The Just

It was October and already quite cold but still Callie found herself on the Quidditch pitch. The Gryffindor players were getting ready to practice and as this was Harry's first real Quidditch practice, Callie thought it would be the good-sisterly thing to do if she went to watch. So, she had gotten all dressed up in warm clothes and a pair of gloves only to see that as soon as the Gryffindor came out of the changing rooms to begin practice the Slytherin team had found their way onto the pitch. She sighed just knowing that this encounter would lead to some trouble because that's the way it always was.

From the very first day of classes, she realized that house rivalries were something very real. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws generally stayed out of the mess, only choosing sides when it was absolutely necessary, but the Gryffindors and Slytherins never missed a chance to exert superiority. Gryffindors declared their superiority on the basis of equanimity and morals while Slytherins declared their superiority based on blood status, finances, and skill. Both houses were firm and unwavering in their beliefs and neither enjoyed being corrected. Thus, the fights.

She'd heard Harry ranting about how one Slytherin had tried to get him into detention by challenging Harry to a duel. Never having backed down from a challenge before, Harry had quickly accepted with Ron naming himself Harry's second. Draco Malfoy, that was the Slytherin's name.

“You've got yourself a new seeker. Who?” the Gryffindor captain asked more than a little annoyed as Callie approached keeping to the side of the teams.

The Slytherins parted as she'd seen wizards do one year at a rally for a very powerful wizard. She hadn't understood his importance but he seemed to ooze power which other wizards always deferred to. Draco Malfoy stepped forward. Honestly, Callie was a little disappointed. She'd been expecting someone better.

“Malfoy?” Harry half-asked and half-laughed.

“That's right; and that's not all that's new this year.” Indeed it wasn't. “Nimbus 2001s for the entire team, a gift from Malfoy's father. It handles better than the Nimbus 2000 and,” the Slytherin captain looked over at the broomsticks in Fred and George Weasley's hands, “outstrips anything your family can afford. A Cleansweep, isn't it?”

A girl Callie had only seen here in Hogwarts but was obviously inseparable from Harry and Ron took the moral high ground. “At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in; they got in on pure talent.”

Sarah, who now stood elbow to elbow with Callie, shook her head. “Here we go again.”

“Who asked your opinion, mud-blood?” Callie mentally winced at the insult. Of course, he could've been a bit more creative in her opinion but sometimes the oldest insults had the greatest effect. This situation was no different as both Harry and Ron both had pulled out their wands. Malfoy's shield charm was a second too late to block Harry's Jelly Legs hex, but Ron's more creative spell rebounded back on its caster.

One of the older Slytherins canceled the Jelly Legs on Malfoy but Ron was nowhere near as lucky. “Come on, let's get him to Hagrid's. He's closer,” Harry ordered Hermione who quickly agreed and they both supported Ron as he spit up slugs.

“Hey, Harry can you turn him around?!” Colin Creevey had appeared at Harry's side with his camera at the ready.

“No, go away Colin!”

The trio of friends then headed to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the forest with Callie glaring daggers after them. She didn't follow as she may have done had Harry not just roughly pushed the boy aside. At first, she had to admit, Colin had been more than a little annoying but once she got to know him she realized that he was actually really nice. He was enthusiastic, of that there was no doubt, but that's because everything was so new to him and he loved telling stories. The camera that was always glued to his hand helped in that endeavor.

Most of the older students tended to treat him as Harry had just done and a ton of the Slytherins but their reason at least was more equitable. He was a muggleborn, undeserving of time and attention. That was the position they generally held although a couple of the more sneaky first-year Slytherins managed to corner him and ask about how the camera worked.

That was fun to watch. Colin had let them borrow it for the day, and they would snap pictures of each other making funny faces, when their more traditional pure-blood friends weren't looking. After the day was over they'd given it back and asked for the pictures if he ever managed to get it out of the box. Callie, having grown up with muggle technology, had laughed quietly at this.

Well, now that she had a better understanding of Colin, she was quite irritated with the way other students treated him.

“Hi, Colin,” she said walking up to her downcast friend.

“'Lo, Callie.” He shifted the camera and gave her his usual one-armed hug which she happily returned. “Are you going to watch the Slytherins practice?”

“I was here to watch my brother but since they left, why not?” The three first years made their way to sit in the stands and watch the Slytherins practice. “They're actually not that bad,” she commented after awhile.

“Their beaters are weak,” Sarah responded.

Callie watched the beaters and she found herself nodding. “They really do need to step up their defense. It's like they want their team to get pummeled.”

“Are they seriously ignoring all the chasers and the keeper to focus on the seeker?” Sarah scoffed.

“That chaser is really good but he has to carry too much of the game.”

“Good feint from Malfoy there.”

“Yeah, he seems like a decent seeker.”

“For his first practice he's more than decent.”

“Come on, seriously? Did you see that?”

“Think I missed it.”

“The flippin' chaser just pulled the reserve's broom!”

“What?! This is only a practice!”

“I know! Practicing fouls in a practice!”

