I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_harry]

So.

I've been thinking. And talking with Draco and Hermione.

And I figure we've got some things we can do.

Annoying her is one thing. But. I think if we plan it right, we could force her to leave. Like, see, if we worked the day out ahead of time, and sort of let everyone know that we trusted, what if I stood up at dinner one night and told her that either she had to leave, or we would. And then she wouldn't, of course, but what if we got most of the students and professors to just walk out?

I think they would. I really do. I think it'd take a day or two of us staying away for it to work, but she can't run a school with most of the students and professors gone.

Maybe we could walk down to Hogsmeade and stay there? Or set up a camp on the grounds? I don't know. But if it takes a day or two, the professors who leave with us could even teach their classes and things while we wait. I'm not sure about food, but Hogsmeade does have some places to eat, and maybe they'd help. Or we could find a work-around with the House Elves, because we wouldn't be in the castle proper, so maybe those rules wouldn't apply any more.

And we could have demands. Like we won't go back until she's gone. And stick to them. And wait her out. It's got to be better than what we've got right now.

Anyways.

That was an idea we talked about.

Comments

[alt_justin]

What ho, Harry,

I say, old man, I do like the idea in principle, and I certainly approve of the spirit of civil disobedience inherent in it, if you follow me.

I fear it might be too dangerous for those of us who do need to sit O.W.L.s or risk being sent to the camps, what? What if she should lock the doors and hold the keep, as it were? Or if Magical Education were to consider our walk-out a withdrawal from enrollment, or some bally old red tape like that?

I wonder if we might make the same point without vacating the grounds. A sit-in in the Great Hall, in which we refuse to leave or attend lessons, something along those lines. Food wouldn't be an issue in that case, what? And I rather think we could organise revision in groups, for those who wish to have it, so we can prove that we're dedicated to our study; we're just protesting the way in which we're being treated.

I do take your point that we'd need professors on our side to keep her simply rampaging through the Hall and bringing people to harm, what. I say, I think we might easily get them to agree, though.

-Justin

[alt_harry]

Yeah.

You've got a point about withdrawing. But if a lot of the professors are there, it might be different.

The Great Hall is good for food. And we could sleep on the floor.

We'd have to keep her out, and keep her from dragging people out who didn't want to leave. And it might be less safe than going somewhere else.

[alt_harry]

But yeah. That could work.

[alt_justin]

And speaking of rampaging, had you heard that she's taken the notion to berate all manner of students for bally well ridiculous infractions this week?

One of the first-year Slytherins (Birchmore, I think) loaned his classmate a quill and she preached for five minutes about the unsanitary nature of sharing quills, then made Birchmore sit in the corner for the duration of the lesson. Ernie said Thaddeus Chadwick came and hid in the boys' loo for an hour because Hedigan had been bullying him about the common room. When she found out, she bally well assigned him as Hedigan's fag for the rest of the week.

Just this afternoon I saw her screaming at Lucas O'Leary for not standing to the side of the hallway when a group of purebloods walked by. Told him to come to her office to write lines--I'm sure she'll have that dashed evil quill for him to use, too, what! It's jolly well beyond madness.

-J

[alt_sally_anne]

Did you see Deirdre Lynch? She's a second year from Gryffindor.

Apparently she got caught sharing a hair-ribbon and Umbridge hexed her hair off, right there in the corridor. Then later Umbridge caught her wearing a scarf on her head and confiscated the scarf because it's not part of the official school uniform.

[alt_ron]

Yeah. She really doesn't have the sort of head that ought to be bald, y'know?

Sorry. She didn't deserve that. Not like Brown. Now she deserved to be cursed hideous!

[alt_ron]

Yeah. Harry's got a good idea, and I agree with you about not leaving the castle. I wonder, though, if you're right about food. I mean to say, she's got the elves to follow her orders about which parts of the table get most food already. They might follow her orders if she said they couldn't serve us at all.

Unless we could get the elves on our side.

I've got two ideas about that. One is that we might be able to just talk to them and get them to agree that she's not their proper mistress and get them to promise to serve food like they always have. Lee maybe knows them best. Or maybe Hermione?

The other idea involves Hermione, too, and it might be the better one if the elves aren't sure they can disobey Umbridge. Hermione could get in touch with Headmistress McGonagall and ask her to send a talking Patronus to the elves, telling them she is still their mistress and that they should not obey anything Umbridge says, but should go on serving us food like always. You know how the castle won't let Umbridge into the Head's office? Well, I think the elves might still obey an order that came from Headmistress McGonagall. Maybe.

[alt_sally_anne]

That's a good idea. I think you're right about them obeying Headmistress McGonagall.

Is there any way we can test it before we risk Umbridge trying to starve us out? Is there some other order she's given that she might not notice right away if the elves were disobeying?

[alt_sally_anne]

We could just try having her tell them to bring us food. Discreetly.

[alt_ron]

That's actually a really good idea.

Hermione. D'you think the Headmistress would do it?

And, um. If you asked her to do this, would she send them another message later if we need her to? I mean will she get annoyed about us asking more than once? D'you think she'd even do it at all? I mean, maybe they only use that kind of message for emergencies, yeah?

Only, this could get to be really serious. If Umbridge decided to starve us.

[alt_harry]

Asking Headmistress McGonagall is a really good idea.

Professor Dolohov's got his own house elf, that might help too.

Only

I'm not sure what he'd think about this.

I think it'd be important to have him on our side, to help manage things if she does get nasty. And I'm pretty sure she will.

How can we keep her out of the hall? Any thoughts there?

[alt_ron]

Well. I think if we can get Professor Dolohov and others to come IN the hall with us, one of them will know a barricading spell that will keep HER out.

And then we could have lessons in there.

We could maybe transfigure some of the CCF tents so they'd be more like pavillions. And set them up in there. That would give us more space, right? Cause those tents are really roomy inside. So those could be classrooms during the day and dormitories at night.

It'd be like a school within the school. And also well nift, don't you think?


So. Who's going to talk to Dolohov about it?

I'll talk to Brutka and Grubbly-Plank (though I doubt we really want her to teach in the Great Hall, but it would just be good to get as many of the teachers as we can to stand up to Umbridge with us). I don't think I'm the best one to go to Dolohov, though. Maybe you could. Or F-F. Oh, or Sally Anne.

[alt_harry]

I'll talk to Dolohov.

I need to know what he'd think about going against what I'm expected to do. And whether he'd support it. Because if he wouldn't, that'd be a problem.

Raz doesn't want

Raz would understand. I think. So maybe I'll talk to him first.

[alt_hermione]

I'll ask.