The Gryffindor Quidditch team had been the first group to make it to the Room of Requirement, excluding, of course, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The other Gryffindors weren't far behind them, Neville and Dean walking in at nearly the dame time as Parvati and Ginny, who were closely followed by Colin and Dennis Creevey, who went straight over to Harry, bombarding him with questions (much to the amusement of everyone else present).
Lee had joined the team to come, but as Angelina had insisted on continuing the discussion of strategy, he had drifted over to Carl Hopkins when he'd come in. He preferred quidditch strategy when the match was in motion, not the plans made before.
"D'you reckon we'll learn something new?" Carl asked, nodding to Lee as he came over. "Not that I doubt Potter's abilities—facing You-Know-Who's a pretty good recommendation—but we're a year above him." Lee shrugged.
"Dunno. But he had to learn loads for last year. Fred and George noticed more than me; they could never find Ron, he was always off practicing with Potter. It's somewhere to practice anyway, and that's what we really need." They talked a bit longer about what they thought was likely to be taught and the like, but were distracted by the door opening once more to admit a whole host of Hufflepuffs. Lee knew Cedric Diggory, Patty Stimpson, and Gillian something-or-other, but he wasn't sure of the names of the others—though he thought they were all fifth years, based on their immediate path to Dean, Parvati, and Neville.
"Who's the bloke with Diggory?" Carl asked.
"His name's Gillian, if you're talking about the seventh year. I've no clue who the others were."
"Justin Finch-Fletchley's the dark haired one, he got petrified back in third year—er, fourth year, for you. Ernie Macmillan's the blond one, and Hannah Abbot's the blond girl. They're the prefects for the fifth years. The other one's Susan Bones." Lee raised an eyebrow at this wealth of information, and saw a frown on Carl's face when he turned. Carl met his eye and relaxed, a bit, but still looked upset. "My brother Wayne's in Hufflepuff, their year. I just would've thought he'd be here too."
"Maybe he just didn't hear. Or was worried about being caught. I'm sure he'll come around, if that's it." Carl nodded, looking uncertain but a bit more hopeful. "I'm going to go say hi to Cedric, you coming?" Carl nodded and followed him. Halfway there, they were joined by Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe, who had entered with Kim Sheringham and Luna Lovegood. About ten minutes after came four fifth year Ravenclaws (Padma, Anthony, Terry, and Michael, Marietta identified them).
"We had to pass by and loop back twice, there was a load of people hanging out outside the first time, and Filch when we got back," Anthony announced. "He looked suspicious about what we were doing up here, so we should be careful. Don't think it's anything yet, but better safe than sorry."
About five more minutes passed before the door opened once more, though no one seemed to come in. The door soon closed, and the "no one" resolved itself into seven Slytherins. Some muttering broke out among the other students at the sight of them, but no one openly questioned it. Lee hoped it would stay that way. He didn't know them well, but he would at least loosely call himself friends with Andrew Fawley, Adrian Pucey, and Jack Bagley since the Yule Ball. At any rate, with what had happened last year, no one would argue their right to be here.
Well, he hoped not.
/
Marietta, Carl, and a few of the older Gryffindors came over to talk to the Slytherins as soon as they entered, but Jack could feel the mistrustful eyes of many of the younger student on them. It was probably worse, he reasoned, for Blaise, Miles, Rissa, and Zoe, who hadn't been at the meeting. He, Andrew, and Adrian had an "excuse" to be here, in the other students' eyes—Cassius. Zoe and Rissa had also been his friends, but the connection wasn't as obvious to outsiders. To bring Miles and Blaise, who hadn't known him well at all, wasn't a popular move. That didn't matter to him. They deserved to be here as much as anyone else, and if they wouldn't be accepted…well, they'd deal with that later. There weren't many people at Hogwarts who could be trusted to have a Slytherin's back, so they had to at least have each others'.
Unfortunately, the confrontation didn't take long.
"Look, are we sure that lot should be here? I mean, no offense to them, but they haven't exactly been proved trustworthy in the past." It was one of the fifth year Ravenclaws—Jack didn't know his name.
"Yeah, 'cause you've given us sooo many opportunities, haven't you?" Adrian shot back. Jack frowned. In all their years at Hogwarts, Adrian had never been so outwardly aggressive. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about it at the moment. The Ravenclaw boy's comment appeared to have freed others who had had uncertainties of their own, and in almost no time, the peaceful room had turned into a shouting match as everyone began to take sides. Adrian, Andrew, and Rissa were arguing themselves, while Miles and Zoe seemed to share his concern about what this entailed for their future as members of the DA. Blaise seemed to be working hard to remain impassive, but five years knowing him was enough time for Jack to see the darkness that had fallen on his face. Coming here had been a leap of faith for all of them, but Blaise had given up the security blanket of neutrality the Zabinis were famed for to come here, and Jack worried about what effect this could have on the younger boy's future.
