Harry woke up dazed and confused. At least he thought he had woken up, he couldn't be sure. He had dreamt so incredibly vividly he couldn't be sure he wasn't still dreaming. Then he remembered that they had been actual memories rather than dreams. Thinking back, he was startled to realize he could remember almost everything about it, although one dream – no, memory – seemed off somehow. So deep in thought he was, he hadn't noticed Madam Pomfrey walking up to him.
"Good morning, Mr Potter. Are you feeling well?" the Matron asked.
Harry shook his head to clear the cobwebs, he was feeling quite strange. Maybe he just wasn't used to sleeping a full night anymore.
"Oh, yes, I'm fine," he eventually responded.
"In that case, the Headmaster has requested you see him in his office. Breakfast will be provided for you there. You know where the showers are," she added, taking in his sweaty pyjamas. Harry noticed that as well, clearly, he had been sweating quite a lot during the night, which would explain how thirsty he was.
After finishing his morning ablutions he made his way to the Headmaster's Office, which he entered to see a full breakfast waiting already.
"Ah, good morning Harry!" The headmaster greeted. "Please, enjoy this breakfast with me. How are you feeling?"
"Strange," Harry answered distractedly for he had just seen that the toast had little lightning bolts on it. He shook his head in embarrassment, and asked: "Dobby?"
The Headmaster chuckled and inclined his head. "Indeed. And yes, I would expect you to feel strange after the night you've had. Now, let us discuss what you've seen over breakfast. What are your thoughts on what you saw?"
Harry thought about it while nibbling on his toast. "The woman in the shack was Voldemort's mother?"
"Yes, Merope Gaunt."
Harry sipped some of his pumpkin juice. He tried to think chronologically but the memories all flowed through one another. But two stuck out, the one he thought felt wrong and the one of Dumbledore meeting with a young Tom Riddle in the orphanage.
"Sir, when you first met Voldemort, did you know then?" he asked curiously.
"That I had met a boy that would grow up to be one of the darkest wizards to have ever existed? I did not. I did decide to keep a close eye on him because of some of his tendencies. Can you guess which troubled me?"
Harry quickly relived the memory. "He was already using magic to make people do what he wanted," Harry guessed correctly. "Whats-her-name said the other children were afraid of him."
"Indeed. Like I said yesterday, all these memories are crucially important in the fight against him. There are two other very important personality traits on show in that memory. First of all, his dismissal of my offered help with his school books. He was by then already an einzelgänger, someone who prefers to work and be alone. Voldemort has never felt the need for friends, even if some of his followers might believe they are. In the end, he works alone and only for his own gain. Secondly, as you saw, he was taking things from the other children. What do you think about that?"
Harry took his time to think and eat some of his bacon and scrambled eggs. "I don't see Voldemort as someone who would care for material possessions," he thought aloud. "As far as I've seen, he cares only about power."
"I agree with that personalisation," Dumbledore nodded, "but sometimes an act is about something other than the act itself. I would suggest that a young Tom Riddle wasn't taking these objects out of material want, but rather as a symbol of his power over those who he took it from."
"And how is that important?" Harry questioned.
"What did you think of the Slughorn memory?" the Headmaster countered.
"Something seemed off with it," responded Harry, not sure why the Headmaster didn't answer his question.
"Correct, the memory has been tampered with."
"Because of that, what was it? Horcrux? The thing Voldemort asked about. That's when the memory turned funny."
"It certainly seems so." Dumbledore sighed deeply. "Are you finished with your breakfast, Harry? I'm afraid our discussion will turn less unpleasant from here on out."
Harry finished his pumpkin juice and nodded. The Headmaster waved his wand and banished the breakfast to the kitchens.
Dumbledore looked Harry in the eyes intently. "Harry, what I'm about to tell you… It is of the utmost importance that this knowledge is kept secret. Yes, I would say we should guard it even more fiercely than we do the prophecy."
Harry swallowed but nodded. "I did tell Ron about the prophecy," he admitted. He wanted to ask why the prophecy mattered at all, but he was too curious about what this was all about.
The Headmaster nodded. "Good, I think Mr Weasley has earned that right and I'd rather you not carry your burdens all alone. It is important to let ourselves be supported by, and to support in turn, our friends and loves ones. Now, you have been asking why I want you to be Horace's good favour."
Harry nodded. As he did, he connected the dots. "The memory has been tampered with… we need to get the original full memory?"
Dumbledore nodded gravely.
