Disclaimer: It's JKR's not mine.
The third DA meeting of the year also incidentally fell on the anniversary of several less than savory things in Harry's short life. The fallout from the orders ambush of the deatheaters had fortunately come across the intelligence lines provided by Snape as nothing more than a calculated misjudgment on the order contingent guarding Hermione's parents. In fact this was a blessing in disguise because it achieved the end result of driving Voldemort and his followers underground and prevented any more attacks for the foreseeable future.
Classes were going rather well as Harry and Hermione were a couple of weeks ahead on their assignments and had also managed to basically finish their revisions for their OWLs aside from any new material they would learn in classes before their tests.
As Harry and Hermione started their day they were sitting in the great hall. Hermione could tell the memories of Harry's past were bothering him somewhat and yet he seemed to be dealing with it better than usual.
Hermione grasped Harry's hand gently as he prepared to grab some toast. She softly asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Harry smiled slightly and replied, "Nothing bad actually. I was just thinking about everything that has happened today in the past, and I've gotten to know you good enough to know that was actually what you were asking me. It's ok I won't break on you today."
Hermione smiled and replied, "Ok then love, what things in the past were you thinking about?"
Harry smiled for a moment before he replied, "Well I know my mum and dad died today but I understand what they did that night now."
Hermione squeezed Harry's hand and softly asked, "Why is that Harry?"
Harry frowned slightly before he replied, "They were just protecting the most important person in their lives. I know that if we had a child I would do anything to protect them too."
Hermione nodded and then decided to push the conversation to a slightly more pleasant memory, "I also happen to remember a certain someone jumping on the back of a troll saving a bucktooth know-it-all on Halloween a few years back."
Harry chuckled and then replied seriously, "It was the smartest thing I ever did. Have I ever told you why I came to save you?"
Hermione shrugged and replied, "You kind of told me that you realized I had been in the bathroom and you decided I needed to be warned. I've kind of figured you had to force Ron to come along even though neither of you knew the troll would already be in the bathroom when you got there."
Harry smiled and replied, "Well there was a lot more to it than that." Hermione arched her eyebrow and motioned for Harry to continue wordlessly, "The first time I met you on the train you were so different from any other person I'd ever met. I mean when I was at muggle school none of the girls would even talk to me because they were afraid of getting beaten up by Dudley's female clones. Then Hagrid came for me, and he told me I was a wizard, which was great, but even then I had to be famous so I still couldn't meet people who liked me for me."
Harry sighed and rubbed his temples before Hermione squeezed his hand urging him to continue. Harry glanced up and gave her a grateful smile before he said, "Then I got on the train without a clue of what was expected of me and I met Ron who I admit was more curious about meeting the boy-who-lived than anything else. Well since I'd never really had any friends regardless of their reasons I decided to do what I could to keep him around. Then you entered the compartment and asked about the toad. I have to admit the way you talked to the both of us threw me for a loop but in a good way. I always wanted to be smarter and better than I was when I was younger because I wanted someone to compliment me for doing a good job and to be honest the Dursleys never even thought about me being good at something except for wasting their air. You were a bit of a know-it-all but you appeared to be so nervous and yet confident at the same time. I guess I realized then that I wanted to get to know you even if we couldn't be friends. Unfortunately, I was so concerned about keeping my first friend, my own age at least, that I didn't defend you when I should have."
Harry frowned slightly as a bit of buried guilt surfaced before he quashed it and continued, "When you cast wingardium leviosa in class I thought it was brilliant that you could do magic so well and I was about to compliment you when I noticed Ron was angry about it. Then Ron was talking about you after class when you heard it and it obviously hurt your feelings a lot. I admit I spent the rest of the day wondering why I was so scared of offending Ron when he was doing the same kinds of things to you that Dudley did to me. I finally figured that I would stop being such a wimp and see if you would be my friend when he heard you had been crying in the bathroom after Ron said that. Then Quirrel freed the troll and I just knew I had to go to you and help you. I honestly couldn't tell you why except that I needed to help you. Ron wanted to go on an adventure with the boy-who-lived or he never would have come for you. When we got to the bathroom and the troll was already there I knew I had to do something to help you so I jumped on the troll's back."
