The next day they discussed the events of last night in charms class well everyone was practicing silencing charms on either bull frogs or ravens. They were discussing how Umbrige could have found out about their meeting with Sirius. Hermione suggested that Umbrige was rereading Harry's mail and that she had suspected it since he had told her about the time when Filtch caught him sending a note and accused him of sending in an order for dungbombs.

When Professor Flitwick came over to see how they were doing he complemented both Hermione and Jake on how well they were doing, Ron and Harry on the other hand ended up having extra homework. After class was over they headed to an empty class room as it was pouring rain that day to catch up on homework, just as they sat down Angelina came running in and said that she had gotten permission to reform the Quidditch team as she had gone to McGonagall who went to Dumbledore . She also said that Jake had to be at every practice too just in case. She also informed them that they had practice at 7:00 that night as they had their first game in 3 weeks.

Hermione then started asking if they were doing the right thing with staring the Defence Against the Dark Arts group she was concerned because Sirius was all for it, Jake turned to her and said "don't worry about that, we need to do something to begin a quiet revolution with her. She can only give us detection besides if she tries to go too far with me I'm prepared."

The weather only got worse as the day went on and by the time Quidditch practice came around everyone got soaked although Jake managed to stay somewhat dry as he had brought along a poncho. After about an hour practice ended as it was just getting to hard to see anything. As they were getting changed back into their clothes after practice Harry felt some pain in his scar he waited until there was only him, Ron and Jake left in the room to tell them. Ron asked if that meant that "You know who" was near, Harry just said that it meant that "you know who" was just feeling something at that moment.

They were all pretty much all silent as they made their way back up to the castle sliding in the mud a few times. There was some laughter as Jake wiped out at one point, but he was back on his feet rubbing the back of his head to make sure he was ok, he was also pretty sure that he had a nice bruise on his butt.

Once they were back in the castle they headed into the common room which was empty and they saw that Hermione had left out some more of her elf hats, Crookshanks was curled up in a chair by the fire, and Charlie was sitting in front of it too. He got up as soon as he hard his masters footsteps enter the room. Jake hit the shower to wash the mud out of his hair from when he rubbed his head after slipping.

When he came back into the common room in just his boxers and a t shirt, Harry was sitting there too doing his homework.

Harry looked at him and said "The girls would love to see you like that"

Jake laughed and said "Oh yeah, but shirtless is all their going to see."

Jake joined him as he wrote up another report for the SGC, he also got an e-mail from General Hammond saying that he would be receiving the non discloser agreements the next day in an envelope that was specially charmed so that only Jake could see the paper work in it and that when he had them signed he was to use the enclosed envelope to send them back as the mail at Hogwarts was being searched.

Harry had passed out and began to have some sort of dream.

Just then Dobby came into the room to return Hedwig to Harry. He then explained that he and Winkey had been taking the hats that Hermione had been leaving as the other house elves were offended by them also they were scared off by Charlie a little bit too. Charlie came up to Dobby and nuzzled him in the same way he did with Jake. Dobby said to them that the dog stared liking him after the first day when he gave him a bone from the kitchen.

Harry then asked Dobby if he knew about any sort of secret room that they could hold their secret Defence Meetings in. Dobby told them about a room on the seventh floor that was referred to as the come and go room as it only appears when it is needed and gives you what you need.

That morning at Breakfast a large owl arrived with a letter for Jake he opened it at the table and grabbed a pen from his bag and quickly had Harry, Ron and Hermione sign the forms. He also quickly told them what they were. He then put them into the other envelope and sent the owl back on his way.

They also told the others about the secret room that Dobby had told them about that night. Word was spread to the rest of the group on when and where to meet, as Angelina had cancelled Quidditch practice due to the weather that day getting even worse.

After dinner the boys and Hermione went up to the seventh floor and found the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy who was teaching some trolls how to dance ballet but instead he seemed to be being clubbed instead. Harry pulled out the Marauders map and said "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" as he looked at it he couldn't find any room anywhere near where they were. He also noticed that it said Jonathan O'Neill instead for Jake, when he pointed this out to Jake; it suddenly changed his name when Jake touched it. The map seemed to know that it needed to make that correction. Hermione pointed out that since the room only appeared as needed it may not be on the map.

They then walked across the corridor three times, well they concentred on the room that they needed. A door suddenly appeared on the wall beside them and they went in.

