Club Founding


A random classroom had been chosen to host the first meeting of the reestablished Defense training group. Lavender was so excited that Harry had asked her to participate. They would be learning all the stuff Umbridge was unwilling to teach them. And that's why at the end of the year she would get great grades in Defense against the Dark Arts.

But first they had to arrange the tables of their chosen classroom in a huge U. The teacher's desk was placed next to the door. And next to Lavender, Parvati had taken a seat at it to welcome the small groups of students Harry was constantly bringing in.

Luna had pulled another chair over and sat now with them. She was humming when nobody was standing in front of their table. And occasionally she swung her legs back and forth like she was sitting on a swing.

Lavender mused that the waifish blonde next to her had to be this excited because her name was number three on the list. As far as the chatty Gryffindor knew – and she knew basically everything that was going on in Hogwarts – this was the first time the odd Ravenclaw had not been an afterthought in something like this club.

When new members arrived, it was Lavender's job to say, "You've got to sign here." In Hannah Abbot's case, her index finger tapped the tenth row of the slowly elongating list.

Lavender held the quill to sign, so Hannah could see it. But before she passed it over she looked at the cue card in her other hand. She read out, "By giving your signature, you avow that you'll follow the rules of the OWL training Club for Defensive Magic."

All three girls at the table knew the odd sentence by heart by now. But Hermione had been very insistent when she had told them that Lavender had to read the two lines out every time. And Lavender would not risk infuriating her dorm mate by stepping even a toe out of line when she was so close to getting the best possible preparation for her Defense exam she could hope for.

The fifth-year was the OWL year after all. And in contrast to her previous grades, these were important. Her parents had repeatedly emphasized that it was not a good look to study a subject like Divination for 3 years and not finish with at least an "Acceptable" or to get less than seven OWLs—even if you did not plan to pursue NEWT study in that many subjects.

Hannah accepted the quill with a confused frown. But she bent over the table like everyone before her and carefully wrote her name down without objection.

From left of Lavender, Luna Lovegood leaned forward. One of her ink-stained fingers pointed excitedly at the top of the parchment. "I've drawn the owl."

A slightly perplexed, Hannah took a closer look at the swooping bird of prey. "Nicely done. Almost life-like."

Meanwhile, Lavender held her hand out in a meaningful manner and the Hufflepuff witch handed the quill back.

"That's Hedwig. Harry's owl," Luna explained. "She's a snowy owl. You've probably noticed her in the Great Hall. I wanted to animate the picture but Hermione-"

Parvati interrupted the younger Ravenclaw. It was not the first time. It had in fact become part of their routine. "This is your fake Galleon. Don't lose it. Harry will explain how it works." Parvati handed a golden coin over then said firmly, "Next one please."

Hannah stepped aside so Susan Bones could access the list.

"Thanks, I already know." She snatched the quill out of Lavender's hand to write her name down.

The parchment was almost pulled away in time. The quill had left a long blue line behind.

"Excuse me," Hermione said in a tone that stated that Susan was the one who should be sorry. She held the parchment in her left hand and pointed at it with her wand. "This is not an attendance list. You're supposed to show that you agree to what Lavender reads out."

"I don't know the rules Lavender was talking about anyway. How am I therefore able to agree to them?" Susan replied with a sugary sweet smile.

Lavender watched Hermione as she forced a matching smile onto her lips. "Harry and I." She tapped the first two names on the list. "Decided it was best to save some time and only read the full set of rules once everybody is here."

"Did you?" Susan asked in a dangerously low voice.

Hermione's reply was an almost-hiss, "Yes, we did."

Lavender felt out of her depth. Something was going on but she had no idea why the two witches were about to go at each other's throats.

"And what if I don't like the rules?"

"Then you'll be expelled from the club and won't be allowed to return."

"A-and?"

Hermione was speaking through gritted teeth. "You better never tell anybody about this afternoon."

Even without the 'or else' Lavender recognized this as a threat.

The two witches stared at each other for so long Lavender started to wonder whether she was supposed to get out of the way so they could have a duel.

Finally, Susan relented. She looked at Lavender. "Okay, read your piece out."

Lavender did her part.

Only then did Hermione put the list back onto the table.

Susan placed a loopy signature in line eleven.

Parvati handed the coin over. And just that one time, Luna forgot to point out that she had drawn the owl.

