Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter Four: In a Strengthening Current

Author's Note: A big thank you for making me smile, to my first (if anonymous) reviewer! So whoever you are, thanks.

XxXx

At half past seven, Hermione stepped inside and glanced around the setup for tonight's meeting that the Room of Requirement provided for them. A set of four comfy looking sofas arranged closely around a low, square coffee table with a lit fireplace not far off, perfect for the admittedly administrative purpose of tonight. She and Harry had spoken a bit about what needed to get decided. Thankfully it was a short list, as she was a little cold and more than a bit tired already.

First on that list was figuring out who among the old members of the DA would be added back in. As Ron had pointed out, the revised version of the DA would have to be smaller, older, and more focused upon the war. And they would have to be willing and able to be both loyal and secretive.

So far the only renewed members were Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and herself. The six from the ministry. Five of whom had helped defend Hogwarts last year during the night that Dumbledore died. Hermione remembered that frightening night too well.

She and Luna had spent what felt like forever in front of Snape's office. She had felt jittery and chilled the whole time because they were so isolated down there, with no idea what was going on above them in the castle.

She had been right to worry about what was going on above their heads, though she was almost glad now that at least it had kept Luna out of the fray for awhile, the idea of Luna in battle scared Hermione in ways she didn't want to admit.

And she still burned inside when she thought about how Snape had betrayed them, and how easily any of them could have been killed that night

But how easily they had fell for it, running inside his office to assist the unconscious Professor Flitwick. She couldn't even quite remember whether she or Luna had been the one to cast rennervate. Maybe Luna would remember.

Hermione sighed and set her things next to one of the sofas. Harry should be here soon, but she had offered to come early to set up for tonight's meeting. Really, considering it was the Room of Requirement they were using, there wasn't all that much setting up to do.

She really had just wanted a few minutes alone to collect her thoughts before everyone else (including Harry) got here. She had come here right straight from the Great Hall.

Dinner had been awful. Ron was extremely upset with her. Overly so, it seemed. And so she had finally given up and gotten Harry to promise to just ask the boy what he was still so furious about with her. While their talk this morning hadn't really gone well, she hadn't expected him to take the news so poorly. It's not like they were breaking up or never speaking to each other, they just weren't even going down that path. He had ignored her completely when she arrived late to lunch, leaving her to talk to Neville as Harry hadn't showed, but she had thought that he would cool down a bit before dinner.

He hadn't, in fact he had seemed even more upset. His only words to her during the entire course of dinner had consisted of an insult he had muttered under his breath about her 'Ravenclaw tendencies' when she had mentioned to Neville what she had found out in the library about their herbology assignment during her free period.

She had replied to Ron that considering how many classes he had skipped today, perhaps he should consider taking up some 'Ravenclaw tendencies' of his own. Things had gone drastically downhill pretty fast after that. Hopefully they would both behave themselves for DA. How embarrassing it would be to do otherwise.

At least Harry had shown up and been able to talk to her during dinner.

He had actually been bursting to tell her of what he spoken about with Professor McGonagall during their first class. She had been pleased at least to find that he had only ditched first because on his way back down to class after stopping at the dorms to send Hedwig off with a letter, he had been stopped by McGonagall to talk about the DA.

She was quite relieved when Harry had reported to her that the new headmistress was quite supportive of their secret DA meetings, and she had even offered guidance should they come across need of it. She had also reminded Harry that Professor Lupin would also be willing to provide help, should they ask him of it.

He hadn't told her anything about the letter he mailed this morning though. And when she specifically asked after it, his eyes had only hardened, and he had said it was something that both Dumbledore and McGonagall wanted him to do. Hermione wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

Either way, at least they had gotten approval and support for reinstating the DA. She hated to think it, but McGonagall seemed to be turning out much more supportive of their role in the war, whereas Dumbledore had mainly dismissed much of their efforts because of their youth.

Hermione was determined to be helpful, and with any luck not be caught unprepared like they had been so many times before.

And so, the new version of the DA would not quite resemble the meetings they had a couple years ago. While she certainly didn't want it to turn into what the Inquisitorial Squad had been during their fifth year, admittedly it wasn't just going to be the DADA practical it had originally intended to be.

