Waking up at dawn to do their homework did nothing to improve Ron's mood, nor did the fact they had Quidditch try-outs that evening. Harry, not having to try out for his own position, was looking forward to the try-outs, as was Ginny, who kept coming up to him to talk about it.
In hindsight, Harry berated himself for not realizing that what happened at the first DA meeting was probably going to repeat itself at the try-outs. He already realized that a lot of people would show up, going by the number of applications but he hadn't realized the reason why. He just thought people were into the idea of playing for a reserve team. However, as he made his way to the pitch, this idea was quickly shut down by the number of people present that weren't even in Gryffindor. There were people there just to watch him. He groaned but couldn't count on Ron to have his back, as Ron was overcome with nerves and was looking decidedly green.
Ginny was the polar opposite. Harry couldn't tell if she just wasn't nervous at all because she knew she could snag a Chaser spot or if she could transform nerves into sheer determination. She looked like she was ready for war but still smiled and joked around with her friends and Dean and Seamus.
Harry started the try-outs with a simple test, that proved difficult enough for a minority of the people present: fly three loops around the pitch.
He dismissed the first years, the non-Gryffindors, and everyone else who could barely fly and was left with a group of about twenty people.
"Okay, chasers form a group to the right, Keepers in the middle, beaters to the left. Seekers with me, please!"
A tiny second-year girl made her over to him, looking terrified, and very much like she was questioning her decision to be there.
"Hi, you're trying out for Seeker for the reserve team?" Harry asked kindly, looking down at the girl who didn't even come up to his elbow.
The girl nodded but didn't look at him.
"What's your name?" Harry asked politely, resisting the urge to bend down to talk to her like you would to a five-year-old
She mumbled something be he couldn't catch what she said. "What's that?" Harry laughed self-consciously.
"Mia Adams," she said more loudly.
"Okay, hi Mia," Harry said again. "Well, as you're the only one trying out for Reserve Seeker, I guess you have the spot anyway but I still want to see you fly." He looked up to see the others waiting impatiently. "I'll come back to you last, okay?"
The girl nodded and looked over at the stands where a lot of people were watching the proceedings and seemed to decide whether she should remain standing or sit down.
"You can sit down," Harry confirmed and the girl hurriedly made her way over to the stands, where some other second-years were watching the proceedings.
Harry had decided to start with the Beaters, as that would help with the Chaser try-outs which was by far the largest group: there were ten hopefuls in attendance.
None of the Beaters were close to the level the Weasley twins had been, but he was surprised that his assumed duo, Jack and Andrew, were outflown by a third and a fourth-year: Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote. Jack and Andrew may have had the advantage of having played real games together, but Jimmy and Ritchie aimed more accurately and worked together more naturally. Harry made the preliminary decision to draft Jimmy and Ritchie to the first team and Jack and Andrew to the reserves.
He divided the chasers into two groups of five and made them play piggie in the middle. At the same time, the two beater pairs got the command to hit the Bludgers at the two groups.
This was one of Ginny's ideas and it worked out quite well. It was clear really quickly that not everyone could fly, catch and throw the quaffle, let alone keep any out for Bludgers at the same time.
Three of the chasers were told they could leave, not all of them taking the dismissal in stride. Harry had to shout at one of them, a seventh year, to remove himself from the pitch. The remaining seven chasers included Ginny and Katie of course, but also Dean, which surprised Harry as he had always thought Seamus was the quidditch player of the two. He looked over and saw Seamus and Neville on the stands with some of the other Gryffindors who weren't interested in playing Quidditch.
Next, he made the chasers fly both offensively and defensively toward the goals, two on two, like he had done at the Burrow but without a keeper. Some of the hopefuls who had been good at catching and throwing were less stellar at playing defensively. Unsurprisingly, both Ginny and Katie were by far the most well-rounded, but a fourth-year girl, Demelza, who Harry had seen hanging out with Ginny before, was a small revelation herself. She wasn't anywhere near Ginny or Katie's level, but she seemed just to know where to be.
He made the four chasers who had the most accurate aim line up and called upon the Keepers to fly up to the hoops. The four chasers all had to shoot 3 penalties per keeper.
