Well, onward and upward as they say! It's time for the first official meeting of…. Drumroll please… Dumbledore's Army! I had a little bit of fun with this chapter, and the next few…

So, as always – I do not own… unless some miracle occurs… HP or Bleach…

Chapter 25

The next week when Angelina told Harry that Quidditch practice was cancelled because of the rain, he told her that they would have their first Defense meeting that night instead, and told her where to go on the seventh floor. She looked at him, puzzled, because there was no room there, but said she would tell the team's chasers, Katie and Alicia. Hermione also appeared doubtful about the location because of Dobby's involvement, but Harry told her he had also heard about the room from Professor Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore?"

"At the Yule Ball, he mentioned it in passing."

"Oh, well, that's okay then."

Ichigo shared a look with Tatsuki and Rukia; he shrugged, not knowing any better than they did what the others were talking about. Karin was pouting about not being included, but Ichigo had decided – and the others had agreed that it would be better if Karin and Yuzu were not involved in the group. If they got caught, they could get expelled, or worse. He didn't want his sisters getting noticed by Dumbridge at all. They could teach the twins anything they needed to know over the summer. For now, he'd prefer that they stay off her radar completely.

They did not head out as one large group; they let Harry, Ron and Hermione go first to prep. When they arrived at the spot, they were surprised to find a door there. One eyebrow cocked, Toshiro knocked, and the door opened for them.

"Wow," Tatsuki said, "This is…" she looked around at the stacks of cushions, rows of bookshelves with helpful books, and the instruments that were for detecting enemies.

"Yeah. Who'd have ever guessed this was here?" Dean commented, having followed them in. "What is this place, anyway?"

Harry started to explain, but kept getting interrupted, because more and more people kept arriving, until eight o'clock, when everyone was finally there, and all the cushions were full.

"Well," Harry said, looking around, suddenly nervous, "I guess you all found it okay…"

"This place is fantastic!" Cho gushed, beaming at him. Her friend just rolled her eyes and made a face.

"It's bizarre," Fred frowned, looking over at his twin, "Didn't we hide from Filch in here once, only it was a broom cupboard then?" George nodded, an equally baffled look on his face.

"Harry, what is all this stuff?" Dean asked. He was looking at the shelf with the Sneakoscopes and Foe-glass.

"Dark Detectors…" Harry explained patiently, "They are supposed to show when dark wizards or enemies are around, but they should not be relied on too heavily…" he cleared his throat, "Well, I was thinking about what we should do first…"

Hermione raised a hand, and he looked at her, a bit puzzled. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," she said.

"Harry's leader," Cho said immediately, giving Hermione a dark look. Rukia hid her smile behind her hand.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," she replied with a faint smile, "It just makes it all formal and gives him full authority over this – um, class. So – everyone who thinks Harry ought to be leader?"

Everyone put up their hands.

"Err… right," Harry blushed, "And… what now, Hermione?"

"We need a name," she said, still smiling. Her hand was still in the air. Rolling her eyes, Rukia reached out to pull it down. "It would give us – oh, team spirit and unity, don't you think?" She asked, looking around at everyone else for confirmation.

"The Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina suggested, to which Ichigo muttered under his breath, "Hear, hear." Rukia elbowed him which caused him to grunt.

"The Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" Fred said helpfully, to which Tatsuki nodded her agreement. Her friends thought she might actually agree with anything he suggested at that point, so they didn't say anything except look at each other.

Hermione frowned at them all. "I think something that doesn't tell everyone what we're up to. Something we can refer to outside of meetings."

Toshiro snorted. "Yeah, I guess if we called ourselves either of those we'd have the entire school clamoring to join us." This comment drew more than a few chuckles.

"How about the Defense Association?" this was Cho again. "We can call it D.A. for short."

"I like D.A.," Luna said dreamily.

"I do too," Rukia agreed. Momo was nodding as well.

"The D.A.'s good," Ginny grinned. "Only how about we make it stand for Dumbledore's Army? You know, since that's what the Ministry is afraid he's going to make us into – his own private army."

There was a lot of laughter and grinning over her suggestion.

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione raised her hand. Everyone raised their hand. "Well – majority rules, then." She took the piece of parchment with all of their names on it and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters and posted it on the wall.