There was a room lined with book shelves filled with books with various defensive spells. The floor was really soft with lots of cushions on it too. In one corner there was an American Flag, the flag of Hogwarts, the flag of the SGC and The Union Jack. Also there was a small area with some mats with the symbol that the SGC used on their uniforms when they were off world.

Hermione looked at it and said "Jake isn't that the symbol you have on your t shirt that you have to hide?"

Jake looked at it and said "Yup"

Hermione then looked at it again and said it looks kind of familiar.

Jake then asked her "where have you seen it other than on my shirt?"

She then said that there were some ancient runes that were based on constellations; she also said that there were 39 of them including that one that was used as a word for earth.

Jake looked at her and said "wow I wonder if the ancient wizards knew about the Stargate?"

She said that she couldn't tell from what she knew from ancient runes and offered to look it up, Jake just turned to her and said "don't for now".

Just then the other members of the group came into the room; they were all excited about what they were going to learn. First they decided on a name, the suggestions ranged from Defences Association to Dumbledore's Army. They settled on calling it the later but agreed to shorten it to the DA when talking about it outside of the group.

Harry then told them to pair off and practice disarming each other as a refresher of what they had learned back in second year when there was a meeting of a dulling club. Jake ended up working with Neville who wasn't too bad at disarming Jake; however Jake did kind of let him do it a few times.

After a while of practicing Harry called an end to it for that evening and they discussed when they would meet again. Once they agreed on meeting again Wednesday, they left in groups of three or four as Harry watched on the Marauder's Map.

As they were leaving Jake grabbed Neville and pulled him aside and said to him "you're a pretty good wizard your parents should be proud of you."

Just then Jake saw tears running down his eyes. A Kleenex box appeared beside them Jake grabbed one and said to him as he handed it to him and said "her dry your eyes, do you want to talk about it?"

Neville shook his head as he dried his eyes; he also said he'd talk about it later. Jake knew to leave it alone but figured that there must be something about Neville's parents as his reaction to what Jake had said really seemed to strike a nerve, just like when Draco had said something about some hospital. He got a sense that it wasn't like when Charlie got brought up to Jack, but it was something else maybe something else happened to them other than being dead, hell they could be MIA (missing in Action) for all he knew.

As the next two weeks passed things were going very smoothly. The meetings varied from day to day because of changes to the various Quidditch practices, also a good side effect of that it enabled them to not have a constant meeting day so it didn't seem as suspicious to anyone.

Also Jake was leading a running group every morning which had become mandatory for all the House Quidditch teams as an order from there captains. Draco Malfoy wasn't too happy about it and he tried to complain to Jake every chance he got. He eventfully shut up as he realised that he couldn't get to Jake in the same way as he did with others, plus the fact that the rest of the Slytherin team told him to shut up. Jake often thought about how much he just wanted to pull out a Zat on Malfoy, but at the same time he knew that the time wasn't right yet.

Also during this time Hermione had designed a special fake Galion that Harry could alert everyone about the date and time of the next meeting by changing the serial numbers on them, she said to them later that she was inspired by the Dark Mark on the death eater's arms.

However there ended up being a point where all meetings were put on hold as Gryffindor was having almost daily Quidditch practices, as they needed to prepare for their match against Slytherin.

Malfoy taunted Ron, who was improving greatly, at every chance he could get about dropping the quaffle and asking if he had a hospital bed reserved for him.

As October turned into November the castle began to get colder, many of the students were wearing their dragon hide gloves between classes as their hands were getting cold, Jake on the other hand thought it reminded him a lot like the weather in Colorado or even Minnesota at that time of year, plus it wasn't nearly as cold as the time that Jack and Crater had ended up in Antarctica when they accidently got sent to the second gate on Earth.

The morning of the match arrived and Ron was getting really nervous about it and he was questioning about being on the team. He even told them about how he had accidently fallen off his broom and ended up kicking the quaffle.

Hermione and Ginny came over decked out in Gryffindor colours as Ron was finishing his cereal, when they asked how Ron was doing, Harry told them that Ron was feeling nervous about the upcoming match.

Just then Luna came over sporting a hat with a lion head and she announced that she was supporting Gryffindor and showed them how it roared when she touched it with her wand.

It was then time to head out to the stadium for the match. . As they were leaving the great hall Hermione said to Harry make sure Ron doesn't see the badges the Slytherins are wearing. As Harry passed them he saw them wearing a silver crown shaped badge that said on it "Weasly is our King". Jake sat up in the Gryffindor box with Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna. Jake thought about trying to talk to Neville about his parents again, but didn't think it was appropriate at the time. Also as it was Jake's first Quidditch game Neville helped him out by explain the rules and what was going on

Once they got to the stadium and they were changing Angelina informed them about the final line up for the Slytherin team, she told them that Crab and Goyle had replaced the former beaters.

