LUCY:

I reluctantly turned away from Marietta and let Harry guide me by the shoulder to the end of the hallway. As soon as we rounded the corner, I shook him off, and we proceeded side by side through the hallways at a fast clip.

The Gryffindor common room wasn't very far from the Headmaster's office. It was remarkable how rapidly my anger mounted in the four silent minutes spent walking to the portrait hole.

I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it.

Harry gestured for me to go in first. Normally I would have rolled my eyes and muttered something about how chivalry was dumb and shoved him through in front of me, but I was absolutely livid.

I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it.

"HERMIONE GRANGER," I roared, "TELL ME THAT'S NOT PERMANENT."

She was sitting by herself off to the side of the common room gnawing her fingernails when she heard me. She glanced up, genuine confusion on her face.

"What do you mean?"

I stormed across the room until I was towering over her. "You know what I mean. What you did to Marietta. Is it permanent?"

"Oh!" She laughed. Laughed. "Yes, it is. Marietta, was it?"

I staggered backward. She was laughing. Laughing.

"I was never quite sure about Marietta, but I suppose we've all learned our lesson now, her especially," she continued, shaking her head. "It was a tricky enchantment, let me tell you. I almost asked you to help, since you're so good with Charms, but you seemed to have enough going on and I ended up figuring it out by myself in the end. I did manage to make it permanent, though. Brilliant, if I do say so myself."

"Brilliant?" I repeated, positively quaking with anger. I barked out a harsh laugh and clenched my fists to try to contain my magic. "Oh, yes, Hermione, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, you are."

Hermione furrowed her brow. "I don't know why you're—"

"Why I'm so upset? Allow me to explain. You mean to tell me that you permanently disfigured Marietta's face?"

"Yes...?"

"To punish her for ratting out the D.A.?"

"Yes, exactly. I still don't know why you're—"

"Is this your idea of a joke?" I snapped. "Because if it is, I'm not laughing."

"What on earth are you on about, Lucy?" she asked, jumping to her feet and crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"I can't believe you would do something like this!" I burst out. "You're cruel, Hermione, cruel."

"All I did was make sure we got our justice if something like this happened! Merlin knows there's a fat chance of that happening with Umbridge here!"

"Justice?"

"Justice for us, punishment for whoever ratted us out, call it whatever you want!" Hermione huffed. "I fail to see why this is so catastrophic to you."

"You fail to see— LOOK AT ME!"

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "I'm looking."

"PERMANENT DISFIGURATION IS YOUR IDEA OF PUNISHMENT?" I shouted. "MERLIN'S BEARD, ARE YOU THICK OR JUST—"

"Just what?" Hermione challenged. "I'm the furthest thing from thick. I thought ahead. I did what I had to do."

Merlin, I wanted to tear my hair out. "YOU WANTED HER TO WALK AROUND EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE REMINDED OF ONE MISTAKE?"

"Yes! She could have gotten us all expelled, or worse! I knew we would all be in danger if someone betrayed us! It's not just 'one mistake,' Lucy, Merlin, don't be dense! Our lives could have been ruined!"

"Well, they're not!" I shouted, my fury rising to match hers. "But you know whose is?"

"The traitor's!"

"And you're alright with that?"

"Yes!"

"SO YOU WANTED HER TO FEEL LIKE ME?" I half-screeched, half-sobbed.

Understanding dawned on her face. For half a second, she looked almost apologetic. Half a second later, an infuriatingly self-righteous look replaced any ounce of apology I might have imagined.

"It's not like that, and you know it," she snapped.

"Oh, really? You're awfully confident for someone who doesn't have to look in the mirror every single day and see this." I gestured to my face. "Every time I look in the mirror, I'm reminded of the night I almost died out there in the forest at the hands of a monster." My double meaning was not lost on her. I could see it in her eyes. But I wasn't done. "You have no idea what it's like to look in the mirror and hate what you see!"

"Oh, yes I do!" Hermione fired back. "Or have you forgotten all of those nights I spent crying to you about my teeth?"

"Those were fixed!"

"Only because—"

"No, I don't want to hear your excuses! Your teeth, those were fixable!" I gestured to my face again. "This isn't fixable, and neither is what you did to Marietta, apparently! You think you know how this feels, but you don't!"

"Yes, I do!"

"If that's what you think, that makes this all even worse!" I shouted. "I can't believe you, Hermione! How could you do something like this?"

"I did what I had to do!"

I clenched my jaw to trap the scream building inside of me, but as I did so, my fists came unclenched and a torrent of scarlet sparks escaped. I was furious, and there was no going back.

"SOME FRIEND YOU ARE!" I yelled. "TURNING ONE OF MY BIGGEST INSECURITIES INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S PUNISHMENT."

"NOT EVERYTHING REVOLVES AROUND YOU, LUCY DIGGORY!" she yelled right back.

