pretty girl diggory- R.Weasley

5:14

Two weeks later Hermione had figured out how to tell every member of D.A when the meetings are without gaining attention from anyone who wasn't in it.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. "On real Galleons, that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."

A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked around at all the faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted.

"Well — I thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly, "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But ... well, if you don't want to use them ..."

"You can do a Protean Charm?" Terry Boot said.

"Yes," Hermione said.

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

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

"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring at Hermione with something close to wonder. "With brains like yours?"

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," Hermione said brightly, "but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forward to collect one from the basket. Harry looked sideways at Hermione.

"You know what these remind me of?"

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

"Yeah ... I prefer your way," Harry said, grinning, as he slipped his Galleon into his pocket. "I suppose the only danger with these is that we might accidentally spend them."

"Fat chance," Ron said, who was examining his own fake Galleon with a slightly mournful air. "I haven't got any real Galleons to confuse it with."

As the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin drew nearer, their D.A. meetings were put on hold because Angelina insisted on almost daily practices. The fact that the Quidditch Cup had not been held for so long added considerably to the interest and excitement surrounding the forthcoming game.

Celeste felt quite sick as Ron became more and more excited. She hadn't been on or seen the Quidditch field since Cedric's body had been brought back from the graveyard and wasn't sure how she would handle it. If Harry could handle it, and he was the one who had to bring his body back, perhaps Celeste could.

October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces. The skies and the ceiling of the great hall turned a pale, pearly gray, the mountains around Hogwarts became snow-capped, and the temperature in the castle dropped so far that many students wore their thick protective dragon skin gloves in the corridors between lessons.