I'm A Slave For You-Chp80

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

The Dumbledore Army were all gathered in the Shrieking Shack, huddled nearest to the fire with some snacks they got from Honeydukes to share among themselves. They had planned to do this meeting in the Snape Manor along with Neville and Colin, but ever since Severus was relieved of membership from the Order and he has kept both boys busy with being Harry's mini-bodyguards over the unborn baby, they could no longer conduct their secret meetings there and include them in it. It was Lil who suggested to have the meeting in the Shrieking Shack, mostly because she wanted to get the feel of returning to the place that she was resurrected, and also the fact that this was the most remote place that had no access to Floo-ing or firecall networks, thus their privacy secured.

"Feels kinda creepy to be back here," Lil said as she tried to quell her goosebumps. "Strange too, especially at that time I was totally clueless about what I was doing here. Come to think of it, I'm still clueless."

"You said you were dead once, then resurrected, right?" Cedric asked, earning a nod from Lil. "I'm sure whoever did it must've wanted you to solve the case of the Ministry scandal. So don't worry. All will be revealed soon."

"I doubt it," Zacharias replied, rolling his eyes. "She's probably resurrected by the Ministry themselves to spy on us. I mean, is she even on our side to begin with?"

"Shut up, Zach," Cho Chang scowled at him. "You're always the pessimist among us. It's a wonder Harry could even tolerate you!"

"Don't listen to Zach," Alicia said as she waved Zacharias away. "I think you're a brave girl to dare tackle the Ministry and come out with a finding like that."

"I agree," Lee Jordan nodded. "You've done well by Harry, being able to investigate this far ahead. Whoever resurrected you had done the right thing."

"Yeah, well, unfortunately like your Prof. Snape said," Lil sighed with a sad smile. "I am a walking time bomb. The effects of my resurrection may be temporary. There is no telling when I would just suddenly drop dead and turn into ashes."

"Who cares whether you will be permanently alive or not," Ron said as he clapped her back. "The good thing is you've got the Ministry by the balls! Sooner or later, we are going to bust their asses and save the wizarding world!"

"Calm down, Ron," Hermione said as she nudged him. "We don't know yet how the outcome of Headmaster Dumbledore and the Order is at the moment to start anything."

"Speaking of which, where is Beck anyway? Shouldn't she be joining in our meeting as well?"

"She's compiling the last of the evidence we've found and are showing them to the Order as we speak," Lil replied. "Hopefully by the day after tomorrow, they will take it up to the secret meeting with the branch Ministries and get started on the plans to boycott the Ministry."

"If they are going on an all-out boycott…" Seamus noted. "Would that mean that we are actually going to go up with the government that runs this entire wizarding world?"

"This is very much exciting," Luna noted. "It's almost like the Muggle stories I've read about conspiracy theories and espionage."

"Isn't this wonderful, Won-Won?" Lavender cooed at Ron. "This is so much more exciting than Quidditch!"

"Err, um, yeah, right," Ron stuttered nervously, earning a glare from Hermione and a yank towards her direction.

"I just don't get you!" Hermione scolded Lavender. "You're just here for the sake of Ron, who happens to be my fiancé, thank you very much! Where's all the other guys you got to fuck with? You're not genuinely concerned about Har at all, aren't you?!"

"So what if I am?" Lavender shot back. "No one wants a Know-It-All like you who acts like she still wears a chastity belt like it's the Holy Grail! You should know by now that Ron prefers someone who is experienced!"

"Yeah, experienced in being a whore!"

"Why, I oughta…"

"Ooh~! Catfight!" Fred and George grinned as they turned their attention to the girls as if they were watching some kind of blockbuster movie.

"Alright, alright, break it up, girls!" Lil came between them. "Now is not the time to be feuding over some guy. We have more important matters to be at hand here, like the Ministry, for example."

"Right," Hermione straightened herself and gave one last glare at Lavender before turning to the group. "So, guys, you know what you're here for. Anything you would like to report on your progress of spreading the word discreetly to the public about the scandal?"

"Well, to be honest," Susan replied as she scratched her chin. "It's not really that good on my side. Coz of me being related to my aunt who works in the Wizengamot, no one would think too much about my words. They're probably thinking I was spreading these words on behalf of the Ministry as a reverse psychology propaganda or that I was being a conspiracy theorist. At most, I think I only got through about 1 out of 10 people that I've talked to. The rest were between the lines of 'Oh, yeah, sure, whatever you say, little girl' or something like that."

"It's up to them whether they want to believe you or not," Hermione said. "Just keep at it and try to convince as much people to be on ours and the Order's side as possible."

"Come to think of it," Ernie tapped his chin. "Why do we have to do this discreetly? Can't we just go to the media with this? We should put this into consideration."

"The last thing we need is to have the media broadcasting the whole lot and allowing the Ministry to foil our plans and leap ahead of us before we can boycott them. Don't put your heads in a bunch about that and concentrate on the agenda at hand first."

"I'm just saying. I mean, we've got Rita Skeeter in the Daily Prophet and everyone believes her stories, so if we use her…"

"Rita Skeeter?!" Ginny exclaimed. "Not that tongue-wagger gossip girl who couldn't even spell a proper name right now, are you?"

"There is no way you can let that woman know of the scandal!" Fred exclaimed, followed by George. "She is the last person we'd want to have a field day with this news. Remember we tried to use her to advertise our shop?"

"Yeah," Ron stifled a chortle. "There are still people who think that your shop is an adult novelty shop that sells things to be shoved into every orifice of the body."

"Ron!" Hermione ribbed Ron, slightly reminded of their own private sex games with the toy.

"Anyway, she is a disaster," the Weasley twins groaned, finishing each other's sentences. "Asking her to spread the news…"

"…is like asking her to pour Boils-Inducing Solution on the whole wizarding world."