"I take it that Horcrux thingy is important," Harry stated, "So, we need to know what exactly Slughorn told Voldemort?"
"Yes. And to impress on you the importance of this quest I must ask of you, you must understand what a Horcrux is."
The Headmaster stood up and began pacing.
"Put simply, a Horcrux is an object in which a witch or wizard has stored part of their soul."
"What?!" Harry gasped. "How does that even work? Why would anyone do that?"
"Why is a dementor kiss so effective, Harry?" Dumbledore asked. Harry was beginning to feel a bit annoyed at how the headmaster never just gave a straight answer. Ever the teacher, Harry thought.
"Well, you can't live without a soul? I mean, yeah you can live but it wouldn't really be you, right?"
"What does that tell you about the importance of the soul?" Dumbledore pressed.
Harry remained silent for a couple of moments. If your body could live on without a soul, but you couldn't, maybe it could also work the opposite? You living on without a body? Isn't that what a ghost was? But Voldemort had a full body. What was it he had said in the graveyard? That he had existed as something lower than the lowest ghost? Did that mean Voldemort has successfully created a Horcrux? Had he stored part of his soul in an object? That would make sense, considering he had lived on while apparently his body had been destroyed that Halloween.
"That the soul is more important than the body in determining whether someone is dead?" Harry finally responded. "If Voldemort has created a Horcrux then that would explain why only his body died when he tried to kill me, right?"
"A Horcrux… or multiple?" the Headmaster murmured.
"Multiple?" Harry ask aghast. Would that be even possible?
"This is what I hope to learn from the complete memory of Slughorn, you see." He sat down and opened a drawer of his desk. He pulled out Tom Riddle's Diary. "You yourself gave me the clues with which I solved Voldemort's apparent immortality. This diary in which Tom Riddle himself explained how he had opened the Chamber of Secrets."
When Harry didn't respond but just looked questioningly at the Headmaster, Dumbledore continued.
"I myself have not seen the way Tom Riddle manifested himself as a visible entity, but the way you described him, it was something I had never heard of before. A memory acting on its own? As you might have guessed by my use of the pensieve and last night's potion, I have done extensive research on how memories work, but this phenomenon had not even been speculated about. Based on everything I knew about memories, the most logical conclusion was that this wasn't a memory at all, but rather a darker, more sinister magic.
That leads me to the two questions I have been researching since. Firstly, how did Voldemort survive, and secondly, what magic was used to create this Diary? It is only after you described what Voldemort had said in the Little Hangleton graveyard, that I realized that the two questions were in fact the same question. No one had gone further on the path to immortality, he had said. That's when I began to suspect that this diary may be a Horcrux, and possibly one of multiple. Horcruxes are extremely rare, and as far as I can find, there has never been anyone who managed to create more than one. If Voldemort did, then he would have gone 'further beyond' indeed, but another reason I believe there might be multiple is the way the diary operated. What is the point of a Horcrux, Harry?"
"To become immortal?" Harry said questioningly.
"Yes, yes," Dumbledore said impatiently. "But would you agree it is mostly a defensive instrument?"
"You use it to defend against death, yes," Harry agreed, surprised by the Headmaster's demeanour. It reminded him a bit of how Hermione sometimes had gotten when her brain was going too quick for Harry and Ron to follow.
"Then why would anyone use it as an offensive instrument? If not for the fact that it was not the only one? The diary was clearly meant to be used, to open the Chamber of Secrets. Why would anyone risk a Horcrux like that?"
"Because Voldemort wanted to ensure that people knew that he was the Heir of Slytherin, that he had found the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said. "But," he continued, understanding what the Headmaster was saying, "he probably could have found a way to do so without using a Horcrux, right?"
"I am inclined to think so, yes." The Headmaster hesitated a bit. "As a matter of fact, I'm almost positive that I have already destroyed a second one, but, I cannot be certain," he said, stressing the last bit.
"You did? What was it? How did you destroy it?" Harry said eagerly
Dumbledore waved his wand and a jewellery box flew over to them. He carefully opened the lid and turned it around to Harry.
Harry looked curiously at the ring, "Why did you think this was a Horcrux?"
Dumbledore frowned and waved his blackened hand, "For one, the way the ring was protected. If not for my own expertise and the fact that when I managed – barely – to get back to Hogwarts it was Professor Snape who found me, I probably would not have survived."
Harry had never seen the Headmaster look so sad and grim.
