Finding the Right Girls

Chapter 5: Finding the Right Girls

AN: See disclaimer in previous chapters.

As always, thanks to my wonderful beta Septentrion!

Long after I had finished my training at Avalon, a great tragedy occurred. My teacher and mentor, Viviane, Head Priestess of Avalon, was killed. She had ruled wisely over Avalon for thirty years when she was cruelly stabbed by an errant knight of Arthur's Court. Arthur's court was already beginning to lose the unity that had so marked it in the beginning. Arthur had lost so much control by then.

For days we wept and wailed in our grief and pain. There were six of us left. As we succumbed to our grief, the world was thrown into chaos. Camelot was at war; Merlin had been lost by this time and could no longer provide the protection Arthur had grown used to. There was no Priestess to turn to, and the heart of Avalon was bleeding. It was weeks after Viviane's death that we checked our scrying glass and saw what had happened to the world. It was obvious that Camelot would be lost; the whole land seemed to be burning down, and there was no helping that. Avalon would be next, and the women of Avalon would need protection. We were sisters, united through our training, united by the great tragedy of Viviane's death. We devised a spell to unite us further so we could fight together for our safety and to preserve Avalon. We called it the Aminadverto Femina...

Excerpt from The Blessings of a Witch.

Hermione sighed as she rushed forward to help shepherd the firsties to the Gryffindor dorms, alone. Ron would never take his responsibilities seriously. She looked back to see him talking quietly with Harry. It was their first day back at Hogwarts, and the start- of- term feast had just ended. Harry was no doubt explaining to Ron why he had arrived in the Great Hall so late.

As Hermione was directing the first years, someone bumped into her hard, and she felt something slip into her hand.

'Watch it, Granger! Stay out of my way!' Pansy barked as she walked away from Hermione.

The Gryffindor witch, ignoring the laughter of Pansy's gang of friends, looked down and saw a small, folded-up scrap of parchment in her hand. She quickly slipped the parchment into the pocket of her robes to read it once she was in her dorm room.

She found it empty, as Lavender and Parvati were still down in the common room socializing, and Hermione pulled out the note that Pansy has passed to her.

RoR tonight 10:30. Be Careful, PM patrols at 10.

Blessings of Viviane.

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip. She didn't like going out after curfew, especially knowing that Snape would be patrolling the halls tonight: PM stood for Potions Master. All she needed was to lose points on her first day back.

Unfortunately, she didn't really have a choice. She needed to meet with Pansy and update her on what she had read in Morgaine's Journal, as she had begun to think of her book.

At 10:30, most of the students had left the common room for their dorm rooms, and Hermione was able to slip out of the portrait unnoticed. She had already changed for bed and shivered as the cold drafts from the castle seemed to go right through her pajamas and thin robe. She hadn't bothered with shoes, as socks would enable her to walk quietly. The castle was dark, and she stayed close to the walls in an attempt to not be seen if a certain professor happened by. She made her way quickly up to the Room of Requirement, clutching Morgaine's Journal in her hands.

Pansy must already be in there, Hermione thought when she reached the doorway, facing the well-known tapestry of trolls attempting ballet. She quickly went into a room that closely resembled the Gryffindor common room, the only difference being the green and silver coloring rather than the maroon and gold that she was so accustomed to. Pansy was sitting on one of the couches in front of the fireplace; she was also in her nightclothes and was warming her hands on a teacup. She handed an identical cup to Hermione when the Gryffindor witch sat down next to her on the couch.

For a moment, both girls were quiet, sipping their tea and avoiding each other's eyes.

Pansy took a deep breath and spoke first. 'Gra...er... Hermione, my father talked to me about my 'mission' before I left for school this morning.'

'Do you know what Voldemort is planning to do?' Hermione asked eagerly.

Pansy shook her head. 'No, I was only given a set of instructions that I have to follow. Voldemort does not reveal his plans to just anybody.'

'What do you have to do?' Hermione inquired, her voice fearful as she imagined all manner of macabre missions that Voldemort would set for his followers.