Harry chuckled slightly at the memory before he added, "In hindsight, magic might have been a better route to go than jumping on the trolls back, but I guess things worked out alright anyways. When you lied to McGonagall about what happened I knew then and there that you were different from Ron and I mean that in all of the best ways possible."
Hermione smiled and she released his hand and said, "I wonder how different things had been if I had been the one that had joined you in the compartment instead of Ron? Maybe you might have studied harder instead of skiving off and playing chess or some other nonsense."
Harry shrugged and replied, "I can't really complain about where we are now can you?" Hermione nodded quickly and Harry smiled before he added, "Honestly, I think I needed friends more than anything else when I got here. You have really been my only true friend since I've been here, and you have no idea how much it has meant to me."
Hermione put her hands on Harry's face and gave him a brief kiss on the lips before she said, "Harry it has meant about as much to you as it has meant to me." She got a mischievous grin on her face before she said, "I mean if you hadn't saved me from the troll I never would have been able to read all of the books I have."
Harry chuckled and replied, "I'm glad to see you have your priorities straight love."
As the great hall filled up Harry and Hermione were joined at the Gryffindor table by Parvati, Lavender, and Neville as they chatted about the Halloween feast and Neville excitedly talked about the day's assignment for Herbology.
By the end of breakfast Harry and Hermione walked hand in hand to the Arithmancy classroom in the archive wing of the school. Harry had found that although he was nowhere as good at the subject as Hermione, he did find he was one of the better students in the class. He even found he could offer different perspectives to solve problems than Hermione and that he helped her from time to time in the class. Professor Vector had taken a liking to Harry and he even heard the occasional cough that sounded like "Teacher's pet" from a few of the less conspicuous Ravenclaws in the back of the room.
On Halloween the class was no different as they were assigned to pair up and solve a complex series of equations relating how the physical manifestation of certain charms could vary greatly depending on the witch or wizard casting them.
Harry said, "Well why don't we take the example of the summoning charm. I can extend the range of the spell to almost two miles now barring any wards. You can cast your for success from about a mile away which is very impressive in its own right. So we need to take our power constants and determine the coefficient of spell efficacy by plugging our constants in a conversion equation right?"
Hermione smiled as she was scribbling exactly what Harry had been saying and solving the equation as Harry continued to speak. She replied, "Yes Harry, and then we need to plug this in to Rowena's formula of manifestation to make our conclusions."
Harry nodded before she added with a smirk, "You know Harry, I think you might be the second smartest person in here."
Harry laughed which caused Vector to glare at them before she noticed how much work they had completed on their parchment and simply nodded and smiled at her prized pupils. Harry finally replied, "I would try to argue, but I'll take a compliment from a brilliant witch when I can get it."
They finished their assignments, handed them in as they were dismissed for the day and after a slow walk towards the transfiguration classroom where Harry stole several snogs in the various nooks and crannies in the castle. The finally arrived to the room about 15 minutes before class was to begin as Hermione silently mused if they had set some sort of record for their trip being the slowest ever between the two rooms.
Harry always savored transfiguration on Wednesdays because he had taken the throne from Hermione in the class and it had become a friendly competition to see who could best apply the theory taught on Tuesday in Wednesday's practical aspect.
McGonagall was sitting at the front of the empty room as two of her favorite students entered the room holding hands as Harry easily carried both bags as he had obviously packed on a lot of muscle since he first stepped foot into Hogwarts. In fact, Minerva mused to herself, I'm just happy he found Hermione before the girls really started throwing themselves at his feet, or the poor dear's head might have exploded from all of the attention. If he had kept it up he probably would have gotten hexed by Hermione. But now, they are easily the most powerful students in the school and they are in love. Her lips curled up slightly into a small smile which Harry and Hermione noticed as they pulled their books and parchment out and walked up to her with amusement and questions dancing in their eyes.
