Chapter 12: Lessons and the First Meeting
After arriving at the school and attending the start of term feast that was always preceded by the Sorting, the four of them took in the Gryffindor common room, all deep in thought. For Harry, Ron and Hermione, this caused a feeling of normalcy as they thought they would not see this room, or the school for that matter, again. For Ginny it was completely different. She felt relief in being here with her best friend, brother, and her boyfriend. Harry noticed that all of his old room mates had decided to return, as had all of Hermione's. He felt a sense of joy knowing that many of the people that he had attended school with since his first year had returned, even if their parents thought they should not.
Hermione pulled her friends over to their favorite seats near the fire and informed them that, as there were fewer students this term; they all had their own private rooms. This meant that Harry and Ron would not be returning to their top floor dorm with Neville, Seamus, and Dean, nor would Hermione and Ginny return to their dorm with Lavender and Pavarti.
As the other students went to bed, the four of them got into an intense discussion about the first D.A. meeting. Hermione brought up the idea of using the Room of Requirement again, to which Harry agreed immediately. Then they discussed how they were going to approach the remaining members from two years ago, and how they were going to recruit new members. Harry and Ron thought that they could handle those from Gryffindor, with a little help from Ginny and Hermione, and then Ginny suggested that Luna talk to those from Ravenclaw. To Hermione's surprise, Ron brought up having Ernie Macmillan take care of Hufflepuff, should he decide to return. After a few more minutes' discussion on this subject, Harry thought it might be a good time to bring up an idea he had for the first meeting with new recruits.
"We should set up a duel. The six of us from the battle in the Department of Mysteries versus the remaining first class of the D.A. We would use only verbal incantations, if disarmed or incapacitated you would be out, and, of course, no Unforgivables, or anything that might cause serious injury or death. I think it will make a nice little demonstration for new members," Harry said.
"Well, Harry, it is a good idea, but we can't just set something like that up with no qualified teachers there," Hermione said.
"I think we could work around that, Hermione," Harry said.
"Then let Neville and Luna know," Hermione said.
"Harry, exactly who would you ask to supervise the match," Ron asked.
"Fred and George," Harry said.
"Good idea," Hermione said quickly.
"Ron, I need you to owl them and see if they'll come back for this, and make sure that they still have their Galleons. I'll handle getting permission from Professor McGonagall," Harry said.
"Make sure you code your letter, and tell them to send their answer by return owl as quickly as possible," Hermione said.
"Hermione, do you think you can make more of those Galleons, just in case," Harry asked.
"I can handle that," Hermione answered with a smile.
After settling the date and time for the meeting, Ron and Hermione went to bed while Harry and Ginny stayed behind. Ginny moved over to Harry's chair and sat down beside him. As she placed her head on his shoulder, she let out a yawn.
"Gin, why don't you go to bed, you look exhausted," Harry said softly.
"I don't want to go to bed, I just want to sit here with you," Ginny said trying to hide the fact that she was tired.
Harry wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, pulling her close to him. She smiled, snuggling into the warmth of his embrace. He knew how she felt at this moment. They wouldn't get much time together until the holidays. As they sat, Harry looked down to see Ginny starting to nod slightly, eyes closing a little more each time.
"Sweetheart, go get some sleep. I don't want you to be tired tomorrow," Harry said gently.
Ginny looked up. She saw the concerned look on his face and understood that he was only trying to do the right thing. She smiled again, feeling a little less reluctant to do as he asked. Getting up, Ginny held out her hand as if to tell Harry that he should take his own advice and get some sleep. Joining her and taking her hand, Harry walked over to the foot of the stair cases with her. They stood together for a few minutes, and then Ginny stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Harry. Harry wrapped his arms around her, pulling Ginny into a tight hug. As they separated, Ginny stretched herself up to kiss Harry goodnight.
"Goodnight my love, sleep tight," Ginny said.
"Goodnight Gin," Harry said.
With that, they turned and went to their rooms.
The next morning the four went down to breakfast. After breakfast they got their course schedules. Harry, Ron, and Ginny all had a free class period each day, but Hermione's was full up as usual. Over the course of the first week, Harry planned his first few D.A. lessons, Impressed Professor Slughorn, without the help of his old potions book, and took top marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts, again. Fred and George's answer came back saying, "Have you gone mental, of course we'll do it". Harry also found it easier than he had first thought to persuade the headmistress to allow the twins to attend D.A. meetings. Finally, Friday had come and it was time to have the first D.A. meeting. Harry met with his five friends and went over the demonstration they were going to put on. All in all, everything had come together for the first meeting. Most of the original D.A. had agreed to return most enthusiastically. They had picked up a few new recruits in each of the three houses, all of whom were just as eager to learn how to fight as Harry's classmates had been back in his fifth year.