'I have to make friends with you,' Pansy said in an expressionless voice.

Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise.

'What?' The Gryffindor witch said in a skeptical voice. 'I don't understand. Voldemort wants you to become friends with me?'

'Well, actually,' Pansy answered, 'not just you, but with a majority of the females who are my age at Hogwarts. I am also to do all that Professor Snape tells me to, as he will be helping me,' Pansy said in a mocking voice that implied she was quoting her father verbatim.

Hermione was quiet as she thought this through.

'Pansy... I think this proves that I was right about that spell. The one I told you about at Diagon Alley last week. The spell is performed by a number of girls, but they have to have absolute trust in one another for it to be successful,' she murmured.

Pansy stood abruptly. 'It doesn't matter; I have a solution. I just won't become friends with anyone. That way, Voldemort's spell can't work!' She had started pacing as she spoke. 'I won't help Voldemort use me and then lose all my magic!'

Hermione shook her head. 'Pansy, that won't work. If you don't fulfill your end, Voldemort will punish you and your family. You have to appear to be loyal to him.

'Look... Take this with you tonight.' Hermione held the book out to the other girl. 'Read it, especially the Aminadverto Femina spell in chapter 12. Then we can meet and devise a way for you to appear to be following Voldemort's orders. Pansy, this spell could be really useful to us. It doesn't have to be used for Voldemort. It can be used for a number of different applications; it's really powerful. That's why I noticed it at first; I think we should do it.'

Pansy had stopped pacing and was looking down at Hermione, who was still sitting on the couch.

'Okay... I'll read it. I don't like any of this, especially with Snape breathing down our necks. We need to be really careful, Hermione.'

Hermione was quiet; Dumbledore trusted Snape and, therefore, so did Hermione. But Pansy didn't know about his role in all of this. She couldn't say anything... yet.

'Speaking of Snape, Pansy, did you have any luck with those book titles I gave you?'

'No, I couldn't find any of those books, but I did find a book on feminine magic that is really good. Honestly, I don't see how it could help with our Voldemort problem, but I have already used some of the glamours.' The Slytherin witch smiled sheepishly at this.

Hermione shrugged. 'I guess you never know. Can I read that one?'

Pansy nodded. 'Sure, but I didn't bring it with me tonight. I will send it to you tomorrow by owl post. I could change the cover so it's disguised,' she added. Hermione's book still had the book cover on it that read Advanced Rune Translation.

'Okay, that sounds good. Why don't you make it an Arithmancy book? Harry and Ron wouldn't want to take a second look at it,' she said as she stood up and placed her now tepid tea on the table. 'We should get going, Pansy. We can meet again tomorrow after you have read that chapter. I don't want to get caught by Professor Snape on our first night back.'

Pansy smiled at this and reached behind the sofa and retrieved her Invisibility Cloak. 'I can take you as far as the hall near the entrance. Then you can go to your tower from there.'

Hermione smiled back, and the girls left the Room of Requirement.

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The first day of classes left all of the sixth year students with a huge amount of homework. NEWT classes were not going to be easy. After dinner, Hermione went into the library to get a start on her homework, still muttering to herself about Harry's new potions book. She was just pulling out her textbook for Ancient Runes when she heard Pansy whisper in her ear, probably from underneath her invisibility cloak.

'Meet me in the empty classroom in the corner of the seventh floor corridor.' Hermione kept her eyes on her textbook in case anybody was looking her way, and nodded to show Pansy she understood. She waited five more minutes before packing away her books and walking towards the seventh floor.

Pansy sat at a desk in the middle of the classroom, as soon as Hermione closed the door she raised her wand and warded the door. Hermione added a silencing spell so they couldn't be overheard. Students rarely ventured this far down the corridor on the seventh floor so she wasn't too worried about being found.

'Pansy, why not meet in the Room of Requirement?' she asked, looking around the darkened classroom. She was still breathing heavily from the walk up seven flights of stairs. The room hadn't been used in a while and there was a layer of dust on everything. Pansy sighed, 'I overheard Draco talking to Crabbe and Goyle, and they are planning on using that room all year for ... something. I think Draco has an assignment from the Dark Lord as well.' Pansy looked a little sad at this and Hermione wondered how involved she and Draco were.

