And Then Some Fire Whiskey

“To begin, students will eat, study, and go to their common rooms. Anyone found taking their time in the hallways will me severely punished,” Snape said, his hair even greasier then the last time Gerard saw him. “You will not preform magic in the corridors nor in your own common rooms. Again, anyone who does not follow these rules will be punished. A complete list of rules has been posted on each common room notice board. There will be no quidditch this year and therefor all broomsticks are banned. Also, any club or other organization is banned. A club is, as defined by Professor Umbridge in her one year of teaching here, a group of three or more students who meet regularly.” The Great Hall was completely silent. It wasn’t until after everyone was dismissed and they were back in the common room that anyone dared to utter a word.

“This is rubbish,” Ray said angrily.

“We’ve got to do something,” Gerard agreed.

“Have you two looked at your scheduals yet?” Ginny said rather miserably. Gerard, realizing he hadn’t, glanced down at the paper half crumpled in his hand. His classes this year included: Herbology, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration (he thought he wasn’t allowed to continue with Transfiguration?!?), Muggle Studies and...

“What? Dark Arts? I suppose this is instead of Defense Against the Dark Arts but really now.”

“Says it’s being taught by Professor Carrow. Who’s that?”

“No clue. Never heard of a Carrow.”

“Wait!” Ray said. “Carrow! As in Alecto and Amycus? They were on a Ministry poster for wanted Death Eaters! That was before the posters got destroyed, but still.”

“Muggle Studies is also taught by a Carrow. What is Snape thinking?” Gerard said angrily.

“Well, all I know is I never thought he was really on our side. I mean, I always hoped he was but he never proved much of an ally. Killing Dumbledore, well, a lot of people said it could be a rumor. I didn’t agree but now I know for certain. So, I think that there’s absolutely no use in staying awake talking about the hell this day has been, so I’m going to bead.”

“I’m not,” Gerard said. “I think I’ll try to hunt down some Fire Whiskey. Want some, Ray?”

“Nah, I’m off to bed too. But save some for tomorrow if you manage to get ahold of it. I reckon it’ll be just as bad as today.”

“You two, don’t drink too much. You can’t erase Snape just from a load of alcohol.”

“You’re no fun. I doubt that the secret passage ways are still open, but maybe there’s another way into Hogsmeade.”

“Look, just don’t get expelled your first night back. Goodnight,” she said before whisking her way up to the girls’ dorms.

“She really is no fun.”

Gerard roamed the corridors, his wand out in fear of being seen. He was looking for the Room of Requirement but it was hard to navigate in the dark. Finally, after an hour of wandering aimlessly and nearly getting caught twice, he came to the wall which he knew from his fifth year which held the Room of Requirement.

“I need to Fire Whiskey,” he muttered. Simple enough, he thought. But after he walked past the wall three times focusing on those exact words, nothing happened. “I need booze.” Nothing. “I need to be able to find booze?” This, to his surprise, worked. A small door opened reveiling a room full of cluttered items. “Accio- Fire Whiskey.” He said. A crate of bottles flew at him from amongst the piles of what looked like lost items. Gerard almost didn’t think to look at the room fully once he had his alcohol. But before he walked out the door he caught a glimpse of something shimmering in the corner of his eye. It was then that he got a good look at the decided form of the RoR.

There were walls of old furniture, a large stack of lost books even Hermione couldn’t finish in one lifetime, a pile of what looked to be obscene Muggle clothing which Gerard snickered at and shoved a few garments in his robe pockets, and what looked like an assortment of banned items from Umbridge’s time at Hogwarts including several Fanged Frisbees and a bottle labeled powdered dragon claw, which Gerard had half a mind to steal until he came to his senses and decided it was probably fake.

The place was loaded from top to bottom with everything a person could possibly ever want. Gerard started to look for the thing that had caught his eye, which didn’t take long. A long silver rod was sticking up, almost like a flag, at the top of a newly forming pile full of old quidditch robes, a few broken broomsticks, and a quaffle signed by what looked like Gwenog Jones, captain of the Holyhead Harpies. Gerard ignored that, not being much of a quidditch fan. He didn’t completely ignore it though. That would go for a lot of money to a real fan. But that silver rod looked familier. And when he had finished climbing the pile and his hand was inches away from it, something made him stop. "Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" “Or any part of your body, really, we’re not fussy where we stick this.” Fred and George had said this about the silver rod in the Hog’s Head, hadn’t they? To that prat Zacharias Smith. Hadn’t George mentioned to Ron that he’d almost got caught by Filch with it so he hid it. He had hid it in the Room of Requirement!

Still not sure what the rod did, Gerard slid back down the pile, the quaffle forgotten. They had been at the first DA meeting when that had happened. Zacharias Smith had said something about Neville and George got offended. The DA. Wouldn’t it have been great to have Mikey, Ron, and Hermione back at Hogwarts? They would know how to take care of Snape. But then, why should he give up now?

Still carrying the crate of Fire Whiskey, he nearly floated back to the common room, the Fat Lady quietly telling him to shut it when he had said the password a bit too loud and in a sing-song voice. Really though, what could stop him tonight?

Ray was still awake and sitting on the couch. Gerard plopped in his favorite chair by the fire and handed Ray a bottle, keeping one for himself and levitating the rest of the crate up to his dorm.

