Rosabella Black |Daughter Of Sirius Black| (Book 5)

The Lion and The Serpent

Rosabella's Point of View:

I sang to Harry all night again and took some wakefulness potion. I felt tired but it was bearable and I was functional. And I followed this routine for the next two weeks. It was almost impossible to fix a regular night of the week for D.A. meetings, as we had to accommodate three separate Quidditch teams’ practices, which were often rearranged depending on the weather conditions, but it was probably better to keep the timing of the meetings unpredictable. If anyone was watching us, it would be hard to make out a pattern. The D.A meetings had been going very well and everyone was improving greatly.

Hermione and I soon devised a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice, because it would look so suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often. We gave each of the members of the D.A. a fake Galleon, Ron became very excited when he saw the basket at first, convinced that we were actually giving out gold.

    “You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?” Hermione said, as I held one up for examination at the end of our fourth meeting.

The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches.

    “On real Galleons that’s just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting." I said, enthusiastically.

    "The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you’re carrying them in a pocket you’ll be able to feel them." Hermione said, eagerly.

    "We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he’ll change the numbers on his coin, and because we’ve put a Protean Charm on them, so they’ll all change to mimic his.” I said, finishing the explanation.

     "Ro was kind enough to supply the gold as I didn't have enough for all of us." Hermione said, beaming at me.

A blank silence greeted our words. Hermione and I looked at each other. We didn't expect this reaction.

    “Well — we thought it was a good idea.” Hermione said uncertainly.

    “Well, I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there’s nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But . . . well, if you don’t want to use them . . .” I said.

     “You both can do a Protean Charm?” said Terry Boot.

   “Yes.” Hermione and I said.

   “But that’s . . . that’s N.E.W.T. standard, that is.” Terry said weakly.

    “Oh . . . well . . . yes, I suppose it is.”
said Hermione, trying to look modest.

I didn't bother, everyone new I wasn't modest but I wasn't a brag mouth either.

   “How come you’re not in Ravenclaw? With brains like you two have?” Terry demanded, staring at Hermione and I with something close to wonder.

    “Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting, but it decided on Gryffindor in the end." Hermione said brightly.

     "Ha! The hat told me I didn't have the correct mind set for Ravenclaw, so I assume it was saying I wasn't smart enough. Now I'm determined to prove that hat wrong." I said, scowling as everyone laughed.

      "That's why you shouted in the middle of your sorting. You basically were having an argument with the hat." Daniel, one of Michael's friends, said laughing hysterically.