Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 148 - The Fake Torture Curse

Have a nice day :)

With the new knowledge of Al's potion, more and more students showed up to her after detention, and they now had thirty-three hammocks. Quidditch had been cancelled too, much to the dispute of the student body, and the next day almost every wall was covered in Dumbledore's Army, Potter for the Win, or, Down with the Carrows! Unfortunately, this also meant a record high in detentions, and over the next four days, Al and everyone else in the room of requirement hardly got any sleep, treating a total of forty-seven different students, most of them more than once.

She visited George as promised, and had a very enjoyable night with him. Al was surprised to see Angelina Johnson, one of the old Gryffindor chasers and DA members at breakfast too. All four of them were very pleased with themselves.

The next day, Al found the spell. Crucia was the incantation they could use, so as long as the students said it quietly, there shouldn't be a problem. She called Neville into her office to show him, to which he responded, "How do we know it works?"

"That's why I've brought you in here," Al said, "I want us to go out there, and then you use it on me, and we'll see what people's reactions are - see if it's realistic."

Neville nodded. "Sounds like a plan." Al left the room after Neville and went to the loo. When she walked back out, he pointed his wand at her and shouted, "Crucia!"

Immediately her knees buckled and she unwillingly began screaming, but there was absolutely no pain. Ernie threw his book down, leaped past her and rugby-tackled Neville to the ground. The spell cut off and Al got up, shrugging off Daphne with a wide grin, and ignoring Ginny's look of horror. "What the hell?" Ernie shouted at Neville, who was grinning too.

"Ernie!" Al called, and was ignored. "ERNIE!" Finally, he looked over his shoulder at her. "That wasn't the Cruciatus Curse," she said calmly.

"Yeah, it was!" Ernie protested, still on top of Neville. "You were screaming!"

"Because it's a screaming charm," Al explained.

"But he said the incantation for the Cruciatus Curse," Daphne pointed out, frowning.

"Yes, because I designed it to do that," Al told them, "That's what Theo's been helping me with."

Realisation dawned on their faces, and Ernie looked between Al and Neville, who both had their eyebrow's raised, before getting up and extending his hand to Neville. "Sorry mate," he said, slightly pink, "Didn't realise."

"No, it's good," Neville said, "It means we can fool the Carrows with it." He turned to the room, which had eight other people in it. "Spread the word, everyone!" he called, "Crucia, instead of crucio." Six of them obediently ran out, going to their respective common rooms. He then walked over to Al, who was heading over to her office again. "Good job," he said with a smile.

"Thanks, Nev," Al responded. "Let Lee know, will you?"

*****

With the invention of Al's screaming charm, people actually had to practice it, so many of them came to the room of requirement. While the main room was big enough and could be expanded, it wasn't practical for people who were doing homework, or listening to music, or playing gobstones.

So, the room provided again. Opposite the entrance to the potions room was a door that led into a room the size of a small hall. It had targets painted on the other side, so people could practice in their free time, and also some targets that could be charmed to move around or fire back at them with paint. And the best part was it was big enough to fit about thirty people in at once (with room to practice) so Al could do lessons on how to perform the charm on weekends and evenings.

Over the next two weeks, there was a drastic decline in detentions. Some people still refused to do the charm out of principle, like Neville, Ginny, Seamus Finnegan - Gryffindors mainly. Anne got detention once or twice for refusing too, and so did Daphne. When these two arrived back after their detentions there was a big banner reading: DAPHNE AND ANNE - TAKING DOWN THE CARROWS! Neville, Ginny and Luna also got loads of butterbeer and snacks from the kitchens, and Al had potions and healing books ready so they could join in with the party as soon as they got back.

The next Hogsmeade weekend came, and Al had a full roll of film from her camera to be developed. She got wrapped up warm with Daphne, met Neville and Luna in the Entrance Hall, bid Ginny good-bye and headed into Hogsmeade. It only took five minutes and a galleon, three sickles in the post office for the photos to get developed, and the group trooped through the snow to the Three Broomsticks to look them over.

Al's personal favourite was the one of her after the attack at the Burrow on Bill and Fleur's wedding day. She and George were smiling and waving at the camera while Fred was in the background look at them as though they were mad. "Blimey Al," Neville said, "There's a time and a place you know."

"You're one to talk," Daphne said, "What was it you said in Dark Arts the yesterday? Oh yeah, 'The Daily Prophet's more useful than you - at least that can wipe my arse!'." Al spluttered into her butterbeer and laughed loudly with Luna and Daphne, while Neville turned pink.

"It's true!" he said, "I'm telling you, if we ever run out of loo roll-" That only made Al laugh even harder, and then to top it all off a group of third years looked at them funny. By the time they were done laughing, Al had tears rolling down her eyes, which Daphne so kindly took a picture of.

"I think it's my round," Neville said, checking his watch, "And then I think we should pick Ginny something up from Honeydukes before we get back."

"That's a nice idea, Neville," Luna said with a smile. They drank their way through their final butterbeers, said thanks to Madame Rosmerta, and headed into Honeydukes. They pitched in for some boxes of fudge-flies and fizzing whizbees for Ginny, and Al bought some chocolate to send off to Remus for Christmas, and firewhiskey chocolate cauldrons for George. She'd have got some for Harry too but...well, she didn't know where he was. Or if he was alive to eat them.

They finally trudged back up to Hogwarts at four o'clock. They had to be back by five anyway, but they'd put off going back as much as possible, owing to the fact that Hogwarts was a huge pile of Dragon Dung at the minute.