Chapter Seven
Confronting the Faceless 💀 CompleteOctober 12-18, 1997
"We are only as strong as we are united"
"This is a terrible idea and we're going to die."
Gabriel Beaux rolls his eyes skyward. "We will not." He groans. "If you are so scared, then you can leave."
"And then you'll die alone and I'll feel terrible forever." Nathan Corner replies, half out of breath as he scrambles after Gabe towards the top of the Astronomy Tower. "Besides, you told me this is a two person job so if I leave you'll just try to do it alone, fail, and then your death won't even be worth anything."
"Comforting, thank you." Gabe snipes back. "If you are not going to say something useful then do not keep saying things please."
Nate mutters something that's definitely a slur against French people but does remain quiet. For a few minutes anyway, very little can actually shut him up long-term.
"Really though this is a terrible idea. We came up with it before Finnigan was hexed in front of his Defense class, remember? Back when Weasley and Longbottom and that Ravenclaw girl - Micheal keeps telling me her name but I forget what it is again - broke into the Headmaster's office and only got a night in the Forbidden Forest as punishment we thought hey, that's not so bad, maybe being scared stiff by the idea of what the Carrows could use as punishment was silly and they won't actually do anything too bad but then Finnigan got really hurt and I'm thinking now-"
"You think a lot and very loud." Gabe interrupts. Honestly, of all the people he could become friends with after transferring from Beauxbatons the previous year he somehow ended up with the one person alive who seems to have zero idea of what a filter is. Nate can go on for literal hours if someone doens't interrupt him - Gabe has tested it before out of curiosity. It was fascinating to study then, but most of the time it's just annoying. "Either shush and help or shush and leave, but shush."
Nate purses his lips, clearly debating something mentally before he again opens his mouth. "Last thing, I swear." He promises. "If you're still determined to magically rappel down the side of the tallest tower on the Grounds to break into the Carrows' office and burn everyone's essays then find and dandy, but please actually listen to me Gabe?"
It's the plea that does it. Gabe doesn't have much patience for most people's emotions but the fact does stand that Nate was the only person who really welcomed him back when his grasp on English was embarrassing at best, and who patiently helped him practice. He owes the other boy this much and he knows it.
"Fine, one thing." He grudgingly allows, turning and leaning against the wall of the stairway so he can look directly at his best friend.
Nate gives him that stupidly bright smile that the girls all swoon over. "Thank you. Okay, so, you know my older brother? Seventh year Ravenclaw, he got eight OWLs, second highest grades in his - right sorry, going to stay focused." He adds when Gabe glares at him. "So my brother, two years ago, he and Longbottom and the girls were all part of this group together, that Potter and his friends were in charge of."
Gabe doesn't know where this is going, but at the very least it sounds like it will at least be a semi-interesting waste of time.
Nate looks pleased that he still has Gabe's attention. "Okay, well, after Finnigan two days ago I was talking to Micheal about it and he sort of let slip that they might be making the group again, you know to fight against the Carrows like how they fought again Umbridge two years ago. Remember the whole mess-"
"Only a little, I was not there and you never explained." Gabe points out. He understand English just fine now of course, but last year he was still learning, and that took up all his concentration. Yes he knew something had gone down with famous Potter and his posse the year before he came to Hogwarts, but he'd never cared much to get details when Nate couldn't explain it well.
Nate coughed. "Um, right, sorry about that. I didn't totally get it either, Micheal is a little overprotective and - yes right, not the point. The point is the group is probably going to meeet up soon and I can get the details from my brother for sure. So, just hear me out, maybe we wait until after the meeting to do this? I mean, some of the seventh years might know a useful charm to make it safer, or we could get a bigger group so we have lookouts and stuff? Or even extra hands to help find stuff in the offices?" He's starting to ramble again, so Gabe quickly holds up a hand to cut him off.
"Okay." He says, a bit resigned. He hates putting off a brilliant plan of rebellion, but Nate is right that with more people they could do more damage and lower the risk of being caught. "But we do it after the meeting."
Nate beams. "Absolutely. Come on, let's go back down. Maybe we can get to the Great Hall before dinner is over and get some steak and liver pie."