The first up was Ron. Harry had hoped that by now the stands would be more empty, but most of those that had been dismissed were still watching. Ron was looking decidedly more chagrined than he had been last night, which Harry didn't think promised much.
Yet, Harry need not have worried. Spending the entire summer playing Quidditch had paid off and Ron stopped 10 out of the 12 shots on goal, only Ginny getting the better of him twice. Next up was a seventh-year, Cormac McLaggen, who Harry had met at the Slughorn lunch on the train. Harry had been getting increasingly annoyed with him. His entire attitude was just wrong. He seemed to be under the impression that he already had the position and kept trying to give Harry unsolicited advice. Ron and Ginny had done so too, of course, but they didn't do it in a way that made Harry want to destroy something.
Luckily for Harry, the decision between Ron and McLaggen was made easy by Katie, who managed to also score, making it three goals together with Ginny who had scored twice again. McLaggen did not accept this result graciously. Cursing and ranting about the Chasers being more warmed up for try-out and that "the Weasley girl" did not try as hard when it was her brother keeping. This was a wrong thing to say, of course, because Ginny would never risk her winning chances for something as meaningless as familial relation. Well, when it comes to Quidditch that is, Harry thought. He didn't think he had ever seen someone so driven.
Ginny herself was cursing McLaggen out something fierce, but Harry interrupted quickly. "Well, there's always the reserve team, McLaggen. If you think you're better than Ron, you can prove it during training."
"The Reserve Team?" McLaggen demanded, affronted, but Harry had already walked off to watch the third keeper try-out, a rather large third-year named Blake Andrews, who managed to stop six shots, mostly through the length of his arms. He reminded Harry of Ron, he was all arms and legs it seemed.
Harry was quite certain about his teams already but decided to think about it some more while trying out Mia, who hurried over to him when he called her back from the stands.
He summoned a basket of golf balls and planned on making them shoot through the air for Mia to catch, which was made harder by the setting sun. Harry assumed he would have time to think about his teams because it would take some time for Mia to make the catches.
Boy, was he wrong.
As soon as he let the first golf ball fly, he was almost knocked over by the sheer force of Mia accelerating from a standstill position. She caught the ball before it even stopped climbing. Harry had to take a moment to understand what had just happened. Mia flew back to him and he took a good look at her. Her broom looked to be a brand-new Comet 290, which was a fast accelerating broom in and of itself but this was probably helped by the fact Mia weighed at most 80 pounds. He was most impressed by the fact that she had the grip to keep hold of her broom. This meant she might accelerate fast but it also meant that she would probably be blown off course with the slightest gust of wind, and it was wind still at the moment.
"Wow," was all he managed to say when she approached him, making her blush. He made her turn her back and shot another golf ball into the air. This time she had a much harder time. She had the flying down to a tee but spotting a small object when she couldn't follow its trajectory proved a bit too much.
"Well," Harry said when Mia landed after about ten minutes of trying. "It seems I do not yet have to worry about my position on the team," he said jokingly. Mia tried to smile.
"Okay," he spoke up to the others who were still waiting for the final decision. He looked at them.
"Chasers for the first team are Ginny, Katie and Demelza. Dean, Sarah and James will be on the reserve team." He waited a moment for the whoops and curses to die down. Sarah was a fourth-year, who Harry had seen hanging around with Romilda, but she showed promise. James was the older brother of that Harry kid that had been sorted into Gryffindor this year, he was a fourth-year also.
"Beaters for the first team will be Jimmy and Ritchie. Andrew and Jack will be on the reserve team." He waited a moment for Andrew and Jack to express their unhappiness with that decision and then looked over at Ron.
"Ron will be Keeper for the First team, McLaggen will be on the reserve." Before Ron or Blake could say anything about that decision, McLaggen roared "RESERVE TEAM? You honestly expect me to fly with these midgets?" he said pointing at Mia.
"Yes," Harry deadpanned.
"Well, you can forget it! McGonagall will hear of this!" he said, and stomped away, as his dormmates all left with him. They all watched him go.