Hermione and Harry (with admittedly little help from Ron) had restructured the DA last night. Hermione hoped that the added organization would facilitate their war efforts, and perhaps help them prevent people from getting killed at Hogwarts. Or least prepare them not to go without a big fight.

When a quick "tempo" told her that it was nearly a quarter to eight, she let herself focus upon getting out all of the paperwork, lists, and such that she had brought for tonight's meeting. She was still worried about how they were going to find a more secure way to notify every one of the meetings.

She was rather tempted to try out something marginally non-magical. Notes that incinerated themselves might work, but there was the matter of getting them to only the right people. And eh, not making a fool out of the messenger at the same time.

Telling everyone in person really only worked within a house, and only with a small number of people. It might work for now, but as such, wasn't much of a long-term option.

She rubbed her forehead, really hoping that this meeting didn't turn out to be too long. She still hadn't finished half of the projects she needed to.

XxXx

Harry burst through the door of the Room of Requirement both a little annoyed and more than a little amused by the antics of his two closest friends. Sometimes he wondered if all friendships with girls were this complex. He wasn't sure, but he didn't think so.

He threw his stuff down near the sofa next to where Hermione was sitting. He chuckled slightly to himself; Hermione would probably prefer somebody else to sit next to her, so he would sit on another couch with Neville. It gave him a whole new perspective upon how she had wanted to arrange the pairs they had been thinking of setting up for DA this year.

"Have you thought anymore about the pairing? Oh, and eh, Ron knows about you and Luna. You could have told us you were getting involved with her, Hermione, and saved us all from all that tension."

Despite the too casual tone and small smile in which he told them, his words still shocked Hermione deeply enough to cause her to drop the parchments she was shuffling, and as he half expected, she colored deeply at his words.

With her eyes somewhat widened, she neatly replied, "There wasn't anything to tell. Ron has it wrong." And then she reorganized the stacks of parchment in front of her again as if to prove it.

"As for the pairings," she continued, "I want to go with what we thought up last night. Patrols, leadership, and research. And no, you're not getting out being part of the leadership pair, though I suppose you could trade Ron or Ginny for Neville if you so chose."

Harry only smiled at how quickly Hermione had firmly set them back on the more comfortable topic. Of course she would eventually realize that Ron only knew about her and Luna because only all of the upper years were talking about it. He would of course have to find out later exactly what was or was not going on between Hermione and the girl she had selected for her own partner. Her excuse of how as a Ravenclaw, Luna was a natural choice, be damned.

Of course the rumors circulating around the school did lend new credit of her assertion that that vague girl took direction well enough. Needless to say, it wasn't as if, even if they were still speaking, Ron would be any help in the library.

And both Ron and Ginny were much better suited for the action and possible battle that might happen on patrol.

He snickered, and if everyone thought they were dating, nobody would blink twice about Hermione and Luna spending tons of time together with their heads bent over their books. He couldn't wait to point that out to Hermione.

His smile deepened a tad as he digressed to wonder if he might perhaps pretend to be a little piqued that Hermione stolen away his 'date' for Slughorn's party last year.

Though, radish earrings and academic differences aside, Hermione and Luna were rather well suited for each other when he actually stopped to think about it. Better than Hermione and Ron to be honest. Better than Ron and Lavender, certainly.

He could see them arguing over Wrackspurts already (well he actually had seen that already), and wondered if Luna was still giving Hermione grief over her supposed rigickrop. It was almost time for the Halloween feast too, though nothing had yet been said by McGonagall about a dance. He wouldn't be upset without a dance, as he had nobody whom he could rightly ask.

Turning his mind back to the DA, he answered, "No I like the idea of having Neville as a partner. As Headboy, I think he would be a good pick."

"And he works better with you than he would with Ron or Ginny on patrol."

"Yes, that he does. But I think that the two of them will do fine in charge of patrols, don't you?" Hermione nodded she could already see Ron moving everybody around the castle grounds like so many pieces on a chessboard, as Harry continued on, "Have you added any to your list of topics that we should be studying?"

"I haven't added anything beyond working on nonverbal spells, though the sixth years haven't covered that yet, even in class." Hermione continued reading one of her lists, before indicating that that was basically it. "But I do think we ought to have our eh, officers meet every so often in a separate meeting, you know? Just to keep on top of problems and developments and what not."

