Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 40 ⚡️

In the following few days, Vega felt quite satisfied with how the Dumbledore's Army classes were going. It felt as if she was holding onto a kind of talisman from their second year, a glowing secret that supported her throughout Umbridge's classes and even made it possible for her to smile blandly as she looked into Umbridge's horrible bulging eyes.

Vega, Harry, and the D.A. were all resisting her under her very nose, doing the very thing that she and the Ministry most feared, and whenever Vega was supposed to be reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book during her lessons, the girl dwelled instead on the memories of their most recent meetings and going over the progress that everyone had done.

Neville had successfully disarmed Hermione and Colin Creevey had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' worth of hard effort, and Parvati Patil had produced such a good Reductor Curse that she had reduced the table carrying all the Sneak-o-scopes to dust. Everyone was doing very well so far in Vega's opinion.

In other times, Vega spent time making up schedules as to what to learn, how to learn and when to meet for the D.A. meetings. She was, by now, finding it almost impossible to fix a regular night of the week for D.A. meeting as they had to accommodate three separate Quidditch teams' practices, which were often rearranged upon weather condition.

But on the other hand, Vega wasn't as worried about it as she had a feeling that it was probably better to keep the timing of their meetings unpredictable. If anyone was watching them, it would be hard to make out a pattern for their meet-ups.

Even better, Vega and Hermione had 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.

Being good with Transfiguration and Charms, Vega did as Hermione asked and conjured twenty-nine fake Galleons and charmed them with Protean Charm that Hermione had discovered in one of the books in the Room of Requirement.

Finally, they were ready to be given out. Ron had become very excited when he saw the basket at first, convinced that Vega and Hermione were actually giving out actual gold.

Hermione held up one of the fake Galleons for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up. "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,"

"The coins will grow hot when the date changes," Vega continued. "So, if you're carrying them in a pocket, you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and whenever I set the date of the next meeting, I'll change the numbers on my coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic mine,"

A blank silence greeted their words. Vega and Hermione shared a look and turned to look at the faces upturned toward them, and Vega knew that Hermione was starting to feel bad about pitching this idea to the younger girl in the first place.

"Listen, Hermione and I found this an interesting idea," Vega said smoothly. "So, even if we are asked to turn out pockets out by Umbridge, there would be nothing suspicious about having a Galleon, would it? If not, then you can –"

"Not only the Patronus Charm, but you can also do the Protean Charm?" Terry Boot asked.

"Um, yes, that's how we got these Galleons for you all," Vega replied, confused.