Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter 8: The Return of Dumbledore's Army.
Harry crawled into bed that night extremely tired, he was just about to go to sleep when he realised he hadn't got any spells to teach the DA. Mentally thanking Hermione for her excellent choice of birthday present, Harry quickly searched for his book, 'Curses and Counter Curses', grabbed it, took a quill, some ink and some parchment, put on his dressing gown and walked down into the common room. He sat in an armchair by the fire, which was still burning and opened the book. He quickly scanned the contents.
"Defensive curses, Curses, Counter curses." Harry muttered as he looked down the list. Eventually deciding to teach them a defensive curse and a curse. He turned to page sixty-three, curses. He looked down the page, nothing interested him there, he turned the page over, one caught his eye, the burn curse. He read the description beneath it. A curse for causing an incredibly painful burn. He would get back to that one. He read the next couple without interest, one interested as soon as he saw it. The slashing curse. Harry read the description. A curse that will cause a deep cut to appear at the point of contact. Point your wand at the place on your foes body where you want the cut to appear. The incantation is 'slasio' pronounced sla-see-o. Upon incantation a silver streak of light should erupt from your wand.
"That will definitely come in useful," said Harry to himself, he wrote the spell and it's effects down. He spotted a spare piece of parchment on a table. He picked it up and pointed his wand at it.
"Slasio" a beam of silver light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the parchment, as if some had got a knife and had swept it through parchment, the parchment was split in half. Excellent, Harry thought to himself, that's one sorted. He sat down again and flicked back to the contents. After checking what page defensive curses were on, he turned to them. After leafing through the pages with nothing interesting him, Harry saw one particular spell. The healing spell. This spelled healed most cuts. Simply wave your wand over the cut area, the book stated, and say the incantation 'Healify'. Harry wrote that one down as well. Relieved to have that particular weight off his shoulders Harry went back to bed. He took off his dressing gown and climbed into bed. Within a couple of minutes he was asleep
He woke up next morning to the sounds of the other boys getting dressed. He quickly got up and dressed and followed Ron out of the dorm. Hermione was waiting for them in the common room,
"You two took a while," she said impatiently.
"Good morning to you too." Said Ron sarcastically.
"Sorry." Said Harry quickly, not wanting them to start arguing. They left the common and headed down to breakfast. Harry sat down next to Seamus and took a piece of toast. Ron sat down opposite Harry and grabbed everything within reach.
"Where's Hermione?" asked Harry, seeing that she had not sat down with them.
"Gone to get timetables, I think." Said Ron through a mouthful of bacon. A minute later Hermione came back. She passed Harry his timetable and then gave Ron his. Ron groaned aloud.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins first thing." Harry glanced down at his.
"Same"
"That's going to be fun." Said Ron through gritted teeth.
"What about you Hermione?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said Hermione.
"That's not too bad then," said Harry turning to Ron. Ron didn't hear him; he was glaring at his timetable as if he could force it to change by looks alone. Harry looked down his timetable to see what else he had today, after potions he had charms then lunch followed by transfiguration in the afternoon.
"On the whole it's a pretty good day for me." Said Harry. He leaned over to check what Ron had. To his relief Ron had exactly the same lessons as him.
"Have you got the same, Hermione?" Ron asked, having given up his attempt to change his timetable by glaring at it.
"For today, yes." The finished their breakfast and hurried up to their dormitories to get their things. They quickly grabbed their potions stuff and rushed down to their dungeons. They only just avoided being late. They saw that the class was much smaller than it was last year, Harry noticed, with disappointment, that Malfoy was there as well. They managed to get seats at the back and had only just sat down when Snape walked in. The class immediately fell silent.
"Well," he said quietly, "You are the people that did sufficiently well in your OWL's to continue with the subtle art of potion making, however I must say that I am surprised to see some of you here." His eyes rested on Harry for a minute. Malfoy turned round and smirked at him. Harry ignored it and listening to Snape.
"This does not mean," Snape continued, "That you will have to try any less hard. You will continue to work just as hard or you will find yourself punished severely. Do I make myself understood?" The class nodded.
"Excellent, today we will be brewing the Heating Draught. This is a potion that will allow you to warm up whenever you take it. I warn you, this is a very complicated potion, make sure you pay careful attention to what you are doing." Again he stared at Harry, Harry stared back, hating him. The instructions appeared on the board; Harry took out his cauldron and started adding the ingredients. Half an hour later the potion was meant to be turning a deep red, however Harry's was only a violent orange. As Snape passed Harry's cauldron, he smirked.
"You haven't added enough borlion powder," whispered Hermione as soon as Snape was out of earshot.
"Thanks." Harry whispered back. He added more of the borlion powder and to his immense satisfaction the potion proceeded to turn red.