"Happy to see him go, happy to watch him leave," Ginny said, making Katie and Demelza laugh. Dean didn't look amused, and neither did Ron.
"Well, Blake," Harry said, switching gears quickly. "You want to fly for the reserve team?"
"uh, sure!" the third-year said, seemingly unsure why what Ginny said was funny.
"Great! Okay, teams! Our first practice is Sunday morning. The first two or three weeks we're only doing drills, after that we'll start incorporating practice matches, okay?"
"Yes, captain!" Ginny and Katie yelled. Harry chuckled.
"Okay, great! See you Sunday!"
As the twelve Gryffindors walked off quietly or celebrated with each other, Harry walked up to Ron who was staring over the pitch. He clapped a hand on his shoulder, "Congratulations, Ron, I'm happy to have you on the team."
"Thanks," his friend muttered. This puzzled Harry, he'd have thought Ron would be happier. So did Lavender apparently, who was waiting with Parvati to congratulate Harry on the team and Ron on making the team. Once again, Ron shrugged off their congratulations and walked off once again in the mood he had been for the last couple of days.
Harry wondered what was up with that.
-In Her Memory-
The next day Harry and Ron waited to speak with Slughorn after their potions class. Harry had managed another great brew, with the help of his potions book, which he had now read in its entirety. He had not yet had the time to ask Slughorn about brewing the Animagus potions because of how incredibly tightly scheduled his days were. They had to be if he wanted to do all of his homework and his extra-curricular studies as well. Harry was well familiar with the stress, and this stress was way easier to deal with than the stress of last year. Last year he had been tormented by Voldemort while dealing with Umbridge, a student body of which over half thought he was crazy and while trying to study for his OWLs.
"Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, what can I do for you?" Slughorn asked them jovially when he spotted them.
"Hello, Professor. We wanted to ask you something, but erm," Harry deliberately paused for a second. "We would appreciate it if you keep it a secret," he said with a smile.
"Ohoh!" Slughorn said, looking happily intrigued. Well, as former head of Slytherin I guess he should like intrigue, Harry thought.
"You do realize, Harry, m'boy, that I have certain responsibilities as a professor?" Slughorn said, already trying to cover himself if he needed it. I wonder if he did the same with Voldemort, Harry wondered.
"That won't be a problem, sir," Ron said, "we have already discussed this with Professor McGonagall, and we have her support."
"Good! Well, let's hear it, boys!" As Harry had expected, Slughorn looked almost giddy at getting to learn a secret about the Boy-Who-Lived.
"You see, sir, Ron and I want to brew the Animagus potion and the potion is quite difficult to make, even for me," Harry added, feeling wrong for saying it, "Also, I get the feeling that it is a potion that isn't brewed that often. So, we hoped we could ask you for guidance?"
"The Animagus Potion, eh?" Slughorn said, contemplatively. "No wonder you went to Minerva for permission! I take it she's willing to help you with the transformation part of the process?"
"Yes, sir," Ron confirmed.
"Hmm, give me a minute, boys," the Potion master said, as he walked to a bookcase that hadn't been there when Snape was teaching potions. "You are in luck, I have brewed this potion once before. Just out of curiosity, you know, and to help a young transfiguration prodigy in her own studies." He searched the case for a minute before pulling out a book with an exclamation of "Aha, here we go!"
He walked back over to Harry and Ron while leafing through the book until he found the recipe. "Yes, that's right. The recipe is tremendously unique. It's the only potion that uses biological matter from humans that isn't frowned upon or seen as Dark." The professor said, referring to the hair and the saliva Harry knew were working ingredients of the potion.
He looked up to the two boys. "You realize, this is an incredibly difficult potion to brew, beyond NEWT level?"
Harry nodded and said, "Yes, we do, which is why we hoped that you'd be willing to assist us. And we wouldn't say no to some extra Potions credits either," Harry added cheekily.
As it had before, his cheek paid off, as Slughorn guffawed loudly and shook his head merrily.
"Ah, Harry, it's clear you have inherited more than your eyes and your potion skills from your mother!" Harry smiled but said nothing.
"Will you help us, professor?" Ron asked, a bit impatiently. Slughorn looked at him for a moment but smiled back at Harry a moment later.