"I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU UNTIL YOU FIX IT!" I whirled on my heel and started marching toward the portrait hole.

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU, IT'S PERMANENT!" she called after me.

I turned back around. "I GUESS THIS IS IT, THEN. I HATE YOU, HERMIONE GRANGER."

With that, I sprinted the rest of the way to the portrait hole and jumped through.

~

Now it's time to pay the price
No playing nice when you live so selfish
Have a drink and make a scene
Embarrass me 'cause you're lost and hopeless
Years of us building the trust up
No love was ever enough
I'm foolish to think we were friends
It's funny how it ends
And you know, when times get tough you always give up
I know your smoking gun's the tip of your tongue
You take your aim to point the blame, it's time you let it go
So save your lies, behind those eyes you're a devil in disguise
Life's too short to be dancing with the devil
Life's too short to be dancing with the devil
You best sleep with a blanket and a shovel
'Cause life's too short to be dancing with the devil

You try to act as if you're saving me
But you wouldn't cut the rope if it was hanging me
I'm sick of people saying what you sow you reap
'Cause I've been counting down the minutes of that, so to speak
Think of all the hours and hours of grind that would it turned into sour findings
As I wonder if our resigning is becoming the silver lining
But I'm not a coward, I'm fighting 'cause if they're the meat, then I'm biting
Go ahead ignoring and smiling 'cause I'm climbing till I let you know

~

GEORGE:

For a long second, everyone was too stunned to speak.

Ginny was the first to find her voice. "I'll go after her," she said. Harry opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. "We all stayed down here to find out what happened, and now you're the only one who knows. You stay here and explain, I'll take care of Lucy."

Harry nodded, looking quite numb, and Ginny rushed out the portrait hole after her friend.

"So, Marietta?" Hermione asked, trying to act as if nothing whatsoever had happened.

"Yeah," Harry replied with a glare. "Marietta."

Fred valiantly kept Harry on track. "So what happened, mate?"

Harry seemed suddenly aware of the fact that every Gryffindor member of the D.A. had stayed in the common room, watching him and waiting for an explanation.

"Well, none of us will be expelled," he started. "To make a very long story very short, Dumbledore claimed credit, saying he had recruited us all for his own personal army and tonight was the first meeting. So, well, if anyone asks, that's the story."

"There's got to be more to the story than that, mate," Seamus piped up. "You and Lucy were gone for ages."

Harry half-shrugged and nodded, launching into a more detailed version of the story. By the time he was through, I was burning with rage. Determination, too.

A single glance at Fred confirmed he was on the same exact page.

Our time had come.

Once Harry's story was through, he was bombarded with more questions, but Fred and I had heard enough.

"Reckon Lucy and Ginny would want in?" I asked.

"I reckon they'd kill us if we didn't at least offer," he replied.

We slipped through the portrait hole without anyone seeing us. Our trip down to the Quidditch Pitch was a bit perilous — it seemed that Umbridge and her crew were still searching the castle for Dumbledore, so we had to duck into a couple of secret passageways to avoid them — but we figured that was where we'd find Ginny and Lucy.

We were proven correct as soon as we stepped into the stadium. We could tell in the moonlight that they were shouting back and forth at each other as they beat the Bludgers around, but silencing charms had always been a specialty of Lucy's, so we didn't hear a sound.

I sent up a small trail of red sparks to get their attention. Lucy streaked down to the grass the second she saw it was me that had cast the spell.

She dismounted her broom and crossed her arms over her chest. I had never seen her look so angry. "If you came down here just to 'check on me,' I don't need your sympathy."

"Whoa, you've got us all wrong," Fred replied, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "We know by now you don't want to hear anything like that."

"You've got that right. So what are you doing here, if you're not here for that reason?"

"We wanted to talk to you. We have something of a proposal, if you will," I said.

"Alright." Lucy lifted her wand toward the sky. "Immobulus!"

One Bludger dropped straight into the grass, and Ginny similarly stopped the other one before joining Lucy.

"What's up?" she asked.

"George said they have a proposal for us," Lucy replied. "Based on the looks on their faces, I'm guessing that this is the end of Umbridge."

Fred made a Fair enough kind of face and shrugged. "You could say that. C'mon, let's go someplace a bit more private. A number of people are still wandering around looking for Dumbledore, and it would be best if we didn't get caught before we could do anything."

Ginny and Lucy stowed away their gear, and we retreated to one of the staircases inside the Pitch, next to a hole in the wood that would allow us to see if anyone started coming our way.

"So what's the plan?" Lucy asked, blue eyes still flashing with anger. "How's Umbridge going to pay for everything she's done this year?"

"Well, you may have noticed that we've really ramped up production this year," Fred began.

Ginny huffed. "That's an understatement."

"We have a lot of stock now," I continued, "and we've been waiting for a chance to have a very, ah, practical public demonstration. The Gryffindor common room crowd is great and all, but we're aspiring to more and more every day."

