"Is there anything we should prepare ourselves for in this book? You mentioned the last few chapters being a bit hectic, but can you give us any hints?" Mrs Weasley asked.
"Well, we can tell you that George and Fred are probably going to hate us after the we've finished the book for keeping something a secret," Ron said. "And you'll probably not be pleased about something else we kept secret."
"You mean that you kept secret. We thought you'd told her," Hermione corrected him.
"And I still say that you'd have to be mental to tell her that. And, you know, I assumed Dumbledore had told you this summer. But then I realised I never heard an explosion, so he didn't tell you," Ron said, switching his attention between Hermione and his mum.
"Also, you're going to find out something about me and dementors, and I ask you to please not pity me," Harry added after downing his potion with a grimace.
"What?" Tonks asked.
"I get a very up close and personal experience with Dementors," multiple times, but that was irrelevant, "and you'll find out what memory they make me relive," Harry explained.
"What do they make you relive?" Lee asked. "I mean, I've gathered you have a lot of bad memories, but what's bad enough that it makes you faint?"
"Um, it's not one you've really heard about in the books. I didn't remember it until after the Dementors really brought it out of my subconscious," Harry said slowly, before turning his attention to his food, making it extremely clear that he wasn't answering any more questions about that.
"How up close and personal are you talking?" Bill asked.
"Well, they got extremely close during the first Quidditch match," Ron said.
"No kidding. They made him faint while on his broom," Fred said.
"You fainted while on your broom?" Mrs Weasley asked, concerned. "What happened?"
"He fell more than fifty feet. Dumbledore was able to slow his fall, but it still looked like he was dead," George said.
"Were you alright dear?"
"I was fine. I just woke up in my bed in the infirmary, had to eat a lot of chocolate, and found out I needed a new broom," Harry said.
"Why?" Charlie asked. "Did something happen to your broom when you fell off it?"
"It was blown into the Whomping Willow," Harry said with a small grimace, even though he was pleased that the subject had been changed, meaning they didn't have to elaborate and explain that he had gotten even closer to Dementors than the day of the Quidditch match. "That day of that match wasn't exactly clear skies and a small wind."
"Understatement," all the students said. That had been the worst weather a Quidditch game had been played in at Hogwarts in centuries – normally they were lucky enough for the weather to be good for a game.
"Ok," Mr Weasley said after a few seconds. "Is there anything else we should be prepared for?"
"These two fighting all year," Harry said, nodding towards Ron and Hermione, who were sitting opposite him.
"Hey, we had reason to fight," Ron said.
"Yeah, I know. But you were still fighting for a lot of the year," Harry said. "And I was honestly thinking our friendship was going to be broken right after we'd made up over the incident that happened over Christmas."
"Really? Things got that bad?" Mrs Weasley asked, concerned.
"Yeah," Neville said. "I'm pretty sure the whole class was concerned that they wouldn't make up. And not just because Harry was involved – all three of them work best when they're working together."
"Blood rat," Ron grumbled. He still hated the fact that it was Wormtail faking his death that caused their friendship to almost end. But it wouldn't have been the first friendship that the rat had torn apart; at least their friendship hadn't ended, and especially hadn't ended in death, betrayal, and false imprisonment.
"Anything else?" Mrs Weasley asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Um, not that I can think of," Harry said.
"I can't think of anything," Hermione agreed. Ron, however, grimaced.
"Um, yeah. Halloween and after the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw match."
"They don't know about that?" Hermione asked in shock.
"Didn't the school tell them?" Harry asked.
"I'm pretty sure they don't know. We didn't get any panicky letters from them asking if we're ok. Especially after the match," Ron said.
"And none of you told them?" Harry asked.
"I didn't. It slipped my mind after everything else that happened that year, and then when I remembered it didn't seem relevant," Ron said. The trio turned to the twins and Ginny.
"Did you tell them about what happened on Halloween and after the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw match?" Hermione asked.
"No. I assumed one of them would have told them. Especially Ron after the match," Ginny said, shaking her head.
"We thought Percy told them," Fred said quickly, George nodding his agreement.
"Lovely," Harry said sarcastically.
"Ron's right then. Halloween and after the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw match are definitely something you should prepare yourselves for. We've already marked those chapters as getting a calming draught though," Hermione said.