At five o'clock, Harry looked over a nearly packed Room of Requirement.
"Welcome everyone. This evening I will be starting with a short demonstration. We will be staging a duel. Those who went with me to the Department of Mysteries against the rest of the original D.A. The rules are going to be as follows; No Unforgivables, Nothing likely to cause serious injury or death, Verbal incantations only. Now, will the original D.A. please come forward," Harry said.
At this, a group of eleven returning members formed at one end of the room, all of them talking fast and furious. Harry, along with the rest of his dueling team, drew their wands and allowed their opponents a moment to take notice. When only Fred and George drew their wands, Harry thought it would be a good time to remind them of the first lesson in defense.
"RICTERSEMPRA," Harry bellowed as he directed his wand at Ernie Macmillan.
The tickling charm found its mark and got the attention of the rest of the group. Within seconds, wands were at ready, but Harry's team was nowhere to be found. It was then that the original D.A. found themselves in a labyrinth of boxes and other obstacles, while the new students could see everything going on. Pairing off, Harry's team took positions and began to set up ambushes for the other group. Within a few minutes, Ron and Hermione spotted their first two marks.
Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones slowly stepped into a small alcove with branches leading off in three directions ahead of them. Wands at ready they chose the middle branch, hoping that they would at least be able to disarm the first of Harry's group that they came across. How wrong they were.
"Expelliarmus," Ron shouted, wand pointed at Hannah.
"Stupify," Hermione followed, taking Susan.
To their surprise, Hannah found herself disarmed and Susan stunned. After the attack, Hermione revived Susan and Ron returned Hannah's wand, then they sent the pair out of the maze.
Moments later, Harry and Ginny spotted Seamus and Dean. They hit them with a pair of Jellylegs jinxes, then cast the counter jinx and sent them from the maze.
After hearing Harry and Ginny's jinxes, the Creevey brothers and the Patil twins decided to team up. Neville and Luna spotted them walking along a short corridor and heading toward a clearing. Traveling quickly, Neville and Luna beat them to the clearing and prepared to attack as soon as they got there. When the two sets of siblings entered the clearing, Neville and Luna attacked with combinations of Leglocker curses, disarming charms, stunning spells and a full bodybind cast by Neville.
The six friends met in the middle of the maze, all telling of Fred and George's position. Looking around, they planned positions and the order in which they would attack the twins. Taking these positions, they waited.
Moments later, Fred and George arrived at the center, wands ready. They looked around for a few seconds, in which nothing had happened, and then got ready to move on. It was then that Ron and Ginny stepped out.
"Expelliarmus," they yelled together.
"Protego," the twins bellowed, blocking the attack.
Harry grinned from his hiding place. He knew that, the jokers the twins were, they always knew when to be serious.
"Locomotor Mortis," Fred yelled sending his counter at Ron. The spell hit its mark and Ron fell to the leglocker curse.
George turned to find that Ginny had gone, but also to see that Neville, Luna, and Hermione had stepped out.
"Stupe...," George started, but had been hit with a full bodybind by Hermione.
Fred whipped around to assist, but found himself facing Harry and Ginny.
"Stupefy," Fred screeched directing the charm at Harry.
"Protego," Harry said, then cast his counter attack nonverbally.
"Levicorpus," Harry said in his mind.
Fred found himself suspended in mid air as if hanging by his ankle. In his confusion he had dropped his wand, which Ginny had summoned. At this, the maze disappeared, leaving a very confused group of students.
"Accio cushions," Ginny said, placing them under Fred.
Harry released Fred nonverbally and then turned to address the "class".
"As you have just seen, there are no rules when you are in a real battle. I, myself, broke my own rule to demonstrate this. For those of you who were with us two years ago, I felt that you needed reminded of the first lesson in defense, CONSTANT VIGILLANCE. Fred and George, alone, were ready when I hit Ernie. Once the maze went up, the six of us picked off the other ten of you quite easily. Now, as we've had a bit of fun, let's get down to it. I see a number of new members here tonight, line up side by side in front here. Now, those of you from the original D.A., take a partner and one of these new recruits and begin with disarming," Harry said firmly.
Giving the group time to disperse, Harry turned to his friends.
"Hermione, Ron, you two stay near the group that has formed over by that side, I want you to practice disarming nonverbally. Neville, Luna, you take the other group and do the same as Ron and Hermione. Help the newer members as needed. Ginny, you and I are going to work together up front on nonverbal incantations for now, and then we'll check on everyone else," Harry said.
Harry and Ginny took a position somewhat away from the others, but close enough to watch them. As he turned to his girlfriend, Harry noticed an excited, yet nervous look on her face.
"You did that to get me on my own, didn't you," Ginny joked.
"Yes, and no," Harry started. Taking a breath, he continued, "I do want to teach you how to cast nonverbal spells, but I also wanted you as my partner".
