~Albus~

"Ciara should be back soon," Nico was saying as we edged around the crowd, back to wherever he and Poppy had been earlier. I kept my hood pulled down, but it didn't really matter. No one was paying attention.

"I hope Wren's all right up there by herself," Poppy said, casting an apprehensive glance over her shoulder towards the Ministry's private section. "Do you think the fighting might be worse there?"

"She's got James," Nico said, waving off the concern, though his brow was creased with worry. "Besides, he'll probably need more protecting than she will."

They both came to a stop in front of a counter that appeared to be selling popcorn but for the sign on it that said, Taking a quick break! Back in five minutes! I wondered how long that had been sitting there.

"So, um, I suppose you have some sort of plan?" I asked. Mine appeared to have been derailed, now that Poppy's hand was in mine and I couldn't imagine letting go.

"As much as you can have, I guess." Poppy strained to see over the crowd, but didn't seem to find what she was looking for. "I think Brigitte Myers made some recorder for the Friends to carry around, so Ciara might have to run off to help with technical issues."

"I'm just hoping Stillens doesn't ask me to do anything in specific," Nico said, his expression dark.

"Do you think he's really here?" Poppy asked softly.

"I wouldn't be surprised."

I frowned. Brigitte Myers? Recorders? We didn't have time for this. "Back to having a plan... what is it? Just fight?"

"If it comes down to it, yeah," Nico said with a shrug. "Not much else we can do, is there?"

Well, that was encouraging. Fighting was horrible if you were surrounded by people you cared about, people you wanted to keep safe. Maybe I should've run the other way when I saw Poppy coming.

"Oh my gosh, is that Scorpius Malfoy?"

My whipped around toward where Poppy was pointing. The amount of people wearing cloaks with their hoods up made it difficult to pick anyone out of the crowd, but after a moment I found him on the other side of the venue, standing with two other cloaked figures who seemed to be whispering furiously. I squinted. Surely that couldn't be... but it was? I shook my head, blinking as if that might make what I was seeing change, but it didn't. "Why's he with Marcus Dillam?"

"And that girl, I think that's Artemis..."

"Artemis?" Poppy asked. "Like Artemis Wu?"

"I don't think I know any other Artemises." Nico shook his head, watching the trio in confusion. "The hell are they doing together?"

I shook my head. What was going on? "Who's Artemis?"

"She was trying to track down Astra," Poppy explained. "But then the DA caught her, and Nico restored her memories—"

"What?"

"Wren said she told you about that!" Nico rolled his eyes. "We don't really have time to discuss it right now, do we?"

"Oh, I suppose you'd rather I wasn't impressed?"

"Is that what you call this?"

"Shut up!" Poppy stepped between us, a disapproving frown on her face. "Now's not really the time to start arguing, okay?"

I bit down a very mature "Yeah, Nico," and instead glanced back at the odd gathering across from us. "What are they doing together?"

"Do they seem worried about something?"

"Who isn't worried?" Nico asked.

"No, I mean more than normal. It's like they're looking for something, see?"

Indeed, they'd started pushing through the crowd, looking around as if they'd lost something.

Nico shook his head. "They've got to be here with the DA. Artemis is, at least."

"You think Marcus Dillam's in the DA?"

"There's literally no other way he could know Artemis. She wasn't allowed to leave the compound."

"I guess." I bit down the urge to gag and instead focused on anything but him. "I mean, Scorpius was in DA hiding, last I heard."

"I wonder who they've lost," Poppy said musingly. Her eyes were darting around the crowd, so I started scanning as well. There didn't seem to be anyone who looked like they were trying to find their group again.

"We might have bigger issues," Nico said quietly.

I glanced at him questioningly, and he nodded towards the balcony above where Scorpius, Marcus, and Artemis were running around. Then my breath caught. That was Teddy up there, wasn't it? I turned around quickly, praying he hadn't seen me. "Shit."

"What is it?"

"Teddy Lupin," Nico explained. "It doesn't look like he's noticed you, at least."

Poppy put her hand on my arm, still seeming confused. "What's wrong with Teddy seeing you, exactly?"

"It's... part of the long story..." I winced. Was there a way to just tell her the relevant part that wouldn't just leave her with more questions?

"Albus ran away after he got rescued," Nico said bluntly.

"Why would you do that?"

I shook my head. "I swear, I'll explain everything when this is all over, but I don't think we have time—"

I was cut off by the sound of someone running up behind us. Slowly, I turned around to find Ciara herself leaning against the counter to catch her breath. "Who's this...?" The question seemed to die on her lips as she got a good look at my face. "Oh my gosh, are you absolutely mad?"

