Of Monsters, Of Men

Chapter 30

The last three months had been the busiest three months of Harry's life. Harry and Tom trained Lawrence, Myrtle, Polly, and Nina in the Dark Arts with a heightened sense of urgency, helping them master hexes and move onto easier curses—after all, mastering curses were the best ways to master their counterspells. Unfortunately, due to all the intense Dark magic practice, they had to explain cleansing rites to them. It hadn't been a fun conversation... to say the least. Harry still winced at the memory of it, hearing Nina's enraged yells and seeing Lawrence's raised eyebrows. But they'd gotten past that topic, and the six of them were now fairly well-versed in the Dark Arts. It was an especially handy skill, considering how often the Slytherins attacked them.

The fake galleons had saved their lives on more than one occasion, including one memorable time where Walburga Black and Abraxas Malfoy, along with a couple of their cronies, had ambushed Tom and Harry on their way back from a late night at the library. Harry managed to press his coin in time, and he fought bitterly with Tom to hold off the seven assailants until help came. When Lawrence, Myrtle, Nina, and Polly arrived, the scene on the fourth floor turned into a warzone. The two groups fought bitterly, spells blasting back and forth as they volleyed shots at each other. When they heard the yowls of Fitch's cat, everyone scattered. From the scream Filch let out upon seeing the ruins of the hallway, Harry knew he was quite unhappy at not apprehending the perpetrators of such a crime. He considered himself lucky that no one was majorly injured, and more importantly, no one was caught. (That would have been hell to explain.)

The FiGS meetings had been an even greater success than Harry could have anticipated. Almost every muggleborn on campus was involved in FiGS, and most FiGS members opted into attending dueling sessions. In those sessions, the six FiGS founders taught members proper dueling forms, tested their baseline for Light and Dark magic, and helped them learn jinxes and hexes. Myrtle became one of the most loved dueling instructors due to her open, relatable demeanor and wealth of knowledge—she'd taken Tom and Harry's advice to heart, progressing even past Nina and her vast pool of raw talent. A general mood of empowerment spread through the FiGS community, as dueling and self-defense no longer became unattainable goals. Many a member had hugged their instructors after a successful practice, saying tearily that they'd accomplished something they once thought impossible.

Naturally, the Slytherins caught wind of the meetings. They most definitely did not approve of FiGS or their mission. However, there wasn't really anything they could do about it, other than to privately bemoan its existence. They had no legal grounds to complain on, especially as the club was on its way to being chartered and already had a faculty sponsor in the mighty Professor Dumbledore. And taking on the entire Hogwarts muggleborn population was even too much for the Slytherins to consider, so they retaliated in their own way. They recruited purebloods in other houses to their cause, such as Ravenclaw Tripe twins and Myrtle's old bully, Olive Hornby (although Harry suspected she joined mostly due to her bitterness at seeing Myrtle succeed), as well as some Hufflepuff and Gryffindor purebloods. Mostly those who joined wanted to cultivate and use the closeness they gained from allying themselves with such socially and politically important students—really, how had the Sorting Hat not sorted them all into Slytherin?

Harry liked to think of the current Hogwarts dynamics as a quasi-cold war between the two factions: FiGS versus Slytherin and her allies. FiGS and Slytherin were on equal footing when it came to fighting power and the number of members. However, neither faction would win unless they gained the support of the general public. Involving regular students in the war directly or trying to recruit them into the fold weren't effective or efficient methods of winning the war, so both factions tried their best to sway public opinion. Currently, the general public was evenly split in who they supported: Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students tended to sympathize more with FiGS, while pureblood Ravenclaw students tended to sympathize more with Slytherin. Yet, there was a third, silent faction—the Hogwarts administration and staff—that had yet to take action. The administration had not made any public statements or moves, seemingly content to watch the war play out and swoop in and support the victor once the ashes cleared. And Harry desperately wished it would remain that way. A third player on the board, unbeholden to anyone's ideas or morals, would greatly destabilize the tenuous balance Harry and Tom had so painstakingly cultivated. (After all, chess was hard enough between two players. Harry shuddered to think of what would happen if the referee began playing.)