Gabe is definitely feeling a little grouchy as they head back down. He hates when a plan is stopped before it can start, but he recognizes that in addition to Nate's points about this supposed 'group' if his friend isn't fully onboard then he'll become a liability to the overall plan. Nate may regularly tell him that thinking ahead isn't his strong point, but Gabe isn't stupid.
"This better be some group." He mutters as they reach the bottom of the stairway and head towards the Great Hall.
Nate's grin looks more nervous now. "It is. Micheal-" He cuts himself off, a rare enough thing that Gabe knows exactly what could have caused it. Either Nate's crush du jour just walked into view, which he doubts considering everyone should be at dinner right now, or one of the Carrows did.
Sure enough he turns to find Amycus Carrow stalking down the hallway, sneering unpleasantly.
"Well well what are you two doing here? Dinner is on the other side of the castle." He declares as he waddles closer, and Gabe can feel Nate tense beside him.
"We were working on our Defense essay, sir." He lies smoothly. "We did not realize how late it was."
Nate nods jerkily next to him - really his friend is awful about lying, he has to work on that - but by some miracle (or more likely just due to Carrow's low brain-cell count) the man buys it.
"Well then I'll be looking forward to those essays." He grins cruelly, getting far too close to Gabe's face to be comfortable.
"Yes sir." Nate bites out before grabbing Gabe and dragging them both down the hallway as Amycus continues on his way towards his office. Once they're well out of earshot - and Gabe is starting to lose feeling in his fingers from Nate's tight grasp on his wrist - Nate spins around, eyes wide.
"He was going to his office, we would have been caught red-handed." He hisses. "This is why we need a group."
Gabe just rolls his eyes. "You do not know that for certain." He points out. "And it would have been very worth it." He adds, grinning at the thought of burning up all those awful assignments they're forced to do.
Nate shakes his head. "Look, I've got patrol with Hannah Abbott tonight so I'll talk to her, Micheal says she was in the group too so she probably has meeting details okay? I'll update you on it tonight. In the meantime please don't get yourself killed."
Gabe hums vaguely in agreement, his mind still playing through multiple scenarios of how he would have gotten them out of the office without being spotted so he only half hears what Nate is saying. He does see his friend rolling his eyes so he offers a grin in consolation.
"We probably would have been fine."
"In your imaginary dream world maybe." Nate grumbles. "I'm taking your desert by the way. You owe me that much."
They do manage to make dinner, and Nate does steal Gabe's treacle tart as promised, but Nate also keeps his other promise.
Gabe waits up in the common room after the rest of the House has gone to bed, working on his Defense essay because it has to be brilliant now thanks to Nate making them backtrack and run into Amycus earlier that evening.
Nate arrives back from patrol just before midnight and jumps when he spots Gabe.
"I thought you'd be in the dorm." He mutters, keeping his voice low so as to not wake anyone up.
"Trevor and David are both still here, I do not want them waking up and hearing us talk." Gabe points out. Just his luck that all the Gryffindor Muggleborns in their year were girls - insufferable Romilda Vane gets her whole dorm to herself and he still has to squish into a space with three other growing teens (it's all terrible of course, but one can't help noticing, particularly when Romilda has flaunted her extra space multiple times already).
Nate huffs and drops onto the couch next to him. "Fair enough. I talked to Hannah, she says it'll be tomorrow evening just after dinner. Ginny or any of the seventh years can show us where to go for the meeting, and she gave me a code to use when asking them."
"Do I not get to know it?" Gabe asks, definitely a little annoyed by the implications of that.
Nate shrugs. "Sorry, the fewer who know the better. We'll probably recruit more down the line but Hannah said they're wary about too many new people at the first meeting. We're only in because-"
"Your brother?" Gabe guesses before Nate can start rambling too much. His friend grins sheepishly.
"That would be the reason yeah. Sleep?" He suggests, and Gabe waves him off.
"Essay to finish, I did not actually write that stupid Defense paper." He explains.
Nate just snorts and heads up the stairs. "Good luck then, it was a nightmare to get through. See you in the morning."
