Here we are!

The Hog's Head was packed. Hermione had told her friends she'd only asked a few people, but much more than "a few" showed up – more than thirty came. Even seventh-years, like the Weasley twins, and sixth years, like Cho Chang and one of her friends, turned up. Pretty much all of the PS118 fourth-years outside of Slytherin came too, although some were more dubious about it than others.

Hermione began to explain. "Harry here had the idea...I mean, I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts – and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts – well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

At the end, Hermione added that apart from wanting to pass the DADA O.W.L, she thought they should study because Voldemort was back, carefully using his name the way very few did, making many of the students shudder or squeal.

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" demanded Zacharias Smith, a blonde Hufflepuff boy.

Gerald spoke up. "Cedric Diggory's corpse enough proof for you? You're not suggesting someone here killed him?"

"Besides," Lila piped up, "I believe him if Dumbledore believes him. If you can't trust him to be wise, you can't trust anyone."

Everyone was soon revisiting Harry's old triumphs – being able to produce a stag Patronus, getting the famous Philosopher's Stone in his first year, getting rid of Dementors over the summer (and nearly getting expelled) and the Triwizard Tournament too.

After some discussion about when and where the meeting would be held, Hermione told everyone to write down their names so they knew who was in and needed to be told about the first meeting.

The High Inquisitor notice came up on Monday morning that all teams and societies had to be disbanded and would only be re-formed if they got permission from Umbridge, including Quidditch teams and secret DADA groups (although due to a jinx Hermione put on the paper, it was obvious no one had told Umbridge). They were going to hold the group, anyway, while the Quidditch captains tried to re-form their teams.

The Gryffindor-Hufflepuff fourth year Astronomy class was inspected by Umbridge before anything more happened about the secret group. Arnold and Gerald, who were working together, listened in as Umbridge asked Professor Sinistra some questions.

"Think she'll pass?" Gerald whispered.

"She's a tough teacher who knows her subject." Arnold whispered back. "Definitely."

Gerald suddenly grinned, remembering their fourth grade teacher. "Hey, back at PS118, reckon Simmons would've passed?"

Arnold shrugged. "Maybe. I don't think so, but he was a good teacher, even so."

"Shortman, Johanssen, quiet!" their teacher snapped, and the boys fell silent.

The Slytherins soon got permission to reform their team, but Umbridge wasn't so keen when Angelina Johnson asked for permission for the Gryffindor team. She said she needed time to consider. Luckily, there was permission given in the end, though.

Soon after that, the students joining Harry's group were told to meet on the seventh floor one Wednesday evening at eight o'clock, and they all learnt of the secret Room of Requirement, which held everything it needed. They had cushions, books full of defensive spellwork and jinxes, and several instruments.

Once everyone was there, Harry began to speak, but Hermione raised her hand, saying "I think we ought to elect a leader."

"Harry's leader." Cho said immediately, but they voted officially then. Then Hermione said they should have a name, and people started their suggestions.

"Could we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" suggested Angelina.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" was Fred's suggestion.

"I was thinking more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to." Hermione said.

"What about just calling it Defence Against the Dark Arts?" suggested Phoebe. "That way, everyone would think we were referring to the class. We could use some kind of gesture to show we weren't."

"A bit too confusing, I think." Hermione said. "But a good idea."

It was Cho who suggested the DA, or Defence Association, but Ginny who changed the DA to mean Dumbledore's Army, since that was what the Ministry was scared of.

The first thing Harry did was teach Expelliarmus, the Disarming charm which saved his life when he faced Voldemort in June. Everyone paired up, except Neville, who was left without a partner.

People were all different in defense. Phoebe and Lila, who had paired up, were both soft-spoken girls, but Lila, who was more confident, proved to be better at the charm. Harry, when walking around to check on the pairings, could see that was Phoebe's main problem: she wasn't commanding her wand to do the spell strongly enough.

Gerald was enthusiastic about it, but a bit more careless, so his spells tended to go everywhere. Arnold, who paired up with him, was more careful and was doing pretty well. Sheena was doing OK, but since she was paired with Eugene, her spells often hurt him, rather than got his wand. There were exclamations of "Ow" and "I'm okay" constantly coming from their corner.

Sid had ended up pairing with Brainy, who seemed to be able to command the spell with the incantation hardly muttered, making things a lot harder.

Finally, Harry called the meeting to a close. As everyone started to leave, Phoebe ran to catch up with the trio. "Um, Harry?"

"What is it?" Harry asked. "It's getting late."

"Um, I know there aren't any Slytherins in the group, but you know my friend Helga who's in Slytherin, she hates what Umbridge is teaching and she can keep secrets, can I please let her in the DA? I know she'd want to join."

Of course the trio knew Helga, and they knew she'd proven to be different to most Slytherins, but they weren't sure. They decided to discuss it and then tell Phoebe the next day.

Do you think Phoebe should tell Helga regardless, or not? I'm thinking about it...review!