Dawn Rivera

The Lion and the Serpent

I feel as though I am carrying some kind of talisman inside my chest over the following two weeks, a glowing secret that supports me through Umbridge's classes and even makes it possible for me to smile blandly as I look into her horrible bulging eyes. I and the DA are resisting her under her very nose, doing the very thing she and the Ministry most fear, and whenever I am supposed to be reading Slankhard's book during her lessons I dwell instead on satisfying memories of our most recent meetings, remembering how Neville successfully disarmed both Hermione and I, how Colin Creevey has mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' hard effort, and how Parvati Patil produced such such a good Reductor Curse that she reduced the table carrying all the Sneakoscopes to dust.

We are finding it almost impossible to fix a regular night of the week for the DA meetings, as we have to accommodate three separate team's Quidditch practices, which are often rearranged due to bad weather conditions; but I am not sorry about this; I have a feeling it is probably better to keep the timing of our meetings unpredictable. If anyone is watching us, it will be hard to make out a pattern.

Hermione and I soon devise a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case we need to change it at short notice, because it will look suspicious if people from different Houses are seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often. We give each of the members of the DA a fake Galleon.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" I say, holding one up for examination at the end of our fourth meeting. The coin gleams 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 on each, and when Harry and Danny set the date of the next meeting they'll change the numbers on their coins, and because we've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll change to mimic theirs."

A blank silence greets my words. We look around at all the faces upturned to us, rather disconcerted.

"Well - we thought it was a good idea," Hermione says 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 both do a Protean Charm?" says Terry Boot.

"Yes," I say.

"But that's...that's NEWT standard, that is," he says weakly.

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

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

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting both of us in Ravenclaw during our Sorting," I say brightly, "but it decided on Gryffindor for both of us in the end. So, does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There is a murmur of assent and everybody moves forwards to collect one from the baskets. Harry and Danny look sideways at Hermione and I.

"You know what these remind me of?" Danny says.

"No, what?" Hermione says.

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

"Well...yes," I say quietly, "that is where we got the idea...but you'll notice we decided to engrave the dates on bits of metal rather than on our members' skin."