"I don't see why not. Surely, it is my responsibility as a professor to ensure the safety of students who want to try their hands at exceptional pieces of magic!"
This made Harry and Ron share a glance. Had a young Voldemort done the same thing Harry and Ron were doing now? Slughorn didn't notice it.
"Have you already begun soaking the Mandrake leaves?" Slughorn questioned.
"Er, no, we haven't professor. Actually, we were wondering why we couldn't just store the leaf in a sealed container with some saliva?"
"That would be much easier, wouldn't it?" Ron added, pulling a face.
"It would be easier, Mr Weasley, but it wouldn't work. Surely, you realize, Harry, that it isn't the saliva as much as the fact that the leaf is within your body for a month?" Slughorn asked.
"Oh, yes, of course!" Harry said, trying to sound like he had some big insight while he had no idea why that mattered. Slughorn looked at him for a moment before he smiled.
"Have you thought about how you are going to get the morning dew? Apothecaries don't sell it," he questioned.
"Yes, Hagrid is helping us with the morning dew." Harry said.
"Good idea!" Slughorn said enthusiastically. "I really should go see him soon," the professor muttered to himself. Harry and Ron looked at each other again, questioningly.
"The Death's-head Hawk Moth?" Slughorn continued.
"I'll order it, the crystal phials, and the Mandrake leaves from the Apothecary," Harry confirmed.
"Oh, that won't be necessary, I should have some Mandrake leaves in storage," Slughorn said, walking over to the ingredient cupboard.
Harry and Ron decided to put the leaves in their mouths immediately. The bitter taste didn't bode well for the next month. They needed to have the leave in their mouth for an entire lunar cycle, which meant that they could remove the leaves on Saturday the 12th of October.
When they walked back to the common room to drop off their book bags before going down for dinner, Ron, trying to talk with the leaf in his mouth, remarked with difficulty: "Best not accidentally swallow this leaf, or your potion will taste like shit."
Harry laughed so hard he almost suffocated on his leaf.
-In Her Memory-
The next morning, the dorm housing the 6th-year Gryffindor boys was the arena for a lot of moaning and groaning. They had all joined Neville for a workout the previous day so Seamus, Dean, Ron, and Harry all woke up aching all over. Neville just laughed and joked that the next-morning-muscle-soreness was a rite of passage for those wanting to build some muscle.
Now, Harry had trouble even standing up as it felt like every muscle in his body was protesting anything other than lying down. And he was hungry. Last night's dinner had not been enjoyable as everything tasted like Mandrake leaf. They also had to eat very carefully because they couldn't afford to accidentally swallow the leaf with the rest of the food. Luckily, Harry had remembered a passage from Becoming the Beast Within: an astute analysis of active animagi by Deryn Pugh, in which one of the animagi had talked about their own issues with eating. They had eventually solved the issue by sticking the leaf to their palate with a sticking charm, which was a method Harry and Ron copied that same evening.
It was actually beneficial that Harry, Ron and Neville weren't that good with their nonverbal disarming charms yet because they couldn't move fast enough to do any duelling during their defence self-study period. They might have been annoyed with their slow progress but Tonks had explained that nonverbals worked according to what she called 'the-ketchup-bottle-principle': getting the first spell down nonverbally was difficult but after that, it would become much easier to do other spells nonverbally. Most of the Friday was spent doing their copious, and seemingly endless amounts of homework, except for when they had Charms and Herbology classes.
Harry had trouble concentrating on his homework because the second meeting of the DA would be that night and he was nervous to see how many people would show up. Ron and he had agreed that they would probably lose many of those that had stayed for the first meeting.
That night Harry opened the doors to let the prospective members in. There were about 40 people there who lined up to sign the 1996-1997 membership list. About half were original members of the DA and the other half were new members. Not all original members still at Hogwarts showed up: Cho, Marietta, and Michael didn't renew their membership.
Harry also spotted a singular Slytherin-green tie in the group, a blonde girl who seemed friendly with Ginny and Luna. She probably was the Signe they had spoken of on the train ride. Harry also spotted Mia and James but was secretly happy that James's little brother, Harry, wasn't there.