When the list was twenty-two names long and the last coin had been handed over, Hermione picked the list up. "Take your seats please."

Lavender and Parvati went to sit on the two chairs between the Hufflepuffs and the boys from Gryffindor. Meanwhile, Luna was waved over by Harry who sat at one of the ends of the U.

Hermione stepped in front of the gathered students where Harry joined her. She held the list out so everyone could look at it. When the excited chatter gave way to curious silence, Hermione did something weird.

She grabbed the top of the parchment and ripped it apart. But not in the normal way. She ripped the front from the back.

After a moment of total confusion, Lavender realized that the parchment they had all signed on must have been folded up and glued together so it ended up double-layered.

Without a word, Hermione turned it around so everyone could take a look at its formerly hidden backside. There was a huge block of hand-written text. "This, like your signatures, was written in magical ink. The ink will fade away once I read it all out to you. There is no way to make it visible again. Therefore I suggest you listen closely."

There were some confused murmurs.

Harry coughed to draw everyone's attention. "Please, everyone be quiet. The text will answer a lot of your questions. If there is anything else you want to know we'll explain it to you, once Hermione is done reading."

Hermione started, "This magical contract is meant to enforce secrecy about the group called OWL training Club for Defensive Magic which will hereafter be referred to as 'owl-club'. All signers agree to the following:" There was breathless silence. "Point One. Under the threat of magical penalty, no one will interrupt the reading of this contract except the one currently reading it."

What followed was in Lavender's mind a very convoluted way of saying that they could not talk to anyone about the owl-club who was not in the room with them right now. They were also never allowed to write anything about the group or their meetings down. Given Umbridge's stupid rules, so far everything she heard made a lot of sense to Lavender.

Lavender's mind shifted back to her future. If she wanted to pass her practical Defense OWL, she needed to learn a ton of spells, jinxes, and counter-curses in the next three months. There was no way she would get anything better than an A on her own. And she would fail her OWLs hard if she had to spend the rest of the year in detention.

The list of rules was way too long for Lavender to stay concentrated. She mostly zoned out. She noticed however when Hermione turned the parchment and said, "This contract was signed by-"

She then read out the names of everyone present.

Which could be summarized as the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team, all fifth years of Gryffindor, and roughly half of their year in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff each. The only present fourth-year was Luna Lovegood who was currently smiling like a loon.

Lavender realized only belatedly that she was staring at a blank parchment. The text had indeed vanished once Hermione had read it aloud. Once Hermione was done reading out their names, she turned the parchment around to show even those had disappeared.

The only thing visible on the parchment at all was the unmoving owl Luna had drawn. But that made sense too, Lavender had watched the other witch draw the picture with her own quill.

"Okay, so let's talk about the coins." Harry held his Galleon up so they could all see it.

Lavender pulled the one she had been given out of her pocket.

But before Harry could say anything about it, Terry Boot stood up. "Actually, I would like to ask a question. Like... what were you thinking when you tricked us into signing a magical contract?"

Hermione's reply was unimpressed. "Consider it your first lesson. Don't sign anything you've not taken a very close look at."

"You don't find that problematic at all?" Terry asked in irritation

"Oh, please," Susan exclaimed indignantly. "You – of all people present – should have realized what you were signing. It's almost like your parents never told you what Ministry lawyers do at work all day. The hints were all there right in front of your eyes. You should have known that you were signing a magical contract."

"We signed the contract as well," Harry added with a shrug. "And I fail to see what your problem is?"

"My problem is the magical remand that Hermione greatly downplayed. Do you even know how harsh the punishment of breaking a magical contract can be?"

"Yes, I do," Hermione replied calmly.

Before Lavender could lean over and whisper a question at Parvati, Terry asked, "Okay, so what exactly would happen if we broke the magical contract?"

"That would depend on how significantly the contract was broken. The magical 'remand' – as you called it – is directly proportional to the secrets one gives away."

"And yet you haven't answered my question."

Hermione made a small step in direction of Terry and snapped, "I did answer your question. Your question was just unspecific. But I'll gladly pretend that you asked me a specific question and give you a matching answer. If you were to slip up and mention the shortened name of the club... or when... or where... we met, you would experience a soft minor magical reprimand. And reprimand is the correct term! The literature describes that such a simple reprimand makes a witch or wizard feel extremely sick and he or she will temporarily be unable to perform magic properly."

Lavender frowned. She had always thought magical contracts were a serious issue and that she shouldn't break one under any circumstances.