"Secondly, the location. I found the ring, Slytherin's ring to be exact, in the shack in which Voldemort's mother grew up."
"So, we can at least be certain that the ring belonged to Voldemort at some point," Harry concluded.
"Yes, we can even prove it, as he is wearing it in the Slughorn memory," Dumbledore added.
Now he said it, Harry could indeed recall seeing it in the memory.
"As to how I destroyed it," Dumbledore continued, "I used the same method you did." He waved his wand and the Sword of Gryffindor flew from its pedestal unto the table. "Are you aware of the properties of Goblin-wrought silver, Harry?"
Harry shook his head.
"Goblin-wrought silver repels anything that might blemish it, but, more importantly, it also absorbs anything that might make it stronger."
"I stabbed the basilisk through the mouth…" Harry wondered out loud. "Did the Sword absorb its venom?"
"It did indeed. You see, Horcruxes can only be destroyed when they are damaged beyond magical repair. There are only a handful of methods that can do so, and none of them are easily controlled. However, the Sword of Gryffindor is, which makes it by far the best tool for destroying Horcruxes."
"Beyond magical repair," Harry repeated softly, as his gaze lowered to his arm where the scar of the Basilisk bite was.
"Phoenix tears cannot repair things like diaries and rings, Harry, so the diary and the ring were indeed beyond magical repair. You were not beyond magical repair," the Headmaster said softly, understanding what Harry was thinking.
"So, you hope that the original memory can tell us something about how many Horcruxes Voldemort has made?" Harry asked, after a couple of moments of silence.
"Yes. The Chamber of Secrets was first opened in the 1942-1943 school year, and the summer after was when the meeting between Voldemort and his uncle Morfin took place. That same day, the Riddle family in Little Hangleton was murdered in their home. Morfin Gaunt was seemingly quite happy to confess he had done it."
"Voldemort made him say so, didn't he?"
"Morfin was most likely under the Imperius Curse, Voldemort using this uncle's wand to bypass the Restriction on Underage magic."
Dumbledore hesitated again. "You have not yet asked how a Horcrux is created, but I am afraid at least part of the process is important information. You see, to store a piece of the soul in a foreign object, one would have to first split his soul."
"And how do you do that?" Harry asked, thinking about dark rituals and all kinds of crazy stuff.
"The splitting itself is quite straightforward: emotionless, cold, premeditated murder. The preparatory and subsequent processes are so foul, I will not utter them out loud," the headmaster said gruffly.
He cleared his throat. "I'm quite certain that Voldemort used the murder of his muggle relatives," both Harry and Dumbledore acknowledged the irony in that last part with a look, "to create the Ring Horcrux, just as he had used the murder of Myrtle Warren to create the Diary."
"So, my theory, and you are welcome to disagree, Harry, is that Voldemort had already created two Horcruxes by the time he was asking Slughorn about them. So, my guess, and my guesses are often right, is that he wanted to know if he could continue making more."
Harry and Dumbledore said in silence for a moment, thinking it all over. Harry thought about the Diary and marvelled once again at Ginny's strength, now he knew that Ginny had survived almost an entire school year not just with a dark artefact, but with an actual piece of Voldemort's soul. His smile slipped as he realized how disgusting that was. Harry himself might have some of Voldemort's power, but to live with a piece of his soul for a year… Harry shuddered unwillingly. It did give him an idea though, even if he hated that he was going to propose it.
"Have you thought about talking with Ginny Weasley? She had contact with Riddle for almost an entire school year, and in my experience, Voldemort is quite full of himself. Maybe he told her something that might give us hints to what the possible other objects are?"
The Headmaster looked thoughtful. "I have not, but I'm also hesitant of involving her. First of all, I'd prefer to keep this knowledge between as few people as possible, although I think Mr Weasley can be included in this discussion. Secondly, I am quite sure that Ms Weasley would rather not be reminded of what happened between her and Tom Riddle."
"She did say she'd happily never talk about it again," Harry confirmed.
Dumbledore led out a contemplative noise. "But luckily I have some ideas of my own. We have not yet discussed the memories of the negotiations between Tom Riddle and Hepzibah Smith. As you will recall, Mrs Smith boasted of having possession of two objects belonging to the Hogwarts Founders."
"Yes," Harry agreed, "I can understand why Riddle wanted the Locket, but why the Hufflepuff cup?"
"I rather think Tom liked the symbolism in using objects from the Hogwarts Founders for his Horcruxes. I think he would see it as the ultimate proof of his power."