"I don't even get a welcome back?" I asked with a nervous chuckle.

Ciara only narrowed her eyes. "You're a fugitive! You shouldn't be here."

"Plenty of people are here who shouldn't be," Nico said calmly. "The aurors are going to have a hard time of it if they start trying to arrest them all now."

Poppy was frowning at me now. "Did everyone know you escaped but me?"

"I told Wren specifically not to tell Ciara, actually—"

"Then you should've given her an excuse for being out so late, too." Ciara rolled her eyes. "Do you think I'm dense?"

"No? I just assumed you'd all be in your common rooms at two in the morning, I guess." I shook my head. "Doesn't matter. I'm here now, and everything's about to start, so I think it's too late to do anything about it now."

She stared at me for a moment, and I couldn't help marveling at the fact that she was standing right in front of me instead of wasting away in Stillens' dungeon. Until a month ago, I'd had no idea she'd gotten out. I really hadn't ever thought I'd see her again. But, I mean, I'd never expected to see anyone again.

"Fine," she said, shaking her head and breaking me out of my thoughts. She smiled a bit. "I can't say I'm happy to see you here, but I'm happy to see you."

Poppy held her arm out in front of me before I could answer. "Wait, I think it's starting."

Indeed, a hush had come over the crowd. There was Russey, walking up the catwalk to the stage. He was beaming, waving, looking every bit the arrogant prick I knew he was. Behind him, though, someone was being led along by a pair of aurors.

I hardly recognized Carrow. She was still dressed in whatever she'd been wearing in Azkaban, it looked like. Despite the fact that they'd obviously cleaned her up a bit for the show, she looked half-dead already. She was way too thin, for one, but more disheartening was the fact that she seemed almost unaware of what was happening. I couldn't tell if the resignation on her face was purposeful, or if she'd really been completely broken in Azkaban.

"Wizards, witches, and magicl beings," Russey's voice boomed, "today will go down in history as the day that we stood up for justice once and for all!"

"I guess that's true, in a way," Nico muttered.

"He doesn't have a microphone or his wand," Poppy whispered. "How's he amplifying his voice?"

"Brigitte said the whole stage is amplified. If Carrow tries to resist, they want everyone to hear it."

I frowned. "Why? Wouldn't that just be a rallying cry?"

"I don't know. That's just what Brigitte said." Ciara winced. "Listen, I actually needed to tell—"

"Shh," Poppy whispered. "He's still talking."

Russey was going on about the noble cause of justice and peace or something stupid like that. I hadn't heard the last thing he'd said, but it had gotten a spattering of applause from the crowd. All I could focus on was the bloody guillotine behind him, a symbol of what Russey meant by "peace." Kill anyone who gets in the way.

It suddenly occurred to me that no one had ever said if the DA was planning on actually stopping the execution or not. Surely they weren't going to let Carrow die. She was innocent. But... if they needed something to wake people up to the reality of what the Ministry was doing, what better than letting them kill the rightful Minister in front of their eyes? Sacrifice one life to save thousands? Surely that wasn't the plan.

I was just opening my mouth to ask if Nico knew any details when Ciara stepped in front of us, fully turned around. She shook her head. "You need to listen to me. It's really important."

"It can't wait two minutes?"

"No, Nico!" She glared at him, then gestured above our heads. "Astra is here. Right now. Trying to get upstairs. I don't know if she plans to fight Stillens on her own or turn herself in, but we need to stop her before they realize she's there."

My heart had dropped out of my body. Astra? Trying to face Stillens alone? That was so mad that she might've actually thought it was a good idea.

"What do we do?" Poppy whispered, eyes wide. "Go after her?"

"Well... that's the thing. Wren already is."

"What?" My mouth hung open. Had they both lost it completely?

"I think she means to stop her, but... I don't know. It was a weirdly intense moment? She might also be going up there just to join her."

"We need to find them," I said, shaking my head too quickly. "We've got to... got to stop them somehow..."

"Do you know where they are?"

Ciara shook her head. "Brigitte said she'd seen Astra sneaking around on the next floor up, but she was literally all over the place up there. There's at least a dozen staircases..."

"Oh no..." Poppy grabbed my hand tightly. "This is bad."

"They can't have made it far yet, right?" Ciara asked without any conviction at all.

"They could already be up there," I said softly. I was at the manor again, but this time I was starting to understand what Wren must've been going through that night. How could they both be so stupid? "Stillens is always one step ahead..."

