Mobilising the army
Hermione woke with a confused startle. She did not know what had woken her up. Completely unsure of just where she was. She did not remember making the conscious decision to go to sleep. But she was rather comfy and warm and as a result she had little desire to move.
"Wake up Mia, come have some lunch" a gentle melodic voice whispered in her ear. Hermione let out a loud sleepy sigh and turned her face away from who she had now worked out was Dora. She burried herself closer to the warmth under her trying to tune out the soft laughter of her oldest soulmate.
"As much as I am relatively sure Fleur would not have a single problem with you lying on her forever, with your head burried in her breasts the way it is now little witch I'd much prefer you got up and came had something to eat. Grandmama said you didn't eat breakfast" Dora said softly but sternly.
"No!" Hermione sighed pressing herself closer to Fleur and both Fleir and Nymphadora were very certain they heard "go away beautiful bossy soulmate" mumbled under the breath of their little witch.
" 'ermione you must wake up now or I vill tickle you oui" Fleir tried stroking Hermione's hair effectionately as she tried to coax the young brunette awake.
"Go away" she mumbled in response before squeeling suddenly as arms wrapped around her from behind and she found herself hauled off the sofa rather unexpectedly. Her eyes shot opened and she scowled when she realised it was infact Dora who had rather mercilessly hauled her from her comfy spot on Fleur.
"Eet worked Dora. 'Er eyes are open" Fleur laughed playfully as she stood up and approached her mates. One of which was still dangling rather comically if the ground as Dora grinned over the brunettes shoulder at their blonde.
"Well I'm glad, I'm feeling quite starved" Dora chuckled turning, still with a pouting Hermione dangling in her arms and made her way through to the kitchen with Fleur in tow.
"Put me down Dora" Hermione grumbled, still rather perturbed at being so unceremoniously ripped from her slumber.
"Nope, I'll put you down when we get to the table mood little witch" Dora whispered before nipping her ear.
Andromeda, Teddy and Minerva glanced in their direction as the trio entered.
"Goodness from the scowl I am assuming a certain little witch was rather reluctant to wake" Teddy laughed playfully.
"Hush Aunt Teddy" the brunette pouted folding her arms across her chest.
"You're so much like Bella in that respect, she was always a hassle and a grouch whenever we had to wake her for anything" Andromeda laughed effectionately as she made her way over to plant a kiss on her nieces forehead.
Hermione tried to stay cross, she really did but feeling the love her aunt had for her in such a simple gesture melted any annoyance Hermione had at being woken up and Hermione couldn't stop herself from smiling adoringly at her aunt.
"If I didn't know any better Dromeda I'd say our baby Black has a soft spot for you" Teddy giggled from her seat at the head of the table.
"Do not" Hermione mumbled but gave herself away as her smile widened.
"I do believe you are correct my darling" Andromeda replied taking Hermione from Dora's arms and placing her back on her feat and pulling her into a loving hug.
"Yeah yeah whatever" the smaller brunette mumbled as she wrapped her arms around her Aunt tightly and rested her head on her shoulder.
"Have a seat girls, lunch is served" Minerva called softly as she made her way over to the table, dishes of food levitating behind her.
As they sat around the table together in light conversation once the meal was finished Hermione lapsed into a contemplative silence.
As much as she loved spending time with her family like this she couldn't help but think of her mother. Now she was out of Azkaban there was a good chance that they would meet sooner or later. But what had her worrying the most is that if the dark Lord had gone out of his way to break his death eaters from the prison it meant he was gathering his army and building his power and control. She knew that the members of Blackbird were prepared for the upcoming fight however, she was worried about the rest of the students at Hogwarts. Her Cousin Draco being the biggest concern.
Draco was a git. A big one at that but she knew half of his superiority was an act. She had seen the vulnerability, guilt and desire for approval in his eyes more than once before she even knew he was her cousin and she knew he was only acting the way he did because he feared the reaction of his father if he did not pretend to believe the pureblood nonsense about blood purity. She did not know the depths in which he had been entrenched into the dark lords ranks only that it would be expected of him which gave her mixed feelings.
