Author's Note

Hey-oo! I'm back in less than a month with a nearly 7,000 word chapter for you guys, how wonderful am I? Naw, I'm kidding. This chapter just seemed to flow out so here it is ready to go. Whether or no things will continue to flow, we'll see.

Anywho, enjoy the chapter!

It was nearly midnight when Harry returned to the common room after a long detention. His hand was freely bleeding from the lines Umbridge had forced him to write, staining the scarf he had wrapped around it red. He was beginning to question the wisdom of not having his hand properly attended to or ratting Umbridge out for such torture, but dismissed it quickly, reasoning that it wouldn't do him much good while making the toad quite pleased with herself. Expecting to find the common room empty, he was pleasantly surprised to find the Karakura group, Ron, and Hermione all waiting up for him. He was also pleased to find that Hermione seemed to be done criticizing him for getting more detention in the first place and ready to be sympathetic and helpful.

"Here," Hermione anxiously said, offering a bowl of what looked like chicken noodle soup without the chicken or noodles, "soak your hand in that, it's a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles, it should help."

Orihime opened her mouth to offer her own assistance, but Harry saw it and slightly shook his head. As nice as it would be to have his hand fully healed, he still saw that as giving in to Umbridge, unlike the small treatment Hermione was offering to ease the pain and bleeding. That and he knew that if she said she could heal it Ron and Hermione would pressure him into taking up her offer. He was sure Ichigo and Uryu were already well aware of what Orihime could do, having seen that Ichigo's hand was unmarked, a sign that she had tended to him, and appreciated that they were also respectful of his decision like Orihime was, even if they also shared her dislike for such a choice.

Slipping his hand into the proffered magical soup brought immediate and blissful relief. The stinging ache was gone and since his hand was now submerged in liquid he couldn't feel the blood dripping down his hand.

"Thanks." Harry said, trying to convey every last ounce of gratitude he felt for this small reprieve and assistance against the toad's torture.

"I still reckon you should complain about this." Ron says in a low, conspirator's whisper. A round of nods follows this. All gathered have decided to respect Harry's wishes on this matter, but that doesn't mean they have to give up on changing his mind.

"You could make a very effective argument after tomorrow's detention if you go after you're finished." Uryu says, ready to help undermine the toad as effectively as possible. "Considering that it is likely that your hand's condition will only worsen the more you participate in these detentions, the raw damage makes for a good case of abuse."

"No." Harry replies flatly. He gets that they're concerned, but he's already reasoned out that it won't help.

"McGonagall would go nuts if she knew –" Hermione tries to argue, thinking Harry is refusing because he doesn't think he'll get the support he needs from the other teachers.

"Yeah, she probably would." Harry agrees dully. "And how long d'you reckon it'd take Umbridge to pass another Decree saying anyone who complains about the High Inquisitor gets sacked immediately? Or one that says she can punish students however she wants? You know Filch goes on about how they used to string kids up from the ceiling for detention."

Ron opens his mouth to retort, but he finds no words to say, just the sentiment that it's all wrong. The others also look like they want to deny it, but still none can find an effective denial for Harry's reasoning.

"This is just awful." Orihime says, another round of nods going around.

"She's just awful." Hermione says with vehemence. "You know, we were just saying when you came in… we've got to do something about her."

"I suggested poison." Ron says grimly.

"I said we should just toss her out a window. One of the higher ones." Ichigo says.

"No… I mean, something about what a dreadful teacher she is, and how we're not going to learn any defense from her at all." Hermione says, sounding slightly annoyed at the boys' direction of solution.

"There isn't much we can do besides a little bit of independent study." Uryu says, having thought about it some himself. "Besides, it is quite obvious that the Ministry doesn't want us taught any comprehensive defense, otherwise they wouldn't be patting themselves on the back about giving her the position in the newspaper."

"Yes, that's just what we need!" Hermione latches onto Uryu's idea having been considering self-study herself. "We should try to learn defense ourselves since Umbridge won't teach us."

"And how would we do that?" Ichigo asks, seeing that Hermione looks committed to the idea and ready to drag them all down with her.

"Wait a second. You want us to do extra work when Harry and I are already behind on our homework again? It's only the second week, you know." Ron objects, worried about being buried in homework and left with little to no free time.

