This Dance We Do

A/N:

Sorry this has taken me so long to get out. Things were just crazy here. I'm hoping to get the rest of the chapters out in a more timely fashion. This story is not forgotten!

Chapter 20: The prophet and the savior

"Come on, now. Best keep moving so the next group doesn't run into us. Let's find you lot a car."

The group followed Mrs. Weasley's advice, and pushed their way through the crowd. The Order members circled around Hermione and Ron, their hands in their cloaks, undoubtedly on their wands, and their eyes watchful.

When they found an empty car, Lupin helped Ron load his and Hermione's trunks, then Harry's and Ginny's when they caught up with them. They stepped back onto the platform to wish their escorts good-bye. Mrs. Weasley was in her usual fashion dispersing hugs and well wishes among her children, Hermione, and Harry.

"Mum," Ron groaned as his mother hugged him longer than he would have liked. "I've been to Hogwarts before, it's not like I'm a first year."

"Yes. Yes, I know that, dear. You lot have a good year and I will see you all for Christmas. Ginny, concentrate on your O.W.L. studies, I want you to do as well as Ron, alright?"

Ron's ears burned. His mother had never told Ginny to follow any of his examples. He gave his mother one last hug before boarding the whistling train.

"Right," Hermione said as she and Ron stopped outside the car they had reserved for Harry and Ginny. "Ron and I have to go to the Prefect's car, but we'll stop in between our rounds."

Ron gave a little wave to his sister and Harry, who looked slightly uncomfortable, before following Hermione down the hall. Halfway to the front of the train, they passed Neville.

"Hullo, Neville."

"Hullo, Ron. Hermione. Do you know where Harry's sitting? I sort of want to talk to him."

Hermione told Neville where to find Harry's car, then continued to the front of the train.

Ron wondered, somewhat absent mindedly, who the new Head Boy and Girl were. He was not left to wonder long, though, as Hermione was soon opening the door to the Prefect's car. He was not met with a pleasant sight.

Draco Malfoy had his arm around a Slytherin fifth year's shoulders, and was whispering in her ear as he twirled her hair between his fingers. The girl, who Ron did not know by name, giggled, but looked scandalized when she saw Ron and Hermione standing in the entrance to the car. Malfoy followed the girl's stare, his cold eyes narrowing when they landed on Ron and Hermione.

"Well, if it isn't the Mudblood and the Weasel. I can't believe-"

But what exactly it was that Malfoy could not believe, Ron never found out, as the new Head Boy and Girl chose that moment to enter the car. The new Head Boy was on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, though Ron could not remember his name. The Head Girl was a slight Ravenclaw named Clover Malloy. They both smiled brightly at everyone in the car before taking their seats at the head of the table that was in the middle of the floor.

Over the next several minutes, the remaining Prefects filed in, taking places around the table. There was no designated seating arrangement, but there were unspoken rules. The Head Boy and Girl, of course, sat at the head of the table, with the Ravenclaw prefects on their left, the Gryffindors on their right. The Hufflepuffs sat next to the Gryffindors, and the Slytherins next to the Ravenclaws.

"Okay, right then," the Quidditch player began. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. For those of you who don't know me, I am Warren Harper, the new Head Boy, and this is Clover Malloy, the new Head Girl. Now, most of you know what will be expected of you as Prefects, but I will go over everything again for our new fifth years."

Ron looked around the table at the new recruits. From Gryffindor, there was Colin Creevey, who gave Ron a small wave, and a girl who Ron had seen talk to his sister in the common room, but whom he didn't know. Ravenclaw had chosen Luna Lovegood, who was smiling serenely at absolutely nothing, and Vance Tucker. Zacharias Smith and Elizabeth something were from Hufflepuff, and Templeton Harper and Malfoy's female friend for Slytherin.

"Just try to keep your noses clean, okay? We're supposed to set an example to both the younger students, and all students who are not Prefect material. Now, on to other business. Dumbledore has asked that we redouble our patrolling efforts. Instead of one team of two Prefects, we will have two teams of two. Team one will start with the dungeons, team two with the towers. The two teams will meet in the middle. Also, this year Dumbledore has also asked professors to patrol the grounds in the evenings. There's nothing to worry about, as I know that none of you would venture out of your rooms after hours, let alone out of the castle," Ron caught Hermione's eye and grinned, "but please make it quite clear to the members of your house that punishments for being out of bed after hours have become much more harsh.