As everyone took their place, he walked up the small stage.
"Welcome back, everyone! Before we start today, we need to decide on a new name. Does anyone have an idea?"
A subsection of the group looked at Ginny, who put up her hand.
"Ginny?"
"I have already talked with some people about this," she said gesturing to the group around her, which included Dean, Luna, a frail-looking younger girl with a Ravenclaw tie, whose name Harry had just learned was Astoria, and a couple of others. Ginny smiled sadly and looked at Harry and then Ron.
"We would like to change the name to Hermione's Army."
Of course. Harry should have seen that coming. He was saved from responding, however, by Ginny herself who continued.
"I realize that for some of us," she put her hands on the shoulders of the blonde Slytherin girl, who was sitting in front of her, "this might lead to some problems, so maybe we can just call it the H.A. and say it stands for Hogwarts Army?"
The Slytherin laughed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like no one's going to see through that."
"Would it be bad for you if we did call ourselves Hermione's Army?" Neville questioned.
"Why are you even if here it that's the case?" Ron said, a bit angrily.
Harry shot him a glance to tell him to back down.
The girl looked at Ron. "I'm just looking out for myself," she said, in a manner that told them both that she wasn't going to explain further.
A Hufflepuff named Roger, according to Harry's membership list, spoke up next. "I never met Hermione, but I've heard she had some really weird ideas about House-Elves and such. Wouldn't people assume we support those crazy ideas if we name ourselves after her? I'm just here to learn how to better defend myself," he hastily added when Ron and Harry both looked quite angry at him.
Harry looked at Ron, he knew that Ron hadn't supported S.P.E.W. but Harry couldn't think about House-Elf rights without thinking about how happy Dobby was now that he was free. That gave him an idea.
"Would you be interested in exploring these 'crazy ideas' further, er… Roger, right?"
The boy nodded. "What do you mean by exploring further?"
Harry smiled. "I have a house-elf myself and I'm friends with a free house-elf. If you want I could call them both so you can question their experiences?"
"A free house-elf?" Roger questioned like he didn't understand what that meant. "No, that's okay. Like I said I'm here to learn to defend myself, I'm not interested in a Muggleborns' political agenda."
This wasn't even that harsh of a thing to say, but the way he said it did sound a bit derogative. Dean, Ginny, Ron and Katie all turned around to defend Hermione but Harry was quick to silence everyone, even if he was beginning to become angry himself. But he thought, and was afraid, that this fourth year Hufflepuff was probably more representative of the Magical World than Harry and his friends were. That was just something they would have to deal with, he guessed.
"Well, does anyone have another idea?" he asked.
Whether because they had no ideas, they didn't want to oppose an apparent unified front, or they just agreed, Harry would never know, but no one suggested a different name. So, it was decided. Dumbledore's Army would be renamed Hermione's Army.
Harry and Ron shared a quick moment between the two of them before they moved on with the meeting.
Harry introduced the idea of the layered system. They would just form smaller groups within the group so people could focus on multiple things at once. For example, Mia and two other second years would have trouble enough with the shield and disarming charms, as did Lily. But experienced members like Ginny and Luna had already cast Patronus charms last year so it made sense that they would work on something else. But in general, the idea was to help each other.
He was glad to see that the more experienced members did not have to be prodded into helping the less experienced members. Harry surveyed the practising members and saw Ginny helping Mia. He smiled fondly, it seemed that Ginny had taken a liking to the small girl, perhaps she saw something of herself in her. He also saw Luna practising with Lily but they both seemed distracted by something. Luna looked like she was studying Lily, whereas Lily shuffled her feet embarrassedly. She didn't like attention. Meanwhile, Sophie was duelling Lavender, and Ron and Neville were practising their nonverbals again.
"Harry?" Parvati was walking up to him.
"Hi, Parvati, what's up?"
"We're starting with Healing next Tuesday right?"
Harry nodded. "Yes, Madam Pomfrey will be here next Tuesday, that's the plan at least. As long as I don't fall off my broom during Quidditch practise on Sunday."
