MARA WILLIAMS

Bright red flames crackled and roared as they soared their path to the lip of the hearth. Sultry crimson tongues licked at the grate that withheld the fire from the very flammable common room.

Thick smoke coiled like silver serpents as it disappeared out of view behind the mantle and up the chimney into the night air beyond.

Snakes, they were everywhere. They seemed inescapable in this school when every turn served as a reminder of the Slytherin boy.

Percy let out an annoyed squeak on my lap as I had stopped stroking him, but he settled quickly back into sleep as I resumed absentmindedly.

"-That's not the point Ron!" An annoyed female voice hissed as the portrait to the common room swung open and Harry, Ron and a begrudging looking Hermione entered, holding her scruffy ginger cat like a baby in her arms.

"We have to do it Hermione. Even if we get caught Dumbledore-..." Harry stopped abruptly as he noticed me sat before the fire with Percy in my lap.

"Oh Mara..." Ron said awkwardly, stopping behind Harry so abruptly that Hermione slammed into the back of him. "...Hey..."

"What are you guys talking about?" I said raising an eyebrow at the trio, all three looking guilty as sin.

"Nothing." Hermione said a little too quickly as she stepped forward whilst rubbing her bruised forehead, but behind her back I saw Harry give Ron a small nod.

"Just tell her." Said Ron which caused Hermiones face to turn beet red as she spluttered, "What? No! Harry don't-"

But it was too late. "How do you feel about joining our little club?..."

"Club?" I asked incredulously. "Aren't we a little old for that?"

"Well, it's more of an army really." Added Ron with a lopsided grin, folding his gangly arms over his chest.
I suppressed a smirk. "You've got an army?"

"Yeah," Harry said, puffing up his chest as his courage grew. "Dumbledore's army."

"...Right" I replied slowly with a frown, "So let me get this straight, you want me to join your club, but it's really an army, and it belongs to Dumbledore? What do you do in this club anyways?"

"It's not owned by Dumbledore it's for Dumbledore." Hermione interjected matter of factly as if fed up with the slow pace of the conversation. "-And it's for students who want to learn to protect themselves, to stand up against Umbridge!"

"What's Umbridge?" I asked, which caused Ron and Harry to snort with laughter and Hermione to only look angrier.

"What's Umbridge?" Harry echoed in disbelief, "You mean you haven't met the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher?"

"Lucky you." Ron mumbled under his breath.

"Well I accidentally missed both lessons last week, so no..." According to my timetable, tomorrow morning would be my first Defence against the Dark Arts lesson.

"Were you not listening to her speech after the Sorting Ceremony?" Hermione grimaced as if the thought of not listening physically pained her as Ron continued. "She's awful. You can hardly miss her, she looks like a human Pom-Pom."

I thought back on it and shook my head, no recollection of any human Pom-Poms came to mind.
As far as I could remember I had hardly even listened to Dumbledore's speech after the Sorting Ceremony, instead my mind had been entirely preoccupied with what I now knew to be Draco Malfoy's famous death glare.

A slither of pale silver flashed through my mind.

"...So I'm assuming Dumbledore does know about this army?" I watched as all three faces turned ghostly pale.

"You mustn't tell him." Hermione said quickly. "But just know that we're doing this for his own good."

"Wasn't planning on it." Free self defence lessons sounded good to me anyways. Previously I had known to be a little... Overzealous, when it came to self protection, hence I'd ended up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the first place.
"Where do I sign up?"

Ron and Harry's faces lit up as Harry pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment from his back pocket, and pointing to the bottom of a small list of names.
"Just write your name there."

DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY
-Harry Potter
-Ronald Weasley
-Hermione Granger
-Mara Williams

A very short list albeit. "Who else have you asked to join so far?"

Ron rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as the tips of his ears tinged bright pink. "...Well, no one yet. You're the first, but hopefully tomorrow we can ask some more, we've just got to keep it relatively quiet because if we get caught Umbridge will skin us alive."

"From what I've heard so far she sounds delightful." I chuckled, "I can't wait to meet her tomorrow, I've got Defence against the Dark Arts first thing."

"Harry and I have History of Magic with Professor Binns." Ron scrunched his nose in distaste and I didn't blame him, I'd experienced the dull droning of the ghostly Professor Binns twice last week, and it was not an experience I was in a hurry to repeat.
"...But Hermione, don't you have Umbridge first tomorrow? You and Mara can go together!"

"Great." She said exactly what I thought. What could be better than spending an hour and a half with Hermione Granger? Spending an hour and a half with Hermione Granger and Professor Umbridge of course.

"Who else are you thinking to ask to join Dumbledore's Army?"

Harry's eyebrows knit together in thought behind his thick rimmed spectacles. "I was thinking of asking Lee Jordan and Justin Finch-Fletchly tomorrow in Potions, and Ron you can ask Anthony Goldstien as you sit next to him."

