Someday, I will own something of great importance. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.

DA

The next day's classes seemed to go by with aching slowness, as thoughts of the first DA meeting were very, very forward in Ryua's mind. She hadn't realized how much she really liked them until they got caught out and had to stop last year. Even though they had a good teacher this year, every single old member had cancelled whatever plans they might have had to attend. Even Fred and George had sent owls saying they wished they could be there, along with some of their newest candy line. Ryua had picked up a few pieces, thinking she'd just leave them where Pansy could get at them.

Potions was even worse, because she, Harry, and Hermione all talked about it quietly enough that no one would overhear. "So, what've you got planned?" Ryua asked as she stirred their potion.

"Mostly review," Harry replied. "I want to see who survived the summer, who's still coming,"

"Everybody," Hermione put in.

"Who remembered anything, and what any new members know." He finished, watching Ryua stir their cauldron. "I love this potion. You mostly ignore it for weeks." They spent the rest of the class reminiscing about last year's meetings and speculating what would happen this time around.

Cassie wasn't faring any better, and she practically mobbed Ryua at lunch. "This is going to be so much FUN!" she squealed, eyes sparkling. "What time is it at?"

Ryua laughed; her enthusiasm was infectious. "He's moved the meeting up until right after supper. Apparently, everyone he's come in contact with has the same feelings about it."

If it was possible, the afternoon seemed to pass even slower, which did make it easier to get the extra homework done, anyway. And then, the classes were over, supper had started, and the ceiling above showed the fiery steaks of color of the setting sun.

They saw Harry take off the moment he could to get to the Room of Requirements ahead of anyone else. Ryua and Cassie melted away from the Slytherin group into a side passage behind a suit of armor. By the time they made it to the Room, the crowd outside had grown to an incredible degree.

The door opened, and Harry's eyes widened. "We're going to need a bigger classroom," he noted, moving aside so they could all enter. Once everyone was seated, he turned to face them all, grinning nervously. "So. Welcome to your first DA meeting. For those of you who don't know, it stands for Dumbledore's Army, since they Ministry was so terrified that he was training us all up to take over." Everyone laughed at this little bit of history, and he seemed to relax a little.

"There aren't quite so many needs for secrecy this time around. We kept up our meetings throughout Umbridge's ban last year, so we'd all have a shot at passing our various exams and surviving the summer outside of Hogwarts. Now, I'm not sure about all of you," he said, his expression becoming serious and confident. "But the practice saved a whole lot of us from the original group. I'm sure you remember how Luna, Neville, Ginny, and the three of us took on the entire conclave of Death Eaters?" Everyone nodded. "Well, I'm telling you all to never do anything that stupid. We were very lucky to get out of it alive.

"Granted, there are times coming where we'll have to fight, even the Ministry accepts that now. Ryua had to fight her way out of her own house this summer, I know," Harry said, eliciting surprised looks from the group, "And the Creevy brothers had a little spat too. When a group of Death Eaters came sniffing around their muggle neighborhood looking for trouble, they set up such a racket of magic that they turned tail and ran, thinking the Aurors had ambushed them." He looked very proud of his students.

"That's why we brought our friends," Colin piped up, looking like he might explode with happiness at being mentioned by Harry. "They're all muggleborn too." That explained a group of very timid-looking boys around Dennis' age.

Harry nodded, looking around the room and asking new names. There weren't many Ravenclaws this year; apparently, Chang was feeling slighted that Harry wasn't responding to her fawning. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff made up the bulk of the class, and Ryua was proud to point out Cassie, who cheerfully waved at everyone. "We'll relax the wards on the parchment this year," Harry said, passing around a new list for names. "Since we won't be expelled for holding a group. Once you put your name on the list, you aren't allowed to betray any of us, or talk openly about the lessons to people who might make bad use of it. I'm sure you all remember what happened to the girl who ratted us out last year?"

For those who didn't it only took a few whispered words to straighten it out. It didn't stop anyone from writing their name, and Cassie eagerly scrawled her name down. She seemed very happy to have something other than the Slytherin house to relate to. And when Harry had them all partner off, Neville made a point of coming over to welcome her. "It's really the last thing any of us would have expected, eh?" Ryua said as Harry wandered over her way. "Neville Longbottom, the emissary to the Slytherin house."

"Yeah. He's really grown up a lot." Harry sighed as Colin Creevy hit a bookcase. "But they haven't yet. Mind taking Dennis? He'd have a harder time throwing you around, I think."