Gabe stumbles into bed around three in the morning according to his Tempus, and the essay is probably based on the fact he was ranting against the Carrows mentally the entire time he was writing it, but really he doesn't care at the moment when his mattress is right there, beckoning him to rest.
He feels like he's barely gotten any sleep when Nathan rouses him and drags him down to breakfast. Gabe lets him since he's frankly too tired to complain about it. He wakes up some once he's gotten food into his system and belatedly remembers the meeting they're going to tonight. That wakes him up even more.
Classes seem to drag particularly long that day, though thankfully they don't have any with the Carrows (less thankfully they end the day in History of Magic which is painfully long already). By the time dinner finally arrives Gabe is about ready to screw the meeting and go blow up the Carrows' offices with or without Nathan.
But he did promise his friend, and considering Nate is his only friend in the school he really should keep said promise. Plus he's gotten this far - it's only a few minutes more at this point.
Once dinner is over Nate holds Gabe back from getting up right away. His eyes are slightly clouded, a clear sign that the brain he rarely seems to put to use is actually active at the moment, and Gabe sighs but lets him think.
Finally Nate nods. "Okay, we're gonna go find my brother. It's less noticeable that way." And with that they're up and Gabe barely stops himself from just running over to the Ravenclaw table and demanding Micheal Corner tell them exactly where the meeting is. They are still in the Great Hall, and even if Snape is gone the Carrows are lurking at the teacher's table. They're idiots but not blind, even Nate knows that much.
"Why are you two skulking around still? Up to something stupid again?" A female voice, loud and confident, breaks through Gabe's impatience and instantly turns it into annoyance. "How far should I be to avoid the inevitable splash zone?"
"Dégage Romilda." Gabe snaps, and she laughs.
"I think I might be fluent in French swearing now. Seriously though, splash zone?" The slim ravenette flicks a tight curl out of large dark eyes that gaze with falsely innocent curiosity at the two boys.
"Just leave Rom, it doesn't concern you." Nate sighs, rubbing lightly at one temple.
Romilda huffs. "I'm trying to be friendly." She grumbles, but shockingly she does turn and stride away, the strength of her aura alone effortlessly carving a path through the other departing students.
"That was weirdly... less aggressive than normal of her." Nate observes after a moment. Then, "Let's go find my brother."
Gabe is more than happy to not waste another thought on Romilda Vane, gossip extraordinaire and general pain in his arse for both years that he's been at Hogwarts, as he follows Nate through the crowd towards the Ravenclaws.
Micheal spots them first and he breaks into the usual annoyed grimace he gets when his brother is around. Gabe doesn't blame him, the poor guy has to live with Nate's nonexistent filter.
"I can't help you study for your OWLs Nate." He says as soon as they're in earshot, and Gabe snorts when his friend's ears go red.
"That's not it! This time. Are you sure you can't because I'm going to embarrass mom if I don't get at least six and there's frankly no way-"
"Nate." Gabe groans. "Get to the point?"
Nate grins at him apologetically and clears his throat.
"Hannah mentioned last night you're still recruiting? Because believe me Gabe is more than ready to join the war."
"And you little bro?" Micheal asks.
Nate shrugs. "If Gabe's in I'm in. Besides, someone needs to reign him in."
"I am right here." Gabe snipes. So far he isn't hearing any grand secret phrase and it's frankly very annoying.
Micheal snorts. "You are. Fine, come along then."
Gabe blinks. "That was it? I thought-"
"Low profile, anything obviously out of place could alert anyone who happens to be listening." Micheal points out. "Keep up."
Gabe grumbles under his breath. He's shorter than both Corners (he knows he has a growth spurt coming and he's going to rub every inch of it in Nate's face once it arrives) so he has to move a bit faster to keep pace with them.
Micheal leads them to the seventh floor and then to a dead end corridor.
Nate frowns, but Gabe feels a slight thrill of excitement. He read a lot about Hogwarts when his parents told him he'd be switching schools back in his third year, and that included looking up rumors. One of which involved a secret hidden room that appears for people that really need it.
And sure enough, a few paces in front of the wall later, a door appears where the dead end had been before.
Nate is gaping, and Gabe grins as he manually shuts his friend's mouth.