Zacharias was a little condescending when Harry suggested practicing Expelliarmus first; until he told them this was the spell that had saved his life last June against Voldemort himself. (AN1) Everyone just stared at him and no one moved. "Okay, pairs then."

It was amazing that no one lost an eye when wands went flying out of hands, into walls, book shelves, and in all directions. Ichigo's wand almost hit Harry directly in his scar when Rukia disarmed him, and he just barely ducked. Hmm, he thought, as he worked with Neville; maybe I should have Ichigo and Neville work together… when it comes to the simpler stuff like this… they are sort of on the same level. For the really advanced stuff, I'll have Ichigo work with someone else, like Hermione… having those two duel would be really something…

"Sorry Harry," Ichigo said as he retrieved it, his face red and his hair turning - green.

"Why don't you and Neville work together, while I help the others?" he suggested, "I don't think Rukia needs too much help with this one, and I see Uryu could use a partner…" Ichigo shrugged.

"Sure."

It was only a few minutes later he heard Neville shouting "I DID IT! I've never done it before – I DID IT!"

Harry turned to look at the gleeful Neville, and Ichigo, who was barely restraining laughter.

"Maybe you'd better not tell him that in a duel situation, his opponent won't be looking the other way because someone spoke to him, and be loosely holding on to his wand," Toshiro said to him in an undertone. Momo, his partner, giggled.

"Oh, is that what happened?" Harry said softly.

"Mm Hmm," Momo replied, nodding her head while hiding her grin with her hand.

"Right," then louder, "Very well done, Neville. Now maybe you can get Ichigo's wand down from the chandelier." He had to turn around so Neville wouldn't see the grin on his face.

"Well, Neville, I can't do it, I don't have a wand!" he heard Ichigo say, laughter in his voice, "I believe the spell is "Accio." Well, Ichigo did know the spells – he just couldn't get them to work right. He looked over at Rukia and Uryu, who were both struggling not to laugh, and Tatsuki, who had lost her battle and was holding on to Fred to remain standing.

In the end, it was Toshiro who finally summoned Ichigo's wand down from the chandelier for him. As Ichigo had said, without his wand, he couldn't do it himself, and Neville wasn't having much luck. "Accio wand" pulled a bunch of other wands at him except for Ichigo's, which remained stubbornly airborne. Everyone had had to hit the deck to avoid losing an eye. His wand did appear to have a mind of its own, Harry thought, as he watched the efforts to retrieve it.

Fred and George were having a grand time playing tricks on Zacharias, which again nearly had Tatsuki – and Lee, George's partner, in stitches. Those four… he shook his head.

"Sorry Harry," George apologized, when he realized they'd been caught, "We just couldn't resist."

Ginny was doing very well against her boyfriend, Michael, who seemed very unwilling to disarm her. Ernie was a little too grandiose with his arm movements; the Creeveys were very enthusiastic but responsible for all of the books ending up on the floor; Luna was equally erratic, either disarming her partner or causing his hair to stand on end; Cho caused her friends sleeve to catch on fire when she saw Harry watching her, and admitted he had made her nervous by watching her. I need a whistle, Harry thought, wondering how to catch everyone's attention... and then saw one on the shelf. Ah… he blew on it, hard, and everyone looked at him.

"That wasn't too bad…okay, well; some of you need improvement… but not bad overall." Actually, some of them were quite good – Toshiro for one. He could definitely believe the first year student was some kind of prodigy. And he'd always thought Fred and George were smarter than they'd let on, as they were proving tonight. "Now, let's try again, maybe we should try switching partners…" he moved off around the room again; correcting stances, offering suggestions, and was very pleased when he saw the general performance start to improve. He was extremely pleased when Neville was able to disarm Momo, and Ichigo managed to disarm Uryu. The two boys turned and high-fived each other when they succeeded; Harry grinned at them. For Neville especially it was an achievement; for Ichigo, who was so talented in other areas, it could almost be an embarrassment that he did so poorly in Charms.

"Hey, Harry, look at the time!" Hermione called over to him while he was talking to Cho and Luna. He looked at his watch and nearly choked. It was after nine, if they didn't get back to their rooms soon they'd be in trouble if they got caught. He blew the whistle.

"All right, that was a good start. But we've gone over, and everyone needs to get back. Same time next week?"