"But this is much more important than homework!" Hermione bursts, surprising Ron and Harry. They thought that nothing would be more important than homework while they were in school. "This is about being prepared, like Harry said in Umbridge's first lesson, for what's waiting out there. It's about making sure we really can defend ourselves. If we don't learn anything for a whole year –"

"But we can't do much by ourselves." Ron complains, still slightly hoping for an out. "I mean, all right, we can go look jinxes up in the library and try and practice them, I suppose –"

"No, I agree that we've gone past the stage where we can just learn things out of books." Hermione says, agreeing to Ron's assessment that books alone are insufficient. If they weren't, there wouldn't be a problem with Umbridge's class consisting almost purely of reading the book. "We need a teacher, a proper one, who can show us how to use spells and correct us if we're doing it wrong."

"If you're talking about Lupin…" Harry begins, Lupin being the only good Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher they've had that they could call upon that he could think of.

"No, no, I'm not talking about Lupin." Hermione says, shooting down the idea. "He's busy with the Order and anyway, the most we could see him is during Hogsmeade weekends and that's not nearly often enough."

"Who, then?" Harry asks, not sure who else there is, especially when they have to already be at Hogwarts.

"Well, I thought maybe Professor Urahara or Professor Hirako could –"

"It wouldn't work." Ichigo says bluntly.

"Huh, but aren't they defensive experts?" Hermione asks, confused.

"They are combat experts." Uryu corrects. "The knowledge they have does not correspond to what you want to learn though. It is a more physical combat, such as hand-to-hand and swordsmanship. What combative magic they do know is not something you could learn."

"What do you mean we can't learn it?" Harry asks.

"The magic they know is connected to zanpakuto." Ichigo explains. It was at least partially true. Only shinigami could use kido and the one thing that really seemed to divide shinigami from a plus with high reiatsu was their bond with a zanpakuto. It only made sense that the ability to use kido was somehow linked to the change that occurred when a soul bonded to an asauchi. "And like I already told you, you guys can't have one."

Hermione is disappointed that her first choices for a teacher are gone. She thought that the two foreign teachers would be open and willing to help with such an idea and if they weren't that Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime could pass on what knowledge they had learned from them. It really was unfortunate that they couldn't offer any magical defense to be learned.

"Then it should be Harry." Hermione says.

"Huh?" Harry says.

"I'm saying you should teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Harry stared at her in surprise. She couldn't be serious. He didn't know any more about Defense Against the Darks Arts than she did and she wanted him to teach her and the others? Harry still thought that any defense that Urahara and Shinji could teach them was better than what he could teach. He turned to Ron, expecting to share a knowing look at the absurdity of Hermione's far-fetched idea, but instead found his best friend's face to be thoughtful. He wasn't seriously considering this hare-brained idea of 'Professor Harry' was he?

"That's an idea."

"What's an idea?" Harry asks, hoping it's something besides him being a teacher.

"You teaching us to do it."

Harry blinks and then he grins, sure that his two friends must be joking. They were just pulling his leg before they went back to having Professors Urahara and Hirako teach them what they could.

"But I'm not a teacher, I can't –" Harry jovially responds, ready to play along awhile.

"Harry, you're the best in the year at Defense Against the Dark Arts." Hermione points out and Harry thinks she's doing a fine job of playing at it.

"Me?" Harry says, grinning even wider because "No I'm not, you've beaten me in every test –"

"Actually, I haven't." Hermione coolly says. "You beat me in our third year, the only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew the subject. But I'm not talking about test results, Harry. Look at what you've done."

"How d'you mean?" Harry asks, feeling the first twinges of doubt that this isn't a joke, that she's truly serious about him teaching them.

"You know what, I'm not sure I want someone this stupid teaching us." Ron says to the audience of four, smirking slightly. "Let's think." Ron says, turning to face Harry and giving his friend his best impression of Goyle's concentration face. "Uh… first year: you saved the Stone from You-Know-Who."

"But that was luck." Harry protests, thinking that if his touch hadn't turned Quirrell to stone or if the adult had simply summoned the Stone from his pocket… "That wasn't skill –" it was dumb luck

"Second year," Ron bulldozes over his objection, "you killed the basilisk and destroyed Riddle."

