* * *
AS A DULL MARCH BLURRED INTO A SQUALLY APRIL, ELARA'S LIFE SEEMED TO HAVE BECOME ONE LONG SERIES OF WORRIES AND PROBLEMS AGAIN. elara had not seen anya since that night, her visions had started to become shorter and more vivid; she had seen the quidditch pitch on fire and collapsing, but in an instant, it was normal again. she had not been able to talk to dumbledore. no matter how many books were read, nothing was found on 'praedo malorum'. her detentions kept increasing, her hand hurt, she hated umbridge. harry was moodier than usual and would only talk about his own visions unless prompted. the only good thing to come out of all this for elara was their long talks in the common room after everyone had gone to bed.
they talked about anya, their visions, the war firenze alluded to, lessons, ways to get at umbridge, what they think the future'd turn into, and if everything didn't go to shit, what'd they'd like to do after leaving hogwarts. usually, the talks would end in them falling asleep on the couch by the fire.
meanwhile, as the teachers and hermione persisted in reminding them, the o.w.l.s were drawing ever nearer. all the fifth years were suffering from stress to some degree, but hannah abbott became the first to receive a calming draught from madam pomfrey after she burst into tears during herbology and sobbed that she was too stupid to take exams and wanted to leave school now.
if it had not been for the d.a. lessons, elara thought she would have been relatively unhappy. she sometimes felt that she was living for the hours she spent in the room of requirement, working hard but thoroughly enjoying herself at the same time, swelling with pride as she looked around at her fellow d.a. members and saw how far they had come. indeed, elara sometimes wondered how umbridge was going to react when all the members of the d.a. received "outstanding" in their defense against the dark arts o.w.l.s.
"we're finally going to practice the patronus charm today," said elara jovially, clapping her hands together.
they cheered as everybody had been very keen to practice.
"thanks to multiple requests from fred, george, and rori, i'll cast a patronus, but mainly so you can see what they look like, the incantation, and the wand movement."
elara drew her wand and focused on her favorite memory. christmas day was the first in her mind. getting adopted, apologizing to the long bottoms, harry finally confessing he fancied her too, and her first kiss. an undeniable smile spread across her face.
"expecto patronum!"
a large and powerful hungarian horntail erupted from the tip of her wand. it flew around the room of requirement, opening its mouth to breath silvery fire. everyone ooh'd and stared at the magnificent patronus until it finally came to a stop at elara. the horntail bowed its head and dissipated.
"your patronus is unique to you," said elara. "it'll reflect your dreams and character traits, but most importantly, it'll keep you safe from dementors."
everyone was quiet. no one dared to speak in fear they miss important details.
"all right everyone, stand up, find a spot, and we'll begin."
harry sidled up at elara's side as everyone shuffled around to begin.
"so they listen to you, but not me," said harry grumpily, but he was smiling.
"i am kind of terrifying," said elara, nudging harry's side. she sighed. "i wish it could be like this forever."
"i do too," said harry.
elara planted quick kiss on his cheek and stepped forward, "to conjure a patronus, you need to focus on a happy memory. the more powerful the memory, the more effective the patronus."
"what did you think of, lara?" shouted aurora.
"i wonder what yours might be, rori," elara fired back, and aurora turned red. "all right, does everyone have a memory in mind?"
there were murmurs of affirmation across the room. elara smiled.
"a patronus is incredibly difficult magic — don't be disappointed if you don't get it the first few tries, however, since there is no immediate threat, it may be easier to conjure one.
"the incantation is, repeat after me, expecto patronum."
"expecto patronum."
elara clapped her hands together.
"good! now, just point your wand, focus on your chosen memory, and repeat those words. if you need help, just ask harry or me."
they set to focus on casting the patronuses. no one had immediate success. the first person to cast a corporeal patronus was the unassuming clover knight, who's lioness patronus astounded everyone in the room. ginny followed soon after, with a brilliant mare patronus.
elara kept reminding them, producing a patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different to producing it when confronted by something like a dementor.