Parvati smiled wryly. "Great, I'll tell the others."
"Are there many people interested in Healing?" Harry asked. He wondered whether that was a popular job in the Magical World.
"Here? It's just me and Leanne, as far as I know. I haven't spoken to any of the below fifth years yet. You?"
"I think it is a good idea for me and Ron to know at least some healing spells, considering the amount of trouble we find ourselves in," Harry said grimly.
Parvati looked over to where Ron and Neville were practising.
"Can I talk to you in private, for a second?" she asked quietly to Harry.
Harry swallowed a wave of panicked flashbacks to Cho away and nodded. They walked away a bit further and Harry asked the Room for some sort of room divider to keep them out of sight and then cast muffliato, a spell he had learned from the Half-Blood Prince's book.
He looked at Parvati warily.
"Okay, so here's the deal. We might be heading to a crisis," Parvati said quickly.
"Crisis, why? What's happening?" Harry's mind immediately envisioned Death Eaters.
"Oh, nothing like that!" Parvati was quick to assuage that fear. "It's more that, oh Lavender is going to hate me for this, " she muttered. She breathed out forcefully.
"Okay, look. Lavender has this crush on Ron and she is trying to get his attention. However, I'm not sure whether Ron is in the right state of mind for that. He's been looking moody in general and Lavender's presence does not help, but Lavender thinks he's just being shy or something."
Harry removed his glasses and wearily rubbed his eyes. He felt like he didn't have the time to deal with teenage romance. Besides, Parvati had probably judged the situation correctly: Ron was most likely not in the right state of mind to be dating anyone.
"Okay, what do you want me to do about it?" he asked Parvati.
"I'm not sure we should do anything," Parvati said, playing with a bracelet on her arm. "I honestly have no idea what to do."
Well, if Parvati doesn't know, how am I supposed to know what to do? Harry thought, dejectedly. "Maybe let's just see what happens?" he suggested reluctantly.
"Shouldn't we step in if we both think it'll end badly?" Parvati asked. "Ugh, I hate not knowing what to do."
"I'll speak with Ginny, I'll let you know what we think okay?"
"Sure," Parvati, seemingly glad that a plan had been made.
With that, she made her way back to the others. Harry remained watching from a distance. Lavender had been practising with Padma, Hannah and Susan, but she had positioned herself in such a way she could look at Ron the entire time. Harry was glad to see she wasn't as distracted as he might have expected. Sure, this was only the second meeting but most members took it very seriously, especially those who had known Hermione, of course. Even Roger was doing his best. Harry guessed he probably was a good kid overall, he just wasn't very tactful, and that wasn't a crime.
But his objection to the name Hermione's Army did give Harry something to think about. He actually liked the idea of calling for Kreacher and Dobby and letting people hear their different experiences, but he wasn't sure whether this would be the right venue for it. He'd have to think about that.
-In Her Memory-
The next week or so passed by slowly. Harry and Ron were inundated with homework, their defence self-study, studying healing magic, quidditch, HA meetings, and their workouts with their dorm mates. The first healing lesson with Madam Pomfrey was very interesting: they had discussed the use of non-healing spells, spells they already knew, for healing purposes.
Harry had talked with Ginny about Lavender's crush on Ron. As they were the only two who knew the truth about both Ron and Hermione, they had a hushed discussion in the Common Room when Ron had made a mid-afternoon kitchen run on Sunday. They had decided to not do anything, hoping that the issue would resolve itself at some point. Harry had jokingly wondered whether he should warn Ron against tongue-invasions as that might dislodge the Mandrake leaf. Ginny was jealous that they had begun their process and said that she was thinking of doing it as a NEWT project as well.
Harry had also asked her about what Signe had said during the meeting on Friday, but Ginny just told him that Signe could take care of herself and he needn't be worried. Harry had said he wasn't particularly worried, he just wondered about internal Slytherin dynamics. Ginny had scoffed at this. "Like you wouldn't want to save her if you could," she had teased. Harry had denied this quite hotly. He didn't want to say this to Ginny, but he felt he didn't have that good of a success rate when it came to saving people. Sure, he had saved Ginny in second year, Sirius in third year, and Mr Weasley last year, but the deaths of Cedric, Hermione and Sirius outweighed those in his mind. He didn't want to say that, because he didn't want Ginny to try to convince him it wasn't his fault. Because he still didn't agree.
