THIRTY FOUR
RORY CLOSED HER EYES AND TOOK a deep breath. Memories began flooding to her like a supercut – her whole life nearly flashing before her eyes. She smiled to herself as she tried to pick out the perfect one. She remembered the one she used to produce a non corporal Patronus her fifth year, where she was singing in the den of the Burrow with the Weasley's. It was strong, but she knew it wasn't strong enough. Another Christmas popped in her mind. Christmas at Grimmauld Place. Christmas spent with her dad, her brother, the Weasley's, Sirius, Lupin... all her favorite people.
She raised her wand and opened her eyes, "Expecto Patronum!"
A blue glow shot out of her wand and took the shape of a beautiful bird. Rory shrieked and jumped up and down with excitement. Her heart was bursting with the complete joy of finally being able to produce a Patronus.
"Brilliant, Rory!" Harry beamed, "Looks like your Patronus is... a parrot?"
"It's a macaw," Luna Lovegood interjected, "While technically all macaws are parrots, not all parrots are macaws. They say a macaw's facial features are as unique as our fingerprints. It suits you, Rory."
"Yeah... sure," Harry nodded. Rory looked up and saw a silvery swan zoom past her and a shiny otter from under her. It seemed many people were able to cast their Patronus.
Rory looked over as Fred and George were repeating the incantation and movement required. After a few tries, a bird flew from Fred's wand as well. The same bird also came out of George's.
"What is it?" Fred asked with a smile.
"A magpie!" Luna said, "One for sorrow, two for joy."
"What?" George asked, raising his eyebrow, "Bit depressing, isn't it?"
Rory shook her head, "Not at all. Hey! We're bird twins!"
Fred gave Rory a crisp high five. They looked down and saw a jumpy silhouette of a golden retriever as Kirsty Blaine eagerly grinned, receiving a round of applause from the McDowell twins.
Rory could almost feel everyone's happy energy. She looked around and wondered what memories they had all thought of. She made a mental note to ask Fred what he chose, knowing he wouldn't want to expose himself in front of everyone.
In the midst of gasps and shrieks of joy, the room slowly fell silent. Dobby, the House Elf had entered. Rory felt her heart beat faster. He didn't even need to explain, she knew. She knew Umbridge found out. There would be no other explanation for Dobby to come in so suddenly with such a frantic expression.
"Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.
Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his feet hard on the floor. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"
It was silent for a moment, no one said anything and no one moved. Rory knew what was coming though.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!"
Rory began running to the only place that made sense, the bathroom. She saw as Fred and George seemed to go towards the library. Everyone scattered, no one having time to discuss anything.
The girl panted as she entered the loo. It was empty, until another set of heavy footsteps and heavier breaths joined her. Cleo McDowell and Kirsty Bloch ran in. Cleo looked rather pissed off, rightfully so.
"Oh, hello, Rory," Kirsty heaved, "Nice Patronus back there."
"Thanks," Rory said quietly.
Cleo groaned, "It was Zane! I know it was!"
"What?" Rory questioned.
"He turned us in! Well, at least I'm pretty sure he did." She shrugged, crossing her arms over her uniform clad chest, "We got in a fight the other day. He was getting really upset. See, our dad is pretty high up at the Ministry. Zane gets upset about family honor and all that crap. Says ever since we lost that match, Dad has been on his case. Zane was telling me if he got caught doing anything with the D.A then he's sure Dad wouldn't be able to even look at him."
Rory gasped, "But... he came to the meeting today? Do you think he'd do that if he was done with it? If I'd done that I wouldn't be able to show my face."
Cleo shrugged once again, "Yeah, I'm hopeful for him. I just can't think of anyone —"
"HA!" A voice shouted from the doorway. The three girls whipped their heads around and Rory sprung into action as she saw Pansy Parkinson standing with a wide grin on her face.