"oh, don't be such a killjoy," said cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped patronus soar around the room of requirement during their last lesson before easter. "they're so pretty!"
"they're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," said harry patiently when he saw elara scowl. "what we really need is a boggart or something; that's how lara and i learned, we had to conjure a patronus while the boggart was pretending to be a dementor —"
"but that would be really scary!" said lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapor out of the end of her wand. "and i still — can't — do it!" she added angrily.
elara sailed over to her. she placed a hand on lavender's wand, pushing it downwards slightly.
"you're doing better than i did," said elara soothingly. "anger won't produce anything. you've got to think of a really, really happy memory."
"well..." began lavender slowly, "i had lots of fun at the yule ball..."
"why don't you try that?"
"okay — " lavender knitted her eyebrows together, "expecto patronum!"
a bunny that looked eerily like her old pet, binky, erupted from the tip of her wand.
"i've done it! i've done it!" lavender shouted gleefully, staring fondly at her patronus.
neville was having trouble too. his face was screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issued from his wand tip.
"you've got to think of something happy," elara reminded him.
"i'm trying," said neville miserably, who was trying so hard his round face was actually shining with sweat.
"there must be something — "
"lara, i think i'm doing it!" yelled seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever d.a. meeting by aspen and dean. "look — ah — it's gone. . . . but it was definitely something hairy, lara!"
hermione's patronus, a shining silver otter, was gamboling around her.
"they are sort of nice, aren't they?" she said, looking at it fondly.
the door of the room of requirement opened and then closed again; elara looked around to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. it was a few moments before she realized that the people close to the door had fallen silent. next thing she knew, something was tugging at her robes somewhere near the knee. she looked down and saw, to her very great astonishment, dobby the house-elf peering up at her from beneath his usual eight hats.
"hi, dobby!" said harry cheerfully.
"what are you — what's wrong?" said elara.
for the elf's eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. the members of the d.a. closest to elara and harry had fallen silent now: everybody in the room was watching dobby. the few patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silver mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.
"harry potter, sir, elara tonks, miss . . ." squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot, "harry potter, sir, elara tonks, miss . . . dobby has come to warn you . . . but the house-elves have been warned not to tell . . ."
he ran headfirst at the wall: elara, who had plenty experience of dobby's habits of self-punishment, made to seize him, but dobby merely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. hermione and a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy.
"what's happened, dobby?" harry asked, grabbing the elf's tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.
"harry potter . . . she . . . she . . ."
dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist: elara seized that.
"who's 'she,' dobby?" said elara.
but she thought he knew — surely only one "she" could induce such fear in dobby? the elf looked up at them, slightly cross-eyed, and mouthed wordlessly.
"umbitch?" asked elara, horrified.
dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head off harry's knees; elara held him at bay.
"what about her? dobby — she hasn't found out about this — about us — about the d.a.?"
she read the answer in the elf's stricken face. his hands held fast by elara and harry, the elf tried to kick himself and fell to the floor.
"is she coming?" harry asked quietly.
dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor. "yes, harry potter, yes!"
harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf. its okay, elara thought, harry has a plan. he always has a plan.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" harry bellowed. "RUN!"
well —
they all pelted toward the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through; elara could hear them sprinting along the corridors and hoped they had the sense not to try and make it all the way to their dormitories. it was only ten to nine, if they just took refuge in the library or the owlery, which were both nearer —
"harry, lara, come on!" shrieked hermione from the center of the knot of people now fighting to get out.
elara scooped up dobby, who was still attempting to do himself serious injury, and ran with the elf in her arms to join the back of the queue with harry.
"dobby — this is an order — get back down to the kitchen with the other elves, and if she asks you whether you warned me, lie and say no!" said elara. "and i forbid you to hurt yourself!" she added, dropping the elf as she and harry made it over the threshold at last and slamming the door behind them.
