chapter 20

September 1995

It was late, almost midnight when Hermione sneaked out of the Gryffindor Tower. Although it took some persuasion, Harry agreed to lend her his Invisibility cloak and Marauder's map, as a thank-you for the Murtlap essence she prepared for him. She hadn't had private time with her girlfriend since the school year started and needed to go through some things with her that just couldn't be put on a page.

After double-checking the map before going around each corner, she finally reached the step to Astronomy Tower but didn't dare to take off the cloak. She made extra sure to be extremely quiet when she opened the wooden door; to her surprise, they didn't even creak when she closed them. Her heart warmed a little when her eyes found Lilith sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall behind her with a small lantern beside her that illuminated the small space. She didn't seem to notice the door opening and closing, engrossed in the book in her lap. A devilish grin made its way onto Hermione's face as she silently crept up to her and crouched down so she was on head level with the brunette.

"Boo." she let out a small giggle when Lilith jumped up a little, nearly knocking off the lantern. She still had a smile on when she took off the cloak, revealing herself. The look on Lilith's face was priceless.

"You scared me half to death." she pouted but Hermione could see a small smile forming so she just shrugged and sat down beside her.

"You should pay more attention." Lilith rolled her eyes but tugged at the Ravenclaw cloak that she used as a blanket and threw it around Hermione. It wasn't that cold but Hermione was glad at the gesture so she leaned towards her and gave her a peck on the cheek, enjoying the fact that her small gesture made Lilith's cheeks turn pink.

"I missed you." she said and took Lilith's left hand, intertwining their fingers.

"Missed you too." Lilith squeezed her hand gently and closed the book. Hermione peaked at the cover before Lilith could put it on the ground.

"Nietzsche? Really?" Lilith chuckled.

"Though I needed a pick-me-up after those nice run-ins with our new High Inquisitor." Hermione frowned and glanced down at Lilith's left hand, running her thumb gently over those horrible words permanently engraved into the pale, soft skin. Authorities must be obeyed.

"What did you even do to get that detention?"

"Nothing, really. All I had to do was ask if we'd actually use spells in practice." Hermione frowned.

"What? Just that?"

"That's all it took."

"But I practically asked her the same question and nothing happened." Lilith smiled sadly.

"You're not the one who publically called out her boss." Hermione felt rage starting to build up in her chest.

"But that's so unfair! She can't just do that."

"Life is unfair, Mione." when she saw that Hermione was still frowning, Lilith lifted their joined hand up and kissed her knuckles. "It's not like I wasn't expecting it. I needed to get a detention, it just surprised me how little it took." At the speed at which she turned her head to look at the older witch, Hermione's neck almost snapped.

"You wanted to get a detention from her? On purpose?"

"Well, yes."

"Why on Earth would you do that?" Lilith shrugged.

"I needed to make sure Avy wouldn't get herself into more trouble with her. And I knew she wouldn't dare if I was there. Same with Umbridge. If I was in the room, Avy would be the lesser target for her." Hermione shook her head.

"You're an idiot." Lilith gave her a small smirk.

"Yes, I know. You told me that already." Hermione rolled her eyes and played with the hem of her shirt.

"There is something I wanted to ask you about."

"I'm listening."

"We want to fight back." Lilith's eyebrow rose up.

"What do you mean by that?"

"We want to start a DADA club with Harry as the teacher. To actually learn the spells by practice." She loved the idea. It was the perfect solution for the situation the Ministry put them in. But instead of a smile, Lilith frowned.

"Are you serious?" Hermione was a little taken aback.

"We need to learn somehow and Umbridge clearly won't teach us the way we need. You don't like it?" Lilith sighed.

"I mean, it's a good idea, in theory."

"But?" Hermione watched her, waiting for an answer. Lilith leaned her head back against the wall and Hermione could feel her left hand shaking slightly.

"Would you mind... I kind of need a smoke for this one." Hermione gave her a hesitant nod. Lilith let go of her hand, pulled out her cigarette case and the silver light and quickly lit one before slipping her hand into Hermione's. It seemed to calm her down a little bit. Hermione was glad Lilith made some restrictions about the habit when she was around her but she secretly liked watching Lilith smoke. She always made it look so elegant even without trying.