“So,” Ray said after a particularly long swig. “That took a while. What, did you decide to have a wank while you were off finding it?”

“Shut it. No. I was thinking, what about the DA? Is that just gone forever?”

“Hmm. I don’t think it has to be, but the point of it was to learn to defend ourselves because we didn’t have a proper teacher to do that for us.”

“And you think the Carrows, teaching us Dark Arts, is going to teach us to defend ourselves? Do you honestly think that they’re proper teachers?!?”

“Gerard, calm down. Look, Dumbledore’s Army was run by Mikey and in case you haven’t noticed, mate, Mikey isn’t here. We don’t have Mikey, Ron, or Hermione. So we’re screwed.” Gerard gulped down half the bottle of Fire Whiskey and slammed it on the table.

“Just because you’ve lost hope, doesn’t mean I have. I’m going to bed.”

The next morning it was completely silent in the great hall. Students were hesitant to even let their forks clink against the plate as they finished their eggs, bacon, and toast. Gerard was still frustrated from last night, as he usually was when he was passionate about something. The difference here was Ginny sort of agreed with him. She had decided that the Carrows, them being Death Eaters and all, were probably shit and she didn’t want to have to learn from them. What might they have her do?

So Gerard and Ginny talked in whispers as they went to their first classes, which, by slim chance, were nearly right next to each other, about any possibility of even calling Dumbledore’s Army back. The fact of the matter was, they didn’t know how many people would check their galleons, and it would be too risky to try and come in contact otherwise. They had to figure something out.

Gerard’s first class was Muggle Studies, taught by Alecto Carrow. To say the least, it was hell. It started by Alecto taking fifty points from Gryffindor when Ray was the last in his seat. She went on to rant about how Muggles are fowl creatures that do no deserve a place on this planet and their children should not be allowed in our schools. The end of the lesson required a foot long essay about how Muggles ruined the wizarding world by pushing them into hiding.

His next class was Herbology, a relief after the lesson he just had. Only, professor sprout was having a fit because all her lessons were being planned for her. In short, even Gerard’s favourite class was ruined for him by Snape being headmaster. The worst part of the day though, wasn’t when Gerard broke a pot holding Devil’s Snare and it nearly strangled him, nor was it Alecto screaming at them that every Muggle Studies lesson they’ve had before was lieing. The worst part of the day was in Gerard’s last class, Dark Arts.

“Mister Way, please explain to me the advantages of the third unforgivable spell, Iperio,” Amycus said, staring Gerard down with an evil smile.

“Imperio allows you to control your enemies. The advantage would be that under the curse, they have no control over their movements, giving you the ability to do the worst to them.”

“Exactly, which is what we’ll be practicing today.” Lavender raised her hand tentatively.

“Um... Professor? Is that allowed?”

“Fifty points from Gryffindor. Now, today we’ll be working in partners. One Slytherin and one Gryffindor to every pair.” The Gryffindors groaned whilst the Slytherins snickered on the other side of the classroom. Gerard ended up stuck with Malfoy. “The Slytherins will go first. Consentrait on your oponent and say, Imperio.”

Malfoy went first, facing Gerard he scrunched up his face and shouted, “IMPERIO!” Gerard’s body locked up, a voice whispering almost snake-like in his ear.

Run. Run out the door. Run to the great hall.

No.

Run. Run.

I don’t want to.

Just run.

No.

Gerard felt very weird arguing with felt like himself, but he had seen Mikey throw off the Imperius curse in his fourth year. He could do it to. The problem was, his legs would get ready to run, but the rest of his body resisted. Eventually, he ended up on the floor.

“No!” He shouted, a shocked look on both Amycus’ and Malfoy’s face. Gerard got up off the floor to face them both.

“I think, Mister Way, that you should stay after class,” said Amycus snidely. “The rest of you may go. Or you may stay, if you wish, to watch what happens when someone interferes with my lessons.” Most of the Slytherins stayed as did Ray who stood at the back of the classroom waiting for Gerard. Amycus pushed Gerard to the front of the room where Amycus pulled out his wand.

“Crucio!” he whispered. Gerard writhed in pain. Again and again Amycus repeated the spell, the whole time Gerard trying not to scream, trying not to give him the satisfaction that he’d done harm. Finally, Amycus strode up the aisle of the classroom and out the door, barking for the Slytherins to hurry to supper. When he was gone, Frank, Ray, and Ginny ran into the room and knelt by Gerard’s side.

“Are- are you okay?” Ginny said hesitantly, not wanting to risk even touching him in case it hurt him more. Gerard nodded but couldn’t bring about the energy to get up. He couldn’t even move his wand hand without grimacing in pain. “We’ve got to get you to the hospital wing.”

“Yes,” said Ray, “But what about Snape. We shouldn’t be in the halls right now.”

“We can fight them,” Frank said in an almost-dreamy voice. “It’d be easy. Gerard’s more important right? So we’ll get him to the hospital wing and deal with Snape if it proves necessary.” Ginny nodded and used a nonverbal spell to levitate Gerard.

Fortunately, the walk to find Madam Pomfrey wasn’t bad. They didn’t run into Snape, the Carrows, or Filch and Mrs. Norris. Madam Pomfrey said that a bit of bed rest and he’d be fine, so Ginny, Ray, and Frank went back up to the common room. It was going to be a rough year.