"The Room of Requirement?" He guesses, feeling a bit giddy. The rumor had said this room only appeared once every few generations - the fact Gabe is getting to see it is beyond amazing.
Micheal raises an eyebrow, his mouth quirking up into a half-grin and clearly impressed. "Correct. Come on in, the meeting isn't for a bit but I can introduce you to a couple people."
Nate apparently already knows a decent number of the students gathered in the room as he promptly bounds away from Gabe and Micheal to talk with a couple Hufflepuffs standing in the corner.
"The blonds are Ernie and Hannah." Micheal says. "They're the Hufflepuff prefects for our year. The other girl is Susan and I'm not sure about the guys if I'm honest, they weren't part of the Army last time. I think their last names are Griffith and Hopkins though. Anyway Anthony and Padma will be here too, they're the Ravenclaw prefects but I don't see them here yet." He hums, scanning the other students in the area. "Obviously you know Ginny and Neville and the Ravenclaw with them is Luna, Terry is the one practicing his patronus in the corner with Shay - he's determined to be the first Ravenclaw to get it from our year - aaaaand Lavender and Parvati aren't here either so. Still waiting on a few people. I'm not sure Smith will even show up." He sneers, clearly not a fan of 'Smith'.
Gabe does his best to keep up and put names to faces, but Micheal is only vaguely pointing at groups, but if he's honest he's less concerned with that than with a particular term Micheal had used during the monologue.
"You said 'the army'?" He prods curiously.
Micheal looks over at him with a raised eyebrow. "Wow, Nate once again utterly failed to provide useful and relevant information, didn't he?" He asks, clearly amused. "For how much he talks it's amazing how often that happens. We're called Dumbeldore's Army, or just the DA. Ginny named it, she's right brilliant you know." He gets a bit of a dreamy look on his face and Gabe promptly realizes that rambling about nonessential information is a Corner family trait.
"Excellent, she is the leader then? I would like to speak with her if that is the truth."
"Well restarting was Neville's idea from what I hear, but Ginny and Luna are obviously going to help, like Ron and Hermione did in fifth year." Micheal replies, at least having the decency to look embarrassed by his momentary distraction. "I can introduce you to Gin if you like, we're talking again."
"Bad breakup?" Gabe can't help but ask as they walk towards the red-haired girl Gabe actually has heard a lot about. Apparently she's absolutely terrifying, though looking at her he wouldn't guess it.
"Bad for me." Micheal mumbles. "It was a couple years ago now though. Anyway hi Gin! This is Gabe, my brother's best friend. He wanted to meet the mastermind behind the meeting."
Ginny Weasley glances over with a quick smile and a hand held up in the universal symbol for 'just a moment.' She shares a few more words with Neville Longbottom before turning to face them fully.
"Hey Micheal, glad you could make it. And Gabe, it's good to have you onboard." She gives a smile and offers him a handshake, which he accepts out of politeness despite thinking it a needlessly formal and proper gesture for this sort of gathering.
"Always happy to rebel. Would already be rebelling but my helper is a coward so we are here instead."
Micheal snorts and doesn't contest the comment. Ginny just raises an eyebrow.
"Well we're always glad to have more hands on deck." Is her only reply, and then more people come in through the doorway and she's off to greet them. Gabe recognizes two of the girls from the Gryffindor common room, and assumes the others must be the Ravenclaws Micheal had been blathering on about.
Nate finds him soon after and drags him to the edges of the gathered group. It's only a few moments later that Ginny shouts for everyone to "shut it and listen up!" Gabe immediately likes her more.
Neville Longbottom looks a bit out of place and awkward as Ginny and Luna push him forward to address the group. He clears his throat, shifts on his feet, and then nods firmly.
"Hello everyone, um, thanks for coming out." He starts, and Seamus Finnigan whistles which gets a grin out of Neville. "As you all know the Carrows are kind of the worst." More cheers, and Gabe adds his own assent to this round. "I remember in fifth year with Umbridge, Harry would stand up to her and it gave everybody hope that things would get better. And so we're restarting Dumbledore's Army so that we can give that hope to the students of Hogwarts this year."
This is the loudest cheer yet, and Neville looks quite pleased. Ginny and Luna move forward to stand with him.