"Yeah but if Fawkes hadn't turned up I –" would be dead

"Third year," Ron says louder as he drowns out Harry's objection, "you fought off about a hundred dementors at once –"

"You know that was a fluke, if the Time-Turner hadn't –" shown me I could do it and live

"Last year," Ron continues, almost shouting, "you fought off You-Know-Who again –"

"Listen to me!" Harry shouts, angry that they are now all smirking at him. "Just listen to me, all right? It sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck – I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I didn't plan any of it, I just did whatever I could think of, and I nearly always had help. I didn't have a clue what I was doing when I fought Voldemort. It's not memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something." Harry says, voice getting louder as they still fail to look convinced that he didn't know what he was doing. "The whole time there's nothing between you and dying except your own –your own brain or guts or whatever. You can't think straight when you know you're a second away from being murdered, or tortured, or watching your friends die. They've never taught us to deal with things like that in class. Don't sit there acting like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here, alive, like Diggory was stupid, like he messed up. You just don't get it! It could have been me, would have been me if –"

Harry barely notices how Ron and Hermione's faces have gone white, nor how the bowl of murtlap essence has broken on the floor from his rise to his feet somewhere during that speech.

"Sounds like you've got experience to me." Ichigo says, interrupting Harry's explanation and drawing his attention. "It might have something to do with luck, but it's also about you seeing your chances and taking them, knowing what you can do and doing it." Ichigo's eyes drill into Harry and he can see that Ichigo gets it. He can tell that the other teen has been to the brink of death, watched someone else cross it before his own eyes. Not only Ichigo, there is a true understanding in Uryu and Orihime's eyes as well, though they don't present as much of a presence as Ichigo does at the time. "That's battle. You go in with half an idea, an intent to live, and the rest is doing whatever you can to survive, to win. Sometimes others don't make it out."

Harry looks away and says softly, "You should teach us. You get this sort of thing more than I do."

"I would, but I don't have a clue about magic battles. That's why you, the guy with the most experience, should be the one to teach us. You know what it's like to be in those kinds of fights, so you take lead."

"Ichigo's right, Harry. We need to know what it's really like… facing him… facing V-Voldemort." Hermione says, stuttering over the Dark Lord's name.

Harry was surprised by Hermione's statement. It was the first time she'd ever said Voldemort's name and that, more than anything, told him that she was absolutely serious about him teaching them, that she wanted whatever meager knowledge he had to offer for protection. It also calmed out the last bit of anger at Hermione's insistence that he teach.

"Well… think about it." Hermione says quietly. "Please?"

Harry nods quietly, already feeling regret for lashing out as he did. He just didn't believe that he was the best option for teaching others to defend themselves. What if what he taught them was no good? He didn't want what little he taught them to be the reason they died.

"Well, I'm off to bed." Hermione says, trying to sound normal. "Erm… night." Orihime follows her out, giving Harry a concerned look.

"Coming?" Ron asks awkwardly, having gotten to his feet to leave.

"Yeah. In… in a minute. I'll just clean this up." Harry replies, gesturing to the spilled and broken bowl.

Ron nods and leaves, Uryu and Ichigo following after him. Ichigo gives him a pat on the shoulder as he passes.

It was the end of the second week when Umbridge came knocking on their office door.

"Come in."

Umbridge enters the shared office space of Urahara and Shinji and stares. The place looks like a mess. There are papers scattered all over. Odd devices that she cannot even guess the function of take up more space and act as paper weights. And sitting among it all are the two men as if the place wasn't a disaster. Urahara sits at one desk, tinkering with a small device, while Shinji occupies the other desk, fast asleep and drooling over the papers that acted as his pillow.

"And what do you need to discuss with us on this fine day, Umbridge-san?" Urahara asks, putting down his device and giving her a friendly smile.

"I'm afraid to inform you that one of your students has not been attending my classes." Umbridge says, going for a kindly concerned tone.

"Ah, I knew we forgot something. Yes, yes, Kurosaki-san, right? He talked with us and McGonagall-sensei about attending your classes and came to the conclusion that it's best he doesn't."

"What do you mean?" Umbridge asks. How could they conclude that a student shouldn't attend class? He had only been in her class once.

"Well, Kurosaki-san found your classroom environment off-putting and knowing that he is strong-headed and short tempered, thought that it might be best to remove himself from such an environment. His temperament would make him prone to causing disruptions in the class, thus taking away from the other students' ability to learn, so rather than make the other students suffer, we decided it would be more efficient to withdraw him from the class for self-study. No need to worry about missed learning, he's been getting the lessons and assignments from other students in your class. It's a beneficial solution for all. This isn't a problem, is it?"