"Okay, that's all I have to say. Clover?"

Clover stood up, smiled nervously, and cleared her throat.

"I think Warren has covered just about everything. Just so you know, fifth year Prefects will be in charge of patrols during the Winter Ball, and older Prefects will be scheduled to do another patrol after the Ball. Other than that, all you lot need are your common room passwords and the patrolling timetable for the train and the first week of classes. If you are on your house Quidditch team or are involved in some other activity, please let me know by the end of the week so I can keep it in mind when I make up the timetables. So," she waved her wand, sending rolls of parchment to land neatly in front of each person, "I think that's about all. You are all dismissed."

She smiled brightly at all of them and seemed quite proud of herself. Malfoy snickered as he draped his arm around the same fifth year he was talking to earlier and left the car.

"Okay, we don't have to patrol until the third shift, so we can go back to the car with Harry now, maybe get a bite to eat."

Ron could not have agreed with Hermione more.

Ron and Hermione returned to their car to find Harry, Ginny, and Neville already munching on Cauldron Cakes. They seemed heavily engaged in debate over the new Defense Professor.

Ron and Hermione took seats next to Neville and joined in the debate as Luna took a seat and began to dreamily read a book that seemed to be printed in some foreign language. Occasionally, Luna would look up and almost seem to follow the conversation, but would shortly return to her book; her eyes did not even seem to be moving.

"Luna?" Hermione said after a few minutes. "What are you reading?"

Luna seemed slightly dazed to be spoken to and looked up with wide, questioning eyes. "Pardon?"

"Your book, what is it about?"

"Oh." Luna seemed to get excited; well, as excited as she ever became. "It is really quite good. It's about important people in the magical community, and how their ministries killed them to keep things quiet. They publish a new volume every ten years. Harry is actually going to be in the next one."

This caught everyone's attention. Everyone knew that Luna loved her conspiracy theories, but Harry being in one of the books she read? Luna must have gotten her brooms crossed.

"I-I'm what?" Harry stammered.

"Yes," Luna said in her odd, even, tone. "They caught word of what Umbridge did to you-sending the Dememtors after you, trying to use and Unforgivable on you-and they knew right away that Fudge was just trying to keep you quiet about You-Know-Who."

"Great," Harry half-moaned as he slid further into his seat, "another book that I'm going to be in."

"Yes, but what language is it written in, Luna?" Hermione asked, apparently trying to draw the attention off of Harry.

"Oh, English. The title just comes from the featured story, which is about a Dutch witch."

"There are featured stories? Like in magazines?" This question came from Ginny.

"Of course," Luna said in a tone that suggested that Ginny's question was ridiculous. "It's always in the middle of the book and has color pictures. It's where they're going to put Harry's story."

Harry groaned and slid further down his seat.

"That's nice. May I see it?" Hermione asked. Of course, she couldn't keep her hands off a book for long. Luna handed it over and proceeded to stare creepily at Ron. Ron shifted uncomfortably and focused his attention on Hermione, who was trying to sound out the title of the book.

"This title is Dutch then, right?" Luna nodded. "Hmm..." Hermione's brow furrowed as she tried to sound the words out in her head. Ron liked the way her eyebrows bunched together. "Laat het stromen tot de rivier op droogt. Is that right?"

Ron's blood ran cold. Although Hermione had stumbled over the words and they hadn't rolled off her tongue like they had in his dream, those were the words she had said to him in the Death Chamber. Ron felt himself pale.

"What-what is that story about, Luna?"

Luna looked at him curiously for a moment before speaking. "A young Dutch witch," Luna repeated what she had said moments before. She looked at Ron as though this should have been good enough.

"She was a prophet," Hermione said as she quickly read through the short blurb about the witch. "Or it was at least rumored that she was. None of her prophecies were ever recorded. She was put to death in the British Ministry's Death Chamber in 1542 for causing mass Muggle hysteria, though she claims that she was trying to warn them against future dark lords. Her actions lead to the death of several innocent Muggles in hangings, and the Wizengnamot decided that her actions warranted death. They used the Death Chamber much more in those days, since they hadn't yet established Azkaban. Anyway, those were her last words. I guess it was meant as a final warning to the wizarding world, in hopes that they would warn the Muggles."

"What does it mean?" Neville asked, his mouth half open in awe.