'Well, Hermione said, as long as we remember to ward the door, I guess this classroom will work.' Pansy nodded.

'Well, I read about that spell. I think you're right, it would be amazing to do the spell.' Hermione smiled at this.

'Pansy, how many girls did Voldemort want you to befriend? Maybe we should get the same amount of girls to help us.'

'I was told that the more girls the better. I think the spell is more powerful the more you have. I think that's why Bellatrix said I was the only one to do it. Where else will you find a large amount of girls who are around each other frequently? Hogwarts is a perfect setting.' Hermione nodded. It made sense; the spell was based on the combined power of the girls involved. More girls would mean more sources of power.

'So, our first step would be to select which girls to involve.'

'How are we going to do that?' Pansy asked. 'I don't want to trust just any girl. We need to be careful.' Hermione agreed. The spell called that each woman involved had complete trust in each other.

'Pansy, we are going to have to trust each other completely in order to pull this off. We should get started as soon as possible so that we have the time to build trust.'

Pansy was quiet; she was looking down at Morgaine's journal and didn't answer Hermione right away.

Hermione stayed quiet to allow Pansy time to think things through. She was startled when Pansy exclaimed, 'I've got it! I know how we can choose the other girls.' As she said this, she picked up the book and started ripping off the fake cover Hermione had placed on it. A few seconds later, both girls looked at the original cover of the 'journal.' The Blessings of a Witch was uncovered for both girls to see clearly and Hermione started to understand what Pansy was thinking.

'We need to be discreet,' Pansy started, 'but we can show this to certain girls, see what they can read. Doesn't Morgaine say that only the 'worthy' will read the correct title?' Hermione nodded, 'The man in the bookshop couldn't read the correct title, from what Morgaine says, I think it's only possible for women to see it.'

The two girls agreed that Pansy would keep the book for the rest of the week. She would show it around and find the 'worthy' girls from Slytherin and Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw's tended to get along with the Slytherin's better than students from Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. After a week, it would be Hermione's turn to find the rest of the girls. They decided that in two weeks time, they would ask all the girls to meet here in this classroom so they could talk about the spell. Hermione sighed and looked around the dusty room one more time, it would serve their purposes, but the Room of Requirement would be so much more comfortable. She said as much to Pansy.

At this, Pansy smiled a small, calculating smile that Hermione was starting to think of as Pansy's 'Slytherin Smile.'

'Don't worry about a thing,' the witch said. 'I'll arrange everything in time for the other girls to join us.'

Hermione looked at Pansy for a moment, trying to figure out what she wasn't saying.

'What do you mean?'

'Don't worry about it; I have a great idea Hermione. Anyways, we should start your lessons before it gets too late, I have homework I still need to do tonight.'

Hermione nodded eagerly at this and she stopped worrying about whatever Pansy might be planning.

Pansy explained to Hermione that she would cast Legilimens and Hermione's job would be to block her.

'Remember when I tried Legilimens on you at the pub?' Hermione nodded. 'This will be a bit more intense, but I will try to be gentle about it at first. We will need to make eye contact, but try to imagine putting up a wall and blocking me from your mind. That's what helped me when I was working with Mrs. Lestrange.'

Hermione nodded and took a deep breath to ready herself. Pansy looked into her eyes. 'Legilimens!'

Hermione felt Pansy 'enter' her mind and sift through her memories. She saw herself eating breakfast with her mom and dad the day she was to leave for Hogwarts for the first time. She then saw herself earlier in the day during Snape's defense class as she successfully blocked Neville's whispered hex...and then she was in primary school with her nose stuck in a book during their recess break as the other students made fun of her....it was her fourth year in the library when Viktor asked her to attend the Yule ball with him... That was when she thought to block Pansy out. These were private memories, she thought to herself. She imagined a large brick wall coming between Pansy and her memories as she tried to push the other girl out.