"We may not have Harry, Hermione, or my brother," Ginny starts, "But most of us here today learned directly from them, and we can build on their legacy, bring in new people and teach everyone how to defend themselves. This meeting today is mostly a chance to meet again, dispense new coins for communication, and to circulate ideas. With that said, does anyone have any ideas on how we can start our rebellion?"
"Nate and I were going to burn the Carrows' offices." Gabe declares immediately, and the group turns towards him and Nate, who promptly starts squirming under the scrutiny.
Ginny laughs. "I like the way you think, but that'll be a massive undertaking - we should hold off on it until we're a bit more settled as a team."
Gabe bites back his irritation as others begin offering (stupid) ideas like refusing to answer questions in class, and instead puts his mind to spinning the best possible idea to start their rebellion with a bang. He's clearly already impressed Ginny but he intends to show the entire group exactly what he's made of before they all head back to their common rooms for the night.
He runs his mind over Neville and Ginny's short speeches and lets his mind grab snippets of other people's ideas if they catch his attention. He comes up with quite a few ideas, but all of them seem a bit too big to be a first move - at least according to the constraints Ginny had put on things when she'd shot down his first suggestion.
The Army is about giving hope - they're planning to be an active rebellion but don't want anyone too hurt and they don't yet know what other punishments the Carrows will be handing out in the months to come - and they want a larger team of people helping the movement.
It's the last fact that snaps things together for him, and he grins before striding forward, ignoring Nate's yelp and attempt to get him to stay put.
"Excusé moi, I have come up with the perfect first move for this rebellion." He declares firmly, loud enough to be heard over the other Army members.
It's Luna Lovegood who looks over at him this time with too-large eyes and a vaguely off-putting smile. "Wonderful! The wrackspurts in here have been avoiding you, so it must be a very good one." She exclaims, and then watches him expectantly.
Gabe has no idea what she just said, and based on Nate's expression when he glances back it's not because of the language barrier. So he shrugs it off and decides to take the apparent compliment. "Thank you. So, here is the plan."
Gabe leaves the meeting feeling very pleased with himself. The group had been more than enthusiastic about his idea, and he'd even hammered out a majority of the plan of execution (one of the Ravenclaw had offered a few suggestions that had been accepted, which while annoying doesn't put enough of a damper on Gabe's mood to take away from his overall happiness).
"Friday night feels like forever from now." Nate breaths softly as they sneak back to the Gryffindor common room ahead of the other Gryffindors. Almost no one is leaving the meeting in anything larger than a pair to minimize the chances of being caught, so the two of them are once again on their own sneaking through the corridors. At least Nate is familiar with the prefect patrol routes so he's quite good at directing them down hallways that aren't checked.
"We have to make sure everything is in place - four days is the smallest time needed." Gabe reminds him, though honestly he agrees. The waiting period had been one of Terry Boot's accepted suggestions, not part of Gabe's original plan. Still it's better than nothing, and it will be quite the spectacle once they pull it off.
Nate hums and makes a shusshing noise, and they don't say anything else until they're safely back in the common room. Even then it's just Nate groaning an exhausted goodnight before they fall into their beds.
The week absolutely drags for Gabe, and he complains about it to Nate on multiple occasions. It's only made worse by the fact Romilda Vane has upped her usual nosy nonsense and has started following them around as though they're friends or something. Nate isn't helping - he's actually being nice to the condescending prick.
Friday does finally come though, but even then Gabe can tell the day will be a long one when Romilda settles herself right next to him at breakfast as if that's a totally normal thing for them. "Good morning boys. Ready for Moronic Subjectivism this morning?"
One thing Gabe will give Romilda - she manages to come up with a new demeaning way to refer to Muggle Studies every time she talks about it. He still refuses to actually answer her though, leaving Nate to the unpleasant task.
"Is anyone ever?" His friend groans. "I'm about ready to say 'screw caution' and turn in an essay about how my mom is the best witch to have ever graced the Earth."
Romilda snorts. "You should. I'd make one about Eliza if you did. Gabe, you got a Muggleborn you can write about? We'll make it a whole movement."