Harry stilled. Try as he did over the summer, he still wasn't very good at nonverbal spells. That was something he certainly couldn't teach anybody about. "Maybe we could get Professor Lupin to give us extra help in that. But yeah separate planning meetings for the officers would be a good idea, this DA is going to need to be better run than it was last time."

Hermione nodded along, "Especially perhaps with having him focus on nonverbal execution in a battle sort of situation."

At the sound of the door opening they both straightened up for the start of the official meeting, and Harry beckoned Neville over to sit with him. A few moments later, the room filled with the entrance of the final three members of the DA officers.

XxXx

Luna squirmed a bit in her seat, earning herself a tired little frown and a stilling hand upon her ankle from Hermione who was all so diligently recording everything that was said into notes with an automatic quill. Luna had spent the first half of the meeting curled up against her corner of the sofa trying really hard to pay attention to what everyone was saying.

Luna smiled dreamily back at Hermione, and Hermione guiltily snatched her hand back away.

All she had really gotten out of it was that she was getting to do research with Hermione, and that she would soon have a valid excuse to wander about the castle and grounds at night, though they were to limit themselves to inside the castle after curfew. And they weren't to tell any of the general student population that the DA was back. Subterfuge, Luna decided, was great fun.

She had hoped that they would get a chance to do or learn something today, but the closest they had come to that was talk about what subjects they wanted to work on next. Shielding and reflecting spells were a popular option, as were nonverbal spells.

She had amused herself for a good fifteen minutes by nonverbally trying to get Hermione's hair to rebel against that cute little plait she had had it twisted into ever so neatly since breakfast this morning.

She thought she might have gotten one curl free, but eventually had to give it up as a general failure, and ended up staring at Neville nervously looking between Harry and a rather red-faced Ron. Ron didn't seem very happy.

Ron was usually some shade of red or another it seemed to Luna, maybe he needed a hat. But he certainly seemed more upset this evening than usual when they had come into the room, she twirled a twist of her own straw-like hair until it looked a bit like one of Hermione's curls, but he hadn't wanted to share what was wrong.

Indeed he had actually gotten a bit more upset after that, so Luna had quickly retreated to the seat that Hermione indicated was for her.

She wondered why Neville was so nervous. She thought he was a marvelous choice for partnering Harry. Maybe Ron had wanted to partner with Harry instead of partnering with Ginny? Luna wasn't so sure Ron would do well as one of their leaders. He could be quite unkind sometimes.

That could maybe be a bonus for a patroller though. Ron liked to jinx people from what Luna knew. Ginny did too, but Luna still thought that Ginny was usually very kind though, and so she rather thought that she liked the girl.

Luna glanced over where Hermione was correcting something that the automatic quill had gotten wrong. To be truthful, Hermione could sometimes be unkind. Luna cocked her head to the side to better regard the girl sitting besides her.

Sometimes before the DA, when Hermione and Luna became like friends, Hermione would say cool and hurtful things about Luna's father and she could remember later sometimes crying herself to sleep over it.

Hermione was certainly one of the more socially reticent of the Gryffindors among Luna's acquaintance. She didn't seem to want or care to make casual friends as easily as some of the others in her house.

Luna wasn't sure, but from what little Hermione had said, she didn't think she got along well with her dorm-mates. She was also pretty sure that they might have made her cry once or twice, but again she wasn't sure.

It wouldn't have surprised her; Luna had never really liked either Lavender or really Parvati all that much. And she wouldn't have been surprised to hear that in return either of those silly girls had found themselves on the wrong side of Hermione's wit.

Hermione's tongue was rather sharp like that. But as they had worked together, Hermione's rather abrupt manner grew on Luna. Luna had been pleased to find that they were fairly alike in some ways as well because Hermione was ever so dreadfully smart, and Luna rather enjoyed the conversations they sometimes found themselves in.

She was glad that she'd probably be spending more time in company with the other girl.

They both liked to read about novel and interesting things for one, though the subject matter kind of differed. And they were both fond of reading about transfiguration. Luna didn't think she liked potions as much as Hermione did though.