How could people praise him for saving Ginny or Mr Weasley, when they denied he was responsible for last year? After all, Hermione had figured out it was a Basilisk, which was the only reason Harry had figured that he needed to use Parseltongue to go down into the Chamber. Harry thought it was hypocritical to praise him for those actions, but not condemn him for others.
While Harry had tried hard and had managed, mostly, to turn these bad feelings into motivation, Ron was growing increasingly agitated, tired, and even sickly-looking. He had also started to complain about muscle aches. Harry and Ginny had both tried to say something but Ron just shrugged them off and went back to his studies. Harry had to give it to his friend, he was taking his studies exactly as serious as he had said he would during the summer.
The weekend also brought their first letters of the year. The Twins had written Harry to update him on their progress with the Instant-Letters. They had managed to create a scroll with extension charms so you could roll back the parchment to read previous messages, but they had now encountered another problem. The Doubling charm they were using to copy the message onto the other parchment was limited by distance, which was a big hindrance.
To his surprise, Harry had also received a letter from Fleur, who didn't have any particularly interesting news but seemed to just want to stay in touch. Ginny had looked at him with furrowed brows when she saw the letter, but she just shrugged when Harry asked her what was up. Harry had written Fleur back, and asked for advice about the Ron/Lavender situation, in what he thought was abstractedly enough that she wouldn't guess it was about Ron.
Ginny and Ron themselves had gotten some bad, but not completely unexpected news. Errol, the Weasley's ancient owl had finally passed away sometime last week, which was why Mr and Mrs Weasley hadn't written earlier. The letter was delivered by their new owl, who hadn't been named yet. Ginny immediately suggested Owlfonso, which had made Harry laugh out loud. But he stopped when she threw a bread roll at him. Apparently, it hadn't been a joke.
Ron immediately vowed to never let Ginny name any bird, as the great calamity that was Pigwidgeon had shown she couldn't be trusted. Ginny had called him a great, big prat.
That they were now in their third week of the year at Hogwarts was becoming clear while wandering the corridors. It always took a while for the student body to hit their stride, so Harry wasn't surprised when it took until that week to see some third year with pink antlers sprouting from his head running through a corridor, while his friends tried to keep up while laughing loudly. It was these kinds of spell mishaps that you saw at least once a fortnight when Hogwarts was in full swing.
Harry himself had sort of a spell mishap himself when he, without thinking about it, cast one of the spells he had learned from the potion book. During their defence practice on Wednesday morning, getting fed up with failing to effectively cast a shield charm nonverbally, Harry had pointed his wand, thought "Liberacorpus!" and swiped his want horizontally to the right before curving it back into a C shape. Before he knew it Neville was upside down, hanging from his ankle. Ron had thought it was very funny, and though Harry felt sorry for Neville, he was glad to hear Ron laugh. Sadly for Neville, they didn't have potions that day so Harry had to hurry back to their dorm to get his book for the counter curse.
When Ron told the story during dinner that night, Ginny and Luna weren't amused. Ginny objected to the use of a spell written in a book by someone unknown and Luna objected to the use of unknown spells in general. Harry, remembering the way Luna's mother had passed away, could understand both their points of view. Ron, on the other hand, grew silently angry by the girls' reaction to his funny anecdote.
The HA meeting of Friday was a special occasion as it took place the day after Hermione would've turned seventeen. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville had worked together to write a letter to Hermione's parents, detailing what knowing their daughter had meant for them.
The Friday meeting itself ended up being an impromptu memorial for Hermione. People shared stories and Luna showed up with a rather large painting she had apparently used the Room of Requirement to make. Like the one she had made for Ginny, this one didn't move either. It pictured Hermione sitting in a lazy chair in front of a fireplace, absentmindedly twisting a lock of hair around her finger while reading a book. Harry was particularly taken with how Luna had captured the idea that he and Ron were sitting out of frame. There was nothing painted that directly indicated that this was the case, but somehow the painting managed to convey the feeling anyway.
