They had gathered around a huge cauldron in the Room of Requirements. Each student comprising the illicit gathering was very excited at the prospect of adding to the arsenal available to Dumbledore’s Army. Wizardry and spell casting is all well and good but if you are going up against older and more experienced opponents some good old-fashioned gunpowder (plus any other things that can either go off with a big and destructive bang or can set fires) becomes very handy. It was Dean, one of the muggleborn’s who had thought of the idea, if the purebloods they were going up against have no idea of what muggles have in the way of weaponry they would have no counter curse immediately to hand. You can do whatever you like with a wand, but not if the ground beneath your feet suddenly explodes with no warning.
Tomorrow was to be the test run, the forecast was for the night to be one of full cloud cover, therefore both moonless and starless, the perfect conditions for blowing up one of Filch’s storerooms. The one out in the grounds where he kept most of his heavier chains and manacles was the chosen target. The regime under the Carrows was harsh, in essence the brutal suppression of everything the school had previously stood for; even Slytherin House had traditionally valued cunning and deviousness over brute force and suppression.
The explosive crystals had formed correctly as the solutions cooled and the small earthenware jars were lined up ready for filling. Ideally there would have only been a couple of big one’s, formed rather like the amphora of ancient times; however, these had to be small enough to be carried out for placement hidden in coat pockets and picnic hampers. The room of requirements as usual had come up trumps with provision of clay, a manually driven potter’s wheel and a kiln. How the kiln got the necessary heat to fire the pots was just one of the magical things surrounding the room. The why and wherefore of how it worked was a mystery, just one of the many at Hogwarts, simultaneously both unexplained and greatly welcomed.
For once all was going smoothly and the plan was going well. In their next move the DA members managed to get the jars filled and stored ready, for the next stage. The slightly trickier task of jamming them under Filch’s store hut and later that night getting the fuses lit was set for tomorrow. The kids got away with the pot placements, the sneaky (yet simple) method of having several picnics adjacent to the hut masking the digging and placing had gone smoothly. The groups had been viewed by rather bored prefects and accepted at face value as just what they appeared to be. The vital stage was to be after dark, as come midnight Harry, wearing his invisibility cloak, was to creep out and light the fuses.
All went to according to plan, Harry had just managed to slide back indoors through the small postern gate set into the main school doorway when the explosions came. The sequencing had not gone exactly to plan but most went off simultaneously. As several of the Carrows cronies rushed out to see what had occurred the last couple also went off.