"We were planning on going out with a bang at graduation, putting on a whole show and whatnot, but due to a number of conflicting factors we now have to consider, we've been thinking it's about time to make other arrangements," Fred explained.

"Conflicting factors?" Lucy repeated.

"Various things have come up," I replied with a shrug. "I mean, first of all, we haven't exactly been spending much time on schoolwork as of late. Who knows if we'll even graduate?"

"Mum would kill you," Ginny said, looking torn between approval and disapproval.

Fred nodded. "We know. But sometimes, when you really want something in life, you have to risk upsetting a couple of the people who care about you and trust that, in the end, they'll respect that you made the choice that was best for you. That being said, whether we graduate or not, we've always known we were going to cause chaos on the way out of here. Now, we're realizing that the situation is dire. Hogwarts is desperately in need of chaos to keep our lovely new Headmistress on her toes."

"Excellent," Lucy said, a dark satisfaction in her tone. "Name a time and place, and I'll be there with any chaos-inducing magic I can summon."

I grinned. "That's noble of you, but we have plans already in place that don't yet have need of your services, appreciated though your enthusiasm is."

"I think we should start with the pyrotechnics, don't you think, Georgie?" Fred asked.

"We've got a whole stash," I explained to the girls. "Reckon we have enough to light up the whole school at this point."

Lucy and Ginny exchanged a wide-eyed glance. "Wicked," they said in unison as they turned back to us.

"What else?" Lucy pressed. "How can I help?"

"How can we help?" Ginny asked, swatting Lucy's arm indignantly.

"Thought you'd never ask," Fred replied. "Cub, you're rather well-versed with your candies, wouldn't you say?"

She nodded. "Unfortunately, yes, I am. Want me to drop one in Umbridge's tea every day? A couple times a day? I can mix it up, keep her on her toes."

"Or," Ginny posited, "we could pass those out to students, so they could skip Umbridge's class. She wouldn't stop anyone who was vomiting all over her floor from leaving class, would she?"

Fred and I exchanged a grin. Getting the girls in on our scheme had been a brilliant idea.

We were there for hours, plotting and planning. Sometime after three o'clock, we all started yawning, and Ginny suggested we head to bed since we'd already decided our course of action for the next day.

"I'm going to stay down here a bit longer," Lucy said. She still looked livid, but a bit of her anger had faded to reveal the hurt we had all known was at the root of her fury. "Don't exactly fancy the notion of sharing a room with Hermione tonight."

"D'you want company?" I asked. "I could borrow Ginny's broom so you could pummel the Bludgers some more."

She shook her head. "It's alright, but thanks. I just want to be alone for a while."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Ginny shot me a warning look.

Right. Lucy needs her alone time.

I made a mental note of that. Once Fred and I got to our flat, we had to be sure to put Lucy's room close enough to ours that we could help if she needed anything, but far enough that she could feel like she was alone if that was what she wanted.

I reached over and tugged on her ponytail. "Don't stay up too much later. Can't have you dozing off while lighting fireworks."

"Well, if I do, I think the explosion would wake me up," she replied with a half-hearted smile.

None of us really wanted to leave her alone after everything that had happened that night, but we knew Lucy well enough at that point to know that when she said she wanted to be alone, she meant it.

The corridors were deserted as we made our way back to the common room.

"They must have given up the search for Dumbledore," Ginny said, no small amount of pride in her voice.

"The fact that they tried at all is rather pathetic," Fred commented.

I nodded my agreement. "Let's scout for tomorrow, while we're here. I have an idea of where we can set up the largest stack of fireworks."

We spent another half an hour sneaking around the castle, looking for the best strategic placements of our mayhem-making goods. By the time I finally collapsed into bed that night, there was a sense of finality in my chest, maybe even a bit of relief.

This is it.

What Fred had said was true. We'd always wanted to go out with a bang, and we'd always imagined that happening with graduation. But Henry had been telling us about the plans in the works to honor Cedric when our class graduated, and neither of us felt right ruining that with our shenanigans. In addition to that, the oppressive regime of Umbridge was getting increasingly unbearable. We would feel bad leaving the others behind to deal with her, but we'd agreed that we would equip everyone as best we could before leaving.

And we had to leave, the sooner the better. Our premises were waiting for us.

93 Diagon Alley. The official storefront for Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes.

~

When times get tough you always give up
I know your smoking gun's the tip of your tongue
You take your aim to point the blame, it's time you let it go
So save your lies, behind those eyes
And yeah, you know, when times get tough you always give up
I know your smoking gun's the tip of your tongue
You take your aim to point the blame, it's time you let it go
So save your lies, behind those eyes you're a devil in disguise

Life's too short to be dancing with the devil
Life's too short to be dancing with the devil
You best sleep with a blanket and a shovel
'Cause life's too short to be dancing with the devil

"Dancing with the Devil"
Set It Off