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chapter thirty seven | suspicions

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THE IDEA OF THE Secret Meetings arranged by Harry Potter was extremely canny - and everyone that had attended the gathering at the Hog's Head left enthusiastically, already excited for when the first official session would be. They were pretty crafty, alright.

But unfortunately, so was Dolores Umbridge.

And so, Kaya's high spirits were dragged down at the sight of another brand new notice appear on the Hufflepuff notice board, assumedly placed in the other three Common Rooms, too, printed in large black letters with a highly official-looking seal at the bottom beside a neat and curly signature - one that made the two seventh year Hufflepuffs turn their noses up in disgust.

BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS

All student organisations, societies, teams, groups and clubs are henceforth disbanded.

An organisation, society, team, group of club his hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.

Permission to re-form maybe sought from the High Inquisitor (Dolores Umbridge)

No student organisation, society, team, group or club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor

Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an organisation, society, team, group or club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.

The above is in accordance to Educational Decree Number Twenty Four.

Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor

"She's such a horrible, old bitch!" Kaya said loudly, once finishing reading the new notice, not caring about the amount of people in front or behind her, reading the same notice.

"D'you think she knows?" Maisie muttered to her, as the two exited the room to head to the Great Hall.

"There's no way," Kaya said, although she, too, was unconvinced. "Unless someone told her?"

"I bet it was Smith," Maisie sneered, glancing around with a dirty look, as though scanning to see if he was present.

"I swear, if it is, I'll..." Kaya trailed off. "What about those three Slytherins that turned up uninvited? D'you think they were undercover, trying to find some information out from Harry? Considering they were uninvited."

Maisie looked deep in thought, as she considered this possibility.

"Maybe.... if they are, then they're a crafty bunch of snakes, I'll tell you that,"

The familiar faces from the meeting in the Hog's Head could've easily been picked out due to their obviousness that the new notice from Umbridge had irritated them. Various groups of friends were glancing Harry's way nervously as they entered, and many more were whispering to each other suspiciously. So much for trying to lay low.

"Stop!" Hermione Granger mouthed to the two Hufflepuffs as they made their way over to Gryffindor table. "We'll - talk - to - you - later!"

"Chill out, 'Mione," said Ron with a laugh, as Kaya sat next to Fred, who greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "They always sit here,"

Hermione froze for a second, before blinking a couple times and shaking her head. "No, right, of course. Sorry, I'm not thinking properly - I've had to ward off a fair few, they just kept coming... not even the slightest attempt at staying subtle..."

"Yeah, well, they're probably all thinking the same as us... oh, God," Kaya's face turned to disgust at the sight of Zacharias Smith beckoning her over to Hufflepuff table.

"What's he want?" Fred frowned, his eye line trailing over to where Kaya was looking. She shrugged.

"I dunno," she said, swinging herself off the bench. "I'll be back in a sec,"

The small brunette wandered over to Zacharias with an inquiring look, the group of fellow Hufflepuffs sitting around him also awaiting Kaya's arrival, for some reason.

"What?" she said, almost rudely. Kaya was still bothered by his insensitiveness towards Cedric's death.

"You realise she's including Quidditch in this random group ban?" he said, ignoring her cold stare. It was at that moment Kaya realised the group surrounding Zacharias was her own Quidditch Team, all looking as equally as frustrated as him.

"What?" Kaya said, her scowl turning to disbelief. "No way... I- what?!"

Zacharias nodded. "The sign included teams on there, read it yourself! We have to go and ask permission to re-form the Hufflepuff team!"

"That's bull!" Kaya said, outraged. "Quidditch has been going on for who knows how long, why is she all of a sudden changing it?"

"Because she's a control freak," said Anthony. His fist was clasped around his spoon in anger.

"But we all need to behave, so she doesn't give us a reason not to," said Zacharias, glancing around the group.