Something about how Urahara posed the question made it feel more like a threat, one that made Umbridge shiver. She quickly shook off the notion. He was a teacher from some small, backwater school in Japan that had asked to see one of the greater and more prestigious schools of the western world, give some of their teachers and students a glimpse of what magical schooling could, no should really be. She would not be intimidated in the slightest by such a low-ranking person.

"And how would you know there would be a problem in the first place, might I ask? Mr. Kurosaki has only attended one class. I hardly believe that's enough to make such a judgment." Umbridge says, ready to rope the boy back into the Ministry approved curriculum.

Urahara gives her a sharp smile. "Our schooling focuses on being practical and preparing students for life after and outside of school. Part of our curriculum is to have students attend a non-magical school. It allows them to learn how to blend in with normal society and gives them skills to pursue a non-magical career should they desire to. It also exposes our students to a wider variety of teaching styles so that students can figure out the best way for them to learn. Through that part of our curriculum, Kurosaki-san has had experience with teachers whose style is similar to yours. He didn't do so well in those classes. We thought it more prudent to skip that process than repeat it."

Umbridge frowns, looking for some opening or weakness in the argument provided so far, but can't find one. The reason for Kurosaki's withdrawal: spare the class disruption, Kurosaki's education: getting lessons second-hand… Wait, that might work.

"I see. It seems you have it well in hand, but are you sure he is truly keeping up with the class?" Umbridge asks as innocently as she can. "It wouldn't do to let Mr. Kurosaki withdraw and suffer from a poor quality education because his fellow students were unable to correctly convey the lessons."

Urahara internally sighs. He had hoped that she would be too stupid to pick up on that opportunity, but such is luck. Kurosaki-san will not be happy about this. "I see your concern. Maybe he can attend your class for tests. As long as he can pass them, I'd say he's getting a good education, yes?"

"Yes. I think that will do quite nicely. Thank you for your time." Umbridge says with a small, triumphant smile. Kurosaki had not completely escaped her yet.

Ichigo did not take the news well, as expected. After he finished a rather colorful tirade against the toad and Urahara a bit too, Urahara explained why they had to give that bit of compromise and got him to understand the necessity of the evil. Ichigo still wasn't happy, but he accepted it.

It wasn't until near the end of September that Hermione brought up the independent study again while they were working in the library.

"So have you thought anymore about the idea of teaching us, Harry?"

"Well, yeah, I-I've thought about it a bit." Harry says slowly, trying to buy a bit more time. It was a lie. He'd thought about it more than a bit, nearly every day was more like it, but he still hadn't truly decided. Some days it still sounded crazy, others he was actually planning lessons with the spells he had deemed most useful.

"And?" Hermione eagerly asks, hoping for confirmation.

"I dunno." Harry says, still looking for time.

"Just say yes already." Ichigo says without looking up from his book. "I'm getting tired of Hermione trying to have us help plan the whole thing behind your back. Itai (Ow)." Uryu had hit him over the back of the head with a book.

"Tact, Kurosaki. You might want to look it up in a dictionary." Uryu says imperiously.

Harry blinks. Was Hermione that sure he'd say yes? He's not sure how to feel about that revelation.

"What plans?" Harry asks, a little afraid of the answer.

"Well, she thought we should let you teach anyone who wanted to learn, not just us." Orihime explains as Hermione had hidden her face behind her book in embarassment when Ichigo had brought up her plotting. "I think it's a good idea. It would be mean to not let others have a chance to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts in a real class."

"Yeah, but would anyone else want to learn from me? I'm supposed to be a nutter, remember?" Harry asks, barely even noticing that he's practically agreed to at least teach their small group.

"I think you'd be surprised about how many people would be interested in what you have to say." Hermione says seriously, having come up from behind her book. She leans in and the others follow suit, knowing that things are turning more secretive. "Look, you know the first weekend in October is a Hogsmeade weekend? How would it be if we tell anyone who's interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over?"

"Why do we have to do it outside of the school?" Ron asks.

"Because we're defying Umbridge," Uryu replies as they all dip back into their seats, "and it's best we don't get caught."

