Friday night, 8pm

A loud knock on the oaken door and five figures shifted wands to cover it. Colin nodded to Theodore Nott, who said "Who's there?" loudly.

"Harry Potter," came the answer, in Harry's distinctive voice.

Everyone relaxed, but Theodore shook his head. There were traitors. Still, if Potter was a traitor they'd be in big trouble. "Put a slip of your sleeve under the door. Or tell me the password."

"I don't know the password," came the rather arch reply, "and a traitor could know it in any case," but there was a rustling outside the door and a piece of a green cloth appeared under the door for a second, then disappeared. "This isn't a great position out here, you know. Not very defensible." The cloth disappeared. Colin looked around nervously and waved his hand, and Padma rushed over to the door and opened it a crack. Harry Potter slipped in, pushing the mussed hair away from his forehead and taking in the room in glance. Padma closed the door behind Harry.

"So," said Harry, "What do we know?"

Friday night, 8:15 pm

Hermione dived behind the couch, which blocked three Somniums. She probably could have dodged them, she'd dodged multiple spells in practice before. But she'd discussed it with Harry extensively over the week, what they should not reveal about her abilities during the battle. Harry argued they should both sit this out, like they'd resigned their General positions, but his heart hadn't been in it. He'd missed it. If he hadn't been so afraid of revealing Hermione's secrets, he'd still be out there, every battle. But while they could explain away missing classes because of their tutoring, missing all-school events was too much. Hermione already felt the distance between her and other students. Harry had lived with it last year, but he was psychologically distant from most people anyway. Hermione missed the camaraderie.

Harry probably missed it to, judging by how easily he'd given in.

She could hear Ron Weasley moving to flank her while Parvati Patil and Seamus Finnigan kept up a steady stream of spells. She could rush Ron, tackle him and get out of the room, but that would look suspicious. Weasley wasn't a great Wizard, but he was athletic. No, she'd need some other way out. She'd left the Cloak of Invisibility in her room. They definitely wouldn't reveal that, just for a game.

Hermione would reveal an in-game secret.

I bet in Slytherin they are all quietly plotting, she thought, as she looked around the Gryffindor common room for something useful. Probably in Ravenclaw, too. But no, Gryffindors just join up with the nearest group and start attacking.

Although she had to admit that, as strategies went, it was surprisingly hard to argue against. At least, not from her current position of almost being one of the first casualties of war. Hermione poked her head above the couch. Ron had used several large chairs to move over behind a small chess table, that he noisily flipped over, then crouched behind. For some reason he'd ignored the perfectly good shield hanging on the wall behind him. It had belonged to Iucounu the Silent in the sixteen hundreds, who'd used it to defeat a small goblin army singlehandedly.

So of course Gryffindor had claimed him as one of their own, even though he'd never gone to Hogwarts. Apparently the thought of actually using the shield never occurred to Ron. It would easily stop Somnium spells, practically anything would. The shield itself was an older Roman design used by Legionnaires, meant to cover the front lines from attacking archers, and would be quite useful against a variety of spells. She dropped to her hands and knees and then, raising her wand

Accio Shield!

Iucounu's shield lifted off the wall and flew towards her, bowling Ron over and knocking him from out behind the overturned table and into a clearing. She used her left hand to catch the shield edge first and with her right hand cast Somnium on Ron, whose robes turned from a deep purple to crimson red.

Even if Ron had been watching, instead of rolling around grabbing the back of his head where the shield hit, he likely wouldn't have noticed Hermione's coordination. She could hear the surprise from Parvati and Seamus exchanged words, mostly gibberish but she heard the word Accio easily enough. Her instructions had given her a list of spells to pick from. She'd almost gone with Glisseo or Stupefy. But she'd decided Accio would more useful and have the element of surprise, since the summoning charm was normally taught to fourth years.

Now she had to deal with Parvati and Seamus, to keep the element of surprise for as long as possible. That would have been difficult, a minute ago.

Now she had a shield.

Hermione strapped it onto her left arm and started walking towards them.

Saturday, 1 am

Lesath Lestrange watched as Draco talked to his Patronus, a silver Krait whispering in Draco's voice in that bizarre language that the Green Robes spoke. He didn't really trust Draco Malfoy, it was practically too good to be true that one of the cleverest Slytherins also happened to be able to speak the enemy language. On the other hand, the cleverest Slytherin was advising Colin Creevey - or so he'd been informed - so he took his luck where he could get it. Now Draco was speaking to his Patronus, easily understandable as he'd switched back to English.

"Go to each of the Purple leaders, and ask if they have anything to report. Inform them that Slytherin fight goes slowly, we have a lot of rooms in this dungeon and there's a definite advantage to defending, so we're not charging around the place blindly. We could send a team or two if you had some specific requirements," Draco glanced at Lesath, who nodded at this, and Draco continued, "but we'd need to know why. I'm looking for any information you have on identifying traitors. I believe that the password for neutrals secretly loyal to green may be 'Salamander,' but that's not 100%. May just be for Slytherins."