"I don't know," Hermione muttered. "I've never taken Dutch, but I would like to look it up once we get to Hogwarts. What?" she asked at Ginny's snort.

"Oh, nothing. It's just, if you don't know something, it's off to the library to look it up. Typical Hermione."

Conversation soon returned to lighter subjects, but Ron was still on edge. How odd was it that he heard that same quote in his dream, a dream in which he was in the Death Chamber at the time, when the woman who called out those words hundreds of years earlier had died in that same room.

Ron drifted in and out of conversation until Hermione lightly touched his hand. "Ron? Are you alright?" she asked softly.

Ron started. "Huh? What?"

"Are you okay?" she asked again.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're just...I don't know. It just seems like you're not all here."

"No, I'm fine, just thinking about stuff, you know?"

She nodded. "Well, you ought to go change into your robes, we have to start our patrols in about ten minutes."

Ron gathered his robes out of his trunk and started towards the boy's toilet to change, his mind all the while occupied with the information about the Dutch prophet he had just heard. He blindly made his way back to the car that the others were in, not even realizing where he was until he collided with something large and hard.

"Oi," Ron said has he straightened his robes. "Why don't you watch where you're bloody well going next time?"

"You might do well to do the same, Weasley," replied the last person Ron wanted to run into when alone and wandless.

"Listen, Malfoy, out of my way. I have rounds I've got to do. And if memory serves, you should still be doing yours."

"Weasley, please tell me you were raised better than that. Or didn't your mother teach you that you aren't to talk to your superiors that way? Perhaps there were just too many of you and she didn't have time to teach such petty things as manners. Tell me, is there another Weasley to be sent to Hogwarts? There should be a few more, right? A whore like your mother can't keep her legs shut that long, can she?"

Ron attacked. Wand or no wand, outnumbered or not, Ron was not going to let Malfoy take one more crack at his mother. Ron connected one good punch to Malfoy's nose, causing it to break with a gut churning crunch, before Crabbe and Goyle were beating the salt out of him. Ron kept hitting, but his punches weren't seeming to do much damage.

"Waid!" Malfoy yelled. "Hoed him ub."

Crabbe and Goyle stopped hitting Ron long enough to stand up, holding his arms behind his back and affording him a good view of Malfoy. Malfoy's eyes were already beginning to darken and his nose was obscenely large. There was also a large amount of blood running down the front of his robes. Ron couldn't help but feel slightly proud. That was, until Malfoy muttered a spell as he pointed his wand at his own face and his nose healed itself.

"Now," he said in low, menacing tones. "I do believe that I owe you something. It was partly your fault that my father is now in prison, was it not?"

"Your father is where he belongs, right along with the other slimy gits who support-"

Malfoy muttered something Ron didn't understand, but whatever it was sent searing pains through Ron's arms.

"Manners, Weasley. Didn't we already have this discussion? Now, where was I? Ah, yes, revenge."

Malfoy raised his arm again, and in that second, Ron knew he was going to die. That was, until he saw the young woman place her wand at the back of Malfoy's neck.

"I don't know what you're about to do, young man, but I would severely advise against it," she said in a heavy American accent.

It was strange, Ron noticed, that the woman's wand was nothing like any other he had ever seen before. It was a pale, almost yellowed-white, and had strange inscriptions all down its length.

Malfoy dropped his wand out of attack position and pocketed it.

"Oh, I don't think so, buddy. Give 'er here."

"What makes you think I'll do that? I'm not stupid, you know."

"I think that leaves something to be debated, as I found you attacking another student on a train full of Aurors." There were Aurors on the train? Who? "But I would think the fact that I have my wand at the base of your skull would be enough to make you do what I say. I may not have the best of aim, but I don't think I'd miss from here."

Malfoy handed her his wand. "Good. Alright, you two also," she motioned to Crabbe and Goyle as she pocket Malfoy's wand. She slipped them into her robes along with Malfoy's. "Good. Okay, I'll just need your name, then you can go back to your car, unless you want your wounds tended to."

"I'm good, thanks. And it's Ron Weasley."

"Weasley, got it. Alright, back to your car with you. And you three, we're gonna go have a nice little chat with the conductor."

Ron dragged his feet on his way back to the car. He had just been saved by a girl, that just wasn't supposed to happen. As he wiped the blood from his face with the sleeve of his robes, the thought occurred to Ron that this was going to be a very rough term.