Emma Potter; Going to War

25: Weasly is our King

I felt as though I were carrying some kind of talismaninside his chest over the following two weeks, a glowing secret that supported me through Umbridge's classes and even made itpossible for me to smile blandly as I looked into her horriblebulging eyes. Me and the S.S. were resisting her under her very nose,doing the very thing that she and the Ministry most feared, and whenever I was supposed to be reading Wilbert Slinkhard's book duringher lessons I dwelled instead on satisfying memories of their most recent meetings, remembering how Melody had successfully disarmed Me, how Astoria had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' hard effort, how Draco had produced such agood Reductor Curse that she had reduced the table carrying all theSneakoscopes to dust.

 We were finding it almost impossible to fix a regular night of theweek for S.S. meetings, as we had to accommodate Quidditch teams' practices, which were often rearranged depending onthe weather conditions; but I was not sorry about this, I had afeeling that it was probably better to keep the timing of our meetings unpredictable. If anyone was watching us, it would be hard to makeout a pattern. 

 I soon devised a very clever method of communicatingthe time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case we needed to change it at short notice, because it would look so suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the GreatHall to talk to each other too often. She gave each of the members ofthe S.S. a fake Slytherin badge. 

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" I said, holding one up for examination at the end of our fourth meeting. The silver on the badge began to glow the torch light. "Or real badges have our admission numbers. It's how the teachers keep track of us. However, on these ones the numbers willchange to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins willgrow hot when the date changes, since you will be wearing them it will be easy for you to notice. We take one each, and when I set thedate of the next meeting we'll change the numbers on our coins, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic ours."

 A blank silence greeted my words. I looked around at allthe faces upturned to us, rather disconcerted. 

"Well — we thought it was a good idea," I said uncertainly, "Imean, even if Umbridge is onto us there's nothing wrong with wearing our badge is it? I mean, it's mandatory. But . . . well, if youdon't want to use them . . ." 

"You can do a Protean Charm?" said Nott.

 "Yes," I said.

 "But that's . . . that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is," he said weakly. 

"Oh,"I said, trying to look modest. "Oh . . . well . . . yes,I suppose it is. . . ."

"How come your not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring at me with something close to wonder. "With brains like yours?"

I shrugged "The Sorting Hat wanted me to see that I didn't belong in Gryffindor, so I got a Re-Sorting and was put in Slytherin. So does that mean we're using the badges?"There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forward tocollect one from the basket. 

Draco looked sideways at me. 

"You know what these remind me of, from what you told me?"

 "No, what's that?" 

"The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they've got to join him." 

"Well . . . yes,"I said quietly. "That is where I got the idea. . . but you'll notice I decided to engrave the date on bits of cloth rather than on our members' skin. . . ." 

"Yeah . . . I prefer your way," said Draco, grinning, as he slipped his badge on

As the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, drew nearer, our S.S. meetings were put on hold because Warrinton insisted on almost daily practices. And the tension betweeen Gryffindor and Slytherin increased. The fact that the Quidditch Cup had not been held for so long added considerably to the interest and excitement surrounding the forthcoming game. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were taking a lively interest in the outcome, for they, of course, would be playing both teams over the coming year; and the Heads of House of the competing teams, though they attempted to disguise it under a decent pretense of sportsmanship, were determined to see their side's victory. Harry said he realized how much Professor McGonagall cared about beating Slytherin when she abstained from giving them homework in the week leading up to thematch.