Hermione blinked, she was sitting on the cold stone floor looking up at Pansy who was smirking.

'Not bad. Not bad at all. I can see you've been emptying your mind every night.' Pansy said. I was only able to stay in there for about a minute or so. That's good for a first try.'

Hermione smiled in satisfaction at Pansy's compliment. It was fascinating the way Pansy could delve into her memories, she knew she was going to enjoy learning to master Occlumency and Legilmency.

Pansy decided that Hermione would try Legilimency next. She told Hermione to maintain eye contact when she cast Legilimens. She needed to imagine entering Pansy's mind, using her eyes as a conduit. Once in, she should be able to see Pansy's memories.

Hermione nodded and raised her wand.

'Legilimens!' she said as she looked straight into the other girls hazel eyes.

She felt her mind pushing against Pansy's, she was breathing hard with the effort. She saw a memory of Pansy sitting on a stool wearing the sorting hat as the hat decided between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Everything was hard for Hermione to see, as if it were far away or in a fog. It only lasted a few seconds before she had lost contact. Pansy blinked once and gave Hermione a small smile.

'I saw something!' Hermione exclaimed, excited that she had managed Legilimency. 'The hat thought about putting you in Ravenclaw? Me too.' She said with a smile at Pansy. She wondered if they would have been friends if they had been placed in the same house.

Pansy nodded, 'I wanted to be in Slytherin, though. My whole family has been in Slytherin.' She paused for a minute. Not a bad attempt. I didn't expect you to see more than one memory on your first try, that's normal. Was it clear or was it kind of hard to see?' She asked.

'Kind of hard to see, actually, like through some fog.' Hermione answered. Pansy nodded in understanding. 'It was the same for me when I tried. After you start to see a clear picture, then you will be able to pull up more than one memory.' Hermione tried both Occlumency and Legilimency a few more times before the girls parted to their separate common rooms. They both had some homework to finish that evening and had agreed not to stay too late. They would meet in a week so that Hermione could get the book from Pansy.

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For the next few days, the girls only saw each other in their Potions and Defense classes. Neither girl acknowledged the other. Pansy carried the journal with her wherever she went. When she thought it was appropriate, she would take it out and show it to certain girls. Hermione was walking down the hall once and noticed Pansy quietly speaking with a Slytherin girl named Tracey Davis, the book held in her hands as she pointed out the title. Hermione kept her eyes forward as she walked by, but she couldn't help a small smile when she heard the Slytherin gasp in surprise. She had apparently seen the title change.

The next Monday, the day they planned on meeting again in their seventh-floor classroom, Hermione was sitting in Defense, wondering how many girls Pansy had contacted. DADA was one of the classes that Hermione and Pansy shared, and she couldn't help but glance over at the Slytherin corner every now and again. For the last week, the class had been working on non-verbal spells. About 60% of the class had mastered it, and Hermione and Pansy were part of that group. Snape was stalking around the classroom between the pairs as they tried to hex and block each other non-verbally. Hermione was still paired with Neville and was feeling a bit frustrated with the lack of practice this afforded her. Neville would manage one or two hexes for the entirety of class; he wasn't yet able to block anything Hermione had sent towards him.

She wished he presented more of a challenge.

Snape stepped up close behind Hermione as she waited for Neville to hex her. She felt him close behind her at the same time she saw Neville's eyes widen with fear at their professor as he watched. Neville's concentration was gone, and Hermione knew nothing would happen while their instructor stood behind her. She sighed audibly and she heard a very quiet chuckle in her ear from her professor. He clearly understood the source of her frustration. She jerked in surprise when he suddenly spoke loudly to the whole class.

'I can see that most of you lack the competency to accomplish some simple non-verbal magic! It has been maddening to say the least to watch you all struggle to learn something as simple as this. How do you expect to defend yourselves adequately?' he said in a harsh voice while looking at Neville.

His eyes moved down to Hermione still standing in front of him and then to his Slytherin students standing in a group. 'Some of you, however, seem to have picked it up easily enough. It is time to match you up according to your talents. If I leave you paired up as you currently are, I am afraid your whole class will fail their NEWTs.'

