TWENTY NINE

RORY WOKE UP TO A NEWSPAPER HITTING HER in the face. She looked down and rubbed her eyes, seeing a copy of The Daily Prophet open on her stomach. Angelina stood above her with her arms crossed, looking worried.

"You're gonna wanna write to your dad," she said.

"What?" Rory mumbled, trying to shake the sleep off of her. "Oh?"

The headline read: TRAGIC DEMISE OF MINISTRY OF MAGIC WORKER. Rory read on to see that at St. Mungo's, a patient who worked for the Ministry had been killed by Devil's Snare.

Rory gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She immediately got out of her bed, "Well, shit! Yeah, I've got to —"

"It gets worse," Angelina sighed, she took the paper from Rory and flipped to the front page. MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS "RALLYING POINT" FOR OLD DEATH EATERS, read the headline.

Rory looked down and saw the images of ten escaped prisoners. All looking frightening. She began to feel very nauseas. Death Eaters were now on the loose. Ten Death Eaters. Cornelius Fudge was blaming Sirius.... On top of that, St. Mungo's was under fire from the Ministry. She ran to her desk and began writing, choosing her words carefully as to not get Andrew in any trouble with Umbridge reading all their letters.

Dad,

I've just seen the Prophet. I need to know if everything is okay. I'm really worried, about everything... but mainly you. I love you. Please write back when you can, I know you're busy.

Rory

She sighed and sealed the letter, wishing she could say more... wishing she could speak to Andrew and not just write. He could easily lie on parchment, but she would know how he was really doing if she could hear his voice and see his face. The girl did not have much of an apatite for breakfast and decided to skip it to go to the Owlery. She barely got ready, not paying much attention to her appearance like she normally did. Her only concern was communicating with Andrew. She completely ignored everyone she saw as she made her way to the tower, walking through the snow, letting it fall on her tangled hair.

She reached the Owlery and saw Fred and George sending out a letter.

"What are you two doing up here?" She asked.

"Good morning, beautiful!" Fred smiled, looking guilty.

Rory raised an eyebrow and walked closer to them, "Good morning, love. Now, answer the question."

George ran a hand through his hair and looked at Fred as if waiting for him to respond, but he remained silent. "Well we sort of... we sort of are... we're securing a store front in Diagon Ally. Now we didn't want to tell you until it was official because it would probably stress you out somehow and so we kept it a secret and we're sorry but it's nearly official now. We're sort of in the final stages. No one really knows."

Rory's jaw nearly dropped. How could George and Fred keep such a big secret from her? They usually told each other everything. Perhaps she understood why they didn't tell her. Perhaps they were right in the sense that she would just worry over it. However, she wished they'd still allow her in on such an important step for them in achieving their dreams.

"I mean... I'm really proud of you guys I just, I wish you would have told me!" She said.

Fred wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead, "I'm sorry, Ror. We should have. You're right. Can we ask why you're up here?"

"Have you not seen the Prophet?" She asked with concern. They shook their heads. Rory took a heavy breath and walked over to an owl.

"Not only was there a mass breakout at Azkaban," she lowered her voice, "Which Fudge is blaming Sirius for by the way... but a patient died at St. Mungo's from a Devil's Snare attack. So I've written to Andrew to check in. I'm sure he's under a lot of heat right now, especially since it was a Ministry employee who died."

The twins were silent for a bit.

"Holy shit," George whispered.

"Holy shit is right," The girl shook her head and the owl flew off with her letter.

Time seemed to pass a lot slower as she waited for a response from her father. In that time, she had a D.A meeting to distract her. It seemed at their first meeting back from break as well as their first meeting after the news of the breakout, everyone was more determined to do their very best than they had ever been.

Rory desperately wanted to start the Patronus Charm, however Harry thought the Shield Charm was currently a better use of their time. Harry also thought it was best to not let Rory and Fred be partners anymore because they couldn't concentrate when they were together. So, Rory was now partnered with Cleo McDowell and Fred with Zane.

"I'll go easy on you, Archer," Cleo said with a smirk.

"Don't get too cocky, McDowell," Rory scoffed. Although she was a bit afraid if Cleo cast spells as good as she played Quidditch, she'd be in trouble.

"You ready then?" The girl asked with a raised brow. Rory nodded and adjusted her stance. Cleo held out her wand and cast, "Stupify!"

"Proteg—" but Rory wasn't fast enough and had been shot backwards, landing softly on a pillow. The girl got up and brushed herself off.