"thank you, elara tonks!" squeaked dobby, and he streaked off.
elara glanced left and right, the others were all moving so fast that she caught only glimpses of flying heels at either end of the corridor before they vanished. elara grabbed harry's arm and they started to run right.
"i've got an idea — " said elara, out of breath.
"what — "
he had no time to respond as elara had pushed him into the wall and changed her hair into a shiny platinum blonde.
"just go along with it," whispered elara, casting a look over her shoulder.
"okay."
she pressed her lips on his. the ruse didn't work well however, as someone made a loud retching noise and yanked them apart.
"merlin, potter, would it kill you to snog my cousin in a more concealed place? i don't ever need to hear that!"
"five galleons to watch, draco," snipped elara.
"i was going to let you off, lara, but for that — hey, professor — PROFESSOR! i've got two!"
"god, what did you have for breakfast this morning? carnation instant bitch?"
umbridge came bustling around the far corner, breathless but wearing a delighted smile.
"it's them!" she said jubilantly at the sight of harry and elara. "excellent, draco, excellent, oh, very good — fifty points to slytherin! i'll take them from here. . . . come along, you two!"
"don't open any suspicious packages you may receive in the near future, dear cousin of mine," sneered elara as she glared at draco.
elara had never seen umbridge looking so happy. "draco, you hop along and see if you can round up anymore of them, draco," she said. "tell the others to look in the library — anybody out of breath — check the bathrooms, miss parkinson can do the girls' ones — off you go — and you two," she added in her softest, most dangerous voice, as draco walked away. "you can come with me to the headmaster's office."
she grabbed harry's arm and made to touch elara.
"touch me and i'll sue," said elara indifferently. she began heading towards the headmaster's office, trying desperately to fight the smile on her face.
they were at the stone gargoyle within minutes. elara wondered how many of the others had been caught. she thought of ron — mrs. weasley would kill him — and of how hermione would feel if she was expelled before she could take her o.w.l.s. and it had been seamus's very first meeting . . . and neville had been getting so good. . . .
"fizzing whizbee," sang umbridge, and the stone gargoyle jumped aside, the wall behind split open, and they ascended the moving stone staircase. they reached the polished door with the griffin knocker, but umbridge did not bother to knock, she strode straight inside, still holding tight to elara and harry.
the office was full of people. dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, his expression serene, the tips of his long fingers together. professor mcgonagall stood rigidly beside him, her face extremely tense. cornelius fudge, minister of magic, was rocking backward and forward on his toes beside the fire, apparently immensely pleased with the situation. kingsley shacklebolt and a tough-looking wizard elara did not recognize with very short, wiry hair were positioned on either side of the door like guards, and the freckled, bespectacled form of percy weasley hovered excitedly beside the wall, a quill and a heavy scroll of parchment in his hands, apparently poised to take notes.
elara glared so magnificently at percy that he seemed to shrink backwards.
the portraits of old headmasters and mistresses were not shamming sleep tonight. all of them were watching what was happening below, alert and serious. as elara and harry entered, a few flitted into neighboring frames and whispered urgently into their neighbors' ears.
harry pulled himself free of umbridge's grasp as the door swung shut behind them. cornelius fudge was glaring at elara and harry with a kind of vicious satisfaction upon his face.
"well," he said. "well, well, well . . ."
elara replied with a glare more magnificent and malevolent than the one she threw at percy. "they were heading back to gryffindor tower," said umbridge. there was an indecent excitement in her voice, the same callous pleasure elara had heard as she watched professor trelawney dissolving with misery in the entrance hall. "the malfoy boy cornered them."
"that's incorrect, actually — " said elara, pretending she was offended. "we were just having a nice sn — stroll!"
harry coughed.
"did he, did he?" said fudge, disregarding elara's statement. "i must remember to tell lucius. well, potter, tonks . . . i expect you know why you are here?"
"yeah — no," said harry.