While she had thought this, Hermione had stepped into the U and positioned herself right in front of Terry. "But if you were to run to Umbridge and betray all of us and tell her what we were doing you would become a squib - permanently."

That revelation rendered Terry speechless, and sent a chill through the room.

But Lavender knew Hermione was not done yet. She always scared you and then she scared you more. Lavender looked at the bushy-haired witch. She stood still in front of the Ravenclaw and her steely threatening voice said, "That is if you were to speak very slowly. If not, you would probably die before you've worked halfway through the list of club members."

Lavender nodded at herself for being right. Now Hermione was done. And indeed she stepped back to the front of the classroom to stand next to her boyfriend.

Harry coughed awkwardly. "Well, that is only a theoretical outcome. I was not planning on getting anyone here in trouble by running to Umbridge. And I hope neither was anyone else." He coughed again. "So that shouldn't be a problem. Especially, since you're all warned now."

"Uh, me, please!" Luna had her hand raised in an urgent manner. She reminded Lavender of the younger Hermione they had all made fun off.

The older Hermione turned around and looked for quite a while at Luna before she said, "Yes, what is it?"

Luna let her hand sink and asked curiously, "What would have happened if one of us had interrupted you while you were reading?"

Hermione smirked. "Nothing. The contract only came into effect once I had read it out to everyone. It's one's own magic that enforces magical contracts. Which is why muggles are not affected by them."

"Okay, now I have a question," Susan said and raised her hand. "Why did you make Lavender read out those lines when the contract only came into effect after you read it out?"

"Because the signature has to be made with the intent to follow through with the contract. Without that intent your signature would have not been binding. But since you knew what you were signing up for in general the contract could become binding once you knew its contents."

Lavender was surprised when one of the Weasley twins spoke up, "You seem to be under the impression that this contract is a bit extreme. I on the other hand think that it's a sensible precautionary move. Just think about how much trouble we could all get in."

"And it's not just us but our parents as well." The other twin added. "You might not have noticed but the ministry has changed since last summer. Fudge and Dumbledore had more than just a little dispute. Our esteemed Minister of Magic thinks there is a conspiracy. And this" He made a gesture including them all. "would make him very wary."

His twin snickered. "Very wary – good one!"

Lavender did not need to look to know that she was not the only witch rolling her eyes.

From next to Padma, Mandy Brocklehurst asked, "But what if we want to invite some other student?"

"That's not possible." Harry gestured at the blank parchment in Hermione's hand. "Having people come and go as they pleased was the biggest strain on all of our activities in December. There are only three months left until the exams. We need to make steady progress to cover everything we need to."

"There is also no way we could keep this group a secret if it grows as much as the last one. It will already be hard enough with this size."

"But what about our classmates?"

"I can't help them all." Harry shrugged, seemingly uneasy. He did not look happy about that particular fact.

"Nothing stops them from asking the older students or their Head of House for help," Hermione added which Lavender knew was an awful amount of sympathy coming from her.

Terry grumpily interposed, "I still think you should have told us about the contract upfront."

"Oh, and how should that have happened? We could have hardly walked up to you all and told you about the contract." Hermione huffed in annoyance. "Best case, that would have taken another two weeks. Worse—and more likely—someone would have decided the contract was not for him." She looked straight and unmistakably at Terry. "That person would not have signed. And then he could have told anyone he liked about it. Umbridge would have known what we're up to before we had collected ten signatures. This was the only feasible way to make this work. Get over it."

Harry sighed. "Look, Hermione has gone to great lengths to ensure that Umbridge won't find out about us. She wrote the contract, made these coins, and looked up and learned a bunch of spells to make it impossible to locate us."

"If you want out, give me your coin and I'll erase your memory of the last hour." Hermione held out her hand like she expected the wizard to actually step forward. "Once your memory of the past hour is gone you won't be able to infringe the contract. Problem solved."

At this point, Harry interfered, "Look, Terry, nobody is forcing you to fight a dragon. Take a deep breath and relax, okay?"

Terry gave him a reluctant nod.

"Okay, maybe it's best to wrap this up." Harry held his coin up. "I'll teach you how the coins work. Then we'll split into groups, witches and wizards. And Hermione and I will show you how to set the room up so we won't be disturbed during our training. The first to arrive will always set the room up."