They then left the changing room to start the match, when the teams went out to meet at the centre of the pitch Harry noticed that the Slytherin team was wearing the same badges as the rest of their house. As the match went on the Slytherins began to start signing

Weasly cannot save a thing,

He cannot block a single ring,

That's why Slytherins all sing:

Weasly is our King

Weasly was born in a bin

He always lets the Quaffle in

Weasly will make sure we win

Weasly is our King

They kept singing it and got even louder as one of the Slytherin chasers approached the Gryffindor goal and scored on a distracted Ron. Gryffindor was being outscored by Slytherin but they ended up winning when Harry caught the snitch. However at the end of the match Harry was suddenly hit in the small of the back with a bluger.

Also Draco came over to Harry and made a comment about him saving Ron's butt from having a worse game and then preceded to brag about the song he had written and how he wanted to write more verses about Ron's parents too. Fred and Gorge heard this as the teams were shaking hands. Angelina was trying to hold back Fred well Harry was holding back Gorge. It was now taking the rest of the team minus Ron to restrain Fred and when Draco really struck a nerve with Harry he didn't realise that he had released Gorge. The two of them then attacked Draco. Eventually Madame Hooch came over and separated them she also informed them that she was discarded by their behaviour and sent them to go speak with their head of house.

When they reached McGonagall's office she began to tell them how she was applied by their behaviour, she then proceeded to give them detention for a week. She was almost finished with when Umbrige walked in and informed them that she had been given new power by the Minister as McGonagall had gone over her head the last time to Dumbledore to have him reform the Gryffindor Quidditch team. She also told them that she was now in charge of discipline at the school and was banning Harry and Gorge from the tam for life, she also banned Fred as well as she figured had he not been held back he would have been involved as well.

When they got back to the common room they informed everyone about the bad news. Angelina was pissed at them she was also pissed that Fred had gotten band too. She eventually went to bed and said that when she woke up she hopped it was all a bad dream.

As the room cleared out Jake pulled out his Asgard map and began searching Hogwarts and the grounds for Ron, as he was doing this Ron walked in to the common room, he looked absolutely frozen. They made him sit by the fire and warm up. When they asked him where he had been he had said that he went for a walk and was considering leaving the team. Harry them told him that if he did there would only be three players left as he and Fred and Gorge had been given life time bans.

Just as they were talking about how things could only get worse Harry looked out the window and said that he had good new that Hagrid was back. Harry suggested going out to go and see him. Harry went up to grab the invisibility clock and the marauders map well Jake grabbed his ancient cloaking device, as he figured he wouldn't be able to fit under the cloak with the other three. He also grabbed his jacket as it was fairly cold out.

When they got to Hagrids Hut they knocked on the door. Hagrid let them in and just as he was about to close the door Jake appeared and wedged his foot in the door and said "Ow that hurt let me in you big oaf".

Hagrid pulled the door open the door and grabbed Jake and was about to slam him to the floor when Harry said "It's ok Hagrid he's a friend of ours. His name's Jake and he's American, and he's here as a body guard for me"

Hagrid quickly apologised to Jake and asked him if he was ok. Jake said he was fine as he was massaging the shoulder that Hagrid had grabbed. They then told him about everything that was going on at Hogwarts. The subject then came up about where Hagrid had been. He told them about meeting with the giants and the Death Eaters showing up.

Just then Umbrige showed up. The four of them quickly covered themselves in the back corner of the room with the invisibility cloak it was a bit of a stretch but they were hidden. She commented that she had heard voices and that she had seen three sets of footprints leading from the castle. Hagrid then tried to explain about it, mean while Umbrige seemed to be looking for someone.

She then asked Hagrid what had happened to him as he was sporting some injuries from his time with the giants. He also told her that he had been away for his health to get outside and get a change of scenery for a bit. She then informed him that she would be inspecting him at some point.

When she left Harry was going to pull back the invisibility cloak quickly when Hermione stopped him. Hagrid went to the window to check. When he was satisfied that she was heading back to the castle he told them to take the cloak off. Jake got up to stretch as he was in a very uncomfortable position under the cloak. Hagrid was fairly upset about Umbrige inspecting the teachers, but it didn't really seem to faze him even when Hermione suggested that Hagrid should be careful and not show them anything too dangerous in front of Umbrige.

