Chapter 7 – Of Quidditch teams and DA schemes.

"I want to thank all the people who made this meeting necessary" Yogi Berra

Harry couldn't believe that the first week went by so fast. His week had been admittedly boring. In classes they had mostly done the reviewing, which meant going over things again and again.

Defence was completely knew, with the way it has been split between Theory, Practical and Physical. Harry wondered at Malfoy's sudden quietness. Was it because his father was in prison that he didn't say anything? It certainly seemed that way. Now that Lucius Malfoy was locked up, Malfoy seemed to have lost his edge. With no father to back him up whenever he needed to threaten anyone, had he decided to keep his mouth shut? Malfoy wasn't the type to let all opportunities slide. Especially when it came to ridiculing Harry and his friends. He never made any nasty comments, especially in Lupin's class.

Nor did he complain about all the things Killian made them do. Harry would have thought that rolling around the ground like a common muggle would have been him. Especially since Dean, a known muggleborn, was the one who did most of the demonstrations in class.

But Malfoy didn't complain. He went along with everything Killian said, without complaining, and performed reasonably well.

Harry didn't know what to make of Malfoy's new behaviour, glad though he was. He was uneasy about it of course, and always kept a wary eye on him whenever the Slytherin was near.

Harry was snapped out of his musings when he saw Katie take off- he was currently in the middle of Quidditch tryouts. They had already chosen their Chasers. Along with Katie, Neville and Ginny were chosen as Chasers. With a little extra practice they could become a very good team. Perhaps not as good as Angelina and Alicia were as a team, but they worked well together, and they didn't really have any problems with each other.

To his surprise Seamus has also turned up to tryout for Beater. Although he was nervous to start off with, they saw he had a strong arm, but his aim could do with some work. In the end they decided that Ian Baxter, a fourth year was perfect as the second Beater, a very strong flyer, and a very strong hitter.

After tryouts Harry and Katie referred with each other, and decided who got what position. They announced the players immediately and dismissed the hopefuls, who left with disappointed sighs.

Before he walked back to the other players, he took Katie to one side and talked about an idea that had occurred to him whilst watching the tryouts. Katie didn't look too enthusiastic, but at least didn't dismiss the idea out of hand, and finally agreed to give it a try. However, they didn't say anything about it until they had their first practice.

The year was going quite smoothly so far. No fights between Slytherin and Gryffindor, yet, although Snape was getting as worse as ever, taking off points for reasons unknown according those still attending his classes. They were learning more in Defence than ever, no thanks to Umbridge, they had to do more homework for the whole of last year, but at least they were learning something.

This thought brought forth the DA to mind. Hermione had been bugging him about setting up meetings since September, but Harry kept putting it off trying to get a routine sorted first. Finally decided to set one up for the weekend.

So, Sunday afternoon found Harry, flanked by Ron, Neville, Luna, Hermione and Ginny in the Room of Requirement, waiting for the rest of the DA to turn up.

"Everyone here?" They all looked around and nodded. He took a deep breath and wondered what he about to do would work. They were going to get a right shock. "All right, first off, thank you everyone for coming. I appreciate you lot for coming, and for giving up your time, but coming here was completely unnecessary," he stopped to look around at the confused faces. "Just hand in your coins to Hermione, the DA has been disbanded," he finished. He looked around expectantly at the bewildered faces.

Five seconds later the room exploded in protests, each louder than the last.
"But Harry," Hermione said after the noise died down, "you said we could continue with the DA this year."

"Use your memory Hermione, think back. Did I once, just once, say that I had any plans for the DA?" Harry argued.

Hermione fell silent and thought hard. Finally, shaking her head, she said, "No, Harry, you didn't."

"No I didn't. It was all your idea. You were the one who kept bombarding me with lots of information and new spells. You decided everything without even finding out whether I had any intentions of going further with the DA." He turned to the rest of the room, "You can either hand your coins in to Hermione or you can keep them as souvenirs. I don't care. If you want to keep the DA going, you're welcome to, but I refuse to teach you."

At Harry's least words the room erupted in protests again.

"But why?" Hermione asked.

"Simply put, I refuse to teach a bunch of cowards."

"Harry, if you don't teach us, then who's going to help us learn to fight Voldemort's Death Eaters?" He turned around to see Neville staring at him intently. He swore he saw Neville's lips twitch a little.

"Like I said, I refuse to teach a bunch of cowards, although you're welcome to join me for extra studying. However, I don't see why I should waste time teaching people who can't even say one man's name."

Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, the students got the idea of what Harry wanted them to do. But 20 minutes had passed before everyone had stuttered Voldemort at least once. Harry then explained the meaning behind the name Voldemort, and told them the story of the boy called Tom Riddle.

Harry moved on. "Before we carry on, I'd like to say a few more things. First of all, I want to make it clear. We are not fighting Voldemort. We are fighting for Hogwarts. Protecting Hogwarts is our main aim, along with defending against Death Eaters." He looked around to see all eyes on him.

