A/N: Hello again everyone! This particular note is actually from Hamaliel, my editor. He wishes for me to inform you that all editing mistakes in this work belong to me. He realizes that his job to fix my errors, but he edits while at work so he misses things. :-) I think he's being silly, but I have faithfully passed on his message.

Now then, back to the story!

Chapter 12

Harry groaned as the sunlight hit his face. He'd been perfectly happy and asleep until a few moments ago when the Harpy invaded his rooms. 'Hermione' his brain supplied once it ground into action. 'The Harpy's name is Hermione.' He groaned again and rolled over, pulling a pillow over his head.

He heard an amused snort, and suddenly the pillow was gone. And where were his blankets going? "Hermione!" he shouted. "I was sleeping!"

"And now you're awake! Excellent! I have an idea. Get up. There's plotting to be done."

Harry cracked an eye open and squinted up at her. "Plotting?"

"Yes. Plotting. There might even be scheming."

"Really?" he asked, opening the other eye and reaching for his glasses.

"Really."

"Can we have coffee while we plot?"

"Don't you want to know what we're plotting?"

"Nah. I don't really care as long as there's coffee."

"Hm…interesting. I'll have to remember that. And yes, there's coffee. Pancakes too. Meet me in the kitchen!" She tossed over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

Harry sighed. He knew he was now up for the day, whether he liked it or not. But she'd promised plotting, so he kept the grumbling to a minimum as he began rooting through his dresser drawer for a shirt.

As soon as she was out of sight, Hermione let out the breath she'd been holding and leaned against the wall. When had Harry begun to look like that? She didn't remember her best friend having abs like that. And those arms…. She shook herself mentally; it was time to focus. There was planning to do, and she wouldn't get anywhere by thinking like a teenage girl. Shoving the memory of a shirtless Harry into a mental trunk marked 'Later'; she pushed off from the wall and continued toward the kitchen. And on the way she fervently hoped Harry would put on a shirt before he came to breakfast, or it was going to be a very long morning.

"You want to do what?" Minerva asked, eyebrows raised so far Harry was afraid they might fly off her face entirely.

"A reunion of Dumbledore's Army. It'll boost morale!" Harry smiled at her winningly.

"Yes, Harry, that part I understood. What I'm concerned with is the plan to use Dumbledore's Army to teach the students battle tactics."

"It'll be great! The students, especially the seventh years, want to learn real fighting techniques. Having a D.A. reunion here will allow them to talk to people who have actually fought, and give them some real practice." Hermione threw in.

Minerva looked back and forth between her two newest teachers, and wondered which one of them had come up with this mad scheme. Then she made the mistake of looking at Albus' portrait, which was nodding and grinning like an ape. Knowing that she would regret it later, she asked "And just how do you intend to sell this idea to the parents?"

Hermione and Harry both looked as though Christmas had come early. "We'll send out letters to the parents explaining what we want to do. In order to participate in the mock battle, the student will have to have their parent's permission. And we'll impose an age restriction. No one under 15 will be allowed to fight." Hermione said seriously. "We understand there will be injuries, but we don't want any serious ones."

"Yeah, keeping the younger years out of the fray should ease up on the body count quite a bit!" Harry added, and was rewarded with dirty looks from both women.

He smirked a bit, and added "Honestly Minerva, they're so curious about what it's really like to fight for your life. I think this will give them an idea and settle them down a bit. Right now they're so focused on impressing their 'War Hero' teachers that they're not really learning. I think this is just the thing to make them think about what they're doing, and who they're doing it for."

"What do you mean?" Minerva asked.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then turned back to Minerva with grim faces. "The students seem…overly impressed that Harry and I are teaching them. They constantly ask what it was like in the war to be on the run, to fight, to save the world. We tell them to get back to what they're supposed to be doing, but…" Hermione trailed off.

"It's true. They're so thrilled with the fact that we're Harry Potter and Hermione Granger that they forget we're the professors of Defense and Transfiguration. They've managed to glamorize war, Minerva. We need it to stop."

Minerva sat in thought for a moment. She knew they had a point. She'd seen it coming since she hired the two of them. And she knew that what they were proposing was a good way to solve the problem. Give the children a taste of war, and they'd go right back to studying and pulling pranks instead of living in their own little glory-filled fantasy land. And it wasn't as though anyone from the D.A. would actually hurt them.

She nodded once, and Harry and Hermione broke into grins. "I'll let you do this, but I want to be informed every step of the way. Make sure the parents know exactly what's going to happen. In fact, invite them. Get a D.A. team together, and make sure you draw up an ironclad set of rules for this. Make sure the students know that if they set a toe out of line they'll be expelled. And be sure the adults know that if they bend the rules at all, I will personally make their lives miserable!"

Her professors nodded, jumped out of their chairs, and headed for the door. They hadn't made it through the doorway before they started making plans. Minerva allowed herself a small smile. They truly were a credit to Hogwarts.

That evening found Hermione and Harry in the Three Broomsticks, waiting for Ron to arrive. "Who'd you get to watch Gryffindor while we're gone?" Hermione asked. She'd been dying to know ever since Harry'd told her he'd take care of it and not to worry about a thing.

"Filius. He's been missing Snape's influence around the school, and figured he'd do me a favor after my Severus-like performance at last night's dueling club." Harry snickered.

Hermione giggled, and was just opening her mouth to reply when an "Oi! What are you two giggling about?" burst through the room and Ron came barreling at them. He hugged Hermione, punched Harry in the arm, and then dropped into a chair with a huff.

"What is it then? What're you laughing about? And what are we plotting?" Ron asked, questions tumbling out faster then they could be answered.

"We're laughing at Harry being possessed by the spirit of Severus Snape, and we're plotting a fight on Hogwarts grounds." Hermione answered while Ron gulped for air.

"Harry's been possessed by Snape?" Ron went pale, with just a tinge of green.

Hermione laughed while Harry answered "No you prat, I just used some of his teaching methods the other day. And I might use them again. They were more effective then I thought they'd be…."

"All right then, as long as you're still Harry. Now what's this about a fight at Hogwarts?"

The trio spent the next few hours detailing a plan that would meet Minerva's requirements and Mrs. Weasley's standards. Rosmerta would later remark that it was just like it had been years ago, watching the three of them find ways to get into trouble. And all the while, a shadowy figure in a dark corner kept watch.