On one hand he would have training and would be able to defend himself.
On the other hand how in the world was she going to protect him when the Dark Lord fell? If he was believed to be fighting for the dark he would go down with the dark but for her aunts sake, for her mothers sake and strangely for her sake she could not let that happen because as much as he was a git he was still her cousin amd she would not let him destroy himself.
She also was not comfortable knowing that the rest of the hogwarts students had no training that could even hope to match that of Blackbird or the Death-eaters and that worried her. She needed to find a way for Blackbird to arm the other students with Defensive and offensive spells because she knew the professors would not do it.
"Mia love what has you thinking so hard?" Her aunt Andy softly called, gently rousing her back into a more aware state.
"I'm worried about the wider student body. They have no hope of even protecting themselves against the Dark Lords minions. Our DADA classes have been so lacking they wouldn't last five minutes against anyone on the other side and we need to correct that and correct that soon because this breakout can only mean one thing..." the brunette explained in frustration, trailing of at the end.
"Ze Dark Lord iz gathering 'iz army" Fleur finished for her, catching on to Hermione's train of thought quicker than the rest. The blondes hand coming to rest on Hermione's back in a way that looked rather possessive, as if this revelation had Fleur worried for Hermione's safety.
"Yes, it means he's building his army and if the students are ever in a position that they have to fight for their lives against his army then they will not survive" Hermione responds. Her voice much quieter than anyone had ever heard it but the distress and fear in her voice was evident to all in the room.
"Then we need to find a way to train them" Dora replied, taking the youngest Black's hand in her own in confort.
"I'm also worried that now that my mum is out and having to remain in the other sides ranks for cover i am not going to get the chance to even meet her before I'm having to pretend to face off with her in some deadly situation. What if she doesn't recognise me? What if someone hurts her?" Hermione rambled, running her hands through her hair as she became more and more confused and upset. No one failed to see the tear that slipped down the little witches face, a clear display of just how much she was suffering.
"Anyway" she said, wiping at her face furiously as she stood up.
"We need to find a way of training the student of Hogwarts without that awful woman finding out." She sighed.
For a moment all were silent as they stued over the witches words. Surprisingly it was Minerva that spoke first.
"Then thats what we do. I can do my best to ensure that you are not interrupted while Blackbird train the students, we just need to work out a way for us to get the students on board with this and ensure its secrecy Mia" her grandmother said. Making sure the young brunette knew that she would help her the best she could in the hopes of soothing some of her nerves.
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"Harry we need to call Blackbird. RoR after dinner" Hermione whispered to her green eyed best friend.
"Got it Mia" he replied without hesitation or question. He could tell by the tone of her voice that whatever it was it was important.
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"'Mione, whats going on?" Ginny asked curiously as the rest of her friends look at her curiously.
"As you would have all heard Bellatrix and 11 other Death-eaters have broken out of Azkaban, this can only be the work of one man" Hermione started severely.
"The Dark Lord" Neville asks as he inclined his head towards her respectfully. She didnt ask for him to do that, she would never ask them to treat her as a superior but Neville was a bright boy, he knew that the prophecy spoke the truth. Hermione was The Lady if the Light, she was destined to lead. She was already a fine leader and he respected her greatly for her leadership ability, her intelligence, her kindness and her sacrifice so he would always show her respect when in any situation with Blackbird. The rest of the group would too, they had startedcopying Neville's respectful bows and nods. She and her mates were their leaders after all. The destined trinity and they knew that without them Blackbird and the Lights very own army would not have any clue how to face the upcoming battle.
"Correct Neville. Now I did not ask you here to dwel on that fact in particular but rather the revelation that comes with that knowledge. He is gathering his armies. Building forces with skilled fighters that would not hesitate to use unforgivables, torture and kill all that stood in the way. While I have every faith in every single one of you here that you can hold your own I fear the same cannot be said for the rest of the school. We must teach them. It must be in secret lest Umbridge gets wind of it and we must begin teaching the students now" Hermione told them. Her voice loud and commanding. It wasn't cruel, their was no malice in her order, merely concern and genuine worry for their fellow students.