"That's enough." Everyone turned to the front of the room, where Potter stood. He had clearly magnified his voice, but he had spoken with a level tone, seizing control of a situation where yelling would only have added to the problem. Jack didn't know how to feel about Potter, but he had to admire the way he knew how to capture a room, and he certainly seemed to be taking this seriously. Potter had a quick conversation with Granger and Weasley, having removed the sonorous charm, then walked over to the Slytherins.
"I'm glad you all made it." His eyes landed on Blaise and, after a surprised look, he nodded. "Blaise. Glad you could make it." Potter using Blaise's first name in front of everyone seemed to break some tension, making even those who had been unhappy at their arrival look, if not content, complacent. Damn, Potter was good at this. Back at the front of the room, Potter looked over the crowd with a new uncertainty on his face. Being in front of everyone, it seemed, wasn't his strong suit.
"Well, er, hello everyone. I was thinking of where we ought to start and I—" Potter cut off at Hermione's raised hand. "Yes, Hermione?"
"I think we ought to have a name, don't you?" She asked brightly. "To encourage unity—teamwork, you know." From Potter's face, this hadn't been discussed.
"We could be the Anti-Umbridge League," Angelina Johnson said, to general laughter and a few brief smatterings of applause.
"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group," Fred Weasley responded, only increasing the laughter.
"I was thinking something more subtle," Granger said with a frown at Fred and Angelina.
"How about the Defense Association, or the D.A. for short," Cho Chang offered after a brief silence.
"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army—isn't that the Ministry's worst fear?" Jack grinned at this one, and he could see that everyone else liked it too. After an official vote, Hermione wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY at the top of the list of everyone's signatures, which she'd retrieved from where it had hung by the door for any new members to sign.
"Right, the D.A." Potter looked out over the students, and Jack realized that in a matter of moments, Potter had gone from the leader of a club to the commander of an army—maybe only by name but still…that couldn't be easy. "So like I was saying, I thought that we could start with the Disarming Charm—you know, Expelliarmus." He paused, seeming to wait for pushback, but received none. "I know some of you have learned it, but it's effective and powerful." He paused again, seeming to steel himself for what came next. "I used it against Voldemort last summer, so I know that it's useful. Pair up with someone around your skill level, but someone you don't know well, if you can—Colin, I know you'll probably go with Dennis—we've all got to get to know each other if we're going to work together." Potter's voice had grown in strength, like the attention being given him was reassuring him of his abilities. "If you've both learned the spell try something new—what did you suggest, Hermione?"
"Nonverbal casting," she responded.
"Right, try it nonverbally. Or just try putting more power behind it—there're cushions to put behind you, in case you knock each other down. If you don't know the spell, come over here, Hermione will show you the basics while I walk around to everyone. Um…I guess the rest of you just pair up now and have at it."
There were a few moments of general chaos as people looked for people to work with, and Jack couldn't help but feel hopeful.
/
Marietta had to hand it to Nerissa Brody: she was a fair hand with a wand. Rubbing her elbow, which had smacked into the floor while trying to control her descent, she laughed ruefully.
"Maybe if I stop trying to catch itself the cushion will actually do its job," she said to Nerissa, adjusting herself to be in proper stance. "Expelliarmus!"
Nerissa fell neatly onto the cushion, but Marietta could tell that her spell was nowhere near as powerful as the one which had just knocked her over.
"How'd you get so good? I mean, we've had all the same Defense professors, but you're just…powerful." It stung Marietta to admit it, and to realize that she'd gotten used to being the best—because among her friends, she was. Nerissa looked uncertain of what to tell her, and Marietta wondered if she was worried about critiquing her, afraid of what would happen if she took the advice poorly.
"You're too…in control." Seeing Marietta's confusion, she shrugged. "I don't know how else to say it. Your form is spot on, and even your stance is right, but it isn't natural." She'd been wrong earlier, Marietta realized. Nerissa hadn't been uncertain of whether to critique her, only how to explain it well. Her pride stung a little for the second time, but she pushed it away in annoyance. Nerissa walked over to her to continue her explanation more easily.