“It's disgraceful!”

“Holy cow.” The girls turned to Colin and Callie cocked her head inquiringly. “You two are going on about the game and I have no idea what's happening.”

“We'll teach you!” They began explaining Quidditch to their muggleborn friend and were just getting to the jobs of the different players when suddenly –

“BRILLIANT!” Both girls had jumped up and leaned over the railing to watch the seeker pull smoothly out of a very steep dive. The team's captain and keeper grinned at their reaction and the practice continued in much the same manner with Colin watching the game and listening to their commentary.



“You foolish girl! What did you do?!” an irate Professor Snape ground out, glowering at the unfortunate witch who'd managed to melt half her cauldron. The girl whimpered cradling her right arm in her uninjured left while her best friend moaned trying to cool her scalded hand by blowing on it.

“I don't know,” the first girl cried.

Professor Snape growled, waved his wand over the cauldron, and vanished the miserably failed potion. “A zero for the day. Ms. Lovegood, if you're finished take these two to the Hospital Wing.

If there were one thing Caelestis Potter was sure of, it was this: she had not inherited her mother's natural talent for Potions. She'd discovered this the first day the first year class had attempted to brew a cure for boils. Her attempt had resulted in a trip to the Hospital Wing and a series of superior smirks from most of the Ravenclaws in the dungeon. The exception was Luna Lovegood.

Today was no different.

Luna was thankfully one of the best in the class. Even her housemates, who generally avoided her in fear of catching her strangeness, grudgingly admitted this. As result of her usual mastery, she'd finished her potion with plenty of time to spare and was usually tasked with bringing Callie and Sarah to the Hospital Wing.

“Luna, you're an angel, you know that right?” Sarah asked as Luna once again walked them to the Hospital Wing.

“That's really quite sweet of you,” Luna answered with a bright smile, “but I'm just helping friends. I'm quite human, I can assure you.”

“Still, you always help us out and you haven't once complained about the trouble we get into in Potions. Everyone else thinks we're completely incapable of human speech. They think we're bumbling baboons.”

“Walking casualties,” Callie added.

“The disaster duo.”

“Rogue bludgers.”

Luna's giggles interrupted Sarah and Callie's very long list of insulting nomenclatures the other students had given them. “Really it's obvious what you two have to do.” She was met with blank stares. “You have to be more careful, especially in your classes.”

The trio reached the infirmary door and Luna held it open for the other two. “It's no good when everything in your imagination flows but sometimes the body just doesn't cooperate.”

“Oh for Merlin's sake! You two again?” Madam Pomfrey had just emerged from office. “Same as usual?”

“Yes, Madam Pomfrey,” Callie answered.

“Well, hold out your arms then.” Both girls complied and Callie watched as Madam Pomfrey waved her wand over the scald marks. The thin layer of skin her potion had burned off regrew and smoothed out before her eyes, a process she knew by experience to take at least three or four days without Madam Pomfrey's help.

“Thank you, Madam Pomfrey.”

The healer nodded her head and waved them away. “I would tell you girls to be careful but for all it's worth I might as well be talking to squirrel.”

This, of course, sent Callie's mind spinning off on a tangent as the three girls made their way to lunch with Sarah and Luna chatting occasionally. The tangent involved a squirrel she'd seen on a trip into muggle London. She and her dad were walking through a park when a squirrel jumped out from behind a trashcan, dashed towards a bench, stopped, looked around it's little nose twitching as it stared at her, dodged into the bushes and made a quick, high leap landing neatly on the top of the bench. It stood frozen watching her before she decided to take a step closer. It then jumped onto the nearest tree and scurried up.

Squirrels, she decided, were much more careful than she could ever hope to be.

“Callie, are you coming?” Sarah asked grinning as if she knew was Callie had been thinking.

“Yep.”

The two of them entered the Great Hall and made their way to the Hufflepuff table. Luna had split off from them for her next class, Herbology. She'd have lunch a little later.

Callie waved to Colin and Ginny both of whom were sitting at their house table. As expected, only Colin waved back before he returned his attention to the parchment spread out in front of him. Sarah though, didn't seem to notice Ginny's unresponsiveness and rushed over to her Gryffindor friend. Not wanting to eat alone, but knowing she'd be bored listening to Sarah and Ginny go on and on about an excessively handsome wizard named Gilderoy Lockhart, she decided to take a seat across from Colin.

“Homework?” she asked.

Colin nodded as he dotted an 'i' and then dipped his quill into an open ink-pot at his side. “It's really strange.”

“Your homework?”

“No, using a quill and parchment.”

“What do muggles use again?” Callie had heard her mum talking about the differences once but try as she might she couldn't recall. Maybe that was because she'd been focused on the talking images on the television and didn't care.

“We – they – use lined paper and something called pens which holds the ink inside. They're easier to write with than quills because they have grips, and the lined paper really does come in handy.” Callie looked down at his parchment and had to agree. Lined paper would certainly have prevented his essay from having that downward slope.