Draco finished up and his Patronus slithered away right through the door, probably towards Ravenclaw first. Lesath resumed his pacing. It had been exciting, drawing the sash of leadership, and he'd spent the first hour rushing around until Draco and Gregory found him and convinced him to hole up. He wasn't in that much danger, he could use any spell he knew - a perk of leadership - and probably nobody else knew their way around the dungeons as well, due to his years of skulking.

But Draco had pointed out that if he kept wandering around he would eventually run into a pack of green Slytherins, and then he'd be in trouble. So they'd set up camp in a defensible position, advertised it widely enough to make sure that people could deliver any information.

"Leadership is much more tedious than I imagined it," Lesath said to Draco.

"The inverse of authority is responsibility. You are in charge, so you can't just go run around and do what you want. I imagine Gregory is having loads of fun right now, flying around. He'll have plenty of excitement and stories on Monday."

"If he doesn't die right away," Lesath added. "Tell me, what's it like, hearing the Green people speak."

"It just sounds like they've got a ridiculous French accent. It's how I can tell they are speaking Green. I need to copy the accent to speak it to them."

"That's actually kind of funny," Lesath said, then fell silent. "Do we have a plan, yet? I think I see one, with the new information we've got. With Percy Weasley killed we have the advantage..."

Draco was shaking his head. "That's a scoreboard advantage, not a positional advantage. Necessary, but not sufficient. Losses on both sides are roughly even among Gryffindors and so the Survivors are abandoning the towers and heading out to just attack purples wherever they can. And you know they'll probably attack us first, once they secure someone that can help guide them down here. Granger's rumoured to have taken out a half dozen of us, and I believe those rumours. They have just the right hint of improbability, if that makes sense. Actually, if they do plan on attacking we could use my room as a base of operations. Those bridges just outside are a natural chokepoint. But a guide will know that..."

Lesath sighed. Draco was just thinking out loud, he didn't need to pay attention. Lesath instinctively knew that Lord Potter would want him to do his best and win this war as purple, despite being on the green side. It would keep people from suspecting that he was Potter's vassal. The experience would strengthen him for the coming years. But he also knew - because everyone knew - that his Lord would try his fullest to win as Green. Lesath had been acquiring power steadily over the last year, but personal power. Magical power. Socially, he still avoided most Slytherins although Potter had asked him to relax and make friends.

Being ordered to make friends didn't make it easier, it felt like being ordered to not think of elephants. The order contradicted the intent.

Lesath realized he'd been ignoring Draco and focused. Draco was still talking about the entrance to the dungeons.

"Draco, How do you learn to become a leader? Is there a crash course you can give me?"

Draco stopped for a second and considered. Lesath felt doubt gnawing at him when Draco replied "Of course I can, but since it's a crash course I'm going to skip details. The first and hardest step is to project confidence. When in doubt, over do it. At least in public..."

Saturday, 7:30 am.

The Great Hall normally bustled during breakfast. A typical Saturday wasn't nearly as busy, many students preferred to sleep in late and just skip breakfast unless there was an early Quiddich game or battle they had to attend. But today's breakfast was particularly sparse. Each table had only a few dozen students sitting at it. The Slytherin table held mainly green robes, and the Gryffindor table at the other end held purple robes only. The two middle tables had mainly neutral robes, or students wearing Red. The dead.

"I'm surprised they aren't in open warfare," Minerva McGonagall said to Professor Lockhart, who sat at her side picking at a small omelet.

"When you were in the order of the Phoenix, you still took time out for meals, as did Death Eaters," he replied, lifting a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

"Not in the same room," she pointed out. "How does it go?"

"Unexpectedly. I'd expected surprises, but Hufflepuffs inflicting the most casualties in their struggle? Hadn't expected that."

"Well, of course they did," said Pomona Spout, who'd shuffled up to the table on the other side of the Headmistress and sat down. "Gilderoy, Minerva. We're the House of Getting Things Done, even if 'Things' are your silly games. If you'd paid attention at all ... but Headmistress, I must protest. The students have broken into the gardens and stolen things."

"I'm sure they will return them once this is over," said Minerva, "won't they, Professor Lockhart?"

Gilderoy Lockhart smiled, full of unabashed delight. "Wonderful! I'd expected them to raid the potions stores and Professor Slughorn set up defenses. Why, young Mr. Vaughn is wearing red robes because of one of Horace's traps, although his compatriots escaped with enough compounds to brew several dozen Pepperup potions ..." he trailed off under Spout's withering glare. "Well, yes, I should have informed you as well, I do apologize, but it honestly slipped my mind. I must admit I was never much for Herbology..."

"I know," said Pomona, coldly.

"Although now that I think about it, I do have some friends who can import some excellent plants and some new books for the library, although we'll have to get them translated from Spanish...but do tell me what they've taken!"

Saturday, 11 am.