"Surely he hasn't found them yet," Poppy said quietly.

At that exact moment, Nico flinched. "I... I think he might've found them..." With a nearly shaking hand, he pulled a glowing coin out of his pocket. I frowned at it, but whatever it said seemed to be in code, because I couldn't understand it. Nico had only grown paler, though. "He wants me upstairs. Now."

"No, no, no, this is so bad!" Poppy covered her face with her hands, shaking her head quickly. "What are we going to do?"

"Listen, it's too late for any of you to stop it now," Nico said firmly. "The best thing you can do is not get caught, or it'll just give him more leverage on her."

"I can't just let them do that," I whispered, eyes wide.

"I'm sorry." Nico took a deep breath. "I'll do whatever I can to protect them, okay?"

Before I could respond, he was gone. I glanced between Ciara and Poppy, trying to gauge whether they were just as eager to ignore his advice as I was, but Poppy was clutching her head as if she had a headache and Ciara was biting her lip and staring off into the crowd. I couldn't even think of anything to say before she'd turned back to us. "Well... there's no way we can lose this battle now, I guess."

I stared at her. "Really? You're just going to give up?"

"He's not wrong!" Ciara shook her head, and I realized she looked like she was tearing up. "I... I know that I'd hate to be the reason Astra gives in, you know? There's nothing we can do for them now."

"They might not be up there yet! Maybe they were just seen!"

Poppy's hand on my arm was almost comforting. "Even if it's just that, he knows they're there. I'm sure he has more than enough people to bring them to him if they start backtracking..."

The fact that they were entirely right was very irritating. I thought back to the manor, to Wren reminding us over and over again that Stillens probably already knew we were there, he was probably just letting us walk into a trap. That's what was happening now, too, though. I couldn't just let them walk into one again.

The thing was, it sounded like the trap was already being sprung.

Ciara sighed heavily. "We need to focus on what's happening down here. I still need to find Lacy or someone to let the DA know that Stillens is here..."

"I think I saw her and Iris a little further down," Poppy said. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment, almost like she was trying to reset herself. When she opened them again, she seemed remarkably calmer. I'd have to figure how she'd done that, if we made it through this.

"Stay close," Ciara said, taking Poppy's hand. We plunged back into the crowd, and it was all I could do to hold on to Poppy. I had no idea where Ciara was going, if we were headed even remotely in the right direction. Several people seemed to stop and stare when I passed by, though. Were they just annoyed at a few rude teenagers (despite our quiet apologies), or did they recognize me? It didn't matter, I guess. What were they going to do about it?

Before I knew it, we'd stopped at the edge of a small pocket of Hogwarts students. Ciara had finally stopped pulling us along, but we still followed as she edged her way around to where Lacy was standing, watching Russey's speech with more than a little agitation. She jumped when Ciara tugged on her sleeve, and she jumped again when she turned around and saw me.

"Bloody hell," she whispered, eyes wide with shock. "You're... I thought..."

"Surprise..." I managed a sheepish smile. "Yes, it's me."

"Merlin, is it really?" I turned now to see that the students Lacy was standing with were most of my Gryffindor classmates. Eric was the one who had spoken, and now he was staring at me with bulging eyes as if he were looking at some kind of... well, not a ghost, but you get what I mean.

There was a squeak to my right, and the next thing I knew Rose was hugging me so tightly I could hardly breathe. With her face pressed up against me, I could barely understand what she was saying, but it sounded something like something about how she'd thought she'd never seen me again.

Ciara shook her head. "We don't have time for a reunion right now. This is important."

"What is it?" Lacy asked, frowning warily at her.

"You can contact other people in the DA, right?"

She pursed her lips. "Well... I suppose we can split up and go find some. We've been trying to keep tabs on where people are..."

"Perfect." Ciara glanced around the circle, all of whom were staring at her now, but still seemed to be almost in shock. "Stillens is here. A friend of mine saw him, up on the top floor of the balconies."

"But that part's off limits to everyone," Luke said slowly, but then his eyes widened. "Oh, wait, I see."

It was like I watched Ciara shove down the retort she wanted to make to that. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "You need to spread the word. My friends and I can't really do much about this, but maybe the DA can."

All of them exchanged an uncertain look just then, and Ciara rolled her eyes. "Even scattered, they're more capable than a handful of students. At least just let them know."

"How do you know they're scattered?" Iris asked slowly.

"She's literally with Albus Potter," Henry countered. "How'd he get out of a detention center without the DA's help, huh?"

