dursley [h. g.]

••dursley•• || dumbledore's army

Winter was fully settled across the Hogwarts grounds. A permanent blanket of snow seemed to have coated the castle grounds. The inhabitants were hardly ever seen without thick woolen coats, and Kendra had personally taken to wearing no less than two jumpers at once. Umbridge had cracked down harder than ever. Somehow, she had learned of the meeting in the Hog's Head and had disbanded all study groups, gatherings, and teams, including Quidditch. Lisa had been distraught, though the Ravenclaw team had been given permission to play again soon enough. Dumbledore's Army, however, was now operating fully outside of the rules.  

They had taken to meeting in the Room of Requirement. Hermione and Kendra had worked together- in secret, since their weekly tutoring sessions were now technically outlawed, though Madam Pince wouldn't have handed her two favorite students to the dogs if she had a wand at her throat- to create fake Galleons with a Protean Charm on them so that they had a secure way of telling everyone about the meetings. The class had mastered the expelliarmus charm and were now all working on their shield charms. 

The holidays came faster than Kendra wanted them to. She was torn: she never went home for Christmas to see her parents, opting to stay with Harry at Hogwarts instead. But this year was different. She had an invitation back to Grimmauld Place to have Christmas with Sirius and the Weasleys (though if she was honest, she would have much rather gone with Hermione and watched her ski). Staying at the castle was hardly an option. Lisa would be going to France with her family to visit her aunt and uncle, Damon and Mabel had been summoned back home (though, it had been Mabel to tell Kendra this as Damon had been quite distant with Kendra as of late), Luna was spending Christmas with her father as she always did, even Theodore had been called back home. No one was eager to stay in the castle and spend extra time with Dolores Umbridge, who had been deemed the spawn of Satan by the majority of the castle's population. 

The last DA meeting before holiday break arrived. The Room of Requirement had been decorated entirely with mistletoe and baubles that sported Harry's face and a message: A Very Harry Christmas. Kendra had nearly peed herself laughing when she had seen it. Harry was very directly avoiding eye contact with anyone who entered. Once the group had gathered completely, Harry addressed them. "Erm, hello everyone. Since it's just before break, I figured we shouldn't start anything new-"

"We're not starting anything new?" Matt asked, loudly.

"If I'd have known that, I wouldn't have came," Zacharias Smith huffed. Kendra glowered.

"Pity no one told you then," Kendra muttered. Smith blushed but shut up, and Kendra looked away. She hadn't meant for him to hear her, but it did get the job done. 

"Right, let's partner up, we can go through and work on everything we've learned so far," Harry said awkwardly. Kendra made a beeline for Hermione before Ron tried to partner up with her again. It didn't matter, as the pairs all worked out well. Lisa and Travis were paired, but the spent most of the time sending heart eyes at each other rather than actually jinxing. Ron went off to work with Neville, who was struggling more than anyone else in the DA, though no one (save for Smith) minded giving him the extra help. Luna was working with Ginny, Mabel was working with Nigel, who was  Gryffindor who couldn't have been older than 13. And Kendra got to shoot spells at her girlfriend. 

"Go easy on me?" Kendra asked with a smile. Hermione laughed. They both knew that practically, Kendra was better. She trusted her instinct more than Hermione did and relied on it heavily in duels. However, Hermione knew theory better than anyone in the school. Where her instinct faltered, her production of the spells was always nearly perfect, something Kendra could not claim. 

"Not a chance," Hermione replied, still smiling adoringly at Kendra, who replied with a coy wink as she raised her wand. 

It was truly a competition to see whichever was faster: instinct or logic. Despite being the Ravenclaw, Kendra was not a calculating person, she knew her instincts were logical and it didn't make sense for her to over analyze actions she knew were logically sound. Hermione was precise in every movement, she had to think about what she was doing and why she was doing before she did. So when Kendra struck first, it surprised neither of them. Nor were they surprised when Hermione deflected it with a shield charm.