Many were for meeting sooner, but they were reminded that Quidditch was starting and they needed to get team practices in as well. So it was decided they would meet on Wednesday, and decide then when they would meet. Harry then pulled out his Marauder's Map, the magical map that had been created by his father, Sirius, Lupin and Wormtail when they were students, rediscovered by Fred and George in Filch's office, and bequeathed to him by the twins, to make sure the coast was clear for everyone to get back to their dorms. (AN2)

Finding time for future meetings was getting next to impossible, Harry soon realized, and they were forced to try to juggle practices for three Quidditch teams, and lousy weather as well. However, as Toshiro pointed out, it was better to not meet at the same, regular time: they had less chance of being discovered that way.

Harry was elated at the way things were going; Neville and Ichigo had both improved tremendously after only a few weeks, not just in their meetings, but it appeared to have helped them in Charms class as well; so much that even Professor Flitwick commented on it. Neville actually disarmed Hermione; Colin mastered the Impediment jinx; and Parvati Patil was so good at the Reductor curse she could reduce a table to dust. And of course, no one wanted to be anywhere near the line of fire when Ichigo used a jinx, hex or curse; the effect was too frightening.

"Maybe we should just let him fight You-Know-Who," Harry heard someone whisper at one point. "His jinxes and hexes are stronger than most people's curses!" Harry heartily agreed; if he ever fought Voldemort again – and he knew he was going to have to – he really wouldn't mind having Ichigo there with him, along with Ron and Hermione. A minor hex from him would probably take out a dozen or so Death Eaters…

Hermione soon figured out a means of letting everyone know when the next meeting was, by casting a Protean charm on a fake galleon, one for each member. When Harry set the time and date for the next meeting, and changed the numbers on his coin, all the coins would change. This bit of magic impressed everyone since it was a N.E.W.T. standard charm.

The Ravenclaws wanted to know why she wasn't in their House (actually, they asked the same thing of Ichigo; some pouted when told he'd actually been given his choice of Houses by the Sorting Hat, and had chosen Gryffindor). Hermione had told them that she'd almost been Sorted in Ravenclaw, but the Hat had decided on Gryffindor at the last second.

Meetings soon had to be put on hold, however the closer it got to the first Quidditch game of the year, which would be Slytherin v. Gryffindor. Although the Professors all said it was a matter of good sportsmanship, they did care very much who won. Professor McGonagall gave them no homework the week before the game so they could practice; she'd gotten used to having the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup both belonging to Gryffindor, and was reluctant to give them up.

The Slytherins were no less determined; they were just sneakier at it. Professor Snape ignored multiple eyewitness accounts of wrong doing by his team members. He also booked the Quidditch pitch so often for them to practice that the other teams had trouble finding a time to fit in their own practices, a move that forced Professor Dumbledore to step in and rule that teams could not book more than one practice per day for more than two hours.

It was also because of the Slytherins that the Gryffindor team now walked around with their own bodyguards, organized courtesy of Ichigo. The bodyguards were culled from all three Houses, with the promise that the Gryffindors would return the favor when it was their turn to play Slytherin. This started after Alicia was hit by a jinx in the library by the Slytherin Keeper, and went unpunished by Professor Snape. After Ichigo retaliated, however, the other team was a bit more circumspect, and extra leery about their tricks. After all, if they made Ichigo too angry, they might be riding their broomsticks as white rabbits. Goyle made the mistake of trying to curse him from behind; however, a lurking house elf had warned him in time, and Ichigo had simply loosed his control on his reiatsu and hardened it into a shield. The resultant ricochet destroyed a statue, gauged holes in the walls, blew out the windows, and ultimately ended up hitting Goyle himself. This was all done in the presence of one Professor Flitwick, who once more considered himself quite lucky to be built low to the ground, as one of the ricochets went over his head, missing him by about six inches. The diminutive Charms Professor took great pleasure in docking Goyle fifty points as his housemates carried him to the hospital wing, and congratulated Ichigo on such a nicely done shield spell. He then gave Ichigo the fifty points he'd deducted from Goyle.

"Nice job!" George congratulated him, "Guess they figured they couldn't get to us without getting you lot out of the way first!"