Harry looked at the sword again. "Are there any relics from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, besides the sword?"
"Throughout the centuries people have always claimed they possessed such items, but proving they did belong to one of the founders is almost impossible except in rare circumstances. Like the Locket and the Ring, we can be quite sure that the Sword was Gryffindor's. There are no concrete leads for anything Ravenclaw related. Myths and legends have persisted throughout the centuries of course. Of particular interest would be the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw, which is a rather persistent myth about a supposed Ravenclaw artefact which is, as the name suggests, lost."
"Do you think Riddle managed to find it?" Harry questioned, already knowing the probable answer.
Dumbledore sighed. "He might have. He might not have. At this point, there is no way for us to know. Which is why we can only focus on our next step, which would be getting the full memory from Slughorn."
"Okay," Harry nodded and started to summarize, "so he had the Diary, the Ring, and we suspect the Locket and the Cup because we can assume that Riddle took them from that old lady. But we can't be sure whether he took them to make Horcruxes or just as tokens of his power."
"Correct. Although, if there are more than two, I have more clues and theories about another, than we have about the Locket and the Cup," the Headmaster said hesitantly. He looked out the window for a second and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. "I wonder, what would you say when I confess I have been curious for a while about the behaviour of the snake, Nagini?"
"Nagini?" Hary wondered out loud, "you can use animals, a living thing, to make a Horcrux?"
Something flashed through the Headmaster's blue eyes but Harry couldn't recognize what it was.
"Well, it would inadvisable to do so. But as a Parselmouth, Tom would have believed he had full control over the snake. You wouldn't want the Horcrux to spill your secrets, after all."
Harry mulled this over in his head. So Dumbledore suspected the existence of at least five Horcruxes. He wondered why he still needed the Slughorn memory if he thought he had identified five already, so he asked.
"First of all, as you mentioned earlier, we don't know for sure whether the Locket or the Cup have been made into Horcruxes. Secondly, I'm hoping Tom mentions a specific number of Horcruxes."
"And you have no theories on the number?" Harry asked. The Headmaster had obviously spent much time thinking about this, considering the many theories he had already presented to Harry. "Aren't there magically significant numbers?"
"There are. But almost any number can be theorized to be magically significant, and we do not know which theories Voldemort follows."
They were silent for a minute, both thinking about the discussion they had had.
"Well," the Headmaster spoke up at last, "I think that will do for now. Moreover, it is almost lunchtime! I assume you understand the gravity of this task I must ask of you Harry? It is of crucial importance we get the unaltered memory from Professor Slughorn."
Harry nodded and stood up. Before he could say goodbye, Dumbledore spoke up one last time.
"Oh, before you go, Harry, while you were sleeping in the Hospital Wing, it seems that Ms and Mr Weasley had some sort of altercation in the Gryffindor common room." Dumbledore's moustache twitched in what Harry thought with a chuckle. "As far as I have been informed, it seems that Mr Weasley has taken exception to some of Ms Weasley and Mr Thomas's rather enthusiastic, public displays of affection. I thought I'd warn you."
-In Her Memory-
When Harry heard the details about Ron and Ginny's fight or screaming match, he was rather glad he had been in the Hospital Wing. Ron had been in a bad mood the entire evening while working on his assignments and when Dean and Ginny had walked in just before curfew he had confronted them, or rather Ginny. This had led to her saying that the only one Ron had ever kissed had been Aunt Muriel, after which Ron had flipped. Seamus and Neville, who'd been the ones to fill Harry in on the situation, had been puzzled by Ron's extreme reaction to the statement. Neville, haven't kissed anyone as far as Harry knew, wondered out loud why Ron cared so much.
Harry knew of course. And he really, really, hoped Ginny didn't know what her statement had meant to Ron, because otherwise… Well, otherwise he'd need to have words with Ginny because even though they were friends, he wasn't going to stand someone hurting Ron like that.
He was worried for Ron. Harry himself had many years of experience with lack of sleep, but he noticed that Ron had not slept well this week, where normally you'd need to fire a cannon to wake him up. He needed to keep an eye on him, and he was quite sure that the spat with Ginny had not helped Ron at all.
He had finally found him after lunch in the Room of Requirement. Ron had been laying on a couch with a box of Martin Miggs comic books and a mountain of candy wrappers and empty plates.