"Right," said Snape five minutes later, "This potion will need to simmer for the rest of the lesson. What I want you to do in the meantime is write a essay on the effects of adding too little gortan weed to the Heating Draught." At the end of the lesson everyone collected some of their potion in a flask and took it up to Snape's desk. Snape looked extremely disappointed when he saw the colour of Harry's potion.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," he said to Hermione nastily when she handed her potion to him, "You should not have helped Potter." Harry turned to him angrily but Snape had turned away.
"Homework tonight is to write a two foot essay on the effects of borlion powder in potion making." Snape said to the class before dismissing them. Hermione looked tearful as they left the class.
"That was seriously unfair." Said Harry angrily.
"What was?" asked Ron.
"Snape just took ten points from Gryffindor because Hermione told me how to turn my potion from orange to red."
"The git!" said Ron equally angry. They headed off to charms. Ron was still fuming as they entered the charms room.
"Right class," squeaked Professor Flitwick from the front, "today we will be learning the hovering charm. This charm will allow things to hover for a short period of time; the incantation is 'asendio' raise your wand upwards and say 'asendio'." They turned to the cushions that they had to make hover. Within five minutes most of the class had got it.
"How easy is this?" asked Hermione making her cushion hover for about ten seconds.
"Not very!" said Ron through clenched teeth. "C'mon!" he said angrily as his cushion gave a feeble sort of bounce before falling back down onto the table.
"You're doing the wand movement wrong" Hermione stated softly, not in her usual superior voice. Ron must have noticed this because his reply wasn't filled with anger.
"How do you do it right then?" he asked.
"It's more of flick when you raise your wand, not a straight up movement." Ron tried it and to his surprise it worked.
"Thanks." He said awkwardly.
"No problem" she smiled at him. They continued practising for another five minutes until Professor Flitwick told them to stop.
"Tonight's homework, write a foot and a half essay on the hovering charm!" They hurried off to lunch and sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"What have we got after lunch again?" said Ron through a mouthful of food, Hermione looked repulsed before answering in a disgusted voice,
"Transfiguration"
"Cool." Ron said before returning to stuffing his face. They finished their lunch before hurrying to the transfiguration room. They entered and sat down at the back. Professor McGonagall walked in. She surveyed the class before speaking.
"Right, welcome to advance transfiguration. This year we will be transfiguring furniture into animals mostly," an excited whisper went round the room, they had wanted to transfigure furniture into animals ever since they had been shown it in their first year, "but we may do some minor human transfiguration. However, first take out your toads and we will transfigure them into plates. The incantation is 'platonius'" At the end of the lesson only Hermione had been able to transfigure her toad into a plate. Harry had managed to transfigure his toad into sort of plate shape plate but it still had the toad skin.
"Potter, Weasley! I want to speak to you please!" Professor McGonagall said from the front of the class. Wondering what it was about, Harry and Ron walked up to her desk.
"You have been made captain for the Gryffindor quidditch team." Ron turned and grinned at Harry.
"Well done, mate!"
"Yes, congratulations Potter. However could you please make sure that you win the quidditch cup again this year? It is starting to look natural in my office." She gave him a small smile.
"I would like you both to work extra hard this year at your quidditch. That is all." Beaming from ear to ear Harry left the classroom with Ron.
"I didn't expect it to be me," Harry said as they were walking up towards Gryffindor tower.
"When you think about it though who else could it be?" Ron asked him.
"Yeah, I suppose so." They gave the password to the Fat Lady, doxy fur, and climbed through the portrait hole. Hermione was working beside the fireplace. She turned round when she heard them enter.
"I've been made captain of Gryffindor quidditch team." Harry told her grinning.
"Oh, Harry that's excellent!" she exclaimed jumping up and giving him a hug, "congratulations!"
"Thanks" He said smiling at her. He sat down at the table in the corner of the common room and started to do his homework. He had managed to complete Snape's essay before he went down to tea. After tea he went up to his room to get the sheet with the spells he was going to teach the DA on. At quarter to eight he left the common room with Ron and Hermione and proceeded to the room of requirement.
At eight o'clock people began arriving. Five minutes later everyone was here and sat down looking up at Harry. He decided to get straight to the point.
"Now that Voldemort is back then we will have to work extra hard." They flinched at Voldemort's name then nodded. "I have two spells I want to teach you." What I need is a dummy, he thought, intending to demonstrate the slashing curse. He spotted one in the corner.
"Go get that dummy for me." He said to Ron, wondering what was coming Ron obeyed. When he had put the dummy about ten yards in front of Harry, Harry took out his wand. He pointed it at the dummy's chest.