"Alright, maybe you should go easy on me," she sighed.

Throughout the rest of the meeting, Rory learned her and Cleo got along quite well. The girl was witty and a bit harsh, but it complimented Rory's soft spirit. She was almost like the girl version of Fred, which was comical given she had replaced him in Quidditch.

Fred did not seem as thrilled to be paired up with Zane. Perhaps it was the unspoken rivalry for taking his spot on the team, Rory assumed.

After the meeting, everyone headed back to the common room in a fairly good mood. Rory was deep in conversation with Cleo about the importance of Muggle Studies when they reached the Fat Lady portrait. Fred begrudgingly spoke the password and they all entered.

"What's gotten into you?" Rory asked, taking a seat by the fire with Cleo and Angelina.

"I'm a bit sore from being thrown around like a rag doll for an hour," he mumbled.

"That's what she said!" Cleo said excitingly with a goofy wink. Rory laughed and gave the girl a high five and even Fred cracked a smile.

"Have you guys seen when the next Hogsmeade trip is?" Lee smiled, walking back from the board of postings and joining them. "Valentine's Day."

Rory beamed, "Really?! That's so exciting, isn't it Freddie?"

"Oh, definitely," Fred smiled, grabbing Rory's hand and intertwining his fingers with hers.

Lee smirked, "Ya know... I'd fancy a date myself," he yawned and stretched, casually placing an arm around Cleo. "What do you say, McDowell?"

Cleo laughed and shook Lee's arm off her shoulder. She got up and faced him, leaning very close to the boy.

"I appreciate the offer, Jordan. But you're not my type," she winked at Angelina and walked up to her dormitory leaving the group of seventh years speechless.

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RORY'S DAD WROTE BACK A WEEK later. All he said was: I'm okay, don't stress about me. Thank you for writing. I can't say much else, I'm sorry. I love you and miss you. Rory of course, stressed about him. However, with N.E.W.T classes getting harder and Quidditch practice getting longer, she had to put the medical malpractice of St. Mungo's at the back of her mind, temporarily.

Rory found it useless to pay attention in Umbridge's class anymore. She was very good at pretending, though. She had trained her brain to pick up key words like when she told them to take our their books. Rory shuffled through her bag and in the process accidentally dropped it. She quickly picked up all the contents that had fell, starring at the ground. She saw a pair of pink high heels in front of her. Rory took a deep breath and slowly looked up to see Umbridge with a fake smile plastered on her thin lips.

"Sorry, Professor!" Rory said in a much higher register than usual, "I didn't mean to -"

"Miss Archer what is that book you're holding?" The woman asked. Rory twisted her face in confusion and looked down at the small book in her hand.

"Oh! This! It just fell out of my bag! It's Shakespeare. He's a... muggle author." Rory gulped, shoving the play Remus gifted her back in her bag hoping that would be the end of it.

Umbridge sighed and shook her head, "Now, I really don't believe that reading literature by non-wizards is really beneficial. Do you?"

Rory hesitated, "I don't see the harm in it, Professor."

"It's a waste of time, you're a witch, Aurora. You should not be concerned with the works of muggles or even half-breeds for that matter."

It took everything in Rory for her not to gasp. Half-breeds? Did she mean people like Remus?

"Sorry, I won't bring it to class again -"

"Hand it over." Umbridge said firmly, placing her hand out in front of Rory. "A Head Girl like yourself should not be... indulging themselves in such things. It's bad enough you spend your spare time sitting around in the courtyard talking to a tree. Maybe now you'll focus on more important matters like you were appointed to do."

"W-What?" Rory stuttered as a burning feeling crept up her throat and she felt her eyes water.

"Are you serious?" Fred asked the woman in a harsh tone.

"Speak out of line again, Mr. Weasley and that's another week of detention," Umbridge said, still locking eyes with Rory.

The girl handed Umbridge the play and quickly turned back to face the front of the room. Umbridge tossed it with the rest of her very pink things and finished class. Rory felt tears slowly escape and ran to the prefect's bathroom after class. She cried until there were no tears left and moved on with her day. It wasn't fair that Umbridge would call her out like that. Rory tried so hard to be good. She tried so hard for teachers to like her and not say things like that to her.

The next morning, a new Educational Decree was hung on the house notice board.

BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS:

Any literature by non-wizards or half-breeds is banned forthwith.

The above is in ordinance with Educational Decree Number Twenty Seven

Signed:
Dolores Umbridge
High Inquisitor