Ciara shook her head and turned to Lacy. "You'll make sure the right people find out?"

"Definitely."

She cast one more questioning glance at me, then they'd all taken off in different directions, leaving just me, Ciara, Poppy, and Rose, who hugged me tightly again. "Don't do anything foolish, Al."

"When have I ever?"

The look she gave me shut down the joking immediately. Instead of pointing out all the times I had indeed done very foolish things, she just shook her head. "I'll see you soon." Then she'd plunged into the crowd as well, disappearing before I had a chance to say anything back.

"I don't suppose you see Rinduli or Lily anywhere?" Ciara asked. "The more people we can tell, the better."

"Rinduli's over with Kimmel, I think. And I haven't seen Lily since we got here."

I glanced around. It felt like we were in the middle of a sea of people. Luckily, everyone seemed to be muttering and whispering, so we didn't seem out of place in that regard. Russey had finished his speech, and now it was a witch who I was pretty sure had taken my dad's position. Was she a plant? Who knew. All I could tell was that the tension in the crowd had built up since this had started. Things were getting more serious.

"I suppose we could start looking for real DA members," Poppy suggested. "I mean, not that Lacy doesn't count—"

"Hang on." I blinked at her. "Lacy's in the DA? Officially?"

"She's been setting up all the radio broadcasts we've gotten at Hogwarts," Ciara whispered. "Keep your voices down, for Merlin's sake."

"Do you see Gideon or Vinnie around?" I suggested in a lower tone of voice. "They said they've got some friends in the auror department who are on our side."

"I'm sure Laramie's going to take care of them," Ciara said, shaking her head. "They've tried to recruit her enough times."

I didn't bother to ask who that was. It would've been grand if we could have taken a six hour break from this to fill each other in on everything the others didn't know, but we didn't have that kind of time. I'd be surprised if we even had six minutes before people started yelling.

"Ciara, you said Lacy and her friends were going to start protesting, didn't you?" Poppy asked quietly.

"That's what they told me."

"You don't think... surely that's not the DA's signal, is it?"

"What?"

"To start fighting?"

I shook my head. What good did they think protesting was going to do? If anything, it'd just get them all kicked out.

Ciara was looking down. "I... I hope not. I'd love it if they didn't get a chance to start, actually."

"Why?"

"Apparently, aurors were told that they can shoot to kill, if people are causing too big of a disturbance."

Poppy and I both blinked at her, mouths open. Shoot to kill? What was this, muggle America? That would only cause mass panic, and...

And fighting. Oh Merlin, Russey was planning on starting the battle himself.

"Does Lacy know that?" Poppy was asking.

"I... I forgot... they left so quickly..."

Without thinking about it, I looked up at the third floor. It was draped in shadows, impossible to see if there were even figures moving up there. Stillens had wanted my dad to be a martyr, and he hadn't obliged. Was he trying to use the same tactic here?

Was he going to kill one of my friends to do it?

"Maybe we can catch them?" Poppy spun around, searching for a sign of them, but they were long gone. Besides, they probably weren't the only ones who were planning to protest. Plenty of other kids had DA connections. It probably seemed like a perfect plan. They could protest, because they were just kids. The Ministry wouldn't dare hurt teenagers in front of the wizarding world, right? Except they would, it seemed. They'd do more than hurt them.

I was still staring at the highest balcony, so I was the first one to notice when the shadows started moving. I grabbed Poppy's arm, turning her around. Though I couldn't even bring myself to point, her eyes followed mine quickly enough. She tugged on Ciara's sleeve.

It was too dark and far away to make out what was going on, but there were now two distinct figures there, at the edge. One might have been backing up against it, looking down over their shoulder, but I couldn't tell who it was. The other one, tall and thin... it might have been Stillens. I could've just been assuming that, because I was expecting to see him, but the way he was carrying himself...

But suddenly, there was only one figure on the balcony.

The other, who looked like a girl, had leaned back too far.

Fallen off.

She was plummeting towards the ground.

The next thing I knew, I was tearing through the crowd, yelling no, as if I could possible beat her there.

~~~~

The night always gets darker before we see the light.

Question of the Day: One thing you wish you could change about Albus?

Answer: He is going to really be Astra's best friend and have his own personality apart from her in the early books. My biggest regret with him is wasted potential! Writing his POV has really helped me get an understanding for who he is underneath the kind of "happy-go-lucky" exterior. I never knew he had so much rage in him, for example. He's going to be a fully formed character from the start, just like Astra, James, and Wren.

Vote and comment!

~Elli

Word count: 3556