Harry had been helping Padma coordinate the Green Gryffindor's assault on Slytherin. They'd tried to smuggle a guide or two out past the purples, but so far they'd all been turned back or killed. Colin's leadership was mixed, at best, but they were muddling along. Several people had openly ignored Colin and waited for Harry to give an order, but he'd just offered advice and backed whatever the Green Leader had ordered. It wasn't a great simulation, having random leaders. But given the short time frame an internal power struggle could be devastating. So, he'd quietly taken aside some dissenters and talked them down. He'd spent several hours last night doing that, which also allowed him to try and feel out who (if anybody) may be a traitor and who just felt annoyed at having to take orders from a first year.

It gave him some empathy for what he'd done to Amelia Bones.

But they'd sorted the situation out and the plans had been going smoothly (if slowly) for several hours. Currently Harry was coordinating the Green Slytherins capable of casting a patronus spells to communicate with the other green factions. They were planning an assault on the Slytherin house. It would be hopeless, nobody from outside would be able to navigate down here, and the bridge itself served as a formidable defensive position. They'd tried to sneak some people out to help, but they'd been unsuccessful. Still, Harry's proposed plan had been accepted. Now they were just coordinating. They needed to time the assault with their attack on the other side of the bridge, and have both go simultaneously with a feint against Lestrange's room.

Coordinating these things was infuriatingly slow.

Harry had been proposing noon when he saw Peregrine Derrick start to cast. Harry shouted and had his wand out, but Nott stood between him and Derrick. Harry didn't have a shot, so he pointed his wand at Colin and shouted Expelliarmus. Colin's wand flew out of his hand right before Derrick's Stupefy hit him squarely in the back. Then Harry hit the floor and rolled, everyone had their wands out and spells were flying. Harry shouted "Take him alive!" and then cast Expelliarmus at Derrick and saw his wand go flying. Chaotic Theodore - Harry still thought of him that way, even though he was in Basilisk now - had managed to jump on the loose wand and now had it pointed at Derrick, who had his hands up and stood motionless.

Colin Creevey lay sprawled across the floor, his robes were bright red but there was no sash on them. Harry looked down at his own robes and their new adornment.

"It worked!" said Peregrine Derrick, "Although I thought I would be leader, that doesn't matter. Harry's better at this than I am, but the important thing is that now we aren't hampered by that sniveling little"

"So, you are saying you aren't the traitor?" Padma asked, beating Harry to the punch.

"Obviously. The green leader isn't dead. Just look," said Peregrine, lowering his hands. He didn't have a wand, so there was no point. "If a player kills their own leader, that isn't a death. Just a change of command. I mean, obviously its still a death, and I'm sorry, but Colin wasn't a great loss..."

Harry thought about it. He'd vetted Peregrine, and didn't believe he'd been a traitor. Of course, that could be biasing him right now, he didn't want to admit that he could be wrong. But Peregrine was an obvious candidate for being a traitor, since he spoke Purple, one of the few bilingual wizards they had. But Peregrine had volunteered the information, and provided useful information for the last twelve hours. Information that Harry had taken pains to confirm independently.

"How did you know it would work?" Harry asked, and everyone fell silent.

"Well, I overheard some Purples when they were coming back from the fourth level restroom, the one a few halls away from where they've set up shop. They are planning on getting rid of Lestrange. He's not very popular, as you know. They didn't know that I was hiding and they were just going to take command."

"I see. And they weren't just putting on a show for you?"

"No, they were speaking in Purple. Even if they knew I was there, they weren't speaking to me. Gregory was warning Draco not to try a coup..."

"Draco?" Harry cast his mind back to last night after the lottery, at the weird way Draco had acted. He groaned and almost slapped his forehead.

"Yeah, he said he'd just stupefy Lesath later on, maybe after lunch and blame some random green person. Look, I could only hear them for a minute or two, and they were being quiet so that nobody else could hear them, so it was good information. I knew if I told you, Harry, you'd just try to talk me out of it or kill me as a traitor, but we had to get rid of Colin. No offense."

He directed the last bit towards Colin Creevey, who had gotten shakily up to his feet and walked over to grab his wand. He couldn't speak, of course, but he glared at Peregrine Derrick as he snatched the wand of the floor and stomped out. Harry called out an apology, to no avail. Then he said "Wait!" and Colin's retreating form stopped.

Harry turned to Peregrine. "I don't think you were a traitor, Peregrine. And honestly, it wasn't even stupid, just an honest mistake. I don't think you are a traitor. Somnium." Peregrine Derrick crumpled to the ground, and his robes were bright red before he hit the floor. "But we can't let people we're supposed to to trust do things like that." Harry walked over to Chaotic Theodore and took Derrick's wand and flipped it over to Colin. "When he wakes up I'll tell him to find you to get his wand back. I'm sorry Colin."

Colin caught the wand, but he was still gritting his teeth. Padma looked at Harry then Colin, putting it together. "Harry could have taken command whenever he wanted to. He only did it when you were going to be killed in any case. Maybe you should be mad it him, but nobody else saw it coming either." She moved away from the body on the ground. Nobody moved to wake up Peregrine Derrick as Colin Creevey walked off, shoulders slouched.