A/N-
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good summer and got the GCSE/A Level results you wanted!
I haven't posted as regularly this summer as I'd hoped, which is why I decided to update twice today. :)
I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 39
Harry walked around the Room of Requirement, smiling at everyone,
“Learning how to stun someone is very important. If you need to get away from an enemy quickly, stunning them should give you a bit of extra time to run. Now, get into pairs and practise.”
I turned to Fred and raised an eyebrow,
“Be ready for my skills.”
He laughed,
“You really think you’ll do well on the first time?”
I rolled my eyes,
“I was joking, but if you actually think I’m going to-”
“Stupefy!”
Fred’s spell hit me hard. I flew backwards through the air and landed on the cold, hard floor.
I shut my eyes and groaned. I heard footsteps coming towards me, and Fred gasped,
“Ava? Are you alright? Did I hurt you?”
I kept my eyes shut and smiled,
“Fred Weasley- congratulations on stunning your best friend when she was halfway through a sentence. 25 points to Gryffindor.”
Fred hit my arm,
“I thought I’d hurt you.”
I groaned again,
“Well. I landed on the floor with quite some force. If you could just help me up, I’m sure I’ll feel slightly better.”
He took my hands and pulled me up. I started to brush any dirt off of myself while he started to talk again,
“I genuinely thought I’d hurt you. I was really worried that we’d have to go and get Madam Pomfrey. Then I would have had to explain why you’d been stunned, and that-”
I shouted,
“Stupefy!”
I smiled with satisfaction as Fred landed on the floor with a thud. He moaned,
“Hey! I wasn’t ready!”
“And you think I was?”
He sat up, sighing,
“Okay. I’m sorry.”
I held out my hand to help him up,
“You are forgiven, Mr Weasley.”
Harry walked towards us,
“Well done you two. You did quite well. Maybe you should practise again?”
I grinned,
“I’d love to.”
My brother blew his whistle,
“Everyone stand around the room. We’re going to watch Fred and Ava. They did pretty well.”
Fred and I stood on either side of the room and held our wands at the ready. When everyone was quiet, Harry cleared his throat,
“Let’s look at what you can do.”
Before I could even think about it, Fred shouted,
“Stupefy!”
I fell to the ground, and all air was knocked out my lungs. Fred ran over to me,
“Do I need to give you mouth to mouth?”
I sat up, smiling,
“No, you idiot. I’m fine.”
He crouched down next to me, and our eyes met. My breath caught as he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. I suddenly remembered where we were, and whispered,
“Fred, every member of the DA is watching us.”
He grinned, wrapped his hands around my waist, and threw my over his shoulder. I gave a little yelp, and pounded my fists against his back as he stood up,
“Hey! Put me down!”
All eyes were on me. Fred cleared his throat,
“That, ladies and gentlemen, is how to stun someone.”
Harry smiled at me,
“Better luck next time, Ava.”
I sighed,
“I wasn’t ready!”
Fred patted my arm,
“You’ll learn the knack one day.”
I groaned,
“I did the spell earlier on you! You saw-”
“Quiet now Ava. You just fell with a thump in the floor. Maybe your head’s a bit jumbled up.”
I hit his back,
“Shut up, Freddo.”
* * *
Hermione whispered,
“We shouldn’t be doing this, you know. It’s strictly against the rules. I might just go back-”
George rolled his eyes,
“Loosen up a bit, Hermione. We’re just having a bit of fun. Ever heard of that word?”
Ron snorted, but Hermione punched his arm,
“I hope you realise that we could get expelled! If Professor Umbridge finds us, we’ll be in awful trouble.”
After the DA meeting had finished, Fred and George had come up with the idea of sneaking down to the Shrieking Shack to hang out. They had waited until almost everyone but me, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had left.
Hermione shook her head,
“I shouldn’t have gone along with this when you first mentioned it! What if Filch sees us?”
Harry turned to Hermione,
“Shut up, will you? I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt for us to relax a bit.”
I put my arm around her shoulder,
“Yeah! Especially since you have your OWLs coming up. You don’t want to get too stressed.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but Fred and George interrupted,
“Harry? Have you got your invisibility cloak?”
He pulled it out of his pocket and slipped it over himself. The twins grinned,
“Right, now if we just have a little light, we’ll be able to silence our footsteps. We just need to be able to see-”
Ginny rolled her eyes and muttered,
“Lumos. Gosh, sometimes you two can’t think of the simplest spells.”
We began to walk in the shadows, and George whispered,
“Silencio.”
Our footsteps didn’t make a sound, and neither did we, for fear that our whispering might wake up a teacher.
I noticed a woman in a pink dressing down at the end of the corridor. I gasped,
“Umbridge! Everyone hide!”
We all hid behind a stone statue as best we could, hoping she wouldn’t see us.
She got closer, and I noticed that she was humming a little tune to herself. I ducked behind the statue more and held my breath.
The humming stopped. Professor Umbridge had seen us.
My heart pounded in my chest as I realised Hermione was right. Of course we were going to get caught.
In the distance, I heard a loud crash that sounded like another stone statue falling over and smashing into millions of pieces.
Professor Umbridge called out,
“Who was that? I know there are students out of bed!”
I heard her footsteps fade away as she quickly walked towards the broken statue.
To my surprise, it was Hermione who whispered,
“Run!”
We stayed in the shadows and ran as quickly as we could until we got outside. Professor Umbridge hadn’t come after us, so it seemed we were safe. For the moment.
I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Ginny whispered,
“Who knocked the other statue over?”
Hermione smiled,
“Harry of course. He had the invisibility cloak!”
We waited until Harry caught up with us, and then began to walk again. I glanced up at Hogwarts. It certainly looked magnificent in the moonlight.
My gaze fell on the Astronomy Tower, and my face fell. Three figures were standing there, leaning against the railings.
One of the boys, who had bright blonde hair, noticed us walking through the shadows.
I gulped,
“Oh no. Guys, we have to run.”
Fred frowned,
“Why?”
I grabbed his arm,
“Draco, Zach and Eleanor are in the Astronomy Tower. They saw us. We have to run. Now.”
We sprinted through the night until we finally got to the Shrieking Shack.
The floor was covered in dirt and dust, and the walls certainly looked like they needed a lick of paint.
Harry pulled me away from my thoughts,
“Why were they out of bed anyway? If they got caught, their parents wouldn’t be happy.”
George raised an eyebrow,
“I don’t know. Check the Marauders Map to see where they are now.”
I heard Fred mutter,
“Accio Firewhiskeys. Accio butterbeer.”
Different bottles flew towards him, and George and I helped him catch them. I frowned,
“When did you find time to hide these?”
He just smiled,
“Last time I came here.”
Hermione gulped,
“What if Draco has told Umbridge where we are?”
Fred threw her a butterbeer,
“Oh, please Hermione. We’re here to relax. If we get caught, who cares?”
Hermione raised her hand,
“I care.”
“No, you don’t. This is where the party starts.”