𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫 | n. tonks

vi

It was a cloudy afternoon when Hadley and Neville came across a secret room. They'd never seen this door before in all the time they've been at Hogwarts, and Neville asked Hadley first if this was one of her, Fred, and George's pranks before going off to tell the others.

"You've done it, Neville. Hadley," Hermione said as her, Harry, Ron, Neville, and the triplets walked into the mysterious room. "You found the Room of Requirement."

"The what?" Ron asked, frowning.

"It's also known as the Come and Go Room," Hermione told them. "The Room of Requirement only appears when a person has real need of it, and is always equipped for the seeker's needs."

"So, if you needed to hide a body..." Hadley stifled a laugh and exchanged a look with Fred and George. Hermione raised a brow at them. "Not that we'd ever need to, of course. We're not cold-blooded murderers like those Death Eaters."

"Or if you really needed the toilet..." Ron said.

"Charming, Weasleys," Hermione said sarcastically in a tone that reminded Hadley of Tonks. "But, yes, that is the general idea."

"It's brilliant," Harry spoke up as he looked around the room, which was filled with dueling dummies. "It's like Hogwarts wants us to fight back."

And fight back, they did. When the coast was clear, the Golden Trio, the Troublemakers, and Neville rounded up everyone that signed to take part in Dumbledore's Army. They got to work, starting with the basics – a disarming charm. Harry had them line up in two straight lines with him at the front to coach them in their technique.

Neville was first in line. He took a deep breath before flicking his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

Hadley pulled Ginny down as the wand the dummy was holding went flying down the line of students. It crashed on the back wall, sparking as it collided with the cold stone before falling onto the floor.

"I'm hopeless." Neville sighed.

"You're just flourishing your wand too much," Harry said. "Try it like this." He raised his arm in a straight line with a tight grip on his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

The wand flew out of the practice dummy's hand and onto the floor.

"Show off," Fred and George muttered.

"That show off is teaching you how to defend yourselves," Hermione scolded them through gritted teeth.

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Hadley's hair was dripping with water from her shower, the bottom of her feet freezing on the cold wood floor of her dorm. She sat down on her bed and pulled her headphones over her ears – a gift from her father, who worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic. He had enchanted them to play instrumental violin and piano music without being connected to a radio, which helped Hadley relax after a long day of classes.

She broke off a square of chocolate from the candy bar Remus had sent her. She took a small bite before taking a roll of parchment, a quill, and ink out of her nightstand drawer. She used one textbook as a makeshift desk and the other to set the ink and chocolate square on as she began writing a letter to Tonks. She had told her to keep her updated on everything happening at Hogwarts during her visit at Hogsmeade.

She told her about the secret Defense Against the Dark Arts club that Harry had started and what a good teacher he was. She's never really taken him seriously before – she thought he was full of it because the whole "chosen one" thing had gone to his head – but after the first Dumbledore's Army meeting, she had a new respect for him. He was teaching them things that Hadley didn't even know she was capable of. She hadn't learned this much in defensive magic since Remus was their teacher.

It was also a big "fuck you" to Umbridge's ugly, trolly face.

Hadley loved breaking the rules. Next to pranks, it was one thing she was known for at home and at Hogwarts. Fourth year, her, George, Fred, and Ron had stolen their dad's enchanted flying car to rescue Harry from the Dursleys. Fifth year, she broke curfew numerous times to sneak out and search for Sirius Black like she was a detective working on a murder investigation. She didn't find him exactly, but she did find a big, shaggy dog, who she later learned was Sirius' animagus form. She snuck him into the castle a few times to feed him and shelter him from any bad weather, even though dogs were not on the approved list of animals that they could bring with them to Hogwarts.

Hadley's logic was that she was only breaking the rules if she was caught. She never got caught, therefore, she hadn't broken a single rule.

Was she terrified when she found out that the "dog" she had been caring for all year was an escaped prisoner of Azkaban? Yes. But when she stopped to think for a minute, if Sirius Black was a crazy, mass murderer, wouldn't he have killed her already?

He had thanked her for her kindness and told her that if it weren't for her, he wouldn't have made it on his own.

Molly had just about had a heart attack when her daughter came home from school that year and told her all about it, but she believed her when she said that he was innocent.

Sixth year, last year, was the Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore had said that no one under the age of 17 was allowed to put their name into the Goblet of Fire, so Fred, George, and Hadley had taken an age potion to trick the goblet into thinking they were of age. It had worked for a moment, but then backfired and turned them into elderly people.

They lost 50 points each from Gryffindor for that little stunt.

And now, seventh year, she was participating in a secret army. What could possibly go wrong?

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a/n

it's the last day of school before christmas break and i already finished all my exams, so we're just sitting around doing nothing all day. im using my time in hell wisely 🫡

i was planning out chapters for act ii last night, and im really excited about the future of this story! it helps with the writing process if i plan chapters out ahead of time, but then it's also torture because then i have to wait to write the scenes/chapters that im really excited about :')

thoughts?