Hermione found Louisa in the library. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" She asked the girl.
"Of course," Louisa nodded moving some books so she could sit down.
"Listen," Hermione lowered her voice. "You know how Umbridge isn't really teaching us at all?"
"Yes…" Louisa said wondering what she was getting at.
"Well, we've decided to get training to defend ourselves. We're meeting at the Hogshead on Saturday to discuss it. Will you come?"
"I'll be there." The girl said without any reservation.
Saturday morning Louisa and Dean headed to the Hogshead in the village and were met with some openly hostile stares from some of the other students. "He shouldn't be here!" Parvati Patil said angrily.
"He's a Slytherin, toss him out!" Michael Corner agreed.
Dean frowned. "I am here because I would like to learn. I thought students helped each other."
"Oh, let him stay," Fred said. "If he does anything or tells anyone we'll take care of it."
Everything settled down a bit, though the other students still looked at Dean pretty untrustworthily. Hermione began, "Well, er, you know why we're here. We need to learn to defend ourselves, because You-Know-Who is back and we're not learning anything in class. I thought we should take matters into our own hands—"
The door opened. "Sorry, I'm late." Everyone turned to see Erin Black enter. Harry was up in a moment throwing his arms around her. "Well, this is a nice welcome!" She laughed as the other Gryffindors came over greeting her and some of the other students as well. "All right, carry on." She took a seat next to Harry.
Hermione cleared her throat. "Erin, you can say this better than I can."
"Oh, Hermione," Erin stood though as Hermione sat down. "We need to learn how to defend ourselves properly, not just the theory, which yes, I'm doing that too at home. Not just for passing our OWL's, but because Lord Voldemort is back and he will kill any that stand in his way. Harry and I have seen this first hand when he killed Cedric. He is ruthless and will not hesitate to use his wand on adult or child that gets in his way."
"Where's the proof?" A blonde Hufflepuff asked. "Where is it? How do we know You-Know-Who is back? All we have is his word, and if that's all—"
Erin stared at him coldly. "What is your name?"
"Zacharias Smith."
"Well, Smith," she said coldly. "You want the proof he's back?" She started unbuttoning her coat looking right at him.
"Erin, stop." Harry said. "What makes Erin and I say he's back? We saw him. Dumbledore told the school what happened and if you didn't believe him then you don't believe us. Erin almost lost her own life at his hands. You can explain away Cedric Diggory as an accident involving the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but what about Erin? She was not a part of it. Before the Third Task she was taken by a Death Eater to where Voldemort was. And he almost killed her to get his body back. Because he wasn't dead that night he tried to kill me. But I'm not wasting my breath to tell convince anyone. And Erin doesn't have to show you any proof either."
"All Dumbledore told us last year was the Diggory was killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought his body back. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly—"
"You want to know exactly?" Erin said and in a moment he was on his back on top of him. "He used the Avada Kedavra curse on him, that's how he died. Voldemort called him "the spare", he didn't care who he was, he didn't care what kind of person he was. He killed him without any preamble. Do you have any idea what does this?" She pulled back the neck of her shirt showing him the scar on her shoulder, chest, and neck. "Do you know what causes this type of scar that magic can't cure?"
"The Unmentionable Curse." Louisa said. "The Unmentionable Curse was used on you. He tore a part of your soul out."
"That's right, and what other wizard do you think would even think about doing something like that?" She hissed at Zacharias. "Do you think anyone that wasn't as evil and twisted as Voldemort would do that?" She got up. "If any of you just came here to find out about Cedric Diggory you can leave right now. He died a hero and talking about his death the way this sodding git is doing is an insult to his memory. The next time you feel like running your mouth because you think you deserve something you don't I will curse you."
"And be glad," George hissed at him. "It's better than what we'll do to you."
Harry pulled Erin back calmly her down. He pulled her shirt back over her. "Just relax, okay? Don't let them see you upset."
"All right," Hermione said. "We're here because Harry and Erin have seen these things, they've fought against Him. They can teach us what we need to know to hopefully survive."
"In our first year they stopped You-Know-Who from getting the Sorcerer's Stone." Neville said.
"And he defeated a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's Office," Ernie Macmillan said. "The sorting hat told me."
"Yeah, okay," Harry said. "When you say it like that it sounds great, but when you're out there a moment from dying or a moment from watching someone else die, it's not great."
"That's why we need you, Harry," Hermione said. "To teach us so we can do something against V-Voldemort. So we're not going out there unprepared."
They all signed their names to a piece of parchment after decided to call themselves Dumbledore's Army. "There we just need somewhere to meet. We'll tell you all when we've decided." Ron told all of them.
"Are you sure we should tell Monson?" Neville asked after almost everyone left.
"He wants to learn, Neville. And he's not like other Slytherins." Hermione pointed out.
"I guess. It's just strange having a Slytherin that wants to."
They found out the next day about Education Decree Number 24 that all student organizations, clubs, teams, etc. were discontinued and permission had to be gained to continue them.
It was Neville that found them the place to practice, the Room of Requirement. He immediately got Harry and the others to come see it. It was perfect for what they needed. The others were told and they all met them there for the first meeting. The first meeting they practiced the expelliarmus spell first. After the first lesson Hermione handed out Galleons with the Protean Charm on them that would tell them the time and date of the next lesson. They could come there other times though to practice as long as they were careful.
