A/N: I'm so pleased so many of you like the way I included/characterised Goyle in this. I can't wait to see your reactions to this story as a whole.
Much love! xx-Kitten
Addicted to You
By Kittenshift17
Chapter 8
Being back at school felt strange to Hermione. The routine of attending class, attending meals, and spending countless hours in the library was easy enough to fall into, but more often than not during the first week of being back, she found herself asking Ron or Harry if they'd seen Remus or Sirius, or if Molly needed a hand with anything in the kitchen, or where the twins were. She was adjusting slowly and the others seemed to be having the same trouble.
School simply felt silly and like a waste of their time when every day the Daily Prophet reported more people missing. More dead. More injured. Attacks on muggles were getting out of hand and hundreds had been killed. Hermione felt impotent sitting inside the classroom, knowing that she was skilled enough to be helping. Their encounter with the Death Eaters at the Ministry had reminded her that for all their cockiness, they were still just children. They didn't have the power or the skill-base yet to engage in duels with gifted witches and wizards.
"I think we should start up with DA again," Hermione mused to her friends late on Saturday while they all lounged in front of the fire. Harry and Ron were in the middle of a chess game, Ginny was finishing off some homework and Neville was reading up on the latest Herbology articles Professor Sprout had given him, sprawled across the couch as he read, muttering to himself about the different plants.
"Really?" Harry asked, looking over. "I'm keen."
"We wouldn't have to hide it this year, obviously," Hermione went on. "But it was good practice and I know we weren't the only ones to benefit from it. Learning in the classroom is well and good, and for all that he's a tyrant, Professor Snape is a good teacher for the subject, but I still think extra practice outside of lessons would be useful."
"I'm up for it," Ginny said. "We'll have to work a new schedule around everyone's Quidditch training sessions and prefect duties, but we could do it."
"I learned more from you lot than I ever did in the classroom," Neville admitted. "And I'm already falling behind with Snape teaching Defence instead of Potions. My Potions grades have improved, though."
"Let's do it," Ron grinned. "Should we spread the word?"
Hermione nodded. "I was actually thinking that, since we haven't got to hide it, we could get Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore to sign off on allowing it as a study-group and we could invite whoever wants to come."
"I don't know," Harry mused. "That could attract too much attention. You remember what happened last year. A bunch of people only wanted to do it to gawk at me."
"That's true. Too many people and it will get unruly and out of hand, too," Ron said. "I say we offer it to whichever Gryffindor kids want to do it and only the ones we like from other houses."
"McGonagall will never go for that," Ginny spoke up. "She can't sign off on a study group that excludes people because of house affiliation, and you know we wouldn't ask any of the Slytherins."
"We could," Neville disagreed. "I mean, none of them are likely to show up. Or if they do, they will only do it to goof off or pick a fight and we can boot them. It might feel a bit like training the enemy to better fight us, but at the end of the day the ones who are mini-Death Eaters, like Malfoy and them, they're not going to come along, are they? If there's some little fourth year kid who could use the help and is willing to be seen with us, why not help them?"
"He's got a point, Harry," Hermione said. "Not every single student in Slytherin is inherently evil. Some of them might be struggling to fit in and need some help to fight back if they're being picked on by the older students or the others in their year group."
"You want to teach Slytherins?" Harry asked her mildly. "If we're doing all this with more people than those in the original DA, they'll all be at different skill levels. I don't want the original DA members missing out on learning new stuff, or getting bored with old stuff, when we have to go over some of the stuff we covered last year."
"It couldn't hurt to cover it all again," Ginny argued. "I mean, there were a few spells that we moved on from before I'd mastered them. If we touch on all the ones from last year, everyone who knows how to do it get a refresher course for a week or two, and everyone else learns. And then we dive into new stuff. The only trouble will be the size of the group."
"She's right. If we throw it open to everyone, imagine the amount of sods that will turn up. Not just to gawk at Harry, either. Some might be genuinely keen, but this is supposed to be fun, not about the lot of us trying to teach the masses. They've got the teachers for that. With the DA there was, what? Fifty of us at our biggest? What if a hundred people turn up?"
"I don't think they will," Hermione said. "They might, for the first one, but once the hype wears off, a lot would leave. Essentially, it's a study group – if we worded it as one not many people would turn up because not everyone wants to study. Rather than advertising it as a resurrected DA, we would sell it as practical study sessions. You wouldn't even have to teach it. Sometimes it's helpful when trying to learn a new spell, to have someone else around who knows how. It would be all of us helping each other, not just you teaching everyone, Harry."
"And Snape?" Harry asked mildly. "You think he won't get his nose out of joint when he hears we're teaching Defence? He'll think we think he's the next Umbridge and he'll murder us all."
"He's not a bad teacher and I think he knows that," Hermione argued. "We could even ask him to look in on them occasionally. We could ask all four heads of house."
"Half the fun of DA was sneaking around. I don't want to go if it's just studying," Ron grumbled.
"And that's exactly the attitude that will turn people away. But it will be DA to us," Hermione pointed out. "It's still going to be us having duels and learning to defend ourselves and training. I don't know about you, but I'm still furious over what happened in the Ministry, not just because they attacked but because we barely got out of there alive. People are dying out there. We almost died. I don't want to be too slow with my Shields ever again; not after Dolohov's curse hit me. I don't want to be unprepared for the ruthlessness of duelling a Death Eater. I don't want to lose," Hermione said passionately. "I want to win. I want to know going into a fight that I can win; I want the confidence of knowing my spells and knowing they're strong enough."
"You really want to go through McGonagall to do it?" Harry asked, nodding along with her.
"We have to," Hermione sighed. "We only got away with it last year because everyone wanted to piss off Umbridge. If we try a secret group where students duel this year, without permission or supervision, we'll all get detention."
"What do we have to do to get permission?" Neville asked.
"The same as any group," Hermione shrugged. "Apply for permission from a teacher. I'll draft the proposal for it as soon as I can put together a schedule to work around everyone's Quidditch training and prefect stuff. I already have the prefect time-table. I need a time-table for the pitch for training."
"I've got one," Harry said, fishing around in the bag at his feet and pulling it out.
"You've booked training almost every day," she frowned.
"Every day, actually. No 'almost' about it. Even Sundays. But we could shift one or two to morning sessions if we're doing DA, too," Harry grinned.
"Let me make the time-table and draft a proposal. Do you think we should ask Professor Snape, or just go straight to Professor McGonagall?"
"Snape will say no," Harry shrugged. "He lives to piss us off."
"He does not," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'll ask him about it, but there's nothing to say we only have to focus on Defence spells. We could cover Charms and Transfiguration, too. Whatever spells are useful, really. The more you know."
"You're entirely too excited about studying at all times," Ron informed her, though he smiled a little.
Hermione offered her hand for him to shake. "Hermione Granger," she pretended to introduce herself. They all laughed and Hermione smiled to herself as she began drafting a time-table for the DA meetings.