"What happened?" Tonks asked.
"You know, I think we'll leave that to the books to explain. Don't want to ruin the surprise," Ron said, Hermione and Harry nodding their agreement. "It's nothing extremely terrible."
"Except for you almost getting stabbed," Neville said dryly. Ron winced – it would definitely seem worse to Neville, Lee, and Luna than to the rest of their group since they didn't know Sirius was innocent. Then again, he was pretty sure his mum would still want to hex Sirius for that, regardless of the fact that he was innocent.
"Yeah. Except for that," Ron agreed.
"You were almost stabbed?" Mrs Weasley shrieked.
"Um, I was fine?" Ron offered.
"Oh, Neville, you remember our first Defence class of third year?" Harry asked, doing his best to get the attention off Ron and the fact that he hadn't mentioned to his parents that Sirius Black had broken into the common room, gotten into their dormitory, and he had woken up to Sirius standing over his bed holding a knife. Neville snorted.
"Kind of hard to forget that Harry."
"True. Well, it's the next chapter."
"Really?" Neville asked.
"Yeah. The chapter's named after it and everything," Harry confirmed.
"That's brilliant. And everyone will get to hear exactly what happened. The rumours around the school really didn't do it justice," Dean said, leaning in from a few seats over, showing that he had been unashamedly eavesdropping.
"That really was one of the best Defence lessons we've ever had, but most of that year were pretty awesome. Only the lessons we get this year, starting earlier this month, have been anywhere near as good," Seamus added.
"Lessons with Umbridge are as good as the ones you had in third year?" Remus asked sceptically.
"Who said anything about the pink toad who thinks she's a professor?" Lee asked.
"But the lesson we've had, starting earlier this month are extremely good. We've learnt so many defensive things in the past month," Seamus said.
"I'd say best teacher we've had. Nothing against you, Professor Lupin," Dean said. Harry flushed.
"Shut up," he hissed.
"Sorry for telling the truth mate," Dean said.
"It's not our fault that our new teacher is so good," Seamus said.
"Shut up or I'll turn you into targets for next meeting," Harry hissed. That got them to shut up. Being targets didn't hurt or anything, but it was annoying, and no one wanted to be a target; being a target at the meeting simply meant you were the one who he demonstrated the spell on, meaning he hexed or jinxed you in some way; he insisted that seeing how the spell worked on a human was a better way to see what they were aiming for than seeing it on a dummy.
It wasn't that bad when they were learning expelliarmus or shields, but it got annoying when he was demonstrating a stunning spell or some other spell that made them fall over – even if he covered the ground in cushions, it was never fun to freefall backwards onto the ground – and it made it a bit more difficult to see what he was doing, since you could only see him demonstrate it on the other target, rather than both. Harry always chose the two people, normally those who had annoyed him most at the last meeting, to be the targets for his demonstration, and it was never the same two people two meetings in a row; Hermione and Ron had even ended up targets the last meeting.
"Shutting up now," Dean said quickly, and Seamus nodded his agreement; their quick reactions got the other DA members around them to laugh at them.
"What are you talking about? Targets? Next meeting?" Bill asked.
"Sorry, can't tell you that," Hermione said.
"Secret. You understand how these things are," Ron agreed.
"You'll find out when we read the book about this year anyway," Harry added.
"You three are no fun," Tonks grumbled. The trio just grinned at her, not having time to reply as Dumbledore chose that moment to ask them to stand and vanish the tables, bringing back the comfortable seating. Once everyone was seated and comfortable again, Filius started the next chapter.
The Boggart in the Wardrobe
The Gryffindor fifth years did their best to hide their laughter as they remembered the lesson the chapter was named after, the rest of the school looking at them in confusion – the rumours that had circulated really hadn't given much detail other than Snape being forced into drag – not understanding why a title would make them all laugh. No one was able to ask them though, since the chapter started reading, regardless of the fifth year Gryffindors still laughing quietly.
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A.N. Hey guys. I originally had a lot of ideas for this story, and I still do, but at the moment I'm struggling to get my thought and ideas down onto the page. I'm going to take a short break from working on this story, so I don't know when the next update will be. Sorry.