The next morning when Jake went out for his run Harry and Hermione came along too. When they got to the courtyard they found that Professor Umbrige had decided to join them. Malfoy tried to say that Harry should be banned from it as well but she ignored him for once. She tried to talk to Jake a few times as well and ask him why he didn't try and gain control of Harry yesterday. Jake knew that she was just egging him on to o something so she could have an excuse to disband the running group, give him detention or both. Jake didn't give her the satisfaction.

Latter on in the day Harry and Ron sat up in the common room well Hermione went down to go and talk with Hagrid about his lesson plans. Jake was out in the grounds playing with Charlie. There were lots of other students out there as well they were tobogganing, skating on the lake and having snowball fights. At one point a couple of snowballs made it up to a window of Gryffindor tower and Ron yelled at them, before realizing that it was Fred and Gorge.

Monday went fairly normally during that mornings run Umbrige didn't even bother coming, she figured that if something happened during she would be informed. The Slytherin Quidditch team managed to keep Draco away from Jake as they got the sense that Jake could probably hurt him badly if he tried something. Also ganging up on someone wasn't the best of ideas when you were outnumbered by the other students.

Hagrid had also made his return to the staff table there were a fair number of students who were glad that he was back, but at the same time there were some that knew that they would miss Professor Grubbly Planks lessons.

Tuesday came and there was no sign of Umbrige as they made their way out to Hagrids cabin. When they got there Hagrid came out caring a large slab of meat, which looked like half a cow. He then led them into the forbidden forest and said "will be over here today. It's sheltered here and they prefer the dark."

There were some questioning looks and some grumbles about what prefers the dark. Hagrid then explained that the creature that they were about to see may be one of the only trained herds of the creature. Again there were questions of if he was sure if they were trained. When they got to a small clearing in the forest Hagrid dropped the half a cow on the ground and asked everyone to gather around as the smell of the meat would draw them out, and he also gave some sort of call so that whatever creature would know that Hagrid was there.

A few minutes later Harry nudged Ron and pointed toward a couple of yew trees where a mysterious dragon like winged horse stared coming towards the meat. Still there were some that couldn't see them and they asked why Hagrid doesn't call them again. Hagrid looked around at everyone and then said "all right put your hands up if you can see them"

He looked around at them and Said "Harry I knew you'd be able to see them. Jake after what Dumbledore told me about you it doesn't surprise me. And you too Neville eh?"

He was about to say more when he was interrupted by Malfoy and asked them what they were supposed to be looking at. Hagrid then drew their attention to the half a cow where bits of flesh were disappearing into thin air as if something was eating it. When people asked what was doing that, Hagrid then told them that the creatures were Thestrals.

Some people then starred talking about how they were unlucky and Hagrid the explained about how that was a myth and superstation and that they were actually very intelligent creatures. Although most of the ones they had at the school only ever pulled the carriages or were used if Dumbledore had to make a long journey.

He then asked if anyone knew why only some people could see them. Hermione raised her hand. Hagrid acknowledged her and she said that the only people who could see them are those that had seen death.

As Hagrid was awarding her ten points for the answer Umbrige came up to inspect the lesson she was making notes and she was also making some snide remarks about Hagrid, She also questioned him about Thestrals being dangerous and he said that they were mainly clarified that because people didn't understand them and they were afraid of them because of the whole death thing. He also said that they were no more dangerous than a dog. Jake thought about Charlie and how he could be the sweetest dog you'd ever met but when commanded to he would spring in to action and attack.

She then told Hagrid in the same sort of talking to five year olds manner that she used with them when she talked to them the first time. She asked a number of very leading questions to some students that took them to be funny which didn't make the people that liked Hagrid fell like she was being fair to him at all.

When she got to Neville she asked him who he saw die and asked him what he thought about the Thestrals, he was a little bit hesitant as he was trying to come up with the words to describe them. She just wrote down some crap abut students being afraid or intimidated. When he tried to correct her she only offered him comfort in a rather sickly overly sweet sounding way.

On the way back up to the castle they were talking about the lesson. As Malfoy Crabbe and Goyle came up from behind them they took the opportunity to try and taught Ron about Quidditch. They just ignored him as they knew what he was trying to do. Once they had passed them Hermione commented about there being four people in the class that could see them and how she wished she could. Harry and Jake gave her the same look and Harry just said "no you don't".

Hermione then turned to Jake and said "who did you see die?"

Jake turned to her and said "it's not so much as who I saw die, but more the memories I have of people that Jack saw die."