"Harry?"
"Hey Hermione. What's up?"
She forced a smile. Finally, she had found Harry, Ron and Ginny in the Gryffindor common room. "Do you remember when we started 'Dumbledore's Army' back in our fifth year? Well, I think we should start it up again."
Everyone was looking at her. "Why Hermione?" Harry was fully alert now. "What's going on?"
"Nothing. It's just that when I was I Hogsmeade the other day, I thought I might have overheard someone talking. It sounded like they were saying that Voldemort is getting ready to attack. I just think we should be prepared."
There was shock in the silence that followed Hermione's announcement. "Yeah Hermione. But we will be looking for Horcruxes." Ron said finally.
She looked at him. "I know that. But if he attacks, our friends will be in danger. We can't leave them defenseless. And besides, if he attacks before we are gone, we'll have to fight for our escape."
Ginny, who had remained silent up until now, spoke up. "I think Hermione is right." She turned to Harry. "You won't take me with you, will you?"
Harry shook his head vehemently. "No. Not a chance."
"Well, then," Ginny continued, "The least you can do is make sure I can fight when you're gone."
Harry looked at them, thinking. "Okay. Let's get everyone together. We'll tell them that the D.A. is coming back. Hermione, do you know that it is that you're going to have us learn?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. But I will. Tell everyone that we will meet in two weeks. That should give me time to prepare."
"This is going to be an interesting year." Ron announced. "Only a week into school and already, we're preparing to fight."
They all nodded gravely. Hermione stood. "I have to go. There's a lot I need to do yet."
Hermione went to her room and got her cloak. She went to Hogsmeade, to the bookstore. If she was going to do this right, she needed some books of her own. The last thing they would need is a suspicious librarian.
An hour later, Hermione left with five books. Keeping Up Your Defense and Shield Yourself were two defense spell books. Raise Your Wand was a book just for fighting spells. She had managed to find a book on creating spells. The last book was one she didn't even want to think about buying: A Beginner's Guide to Dark Arts. But they would have to know as much as they could about what they were going up against.
She walked down the main road until she came to a small jewelry store. Inside, she saw stones, chains, bracelets and rings. Some were for no more than showing off, while others held special charms for luck, love, even strength. There were even books on charms.
She found some necklaces that each held a single simple stone in one of four colors: read, blue, green, and purple. She bought fifty of them, knowing she'd be glad for the extras. She also bought another book, this one on how to charm items.
Her last stop was to a supply store. She bought more parchment, quills, and ink. Arms loaded down with parcels, Hermione made her way back to her room. Once inside, she dumped the packages on her bed.
May as well get started. She decided to start with the necklaces first. Pulling the bag towards her, she carried it to her desk and emptied it. The first thing to come out was the large book, followed by the necklaces. The first thing she had to do was separate them. Each stone would have a different charm, she decided. Opening the book, she began to scan it. There were ten green necklaces, that would be luck. It didn't take long to set the charm on each necklace. Next she would do the purple ones. Purple would be strength. She found the charm for that easily as well and charmed the ten purple stones. There were fifteen blue stones. Blue would be wisdom. The last was red, which would give it's wearer courage. After she finished charming the last necklace, she returned to her book.
She needed to find a silencing charm as well as a binding charm. These, it seemed were a bit more complicated. The first one she found was the silencing charm. It was a bit complex but exactly what she needed. It took her an hour to complete the charm on all fifty necklaces.
Next was a binding charm. She found a powerful one. The good thing about it was that it was a personalizing charm. Once a person put on the necklace, his or her name would appear and it would be bound only to that person. To Hermione's delight, she found that she could make it so that only she, the charmer, was able to remove the necklaces. This was the most complicated charm she had ever had to perform but after nearly two hours, she managed to finish the last one.
She picked up one of the red stone necklaces, took a deep breath, and slid it over her head. It came to rest around her neck. Hermione held her breathe as she watched the stone in her hand. Slowly her name appeared in white script across the stone. It worked! Hermione jumped up and down, clapping her hands.
There was a knock at her bedroom door, followed quickly by Draco's voice. "Hermione? Are you alright?"