"Alright, to put it bluntly... it's a huge risk, Mione. The exact reason why the Ministry sent Umbridge here was to restrict students' ability to use offensive and defensive spells. They want to make sure that Dumbledore won't use us to fight against them, which is ridiculous, yes, the Ministry is ridiculous." Lilith puffed out a small cloud. "If Umbridge ever caught a wind of that club, she would go after you mercilessly." she chuckled humourlessly. "I mean, she used Blood Quills in detention just because we said some things she didn't like."

"We will be careful."

"And what if you won't be careful enough?" Lilith stroked her thumb across her knuckles. "Mione, I know you and the boys are used to taking risks but I don't really like this one." Hermione felt a pit forming in her stomach. She was excited to share the idea with Lilith, hoping it would be something they could do together. Lilith must've noticed Hermione's dampened mood because she tugged her closer, resting her head against hers.

"It's not like I'm completely against it. The idea is good and if you think through the precautions, it could work. I just can't join you on this one. Seb and Avy shouldn't either, please don't approach them about it." Hermione sighed.

"I won't but I really hoped you would join us."

"I know. I just... I can't afford to take more risks. I simply want to finish Hogwarts in peace," Hermione smiled a bit when she felt Lilith planting a small kiss on the crown of her head. "And spend more time with you." It made the younger witch lean even more into Lilith, closing her eyes as the very familiar scent of roses and cigarettes enveloped her.

"Don't you have a family business to take care of?" Lilith chuckled.

"Let's just say I delegated some of my duties to a very trusty advisor."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As the ever so quiet Hog's Head started to fill with people, both Harry and Hermione started to panic. Hermione could understand why Harry was panicking, it was more people than they anticipated. Hermione on the other hand, started to panic for an entirely different reason. Fred, George and Lee came with Aveline and Sebastian Farrow in tow. She was pretty sure she had a mini heart attack when she saw them entering the pub. Lilith asked her two things. Not to involve her and not to approach her siblings about it.

Before the group could settle down, Hermione quickly made her way to Aveline, yanking her by her sleeve to grab her attention, and pulling her away from the group so nobody could hear their conversation. Even though she could clearly see the frown on Hermione's face, she gave her a blinding grin.

"Hey, Mione. I have to say, good job with organizing this."

"You do know your sister won't be happy about this, right?" Hermione whispered.

"About what? This club?"

"About you being here." this earned her an eye-roll from Aveline.

"Lilith's not the boss of me, Hermione." Hermione watched her. How she folded her arms over her chest, how she looked at the ground with a slight pout.

"Did you two have another fight?" Aveline scoffed.

"I wouldn't call it a fight per se. Just a minor disagreement."

"So you showed up here just to spite her because of a minor disagreement?"

"Blood hell, Hermione! Not everything revolves around Lilith!" Aveline sighed. "Fred and George mentioned it to me, I told Seb about it and we thought it'd be a cool thing to do, so here we are." Aveline kicked the small pebble that somehow laid on the wooden floor. "I didn't even know she was against it. I swear."

"Well, she is." Hermione sighed. "She specifically told me not to approach you about it."

"Technically speaking, you didn't." Aveline shrugged. "We heard about it and showed up. You never told us about it." She had a point and Hermione knew that. Technically, she didn't drag them into it, they heard of it on their own accord.

"If she finds out..." Aveline chuckled dryly.

"Oh please, she's head over heels for you. If she's gonna yell at anyone, it'd be me. She already has an arsenal of lectures prepared about how reckless I am." Hermione frowned at the bitter tone in her voice.

"She only means well, Avy."

"She might, but I'm not obliged to obey her. I have free will to make my own decisions and mistakes. So if you excuse me, my friends are waiting and so are yours." she pushed past Hermione, bumping her shoulders into hers as she made her way where the twins were sitting. Hermione sighed and went to sit back with Harry and Ron. She started to understand Lilith's frustration with Aveline. She knew exactly how to push Lilith's buttons, even without knowing it, and had arguments prepared way ahead of any discussion even if she was caught off guard. The quick thinking of a Ravenclaw with the recklessness of a Gryffindor. That was a dangerous combination, and the only person capable of reeling her in was Lilith.