"To protect Hogwarts, we need to work together from the inside. That means all the houses, even Slytherin," he said quietly. "I know that Slytherin don't have a good reputation, but that does not mean that they are all bad," Harry continued, raising his voice over the noise. "I know what you think. That all Slytherins are untrustworthy. But that's not true, not to mention unfair. By alienating Slytherins, you are already handing Voldemort his first few supporters. Killian was right; everyone will be involved in this war, one way or another. Anyone who dares oppose Voldemort will end up dead. But isn't it better to die fighting for what is right, rather than taking the easy way out by standing aside and doing nothing? We need Slytherins in our group, even one will do. They need to know that there are more options available to them. WE fight for Hogwarts, and leave Voldemort to the one who meant to fight him. All I'm teaching you is survive in a battle. The Slytherins should get that chance as well. I repeat not all Slytherins are bad."

Harry paused to see if his words were making any impact. He saw many doubtful faces. He knew it would be an uphill struggle to erase all the prejudice that had accumulated over the years, but he was also very determined, not to mention very stubborn as well.

"You heard the Sorting Hat. Hogwarts will crumble if we don't become one house instead of four. And I need I remind you that not all Slytherins become Death Eaters. Death Eaters have come from other houses," he said this looking pointedly at Ron who ducked his head to avoid Harry's gaze.

Harry knew that most people would think of Sirius the traitor who came from Gryffindor, who betrayed the Potters. But Harry couldn't dissuade them from thinking about Sirius like that. After Sirius did come from a family like the pureblood fanatics such as the Blacks. But he would find a way to prove Sirius' innocence.

"I think we'll end the meeting for now, and start something more next meeting. Any problems just come see Hermione or me."

Harry saw Marietta's face turn red. The word "sneak" was still on her face, covered heavily with make-up. Harry decided to have a word with Hermione to fix that hex. He was Marietta had learned her lesson by now. Harry had been angry last year when he found they had been betrayed, but he reluctantly understood that Marietta was only trying to protect her mother's position in the Ministry. Even Harry had believed Umbridge held more power than she truly did.

Everyone turned to leave when they froze at the door. Harry looked towards the sounds of the students and felt like the stomach dropped out of his stomach. He had just broken many school rules, right in front of the teacher without realising.

Professor Killian was floating four feet above the ground, with her legs crossed Indian style, her chin cradled on her fists, her elbows resting on her knees, her black robes flowing underneath.

She was smirking and looked at their horrified faces, extremely amused.

"Don't tell me the meeting's over already. I thought it was getting really interesting."

Everyone looked at her with a cross between awe at her floating body, and horror at being discovered after only their first meeting. They had lasted at least six months when Umbridge was here.

Killian gracefully unfolded her les and let her feet touch the floor. She had long graceful legs, and her height topped slightly over six feet.

She settled down lazily in a comfortably cushioned chair right behind her, and looked around at everyone in amusement.

No one said a word. He didn't think anyone dared. He wondered how she stood, sorry floated there, and exactly how much she had heard. How exactly did she get in? And why hadn't he noticed her floating behind everyone?

"I was walking along the corridors when I saw this door that wasn't there previously," she started conversationally. "Not knowing whether anyone was actually inside or not I decided to wait and see if someone opened this door, either from the inside or outside, it didn't matter. So I made myself unnoticeable and decided to wait. Barely two minutes had passed when a few students walked by and headed straight for the door. I saw my opportunity and slipped in unnoticed and waited for the …meeting… to start. Now, as soon as I heard the words "the DA" I knew that this wasn't an authorised meeting, and that no teacher had was aware of it. All teachers were regaled with the stories of the DA, the club drove the Headmaster out of Hogwarts, not to mention the rebellion against a certain Defence teacher."

Harry knew his face looked guilty, and he didn't have to look around to see that many others would too. They didn't care about Umbridge, they never would. But Dumbledore had to take the blame for the DA, which was unfair especially when he wasn't aware of its existence.

She paused to look around at the silent guilty students.

"Now, I understand the need for the club last year when that woman teaching lacked certain vital information," Harry saw many struggling to keep their faces straight, "but this year there are better instructors than our predecessor."

Harry knew that as an Order member Killian would probably report this back to Dumbledore. But he also knew that Dumbledore would agree for the DA to continue on the condition that it be opened to all students. He didn't think he could handle everything, especially with people who thought they could challenge him because they thought he wasn't a suitable teacher. The group now was quite large, even without last years seventh years, was still quite manageable. And maybe he would open the group to more students, but not yet. His plan was to teach the old members, who would then teach the younger students what they could.

"As I can tell by the looks on your faces this is not exactly a legit club. All clubs must be supervised, if not authorised by a member of staff. For some reason you want to keep this club a secret. Is that right?"