"i am utterly and absolutely bemused as to why my presence was requested here," said elara formally.
"i beg your pardon?" said fudge.
"i said — "
"no," said harry, firmly.
"you don't know why you are here?"
"no, we don't," said harry.
fudge looked incredulously from elara and harry to professor umbridge; elara took advantage of his momentary inattention to steal a quick look at dumbledore, who gave the carpet the tiniest of nods and the shadow of a wink.
"so you have no idea," said fudge in a voice positively sagging with sarcasm, "why professor umbridge has brought you both to this office? you are not aware that you have broken any school rules?"
"i was unaware there were school rules against young love," said elara sarcastically.
"there's a ministry decree against the proximity of boys and girls being closer than two feet," amended fudge angrily.
"i'm not sure what century you're stuck in, minister, but the gay students of this school are still laughing — "
"so it's news to you, is it," said fudge, his voice now thick with anger, "that an illegal student organization has been discovered within this school?"
"who would ever want to defy the ministry?" said elara, pulling off a pretty great concerned look. "with all the good you're doing — "
"yes, it is," said harry, hoisting an unconvincing look of innocent surprise onto his face.
"i think, minister," said umbridge silkily from beside him, "we might make better progress if i fetch our informant."
"bitch," murmured elara. harry shook his head.
"yes, yes, do," said fudge, nodding, and he glanced maliciously at dumbledore as umbridge left the room. "there's nothing like a good witness, is there, dumbledore?"
"nothing at all, cornelius," said dumbledore gravely, inclining his head.
there was a wait of several minutes, in which elara used to stare at percy, then elara heard the door open behind her. umbridge moved past her into the room, gripping by the shoulder cho's curly-haired friend marietta, who was hiding her face in her hands.
"don't be scared, dear, don't be frightened," said professor umbridge softly, patting her on the back, "it's quite all right, now. you have done the right thing. the minister is very pleased with you. he'll be telling your mother what a good girl you've been. marietta's mother, minister," she added, looking up at fudge, "is madam edgecombe from the department of magical transportation. floo network office — she's been helping us police the hogwarts fires, you know."
"jolly good, jolly good!" said fudge heartily. "like mother, like daughter, eh? well, come on, now, dear, look up, don't be shy, let's hear what you've got to — galloping gargoyles!"
as marietta raised her head, fudge leapt backward in shock, nearly landing himself in the fire. he cursed and stamped on the hem of his cloak, which had started to smoke, and marietta gave a wail and pulled the neck of her robes right up to her eyes, but not before the whole room had seen that her face was horribly disfigured by a series of close-set purple pustules that had spread across her nose and cheeks to form the word "SNEAK."
elara grinned evilly. her and hermione's hex had worked.
"never mind the spots now, dear," said umbridge impatiently, "just take your robes away from your mouth and tell the minister —"
but marietta gave another muffled wail and shook her head frantically.
"oh, very well, you silly girl, i'll tell him," snapped umbridge. she hitched her sickly smile back onto her face and said, "well, minister, miss edgecombe here came to my office shortly after dinner this evening and told me she had something she wanted to tell me. she said that if i proceeded to a secret room on the seventh floor, sometimes known as the room of requirement, i would find out something to my advantage. i questioned her a little further and she admitted that there was to be some kind of meeting there. unfortunately at that point this hex," she waved impatiently at marietta's concealed face, "came into operation and upon catching sight of her face in my mirror the girl became too distressed to tell me any more."
"well, now," said fudge, fixing marietta with what he evidently imagined was a kind and fatherly look. "it is very brave of you, my dear, coming to tell professor umbridge, you did exactly the right thing. now, will you tell me what happened at this meeting? what was its purpose? who was there?"
but marietta would not speak. she merely shook her head again, her eyes wide and fearful.
"haven't we got a counterjinx for this?" fudge asked umbridge impatiently, gesturing at marietta's face. "so she can speak freely?"