Harry had never expected the first meeting of the OWL club to go smoothly. However, he had also not expected to have such a controversial discussion. He didn't feel bad about what they had done though.

Even if it was hard to acknowledge the truth, Hermione had been right when she had stated that there were few alternatives if he really wanted to teach someone. Out of all options, the magical contract had been the most extreme solution, but it had also been the one which allowed them to teach the most students to defend themselves.

After two weeks and three successful meetings, Harry hardly thought about anything but the OWL club. He was brooding over the curriculum for their Defense exam and how to split it in the best way. He was also for the first time seriously looking into the theory behind the spells, countercurses, and jinxes they were learning. It was just too annoying to know less than the Ravenclaws. He had no problem with Hermione correcting him but he really did not like Anthony or Padma do the same.

Because of those smart-aleck Ravenclaws, Dean found Harry brooding over a book. The disruption was not welcome, however, as Dean brought the latest in dire news on the only other topic that had any chance of capturing Harry's attention these past few weeks.

A few questions and a look onto his magical map later Harry was running through the halls of Hogwarts in search of a certain witch.

He was out of breath when he ran around a corner and called, "Angelina, is it true?"

Harry had meant to stop anyway but when he saw five witches instead of one his feet skittered in an almost cartoonish manner over the floor.

Five seventh year witches stared at him while he almost fell onto his face.

The way they looked him up and down made him very aware of the undone button on his shirt and his loose tie. He tried to stop gasping for air and act normal. Harry had barely thought this when he wondered what he was supposed to do with his arms. He had no idea what he usually did with them. Somehow, he managed a not too awkward, "Uh, sorry for interrupting" back at a normal volume.

The five witches stared a bit more at him before Alicia replied, "Hi Harry."

Which mercifully made the other girls stop their close examination of him.

Embarrassed, he realized that he only knew Alicia's and Angelina's names despite two of the other girls wearing the Gryffindor crests on their uniforms as well. "Hi, everyone," He said and awkwardly waved at them with his left arm.

The two witches, which Harry knew barely by sight, said "Hi" as well and Angelina asked, "What's so urgent?"

Harry babbled, "I heard Cedric wouldn't play in the upcoming match. And I wanted to know if that's true. And, uhm, yeah, if you had not heard about it yet, I wanted to tell you about it. Uh, you know," He finished lamely.

"Talk about coincidences!" Angelina declared with a smirk. "Laura was just bringing us up to date on that front."

And just like that, he was no longer the center of attention.

All eyes in the circle, which Harry had somehow become part of, were now focused on the single one of them not wearing a uniform in Gryffindor colors. The witch named Laura was a Hufflepuff and she looked warily at him.

Angelina followed her glance. "Oh, stop worrying, Harry won't bite!"

"It's his girlfriend you need to be wary of," Alicia added mischievously.

The Gryffindor girls giggled at this.

This got a reaction out of Laura. "Well, excuse me if I don't want to get in trouble with Umbridge."

Alicia made a dismissive gesture. "Harry is okay."

"Well, excuse me," Laura started once more. "But I'm careful who I trust and correct me if I'm wrong but Harry is like this" She crossed her middle and pointer fingers. "with the Minister."

"I'm not!" Harry exclaimed indignantly.

Before he could address the point thoroughly, Alicia said, "You don't need to worry about Harry running to Umbridge or her little squad of sycophants. He's certainly not on her side. In the fall, he even tried to have everyone sign a petition to get rid of her."

"You did what?" Laura looked at him like he was retarded.

"It was a good idea," Harry defended himself. "If everyone had signed back then we could have gotten proper Defense lectures around Christmas."

"Yeah, could we? There was only one problem with your smart plan. That signature would have totally bitten everyone in the ass once they wanted to get into the Ministry."

"Umbridge is an awful Professor. And if we all had signed, we would have been safe from repercussions."

"Like that would ever have happened! You never get everyone to agree on anything. All of Slytherin would have avoided signing, because your name is on it!" Laura exclaimed angrily.

Angelina tried to defuse the situation and redirect the conversation back to the issue at hand, "Yeah, okay, so we can all agree that Harry still has to learn about how the world works. Can you tell him about Cedric now?"

Laura looked doubtfully at him but after a glance at one of the other witches got her a nod, she finally started to speak. "Okay, I got this from... someone who is in the NEWT Defense class. And she told me that today Cedric brought the official guideline for the NEWT exam to class. And when Umbridge told the class to start working on the book, Cedric stood up and read the guideline out. You know, as if he had been asked to do so."