"Mione, how do we pull this off?" Harry asks thoughtfully. "We can use here of course as the training room but how to we gather the students. How do we keep hidden?"
"How do we ensure that what we are doing is not tattled to the professors?" Ginny added.
"Here is where u was thinking too Harry. McGonagall has already agreed to throw umbridge of our trails as much as possible. We meet up three times a week, every week and we train them. We train them hard" she replied, smirking slightly and Neville internally gulped. He knew Bellatrix wasn't who he grew up believing her to be but still the uncanny resemblance between Bella and Hermione was startling and still shocked him slightly.
"As for the tattle tale worries that is simple, every student that attends will be required to sign up on a piece of parchment. A piece of parchment I have put a spell on that will dissuade anyone from divulging what we are doing. It will leave an obvious sign on anyone who attempts to get information about this to Umbrige." She said rather deviously before smiling as her friends laughed.
"Thats rather clever Lady Light, what's the sign the little pixies are curious?" Luna chimed merrily. Hermione had no idea why Luna, despite her protests she may add, insisted on addressing her as such but no amount of pleading had persuaded her to stop.
"The word SNEAK will appear in the form of puss filled boils on a tattle tails forehead. It will be rather obvious" Hermione replied merrily.
"You're brilliant mione" Cedric called. The entirety of Blackbird beaming smiles of their own at her.
"What are we calling this then?" Harry asked.
"Oh thats rather simple Harry" Luna smiled before continuing on when she saw her friends and her Lady's confused looks. "Blackbirds Army" she finished.
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The next day the founding members of Blackbirds Army stood in the RoR infront of near enough the entirety of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (except the slytherins of course).
"Welcome" Hermione's voice rang loud and clear throughout the room.
"You are here because like us you know that there is a war fast approaching. I thank you for coming. The aim of this meeting is to explain to you all what we know of the threat and what we plan on doing about it. If at the end you feel it is something you want to be a part of I ask that you sign the parchment on the table by the door before you leave. We will need to know numbers to work out the best plan on how to train you all" the brunette explained. Her voice confident, enticing yet determined.
Seeing the rather engaged faces blinking back at her Hermione was encouraged and so began explaining to the potential members of Blackbirds Army how Harry had seen Vildemorts return and how they planned on ensuring that every student in this room learned how to defend themselves amd eachother effectively so that when the enevitable battle happens the students have a fighting chance of surviving.
By the end if the meeting every single student in attendance sighned the sheet on their way out.
And so it began.
Blackbirds Army had officially risen.
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~ meanwhile at Malfoy Manor ~
Bellatrix was pacing again. She had been back barely 24 hours and Merlin was she glad to see her baby sister. Narcissa had took on elbow at Bella and promptly launched herself in her sisters arms sobbing softly. Once she had calmed the youngest Black sister had jumped into action upon realising the true state of her eldest sister.
Bella was severely underweight, she was dehydrated, covered in bruises and her teeth were rotten. Her once gorgeous black ringlets were a tangled, dry nest of noughts. Simply put she was a mess and Narcissa vowed to fix all her sisters ails straight away.
Once the dark witch had been treated she had retired to her rooms and promptly began this pacing. The Dark Lord had given all his followers that had escaped the prison three weeks to recover at home and spend time with their families before returning to his service. Bella would have thought it a rather sweet and generous thing to do if she did not know he had only done it to ensure that upon their return his recently freed Death-eaters were healthy enough to carry out his wishes.
Those three weeks though left Bella with a dilemma. She desperately wanted to at the very least talk to her daughter but she really did not know how. She did not want to risk her daughter's safety but she knew she couldn't just leave her babygirl wondering what had happened. She deserved to know her mother was alive and well because no doubt the little witch had already worked out her mother had been freed and she did not want to leave any room for her little girl to worry and stress over her.