THE MOST FAITHFUL

MEMORIES

For the next two weeks it was as if Harry carried some sort of talisman inside his chest, a luminous secret that held him up in Umbridge's classes and even made it possible for him to smile when he looked at those horrible bulging eyes. Hermione had convinced him, they had founded the DA and to their surprise they had joined in many.

They could finally do something concrete, fighting the old toad under her own nose, doing just what she and the Ministry feared most. At each of his lessons, instead of reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book, he indulged in satisfying memories of the last meetings: Neville had managed to disarm Hermione, Colin Canon had learned to master the Obstacle Spell after three hard meetings, Calì Patil he had produced a Reductor Enchantment so well made it blew the Spyoscope table to dust. It was practically impossible to schedule a regular date for the ES matches, due to the Quidditch practice of three different teams, which were often moved due to bad weather, but Harry didn't mind. If anyone had been keeping an eye on them, it would have been difficult to draw a precise pattern. Hermione soon devised a very clever communication system to let everyone in the group know the date and time of the meeting, because she would have looked suspicious if boys from different houses had congregated too often in the Great Hall. She gave each member of the ES a fake galleon.

"Do you see the figures around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, showing one at the end of the fourth meeting. The coin shone large and yellow in the torchlight. "On real galleons it is only a serial number referring to the goblin who minted them. On these fakes, however, the number will change to communicate the time and date of the next encounter. When the date changes, the coins will become hot; You will know if you carry them in your pocket. We take one each: I put a Proteus Charm on them all, so when Harry decides the new date and the number on his coin changes, the others will change too. " Total silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked at the faces staring at her, amazed. "Well ... I thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly. "I mean, if Umbridge asks us to empty our pockets, there's nothing suspicious about a galleon, is there? Of course ... if you don't want to ..."

"Can you make a Proteus Charm?" Terry Steeval asked her.

"Yes," Hermione replied. "But ... it's a level of M.A.G.O." he observed faintly. "Oh," said Hermione, trying to look modest. "Well, yes ... I think so."

There was a murmur of agreement and everyone stepped forward to take one from the basket.Harry gave Hermione a sideways glance.

"Do you know what it reminds me of?"

"No, what?"

"The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches one, and all the scars burn, so the others know they have to go to him."

"Here ... yes," Hermione admitted softly. "I took the idea from there ... but you will notice that I have decided to engrave the date on pieces of metal instead of on the skin of our associates."

"Yeah ... I prefer your style." Harry answered with a smile, sliding the galleon into his pocket. "I guess the only risk is that you can spend this by mistake."

"There's no danger," said Ron darkly.

When the bell rang the end of morning class Harry hurried out of the spell room, Ron had insisted on going to lunch right away and Hermione accompanied him not before casting a sidelong glance at Harry. She knew where he was going.

He almost ran down the stone stairs leading to the basement, she had to dodge several students in the corridor. She smiled cheerfully as she realized she didn't mind hearing them whisper as she passed, she finally had something to distract herself with, something that would make a difference.

He stopped at the potions door to let the last of the students out before entering.

Byron was gathering the chopped ingredients on the cutting boards with a flick of his wand to put them back in their respective containers. Snape instead, after having made the writing on the blackboard disappear, looked up at him.