"See, wand form is great because the movements help direct our magic, but in the end, your magic isn't coming from your wand, it's coming from you." Her eyes were distant, as though she was reliving something in the past, but a sudden laugh drew her back. "I had a tutor, when I was little, like a lot of the older pureblood families get—trying to make sure we're the best, or whatever, not that it works. She always made me practice 'feeling the energy inside me', whether I was running around or sitting down or playing quidditch. I always laughed, because it seemed like such a silly idea, but when I started at Hogwarts I realized that she'd really been teaching me about doing magic, feeling it flow through you, into your wand, and out as a spell. I don't know how else to explain it, and I know it probably sounds absolutely mad, because that's just how I felt my childhood. But that's what you need, I think. To stop trying to control the movements outside and just…feel it."
"Right," Marietta responded. "It does sound a little…"
"Mad?"
"Ambiguous. But magic can't all be set in stone, I guess. I'll try it, that thing your tutor had you do. See if it helps me feel…I dunno, more connected with myself?" She couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous that sounded, and Nerissa laughed with her, then crossed back to her cushion and took up a stance.
"Expelliarmus!" Marietta had just enough time as she fell to appreciate the fact that Nerissa's movement did, in fact, flow more than hers. Then her elbow smacked into the floor.
/
"Great work tonight, I saw lots of improvement." It was true—by the end of the night even tiny Dennis Creevey had managed to disarm his brother. "We don't have a second date yet, but Hermione's got a way for you all to hear about it." Granger stepped forward nervously—public speaking wasn't her thing, Andrew had noticed—and held up a Galleon. Weasley began to pass them around, and one for everybody, and a few left over—Granger had obviously planned ahead. Typical.
"I've enchanted one of these for everyone. On a real Galleon, the serial numbers would be on the edge of the coin. But on these fake Galleons, the numbers will change to match the time and date of the next meetings. I've put a Protean charm on them, so Harry can just change his and you'll all feel it—they'll get a bit warm."
"You can do a Protean Charm?" One of the Ravenclaws—Terry-something, Andrew thought—asked. Andrew was impressed in spite of himself. They wouldn't be learning Protean Charms until later that year. It was impressive magic.
"Great, thanks Hermione," Harry cut in after some more conversation. "Unless anyone else has something—"
"I do, actually." Cedric Diggory stepped forward. "I've been working on figuring out a charm Terry told me about. There's not much research about it, because it fell out of use pretty quickly, but I think I've just about got it figured out. I've told some of the others about it—it's a long-distance communication charm that uses mirrors. You can only connect up to four without it getting unstable, from what I've read, so these—"he held up his Galleon—"make more sense for general use. But if any of us needs anything or is trying to set up a meeting with other D.A. members, it makes sense for us to have a way to communicate, too, and four would let us have one per house."
Potter nodded. "That makes sense…er, do you need help with the spell, or…"
"I think I can manage. Like I said, I'm almost there."
"Right, then. Just…bring them to a meeting whenever you finish, then. Come on, we'd better get going… again, great job, everyone."
People began to leave in threes and fours, chatting with those around them while waiting their turns. Andrew heard study plans be made, quidditch pickup matches arranged, and a plan for sneaking out into Hogsmeade by Zoe and Kim, who seemed to have hit it off during the night. There was no strict plan made, but as everyone got back to the Slytherin Common room, they headed to the seventh year boys' dormitory. When everyone was there, they stood looking at each other for a while, as though they were soaking in the night from each other's faces. Andrew couldn't help but laugh.
"Good for you all too, then?"
"Unexpectedly so," Blaise replied, his face betraying just a glimmer of excitement—still more than he usually let through. Andrew wondered if he hid a whole person back there, and was exhausted at the thought. Andrew made a mental note to make an effort to befriend him. It seemed like he could use it.
"I know you had a good night, Zo—be careful you don't spend that fake Galleon in Hogsmeade on Saturday."
"Keep it up and I'm not bringing anything back for you," she shot back, and Andrew made an exaggerated gesture of covering his mouth, at which she threw a pillow—one of his pillows—at him.
Yeah, it had been a good night.
Note: any recognizable dialogue belongs to JK Rowling-usually, meetings won't use dialogue from the books, but there were some important things to set up (the name, the coins) that just didn't need to be different in this case.
ALSO, after a lonnnng semester, I'm super excited to finally have time to write again, something that, although I planned to do it, just didn't happen with all the homework I had. So to all of you who started this story and have not heard anything new-very sorry for the long wait; and to any new readers-welcome, and thank you for reading!
As always, I love reviews-things you liked, didn't like, were confused about, or suggestions!