With the Ministry of Magic actively denying Voldemort's return, and Voldemort doing nothing to open their eyes, Aurora found her summer very boring. With nothing to do for months on end, there were times when Aurora felt like she was going to go sti...
Aurora felt happier for the rest of the weekend than she had done all term. Harry and Ron spent much of Sunday catching up with all their homework again, and although this could hardly be called fun, the last burst of autumn sunshine persisted, so rather than sitting hunched over tables in the common room, they took their work outside and lounged in the shade of a large beech tree on the edge of the lake. Hermione, who of course was up to date with all her work, brought more wool outside with her and bewitched her knitting needles so that they flashed and clicked in midair beside her, producing more hats and scarves, while Aurora was helping Harry and Ron.
The knowledge that they were doing something to resist Umbridge and the Ministry, and that she was a key part of the rebellion, gave Aurora a feeling of immense satisfaction. Sure, she wasn't the teacher, but she was the one who gave Hermione the idea.
Monday morning felt just as cheerful as the rest of the weekend. Aurora got dressed and walked from her dormitory on her own, thinking of locations for 'the club' and not until she was halfway across the sunlit common room did they notice the addition to the room that had already attracted the attention of a small group of people.
A large sign had been affixed to the Gryffindor notice board, so large that it covered everything else on there — the lists of secondhand spellbooks for sale, the regular reminders of school rules from Argus Filch, the Quidditch team training schedule, the offers to barter certain Chocolate Frog cards for others, the Weasleys' new advertisement for testers, the dates of the Hogsmeade weekends, and the lost-and-found notices. The new sign was printed in large black letters and there was a highly official-looking seal at the bottom beside a neat and curly signature.
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"Does this mean they're going to shut down the Gobstones Club?" one of them asked his friend.
"I reckon you'll be okay with Gobstones," Ron said darkly, making the second year jump and Aurora turn toward him. "I don't think we're going to be as lucky, though, do you?" he asked Harry as the second years hurried away.
"This isn't a coincidence," Harry said, his hands forming fists. "She knows."
"She can't," said Ron at once.
"There were people listening in that pub. And let's face it, we don't know how many of the people who turned up we can trust. . . . Any of them could have run off and told Umbridge. . . ."
Zacharias Smith!" said Ron at once, punching a fist into his hand. "Or — I thought that Michael Corner had a really shifty look too —"
"I wonder if Hermione's seen this yet?" Harry said, looking around at the door to the girls' dormitories.
"Let's go and tell her," said Ron.
Aurora tried to stop him but he bounded forward, pulled open the door, and set off up the spiral staircase. He was on the sixth stair when it happened.
There was a loud, wailing, klaxonlike sound and the steps melted together to make a long, smooth stone slide. There was a brief moment when Ron tried to keep running, arms working madly like windmills, then he toppled over backward and shot down the newly created slide, coming to rest on his back at Harry's feet.