Ryua grinned, agreeing with that particular assessment. The little guy was so excited about his prowess over the summer that he'd seemed to lose all control over the strength of his spells. "Dennis!" she called over the din of people laughing and being stunned. "Come over here!"

He came, too hyper to be really nervous. "Yeah? Didja see me? I've gotten loads better!"

"Stronger, maybe." Ryua said, looking down at him. He still hadn't hit a growth spurt, and came up to maybe her elbows. "But you need to learn control. So you're going to practice on me, because you don't know any spells that can cause me serious harm."

Eagerly, he stepped back a few paces, trying to stun her. To save time, Ryua blocked most of them, refining his accuracy and power use. "It's just a stunning charm, Dennis," she said as she dropped her shield. "You don't need to put quite so much of your energy into it. You're using enough to power a much more advanced spell now, so relax a little."

And so the evening progressed, the older, more experienced people pairing off with the newer ones, and Harry calling out various spells they all ought to know. At the end of the lesson, Hermione handed every new person their very own DA galleon, explaining how they worked to summon people. Neville, Ginny, and Justin patched up everyone's minor bruises and cuts from falling into things, as they were the only ones who'd mastered healing charms yet, and everyone left for their common room with 10 minutes until curfew.

"Well, good on you, mate," Ron said, clapping Harry on the shoulder. "You've just circumvented the DADA curse."

"Curse?"

"The one that says a teacher can only stay in that job for one year." Ryua put in. "We haven't been the only ones going through DADA teachers, you know. Even in Severus's time, nobody stayed for more than a year."

"Well, just to ward off any ill effects that might decide to befall me now that you've mentioned it, I'll just say that it's not technically the DADA job." Harry said, with the paranoia that comes from living in a school where things twist around what people say.

"I didn't know that you knew the definition of circumvented, Ron," Hermione said, mildly teasing him.

"Being around you this long, some big words have to rub off," he prodded right back. "The know-it-all-ness is a little overpowering."

"Good luck keeping those two apart all the way back to your tower," Ryua said, grinning. "And congratulations on your first meeting." She kissed him before she split off from them, well enough that she felt slightly dizzy when she finally turned away. Ron was already bugging him before she'd gotten ten steps, of course, and she was grateful she didn't have to deal with him all the time.

And that was when Cassie stepped out to walk beside her. "You ought to be more careful where you do that, you know," she commented mildly. "Somebody could rat you out to one of the Death Eaters."

"Oh, shut up…"

Cassie just grinned, poking her in the shoulder. "You really like him, huh?"

"No, I just go around kissing random people." Ryua wasn't good with being teased much.

"Oh, he likes you back, I can tell." Cassie said. "He looked very happily dazed when you were walking off."

Ryua sighed. "What am I going to do about it, Cassie? If I actually bring this into the open, my father's going to flip."

"And this has stopped you before?"

She snorted. "No. But I already fought my way out of my house once this year. I don't want to do it again."

"So don't go home for Christmas."

"I wish." Ryua said. "He's going to find some way to force me, I can just tell. And I can't stay here over summer."

"So move in with me. Or those Weasleys. Or Granger. Or even Harry, if you like him that much. You'll come of age this summer anyway, right?"

"I'm not moving in with him…" Ryua said, blushing slightly.

Cassie grinned at having made her blush. "Well, even if everyone finds out, it's not like Lucius'll be able to do anything to you. Could you imagine the scandal if the Minister was found abusing his daughter?"

Ryua forced a laugh, wishing it were that easy. She'd already tried to get him on that count, and gotten Draco, and therefore herself, branded. And there were plenty of spells that didn't leave any recognizable marks. If she tried to complain, or do something nasty to him, they'd put it down as the ravings of an unstable woman, jealous of his rise to power. But it was a point. She wouldn't end up with anything permanent… maybe it wouldn't be so awful after all. It was weeks away, in any case. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe you're right…"

"Although if you decide to announce it publicly, I'd do it at the Gryffindor table, cause they shouldn't try to kill either of you outright."

"Mmm. That's a good point." It was an incredibly tempting thought. It would be such a relief to not worry about sneaking around, hiding her activities. It wasn't like she wanted to be on Voldemort's side anyway, so why worry? "What about you? Just going to remain an independent, or are you planning on marrying a Weasley?"

"That's for me to know and you to guess."

"Oh, come on. You've milked me for information…"

Cassie laughed. "I honestly don't know. Really. Except that I don't want to be a servant of the Dark Lord. It just doesn't have a good job description, you know?"

"No kidding."