The witches nodded impatiently. Harry assumed that Laura had already told that part of the story before.

"So, Umbridge tells him to stop and that he should read what he was told to. But Cedric doesn't obey. He reads out the parts that define how the examiner is supposed to test counter-curses, spells, and… whatnot. So, Umbridge gives him detention. But Cedric keeps on reading. He is at the part of the guideline which is about..." Laura frowned. "whatever. I forgot where he was. Anyway, suddenly, Umbridge draws her wand."

So far the witches had listened in silence, now they gasped.

"So, Umbridge tries to silence Cedric," Laura explained. "But he blocks that and then-" Laura made a dramatic pause. "He disarms her!"

"Shit! Really?" Alicia asked in awe.

Angelina whistled lowly.

Laura nodded, "It's true. That's what happened!"

"Cedric is a really great wizard," One of the unfamiliar Gryffindor witches gushed.

It was Alicia who said with a feral grin, "He still only got second place last year, didn't he?"

The witches once more all eyed Harry.

Angelina snapped her fingers in front of Alicia. "Concentrate." Then she asked Laura, "What happened next?"

The Hufflepuff resumed her report. "Umbridge screamed at Cedric that she'll throw him out of school."

Harry gasped in disbelief. "Cedric was kicked out of school?"

Everyone stared in expectant silence at Laura.

"No," She said with a glint in her eyes. "Cedric also had a book with the school rules on him. He flipped it open and read out how only the headmaster, or in his absence the deputy headmaster, can kick someone out of school."

"Can't see McG doing that," Alicia commented with a smirk.

Angelina gestured for her to not interrupt the other witch. "What happened then?"

"Umbridge stormed out of the classroom. And as far as I know, she went straight to her office. She was not there to 'teach'" Laura's fingers added some air quotes. "the afternoon class."

The other Gryffindor witch asked, "And what will happen now?"

Laura shrugged, "How should I know? I opted out of Divination for a reason. But the prefects thought that it was a good idea to tell everyone what happened."

"Umbridge probably flooed to the Ministry," Harry mused.

Alicia chimed in, "Yep, she knew McG would laugh at her for losing her wand to a student."

"But what will happen now?" Angelina asked everybody and nobody in particular.

"She'll probably try to pass another decree to kick Cedric out of school herself," Alicia offered her opinion.

"I can't see that happening," The witch who had nodded at Laura said. "His father is a pretty high ranking ministry official. He even sits on the Wizengamot for the Ministry. And he is also on the board of governors. I can't see him allowing his son getting kicked out of school. Like, at all."

"Really?" Angelina asked in surprise. "How do you know so much about Cedric's dad?"

The witch shrugged, "My parents are friends with his parents."

"Really?" Laura asked.

Harry could hardly keep himself from swearing loudly. Earlier in the year, he had asked about three or four dozen people to get in contact with anyone on the board. Figures, it would be Cedric of all students who had a direct connection to someone on the Hogwarts Board of Governors. Before he could comment on this, Alicia had already asked, "How did you never mention that?"

The other witch frowned, then shrugged. "Because it never came up?"

Laura asked, "Do you think Cedric's dad has more influence than Umbridge?"

"Well, I don't know that but-"

"I got a meeting with Madam Hooch, I'll see you later," Angelina called over her shoulder. She was already halfway to the corner.

Harry waved once more and darted after her.

When they were barely out of earshot, Angelina whispered, "Very suave farewell, Harry."

He decided to not react to that and asked instead, "So, that means Cedric will play?"

"Doesn't really matter to me. We will play. And we will win." She stared at Harry. "Understood?"

He nodded.

Once more changing the topic, Harry asked, "How many students are in the NEWT course for Defense?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not in Defense." Angelina shrugged. "Not many. It's not required for many careers."

They walked along one corridor in thoughtful silence. Then Angelina added, "And with the professors switching every year you'll never know what you'll be taught. So, you'll never know whether you'll actually get prepared for the final exam. I remember when I was a fourth-year, the seventh-years were going totally nuts because Lockhart was such an idiot."

Harry nodded in total agreement.

"I never regretted dropping Defense," Angelina said and then added dramatically, "Until last summer when Hermione was attacked in her own home."


A/N: Thanks for beta-reading, xfireandpowderx.