Chapter 222 - DA Rebuilt — Face to Face

"Brave lions, let not the darkness dull your claws!"

On the very first day of term, Neville found Ginny and Luna and told them he was rebuilding Dumbledore's Army.

Yes, the DA had come together because of Harry. But Neville believed their resolve, to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts, to resist the Dark Arts, wouldn't vanish just because Harry was gone.

In fifth year, the Ministry, with Umbridge as its face, had seized control of Hogwarts. That was how Dumbledore's Army was born. And what the Death Eaters were doing now? An escalated version of the same regime.

If they were honest with themselves, wasn't the DA created precisely for a moment like this?

"Neville, I'm with you!" Ginny could barely contain herself. "Honestly, I can't stand another second in this place. Look at what they're doing — Amycus Carrow torturing Muggle-born wizards right in front of us!"

"Strike the word 'Defence' from the subject. They're not teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. They're teaching the Dark Arts." Ginny's brown eyes blazed. "We have to do something. Teach ourselves Defence, make trouble for those Death Eaters — anything. Sitting around waiting to die is not our way."

"Then what is our way?" Luna asked, her voice drifting.

Neville seemed different now. He clenched his fist. "That doesn't matter. We gather the old DA members. Then we bring in more, like Dumbledore said, unite everyone who can be united. Luna, you take Ravenclaw. Ginny, the other Gryffindors. I'll reach out to Hufflepuff."

Ginny and Neville were ready to move at once. But Luna stayed where she was, gazing out beyond the castle, as if thinking about something very carefully.

Neville stopped. "Luna? Aren't you coming?"

Luna blinked. She tilted her head. "Aren't we going to invite the Bad-Tempered Masked Lady?"

Ginny and Neville looked at each other. "Who's the Bad-Tempered Masked Lady?"

"The Masked Lady who brings luck." Luna tried to describe her. "She wears a black cloak, like Death. She looks very fierce, but she gives us presents."

Ginny was a bit lost. But Death she knew, every young witch and wizard raised in the magical world had heard the story of the Three Brothers and the Deathly Hallows.

Familiar as the story was, no one thought of the Deathly Hallows as gifts. Wise parents told their children that obtaining the Hallows was the true beginning of death.

But this was Luna.

Her thoughts were never quite like anyone else's.

Ginny still hadn't worked it out, but Neville's face lit with sudden understanding. He pointed toward the forest. "I know, Ginny!"

"Before we went to the Department of Mysteries, a masked, cloaked witch appeared at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hermione called her Talia. Said she was one of us."

"The Masked Lady is in the DA too, isn't she?" Luna said happily. "I like her mask."

Neither Neville nor Luna knew who she really was. But Ginny did. Praeris Prince.

At Fleur and Bill's wedding, Hermione had stepped out from behind Ginny and returned to her natural, poised self.

As she moved toward the crowd, she murmured, "While we're away, if you need help, turn to Praeris."

Ginny had agreed without hesitation. "All right."

Not long before the wedding, Hermione had made a point of telling Ginny something else: the people who saved her in second year hadn't only been Hermione's trio. There had also been Praeris.

"Why would she want to save me?" Ginny couldn't understand it. "That sounds like a Crup saving a gnome."

"Don't say that, Ginny." Hermione shot back. "Does a person need a reason to do a good deed?"

"Why is it that whenever any of us talk about Praeris, we have to add that she's a Slytherin? Or Snape's student? Can't she just be herself?"

"Praeris is Praeris. An ordinary person, just like anyone else. People are complicated. She can decide to help us save you, and she can also settle scores with Harry out of sheer spite."

"Can't there be good people in Slytherin? Regulus was a hero!"

Ginny didn't know the details about Regulus. Hermione only said he was a hero, someone who had sabotaged Voldemort's plan at the cost of his life.

As for helping find the Chamber of Secrets and saving Ginny, Hermione had asked Praeris about it later. Praeris said her most direct thought at the time was simply that she didn't want Hogwarts shut down.

Hermione, after thinking it over, had found her own question utterly superfluous. Laughable, even. Bad deeds needed a thousand excuses. Did a good deed really need a reason?

Praeris had done it. That was fact. And Hermione firmly believed no one could deny Praeris had contributed, even if Harry and the others hadn't succeeded because of her help.

Hermione didn't know if she'd come back from this journey alive. She was resolved to tell Ginny the truth. Even if,

"Praeris doesn't want too many people to know. But I don't want you to misunderstand her." Hermione sighed. "I don't want to see, ever again, someone's contributions only discovered when it no longer matters to them."

Praeris had saved her. Saved Bill. Given Harry Felix Felicis. She was Winnie and Plum's family. Ginny was now fully convinced: Praeris was on their side.

Hermione's words and Luna's reminder echoed in Ginny's ears. She began to weigh it carefully, should she notify Praeris about rebuilding the DA? Or stop at simply asking for help?

After a moment, she looked at her two companions. "You're right. She's in the DA too. Leave telling her to me."

The three of them decided the DA's new direction together: study Defence Against the Dark Arts, and make trouble for the Death Eaters. For the latter, Ginny proposed focusing on stealing the Sword of Gryffindor.

Dumbledore's will had left the sword to Harry, but Scrimgeour refused to hand it over. Ginny trusted Dumbledore's judgment. The sword would play a vital role.

Hermione had said to turn to Praeris for help. Ginny wasn't the type to hem and haw. So she asked.

And successfully received the reply: "Don't steal it."