"Where are we going anyway?" Harry asks as the group walks through Hogsmeade. "The Three Broomsticks?" He hadn't been privy to much more planning than confirming that he was willing to teach, so he had no idea where they would be meeting with the other students who were interested.

"No, no, it's always packed and really noisy. I've told the others to meet us in the little clearing in the forest across the road from the Shrieking Shack. Ichigo and Uryu said they could put up a barrier of some sort that will keep us from being seen or heard after everyone's gathered." Hermione answered.

Unbeknownst to Hermione, Ichigo and Uryu had lied. Neither one of them could make a barrier like that, but Urahara and Shinji could and would be making the barrier. The only reason they didn't mention the two elder shinigami was because Urahara said it was best to keep their involvement secret as a precaution in case the club was found out and persecuted by Umbridge and the Ministry. They needed to be able to stay as long as necessary to take care of their assigned task, so discretion was the better option.

"Are you sure that barrier will hide us?" Harry asks having never heard of something like that.

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Barriers like that are meant to hide things from people way more perceptive" and way, way more powerful, "than the toad. They're not easy to take down when you're not the caster either." Ichigo says, completely calm. It wouldn't be anything like the barrier Hachi made for his vizard training, but it would still work well enough.

"Yes, well it's not like she could stop us anyways, Harry, because I've double- and triple-checked the school rules." Hermione explains. "We're not out-of-bounds as we're still in Hogsmeade, just out of sight of the road. And I've looked up everything I can think of about study groups and homework groups and they're definitely allowed. I just don't think it's a good idea if we parade what we're doing."

"No," Harry says dryly, "especially since it's not exactly a homework group you're planning, is it?"

"Well. Here we are." Hermione says, having led them down a short, barely there trail. The clearing was small, not much bigger than a one-person bedroom, but there were a couple of old felled trees sitting in a ring on which they could seat themselves along with some of the stumps.

"Are you sure the others will find us?" Orihime asks. "The trail wasn't very well marked."

"They should be able to." Hermione replies, a bit of doubt creeping into her voice.

"Don't worry, Uryu's waiting near the road. If he sees any of them looking lost he'll guide them in." Ichigo says.

"So who did you say was supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asks, wishing he had a drink or something to do with his hands.

"Just a couple of people." Hermione says distractedly, looking towards the trail for others before checking her watch. "I told them to be here about now and Ichigo did say Uryu's waiting for them." A soft crunch of dried leaves can be heard. "That must be them now –"

Out from among the trees strides Uryu, followed by a small crowd of people. There's Neville with Dean and Lavender, closely followed by the Patil twins with Cho and one of her friends. Luna came ghosting in after them, looking as dreamily lost as ever. Behind her were the Gryffindor Chasers –Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson– followed by the Creevey brothers. Then came Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, and another girl from Hufflepuff with a long braid that Harry didn't know the name of. There were three boys from Ravenclaw –Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot. Ginny was followed closely by a tall, skinny, blond boy whom Harry was fairly sure played Quidditch for Hufflepuff. Lastly there was Fred and George with Lee Jordan, all three carrying Zonko's bags stuffed to the brim with purchases from the joke shop.

"A couple of people?" Harry asks in hoarse shock. "A couple of people?"

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular." Hermione says with happy satisfaction. "Everyone just take a seat wherever."

Harry watched numbly as the large chattering group took seats on stumps and the fallen trees. As they got settled, Uryu and Ichigo nodded to each other and made some fancy hand signals resulting in a golden-orange cube rising up around the clearing. There was shocked chatter as the barrier went up and Harry felt much the same.

"What's this?" asked Ginny with honest curiosity. Many of the others gave the glowing box less than trusting looks.

"It's a barrier." Uryu explains. "It will keep people outside from seeing or hearing what's going on in here."

"It looks pretty visible to me." Neville says nervously.

"That's 'cause we're inside it." Ichigo says. "You can see it from the inside but not the outside." People nod and give 'oh's of understanding, though some still look confused or show skepticism for the barrier.

While people were inquiring about the barrier, Harry was still panicking about how many people had showed up. He couldn't believe how many people had showed up nor imagine why they had showed up, until it occurred to him that they might be expecting a speech of some sort from him.

Harry rounded on Hermione. "What have you been telling people?" Harry urgently whispers. "What are they expecting?"