"i have not yet managed to find one," umbridge admitted grudgingly.
"oh, there's not," said elara, smiling.
"you jinxed — "
"professor," said elara sweetly. "i haven't learned an ounce of spellwork this year. how on earth would i be able to do such advanced magic? i'm such a good girl. i've never once dreamed of doing anything rebellious — "
"but it doesn't matter if she won't speak, i can take up the story from here," interrupted umbridge.
"you will remember, minister, that i sent you a report back in october that potter and tonks had met a number of fellow students in the hog's head in hogsmeade —"
"and what is your evidence for that?" cut in professor mcgonagall.
"i have testimony from willy widdershins, minerva, who happened to be in the bar at the time. he was heavily bandaged, it is true, but his hearing was quite unimpaired," said umbridge smugly. "he heard every word potter and tonks said and hastened straight to the school to report to me —"
"oh, so that's why he wasn't prosecuted for setting up all those regurgitating toilets!" said professor mcgonagall, raising her eyebrows. "what an interesting insight into our justice system!"
"blatant corruption!" roared the portrait of the corpulent, red-nosed wizard on the wall behind dumbledore's desk. "the ministry did not cut deals with petty criminals in my day, no sir, they did not!"
"thank you, fortescue, that will do," said dumbledore softly.
"the purpose of potter's and tonks's meeting with these students," continued professor umbridge, "was to persuade them to join an illegal society, whose aim was to learn spells and curses the ministry has decided are inappropriate for school-age —"
"don't mind if i do, professor," said elara brightly, "but it seems you are mistaken."
every pair of eyes in the room turned to elara.
"oho!" said fudge, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet again. "yes, do let's hear the latest cock-and-bull story designed to pull yourself potter out of trouble! go on, then, miss tonks, go on — willy widdershins was lying, was he? or was it potter's identical twin in the hog's head that day? or is there the usual simple explanation involving a reversal of time, a dead man coming back to life, and a couple of invisible dementors?"
percy weasley let out a hearty laugh.
"oh, very good, minister, very good!"
"oh, shut it, weatherby," snarled elara, and percy fell silent. "minister, harry and i don't deny that we were in the hog's head that day, nor that we were trying to recruit students to a defense against the dark arts group. i am just saying that professor umbridge is wrong to suggest that such a group was, at that time, illegal. if you remember, the ministry decree banning all student societies was not put into effect until two days after our hogsmeade meeting, so we were not breaking any rules in the hog's head at all. i don't understand why you just take a look at our memories, or even use veritaserum — we've got nothing to hide. cowards, all of you."
percy looked as though he had been struck in the face by something very heavy. fudge remained motionless in mid-bounce, his mouth hanging open.
umbridge recovered first.
"that's all very fine, miss tonks," she said, smiling sweetly. "but we are now nearly six months on from the introduction of educational decree number twenty-four. if the first meeting was not illegal, all those that have happened since most certainly are."
"well," said elara, smiling smugly, "they certainly would be, if they had continued after the decree came into effect. do you have any evidence that these meetings continued?"
"evidence?" repeated umbridge with that horrible wide toadlike smile. "have you not been listening, miss tonks? why do you think miss edgecombe is here?"
"oh, can marietta tell us about six months' worth of meetings?" said elara, raising her eyebrows. "i was under the impression that she was merely reporting a meeting tonight."
"miss edgecombe," said umbridge at once, "tell us how long these meetings have been going on, dear. you can simply nod or shake your head, i'm sure that won't make the spots worse. have they been happening regularly over the last six months?"
elara stared defiantly at marietta, daring her to rat them out again.
"just nod or shake your head, dear," umbridge said coaxingly to marietta. "come on, now, that won't activate the jinx further. . . ."
everyone in the room was gazing at the top of marietta's face. only her eyes were visible between the pulled up robes and her curly fringe. perhaps it was a trick of the firelight, but her eyes looked oddly blank. and then — to elara's utter satisfaction — marietta shook her head.
umbridge looked quickly at fudge and then back at marietta.
