an apologetic look at Ron.
Ron elbowed Harry, crossing his arms. "Shut up, bloody jerks."
Harry smiled; glad to have some tension lift from the atmosphere. He knew it wouldn't last long, not with the (possibly) new discovery. It seemed to be only a matter of time before he would have to reassemble the D.A again.
He'd planned on doing it either way, but it appeared that it would have to be sooner.
Hermione and Ron seemed to think so too, sometimes having asked him about it between classes. The only problem was a good place to have the meetings.
They no longer had the problem of Umbridge busting them for 'Dangerous club activities', but now they had to hide it from the muggles instead. A large group of people practicing magic outside of room 413 was a difficult thing to arrange.
Just he and Ron doing spells within his dorm was easy enough if they locked the door, but about 30 people in Harry's dorm might arise some suspicion.
He guessed he could just hold meeting with the most trusted D.A members until they got back to Hogwarts.
Hermione had taken her phone out again, texting the D.A about their situation with Amber and Cole.
The room was silent once more as Ron finished up homework from their magic lessons, soon moving on to their muggle homework.
"What are we gonna do about Mr. Short's assignment?"
"He only said to read the summary, he didn't say anything else," Harry said, thinking back to the day of their first class with him. Ironically it had also been the day he received the note from Cole.
It had only happened a couple days ago, yet it seemed like such a long time from now.
"That's not what I meant, he's probably going to quiz us on this, and there's no way we can read it all by tomorrow," Ron said, signaling to the massive summary lying on the floor.
Harry groaned. He knew Ron was right, but there was nothing they could do. Linda had offered them help with it, but they couldn't accept it now.
His second week at this school, and he could already feel his first 'F' right around the corner.
Sadly, he had less 'normal teen' stuff to worry about as he felt his phone ring a couple minutes later.
It was a text from the D.A
Hermione was the first to see the text on her phone. Her eyes glazed with horror.
"What does it say?"
Hermione only shook her head, a hand clasped over her mouth.
Harry took out his phone, surprised to find a picture of a computer screen, rather than the straight answer.
The picture was blurry, but you could still make out a symbol similar to that of the dark mark.
It was a human skull, impaled with what seemed to be two sticks...two wands.
The cracks on the skull were visible on each side of the head, making an X formation.
On the bottom of the picture were big bold letters.
W.S.S : Witch Slayers Society
A/N: Hope you guys liked it!
I'm sorry if Harry seemed kinda evil/ OOC in this chapter. I try to keep their personalities in check, but I'm not JK Rowling ...so..
Harry: Why is everything always trying to kill me?! T-T
Laura: Cuz ur Harry flippin Potter -_-
Anyway...I'm not sure what that ^^ was, but I think it's overdose on sugar.
Please review!...Please...I love you guy! :D
And i'll update soon... promise
P.S: I think this is the longest chapter i've written ! YAY!