Harry didn't say anything about what happened or the state that he had found Ron in, he merely held out his hand and suggested they took a walk around the ground and then visit Hagrid. Harry thought telling Ron about the Horcruxes might be a good way to distract his friend from the fight with Ginny and what that fight had reminded him of.
Walking around the Lake, Harry told Ron everything he had learned that night and morning. Ron was suitably horrified about the concept of Horcruxes and wondered out loud about how messed up You-Know-Who was in the head.
Visiting Hagrid wasn't a mistake but it was not the happy distraction Harry had hoped it would be. Hagrid was distracted and made several annoyed remarks toward both Harry and Ron, but it turned out that Aragog, the Acromentula, was dying and the colony in the forest was in a state of upheaval. Harry and Ron tried their best to comfort Hagrid but faltered when Hagrid seamlessly transitioned from already grieving Aragog to reminiscing on Hermione's many visits to his hut. Hagrid did agree to help them find the potion ingredients needed for the Animagus potion.
Not at all perked up, Harry and Ron made their way back to the Castle. As they passed some of the empty classrooms that students used to study, he heard Ginny and Luna talking. He told Ron to go on to the Common Room without him. Ron merely shrugged and walked on.
Harry knocked on the door before he made his way into the room, where Ginny and Luna were busy with what looked to be Ancient Runes. At least, he thought he recognized the Syllabary that Hermione used to also drag around everywhere.
"Hi, Luna, Ginny," he greeted them. They looked up and greeted them back, Luna smiling broadly, Ginny looking a bit apprehensive.
"Where have you been?" she questioned, "I haven't seen you since just after dinner last night"
Harry smirked. "Missed me, have you?" He frowned then, "Maybe it would have been better if I had been there, considering what happened."
"What happened?" Luna asked curiously, looking between Ginny and Harry.
Ginny sighed and looked sad. She turned to Luna. "I'm sorry, Luna, could I talk to Harry privately for a moment?"
Luna nodded. "Oh, yes, sure, I'll go ask Dobby for some hot chocolate!" She left the room but poked her head back in before Ginny or Harry could say anything. "Just be careful, a flock of Kriebis came in with Harry."
Harry looked at Ginny who was playing with a bit of parchment, decisively not looking at him. Harry thought he had never seen her look so meek.
"Do you understand why you hurt Ron so much with what you said?" Harry asked, deciding to just get to the point.
"I wasn't sure," Ginny said softly, "but you just confirmed it." She looked at Harry then. "I almost made it even worse, I was about to mention Hermione kissing Krum."
Harry drew in a sharp breath. He wouldn't have been surprised if Ron had bodily attacked his sister had she done that.
"I know, I know," Ginny sighed covering her face with her hands. "I'm awful."
"Why did you respond so aggressively anyway?"
Ginny scowled at him. "It's hard to explain." She hesitated. "Please, don't get me wrong, but I don't think you can relate to my position at all."
Harry snorted, "What? Being a girl with many brothers that grew up in a loving family? Yeah, that's about the complete opposite of my situation."
Ginny grinned half-heartedly but then turned calculating eyes on Harry.
"You know, you never did talk to me about the Dursleys."
Harry blanched. Fuck, he thought. He had held some false hope that Ginny had forgotten about their little bargain.
"Oh yeah, I… I guess. But we're talking about you, not me, right now," he said.
"That's what you said the previous time," Ginny remarked with an evil smile.
"Maybe," Harry shrugged. "But I really need to do my homework now, I haven't had time since before dinner yesterday." It wasn't even a lie but it felt like one nevertheless.
"Sure." Ginny deadpanned. "Don't think you can get out of it, Potter."
Harry just scowled at her and turned to walk out of the room before he suddenly realized something.
"Wait…" he said, slowly turning around. "When you wanted to mention Hermione kissing Krum, you said that would've been worse. And it would have been, but … do you know, did Hermione… was Hermione in love with Ron?"
Ginny looked up from her homework with sad eyes, all but confirming it. "She never said so, but I could tell," she said, trailing off.
"Well, shit," Harry said out loud.
"Yep," Ginny nodded.
It was only when Harry was walking back to the common room that he realized that Ginny had used the Dursleys as a way to keep him from asking more questions about why she reacted like that to Ron. He wondered what that was all about. Was it something to do with the Diary?