"Doesn't look like they'll try that again, though, does it?" Fred smirked with satisfaction.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked, "A normal Protego…"

"Ah, well…" Ichigo glanced at Toshiro, not sure if it was too soon to tell them.

"It wasn't Protego," Toshiro admitted, replying for him, "It was something else that we practice back home."

This caused them all to perk up with interest; the question everyone had been asking themselves and each other all along: was magic used any differently in Japan?

"Some people, but not all," Momo smiled, "And not everyone can use it, either, or even knows about it. You usually have one mentor… often a parent or other family member…"

"Friend of the family works also," Rukia nodded.

"So, what's this magic called? Where did you learn it? How does it…"

Rukia laughed at Hermione's eagerness.

"We call it 'kido.' It's wandless magic."

"Wandless? You mean – you don't use a wand with it?"

The four Soul Reapers shook their heads; of course, not mentioning that they had started using the Room of Requirement secretly to practice kido – Toshiro's idea – to see if a wand would amplify it or make it stronger. So far, it appeared as if it was going to take a goodly amount of practice.

"There are three main types of Kido: binding, destructive, and healing spells. Binding spells, or Bakudo, block attacks or repel and freeze enemies. Destructive spells, or Hado, harm an enemy or cause damage. Healing spells simply heal the target," Toshiro said softly.

"People usually develop specialties, and favorites – or are better at one than the other…" Ichigo glanced at Rukia, thinking of her fondness for Shakkaho and Sokatsui. "Momo's aunt is a specialist in healing kido. Urahara – he was in the group that came with the Ambassador – is a specialist in a whole different category."(AN3)

"And someone who is stronger – much stronger – can break the bonds of a restraining kido," Rukia sighed, looking over at Ichigo, who smirked.

"Yeah, less than five minutes of meeting her, Rukia used Bakudo 1 Sai on me… once I actually decided I wanted out, it only took me about 30 seconds to snap it."

"Um… as you can guess by the number, it would be considered the weakest of the restraining spells…" Momo said, looking at him sideways. Toshiro coughed with amusement.

"The point is he shouldn't have been able to do it. But Ichigo has so much reiatsu and is so strong – he broke the first two seals of a two part high level Bakudo…"

"You… broke out of kin?" Momo's eyes widened. Even Rukia hadn't seemed to know that.

"Before Tessai had a chance to use bankin," Toshiro further explained.

"Why would…" Momo saw the look Ichigo and Toshiro were both giving her and caught herself before she said too much. "Oh…um, never mind."

Since Ichigo was unconsciously rubbing one of the scars left from Byakuya's senka, no one asked any more questions.

"So, how do you learn how to use this kido?" Harry questioned, clearing his voice.

"Well," Toshiro eyed the group thoughtfully, "It's possible you can learn. You saw Renji Abarai in Hogsmeade, and you saw me in the meeting. That means you have a high enough level of what we call reiatsu, or spiritual energy."

"So you need a lot of this 'ree-at-soo'?" Ron said the word slowly so he wouldn't trip over it, because he tended to mangle them at first until he got used to them.

"Not just a lot, but good control as well, or you could hurt yourself," Rukia said wryly, with a sideways look at Ichigo, who sighed.

"What is this, gang up on Ichigo day?" he muttered, glowering back. "I at least never attempted kido before I had my reiatsu under control – unlike certain red-headed pineapples who consistently blow themselves up trying to do Shakkaho. And that's the only spell he knows."

Momo clasped her hands over her mouth to stifle her laughter. Having been in the same class as Renji at the Soul Reaper Academy, she could remember how awful he had been – and still was – at kido. Even Toshiro's lips twitched at the memory. Rukia chuckled as well.

"But it's so much more fun to tease you than Renji…" Rukia looked at him with big, soulful indigo eyes.

"You see, up until last summer, Ichigo had little or no control over his reiatsu," Uryu explained to the others, "In fact, it was absolutely abominable. Worse than Charms, even…"

"All right, already!" Ichigo's voice rose with irritation.

"Um, guys…" Momo bit her lip. Hinamori was a gentle person at heart, and while she didn't mind some good-natured teasing, there was a time for it, and a time to stop. They had passed the time to stop.

The more annoyed Ichigo got, the more his control slipped. Not only was his hair starting to change color, but blue energy was starting to visibly swirl around him. The Gryffindors were staring, Ron's jaw having gone slack as they started to see the visible manifestation of what the Japanese called 'reiatsu.'