During Luna's forth year, Hermione stopped being so callous in response to Luna's remarks about magical creatures and her father's paper, and that helped as well. But really, Luna finally decided that she couldn't dislike Hermione because the girl was simply being honest. And that was in the end, what one of the things that Luna liked more and more about the other girl. She didn't say nice things to your face one day, and then do something mean later on just because other people were around.

Hermione had been a bit of a riddle actually. A lot of the older Ravenclaws had been angry that Hermione was in Gryffindor instead of in Ravenclaw where they said that the top girl in their year always belonged. Luna had to agree that at the very least Hermione was certainly incredibly smart.

And so she too had wondered what it was about her that made her fit in with the Gryffindors so well. Because she obviously did, as she seemed to understand Ron and Ginny, when they made no sense at all to Luna. And Luna had known them to one extent or another for most of her life.

Neville and Harry made sense to Luna some of the time. Usually in the way that Hannah Abbott or Susan Bones made sense to her last year.

But Hermione definitely seemed to relate to her fellow Gryffindors on a different level, even if she complained a lot about their study habits. Luna smiled to herself, she had finally decided that certain escapades (usually led by Harry against You-Know-Who) aside, the reason that Hermione was in Gryffindor wasn't necessarily because of her tendency to get tied up in conflict (which is what the older Ravenclaws had thought).

Luna thought that it was rather because Hermione had a tendency to say exactly what she thought, not because she thought anyone wanted to know, but because she thought they didn't want to hear it but needed it anyway. Hermione could be rather rash sometimes about it, but that seemed to be another Gryffindor tendency too.

Luna had to admit that she also sometimes said things that other people didn't always appreciate. Only, she usually didn't know that they hadn't wanted to hear until after she saw the looks on their faces, and she realized that perhaps that wasn't quite what she was expected to say.

And besides, what Luna really liked about Hermione was that she usually had really good intentions. Luna had certainly heard a plethora of reasons why Hermione didn't believe in wrackspurts or digturls or apparently even rigickrops, but Hermione had certainly never called her Loony Lovegood. Ron called her Loony Lovegood, though he didn't think that she knew.

And Hermione was a good kisser. But that probably had more to do with the very much Ravenclaw-like parts of her.

XxXx

Ginny had been waiting for the last half an hour for the meeting to get interesting. It hadn't as of yet. She figured they had already pretty much lost a couple people to their own distractible natures. Namely Luna and Ron. Luna because well, she was Luna, and being herself she had alternated tonight between staring at Hermione and staring at the ceiling.

Ginny agreed with Hermione on a couple things. The first being that Ron would certainly make anyone a horrible boyfriend. And the second one being that it was a good thing that that Luna was smart because with how dreamy and spacey she tended to be, she'd fail right out of Hogwarts otherwise.

Ginny sometimes wondered if Luna's mother had still been alive, if Luna would have grown up to be more like a normal girl. Ginny kind of remembered the woman; after all Luna and Ginny had grown up near each other.

After a little thought, Ginny had finally had to decide that she couldn't really know if Luna would have turned out any different. Anyway, both of her parents had always seemed a lot too much like Luna to Ginny.

Ron on the other hand, had no excuse to be so caught up in his own stupid romance (or lack thereof from what Ginny could tell) that he couldn't stop glowering at either Luna or Hermione.

Though she really couldn't tell what Hermione saw in Luna either, as eh, sweet as the girl might be, she's so spacey that Ginny wouldn't be surprised if the girl wandered away right in the middle of a good snog. But the girl was certainly attractive enough.

Though why Ron was upset with Neville was beyond Ginny. She certainly didn't see why anyone would want to be captain of quidditch team and Headboy. Though how Neville had made Headboy, when he hadn't even been a prefect, was beyond Ginny too.

But she thought that being Headboy suited Neville. He certainly seemed to be living up to his new role in the school. With any luck Ron might get over himself in a couple days. Or she would just have to help him out of it. Might be fun. She could always consult with the twins. She shrugged a cramp out of her shoulders.

Just then Harry introduced the idea of adding more members to the group, "I'm sure everyone here noticed that there are far fewer people here than there were a couple of years ago. I'd like to be open to the idea of adding a few more eh, trustworthy people. We can't add them quite yet, as Hermione isn't quite done drafting the new contract for this year. But I don't have to tell any of you the importance of keeping all of this quiet. The less people know about us and the existence of this club, the better job we can do protecting the school."