-In Her Memory-
Harry spent most of his evening leaving Ron alone again, as he had his first detention for Snape. While Snape wasn't present himself, as he had delegated this duty to Filch, he still managed to torment Harry by making him rewrite detention slips from the Marauders. Just like he had done last year. When he finally managed to get to the Common Room, his hand aching from writing for two straight hours, he still had a lot of homework to do. Ron had kept him company for a bit. He had done a lot of it the night before and sat across from Harry making plans for the yet-to-be-renamed-DA. Between the two of them, they had come up with a plan for the first two months, including lessons from Flitwick and McGonagall. In the end, Harry went to bed at two AM and he lay awake for an hour, long enough to notice that Ron wasn't sleeping well either.
He woke up tired on Monday morning for his defence study with Ron and Neville. They were making slow progress with the nonverbal casting, and they took turns in casting silencing charms on each other.
After the morning break, Harry and Ron had been planning on continuing with their homework but Neville asked if they were interested in joining him in a work-out. Being tired of doing homework they agreed and they spent the hour before lunch running around the grounds. Harry managed to keep up with Neville a bit longer than Ron but they both slowed to a brisk walking pace long before Neville did. Harry repeated a previous thought out loud to Ron, the summer had been good for Neville.
As they entered the Gryffindor Common Room, still drenched in sweat and a bit out of breath, they were approached by Seamus and Dean who wanted to know what they had been up to.
As Neville explained, Seamus noted that he had noticed that Neville had lost weight. Neville flushed a bit and waved the compliment away. Both Seamus and Dean asked to join next time, and Neville said that he was going to do some strength training on Thursday morning and that they could join.
That evening, before dinner, Dumbledore stood up to announce that tomorrow evening, Tuesday, would be the first meeting of the continued organisation formerly known as Dumbledore's Army. Harry and Ron had already informed the old guard so the announcement was primarily for new prospects. Harry knew that at least Sophie and Lily were planning to be there.
Harry and Ron spent Monday evening preparing a start-of-year speech for the 'old DA lugs', as Ernie had called them.
Even though Harry was quite sure he and Ron had never been so prepared for something school-related in their lives, he was nervous nonetheless as they walked up to the Room of Requirement.
They arrived about ten minutes before seven, made the room appear, and walked in.
They both stopped a couple of steps into the room as memories threatened to overwhelm them, but they were not all bad. For Harry, this room represented a light in the dark. This was the room in which he could forget about his troubles, and do something that he liked and enjoyed. It was also the room in which he had his first and only kiss, which held both good but mostly bad memories. The DA itself reminded him of Hermione of course.
Ron seemed to have his own flashes of memories as he was scowling as he looked at the list of things they wanted to ask the room for. Concentrating on what they had written down, about thirty chairs appeared, placed in a semi-circle before a small podium with a blackboard. They had spent some time designing the layout they wanted, and they settled for simply dividing the room into three spaces: The 'lecture' space in the middle, a place to study healing on the right-hand side, and a place to practice spells on the left-hand side. The latter side contained cushions and movable practice dummies, whereas the former was still mostly empty, except for a bookcase filled with books on healing. They needed Madam Pomfrey's input for the sort of things they needed.
Over the next fifteen minutes, people started showing up. Most the previous members who were still at Hogwarts were there, as far as Harry could see. Ron and Harry had discussed how many people they should expect, but they had massively underestimated the number. Luckily the Room's limits had not yet been discovered so it grew and provided more chairs when needed.
About seven minutes after the meeting was to start Harry climbed up on the podium and surveyed who had shown up.
He frowned and shared a confused look with Ron at the sight of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle an assortment of other Slytherins sitting in the back rows. He was also puzzled by a quite large group of 4th and 5th-year girls, from all houses. He could see the black-haired girl from the train sitting with her friends. Sophie and Lily were sitting with the other Gryffindor 6th years. Luna was sitting next to Ginny, looking very happy to be back with the DA.
He cleared his throat but most of the back rows either didn't hear him or chose to ignore it. He tried again to ask for silence but to no avail. He was about to conjure some fireworks when Ginny stood up and yelled "SHUT IT".
This worked for the most part, except for the Slytherins surrounding Malfoy who immediately turned on Ginny, loudly responding that she should shut up herself.
However, before Harry could do something about it, the door to the Room opened one last time and in walked Professor Dumbledore.
"Welcome, Headmaster!" Harry greeted loudly, making everyone turn around to the back of the room. The remaining Slytherins fell silent and looked angry.
"Hello, Mr Potter. I hope you don't mind me attending this first meeting?"