"As I was saying, ladies!" Rory snapped at Kirsty and Cleo, "I, as Head Girl, am demanding Kirsty see Madam Pomfrey this instant! You've been sick nearly every day, I had an inkling you were using one of those Weasley's products but... I suspect... you might be..." Rory's eyes darted around as she continued her performance, "With child."
"Rory..." Kirsty said with confusion.
"That's why I followed you two in here. To bust you for smuggling Skiving Snackboxes. But, it appears this is not the result of any contraband! It's my duty to look after students. I'll escort you two down to the Hospital Wing." Rory nodded. Kirsty and Cleo made eye contact and slowly nodded, following along with the girl's performance.
"You've got a point, Rory." Kirsty nodded, "Thanks. Let's go then, before I get sick again."
"Yes, we'd better head down now." Rory grabbed Kirsty's wrist and stopped at the doorway where Pansy was still standing, mouth slightly agape. "And what do you want, Parkinson?"
"I..." the Slytherin stuttered, "Well, I... never mind!" She scurried off and the three girls left the bathroom. They waited until the girl was completely gone from view and snuck off towards the Gryffindor common room.
Rory smirked, she had always wanted to be an actress.
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BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC:
Dolores Jane Umbridge (High Inquisitor) has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The above is in ordinance with Educational Decree Number Twenty Nine
Signed:
Cornelius Fudge
Minister of Magic
The notice went up overnight. A lot had changed with it, too. Umbridge put in place a group of students who went by the Inquisitorial Squad. They essentially had all the power Rory did as Head Girl, making her role seem entirely useless. She was honestly fine with it, the last thing she wanted to do was enforce Umbridge's rules (they quickly found out the sneak was a bushy haired Ravenclaw and not Zane McDowell).
About halfway through the day, she could tell Fred and George were scheming. They had that troublesome smirk on their faces. Lunch was approaching and she decided to confront them before they all went down. However, as she entered the common room, Marina ran out in tears at the same time and nearly smashed into Rory.
"What was that about?" Rory asked slowly, taking a seat next to Fred on the couch.
"She's mad at us." George said, looking a bit somber.
"Why?"
Fred sighed, "We might have... accidentally shoved her boyfriend into the Vanishing Cabinet."
Rory gasped, "You put who in the where?"
George began to explain himself quickly, "Okay so — here's the story, Rory. During break, we were hanging about the first floor after you went off to the library. We saw Graham Montague giving her a hard time."
"What do you mean?"
Fred continued, "He was grabbing her wrist real hard and they were shouting at each other. Well, it seemed he was shouting at her, it wasn't really a mutual exchange. So naturally we intervened."
"Yeah but when we did they both got all upset, more than they already were." George frowned, "Then Montague threatened to take house points off, Marina stormed off... and then we did what we needed to do and put him in his place - the Cabinet, I mean."
"When we came back up here she started getting really angry with us. Told us that he was her boyfriend and we should just mind our own business. Then George told her where we put him and she ran off." Fred sighed heavily.
"We were just trying to look out for her! Dunno why she stood up to that stupid prick over us... he was hurting her! Why is she even dating him?" George said, getting rather angry.
Rory nodded slowly and processed their story, "Are you sure that's what you saw?"
"Positive," they chorused.
"Maybe she'll be down in the Great Hall," The girl said optimistically, "We can talk to her at lunch."
George rubbed the back of his neck and stood up, "About that..."
The Head Girl groaned, "What are you two planning? You aren't doing the -"
Fred shook his head, red hair flopping about, "Absolutely not, love. We can't do that prank without you because it was all your idea. This is a different one. However we can't promise it won't get us expelled."
"Expelled?" Rory murmured, "I know for years now I've been on your case about that and well, all I have to say is that I don't blame you two. I quite understand why you're so obsessed with leaving this place. But, don't get expelled this time if you can't help it. I really wanna do the last prank with you. You know what, it's been a while. Let me in on this one."
Fred and George Weasley did not disappoint. Rory missed the feeling of doing something naughty. She hadn't pulled a proper prank in years. At least not one to this extent. Fred and George had created quite the heavy stash of magical fireworks and were planning on setting them off during lunch.