As Hermione took a moment to interrupt to say that the contracts would be ready to sign by the next meeting (the date and time of which they would decide upon tonight), Ginny reflected upon how changed Harry looked. He certainly seemed more withdrawn and looked even more grown up.

He hadn't grown any taller, the boy would probably always be short, but the hesitant nature she was used to seeing was gone. It was replaced with this serious sort of reserved fellow, who spent lots of time writing Merlin-knew-who and researching who-knows-what in the library.

Hermione probably has never had so much Gryffindor company in the library during her whole time at school (excepting maybe exams time).

Ginny looked over at where Hermione was still stealing glances at Luna as the girl lazily twirled her own hair about one of her fingers. Perhaps Hermione hadn't exactly been lonely all this time, but even she had noticed and remarked once or twice upon how she sometimes missed the Harry they knew from when they were younger.

He was probably squished by the weight of having to be the Chosen One of the war Ginny knew, but she was still sad to see the sweet boy she had known so totally hidden under all the responsibility Harry now had taken on.

Even though she had gone back to Dean, Harry would always be Harry to her. She glanced at the seething body besides her, if only Ron would grow up a little like everyone else had.

She rather wished that Harry still played quidditch, though perhaps not as fervently as Ron did; the Harry she knew still existed sometimes when they were up in the air. Maybe she could talk him into um, doing some airborne scouts of the castle grounds with her or Ron.

Everyone would after all, get to take part in the patrols. And she and Ron got to arrange them. She would see to it that Harry got a chance to lighten up once in a while.

Back to the matter at hand, Ginny quickly volunteered her boyfriend and Seamus Finnigan as possible additions. She smiled to see heads nodding around the room, and they were the first on the list of people to add.

Glancing over at where Hermione was shuffling through her parchments, she was not surprised and somewhat amused that Hermione had made a list of some sort and was rummaging about to find it.

While Hermione was avidly looking about for her list, Neville offered up the Patil sisters, which Ginny vocally agreed to, and Ron added that Lavender Brown would also be a good addition.

Hermione had scrunched her forehead up in thought, and seemed particularly hesitant when Luna spoke up at once to oppose the idea. Ginny wasn't much surprised to see that Luna didn't like the girl; she wasn't often kind to her.

Ron muttered something dark under his breath but Ginny elbowed him hard, and then pretended not to hear him swear and hiss in pain.

Ron spoke up again as to how he thought Lavender would be an excellent addition to the group. And as several other people got to include the people they were dating, he looked over at Luna and Hermione at this rather than Ginny, he thought Lavender would be no worse addition than anybody else.

Hermione's lips tightened at that but she didn't say anything.

Finally after some silence, Harry dryly admitted that the girl would be trustworthy enough (though as he said that, he did look over at Hermione's stack of parchment where Ginny could just bet was the rough draft of the magical contract that Hermione was making for them all).

Neville also added that as they already planning to ask Parvati, it would be good to include her best friend as well. That way she wouldn't be suspicious as to where every other seventh year Gryffindor was going when they had meetings.

Ron finally looked happy, and after some amount of silence, it was clear that nobody had any more names to add.

It was soon agreed that Ron would ask Lavender and Parvati. Ginny would ask Dean and Seamus. And as the only Ravenclaw here, Luna would ask Padma. She seemed hesitant about volunteering, but seemed willing enough to go along when Hermione asked if she would mind inviting the girl.

Hermione looked down at her list (which Ginny found out had ended up being a timetable of all of their upcoming quizzes and due dates for essays for the next couple weeks) and asked about when in the next week or so everyone would like to meet.

She also reminded the partners to meet with each other to plan their own parts so that they could present their ideas and schedules to the whole in the next meeting.

Ginny listened with half an ear as they decided that this Saturday night would be a good time for the next general meeting, and then turned to Ron to suggest going over patrol routes and ideas after quidditch practice tomorrow.

She left soon afterwards to go find Dean, but didn't miss the dark look Ron shot at Hermione and Luna as they lingered behind the group whispering to each other, before he hurried on behind her on her way over to the portrait hole. Merlin her brother could be obnoxious.