"Of course not, Professor. Please, have a seat," Harry responded. Dumbledore took a look at the chairs everyone was sitting in and within a second the nearest free chair changed into an armchair, sporting a peacock print.
"Thank you, Mr Potter. Please continue."
Harry shared a quick grin with Ron about the Headmaster's antics and cleared his throat.
"Hello, and welcome to the first meeting of the DA this year. First of all, one of the objectives for today is to think of a new name, as the reasons we chose Dumbledore's Army last year are no longer relevant," Harry began his speech. He was sure that his nerves translated into his speech: he felt like he was rushing and speaking at a higher pitch than normal. He knew that in Muggle schools, giving presentations were par for the course, but he had never had to give one at Hogwarts. He looked over the crowd and saw Malfoy's malicious smirk but also Ginny's encouraging smile and Luna's happy one. He felt buoyed by it.
"For those of you who don't know, I wanted to start this meeting with a short history of the DA." He swallowed. "The DA was an idea by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, well mostly Hermione," he added, to some chuckles from those who knew them personally.
"As you all know, last year we had the privilege of being students of Umbridge," he said sarcastically. "What you might not know, is the reason why she was here." Harry waged a quick look at Dumbledore but he was studying his fingernails, so Harry went on. "You see, last year when most of the Magical World still thought I was lying about Voldemort." Almost everyone shivered or squeaked, and Harry was intrigued to see Malfoy twitch involuntarily. He stopped his speech and made a mental note that maybe he should just call him Riddle instead. He continued: "The Ministry used the Daily Prophet to paint a picture of me as an attention-seeking, mentally troubled brat, while also portraying the Headmaster as senile. However, we did not give in, so Fudge had the ingenious idea that as we were obviously not telling the truth, we were obviously preparing to take control of the Ministry. He thought we were creating an environment of fear to make it easier for us to overthrow him. Therefore, he decided to send us an incompetent teacher, who would act as his spy. That way we would not learn anything the Headmaster could use for his revolution. They didn't want us trained in combat.
"Well, he did succeed there: we didn't learn anything useful from Umbridge, besides that Murtlap Essence works wonder for treating cuts. However, in doing so he made a grave mistake: they put themselves between Hermione and an Outstanding OWL result for Defence Against the Dark Arts." Harry heard Ron make a noise halfway between a chuckle and a sad sob. "So, Hermione, and Ron, presented this idea to me: that I would teach them and a couple of others the spells that I had learned during my preparation for the Triwizard Tournament.
"During the first meeting, however, it became clear that most people there, a select few, most of whom we felt could trust not to rat us out to Umbridge, weren't there solely for OWL results. Some of them had a personal reason to stand up to Voldemort," – this time he just kept talking – "some of them just wanted to be able to defend themselves. However, we all knew we were doing exactly what the Ministry was afraid of, so that's why we eventually decided on the name Dumbledore's Army."
Harry continued to explain what Ron and he had envisioned for the coming two months, after which he opened up the floor for questions.
The first to ask a question was a Ravenclaw that Harry didn't know. "Considering the whole "army" part and what happened last June, do you expect us to actually fight if we join?"
This was apparently a question many people wanted to be answered as all murmuring stopped, and people looked at Harry expectantly.
"I'm not going to force you to do anything, I only want to provide you with help defending yourself and a place to practise duelling outside of your Defense classes," Harry answered gruffly. Ron and he had discussed it at length. The only goal for the DA was to create a place for others to help each other learn to defend themselves. The goal of the DA should not be to create an actual army or turn the members into soldiers. Harry would not lead people into dangerous situations ever again. Well, except for Ron, who had his own reasons for wanting to fight. But Harry also knew he never had to ask or force Ron to do anything in that regard.
"But you are going to fight?" someone else questioned.
"I don't have a choice," Harry responded.
"So it's true, you are the 'chosen one'?" yet another unknown asked.
Harry was starting to get annoyed, these questions were just like last year in the Hog's Head. Before he could answer, however, Dumbledore stood up.
"Under no circumstances will I allow Mr Potter to recruit or convince students to partake in a war," he stated clearly.
Harry nodded. That wasn't the goal of these meetings anyway. "The goal of this organisation is only for everyone to practise defensive magic and to help each other learn. That is our mission statement."
Then, as Harry had feared, Malfoy spoke up. "You must be joking, Potter," the Slytherin drawled. "Do you honestly expect us to believe you do this out of the goodness of your heart?"
