As soon as they found a place to practice, the newly named Dumbledore's Army was an immediate success.
Their first meeting Harry taught them Expelliarmus.
The haughty Hufflepuff boy said that they all knew it already, but Harry insisted that it was a very useful spell.
"Expelliarmus." Mali said again. Venus's wand flew out of her hand, sparking like mad.
"Mali, stop doing that every time that I pick the bloody thing up." Venus hurried to pick her wand back up.
"Expelliarmus!" Mali grinned as Venus's wand flew out of her hand again.
"I get it, you can do the spell!" Venus picked her wand up again.
"Expelliarmus."
"I'm going to kill you!" Venus growled at her friend.
At that very moment Terry Boot's wand hit Mali in the head, which distracted her.
"Expelliarmus!" Venus yelled in triumph. Mali's wand flew from her hand.
********
As the months progressed they approached the first Quidditch match, in which Gryffindor would be playing Slytherin.
DA meetings had to be changed so often that Hermione gave fake Galleons out to everyone. The Galleons were transfigured so that they would change to display the date of the next meeting and would burn hot when the date changed. But as the first quidditch match the DA meetings had to be postponed because of extra practice sessions.
Venus ended up in the hospital wing with a broken nose from the Slytherin keeper. Snape full out refused to take note of any of the witnesses who had seen the Slytherin punch Venus full in the face.
"He's such a douche bag." Mali said as they headed back to their lesson after Madam Pomfry had fixed Venus' nose.
"I know." Venus shrugged, "but what can we do about it? Dumbledore trusts him, he's in the Order."
"Doesn't stop him from being a douche," said Mali.
"You have such an elegant way of phrasing things," Venus laughed.
"I try my best." Mali nodded, "anyway, you and Neville."
"What about me and Neville?" Venus blinked.
Mali rolled her eyes, "don't be dense Venus, you know what I'm talking about."
"I really don't."
"Are you dating?" Mali said bluntly.
"What? No, I would have told you and Gin." Venus frowned.
Mali shrugged, "you just seem really close that's all."
"We're friends." Venus shook her head, "But what about you and Terry."
Terry Boot and Mali had been spending more time together recently. Mainly due to Ginny hanging out with Michael Corner, but it was clear that Mali had been getting closer with Terry.
Veuns hadn't been spending a lot of time with Michael and his friends, although Ginny and Mali had. Venus had never been very good at making friends, so she preferred to hang out with Neville.
Neville was really worried about his OWLs, so much so that he had already started revision. His Grandmother had been pressuring him to do well in his exams.
So Venus had been helping him, she was pretty useful in Transfiguration as McGonagall had already given her some practice OWL papers as extra work. But most of the other subjects she was pretty average at. She did the best that she could though.
October ended and the first week of November arrived. The week of the full moon also happened to be the week of the first Quidditch match. The full moon was the day after the match, so Venus was feeling pretty awful in the lead up to the match. This wasn't helped by the fact that Angelina had them training every day.
The team headed down to the changing rooms all together. Ron looked as though he was about to be sick. This wasn't helped by the fact that the Slytherins had a large banner with the words 'Weasley is our king' written on it in big golden letters.
"And it's Johnson with the Quaffle!" Lee Jordan said as the match started, "what a player that girl, I've been saying it for years, but she still won't go out with me-"
"JORDAN!" McGonagall snapped.
"-just a fun fact professor, adds some interest- she's ducked Warrington, passed Montague- ouch- hit in the back of the head by a bludger... Montague catches the Quaffle- nice Bludger from George Weasley, Venus Black-Weasley catches the Quaffle, steaming up the pitch, reverse pass to Katie Bell, back to Black-Weasley. And she's away- dodges Warrington, ducks a bludger- the crowd are loving this! Just listen to them, what's that they're singing?"
Venus was steaming up the pitch, but still managed to catch what the Slytherins were singing.
"Weasley cannot save a thing, He cannot block a single ring, That's why Slytherins all sing, Weasley is our king."
Venus lobbed the Quaffle at Angelina, who caught it. She threw it at the goalposts. The Slytherin keeper saved it.
"-and it's Warrington with the Quaffle, heading for goal- just the keeper ahead."
Ron was hovering in front of the hoops at the far end of the pitch with Warrington heading towards him.
"-It's a first for new Keeper Weasley, brother of Beaters Fred and George and Chaser Venus, and a promising new talent on the team- come on Ron!" Lee was saying.
But Ron missed and the Quaffle zoomed right through the middle hoop.
The match continued much the same. Luckily Harry caught the snitch early on, meaning that Gryffindor won.
The team touched down near Harry, who was first to land.
"Saved Weasley's neck didn't you Potter, I've never seen a worse Keeper, but then again he was born in a bin," Malfoy drawled, "do you like my lyrics Potter? We wanted to write another few verses, but we couldn't find anything that rhymed with ugly and fat, we wanted to write about his mother, see-"
Venus grit her jaw, but tried to ignore what was being said.
"Talk about sour grapes," Angelina shot Malfoy a disgusted look.
"-we couldn't fit in useless loser, for his father you know." Malfoy continued.
"Do you want to say that again Malfoy?" Venus demanded.
"Leave it!" Angelina said, Fred and George had realised what was being said, "he's just sore that he lost-"
"-but you like the Weasleys don't you Potter? Spend holidays there don't you? Can't see how you can stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by muggles even the Weasley's hovel smells okay-"
Harry grabbed hold of George who had lunged forwards, Katie and Angelina grabbed hold of Fred and struggled to hold him back, Venus just stood there, trembling in rage. At this time of the month she tended to get a little testy, but this was pushing her over the edge. She knew that if she gave into her rage, she wouldn't be able to stop herself tearing Malfoy to pieces, that would be bad. Even in her human form, any injuries she gave him would leave considerable scarring, and he would then know what she was.
She clenched her fists and dug her nails into her palms to stop herself from attacking Malfoy.
"-or perhaps you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it-"
Harry had released George and the two of them charged at Malfoy.
Venus hardly saw what was going on, she was too busy trying to stop herself lunging forwards. She could hear Malfoy yelling, George swearing and then, "Impedimenta!" Madam Hooch yelled.
But Venus was gone. She turned and ran into the changing rooms. She curled up in one of the shower cubicles and let the hot water rush over her, calming her down considerably.
She had never really been made so angry in the lead up to a full moon, but it seemed that her temper was elevated in that time. So much so that she jumped straight to physical violence. She realised that she needed to find a way to control that anger.
I had a little rejig of the cover again! Hope you like it!
Remember to vote, comment and be amazing!
~Em xx