Toshiro coughed, and then sighed. He supposed it was bound to happen sooner or later; Kurosaki's control over his reiatsu was very new.

"Kurosaki! Rein it in!" he ordered. With a visible effort, Ichigo clamped down on his spiritual pressure, gave them all a withering look and strode off in a fine temper.

"Oops," Mizuiro said mildly.

"And that was the famed Kurosaki temper – not entirely unleashed, but a small taste of it," Tatsuki smirked as she too walked away after Ichigo. Toshiro glared at them.

"I'm glad you all think it was so funny," he said, his voice dripping icicles. "I'm surprised I even need to remind you of the reason why Tessai would need to use Bakudo 99 on Ichigo in the first place. Especially you two – since you were both of you there." He stared down Rukia and Uryu. (AN4)

Rukia looked abashed; Uryu's back stiffened and he stared back at Toshiro a bit angrily.

"I…" Rukia chewed her lip.

If anything, Toshiro's voice got colder. "I spoke to Kisuke – and Tessai – about that night, in great detail. It's possible I know more about what happened than you do. Ichigo's alive right now because Tessai's a kido master; and because both of your fathers – his and yours – pitched in to save him. The loss of blood alone should have finished him. He died not once, but three times that night, and they were able to bring him back." His teal eyes bore into them coldly. "So the next time you get the urge to tease him – I suggest you do it about something else, and not that." Momo was nodding behind him.

"Like I said – oops." Mizuiro followed Momo and Toshiro as they followed Ichigo and Tatsuki.

"Um…" Harry inched away from Uryu and Rukia, "We'll uh, catch you guys at dinner."

Harry had a feeling he knew where Ichigo was, and he was right. The older teen was lying on his bed, staring moodily up at the ceiling. Harry and Ron looked at each other before Harry approached him slowly. Yoruichi, who was curled up next to him, purring, gave him a narrow eyed stare. Almost like she knows, he thought.

"Hey, Ichigo – you okay?"

It was a long moment before he answered; so long, Harry wasn't sure he'd heard.

"Yeah, I'll be okay. I just need to cool off some." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Part of it is I'm not used to all of the people. I used to be able to go home and hide, even though the old man can be a real nuisance. He used to listen at my door with a water glass; he even had Yuzu doing it."

"Does that even work?" Ron wondered.

"Nah, not when one good kick in the face turns him into a human cartwheel," Ichigo smirked briefly. "I'm not really mad at Tatsuki or Mizuiro; they don't really know what happened…"

"Toshiro really lit into Rukia and Uryu…" Ron told him, "They got a good tongue lashing."

"So, um, you want to go for dinner, or…" Harry paused, uncomfortable, and feeling like he'd walked in on the middle of a play, "we could bring something up for you…"

Ichigo gave Yoruichi one last stroke before he sat up. "Yeah, I guess."

"Oh, hey –" Harry looked back at the cat, "What is Yoruichi anyway?"

"What…is Yoruichi?" Ichigo repeated slowly, his eyes widening. He could sense Yoruichi looking sharply at Harry, as well.

"Yeah – Dobby said your cat's a she, but I don't think I ever heard you refer to it as any particular sex…"

"Ah…" Ichigo smiled a bit sheepishly, and felt relieved at the question, "Well, ah, sometimes we may slip and call her by the wrong sex, but that's because my idiot father's stupid about cats. He calls all of them – even females – 'he' regardless of what they are. But, yeah, Dobby is right – Yoruichi's a girl. She's named after a really good friend of the family – the person who taught me kido, actually." He added the last bit, just in case they ever met Yoruichi in her true form…

His eyes met hers, briefly, and he saw one golden orb close in a wink. Yeah, Yoruichi was definitely a female. Sometimes, too much of one he thought, as he left the dorm with Ron and Harry to go down to dinner.

Author's Notes:

1) This is what Harry used against Voldemort in The Goblet of Fire.

2) As seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban, Book 3; My favorite book.

3) That would be Black Ops kido, specialties of the second squad, of which Urahara was once Third Seat under Yoruichi.

4) He means when Byakuya severed Ichigo's soul sleep and soul chain using senka.