There was a general unrest within the class. It was never good when Snape assigned partners.

Surprisingly enough, Harry and Ron were able to stay together. Neville was partnered with a quiet Hufflepuff that Hermione didn't know. She was surprised to be partnered with Pansy. It was perfect; this would give the girls an extra opportunity to talk if they needed to. Hermione flashed Pansy a quick smile as she walked to go stand next to her. Pansy's eyes flashed in response but she just sneered at Hermione in typical Slytherin fashion. For the rest of the class, the girls worked together, and Hermione was pleased to have someone who could match her. Pansy had indeed managed to master the non-verbal spells, and so the girls challenged each other, taking turns at attempting creative hexes and blocking each other. They carefully remembered to keep their faces blank. They were supposed to be angry that Snape had paired them together, but Hermione could tell that Pansy was enjoying it as much as she was.

After class, Hermione was slowly packing her Defense book back in her satchel when Harry and Ron approached her to see if she was all right, since she had been stuck with Parkinson all class! like Ron said. She was about to leave, flanked on either side by the boys as they ranted at the injustice of it all, when she heard Snape speak to Pansy.

'Ms. Parkinson, a word if you please,' he said silkily in a low voice.

'Yes, sir.' Pansy replied, approaching his desk.

As she walked out of the door, Hermione glanced behind her to see Snape speaking to Pansy at his desk.

She wondered what that was about. She would need to ask Pansy tonight when she saw her.

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That night, Hermione and Pansy met once again in the seventh-floor classroom. Pansy had found five girls who could read the correct title of the book...two Ravenclaws and three Slytherins.

Hermione idly wondered if there would be more or less Gryffindors who passed their little test. They continued their lessons and decided to plan more sessions per week, given that Hermione hadn't made any progress since last week. After they had spent an hour on their lessons, Hermione remembered about their DADA class earlier.

'What did Professor Snape want with you today after class?'

Pansy sighed. 'He wanted to explain why he partnered us together. He is helping me to become friends with you first, as you would be able to help me with the rest of the Gryffindors. We will be partnered for the rest of the year, and I need to use my time wisely.'

Hermione frowned at this. What was Snape playing at? Was this all part of his act for Voldemort's sake?

Pansy smirked. 'We can use our class time to work on the spell, and Snape will just think I'm doing what he tells me to!'

Hermione laughed half-heartedly at this, still confused about what Snape's plan was. She felt a small frisson of doubt. Harry and Ron had never fully trusted Snape regardless of what Dumbledore had always said. Maybe she needed to act cautiously until she could be sure; she needed to watch him more carefully.

'Let's practice a few more times before we call it a night,' Pansy suggested, interrupting Hermione's thoughts.

Hermione took the book with her for the next week; it was Hermione's turn to recruit. She started early the next morning, hoping to find some Gryffindor girls right away. The first two were easy. She left the book on a vanity table that both Parvati and Lavender used every morning. When the girls asked Hermione about the book left on their vanity table, she asked what the title was. They both gave her the title the bookkeeper had read to her in the shop.

Hermione spent the rest of the day feeling discouraged. She tried over and over again with a number of different girls, all with little or no success. If she wasn't careful, people were going to start noticing that she seemed to leave her book all over the common room. It wasn't until the next morning that Hermione found a girl who could read the real title of the book. She was re-reading the beginning that talked about 'being worthy enough' when Ginny approached her. Hermione had been so engrossed in the book that she didn't notice Ginny talking to her until Ginny gasped and said the title aloud.

'The Blessings of a Witch? What's that about, Hermione?'

Hermione looked up sharply when Ginny spoke. Ginny was standing in front of Hermione, her eyes cast down at the book held in her hand.

'What did you say, Ginny?'

'I was looking at your book and the title changed.' Ginny said, gesturing to the book.

'What does the title say?' Hermione asked her.

'The Blessings of a Witch. What's wrong, Hermione? Why did you want me to read the title? Is that an enchanted book?' Ginny asked with raised eyebrows. 'Are you feeling okay?'