Harry asked with a slight smirk, "Hello professor, would you mind sharing with us what you find so amusing?"
Minerva smiled and replied, "Oh nothing important you two. I am just happy you two finally got the good sense to get together that is all."
Hermione smiled brightly and gave Harry a peck on the cheek before she cheekily replied, "Well Professor, if Harry hadn't said anything by the end of last year, I planned on transfiguring him into a newt." Harry barked out a laugh as Minerva chuckled before they took their seats as the other students began filling the room.
When the final bell sounded Minerva began, "Today we will be practicing our transfiguration skills to animate an inanimate object. This transfiguration is very similar to enchantment although the intention of the two skills differ somewhat. Once you have successfully completed the task described on Tuesday call me over and I will award your grade for the day. Once you have completed the assignment you may work on homework or leave."
Harry and Hermione pulled out their rocks and transfigured their rocks into a pair of coyote carvings which caused each of them to laugh. With the flick of their wands the coyotes began walking around on their first try. They played with their coyotes for awhile hopeful not to bring any more attention upon themselves than already was. They often downplayed their abilities in class because it led to open jealousy from the students around them.
Minerva watched them from her desk stopping on their table and watching for just a little bit longer on their table than the others in the class. She watched amusedly as they played with their coyotes for nearly a half an hour stealing the occasional kiss as they actually looked like their own age for once. The rest of the class was having difficulty with the task which really didn't surprise her because it was a hard skill to master although Harry and Hermione did so on their first try.
Finally, she figured they might enjoy some time alone before lunch and she walked to their table and said, "Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter I see you have finally completed the task. You have also transfigured your rocks into something else. That will be an O for the day. Feel free to leave or do some other homework here. Your assignment for next Tuesday is in your syllabus."
She then bent down and whispered so only they could hear, "Of course I already know you have that done for a week haven't you?" Harry and Hermione nodded as they transfigured their coyotes back into rocks and gathered their supplies in their bags before they walked out of the room hand in hand anxious to grab an early lunch before their creatures class with Grubbly-Plank.
As they entered the great hall Harry absently noted that the only other ones eating an early lunch were the first years from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. They say down and grabbed their mincemeat pies that had been made for lunch. As they sat and ate in companionable silence Hermione finally brought something up she had been putting off for nearly two months.
Hermione looked into Harry's eyes pleadingly which caused Harry to immediately agree to anything that followed, "Harry, would you like to be the vice-president of S.P.E.W.?" Harry arched his eyebrow as Hermione nervously continued as she begun to wring her hands, "I just got the charter approved by Umbridge yesterday although I had to add an asinine line about house elves being inferior in it. It's not like the charter is anything other than a piece of paper though."
Harry put his hands around Hermione's and gently said, "I would love to 'Mione. When do we have our first meeting?"
Hermione smiled up at Harry brightly before she said, "Well I figured we could manage with only one meeting a month. It's not like we will have many members and we can organize most of our events outside of class in our spare time."
Harry arched his eyebrow and replied, "Ah spare time; whatever is that?"
Hermione lightly punched Harry's rather hard arm and gave him a quick kiss in appreciation of that fact before she said, "I guess we have to see if Ron still wants to be a member don't we?"
Harry winced although not as much as he might have earlier in the year because his relationship with Ron had returned to what it was before his actions of the previous year, but now Harry put far less importance on it than he had in the past.
They were eventually joined by the ginger haired person that had been of conversation a few minutes earlier. Harry simply asked, "Oy Ron, do you want to remain a member of S.P.E.W. this year?"
Ron shook his head and replied, "No thanks guys. I am too busy with classes and Quidditch to worry about something else. Thanks for asking though." Harry and Hermione nodded maintaining looks of neutrality towards the former best friend who was currently a friend albeit not a terribly close one. In fact they were both very happy Ron had turned down their offer because it was one less distraction to worry about having for the group that was small but at least united.
