War

I keep my wand steady on Nott. Now more than ever I can't show ann weakness, even if internally I'm panicking. I knew we had been teaching Daphne how to fight better, but I know we haven't taught her any stealth spells. Which means that she's probably learned a lot I don't know about. Blaise keeps his wand trained on the others and sends me worried glances. I give him a look to let me deal with this and he nods.

"So, how does this end Daphne? You curse me from behind like a coward?" I said, my eyes not leaving my target.

Daphne chuckles and says in an amused tone, "Oh Ares, what you call cowardice, I call surviving. I didn't peg you for a Gryffindor, though with the company you keep… their bad influence was bound to rub off on you."

"You still didn't answer my question." I point out.

"Don't rush, this took a lot of planning to pull off!" She said in mock outrage. "I appreciate you allowing me to train with you guys, it was absolutely essential for my plans."

"And just what is your plan?" I say trying to gather more info and stall for time. Surely someone will be by soon.

"Why to become a Prince, isn't it obvious?" Daphne says in a cold tone, "Did you really think I would follow that fool Nott? He was just useful enough to have around as a deterrent to the masses. Though, I did enjoy when he attacked Draco for me."

"He did that for you?" Anger laced my tone.

"Of course. A little flirting here and there, and he was ready to do anything I told him too!" She says with a soft laugh. My eyes narrow at that and my wand in my hand.

The former members of Nott's group all chuckled darkly at that and Daphne continued, "As you can see, this is a hostile takeover. Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy all realized that if they followed that idiot they would never be able to lead the Slytherins. It was incredibly easy to sway them to my side."

"Oh I'm sure that it wasn't as easy as your making it out to be." I say with a praising tone.

"Maybe it would have been hard for som-" she starts before she stops and chuckles, "Oh very clever Ares, your stalling. I never thought I'd see the day that the Great Heir Black would run out of his plans."

I sigh and admit, "Well I haven't gotten much time to come up with anything yet. Come back in a few minutes and I'll have something for you."

She chuckles and says, "If it's one thing I'll miss about our 'friendship', it was your since of humor," she grinds her wand into the base of my neck and says, "Now proclaim your lose. You've run out of moves, or I can always give you the same treatment Nott has?"

I grit my teeth in reluctance, I can't believe she caught me so off-guard, "I-

*BANG*

The Common Room doors fly open as Snape strides in with a fierce glare, "What… pray tell is going on? Why haven't the prefects brought Nott to the infirmary?"

I let out a relieved breath at his timely entrance. Just as I was about to move, Daphne leans in and whispers harshly, "If you think this is over, your sorely mistaken. This is a declaration of war, I hope you're ready."

I lock eyes with her and give her a cold look. She won't be able to catch me from behind like this again, but she's extremely smart, she'll think of something. Nevertheless, I say with an icy tone, "Bring it, bitch."

She snarls and shoves me aside as the prefects do their job of rounding up Nott and taking him to the infirmary. I'm not worried, Nott can't say anything without revealing what he was doing prior to his injuries. I stalk off with Blaise in tow.

"Get Millie and meet me in the room. Tell her to bring all her things. We need to hold a War Council." I say with a fierce gleam in my eyes. Blaise looks shocked before he says, "Are you sure we should escalate to open war?"

I nod and say, "She challenged me in front of every Slytherin there and almost made me abdicate my position as Prince. If I don't do anything soon, then they'll remove me. If the King and her Princes had tried any other way to remove me I could threaten them with my blackmail. You know that I only hold this position because they don't want to risk the inconvenience my evidence would make. But if all of Slytherin is behind them, then they won't care about the consequences since the loss of all those contacts should they refuse would out weigh the risk."

Blaise nods and goes to get Millie. I leave to the Room of Requirements and try to figure out how everything had gone to shit. We're going to need to be extra careful. With Daphne's knowledge of the room, while she can't enter while we are in it, she can set up traps and ambushes outside the room and wait for us to leave.

I open the training room and start firing spell after spell, cursing and blowing off some steam. This lasts for a couple minutes before I stop panting. I take deep breaths and calm down. This is the scene Blaise and Millie walk into. I look over and sadness washes over me at her appearance. Millie had seen better days, her hair was ratty and messy, she looked like she hadn't slept in a week, and she had bruises all over her face. Her belongings were in tatters, and her clothes had been shredded except what she's wearing.

I walk over and bring her into a hug and say, "I'm sorry Millie…"

Tears well into her eyes as she breaks down and sobs. I keep forgetting that despite her bulky and large figure, she's just a 12-year old girl. She cries for a minute before she stops and I tell the room to make a table and three chairs. We all take a seat and I open it up with an apology.

"I'm sorry you guys, I failed you. I shouldn't have gotten myself suspended, it left you in a terrible position when I knew Daphne was acting suspicious. If you will still follow me, I'll try and pull us out of this hole I've dug." I say with sincerity.

They both nod to show their agreement and I continue, "We are now outnumbered, Daphne took Tracey with her like I mentioned she would do before I left. We need allies, and I can only think of two. My brother, and the Weasley Twins. Draco can join us at this table and give us another wand to fight back with. I know that our group hasn't been on good terms with him, but due to recent circumstances we share a common enemy."

They nod, Millie a little more hesitant. She didn't have time to see how rough Draco had it with her own situation.

"The Weasley twins can supply us with there prank inventions. They are geniuses and with there experience of guerrilla tactics, they can help us immensely." I say getting a laugh from Millie from my description of there pranking ways.

Blaise looked thoughtful and said, "But they're Gryffindors, do you think they will join in an internal Slytherin war? They are not the biggest fans of our house

I chuckle at that and say, "You let me handle that, it'll actually be easier than you think. They'll take any opportunity they can get to prank Slytherins, and they don't hate me currently so it should be quite easy to sway them to back us."

I field some more questions from them and we conclude the meeting. We sneak our way back into the dorms and let Millie sleep in the ROR. We can't send her back to her room with her being outnumbered.

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