"Yes, Professor," Harry said quietly.

"Especially from the Headmaster," she smirked.

She'd said it as a statement rather than a question but Harry still answered with a "Yes Professor."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't report this," Killian said.

Harry felt a little hope at her words, and thought fast. Everyone was quiet, deciding to let Harry handle this. An idea came to him, but before he could say anything Killian said, "Sit down everyone. No point in standing up, who knows how long this could take."

At her words chairs similar to her own appeared and everyone looked around at each other's faces before they reluctantly took a seat. Grateful for the support for his trembling legs, Harry sat down as well.

"You see Professor, we originally started this club because we didn't think we could pass our exams with Umbridge teaching us." Harry heard many snorts behind him.

"That was last year. What's wrong this year?"

"This year, since everyone has been made aware of Voldemort's return we thought it best to do some extra training. And I think all students should be given a chance to defend themselves. But we're already a fairly large group already. Fudge is still angry because he's probably lost a good bit of authority over the public already. He was forced to believe what Dumbledore and I have been saying, but it took him and others a whole year to realise. That doesn't mean he's going to co-operate with us. He probably still thinks that we're trying to raise an army, which might be true, but we're only fighting to keep Hogwarts protected. Fudge will think, like last year, that we're fighting for Dumbledore to throw him out of the ministry. We named the DA Dumbledore's Army last year as joke, but that joke ended up costing the school. If anyone catches wind of the DA at the ministry, and word gets back to Fudge, he'll do anything to start his campaign to discredit Dumbledore and me again. We don't want a repeat of last year."

Killian smirked at him as if she didn't fully believe him, but wouldn't say anything otherwise.

"No club can be formed without the supervision, or at least the authorisation of a member of the staff. Since you obviously have neither, this must be reported to the Headmaster and other members of staff."

Harry's heart sank as the others looked around at each other in dismay.

"What are your main aims for this club?" she asked suddenly.

"To defend Hogwarts and all it's students, and to defend ourselves, and to unite all houses," he answered promptly.

She looked at him for what seemed a long time and after a while said, "How about we strike a deal. I won't tell anyone about your club, and I'll authorise it for you. If by some chance someone else finds out, then you can tell them that you have my permission for it. But only if you agree by my conditions."

She paused waiting for his response.

"What are they?" he asked, willing to listen and trust Killian.

"First of all, about this room. From what I gather you were discovered by students and by other teachers, last year. That makes this room unsafe for you. I know of an unused room big enough to hold twice your size near the Defence classrooms. Because it's near our office, you can pretend that you're coming to see me for help or something.

"My other conditions include knowing any members who join. Which means I want copy of your lists. I also want an update of progress every so often and I can pop in your meetings any time I want to see how it's going. Otherwise I'll leave you well enough alone. If you need and help, any equipment or anything, ask me and I'll do anything to acquire it for you, within reason."

"That's all?" Hermione asked.

"That's all."

She waited for his answer. She wasn't asking for much. He could ask her for a bit of guidance when he needed help. If they go found out then he could honestly say that they were authorised by a teacher.

"We agree, Professor."

"Good, what's your method of communication?"

Harry dug out his coin and silently handed to Killian. She levitated the coin and twirled it around examining both sides.

"It's enchanted with a Protean Charm Professor," Hermione explained. "Harry has the main coin, and whenever he changes the number, the other coins warm up and the numbers change to the date and time."

Killian nodded. As soon as the coin touched her palm her shoulders tensed and her eyes, usually gold, turned mercury silver. There were many gasps around them as they saw her eyes change. They had all heard that it was her visions that had helped save them all in the train disaster, not to mention when she saw the Death Eater attack, but they hadn't ever seen a person in a vision before. Harry waited with baited breath for the vision to end.

Finally she snapped out of it and her eyes turned as gold as the galleon in her hand. She looked around to see everyone staring at her.

"Relax, I just saw a few memories." Her grin widened at their confused expressions. "A vision doesn't always have to be of the future. A vision can contain memories of the past. Seers are sensitive people, and when there is a lot emotion involved, we can see memories when we touch something related to that emotion. We can also see auras and determine whether a person is trustworthy or not. And we can also see through lies. So bear in mind, never lie near a Seer. Here you go Potter. From the memories I saw you've done a good job training them. I'd like a coin as well, so I can be aware when and how often you meet. If only to run interference if the need arises. Oh, and were you serious about adding a few students from Slytherin in your group?" she asked as an afterthought.

He nodded and said "Yes Professor."

"Did you need help with that? Or did you already have some students in mind?"

"We'd appreciate your help Professor. I don't have anyone in mind really."

"I'll see what I can do about it."

With that she walked out without looking back.

"Do you think she won't really tell anyone?" Hermione asked.

"No, I don't think she will," said Harry staring after her.

In fact Harry thought she'd be a bigger help than they could imagine.