"i don't think you understood the question, did you, dear? i'm asking whether you've been going to these meetings for the past six months? you have, haven't you?"
again, marietta shook her head.
"what do you mean by shaking your head, dear?" said umbridge in a testy voice.
"i would have thought her meaning was quite clear," said professor mcgonagall harshly. "there have been no secret meetings for the past six months. is that correct, miss edgecombe?"
marietta nodded.
"but there was a meeting tonight!" said umbridge furiously. "there was a meeting, miss edgecombe, you told me about it, in the room of requirement! potter and tonks were the leaders, were they not, they organized it, they — why are you shaking your head, girl?"
"well, usually when a person shakes their head," said mcgonagall coldly, "they mean 'no.' so unless miss edgecombe is using a form of sign language as yet unknown to humans —"
professor umbridge seized marietta, pulled her around to face her, and began shaking her very hard. a split second later elara's wand was out and pointed at umbridge, and dumbledore was on his feet, his wand raised. kingsley started forward and umbridge leapt back from marietta, waving her hands in the air as though they had been burned.
"i cannot allow you to manhandle my students, dolores," said dumbledore, and for the first time, he looked angry. "elara, wand away."
elara begrudgingly stuffed her wand in her pocket.
"you want to calm yourself, madam umbridge," said kingsley in his deep, slow voice. "you don't want to get yourself into trouble now."
"no," said umbridge breathlessly, glancing up at the towering figure of kingsley. "i mean, yes — you're right, shacklebolt — i — i forgot myself."
marietta was standing exactly where umbridge had released her. she seemed neither perturbed by umbridge's sudden attack, nor relieved by her release. she was still clutching her robe up to her oddly blank eyes, staring straight ahead of her. a sudden suspicion connected to kingsley's whisper and the thing she had felt shoot past her sprang into elara's mind.
"dolores," said fudge, with the air of trying to settle something once and for all, "the meeting tonight — the one we know definitely happened —"
"yes," said umbridge, pulling herself together, "yes . . . well, miss edgecombe tipped me off and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor, accompanied by certain trustworthy students, so as to catch those in the meeting red-handed. it appears that they were forewarned of my arrival, however, because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction. it does not matter, however. i have all their names here, miss parkinson ran into the room of requirement for me to see if they had left anything behind. . . . we needed evidence and the room provided . . ."
and to elara's horror, she withdrew from her pocket the list of names that had been pinned upon the room of requirement's wall and handed it to fudge.
"the moment i saw potter's and tonks's name on the list, i knew what we were dealing with," she said softly.
"excellent," said fudge, a smile spreading across his face. "excellent, dolores. and . . . by thunder . . ."
he looked up at dumbledore, who was still standing beside marietta, his wand held loosely in his hand.
"see what they've named themselves?" said fudge quietly. "dumbledore's army."
dumbledore reached out and took the piece of parchment from Fudge. he gazed at the heading scribbled by hermione months before and for a moment seemed unable to speak. then he looked up, smiling.
"well, the game is up," he said simply. "would you like a written confession from me, cornelius — or will a statement before these witnesses suffice?"
elara saw mcgonagall and kingsley look at each other. there was fear in both faces. elara had a glimmer of knowledge as to what dumbledore was doing, but thankfully, fudge didn't.
"statement?" said fudge slowly. "what — i don't — ?"
"dumbledore's army, cornelius," said dumbledore, still smiling as he waved the list of names before fudge's face. "not potter's army. not tonks's army. dumbledore's army."
"but — but —"
understanding blazed suddenly in fudge's face. he took a horrified step backward, yelped, and jumped out of the fire again.
"you?" he whispered, stamping again on his smoldering cloak.
"that's right," said dumbledore pleasantly.
"you organized this?"
"i did," said dumbledore.
"you recruited these students for — for your army?"