She asked Ginny, Ron and Harry to hang the painting near Hermione's favourite armchair in the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry invited Luna to come up to hang the painting herself. Together with Ron held the painting in place while Luna cast a Permanent Sticking Charm.
Luna explained to Dean, who himself was rather good at drawing, that she chose a non-moving painting as a tribute to Hermione being a muggle-born. Next to him, Ginny was hugging Ron. Ron was staring a the painting, while Ginny was standing on a chair, whispering something in his ear.
After a minute or two, Harry had a sudden idea.
"Luna?"
Luna looked behind her from where she was talking to Lily. "Yes, Harry?" If Harry didn't know better, he thought Luna looked annoyed at being asked something, but he wasn't sure if Luna knew what annoyance was.
"I was just thinking, do you think Hermione's parents would like a copy?"
"No, of course not. That'd be silly," Luna said, staring at Harry like he had grown a second head.
"Oh. Er.. why would that be silly?" Harry wondered. Sure, he knew next to nothing of art but he was quite sure that people often had copies of famous paintings adorning their walls.
"Why would you want a copy when I could just make a new one?"
"With a duplication charm?" Harry guessed. This was the wrong answer as Luna looked as angry as Harry had ever seen her, which meant she only looked slightly disgruntled.
"You cannot simply copy art, Harry Potter. Could you copy magic if I asked you to?"
"No?" Harry responded, holding both his hands in an "I'm sorry" gesture. Luckily for him, Ginny intervened.
"Luna, I don't think Harry knows a lot about art," she said placatingly, making a calm down gesture with her hands.
Luna made a distinctly un-Luna-like noise and muttered: "Well, that's obvious."
"What Luna meant was that the process of creating art involves something which gives it its own kind of magic. Just copying it would lessen the value." Lily spoke up suddenly, surprising Harry, who hadn't known her to speak up. She promptly turned scarlet when people looked at her.
Luna smiled brightly at Lily and then cocked an eyebrow at Harry. "See, Lily gets it!", she said and went to hug the girl.
Harry wasn't sure he understood what Lily had said but he decided to just let it slide. He was interested to see Ginny hiding a smile while looking at the two blondes. He felt like he was missing something.
He was distracted by someone tugging on his sleeve. It was a sad-looking Dobby.
"Hello, Dobby," Harry greeted him, "What's up?"
"Hello, Harry Potter, sir!" the elf said, "Dobby knows what day it was yesterday, and Dobby wanted to give this to Harry Potter and his friends, sir."
He clicked his finger and a couple of badly knitted woollen hats popped into existence. Harry didn't recognize them, but Ron did. Immediately.
"Those are Hermione's hats!" he exclaimed, grabbing one of them from the air. He held it in his hands and looked at it with a grim expression. Harry didn't think it took a genius to guess what he was thinking about.
"Dobby hoped the hats could be added to the memorial," the Elf said, looking up at the painting.
Harry looked too and then looked over at Ron.
"Sorry, could someone explain what the hats are?" Luna said, cocking her head to the left.
"Hermione made them to try to free the Hogwarts House-Elves, she would leave them in the common room at night, hidden and hoped they would stumble across them," Harry explained.
"That's stupid," Luna said.
"Hermione wasn't stupid!" Ron shot back angrily. Ginny put her hand on his shoulder.
Luna looked at him with her large eyes and explained her statement.
"Hermione had a problem with the lack of agency House Elves have. Her solution was to trick House Elves into getting freed, which meant they still had no choice. That's stupid. Moreover," she continued when Ron wanted to say something, "House Elves can't be freed by students, right Dobby?" She looked at the Elf, still standing beside Harry.
"Yes, Miss Loony! Hogwarts House Elves can only be freed by the Headmaster!" the Elf confirmed.
"See?" Luna said to Ron, who was looking very angry indeed. Harry decided it was time to intervene.
"I'm sure we can put the hats somewhere, Dobby. Thank you."
They stood under the painting for quite some time in their little group. Talking about this and that until they all went to bed.