The Enemy of my Enemy

The D.A.

The weeks passed quickly since their first D.A. meeting. Everyone waited the whole week with an air of excitement, and almost barged through the doors of the Room of Requirements at the same time the following week.

"We need to work out a system," said Teddie to Harry. "You know, so people don't get caught. If we all start turning up all at once, or caught on the seventh floor, Umbridge is going to suspect we're up to something."

"She already suspects we're up to something," said Fred, wandering over with George. "She's sniffing around the Gryffindor tower like a bloodhound... what?" he asked, as Teddie cocked her head, eyeing him curiously.

"Was that a Sherlock Holmes reference?" Teddie asked.

"Who?" George asked.

Teddie shook her head with a smile. George's response was all she needed. "Never mind," she said.

"We could do a buddy system?" Harry suggested. "Groups of three or four?"

"We should vote on it," said Teddie, looking around at the rest of the group. "Like you said last week, we're all in this together, after all."

Harry nodded.

After the vote, which saw the majority of the group agreeing to the buddy system, Hermione stepped forward with a large wicker basket.

Mason furrowed his brow. "Are we having a picnic?" he asked.

Teddie chuckled and hugged her brother to her.

Hermione smiled and shook her head. "No, sorry, Mason," she said. "But I do have something for you all." She removed the cloth on the basket and presented the room with gold coins, no bigger than a Galleon.

Ron's eyes widened as he snatched one up. "You're giving us gold?" he asked.

"It's not real gold," said Hermione. "I had an idea on how we could communicate the date and times of these meetings to one another, without drawing the suspicion of Umbridge."

Teddie rolled the coin between her fingers. It looked like a real galleon.

"Hey, wait a second," said Mason, peering closer at his coin. He run his fingers over the ridge edges and then looked up at Hermione. "There's no serial number on here."

Hermione shook her head. "You see the numerals around the edge?" she asked, pointing at the ridge of her own coins. "On real Galleons, as Mason pointed out, they are just a serial number. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them on your person, you'll feel it."

"I'm guessing Harry has the master coin?" Mason asked.

"Yeah," said Hermione. "When he changes the date and time on his coin, it will automatically change on everyone else's."

Mason cocked his head to the side. "You used a Protean charm on them, then," he said.

Hermione nodded.

A blank silence greeted Hermione's admission.

"Well, I thought it was a good idea," said Hermione, looking around at all the people staring at her. "I mean, if Umbridge asks us to turn out our pockets, it's hardly suspicious if we're carrying gold coins, is it?"

"You can do a Protean charm?" Astoria asked.

"Yes," said Hermione.

"But that's... that's N.E.W.T. standard," said Astoria, her eyes wide.

"Oh," said Hermione, her cheeks tinging pink.

Terry Boot looked from Astoria to Hermione. "How come you aren't in Ravenclaw?" he asked.