"Why?" Ginny strode into the lavatory. "What's the problem? We're rebuilding the DA. Studying Defence Against the Dark Arts on our own. Fighting the Death Eaters!"

Praeris waved a hand. Moaning Myrtle immediately drifted out to keep watch.

Ginny stared. Myrtle was not an accommodating ghost, she spent far more time weeping and failing to understand human speech than she did in her lucid moments.

"Sounds good," Praeris said calmly. "Except the part about stealing the Sword of Gryffindor."

She went on, unhurried. "Getting into the headmaster's office requires a password. How do you plan to find it out?"

"You think we haven't thought of that?" Ginny's thinking was sharp. "We can track and observe the passwords Snape and the other professors use."

"Sir," Praeris said.

Ginny paused. "I'm a girl."

Praeris spoke evenly. "Mr. Snape. Or Headmaster Snape. Thank you."

"No need for thanks." Ginny pursed her lips. "I have no intention of calling Snape that."

Praeris raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then you needn't ask me anything further. I won't help anyone who doesn't show respect for Professor Snape."

"I cannot possibly — given that Snape killed Dumbledore —" Ginny's voice hardened. "Have a shred of respect for Snape. His position is illegitimate."

Praeris kept her polite demeanor. "Miss Weasley, I'm the same as you. I also cannot possibly help someone who doesn't respect my teacher. Wouldn't you agree?"

Ginny glared at her, huffing. Praeris simply returned a mild, courteous smile. Utterly composed. As though she couldn't be provoked.

"I really don't understand why you're still so loyal to him!" Ginny poured it all out. "You're so contradictory! You saved me. You saved Bill. You have a sense of justice, and yet you give your sincere heart to a murderer!"

Murderer.

Praeris wanted desperately to defend Professor Snape. But the words wouldn't come.

"This is the sort of thing your parents ought to have taught you. But I'll say it just this once. Listen, Ginny." Praeris drew a deep breath. "Even if Percy Weasley left home, he's still your brother. By the same token, Professor Snape is my mentor, no matter what. That will never change."

"Without Professor Snape, there is no me as I am today. Without his teaching, when Bill Weasley was bitten, how would I have had the skill to save him?"

"When others show no respect for your brother, doesn't it make you angry? If it does, then I can't control what you say elsewhere. But please, do not disrespect Professor Snape in front of me."

Ginny had words pent up inside her. She wanted to say: if it weren't for your dear boyfriend letting Death Eaters and werewolves into Hogwarts, how would Bill have been bitten in the first place?

Yes, Praeris had saved Ginny and Bill, making up for the disaster Malfoy caused. But Snape killing Dumbledore could not, in Ginny's eyes, be equated with Percy walking out.

She held it in. If they kept tangling over this, there would be no end to it.

You Slytherins are so complicated!

Ginny screamed inwardly.

She tossed her hair. "Fine. Professor Snape."

Headmaster was out of the question, in Ginny's heart, Dumbledore was the only headmaster. Sir was even more out of the question; that would make it seem like she respected Dumbledore's murderer.

Professor was just right. Only a job title.

Ginny wasn't convinced. But she could bend when necessary.

Praeris looked neither pleased nor satisfied. Still that unruffled expression.

"Too many witches and wizards have died for no reason already," she said. "You're still students. What you need to do is preserve yourselves, not fret over the Sword of Gryffindor. There are plenty of people worrying about that."

"Then tell me who," Ginny shot back. "All the passages into the school have been sealed by those damned Death Eaters. Who else can get into Hogwarts and retrieve the sword?"

Praeris knew perfectly well that someone was worrying about it. Dumbledore. Professor Snape. Even Aberforth. Too many to count.

But she couldn't tell Ginny about any of them. She could only find reasons to stop the DA from stealing it.

"Well said." Praeris turned Ginny's own words back on her. "Even if you managed to steal the sword, how would you get it out of the school?"

"Didn't the Death Eaters get in through the Room of Requirement?" Ginny's mind worked fast. "We could use the same method,"

"No, Ginny." Praeris smiled amiably. "Haven't you read the Daily Prophet? Borgin and Burkes was ransacked. The other entrance has been destroyed."

"Wait." Ginny froze. It took her a moment. "How do you know what the other entrance is?"

"That's not a very difficult thing to figure out." Praeris smiled. "Why do you think Hermione told you to turn to me?"

Ginny's mind couldn't keep up. Had Praeris, with that extraordinary intelligence of hers, simply deduced how the Death Eaters got into Hogwarts? Or had she been the one to ransack Borgin and Burkes?

Ginny knew far too little about her. Both guesses seemed astonishing. She settled on the simplest one: Malfoy was her boyfriend.

"By owl —"

"Same as under Umbridge. All mail is monitored."

"By Dobby! He can Apparate inside Hogwarts!"

Praeris had to admit: Ginny's little head was surprisingly sharp.

She did know about this method. She had deliberately kept quiet, precisely to stop the DA from courting death.

But now they had worked out how to enter the headmaster's office, and Ginny had come up with a way to get the sword out. What reason did Praeris have left to refuse?

Ginny looked a little stunned at herself. She hadn't expected to think of something so clever. "That's right," she said, brightening. "We steal the sword, give it to Dobby, and he takes it to Harry!"

"I still don't recommend stealing it." Praeris shook her head. "But if you insist, the hardest part is not getting caught by the professors."

She said it with a note of resignation. "Harry, Hermione, Barty Crouch Jr., and Dobby have left them very little room. The professors now have exceptionally ample experience dealing with thieves."

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