Wisdom beyond Measure...   von Aylatha
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                             Kapitel 6: Rebellion
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Time passed, sometimes more quickly, and sometimes (in history and defence) more
slowly. Soon, the first Hogsmeade-weekend would be here, and everyone was
looking forward to it.
Umbridge had been appointed High-Inquisitor by the ministry, and Lily wasn't the
only one who was furious about that. Umbridge had started to turn up in classes
to inspect the other teachers, and she was becoming very unpopular with the
staff.
Hermione had told Lilian during a break that she and Ron had talked Harry into
starting some reasonable defence-classes, and that they would meet in the Hog's
Head during the Hogsmeade-weekend. The Gryffindor had also asked her to bring
anyone along she thought to be trustworthy.
Finally, the day had arrived, and everyone from the third class upwards was
preparing to leave. Everyone – except Elinor, who was sitting on her bed,
studying Ancient Runes.
“Elinor, what's the hold-up? Come on, hurry!”
“Wh-why? It's S-saturday. N-no classes.”
She can't have forgotten about Hogsmeade, can she? Everyone has been talking
about this for days...
“It's the first Hogsmeade-weekend this year”, Lilian reminded her.
Elinor just looked confused.
“H-hogsmeade? What's that?”
“You've got to be kidding. You can't honestly expect me to believe you don't
know? Hogs­meade is the village just beyond the castle grounds, where the train
station is!”
“I-I didn't know.”
“Didn't your parents tell you about this?”
She just shook her head.
“Unbelievable... so you don't have permission to go out, I presume?”
“N-no.”
“But why not? Why wouldn't your parents let you go to Hogsmeade, or worse, not
even tell you anything about it?”
“I-it would k-keep me f-from studying. I guess th-that's the r-reason.”
“I don't believe it”, Lily said, feeling a sudden surge of hatred toward
Elinor's parents.
Elinor didn't reply.
“Don't you want to go there?”
“N-not really.”
“Why not? You don't even know what you'll miss!”
“Ignorance can be a bliss.”
Lilian stared at her. Elinor's voice had just sounded very strange. And she
seemed some­what absent-minded.
“What did you just say?”
Elinor's eyes focused on Lily.
“Sorry?”
“What did you say just now?”
“I-I don't re-remember...”
“Hm. Was that another vision?”
“I d-don't know... I-I didn't s-see anything.”
“Well, that's strange... Anyway, I'll be going now. What are you going to
do?”
“Study. H-have Ancient Runes t-tomorrow.”
“Oh, I see. Well then, good luck.”
Lily grabbed her cloak and made her way down to the Entrance Hall. She showed
Filch her form and followed the other students down to the village. After doing
some window-shopping, she went to the Hog's Head to meet up with Hermione and
the others.
All the people present decided that they should start to practise defence by
themselves, since Umbridge's classes were more than ill-suited as preparation
for what might come. They set a new date for their first class and agreed that
they would meet in the Room of Re­quirement.
After the meeting was over, Lily went to do some shopping. She didn't go to
Zonko's, but she stopped by at Honeyduke's to get some sweets – and not just
for herself.
To her surprise, she found Elinor in the common room, in a chair near the
fireplace. She was apparently using the time it wasn't so loud in here for
studying. Lilian went over to her.
“Hey, Elinor, I got something for you.”
She placed the bag with the sweets she had bought for the other girl and several
bottles of Butterbeer on the table. Elinor looked up.
“Wh-what's this?”
“Sweets from Honeyduke's and Butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks. You'll
like that, I'm sure of it.”
“Y-you b-bought that – for m-me?”, she asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Wh-why?”
“Why not?” Lily took the seat next to Elinor. “You couldn't go yourself,
and besides, every­one deserves a treat every now and then.”
“B-but – you didn't have t-to d-do that...”
“I know. And I still did it. Just accept it already!”
Elinor looked away, apparently afraid to talk back to her. Lilian sighed.
“Why are you so very complicated?”



Elinor didn't find the Ancient Runes-exam difficult at all, she was rather
certain she would pass. She had already agreed with Professor Babbling on the
date for the second exam.
However, now she had another thing bothering her. She still couldn't understand
why Lily had gone through the trouble to buy sweets for her. Her own parents had
never done that, after all. So why would a complete stranger who just happened
to be in her class do it? Elinor couldn't guess, and so she assumed that Lily
was planning something. She just couldn't figure out what it could be.
However, she discovered something else. That evening, she tried Butterbeer for
the first time. It had a very nice taste, and there was something else about it
– after drinking for a while, Elinor noticed that everything seemed somewhat
different. The pain was numbed, and she felt she cared less about anything. It
was a wonderful feeling.
However, Elinor also realised that she only had six bottles, so she'd best not
get drunk the first day. She would have to hoard it, like a treasure, for days
that would be like hell. For she was sure they would come, sooner or later. Such
was her life.