"I've told you, they just want to hear what you have to say." Hermione reassured him, only getting a pointed glare of anger. That told him absolutely nothing about their expectations. "You don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first."

Soon all the attendees were seated and silence descended. All eyes were on Harry, waiting for him to speak.

"Er…" Hermione says, voice raised by nerves. "Well… er, hi." She successfully draws attention away from Harry, though they still glance at him. "Well… erm… well, you know why you're here. Erm… well, Harry here had the idea –I mean" Harry had given her a pointed glare and an elbow to the side "I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us," Hermione's voice was gaining strength and confidence as she continued, "because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts"

"Hear, hear" says Anthony Goldstein, heartening Hermione with his encouragement.

"…well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." Hermione pauses, looking to Harry to make sure that he's approving of what she's said so far since he will end up being the one in charge, and goes on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells –"

"You want to pass you Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" Michael Corner says, watching her closely and looking for any sign of deceit.

"Of course I do." Hermione quickly replies. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because… because…" Hermione takes a deep breath, preparing to drop the bombshell. "Because Lord Voldemort's back."

The reaction was swift and predictable. Students jumped and twitched and gasped. Ichigo snorted at their reactions. It was just a name, not the actual person. Wimps. And yet all eyes eagerly looked to Harry, causing an idea to begin forming in Harry's mind.

"Well… that's the plan anyways." Hermione says, finished explaining why they were making the group. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to –"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" the blonde Hufflepuff player asks rather aggressively, causing Ichigo to push off the wall of the barrier that he'd been leaning on. If he wanted to cause trouble, Ichigo could give him a different reason to want to learn Defense than Moldy-more.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it –" Hermione begins to explain.

"You mean Dumbledore believes him." Blondie replies, nodding at Harry.

"If you knew the answer already, why did you ask?" Uryu inquires, ready to stop the boy from derailing the purpose of the meeting.

"Doesn't matter. If you don't like that for a reason, I'm sure I can give you several others, Blondie." Ichigo says, cracking his knuckles.

"It's not Blondie, I'm Zacharias Smith." He says, slightly pale from the threat. "And I just think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"And why the hell does it matter if there's one more psychopath in the world? This isn't about I-Don't-Care- Who, it's about –"

"It's okay, Ichigo." Harry says, trying to leash the other's temper. Harry had figured out why so many came because of Zacharias. One of them should have seen this coming. Hermione should have seen it coming, she was the smart one. They wanted to hear his first-hand account of what happened that night in the graveyard. Well too bad for them.

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" Harry repeated, looking Zacharias in the eye, half wishing he could pull off the same kind of intimidation Ichigo could so that Zacharias would get how serious this was to him. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you don't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

Silence reigned and Harry had the vague impression that the other students were hanging on to his every word.

Zacharias dismissively replies, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know –"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone, I can't help you." Harry vehemently replies, his short temper igniting. "I don't want to talk about Cedric DIggory, alright?" Harry says, avoiding looking at Cho. He doesn't want to see the pain in her eyes at the mention of her dead boyfriend. "So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out." Harry doesn't think about how they'd clear out when inside a magical barrier, but he doesn't really care either.

To Harry's surprise not a single person had even left their seat. Not even Zacharias, though he still glared at Harry, unconvinced.

"So," Hermione says, voice high again from nerves. "So… like I was saying… if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to –"

"Is it true," the Hufflepuff girl with the braid interrupts, looking at Harry, "That you can produce a Patronus?"

Interested murmurs go around the group at this.

"Yeah." Harry replies defensively, expecting her to pick on him like Zacharias.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

Harry suddenly got the strange sense of deja-vu from her line of questioning.

"Er… you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" Harry asks her on a hunch.

She smiles at him. "She's my auntie. I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So… it's really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes." Harry says, feeling a good deal more comfortable knwoing that she's not picking on him.

"Blimey, Harry!" Lee says, looking quite impressed with the feat. "I didn't know you could do that!"

And that started a confirmation of the amazing feats that Harry had achieved: saving the Sorcerer's Stone, killing the basilisk, and finishing the Triwizard tournament. It left Harry both pleased and dismayed that they thought so highly of him, but he still had to tell them the truth, even if Cho's praise made him second guess telling them.