"tonight was supposed to be the first meeting," said dumbledore, nodding. "merely to see whether they would be interested in joining me. i see now that it was a mistake to invite miss edgecombe, of course."
marietta nodded. fudge looked from her to dumbledore, his chest swelling.
"then you have been plotting against me!" he yelled.
"that's right," said dumbledore cheerfully.
"NO!" shouted harry.
"harry," said elara lowly, wishing him not to say anything more.
"no — professor dumbledore!"
"be quiet, harry, or i am afraid you will have to leave my office," said dumbledore calmly.
"yes, shut up, potter!" barked fudge, who was still ogling dumbledore with a kind of horrified delight. "well, well, well — i came here tonight expecting to expel potter and instead —"
"instead you get to arrest me," said dumbledore, smiling. "it's like losing a knut and finding a galleon, isn't it?"
"weasley!" cried fudge, now positively quivering with delight, "weasley, have you written it all down, everything he's said, his confession, have you got it?"
"yes, sir, i think so, sir!" said percy eagerly, whose nose was splattered with ink from the speed of his note-taking.
elara wished for nothing more than to deck percy weasley into next year.
"the bit about how he's been trying to build up an army against the ministry, how he's been working to destabilize me?"
"yes, sir, i've got it, yes!" said percy, scanning his notes joyfully.
"very well, then," said fudge, now radiant with glee. "duplicate your notes, weasley, and send a copy to the daily prophet at once. if we send a fast owl we should make the morning edition!" percy dashed from the room, slamming the door behind him, and fudge turned back to dumbledore. "you will now be escorted back to the ministry, where you will be formally charged and then sent to azkaban to await trial!"
"ah," said dumbledore gently, "yes. yes, i thought we might hit that little snag."
"snag?" said fudge, his voice still vibrating with joy. "i see no snag, dumbledore!"
"well," said dumbledore apologetically, "i'm afraid i do."
"oh really?"
"well — it's just that you seem to be laboring under the delusion that i am going to — what is the phrase? 'come quietly' i am afraid i am not going to come quietly at all, cornelius. i have absolutely no intention of being sent to azkaban. i could break out, of course — but what a waste of time, and frankly, i can think of a whole host of things i would rather be doing."
umbridge's face was growing steadily redder, she looked as though she was being filled with boiling water. fudge stared at dumbledore with a very silly expression on his face, as though he had just been stunned by a sudden blow and could not quite believe it had happened. he made a small choking noise and then looked around at kingsley and the man with short gray hair, who alone of everyone in the room had remained entirely silent so far. the latter gave fudge a reassuring nod and moved forward a little, away from the wall. elara saw his hand drift, almost casually, toward his pocket.
"don't be silly, dawlish," said dumbledore kindly. "i'm sure you are an excellent auror, i seem to remember that you achieved 'outstanding' in all your n.e.w.t.s, but if you attempt to — er — 'bring me in' by force, i will have to hurt you."
the man called dawlish blinked, looking rather foolish. he looked toward fudge again, but this time seemed to be hoping for a clue as to what to do next.
"so," sneered fudge, recovering himself, "you intend to take on dawlish, shacklebolt, dolores, and myself single-handed, do you, dumbledore?"
"merlin's beard, no," said dumbledore, smiling. "not unless you are foolish enough to force me to."
"he will not be single-handed!" said professor mcgonagall loudly, plunging her hand inside her robes.
"oh yes he will, minerva!" said dumbledore sharply. "hogwarts needs you!"
"enough of this rubbish!" said fudge, pulling out his own wand. "dawlish! shacklebolt! take him!"
a streak of silver light flashed around the room. there was a bang like a gunshot, and the floor trembled. a hand grabbed the scruff of elara's neck and forced her down on the floor as a second silver flash went off — several of the portraits yelled, fawkes screeched, and a cloud of dust filled the air. coughing in the dust, elara saw a dark figure fall to the ground with a crash in front of him. there was a shriek and a thud and somebody cried, "no!" then the sound of breaking glass, frantically scuffling footsteps, a groan — and silence.
elara struggled around to see who was half-strangling her and saw professor mcgonagall crouched beside her. she had forced elara, harry, and marietta out of harm's way. dust was still floating gently down through the air onto them. panting slightly, elara saw a very tall figure moving toward them.