They finished their lunch and made their way down to creatures. Although they both missed seeing Hagrid as frequently as they used to, they did not miss the dangerous creatures he so brazenly had for use in his classes. Grubbly-Plank often had interesting and usually less dangerous creatures for class, and the assignments in the class were usually rather easy and informative too. Their previous class the professor had mentioned a special treat for the next class, which if Hagrid was still teaching would have meant something dangerous, but with Grubbly-plank it meant something rare or unusual.
They made their way outside of the castle as Hermione reclaimed possession of her bag from Harry. Since Hermione's birthday she had made a point to show Harry that although she appreciated his help she also liked doing things for herself too. They reached the clearing beyond Hagrid's hut where the class used to meet and found the professor locking up a large cage and covering it with a disillusionment charm before she embarrassedly saw Harry and Hermione approaching.
Harry caught the elderly witch's reaction and simply said, "Don't worry professor we didn't see anything."
Grubbly-Plank smiled and lit her pipe before she said, "Yes well, I suppose I can tell you that our little surprise is nothing more than a young unicorn that volunteered to be seen. The only reason I have it in the cage is for some mystery."
Harry and Hermione nodded and took a seat on the side of the hill relaxing as they watched the other Gryffindor's and Slytherins file down towards their meeting place. The remainder of the class was spent trying to get the unicorn to come close enough to any of the Slytherins or Gryffindor boys to let it pet it. Harry had finally managed the task much to the delight of Grubbly-Plank and the female Gryffindor's in the class as though there had been some sort of a silent bet going that he would be the only male the unicorn would allow to touch it.
As they prepared to head back to the castle for another short snog march they caught Hagrid waving at them subtly to follow him into the forest. Harry and Hermione shrugged before they followed him into the forest. They finally caught up to Hagrid who was very excited and Hermione asked, "Are we going to see Grawp?"
Hagrid stopped in his tracks and turned towards them before he simply said, "'Arry, 'Ermione you are the only ones to know that he is out here ok?" They both nodded and Hagrid continued, "He won't try to hurt you, but you both need to be careful around em." Hagrid turned back around and continued to take his large steps towards a clearing in the distance.
They finally reached the clearing and with a quick glance at his watch he noticed they had about an hour until Herbology was to begin. They finally laid their eyes upon a fifteen foot man who frankly made Hagrid appear like Harry or Hermione in relation to their giant friend. Hermione unconsciously took a step behind Harry who merely slid his wand into his hand as a safety against the mountainous presence in front of them.
Hagrid smiled at the man mountain and said, "ey Grawpy, I want you to meet 'Arry, and 'Ermione."
Grawp listened intently before he started clapping his hands and said, "I wanna play with Harry and Hermy."
Hagrid beamed at Harry and Hermione before he turned back to Grawp and said, "You need to be gentle with them Grawpy. They are my friends and I don't want them hurt. If you hurt them they won't want to come back."
Grawp made a slow determined head nod before Hagrid motioned them towards Grawp. Hermione stood slightly behind Harry and to his side but she was ready to dive behind Harry at a moments notice if Grawp got out of control.
Harry walked up to Grawp as he left Hermione a safe distance behind and he strongly said, "Hello Grawp, how are you today?"
Grawp appeared to visibly mull over the question before he answered, "Grawpy good Harry. How is Harry?"
Harry smiled back at Hagrid who was beaming with pride at his brother before Harry turned back to Grawp and answered, "I am good Grawp. Thank you for asking. I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Hermione." Harry motioned for Hermione to come stand next to him.
Hermione tentatively made her way up to Harry and when Harry grabbed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile she said, "Hello Grawp. I'm Hermione, how are you today?"
Grawp took less time to answer and said, "I'm good Hermy. Can Grawp pick you and Harry up?"