"We cannot afford that sort of mishap in our heads…"

"…not after what Lil and Beck had gone through to gather evidence against the Ministry."

"OK, seriously? That is really creeping me out," Justin Finch-Fletchley cringed at the way the Weasley twins were able to communicate like this without missing a beat.

"How did you think I feel living in that situation for the rest of my natural life?" Ron groaned.

"We take that as a compliment," the Weasley twins grinned simultaneously.

"Well, that's Susan's report," Hermione said. "What about the rest of you?"

Soon, one by one, the DA members brought forth their news. Hannah had tried her luck with her Hufflepuff classmates and her own family, while Katie Bell spread it through casual talk with the Quidditch player members. Terry, still aiming to please Hermione despite witnessing that catfight just now, told of how he started a secret club of his own as their response to their hate towards Prof. Slughorn—though the name 'Slug Hater' wasn't exactly very impressive—and asked his group members to help spread the word as well. Lavender spread her tales to her many close friends in Divination classes and around her hometown, giving Hermione a smug look in process as she tried to impress Ron on how many people and connections she knew, when in fact Hermione knew most of the people she mentioned were the guys she randomly slept with.

Cho Chang and Cedric did their part in spreading the word to their families, mostly on Cedric's part when he spread it to his fellow Quidditch player cum friends. Michael had done his part in spreading the word among his friends and family, particularly those in the Duelling Club, while Ginny spread to housemates of her year. Marietta, being that she was happy to be given a chance to rebel against her mother, was the most enthusiastic in spreading the news as she told it to every gossip monger in the neighbourhood, being that she couldn't trust her own family to keep the secret from her mother, and to friends she would meet up whenever she got the chance to walk the dog when she was home instead of at Hogwarts, and even in Hogwarts, she spread them to every Ravenclaw she could get her hands on. Justin played his part by telling this to his Muggle parents, and was almost forbidden to come back to school for fear of being hurt by this scandal, and also told it to his Muggle friends who knew of his nature as a Muggle-born, scoring a bit of fame among them for being part of some sort of bravado freedom fighter.

Anthony spread the word via his fellow Prefects in school as well as his family members, while Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas to their respective friends in Gryffindor and to their families, though Seamus' father took it a little harder than Dean's family did, claiming that it was just as much as a nasty shock as he had when he found out Seamus' mother was a witch after their marriage. Angelina spread it to the usual family and friends, while Lee Jordan, being that he was the Quidditch commentator and good with words and broadcasting machinery, has gotten started on creating his own pirate radio station that can only be accessed via a very remote channel that only certain headphones can pick up the broadcast and made live broadcasts of it under a pseudonym. His way was, by far, the riskiest way because of the chances of hitting it out to the larger public and consequently the Ministry, but the DA members finally voted their trust on Lee Jordan knowing what he was doing.

Luna had not much friends, so she only had her father, who is the editor-in-chief of The Quibbler, to tell. Though unfortunately for her father, because it was to be discreet and not to let anyone, much less the Ministry and the media, to know, he had to hold up his end of the bargain of restraining himself from publishing this scoop in favour of his daughter, who quietly made an actual threat (something she had never done before) that if he exposed it before its time, she would either kill herself the way her mother did or disown herself from him. Ernie was a bit of a tight spot and had limited people to tell since he was descended from nine consecutive generations of pureblood witches and wizards and had been pressured by his family to be a sort of elitist like them, while Zacharias was the least successful with his news-spreading because of his previous haughty reputation.

The twins Padma and Parvati Patil were just as enthusiastic as Marietta in spreading the news to their friends and family as they would do anything for their little Harry whom they share a sisterly affection for. They still continued to rival out each other in the news-spreading, seeing who could spread it the most and in the most discreet way possible, claiming that it would help them gather merits later when it was time to grab Harry's attention on them. They faced the same situation as Justin from their parents but was determined to carry on with their mission in favour of their little Harry. Alicia had her fair share of friends to spread the word with, while the Weasley twins were probably having the most advantage in news-spreading as they ran a shop in the busiest part of the wizarding world. They also revealed to be affiliated with Lee Jordan in selling those certain headphones in secret for anyone who would want to listen in to Lee Jordan's broadcast in his pirate radio station, and offered special coupons so that those interested can come to their shop at their discretion to purchase those headphones.

"Well, we have a rather fruitful result so far despite the odds," Hermione said as she took note of everyone's report. "Is there anything you would like to add before we conclude this meeting?"

Just as everyone was looking at each other to see if they have missed out anything, a rare species of hawk owl came flying in and landed on Lil's shoulder, a note tied onto its leg. Lil set the owl down onto the table, much to the team's surprise, and took off the note from the leg while the owl helped itself to some shepherd's pie. As she opened the note, everyone leaned in to see what it read, anxious to find out what it was.

"What does it say?" Lee Jordan asked. "And whose owl is this? It's rare to see this kind of breed around."

"That owl is Bear, belonging to Beck," Lil said as she read the note. "Careful. He bites. He only lets me and Beck manhandle him."

"So what does the note say?" Padma and Parvati asked simultanouesly, almost like the Weasley twins.
Lil finished reading and looked up with a smile.

"Beck had just finished collecting every single evidence, both concrete and circumstantial evidence, on the Ministry and confirmed to have the secret meeting with the branch Ministries by next week."

"That's wonderful!" Cho Chang exclaimed, followed by cheers and high-fives from all the DA members.

"And…?" Hermione probed, seeing that Lil seemed to have something else to say.

"You are invited to attend. All of you DA members."

It felt almost like forever when the news sunk into each and every one's head. There was only one thing to say, expressed exclusively by Ron.

"Bloody hell."