“If you're concerned about using parchment and a quill you should speak to your professors. Maybe they'll let you hand in essays like that, especially if it's easier to read.”

Colin nodded as he met her gaze and then brought it back down to start writing again. “Sounds like a good idea. I'll do that.”

Callie ate the sandwich she'd made herself in silence and sipped on the pumpkin juice as she looked around the Great Hall. It was usually quiet during lunch so she wasn't surprised by that. But there was something that was bugging her. She just didn't know what.

The irritation that came with not knowing something that was just behind the door didn't last long as the doors swung open. Literally. Very confused Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years trudged into the Great Hall, tracking water. Callie looked up at both the ceiling and the clock on the wall behind the staff table. It was just as she thought. Raining and way too early for class to be over.

Only Luna looked unaffected by the change in schedule and glided to the Gryffindor table next to Callie. Ginny, eager for some gossip or something of the sort, leaned over the table to see Luna better. “What's going on?”

“I expect you'll find out soon enough,” Luna replied sending Ginny a vacant smile. Callie restrained herself from grinning at the disappointment that crossed Ginny's face as she settled back into her seat. But it only lasted until the doors opened again to let in the remainder of the Hogwarts students.

Callie groaned. She was going to have to spend the remainder of her lunch at her house table. Sarah's protest revealed that she felt the same way along with the slightly less dreamy expression on Luna's. The three girls got up and headed to their respective table before sitting down again.

“It's a bit strange, isn't it?” Sarah asked as she looked up at the staff table which was also filling up. Callie nodded.

Yes, it was a bit strange and it was also something bad. That was the only reason why the Headmaster would consent to cutting short every class in the castle and have everyone gather in the Great Hall. It was also the only reason she could possibly see that would cause the Headmaster's twinkle to disappear. But what exactly that “bad” entailed, she couldn't possibly guess.



It had not been a good day for the Headmaster. In fact, it had not even started out good. His muggle coffeemaker had chosen that morning not to work or rather Fawkes (who usually woke him up in the morning) had burst into flames and the coffeemaker caught fire along with him. That would have been bad enough since tea just did not have the same effect but as he was getting dressed, the seam on his favorite hat broke.

Just when he thought his morning could not possibly get worse (which was never a good idea to say out loud because Fate cannot resist a challenge), the owl came. Apparently, Fate was now using Legilimency. To be sure the Headmaster was used to owls and not all brought bad news but this one was very official looking and the ink on the envelope was still fairly fresh. This owl had flown fast and true. And nothing flies faster than bad news.

With this in mind, Albus Dumbledore had taken off the envelope and the owl had promptly flown out the window. Another ominous sign. He slowly opened the envelope and the heavy parchment fell out. The Ministry of Magic's header informed him that it was official.

He cleared the forming lump out of his throat and read the letter:

To Albus Wulfric Brian Dumbledore,

It has come to the attention of those in the Ministry of Magic that there is a possible security breach within Hogwarts Castle. Reports contain information leaked from the Castle about an organization calling itself the Order of the Phoenix.

This organization is now classified as a terrorist group under Article 18, Section F: Should any group be found guilty of harm to persons or property, it is to be immediately disbanded with the organization's members turned in for questioning. Failure to do so will result in fines or arrest directly proportional to the severity of the offense.

At least one of your staff members have been identified as members of the Order of the Phoenix. Though they have been sent owls with the times to appear before the Wizengamot, we would also appreciate your cooperation in these proceedings. Should any miss their appointment, please send an owl with the name of the offender and we shall handle the situation.

Please be aware that several members have already been brought before the court to stand trial with the Minister presiding. The Ministry of Magic holds the education of children as of the utmost importance and does not require your presence at these trials.

We sincerely thank you for your cooperation during these trying times.

Regards,

Amelia Bones
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Very, very bad news indeed. He should have brought Amelia Bones into his fold but, it always seemed too dangerous.

But what was he going to do about this situation? Surely he could not go into the Ministry of Magic and turn himself in for questioning especially since he had not been implicated. However, he would lose many good people if he allowed the proceedings to continue. Perhaps there was a way to turn this situation on its head.

He sat down at his desk and stroked his white beard. A knock sounded at his door.

“Enter.”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than an irate Potions Master stormed in. “What is the meaning of this?!” A parchment with the Ministry of Magic header was slammed onto his desk and he released a long-suffering sigh.

“I am not yet certain what to do about this, Severus.”

His staircase began to move and Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall, and Valencia Crawley appeared all holding similar notifications.

“Don't you all have classes?” Albus Dumbledore asked feeling more and more overwhelmed.

“Receiving an owl in the middle of class with this sort of message is extremely distracting,” the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher snarled.

“Albus, what are we going to do?” Minerva asked.

“Provide a distraction of some sort,” the Headmaster suggested. “Distract the orchestrator's attention long enough to smooth over our 'offenses.'”

“And how do we do that?” Pomona asked, staring down at the parchment unhappily.

“With one of your students, of course, Pomona.”

The five members of the Order of the Phoenix looked up at their leader in surprise.