Whispers in the dark

Chapter 27: Signature spell

A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes

"Thank you all for coming," Harry said, though stuttered slightly through his words, staring back at a group full of students who were expectantly looking at him.

This was their very first meeting of their newly formed group called Dumbledore's Army. Though she knew Harry was nervous, and had been reluctant at first, she had talked to him about it and after seeing everyone's enthusiasm about the idea a couple days back in Hog's Head he had come around and had become enthusiastic himself as well.

"Today I would like to start with a simple charm that has come in handy for me personally many times," he went on when no one had yet replied. Clearing his throat, he looked around awkwardly as still no one made a sound.

"Right, so I'll be teaching you the Disarming Charm, and we're going to have to work in pairs for this," he said, and still no one moved.

Unable to bear the awkwardness, Hermione decided to walk up to Ginny and asked her as a partner. This seemed to get everyone else moving, and Harry shot her a grateful smile before turning his attention on the rest as they had now all formed their pairs.

"It's a rather simple charm, yet highly effective if used well." He explained, this time a bit more confident now that most of the staring eyes were off him. "All you need to do is draw a tight spiral into the air with your wand, like this," Harry instructed, then showed them all the wrist movement that he was talking about.

Several students copied the movement, and Harry nodded encouragingly at them in return. "After you've got a hang of that, all you need to do is combine it with the spell 'Expelliarmus', and you'll gain yourself another wand," Harry lightly joked, and got several laughs out of him in return.

"Well, off you go," he said, and at this murmurs broke loose, before they turned into loud voices. "Ready?" Hermione asked Ginny, who nodded in return, taking a firm stance as to brace herself.

"I'll go first," Hermione announced, and copied Harry's instructions perfectly as she was able to disarm Ginny, grabbing for the wand that had flown into the air. "Really nice," Harry said to her as he walked past.

Shooting a sheepish smile at him, she handed Ginny back her wand.

At this they all kept practising for a while, Ginny having needed only two tries before she could get it. "Right, I think you all get the hang of it," Harry interrupted after a good half an hour of practising.

"I think it would be nice to have a bit of a duel with it," Harry proposed, and then explained his idea. The gist was to let two people duel, and the winner would keep their place as the loser was replaced by another. This would be done until they all had their turns.

Neville and Seamus were to go first, and surprisingly to many, Neville had won the round, and Seamus was the first to go. Ginny was now set up to Neville, but easily won from him, knocking him slightly backwards.

"Dangerous little witch she is," she heard Fred say, and turned her head to the boy next to her. He had been leaning into George's ear as he had said it, and yet she had perfectly heard him. "I would watch out if I were you," Hermione playfully warned them, loud enough for George to hear as well.

"Oh yeah, is that so?" George promptly asked, and Hermione grinned in turn. "Won't be long before she knocks your arses down with these classes," she said as she watched Luna miserably failing to win from Ginny.

"I think we can handle our little sister," Fred challenged, a confident grin on his face. Hermione simply shrugged, "Suit yourself," she said as she walked away, up front to Ginny as she had been called out by Harry to step forward.

Ginny shot a wicked smile at Hermione, clearly having gained some confidence after having successfully defeated two other players, but Hermione stood her ground as well. As soon as Harry counted down, she was the first to say her incantation and watched in satisfaction as Ginny was slightly blown back.

The little witch let out a protesting huff, but shot her a warm smile anyway when she had regained her balance.

At this Ron was called forward, and Hermione shot an uncertain look at Harry. Though she and him were on good terms now, it was no secret that there was still a bit of tension going on between them. Perhaps that's why he paired them up. To let this moment be used to get rid of all tension between them.

"You're on," Fred said, though Hermione doubted it was aimed to her. She had grown to learn whenever he would be talking directly to her or to someone else. It was in the tone of his voice. It always sounded a bit softer whenever it was directed to her, and this time it was not.

Curiously shooting an eye at the twins, she watched as the twins were leaned into one another, big grins on both of their faces. Both of them had their arms crossed in front of their bodies, and had a wicked glimmer in their eyes.