"Yeah, I agree," Kaya nodded, before turning to the rest of the team. "You think you lot can be little angels for the next couple days? For me?"

The rest of the team let out laughs and nodded, smiling at her light-heartedness towards the situation, in contrast to Zacharias' constant attitude that they were always in the wrong. All were determined to get Umbridge to approve of their practices.

"Yes, mother," said Anthony, with a grin.

Zacharias shifted uncomfortably, and Kaya knew exactly why. He was supposed to be captain, not her - but because he was such a prick, the team were never as fond of him as they were her. His problem.

"Okay, well I'm getting back to my food," the girl said, standing up yet again. She did not have to look to know Fred was watching her back from the Gryffindor table. She could feel his eyes on her. "See you all... at some point?"

The team murmured a goodbye, and the girl stepped back slightly, so only Zacharias was in earshot.

"You didn't tell about...?" she muttered, eyeing him threateningly.

"What?" he mumbled back. "No! I didn't!"

"You'd better not have,"

"I didn't!"

Kaya wasn't so convinced, but decided to leave it. Making a scene would, if anything, expose the secret group way more than Umbridge's ban.

"What was all that about?" Jaeden asked, once Kaya returned to her friends.

"Quidditch," she said, glancing down at her plate. She frowned for a second, before turning to Fred and giving him a warm smile.

"You filled my plate?"

He shrugged. "I just thought you might not want the crappy leftovers,"

Kaya's grin turned into a beam, and she squeezed his arm lovingly.

"How'd you know what I wanted?"

Maisie was awe-ing, George was observing with a raised eyebrow, and Jaeden and Milo were jokingly putting on retching noises, again.

"Because you've had the same breakfast everyday since the start of term," Fred said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You even knew I like the chewy bacon rather than crispy?"

"What can I say?" Fred grinned. "I'm just the most amazing boyfriend ever,"

"No, you're a stalker," said Lee.

"Piss off,"

"You're sweet," Kaya told him, kissing his cheek, before she began eating.

"So...?" said Jaeden slowly, a questioning look on his face.

"Hm?"

"Quidditch?"

"Oh, yeah," Kaya said, regaining her trace of thought, her warm expression fading at the reminder of Umbridge. "The old pig is making us ask for permission to re-form the Quidditch team!"

"What?" Maisie and Milo said, appalled. Jaeden and the twins nodded.

"Same with us," said George.

"And us," Jaeden added. "I hate her so much. She's such a cow, having her appear in all my lessons make it ten times worse, especially when all she does is bitch about the teachers. I swear I've never hated anyone as much as this, before,"

"Snape?" Milo suggested.

"She might just have passed him,"

"Whew!" said Maisie, sarcastically. "You must hate her a lot, then,"

"Don't we all?" said George.

"Awe, I wish I took Potions, this year!" said Kaya longingly. "What I'd give to see her examine Snape's lesson..."

Maisie's expression lit up. "That's what I'm looking forward to - it'll be the best lesson of the year, no doubt,"

"You need to be taking little mental polaroids when it does happen, and give us every little detail," said Jaeden.

Maisie nodded, with a grin.

"So," said Kaya, learning forward to speak to the golden trio sitting a few seats down from them, who were currently talking to Neville, Dean, Maddie and her two friends. "Is the... thing... still on?" she asked, lowering her voice.

Harry nodded, his eyes flicking about nervously, to check nobody was listening in. Kaya grinned.

"Good," she said. "I didn't think you'd let the pink pig stop us, greased-lightnin',"

Harry let a small smile slip.

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Before Kaya knew it, she was standing inside some mysterious room Harry had found to hold their meetings - and she had to admit, it was pretty cool.

Because the room didn't even exist to outsiders, which was exactly what they needed what with Umbridge prowling around. But if any member of this new club wished to enter its meeting point, they need only to stand in front of the wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's awful attempt at training trolls for the ballet, think about entering, and a highly polished door would appear in the wall. Sick.