“Sorry I'm late”, Lilian called into the room. “Someone needed a lot of
convincing.”
She pushed a very reluctant Elinor into the Room of Requirement.
“Lily! We almost thought you wouldn't come”, Harry said. “And you brought
Elinor as well. Why did you have a hard time convincing her?”
“Because she's terrified that she'll be caught by Umbridge. But I think she
needs to learn to fight back – I won't always be around to protect her from
Slytherins or Death Eaters.”
“I see. Well, we were just busy organising everything. You two can pair up, if
you like.”
“Good idea. I've been thinking about trying non-verbal magic, it would be a
great help for Elinor - “
“Non-verbal magic?”, Ron asked. “What's that?”
“It means you use spells without saying them aloud”, Hermione replied
instantly. “It gives you the advantage that your enemy doesn't know what kind
of spell is coming for him.”
“But Lily, we're supposed to learn that next year!”, another Ravenclaw
said.
“So, what's your point? I think I can do it. Oh, and Harry, I could pass on
some tricks and skills my parents taught me.”
“Sounds good. If anyone else wants to help with the teaching, feel free to say
so.”
While Harry started practising the Expelliarmus with the others, Lily led Elinor
to the far side of the room and started practising simple spells such as the
Alohomora. It turned out to be trickier than Lilian had expected, and she had to
try quite a couple of times before it actually worked. Despite everything,
Elinor was rather impressed.
“Now you try. It's important you do everything you normally do, apart from
voicing the spell. Just speak it in your mind.”
Maybe it was because she disliked talking in general, but Elinor was very quick
to grasp the concept and soon, she could use more than just one spell
non-verbal. Lily was stunned and hurried on to do harder spells, spells that
would be more useful.
However, this turned out to be more difficult, and the only other spell they
could master was a non-verbal shield-charm. But still, Lily thought this was a
big step in the right direc­tion.
“Try using non-verbal magic in classes”, she told Elinor. “But you should
not let anyone notice what you're doing, we don't want people to ask questions.
Move your lips while doing spells, if you like. And if anyone – Umbridge –
should ask you any questions about where you learned that, just tell them the
truth: that I taught you, because I thought it would help you in classes. No-one
can argue with that, and since it's just you and me, we won't even fall under
Umbridge's stupid Educational Decree.”
Elinor nodded. She wasn't one to talk back, not even if she thought what the
other person said was stupid. Lily had learned that by now.
As they were about to leave, Hermione came over, bringing the piece of parchment
every­one had signed their names on over to Elinor.
“Elinor, I need you to write your name on it”, she said with a friendly
smile.
Elinor, however, backed away from her, as if she was a demon or something.
“N-no.”
It was the first time ever Lily had heard her say that.
Hermione frowned.
“Come on, we all did that”, Lilian said. “And a piece of parchment isn't
dangerous or anything.”
“I-it's jinxed.”
“Nonsense!”, Lily exclaimed.
Hermione, however, looked shocked.
“How – how did you know?”
“Wait, you actually put a spell on it?”
“Yes – as a precaution, to make sure no-one would betray us...”
“I see...”
“But how did she know?”
They both looked at Elinor, who seemed scared.
“She probably had another revelation”, Lily assumed. “Anyway, don't make
her sign it, it would only frighten her even more. I doubt she would tell
anyone.”
Elinor nodded violently.
“I-I won't. I-I p-p-promise.”



Elinor had always been good at hiding things, and so several weeks passed before
one of the teachers finally noticed she was no longer saying spells aloud. She
stuck to Lily's story and explained – with much stuttering – that Lilian had
wanted to help her. Some of the teachers were impressed that two fifth-years
could use non-verbal magic, and fortunately enough, Umbridge didn't suspect her
to be capable of breaking any rules. And Lily was good at convincing others that
her sole motivation had been to help Elinor.
Elinor still wondered how Lilian had managed to make her join the DA, but by
now, she was beginning to see that it could be useful. If she was careful, she
could use magic on the corridors without anyone noticing – of course, anything
flashy wouldn't work, but she could use a shield-charm in case she was bullied,
or summon stuff she had forgotten somewhere. And classes had become so much
easier, now that she no longer had to worry about spells going wrong. For the
first time in her life, Elinor had a feeling that she could actually achieve
something. She was growing stronger.


She passed the second Ancient Runes-exam as well and Professor Babbling was very
pleased with her. Quidditch-practises and DA-meetings kept her busy, and she had
less time to worry about the things that normally bothered her. Shizel had
become her constant companion – Lily, who had quickly found out about that,
hat helped her to hide the snake from the others. And meanwhile, Elinor had
found a second ring snake she'd named Nasir. Now she had two friends. What a
strange thing.
Meanwhile, Umbridge was busy making everyday life as troublesome as possible.
She especially liked to pick on Trelawney, and while Elinor was ready to admit
that she had no talent as a seer whatsoever, she still needed the older woman's
guidance if she wanted to develop her own powers. For Trelawney did know a thing
or two.
But it was somehow funny to watch Umbridge trying to inspect McGonagall or
Snape. Both of them had their own ways of fighting back, and they gave her a
really hard time. Um­bridge then tried to get information from the students
about their teachers, but didn't get the intended results. No-one dared to speak
against Snape, and there was nothing to complain about in McGonagall's case.
Every student knew that both of them were excel­lent teachers, even if they
were not universally liked, and Lily even went as far to tell Umbridge that
McGonagall was helping her to become an Animagus.
“I hope you intend to get registered, Miss Achura”, Umbridge replied.
“No, actually I didn't intend to do that, that's why I'm running around
telling everyone about it”, Lilian replied sarcastically.
Umbridge looked rather annoyed, while some of the other students laughed. And
Elinor thought she'd seen McGonagall smile. If only a little bit.
Umbridge really is stupid – and that's the problem. Foolish people in power
are the worst thing in the world.

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