"The first spell I'm going to show you is the slashing curse, observe. Slasio!" a beam of silver light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the dummy. Immediately a deep gash appeared, about ten inches long, horizontally along its chest. They all looked impressed, even Zacharias Smith.
"That is one cool curse." Said Dean in an awed voice. Quickly Harry counted them, twenty two, which would mean he would need eleven dummies. He spotted them in a corner.
"Okay everyone, find a partner and get one of those dummies and practise the spell." Cho came up to Harry.
"Hey Harry."
"Hey, long time no see." Harry replied. He leaned in and kissed her. The whole room fell quiet as everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to watch. Ron's wand rose. "Unless you want me to hex you all into oblivion, I suggest you get on with what you are doing and stop watching Harry and Cho. Ron looked so angry that everyone immediately hurried to their tasks, everyone that is apart from Zacharias Smith.
"Oh yeah," he sneered, "You reckon you can take us all on?" Ron's ears turned red, always a danger sign.
"Watch it, Smith"
"No, I don't think I will." And with that he sent a curse at Ron, who immediately deflected it with a shield charm.
"STOP IT" yelled a voice. Everyone turned and saw Harry with his wand out, flicking it from Ron to Zacharias repeatedly. He looked furious.
"We are here to learn to fight Voldemort," most people flinched at the name, "Not each other, so get a grip you two." They both looked embarrassed and mumbled an apology.
"I'd better get practising," said Cho when Harry turned back to her. Harry watched her until she reached a spare dummy and started practising. Harry walked around the class correcting problems, after about ten minutes most people seemed to have got the spell sorted. At half past nine he called a halt,
"On the whole that was good, it's not a difficult spell but it will be useful," said Harry, "the next spell I want you to learn will also be quite useful. It is called the healing spell. This spell will heal most cuts. After I demonstrate it I want you to practise it for the remainder of the session." Harry stopped before showing them the spell. It wouldn't quite be the same demonstrating it on a dummy; they have to see it on a person as well. Summoning his determination Harry pointed his wand it his left arm, where the bicep is. Hermione realised what he was going to do but bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. People gasped as they realised what he was going to do, some opened their mouths to protest but Ron and Hermione shook their heads at them and they closed them again. "Slasio" said Harry. Immediately pain ripped through his arm, it was like when Wormtail had cut it to get the blood in his fourth year. Harry looked at his arm and saw a very deep cut that was bleeding freely. He waved his wand over it and said,
"Healify" immediately the cut closed up and the pain disappeared. The room broke out into loud applause. Panting slightly fro the pain Harry silenced them.
"You will be glad to know that I am not going to ask you to do that. I just felt you needed to see the spell on real skin. With your partner one use the slashing curse to create a cut and one heal it. Once you have done that the person that cut it heals it, and the person that healed it cuts it. Understand?" Everyone nodded. Harry walked towards Cho who had been on her own.
"Do you want to cut or heal first?" he asked her.
"I'll cut" she said. She sent the slashing curse at the dummy. Harry immediately healed it.
"That was very brave of you," she said after five minutes. Harry's heart swelled, she had called him brave.
"Thanks" he said. After another five minutes, Harry had to walk round to correct any mistakes. Cho went off to practise with Ron and Hermione. Cho seemed to be getting on well with Hermione after what had happened last year. Harry was pleased about that.
Ginny was struggling with the healing part. She would wave her wand and say the incantation but nothing would happen. Harry thought about this for a moment and then he had an idea.
"Try to concentrate on the cut more." She tried this and it worked. She smiled at him.
"Thanks." Harry continued walking around. At nine o'clock Harry stopped them.
"Today has been excellent, well done. I set the time of the next meeting when I have decided when it shall be." Harry let them go and started tidying up with Ron and Hermione. Cho tapped on the shoulder.
"See you, Harry"
"See you" They kissed each other and then Cho left. They finished tidying up and then they walked back to Gryffindor tower.
"That was excellent, Harry" said Hermione as they were walking back.
"Yeah it was." Agreed Ron.
"Thanks, but you," said Harry, addressing Ron, "Need to control your temper."
"I didn't start it!"
"Doesn't matter, you should have just ignored him." Said Harry.
"Easier said then done."
"I don't care, just do it."
"You 're starting to sound like Hermione!"
"Ron Weasley! You say that like it's a bad thing!" She snapped. Ron yelped realising he had made a mistake.
"I didn't mean it like that!" He said worriedly.
"What did you mean it like then?"
"Well, you're the one that's meant to give the advice like that, not Harry"
"You're just digging a bigger hole for yourself." Harry said absent- mindedly. Harry stopped listening to them arguing.
They reached the portrait hole and climbed through into the common room.
"Night" said Hermione as she turned to go up to the girls' dormitories.
"Night" said Ron.