Hermione flinched before she turned to Harry who gave her a small smile and answered for her, "We can, but only for a minute Grawp. We both have a class we need to get to soon." Grawp nodded and gently grasped both Harry and Hermione and sat them on his shoulders. They could see over several trees on the forest and actually caught a glimpse of the castle before Grawp set them back down.
They waved good bye and Grawp cheerfully screamed, "Grawpy like Harry and Hermy."
Harry and Hermione smiled at Grawp before Hagrid led them back out of the forest. They reached his hut and he simply said, "Thanks 'Arry, 'Ermione. I knew Grawpy would you like as much as I do." Harry and Hermione nodded with smiles still on their faces before they quickly made their way back to the castle and the greenhouse for Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.
Herbology was a rather quiet affair as they worked on the murtlap they had in the greenhouse as Harry thought back to that first night after classes and his detention with Umbridge. The class served more as a therapeutic experience more than an informative exercise and soon they found themselves in the great hall going over Harry's lesson plan for the night's DA meeting. Hermione looked excitedly at some of the hexes Harry would be introducing because although she could perform them she knew Harry could teach them all a better way of doing them.
They went to the room of requirement early to do some practice dueling between the two of them, and also Harry had promised Hermione that he would teach her the shield conjurations he had learned over the summer.
As they practiced Harry was teaching her the key to conjuring a shield strong enough to block all spells except for the killing curse.
Harry looked at Hermione who at this point was clearly frustrated with her rare failure at something before he said, "Relax a little ok?" Hermione shrugged and he continued, "The key to conjuration of a shield as far as I can tell is to imagine what it feels like when you cast a protego shield."
Hermione closed her eyes as though she was pulling up the memory, then she nodded and Harry continued, "Now imagine how your magic feels when you cast that spell and then envision the shield as being solid."
Hermione nodded and the pulled out her wand and made the wand motion Harry had taught her before a mostly solid shield sprung from her wand. She excitedly looked over at Harry who was wearing a look of pride on his face before she ran over to him and pounced on top of him pulling him in to a wonderfully long snog before Harry realized they only had a half an hour before the meeting. The room quickly shifted to the normal mixture of dueling mats and a lectern before Harry conjured a pair of towels to clean themselves up after training, and snogging.
When the DA members started piling into the room Harry took the time to greet each of them and ask them how classes were going. As usual, Cho walked in the room and greeter Harry strangely as though she still had some unfinished business with him, but she fought that urge and made her way into the room. Finally Daphne and Blaise made their way into the room looking more tired and haggard than the previous meeting. Blaise quietly asked, "Any luck on our parents yet Harry?"
Harry sighed and ran his hands through his hair before he said, "No, I'm sorry guys. Dumbledore just told me he was working on it." Daphne and Blaise merely nodded as they entered the room with Harry closing the door behind him.
Harry stood up at his lectern surveying the group with Hermione standing at his side as his second in command. He took a deep breath and said, "Hello everyone, today I expect to see some better attempts at the patronus charm and then I will assign group with Hermione and me as wildcards. I'll discuss that more when we actually get to it."
Once again the charmed boggart chest materialized and Harry had the DA members get in line. Harry stood behind the chest and said, "Tonight I expect each of you to be able to at least muster a patronus shield. You have had 4 weeks to practice this charm and we need to move on to other things with this group." The rest of the group snapped to attention and even Ron stopped his chatting with Lavender and took on a look of concentration to do as the general of their little army ordered.
Harry watched with satisfaction as everyone in the group focused on their happy memory and they were all able to cast a patronus shield. He was slightly disappointed to see that no one came close to casting a corporeal patronus and even Cho who had nearly done it the first week could only manage the shield. Harry and Hermione each took one turn to keep their skills up and they watched as the patronus' bounded out of their wands and dispatched with the pseudo-dementor with ease.
When they finished Harry closed the chest and it vanished without a sound. Harry looked around at the DA members sighed and simply said, "Good job on creating the shield everyone. However, I want you all to continue to work on the spell in your off time so that we can have a couple more members aside from Hermione and me that can cast a corporeal patronus. For now I will have you all split up based upon lists randomly selecting the group members."