Hermione rushed to the door and opened it. She threw herself into Draco's arms, a grin on her face. "Draco, I did it! It works!" She let go of him and stepped back, hardly able to hold still. "Look!" She held up the stone for him to inspect.
He stared at it. Confused. "Uh… Hermione. What exactly did you do?"
She grinned at him. "Try to take it off of me." He did try, but the necklace wouldn't leave her neck. She laughed "I charmed them." She gestured to the desk. "Here." She picked up a green necklace and handed it to him.
He looked at it, then to her. "What's it for?"
"I can't tell you. Not until you put it on." Draco sighed and put it on. "Okay. Well, I talked to Harry, Ron and Ginny. We agreed to start up the D.A. again. So I went to Hogsmeade to get some stuff. Last time we id this, everyone signed a paper. If you told anyone, then we knew who you were because I had bewitched the paper. It didn't work very well. So I thought of a better way to keep the secret. These necklaces are charmed. They have a different charm for each color: courage is red, wisdom is blue, purple is strength and green," she said, pointing to his necklace, "is luck. There are also two other charms on them, which they all share. The second charm is a silencer. It prevents the wearer from talking about the D.A. to anyone who is not wearing one of the necklaces. The last one is a binding charm. Once you put the necklace on, it's yours. You are the only one who can wear it." Draco looked at the stone to see his name written across it in neat white script. "And," she continued, "I'm the only one who can remove the necklace." Her triumphant smile returned.
He stared at her before trying to remove the necklace from his neck. It didn't budge. "This is brilliant Hermione!" He picked her up and kissed her.
She laughed and smiled up at him. "Come here. I'll show you what else I got." She pulled him over to the bed and reached for her package of books. She opened it and began to pull them out one at a time. "See, I've got two new books on defense. Our side doesn't want to fight to kill. So we will learn mostly defensive spell. Then there's a book for offense because we knew we will have to fight back if necessary. We know that we may have to kill to survive and we are prepared to do just that. Of course, we'll be focusing mainly on just badly hurting people. Then I got a book on creating spells. I think we may have a better chance if we are fighting with spells that nobody even knows exist. Then there's this." She pulled out the book on Dark Arts. "I want to know what I'm up against, Draco. So I have a favor to ask you. Will you show me the spells they use? I know it's dark magic but I need to know how to fight it. And I know they taught you all about it."
He stared at her. "Hermione, Dark Arts isn't something you play with. You're right, I was taught to fight with dark magic. And I've been hurt by it and I've hurt others using it. It isn't something you should mess with."
"Draco, please. I need to know…"
She wasn't going to give up, Draco knew. "Okay. I'll teach you what I think you need to know. But only if you agree to let me teach you how to fight. I mean hands on fighting. If you lose your wand, I don't want you to be defenseless."
Hermione beamed at him. "You've got a deal! You can teach me to fight every Monday and Friday night. And you can teach me about Dark Arts on Wednesday and Sunday nights. I'm going to have D.A. meetings on Tuesday and Thursday nights, but that won't start for another two weeks."
He stared, shocked. "That's a lot to do Hermione. When are you going to find time for homework? What about eating?"
"Don't worry Draco. I can handle it." She smiled and kissed him. "Hide that necklace, you can't take it off. I have t go. I'll be back later and you can start teaching me." She gathered the remaining necklaces in a bag.
He stood, walked to her, and wrapped his arms around her. She stopped and leaned back against him. It felt so right to be here, against his chest. He leaned down and kissed her neck. She turned her head and he kissed her mouth. "Good luck. I'll be here waiting. And don't forget to eat." He kissed her again and left the room.
She finished gathering the necklaces and went to find everyone. It was nearly time for dinner so she headed to the Great Hall. Ever since Dumbledore said that they were no longer required to sit at house tables, it was easier to find everyone. She took off her necklace and slipped it into her pocket.
She took her seat between Ron and Neville. "Hey guys. Tell everyone to meet us at the lake after dinner."
"Why?" Ron asked suddenly. "Don't tell me that you're ready now. It hasn't even been one day yet."
She sighed and shook her head. "No, I'm not ready for a lesson yet Ronald. But I do have something I want to say to everyone."
