Chapter 189: The Meeting (1/2)

Mr Dumbledore had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly he had never seen his pub so full.

”Hi,” said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly. ”Could we have . . . thirty-three butterbeers, please?”

Mr Dumbledore glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar.

”Cheers,” said Fred, handing them out. ”Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these . . .”

”It's alright, I will take care of it,” Cedric said as he paid for all the butterbeers as the crowd took their butterbeers from Fred happily.

”Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?” Hermione whispered to Ron as the crowd started to make their way towards them.

Chris realized her face must have been sad because Luna slightly nudged her before everyone settled down around.

”It's alright, you're doing the right thing,” she whispered.

Chris smiled back at her.

You are doing the right thing. Focus on that Christina. People are here to hear from you. You can do this.

Chris prepared herself as Hermione cleared her throat. Ginny and Colin sat near Chris and Luna.

”How did you pull that off? How did you bring Dennis here? He's a second year,” Chris whispered to Colin.

”Later,” Colin grinned.

”Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well, we had the idea — that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us” Hermione's voice slowly changed from nervousness to powerful. ”because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts”—”Hear, hear,” said one of the Michael's friend, and Hermione looked heartened —”well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands.”

Hermione paused, looked sideways at Ginny. Ginny nodded and started speaking, ”And by that she means learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells —”

”She wants to pass our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?” said Michael pointing at Hermione.

”Of course I do,” said Hermione at once. ”But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because . . . because . . .” She took a great breath and finished, ”Because Lord Voldemort's back.”

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Lavender shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Irena shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Chris, Harry and Cedric.

”And He is not alone. There is a myth like. . .” Ginny looked at Chris then turned back to others. ”Like the Chamber of Secrets. And like Chamber of Secrets, it's also true, it's not a myth. Malgino, a man who was a student under the four founders, is still alive. And worse, he had decided to join Voldemort.”

Again people flinched.

”Where's the proof of that?” said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.

”Well. . .” Hermione nervously started but Chris stopped her.

”I'm glad you asked that,” Chris said calmly, completely aware of the bad vibe that Hufflepuff boy was giving. ”Because we have loads of proof.”

”Like?” The Hufflepuff boy said with a challenging tone.

”Who are you?” said Ron rather rudely.

”Zacharias Smith,” said the boy. ”And I think we deserve to know about the proofs.”

”The entire last year is proof. Why do you think Harry's name was in the Goblet of Fire? Why do you think Karkaroff disappeared? Why do think I came out of the maze with Harry and Cedric? What do you think happened to the duplicate Mad-Eye?” Chris said boldly. She wasn't shouting but her voice clearly echoed in the silent bar. Even Mr Dumbledore was watching her now. ”What about Crouch? What about the deaths happened last year? What about the Quidditch World Cup? There are lots of things to prove us right, if, only if you want to see.”

”There could be other explanations for that,” Zacharias Smith said.

”Like what? Are you talking about the ones Ministry is trying to fed people?” Chris asked smiling.

”So you think you are right and Ministry is lying?” snapped Zacharias Smith.