Emma Potter; Going to War

24: Slytherin's Society

Our robes billowed and swirled around us as we splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology, where we could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof. 

The afternoon's Care of Magical Creatures lesson was to be relocated from the storm swept grounds to a free classroom on the ground floor and, to our intense relief. And Slytherin team practice was cancelled. 

"Good,"I said quietly, when Ryan told me at breakfast, "because we've found somewhere to have our first Defense meeting. Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls." He looked slightly taken aback but nodded and left to join Draco.

 When I looked up and found Zoe watching me. 

"What?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

 "Well . . . it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe. Don't you remember when he lost your brother all the bones in his arm?"

 "This room isn't just some mad idea of Dobby's; Dumbledore knows about it too, he mentioned it to me at the Yule Ball." 

Zoe's expression cleared."Dumbledore told you about it?" 

"Just in passing,"I said, shrugging. 

"Oh well, that's all right then," said Zoe briskly and she raised no more objections. 

Together with Nicholas, Draco and Zoe I had spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list and telling them where to meet that evening.By the end of dinner I was confident that the news had been passed to every one of the 32 people who had turned up in the Hog's Head. 

At half-past seven Me, Zoe, Nicholas, Draco, Astoria and Ryan left the Slytherin Common Room, , I was clutching a certain piece of aged parchment in my hand. Fifth years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o'clock, but all 6 of us kept looking around nervously as we made our way up to the seventh floor. 

"Hold it,"I said warningly, unfolding the piece of parchment at the top of the last staircase, tapping it with my wand, and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." 

A map of Hogwarts appeared upon the blank surface of the parchment. Tiny black moving dots, labeled with names, showed where various people were. 

"Filch is on the second floor,"I said, holding the map close to my eyes and scanning it closely, "and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."

 "And Umbridge?" said Zoe anxiously. 

"In her office,"I said, pointing. "Okay, let's go." 

We hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had describedto me, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for theballet. 

"Okay,"I said quietly, while a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would-be ballet teacher to watch. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."

 We did so, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-size vase on its other side. Ryan had screwed up his eyes in concentration, Zoe was whispering something under her breath, my fists were clenched as I stared ahead of me.

 We need somewhere to learn to fight. . . . I thought. Just give us a place to practice . . . somewhere they can't find us . . . 

"Emma," said Astoria sharply, as we wheeled around after our third walk past.A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Ryan was staring  at it, looking slightly wary.