Harry counted down once more, and the moment he had released the last count she was already fast and ready as she clearly enunciated "Expelliarmus," and watched in satisfaction as Ron was knocked back down with a harsh blow.

Perhaps it was a good thing indeed to be paired up with Ron in this duel. She did feel all her last tension slip away as he was laying on the ground right now.

A couple of people cheered and said "well done," but all Hermione could see was George sulkily handing Fred some what looked like pocket money, and Fred just grinned proudly as he put it into his own pocket.

Ron walked up to the twins, to presumably say something to regain his dignity, which the twins just waved off with mocked agreement.

Harry took a moment to renew the rounds, saying they had only five minutes left for this class, and wanted everyone who hadn't had their turn yet to be able to give it a try.

And so Hermione joined the twins side. "D'you think I went a bit too harsh on him?" Hermione asked Fred. Though she enjoyed the hard blow given to Ron, she couldn't help but wonder if it had perhaps aggravated him once more.

Fred, however, shook his head. "I thought it was fantastic," he said, and Hermione turned to look at him, wanting to see if he really meant it. When she saw the genuine smile on his face, she knew he did. "You really think so?"

"It was brilliant," he assured her, then with a grin retrieved something from his pocket. Holding up one sickle, he beamed as he shot a look at his twin brother. "Even more so now," he said as he let out a laugh, having just received an elbow blow to his side from a grumpy George.

Hermione dropped her mouth open in exasperation, "You were betting for me?" She asked incredulously, but Fred just raised his shoulders as he dropped the sickle back into his pants. "I knew you'd win," he simply said, leaving Hermione with a light blush on her cheeks.

- x -

"He's got a bit of a thing for you, Hermione," Ron said out of nowhere when they were back in the common room after their first class. They had just been talking about how well Harry had done, so to have Ron say this, got her rather confused.

Apparently noticing her expression, he elaborated as he added: "Fred." At this Hermione let out a half-hearted chuckle, "I don't know what you're on about, Ron," she said pointedly, hoping to end this conversation, but he wasn't buying it.

"I've seen the way he looks at you, y'know," Ron went on, but unlike many other times, he didn't sound jealous anymore. In fact, he sounded rather pleased with himself for noticing such things. He usually wasn't one to pay attention to those small details.

Rolling her eyes, and feeling a light blush creep up onto her cheeks, unable to believe that someone might fancy her, she waved his statement off. "Oh, shut up," Hermione said.

Grabbing her stuff, she rose up to leave, but wished them both goodnight before she did.

Before she could make it to the girls' dormitory, however, she was stopped in her tracks. "Hermione, wait," Fred said, though she didn't need their charm to be able to hear what he was saying. He was close enough for her to hear him already.

Fred was ever so slightly out of breath, clearly having taken a sprint for it as soon as she had watched her get up and leave. "What?" Hermione asked, though sounded a bit stern, which wasn't her intention at all, and so she added a smile to make up for it.

"I saw you two talking," Fred said, referring to her little conversation with Ron. "Mind telling me what kind of juicy things he had to say?" He asked, adding a half-hearted grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. It was obvious that he was more curious than he was confused.

"It was nothing," Hermione tried to say, hoping that would set him off. It didn't. "Was it about us?" Fred asked, putting a hand on the wall next to her head. Us? It felt a bit unusual to think of her and Fred as 'us' and yet, at the same time, it sounded completely right.

Trying not to be intimidated by his stance, knowing he was doing it to humble her up and get answers from her. It was a nasty habit he had developed ever since Grimmauld Place.

Staring back into his brown eyes, she couldn't help but notice the close proximity between their faces, especially now that he had leaned slightly down with his head to level with hers. Still, he was remarkably taller than she was.

"Just him talking some nonsense," Hermione breathed, and before he could even say or do anything else, she slipped up the staircase and disappeared into the girls' dormitory, falling asleep to Ron's words echoing in her head.