Harry gritted his teeth. "I realize caring about others is hard for you to understand, Malfoy." To his right, Ron had stood up, seemingly to hold Harry back if the need arises. Or attack Malfoy himself.
An angry flush finally gave some colour to Malfoy's pale face. "That's rich, coming from you, Potter. Tell me, how many have died because of …" Harry couldn't hear the finish of his sentence, not that he needed to, because, as one, all Gryffindors, and the original DA, yelled at Malfoy or stood up and pulled wands on him. Immediately some of the Slytherins pulled their own wands, whereas other Slytherins merely moved out of range.
Once again, the Headmaster had to intervene. "SILENCE," he bellowed and a wave of something made its way through the room. Harry suddenly felt himself much calmer. He suspected the Headmaster had cast some sort of Calming Charm with an area effect. Everyone looked over to Dumbledore, who remained silent and merely looked at Harry again.
Harry took a deep breath and waited for everyone to settle down, then asked whether there were any more questions. There were a couple from potential new members about things like planning (sessions were held on Tuesdays and Fridays), whether they needed to be members to attend meetings (no, but it was heavily recommended to follow along), and whether it was okay to only attend the sessions on Healing (it was).
After that, they took a five-minute break to allow those who weren't interested in the meetings themselves but were only there for Harry to leave, and they started with a repeat of the first lesson they had last year: disarming and shield charms. The remainder of the meeting was even more chaotic than it had been last year but most people did seem to have fun. And there were a lot of people there. Harry guessed that almost three-quarters of all Gryffindors were present. The black-haired girl from the train and her friends had stayed, as had Andrew and Jack, the duo that had taken over the Twin's beater position after Umbridge banned them last year.
Ron practised with Seamus, while Dean and Ginny paired up as well. Dean seemed reluctant to attack his girlfriend, which Ginny promptly made him pay for by stunning him as Harry walked by.
"Ginny, disarm only!" Harry reprimanded her.
"Oh, come on, Potter, we can do better than this," she pouted.
Harry merely raised an eyebrow and then tried to silently disarm Ginny. It halfway worked. Harry did the charm nonverbally but Ginny's reflexes were too good for the lacklustre Expelliarmus Harry produced.
"Nice try, Potter," Ginny teased, but she looked a bit impressed as well. Harry merely shrugged and continued walking. He saw Luna duelling with Neville, but she seemed distracted by something and Neville was consistently disarming her. He approached the pair.
"Are you okay, Luna? You seem distracted," he asked the girl, as Neville walked up to hand her wand back again. "Did the Nargles get you?" Harry said with a smile.
Luna turned around quickly, to look at Harry. "Yes," she said slowly, "that must be it. Thank you, Harry." She smiled at him.
"Uh, sure, Luna, no problem," Harry looked over at Neville, who shrugged. He had no idea either.
Harry walked on to where Sophie and Lily were practising. Sophie was showing Lily the correct way to perform the shield charm. Harry stopped to watch. As far as he could see, Lily was doing everything correctly, but the shield kept petering out after a couple of seconds.
Lily huffed angrily and flushed as she saw Harry watching and looked at Sophie instead.
"I'm not sure what you're doing wrong," Sophie said, sounding puzzled.
"You need to concentrate to keep the shield up," Harry said. "If you get distracted, the shield begins to waver and if it becomes too weak it'll just vanish."
Lily nodded, looking self-conscious and tried again. This time the shield held long enough to be useful but it was rather weak.
"Good job, Lily, that's progress right there," Harry complimented.
"Thanks," Lily said softly, shooting a glance his way.
At the end of the meeting, Harry and Ron had made several notes about things they needed to take into account. Last year the age gap, apart from Dennis Creevy, was manageable, but for this meeting at least, there were multiple first and second-year students in attendance. They would need to come up with some sort of layered system. Harry spoke up to end the meeting officially.
"Thank you for coming to this first meeting. The next meeting will be on Friday, and you can sign up as a member then. That's when we also decide on a new name, so if you all could think of something, that'd be great. Thanks!"
As they walked back to the Common Room, Ron was looking disgruntled, so Harry asked him what was up.
"Nothing," was the short, grumbled answer. Harry stopped walking and Ron, sighing deeply did so too.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Harry said.
"Yeah, yeah," Ron said, sounding a bit annoyed. "Nothing to worry about," he stated and walked off.
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AN:
I wanted to get all the different instance's of Harry and Dumbledore out of the way ASAP, which is why I chose to do it this way. Anyone have any suspicions what the DA's new name will be?