"are you all right?" said dumbledore.
"yes!" said professor mcgonagall, getting up and dragging elara, harry, and marietta with her.
the dust was clearing. the wreckage of the office loomed into view: dumbledore's desk had been overturned, all of the spindly tables had been knocked to the floor, their silver instruments in pieces. fudge, umbridge, kingsley, and dawlish lay motionless on the floor. fawkes the phoenix soared in wide circles above them, singing softly.
"unfortunately, i had to hex kingsley too, or it would have looked very suspicious," said dumbledore in a low voice. "he was remarkably quick on the uptake, modifying miss edgecombe's memory like that while everyone was looking the other way — thank him for me, won't you, minerva?
"now, they will all awake very soon and it will be best if they do not know that we had time to communicate — you must act as though no time has passed, as though they were merely knocked to the ground, they will not remember —"
"where will you go, dumbledore?" whispered professor mcgonagall. "grimmauld place?"
"oh no," said dumbledore with a grim smile. "i am not leaving to go into hiding. fudge will soon wish he'd never dislodged me from hogwarts, i promise you. . . ."
"leave it to me, fred, george, and rori, professor," said elara, finally letting the smile she'd been fighting spread across her face. "oh, this is going to be fun."
dumbledore winked at elara, who smiled gallantly back.
"professor dumbledore . . ." harry began.
but dumbledore cut him off before he could say another word.
"listen to me, harry," he said urgently, "you must study occlumency as hard as you can, do you understand me? elara will help you. do everything her and professor snape tell you and practice it particularly every night before sleeping so that you can close your mind to bad dreams — you will understand why soon enough, but you must promise me —"
the man called dawlish was stirring.
"remember — when injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."
fawkes circled the office and swooped low over him. dumbledore raised his hand and grasped the phoenix's long golden tail. there was a flash of fire and the pair of them had gone.
"where is he?" yelled fudge, pushing himself up from the ground. "where is he?"
"i don't know!" shouted kingsley, also leaping to his feet.
"well, he can't have disapparated!" cried umbridge. "you can't inside this school —"
"the stairs!" cried dawlish, and he flung himself upon the door, wrenched it open, and disappeared, followed closely by kingsley and umbridge. fudge hesitated, then got to his feet slowly, brushing dust from his front. there was a long and painful silence.
"well, minerva," said fudge nastily, straightening his torn shirt-sleeve, "i'm afraid this is the end of your friend dumbledore."
"you think so, do you?" said professor mcgonagall scornfully.
fudge seemed not to hear her. he was looking around at the wrecked office. a few of the portraits hissed at him; one or two even made rude hand gestures.
"you'd better get those three off to bed," said fudge, looking back at professor mcgonagall with a dismissive nod toward elara, harry, and marietta.
she said nothing, but marched elara, harry, and marietta to the door. as it swung closed behind them, elara heard phineas nigellus's voice.
"you know, minister, i disagree with dumbledore on many counts . . . but you cannot deny he's got style. . . ."
they were halfway down the stairs after they dropped marietta off at the ravenclaw tower when elara stopped and turned to professor mcgonagall.
"professor, what do the school rules and decrees say about alliances with... certain poltergeists?" said elara mischievously.
"i'm afraid i can't recall anything advises against it," said professor mcgonagall indifferently. "but, i would heavily endorse any alliances that may be made in the near future to take actions against... certain staff members.
"you have never been cooler."
* * *
AUTHORS NOTE
— i, personally, am not ready for the shitshow
that is the battle at the ministry
written: february 20, 2020
published: april 24, 2020