Inside was a spacious room lined with bookcases, silk cushions on the floor to be used as chairs, a set of shelves at the far end of the room, carrying Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe-Glass.

Kaya and her friends, like any other normal people, were astonished. But Kaya, after now experiencing almost seven years at Hogwarts, had learned to accept the fact that this school had all kinds of random shit like this nobody knew about lying around the school. She quickly came to terms there was an invisible room nobody knew about that somehow just knew when you needed it.

Her boyfriend on the other hand - maybe just a little more confused.

"It's fantastic!" Cho Chang said, causing several people to murmur in agreement.

"It's bizarre," Fred said with a frown, gazing around the room. "We once hid from Filch in here - remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard,"

"Of course you two have come across this room before. Of course," Kaya said, folding her arms and shaking her head at him - still wearing a grin, though.

"Yeah, have you met us?" Fred replied, with a wink.

"Harry, whats this stuff?" someone asked, referring to the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark detectors," Harry explained. "Basically they all show when dark wizards or enemies are around,"

"You don't wanna rely on them too much, though," a blonde Ravenclaw (Kaya recognised her from bashing into her at the Yule Ball) said. "They can be fooled,"

There was a short silence, in which everyone took in their surroundings yet again, walking over to sit down on the many cushions, in awe.

Jaeden looked awfully confused, still trying to process how this room was an actual thing. Maisie had given up trying to explain it to him the third time round, and Kaya and Milo weren't even going to bother. If Maisie couldn't explain it to him, there was no chance of them doing the job.

Kaya took his opportunity to suspect if anybody hadn't turned up after the release of Umbridge's new rule - or if anybody had been kicked out because they'd tipped off to her about the new organisation.

Those who she suspected the most out of the group was the trio of uninvited Slytherins, and so wondered whether or not they would turn up. But, the three girls had made their appearance along with the rest of the group, sitting down and joining in just like any other. Kaya was still unsure about them, though... especially Diana.

She felt a bit bad about it, because if she was wrong she was suspecting the blonde for no reason other than her background... because she did have Death Eater parents. But, considering the fact that she'd been raised by her grandmother, and that she'd joined Harry's meeting, she might not be anything like them. After all, she had apparently made an appearance at the Order of the Phoenix for one night, so they obviously trusted her. Still, there was always the possibility Kaya could be right... she wasn't sure. She didn't like being a judgmental person, so she didn't linger on it.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first," Harry said. "And - er," he noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," she said.

"Harry's leader," said Cho, at once. Several people glanced Hermione's way as if she were mad.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione. "It makes it formal, and gives him authority - so, everyone thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everyone raised their hands - even Zacharias, although he didn't seem as enthusiastic as the rest.

"Er - right - thanks," said Harry awkwardly, his face now a burning red. Bless him. "And - what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

Hermione did not come to mess around.

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina, hopefully.

"Or, the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" Fred suggested.

"Bit long, that one, love," Kaya had to admit.

"I was thinking," Hermione said. "More of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside of meetings,"

"The Defence Association?" Cho suggested. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"That's good," the same blonde Ravenclaw from before said, giving Cho a smile. "I like that one,"

"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only, lets make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

"I love your sister," Kaya muttered to Fred and George, as a great murmur and appreciative laughter sounded in response to the Weasley girl's suggestion.

"All in favour of the DA?" said Hermione, kneeling up on her cushion to count. Kaya and her friends joined the many others in raising their arms enthusiastically. "That's the majority - motion passed!"

And so, she pinned the piece of parchment with their names on it to the wall, and wrote across the top in large letters:

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A/N: The way Kaya is already so suspicious of Diana when she hasn't done anything yet PLS 😭

Also I love the fact that the Hufflepuff team secretly don't even like their captain much idk why that's so funny to me

I hope you enjoyed! I wasn't too sure whether this chapter was a bit slow or not but hopefully it wasn't too bad!

  <3