Hermione smiled with relief. She had found someone. She quickly asked Ginny to meet with her in the seventh-floor classroom in a week. She promised to explain everything at that time and asked Ginny to keep it a secret until then. Ginny was clearly confused but agreed to do as Hermione required from her.

Throughout the week, Hermione found three more girls that could read the title of the book. She was more successful when she stopped trying to be so subtle and just asked girls to read the title of the book. Most people stared at her as if she was crazy, but she considered it worth it when the other girls were able to read the correct title. In the end, Susan Bones, Jarilyn Frobisher, one of Ginny's roommates, and a seventh year named Anjali Stempson could correctly read the title of the book. Each girl promised to meet in the seventh-floor classroom as Hermione asked.

Hermione made sure to get to the seventh-floor classroom thirty minutes before the other girls would arrive. When she entered the classroom, she stopped in surprise, her mouth opening to form a small 'O.' She heard a chuckle behind her as Pansy entered the transformed room. What had once been a dusty, abandoned classroom was now a cozy sitting room with overstuffed couches, a fireplace, and comfortable cushions and rugs covering the stone floor. The desks had been moved to one side, and a coffee table near the front of the room was covered in snacks and pitchers of pumpkin juice.

'Told you I would take care of everything,' Pansy said smugly.

Hermione turned to her and shook her head. 'How did you do this? It's amazing!'

Her smug smile still in place, Pansy called out a name. 'Seely! Are you here?' A house-elf Apparated next to Hermione with a sharp crack.

'Hermione, meet my house-elf, Seely. She comes to work at Hogwarts during the school term so she can help me if I need it.'

The house-elf bowed low towards Hermione, who noticed that Seely's pillowcase was pink with white unicorns dancing across it.

'Hi, Seely... you did all of this?' Hermione inquired.

'Yes, miss. Seely loves helping Mistress Pansy! Is miss pleased?' The house-elf asked eagerly.

'It's wonderful!' Hermione said sincerely. 'But... er... nobody can know we did this.'

'Don't worry about it,' Pansy interjected. 'Seely is my house-elf and won't tell any of our secrets. She will also help us with anything we might need.' Seely was nodding so enthusiastically Hermione was reminded of an old-fashioned bobble-head doll.

'Thanks, Seel. We will call you if we need anything else,' Pansy told her elf. Seely disappeared with a snapping sound.

Hermione wandered around the room a little, taking in all the changes.

'Did you get any girls?' Pansy asked.

Hermione made an affirmative gesture. 'I found four girls, and they should be here in about thirty minutes.'

Pansy nodded. 'The girls I found agreed to come here tonight, but I can't guarantee they will stay after they hear what we have to say.'

'I have an idea about that,' Hermione answered. 'I think we should get everyone to sign something saying they won't tell anyone about this meeting. We can't make them agree to help us, but we can't risk anyone else knowing.'

'That makes sense, but how do know we can trust them not to blab?' Pansy challenged her.

Hermione explained to Pansy about the DA and Marietta Edgecombe's spotty face.

When the girls started to arrive, Pansy was still laughing over Hermione's story about Marietta. Hermione and Pansy stood side by side near the front of the room as the girls slowly filed in. Within five minutes, all nine girls were in the classroom. Silence took over the place as they looked at each other suspiciously. The girls Pansy had recruited were Luna Lovegood and Padma Patil from Ravenclaw and Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis from Slytherin. Hermione cleared her throat, and all girls looked up at her and Pansy standing side by side. Most of the girls had obviously been surprised to walk into the room and see the two girls together, laughing like old friends.

Hermione spoke first. 'Pansy and I need to tell you why we asked you here tonight.'

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AN: Aminadverto Femina is what I came up with using an English to Latin translator online. Aminadverto seemed to have a few different meanings, including reading and mind. Femina means woman.

AN: Some of my inspiration for the Avalon parts comes from a book called The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is a brilliant story of Camelot told from Morgaine's point of view. I have, however, deviated a lot from Ms. Bradley's storyline and basically made up a lot of what you will read here.