Gabe refuses to smirk, though he does want to. Nate had actually be repeating one of Gabe's DA ideas so he's of course not opposed to it at all. He's just opposed to Romilda being involved.
She still tails them to Muggle Studies and Nate keeps talking to her. Gabe refuses to acknowledge her - she's a gossip and had been an absolute trou de cul when he'd first arrived at Hogwarts, giggling and mocking him when she wasn't fawning over Potter like a pathetic child.
Class is, of course, awful, but Gabe has gotten very good at tuning out and spends the forty-five minute block devising even more plans to present at the next DA meeting. Sure Neville had said at the end of the last meeting that they would probably spend more time practicing useful spells at the next gathering but Gabe doubts they won't have at least a few more minutes of brainstorming for the rebellion, and he has ideas that would be a shame to keep unrealized.
Romilda thankfully has to run off to Divination after Muggle Studies while Nate and Gabe head to the library.
"Why are you talking with her?" Gabe grumbles to Nate as they walk. "I was thinking you hated her as much as me."
"She's lonely Gabe, all her friends were Muggleborns. And she wasn't that bad last year."
Gabe gives him a sour look. "She every day called me Snob Boy and tried to poison Potter with a love potion. If that does not make you wary of her I do no know what does."
Nate grins sheepishly. "Okay given, she wasn't nice last year. But, you know, people can change. Isn't it better to give them the benefit of the doubt?"
Gabe just rolls his eyes in response.
As expected the day does drag - especially their double potions block - but they at least don't have any shared classes with the Slytherins which is alwasy a bonus in Gabe's book. The entire House seems to be content to sit back and let the Carrows be awful, assuming they aren't actively encouraging said awfulness. And finally the end of the day does arrive, and Gabe is beyond ready.
Most of the people working this job are Gryffindors, though Hannah Abbot and Anthony Goldstein are the distractions/additional lookouts since they're both on patrol duty that evening, and Luna is involved because everyone considers her a default leader figure. Nate is around as well, but on the opposite side of the castle with a sixth year Slytherin he's in charge of keeping busy.
Gabe himself is stuck on guard duty, which definitely does piss him off but he's with Luna who actually proves to be rather amusing to talk to so he figures it could have been much worse.
"So what are Wrackspurts? I have not heard of them." He prompts, initially just to fill the silence but he's surprised by how enthusiastic she is, and how interesting, if odd, her theories are. They end up falling into a debate over the logistics of the Heliopath army the Ministry supposedly has which lasts them right up to when the other three people on the mission rejoin them.
"Have you two actually been keeping an eye out at all?" Finnigan sounds distinctly amused.
Luna beams. "Not really, but no one comes out this way so we would have heard them. Gabe here makes some excellent points about Heliopath diets."
Neville raises an eyebrow in confusion while Ginny just laughs softly.
"Glad to hear it Luna." She bumps shoulders with her frined lightly. "Now we all need to get back to our dorms before we're discovered. I know it's Hannah and Anthony on this route tonight but it would still be better not to cross paths with anyone just in case."
Gabe ends up falling asleep before Nate returns from patrol, and they can't talk in the morning due to their roommates being up and about. Based on Nate's, well, being back Gabe assumes things went fine on his end. As for Gabe's side, they're about to see the effects first hand.
There's already a commotion in the Great Hall as the Gryffindor fifth year boys approach it, and Gabe resists grinning despite the strong urge to do just that - it would be silly to give himself away in the home stretch.
They enter the Hall and Gabe finally lets himself smile - after all, most of the students are.
Scrawled in bright red at the front of the Great Hall, spelled firmly in place despite the Carrows' pathetic attempts to remove it, are four words:
DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY, STILL RECRUITING
Gabe hums as he settles at the Gryffindor table. A good start to the rebellion indeed.
Author's Note: This... is probably the happiest chapter of the entire story OTL There *might* be a couple of others with a lighter overall tone but this hopeful and fun with nothing too negative or terrifying happening? Hope you got your fill here because that's not happening again xD This chapter honestly was just more setup but I think with enough action that I can count it as not setup and stand by my claim that September was the setup month ^^''
Next Week: What to Expect When You're Defecting
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