"So, where do we start," Ginny asked with a smile.
"Well, the first step is to clear your mind of anything that makes you uncomfortable," Harry said softly.
"With you, I think that'll be easy," Ginny said.
"Next, you need to focus all of your concentration on the incantation for the spell you wish to cast," Harry said trying to stay serious.
"Okay," Ginny replied, noticing that Harry was really trying to teach her.
"Last part, perform the wand movement and focus on your target," Harry said.
"Seems, pretty easy," Ginny said.
"Now, on three, try to disarm me," Harry ordered.
Harry turned and counted off ten paces from Ginny. As he turned and raised his wand, he gave her an encouraging smile.
"One…Two…Three," Harry counted.
As soon as he said three, he saw Ginny target his wand and reacted. He cast a shield charm then threw a disarming charm of his own. As Ginny's wand flew into Harry's hand, she narrowed her eyes.
"Hey, you didn't tell me that you were going to try to stop me," Ginny said firmly.
"I know. I reacted out of habit, but you did manage to cast a perfect charm nonverbally, and on the first try," Harry replied with a grin.
"But…," Ginny started, but Harry cut her off.
"Okay, I know that wasn't too fair to you. This time, I'll not defend myself," Harry said as he handed her wand back.
Retaking his position, Harry said, "On three. One…Two…Three".
Harry's wand flew from his hand as Ginny sent the spell for the second time. Giving a satisfied smile, Ginny walked over and returned Harry's wand.
"So," She asked.
"Excellent, I think
you've got it already. Let's go see how the rest are doing,"
Harry said with his own smile forming.
Harry and Ginny patrolled around the room, checking on their classmates. To Harry's surprise, most of the new members were picking up disarming very quickly. Once they reached the pair that he had set with each group, Harry spoke with each and observed the group as a whole. After assisting a few teams, Harry and Ginny made their way back to the front and called a halt to the session.
"You've all done well tonight," Harry started, getting everyone's attention.
"Now, I want you all to remember what group you were in, and the pair from my own dueling team that was practicing near you. That pair will be your group leaders. Once you lot have gotten disarming, stunning, and blocking down, I'll work all of you into pairs and we'll get you up to speed with those who helped you. My hope is that by the holidays, you'll all be on roughly the same level," Harry said.
"So, we'll be reviewing all of our defense lessons with you, and you're the best at it," asked a Gryffindor fourth year who was new to the D.A.
"Do you think that you can do better," asked George, grinning wickedly.
"I think he's just a little full of himself," the boy answered loudly.
"What's your name," Harry asked.
"Jonathan Smith," the fourth year answered.
"I see. Well, Mr. Smith, would you come up here please," Harry said doing all he could to keep his temper in check.
"A duel," Smith asked smartly.
"Yes, a FORMAL duel, no Unforgivables, nothing that might kill, and you may use anything you have learned," Harry said, grinning evilly now.
Ginny turned to Harry, intent on taking care of this.
"Let me," she said quietly.
"Okay, you got him," Harry said, knowing that Ginny had something up her sleeve.
Turning to the boy, Harry said, "You will face Ginny upon her request".
"Can't do it yourself, got to have a girl fight for you," Smith said.
"I'll have you know that you won't be a challenge for me, and you certainly wouldn't be for Harry," Ginny said angrily.
"We'll see," Smith said.
The two took their positions, observing all of the formalities of a proper duel, and raised their wands. Harry counted off three for them. On three, Ginny flicked her wand and Jonathan Smith was disarmed, and with another, stunned. Harry stepped over and revived Ginny's victim.
"So, she's better than you," the boy said as he woke up.
"You want a shot at me, you've got it," Harry said, letting his temper get the better of him this time.
Ginny returned the wand and counted off ten paces. As soon as Harry heard three, he flicked his wand and hit Smith with a tickling charm. He stood back and let the boy recover, but kept at the ready. Smith's counter attack was quick, but proved useless as his stunner was effortlessly deflected. Harry waved his wand and Smith was suspended in mid air, just like Fred had been earlier, only Smith did not drop his wand. Harry then waved and disarmed the boy. After a few minutes, Ginny walked over to Smith, who was still upside down, and began to circle him slowly.
"I told you that you would not be a challenge," She said coolly.
"Do you yield," Harry asked, making it clear that if pressed, he would not be as forgiving.
"I do," Smith said respectfully.
Harry looked over to Ginny, who silently summoned some cushions and placed them under Smith, and then released the boy from the jinx.
"Anyone else think they can do a better job," Harry asked loudly.
A collective "No" echoed across the group.
"Well, then, let's leave it there for the evening," Harry said.
"If you'll all please sign this parchment, so we'll know who was here," Hermione said quickly.