"Look," Harry says, gaining immediate silence as the others listen, "I… I don't want it to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but … I had a lot of help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon, you didn't. That was a seriously cool bit of flying…" Michael praises.

"Yeah, well –" Harry says, knowing he can't disagree, but still trying to convey the idea that he had help.

"And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer." Susan adds.

"No." Harry says, realizing that they were not going to buy his story of 'having help saves the day.' "No, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is –"

"Are you trying to weasel your way out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacharias asks.

"Here's an idea," Ron loudly says before Harry can form his own response, "why don't you shut your mouth?" Ron wasn't exactly happy with the guy's pompous attitude or how he was going after Harry.

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it." Zacharias argues, face flushed.

"Why don't you shut up and actually listen?" Ichigo asks, also fed up with Zacharias.

"We could clean your ears out for you." George offers, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument form one of the Zonko's bags. Ichigo grins and holds a hand out, George grins back as he places the dangerous item into the other's hand.

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this." Fred says, a grin matching his twin's on his face. Ichigo skillfully twirls the metal contraption and points the sharp end of it at Zacharias to emphasize the point.

"Yes, well, moving on…" Hermione quickly says, trying to curb the impending violence. Ichigo is dangerous enough bare-handed, she really doesn't want to see what happens when he has a weapon. Why would the twins do that?! "The point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a general murmur of agreement, though Harry notices that Zacharias stayed silent, probably because he was too busy watching the instrument in Ichigo's hand, making sure the other didn't bring it anywhere near him.

"Right." Hermione says, pleased that they have settled at least one of the details of forming the group. "Well then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week –"

This led to a small argument as the attendees who were also Quidditch players expressed concerns of conflict of interests. Ernie was quick to point out how important it was they have the meetings with Umbridge being forced upon them by the Ministry in her useless capacity, which nobody argued, leading to Hermione revealing the paranoia of the Ministry and then getting into an argument with Luna over Fudge's possible, but highly improbable, private army, made worse by Neville and Orihime seemingly buying into Luna's wild idea. Ginny got them back on track before the argument could drag out and it was decided that they would meet once a week on a night that was convenient for all.

"Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet..." Hermione says, leaving it open for suggestions.

The group is silent as they try to come up with something. It was a more difficult proposition than what it seemed.

"Library?" Katie suggests after a few moments.

"I doubt we would be allowed to use such magic in the library." Uryu replies, having seen the librarian harshly go after first years for less combative spell work in her domain.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" Dean offers.

"Yeah," Ron agrees, "McGonagall might let us have hers. She did when Harry was practicing for the Triwizard…"

Harry shook his head. He doubted she would give them access because as much as Hermione said this group wasn't against the rules, it was much too rebellious against what Umbridge stood for. McGonagall was encouraging Harry to keep his head low, so he didn't think she'd help them with something like this.

"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere." Hermione says. "We'll send a message around to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting." She then pulled a parchment and quill from her bag, hesitating as if she wasn't sure if she should continue or not, but a small nod from Uryu encourages her to go through with it.

"I-I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think," she swallows, "that we shouldn't shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge, or anybody else, what we're up to."

The twins and the Karakura group easily pen their names on the parchment, but most of the others look unimpressed with the idea of an incriminating object like that existing. It took a bit of reassuring from Hermione that she wouldn't leave it just laying around before the rest signed, Cho's friend looking particularly unhappy about it. After the last of them had signed it, Hermione tucked the parchment in her bag. The group now had the odd feeling of being under contract.

"Well, time's ticking on." Fred says briskly, getting to his feet. "George, Lee, and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."

Ichigo nods and snaps his fingers, the barrier shattering around them. With the barrier gone, everyone starts leaving in twos and threes until only Ichigo, Uryu, Orihime, Ron, Hermione, and Harry are left.

"Well, I think that went quite well." Hermione says happily.

Author's Note

And now the DA has begun its formation. Urahara and Shinji were there, just invisible like when Urahara, Isshin, and Rukia snuck up to stab Ichigo and restore his powers. I also did a scene where Umbridge tries to get Ichigo back into brainwashing class, as if that'd work. I also worked in a glimpse of why the Ministry allowed them to go to Hogwarts. Urahara's a smart man, so he got them in without revealing any strong ties to Dumbledore and appealed to their ego instead. He can also talk circles around Umbridge, as if you expected anything less.

Please comment/review to tell me how I did.