She helped Harry through his explanation of the matter. She was proud of him for shutting down the awful remarks of Zacharia Smith and didn't know if Luna's support helped them or made them sound even crazier, but in the end, when she passed around the charmed parchment, she eyed every person who signed it, Especially Sebastian and Aveline who looked far too pleased to put their names down. She thought of Sebastian as the more rational one of the two but it seemed that Aveline didn't tell her brother about Lilith's opinion on the matter. But it was too late. They already signed it. Even though Lilith didn't like the idea, she helped Hermione devise the plan to reveal the identity of anyone who would decide to betray them. It was so simple but brilliant at the same time. Even Harry and Ron weren't aware of this precaution. But the signing of the name alone spread an uneasy feeling throughout the group. As if they just signed their fate away.

The looks Cho Chang gave Harry the whole time they spent at the pub didn't slip her attention and she prayed that her friend wasn't as oblivious as he was with Ginny. In her opinion, Ginny was a better fit for him than Cho but her shyness got in the way. It made Harry uncomfortable and only took her as the younger sister of his best friend. Hermione was always on Ginny's side in this matter so she knew that for Harry to notice Ginny more, she needed to get out of her shell. And Ginny took her advice. She started dating Michael Corner, and as her romantic feelings were tied to somebody else, she started to get more comfortable around Harry to truly blossom. And Hermione was proud of her for it. She just hoped that in the end, Harry would come around. But for now, Harry should also start to come out of his shell, and what better start than to ask out his crush? Even if he failed, he would start to get more comfortable in his skin, more in tune with his feelings that were all over the place. In Hermione's case, it worked. She asked out Lilith, and ever since then, she felt more assured of herself, more confident. Lilith's made her feel this way. She was sure that if Harry finally asked Cho out, he'd at least get his mind off things that troubled him. But she had to wait for that to happen. She knew her friend far too much.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

October 1995

The name they finally agreed on was D.A. - Dumbledore's Army. Even though their club was illegal thanks to Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four, their meeting in the Room of Requirement started to make a difference. People in the D.A. started to get more confident, more sure in their magical abilities and spell-casting, and Harry practically radiated. She was happy about their progress, and once again with Lilith's help, she came up with the fake Galleon. It was hard to fix a proper date with quidditch practices so now they finally had a way to communicate with everyone without raising any suspicion.

But even though the D.A. was a good thing, it took a toll on her relationship with Lilith. Thanks to her schedule, they couldn't meet properly in weeks, only communicating through the two-way notebook. She also had to keep it a secret that both her siblings were in the club and the guilt ripped her apart. She couldn't talk about the D.A. with Lilith, thanks to the enchanted parchment, and her free time was taken by preparations for the lessons and her own study for the O.W.L.s.

She struggled to juggle everything and it was obvious even to her friends. Harry knew about everything and was sympathetic towards her, but Ron had no clue and was completely blind to her emotional struggles. She missed Lilith. Her touch, her smile, the familiar scent of roses and cigarettes. She only ever saw her in passing because Lilith never took her meals in the Great Hall but in the kitchens. She wanted to scream every time they tried to set a day to meet up and nothing in their schedules lined up. Even though Lilith's schedule was cleared, Hermione's was packed. The last time they met in person was at the end of September but it was almost the end of October now.

It was supposed to be the last D.A. meeting for a short while. The first match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin was coming around the corner, and Angeline Johnson insisted on almost every day practice. With Harry as the seeker and Ron as the new keeper, they couldn't deny her so they agreed on pausing the meetings. Angeline waited through the whole meeting before calling her team and giving them a short run down about their practices so Harry gave Hermione the Marauder's map so she could check it and safely let people out. And she did it with ease. The groups of three or four left the Room of Requirement in good intervals, and she systematically checked if they arrived safely.

But as she checked if the Ravenclaw group made it, she couldn't help herself and looked more at the dormitories. She shouldn't have done that because as she did, she almost dropped the map. She froze, her heart missed a few beats and she could feel a coldness travelling through from her stomach, through her chest, gripping at the nape of her neck. She shouldn't have done that, she shouldn't have looked. Because she could feel her heart breaking as she saw another name in Lilith's private dormitory. A name that absolutely shouldn't be there.

Daphne Greengrass