The school was subdued. Three weeks of Umbridge's best attempts to stamp her authority over every student and teacher within the walls had worn most down, defiance had been dampened to sullen disgust.
It was simply easier to conform, or to appear to, than to run the risk of having to spend an evening in the newly minted Headmistress' Office. The room had formerly been the premise of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, but Dumbledore had neglected to share the password to the gargoyle guarding the real office with Fudge or Umbridge, and the few teachers who Harry was sure must know it seemed to have mysteriously forgotten.
Harry was fairly sure that if he really wanted to get in he could stand there and list every item of confectionery known to either wizards or muggles and eventually the gargoyle would step aside. In fact he found the idea quite tempting, and on the brief occasions he found himself nearby he had taken to murmuring a handful of potential passwords while disillusioned.
None had granted him entry as of yet.
Idly he spun his wand around on the table, enjoying the brief flare of warmth it gave him when he touched his fingers to it.
For
all
of
Umbridge's
vaunted
Ministerial influence she still had to run the school effectively in the manner the Minister instructed, or Fudge would replace her with another ambitious, suitably sycophantic servant.
The lessons continued as normal, even quidditch continued, something the Gryffindor still managed to win, much to Malfoy's growing discontent and Harry found he was no longer persona non grata. The much maligned Dumbledore had taken every measure of the guilt, and the poor, naive Harry Potter had been as trapped in his lies as everyone else, something a particularly sympathetic Fudge had often reiterated.
Umbridge, of course, still loathed him, and he suspected she was doing her best to take out her hatred on those close to him, because Neville and Katie were in detention with her almost every other night, something Dobby had taken great care to repeatedly interrupt in one manner or another. Most recently his preferred method was to lead Peeves into her office and leave him to wreak havoc, but Harry knew he'd also meticulously tidied the room away, after sticking it all the furnishings to the ceiling, and simply whisked students away from under her nose.
'Not hungry?' Harry glanced up at Cedric Diggory, who was taking something of a risk by sitting on a different house table.
'Not particularly,' Harry replied, catching his wand and returning it to its holster.
Further along the table Ron, Neville and Hermione got up to take new seats across from him. Ron decided to bring his plate of food with him, scattering carrots across the floor when he tilted the overloaded plate a little too far.
'I figured out who betrayed the DA,' Diggory remarked calmly, as if he was discussing the weather.
Harry tilted his head in interest, obviously Cedric wasn't completely right, or he wouldn't be talking to him, but it might prove useful nonetheless.
'Who?" Neville demanded, clenching his fist around his fork.
'Cho said that her friend Marietta Edgecombe hasn't received a single detention or so much as a rebuke from Umbridge or her squad of morons.' Harry smirked at the reference to the Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge's attempt to counteract the prefects' unwillingness to assist her. 'Her mother works at the Ministry too, she's one of the officials who helps to monitor the floo network and fireplaces at the castle.'
'Marietta disagreed.
isn't
part
of
the
DA,'
Hermione 'She was at the first meeting,' Neville remembered. 'She left early, before signing the list. I'd bet she told Umbridge and that's why she was looking for us in the first place.'
'She wouldn't have known where to find the list,' Ron pointed out in a marginally more common moment of intelligence.
'Where was it?' Harry asked.
'We hid it in the Room of Requirement,' Hermione answered. 'I tested it. There was no way it could be found by anyone who didn't already know where it was.'
'Can you show me?' Harry inquired. 'I'm good at using the room, I might be able to figure out Umbridge managed to find it.'
'We tried everything already,' she dismissed. 'Neville is an expert of using the Room of Requirement.'
'Let's go,' Neville decided, ignoring the shock on Hermione's face at being overruled. 'Harry taught me how to use the place, it's a good idea.'
There was still half an hour of lunch left, and it was all too easy to avoid the pair of Inquisitors who constantly patrolled the seventh floor, unaware of what they were really guarding.
'Has anyone seen any hint of the jinx Hermione placed on the list?' Cedric asked quietly as they passed the staff table. Harry pretended not to notice the angry stare Umbridge sent him from where she perched primly on the headteacher's chair.
'No,' Ron shook his head, 'and we've all double checked every face. None of our members have shown any sign of it, and none of them have been absent, ill or gone home.' 'Could it have simply been removed?' Harry queried, fully aware that as the punishment for breaking a magical contract it could not be.
'No,' Hermione smiled, raising her chin, 'nobody could betray the group and avoid my jinx.'
Well that's not quite true, Harry smiled to himself, you left too many loopholes in the intent of your enchantment.
Had Hermione been a bit more specific about the definition of betrayal he would not have been able to indirectly betray the group without suffering the penalty Hermione had prescribed.
'So Marietta seems likely,' Cedric commented.
'Yeah,' Ron nodded. 'I'll set the twins on her if she did, they'll make her life as miserable as everyone else's is now Umbridge is in charge.' 'I still don't see how Marietta could have told Umbridge about the list,' Hermione cut in.
'She knew it existed,' Neville reminded Hermione. 'Maybe she followed us to the room.'
They hurried up the steps in silence, pausing on the sixth floor.
'I'll distract them,' Ron offered, pulling his wand out.
'Let me change your hair first,' Hermione ordered briskly, casting several enchantments over him. Ron's red hair darkened to a jet-black like Harry's own, his freckles faded, leaving his skin pale and the bones of his face seemed to shift upwards slightly, giving his face a noble lilt. The new countenance was oddly familiar, but Harry couldn't quite recall where he had seen it before.
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