Hermione conjured a list and read it aloud, "Ok everyone. On team 1 there will be Fred Weasley, Susan Bones, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang, Parvati Patil, and Ernie McMillan. One team 2 there will be Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Mathias Stern, Blaise Zabini, and Daphne Greengrass." Harry caught Ron's expression at being on the same team as both Slytherins but he wisely kept his thoughts to himself. Hermione continued, "Team 3 will include Seamus Finnegan, Hannah Abbot, Lavender Brown, George Weasley, Padma Patil, and Alicia Spinnet. Harry and I will be working together as wildcards to simulate actual battle conditions. Remember nothing more powerful than stunners and disarming jinxes. The team with the most people standing at the end of a half an hour wins."
Harry looked around as the room shifted into a lush jungle environment with ample places to hide and ambush people. He smiled and said, "I want team one to start in this corner, team 2 in this corner, and team 3 in this corner. Hermione and I will start in the middle of the room. The lights will go off when I signal and time will begin when the lights come back on." After Harry finished directing everyone where to go to lights went out in the room.
"When the lights come back on the training exercise begins." Harry screamed to ensure everyone would hear him.
The light came back on as Harry and Hermione disillusioned themselves and cast silencing charms on each other to ensure they were completely stealth. They held hands so they wouldn't lose each other and walked around the jungle until they caught sight of some spell fire. They quickly made their way over and found that Neville had managed to stun both Seamus and Dean rather easily. They moved back to the middle of the room and found the three Weasley's engaged in a curious fire fight of their own. It appeared that Fred and George were ganging up on Ron so a couple of warning stunners fired by Harry and Hermione forced it back into an every team for itself mentality.
They watched as Ron stunned Fred but George got Ron. Then they heard some feminine scream about 20 yards away and found a battle royal that had already felled Blaise, Daphne, Mathias, Lavender, Cho, Hannah, Ernie, and Neville.
They looked around and couldn't find the relative winner of the battle so they snuck around and found the Patil sisters locked up in an exchange of disarming jinxes. Padma would disarm Parvati but was not be able to stun her. Harry and Hermione nodded at each other and fired a pair of stunners over their heads. They looked around confusedly before two more stunners hit their targets all without a shield ever being raised. Harry shook his head and found the final four standing members of the DA dueling in the center of the room with Alicia and George working together trying to get Luna and Susan Bones.
Luna successfully stunned George leaving one member from each time to duel it out. Harry glanced at his watch and saw that 5 minutes remained so he used sonorus and said, "5 minutes to go." Susan looked around and in her moment of distraction, Luna stunned her leaving the head girl against the aloof Ravenclaw.
Luna spoke for the first time in the little duel as she airily said, "I already know I will win Alicia. If you give up now I will make it painless."
Alicia looked at the Ravenclaw in wonder before she replied, "I don't think so kiddo." She cast a stunning spell at Luna from close range and marveled as Luna did a cartwheel and kicked her in the stomach and forcing her to drop her wand. Luna then simply stunned the head girl and pocketed her wand as she watched Harry and Hermione appear out of thin air and begin reviving all of the DA members.
Harry laughed as he pulled out a sack and handed out Honeydukes chocolate to the winning team as he said, "Luna was the last one standing so team 2 wins."
As they adjourned the meeting every DA member thanked Harry for continuing with the group and Harry graciously deflected all praise to Hermione for helping him so much. When the last DA member left the room Harry let out a big sigh which Hermione noticed before he said, "If they perform like that with deatheaters over half of them will be coming back in body bags." Hermione nodded as Harry broke off a piece of his last chocolate bar and chewed it in contemplation.
A/N: So Luna won the challenge duel. Little bit of a surprise there. Next chapter some background on what is going on in the ministry and Voldemort's camp. Keep reading and thanks for the reviews.