Ron groaned in response and Hermione shot me a look that I couldn't quite decipher. "I couldn't help but notice you're awfully friendly with the Patil twins, so you can ask them, but for goodness sake be discreet about it, the last thing we want is the Slytherins finding out about the D.A."

Nodding I replied, "I'll try my best."

"Good." Ron said looking satisfied, "Then it's settled, we'll meet back here same time tomorrow to discuss."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Mumbled Hermione and I was about to respond when a sharp stab pierced my finger. I scarcely managed to stifle the cry as Percy latched onto my fourth right finger.

"You little bastard!" I hissed, holding my bloodied finger as an unfazed Percy gazed up at me innocently with big brown eyes. Like butter wouldn't melt. "Just because I stop stroking you for five minutes doesn't mean-"

A previously stagnant Crookshanks suddenly awakened and launched out of Hermione's arms, and flew towards me like a fiery ball of orange fur, claws fully outstretched. "Crookshanks!" She cried.

I didn't have time to react before he was raking his sharp talons down my face in a bid to get to Percy, who had seen the vile cat coming and had already pissed off under a bookshelf.

I cried out and I felt a horrid warm feeling crawl from all the places the wicked feline had used me as a launchpad.
I threw the cat off of me but he was unperturbed, instantly he was by the bookshelf trying desperately to get to a quivering Percy who pushed himself flush against the back wall to avoid becoming dinner.

"Get your fucking cat away from him!"

A few seconds later Hermione had a squirming Crookshanks in her arms, but when I went to retrieve Percy he was already gone. "For fucks sake."

"It's not his fault!" Hermione said defensively, trying to quieten the thrashing ball of orange fur. "What do you expect when you bring a rodent into the dorm!"

"Percy is not a rodent!" I said angrily, glaring at the bushy haired girl. "Just because you can't control your bloody cat!"

She whipped around to look at Harry and Ron to back her up but Harry only stepped back and held his hands in the air. "I'm not getting involved."
And Ron's lips pressed into a fine line. "Don't look at me like that! I still haven't forgotten all the times he attacked me for Scabbers!"

"Yes but Scabbers wasn't even a real rat!" Hermione returned hotly, her already wild hair only seeming more feral with anger. "It would've done us all a favour if Crookshanks had eaten him!"
I had no idea what they were talking about but I didn't much care.

"Mara..." Harry said quietly. "Your face..."
I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror that hung above the mantle as I stood up.
Deep red gashes marred my skin and blood pooled like copper on my tongue. "Shit."

Cuts trailed from my brow to my cheek bone, from my cheek to my lip. I even had a few down the length of my throat, and whilst I hadn't really felt them at the time, they were now beginning to throb painfully.

"You need to see Madame Pomfrey." Harry said, already trying to guide me towards the portrait of the Fat Lady, but I shrugged off his helping hand.

"I'm fine."

"Mara, you need to see the nurse, those cuts are really bad." Agreed Ron, but just the thought of being in that creepily cold, white, sterile room made a shiver run down my spine. "Come on I'll take you."

"No." I hid the edge of fear in my tone beneath a heavy deadpan. "I just need some sleep, I promise I'll be fine by the morning."

I had watched my mother spend many a night under the care of medical professionals, both muggle and magic, and even now it filled my with an immense feeling of dread. That's where we were born, and that's where we died. Nothing good could come from it.

Of course I knew they would only want to help me, and the likelihood of harm was almost none but still I always avoided it wherever I could. These wounds would heal on their own in a few days.

Eventually I managed to persuade the two boys to leave me. The short trip up the single flight of stairs to the dormitories was silent between Hermione and I, a suffocating awkwardness weighing heavy on our chests as we were still fuming from the previous moments.
She didn't even apologise, I thought angrily, and the more I thought about it, the more the rage bubbled up inside of me.

Parvati's bed already had the curtains drawn across it, and the soft sound of her even, sleeping breaths could just be heard over the noise from Hermione and I changing quickly out of our robes.
I shot one last disgusted glare at Hermione before I drew my curtains around the four poster bed with a huff.

For a long while it was deadly quiet after Hermione got into bed and the light clicked off. But after about twenty minutes she gave out a great sigh and I heard the sound of her quiet footsteps against the creaking protests of the floorboards.

She was headed directly for me, but stopped dead right before my bed. In what little dim light was cast in from the moon I saw the vague outline of her hand, hovering at the edge of my curtains for a pregnant moment.
-But she either couldn't or wouldn't pull them back as she dropped her hand, instead I heard a quiet sound as she placed something on my dresser and headed back to bed.

***
QOTD- do you want to see a wider range of POV's? Like I was debating having this chapter in Ron or Harry's POV?
Don't forget to vote and comment!
-TFOA