At this everyone, except Neville, Luna, and Ginny, lined up to sign, including Jonathan Smith.
Ron and Hermione took on letting the group go, and then turned to Harry.
"We've got patrol duty, so we'll escort Neville and Luna so that they don't get into trouble," Ron said.
"See you two back in the common room," Hermione added with a wink.
With that they left. Harry thought for a few moments, and then turned to Ginny.
"Do you think you can do this in my place," Harry asked.
"Yes, but I'd feel better if you were always here and I wouldn't have to," Ginny said.
Harry stopped to think again, but this time he made the room conjure a small couch. He motioned for Ginny to take a seat, which she did, then took a seat himself. As he was sitting down, Ginny moved so that she could rest her head against Harry's shoulder. Instinctively, Harry put his arms around her waist and pulled her close. Ginny smiled thinking about how much she loved to spend time close to Harry with little to no chance of interruption. Seeing her smile, Harry extracted his wand from his robes. With a wave, the room dimmed and a fire lit in the fireplace. He waved a second time and soft music began to play.
"More muggle music," Ginny asked softly.
"Yeah, I've found that whenever I'm near you, their music seems to describe how I'm feeling so well," Harry replied.
"Can you play that one we danced to at Bill's wedding," Ginny asked dreamily.
"Sure," Harry answered with a smile.
With a wave, the song began and Harry stood.
"May I have this dance, milady," Harry asked, holding out his hand.
"You may, kind sir," Ginny answered with a giggle.
The couple danced closely, kissing every now and again. Ginny set her head against Harry's chest and smiled as he sang to her. When the song ended, Harry looked down to see Ginny's smile and smiled himself. He gave a wave of his wand and another song started. As the couple continued to dance, Harry found himself wanting to make the evening last forever, just like this. He knew that they needed to get back soon, but he didn't want to let go of Ginny. At that moment, a thought entered his mind. He needed to make sure Ginny knew how he felt about her. Harry decided that he needed to get her a gift, something special, something that would tell her everything he couldn't say with words. Then it hit him. He smiled knowing exactly what these thoughts were pointing him to. Now all he had to do was figure out how and when.
The song ended and Ginny looked up to see Harry's smile and pulled herself closer before breaking the silence.
"Sweetie, we've got to go," She said softly.
"I know, but I don't want to," Harry answered.
Neither do I, but we'll get into trouble if we don't," Ginny said.
"You're right, let's go," Harry said with disappointment in his voice.
"Harry," Ginny said.
"Yes," Harry replied.
"I love you," she said.
'I love you too, Gin," Harry answered with a smile.
The couple left the Room of Requirement, hand in hand, and walked back to Gryffindor Tower. Upon entering the common room, Hermione spotted them and gave a knowing smile, but Ron scowled.
"What do you think you're doing, keeping my sister out this late," Ron said.
"Ronald, don't," Hermione said firmly.
"No, Hermione, I want an answer," Ron said shortly.
"If you must know, we were dancing Ron," Ginny spat, anger beginning to burn.
"Oh, is that all," Ron said, somewhat angrily.
"Well, if we were doing anything else, it wouldn't be any of your business, now would it," Ginny replied.
"So, Harry is that what you were doing," Ron asked, turning on his best friend.
"Yeah, we were," Harry answered nervously, not sure whether he should run.
"RONALD, WHAT GINNY DOES IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, AND AS SHE WAS WITH HARRY, WHAT THEY DO TOGETHER IS ALSO NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS," Hermione said hotly.
"FINE," Ron yelled.
With that, Ron went to his room.
"Sorry about that," Hermione said.
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about, Hermione," Ginny said.
"Well, why don't we all get to bed," Hermione suggested.
"You go, I need to ask Hermione something," Harry said, throwing a look to Hermione.
"Okay, love you," Ginny said, kissing Harry on the cheek.
"Love you too," Harry said returning her kiss.
Once Ginny had left, Harry sat down.
"What's up Harry," Hermione asked.
"I need some advice, and possibly some help," Harry said.
"What about," Hermione asked, now getting concerned.
"Well, I want to…You know… Ask Ginny to… well, but I don't know what to do," Harry stammered.
"You want to propose to her," Hermione said with a smile growing.
"Yeah," Harry said.
"You'll have to follow your heart, Harry, I can't help you," Hermione said.
"Can you at least help me find a ring," Harry asked.
"I can try," Hermione answered.
"Now, what do I do about Ron," Harry asked.
"He'll come around if you just talk to him," Hermione said.
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said.
'Hey, what are friends for. This is the happiest I've seen you since you two were together last year. Seeing that makes me think of better times and it makes me feel good," Hermione said, hugging her best friend.
With that, they went off to their rooms. Harry already knew what he was going to say to Ron, but he had to let him cool down a bit first.