"Alright lads," Rory grinned, "How do we do this? Set them off outside the Great Hall and then slip behind the tapestry to sneak us out of the scene of the crime? Maybe Fred and I can start making out or something so it'll give us an alibi and a reason to be sneaky."
"Whoa!" Fred beamed, "You're a genius, Rory! That sounds brilliant."
George shook his head, "No, we're going to slip back behind the tapestry and no one is kissing anyone because in case you both forgot... Educational Decree Number Seven forbids public displays of affection."
Fred groaned, "Fine. Guess we'll have to do it another time." He shot Rory a wink and she nodded, blush taking over her complexion.
George sighed, "Alright. Rory you take the animal ones over there, Fred - "
Fred nodded and grabbed the fireworks out of his bag, "Yeah, I know. The Catherine Wheels. You've got the rockets. Well, bombs away gang."
It was like they were little kids again. As Rory set off the fireworks, tip toeing and hunched down, she felt a certain sort of joy she hadn't really known since she was young. Since the days of her and the twins pulling silly pranks nearly every week. There were times before Cedric's death, before running away from home, before Umbridge, before she felt stuck and confused. Lighting those fireworks brought her back to those times. As she ran behind the tapestry with the twins, she wondered what her eleven year old self would think of her now.
The fireworks continued going off the rest of the afternoon. It seemed like the first time anyone at Hogwarts laughed all year. And they were laughing all right, the whole school... even the Professors. It was exactly what everyone needed. The joy seemed to continue that night in the common room as Fred and George were rightfully praised as heroes. Rory smiled as she watched them receive complements and take orders for their Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs. The girl didn't mind taking the backseat, especially when it came to the praise... she never liked too much attention and she always felt awkward taking compliments.
That night, Rory did not feel like sleeping. However, when she returned to her dormitory, it seemed the other girls had gone to bed. The girl decided to see how the boys were doing and if they could keep her entertained as her mind was wide awake. She saw light omit from the crack under their door and smiled. She decided not to barge in, since boys were always doing odd things. Rory hit her knuckles against the wooden door and said, "Oi Oi!"
"It's Rory!" A voice said, it was slightly muffled so she couldn't pinpoint who.
The door swung open and Lee Jordan was on the other side with a smile, "Hello, Miss Archer. What can we do for you on this fine evening at... twelve forty two in the morning."
"Didn't want to sleep but everyone else did. What are you all up to?" She said, stepping past Lee into the room. The smell of teenage boy hit her, however it was heavily over powered by the smell of gunpowder which seemed to be prominent in the whole castle that day. She had been in the boy's rooms often during her time at Hogwarts. When they were younger, sometimes they would have sleepovers in there. It was always a bit of a mess every time. George's area was the most clean while Lee's was the messiest. Fred's things were inbetween. His bed was never made, but there was never more than one clothing item on the floor at a time (maybe two).
"We were..." Lee began, his brown eyes darting around the room.
"Just listening to music." Fred finished.
"Why are you all being so suspicious then?" Rory asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"George doesn't want you to know he likes Madonna!" Lee laughed.
Rory raised an eyebrow and sat next to Fred on his bed, "How does George even know who Madonna is?"
Lee smiled proudly, "Well, there's a station through the WWN that plays muggle music. Kinda hard to find but if you tune it just right..."
"How'd you find out about this?" Rory beamed, happy that she could now listen to her type of music on Hogwarts grounds.
"I know a lot about the Wizarding Wireless Network." Lee smiled, "Been told I have a voice for radio."
Rory nodded in agreement and George turned up the wireless that was crisply playing Like A Virgin (which of course Lee decided to shoot Rory and Fred wink during). She sat on Fred's bed and he quickly began playing with her hair, not even hesitating as if he'd been thinking about it all day.
After laughing with her boys for another hour or so, she fell asleep in Fred's bed next to the boy with a smile on her face. She wasn't going to let Umbridge ever take that from her.