"Yeah, night." Harry followed Ron up into the boy's dormitory. Seamus, Dean and Neville were already asleep. Harry and Ron quickly got changed and crawled into their beds.
"That was great." Said Ron.
"Yeah it was" agreed Harry. They both turned over and fell asleep.
Harry was woken up the next morning by the sounds of the other four getting dressed. He got up and got dressed and followed Ron down to breakfast, Seamus, Dean and Neville just behind them. As they got into the entrance hall they saw Malfoy standing there with Crabbe, Goyle and Theodore Nott, the latter who seemed to become a regular crony of Malfoy's. When Malfoy saw them standing there he grinned at Nott, Crabbe and Goyle and raised his wand, Crabbe's, Goyle's and Notts's all raised as well. Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville all raised their wands.
"You are so dead, Potter." Spat Malfoy. Harry raised his eyebrows
"Remember what happened in Diagon Alley?" Harry asked coolly. Malfoy had obviously not forgotten because with a furious look at Harry he put his wand away and muttered to Crabbe, Goyle and Nott who followed him into the Great Hall.
"Damn!" Said Ron angrily, "I was hoping for a fight."
"Where've you been?" asked Hermione when Harry and Ron sat down opposite her. Ron immediately began stuffing himself. He began to open his mouth to tell her,
"No!" said Hermione hurriedly, "Harry can answer!" Ron closed his mouth looking offended.
"We got held up by Malfoy." Harry explained.
"I hope you haven't been fighting again!" said Hermione seriously.
"No." Harry reassured her.
"Unfortunately" muttered Ron but so that only Harry could hear. Harry grinned.
"Oh, by the way." Said Harry before Hermione could ask what he was grinning at, "I want to do Chaser trials today and I want the whole team there."
Ron nodded,
"Ok." He said. They finished their breakfast and went and got their things, Harry looked at his timetable, Herbology first, then Defence Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy in the afternoon.
Grabbing his things for Herbology he ran down to the greenhouses, closely followed by Ron and Hermione. They hurried through the door of greenhouse three and managed to slip in unnoticed by Professor Sprout.
A/N Right I am going to have to leave it there because otherwise I would not be able to get this chapter up for a couple of weeks. I am going to be on half term for about ten days so I won't be able to get a chapter up for about two weeks as I won't have access to the internet while I am on half term.
On a more serious note most of you will have noticed that my story has been messed up. This is not my fault; someone knew my passwords and was messing it up. I have got that problem sorted, I am sure of it. I think I have worked out how they were doing it and I sorted it out. But thanks for your patience, especially LogicalRaven. Keep reading 'cos I'll keep writing!
Fireboy.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter 8: The Return of Dumbledore's Army.
Harry crawled into bed that night extremely tired, he was just about to go to sleep when he realised he hadn't got any spells to teach the DA. Mentally thanking Hermione for her excellent choice of birthday present, Harry quickly searched for his book, 'Curses and Counter Curses', grabbed it, took a quill, some ink and some parchment, put on his dressing gown and walked down into the common room. He sat in an armchair by the fire, which was still burning and opened the book. He quickly scanned the contents.
"Defensive curses, Curses, Counter curses." Harry muttered as he looked down the list. Eventually deciding to teach them a defensive curse and a curse. He turned to page sixty-three, curses. He looked down the page, nothing interested him there, he turned the page over, one caught his eye, the burn curse. He read the description beneath it. A curse for causing an incredibly painful burn. He would get back to that one. He read the next couple without interest, one interested as soon as he saw it. The slashing curse. Harry read the description. A curse that will cause a deep cut to appear at the point of contact. Point your wand at the place on your foes body where you want the cut to appear. The incantation is 'slasio' pronounced sla-see-o. Upon incantation a silver streak of light should erupt from your wand.
"That will definitely come in useful," said Harry to himself, he wrote the spell and it's effects down. He spotted a spare piece of parchment on a table. He picked it up and pointed his wand at it.
"Slasio" a beam of silver light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the parchment, as if some had got a knife and had swept it through parchment, the parchment was split in half. Excellent, Harry thought to himself, that's one sorted. He sat down again and flicked back to the contents. After checking what page defensive curses were on, he turned to them. After leafing through the pages with nothing interesting him, Harry saw one particular spell. The healing spell. This spelled healed most cuts. Simply wave your wand over the cut area, the book stated, and say the incantation 'Healify'. Harry wrote that one down as well. Relieved to have that particular weight off his shoulders Harry went back to bed. He took off his dressing gown and climbed into bed. Within a couple of minutes he was asleep
He woke up next morning to the sounds of the other boys getting dressed. He quickly got up and dressed and followed Ron out of the dorm. Hermione was waiting for them in the common room,
"You two took a while," she said impatiently.
"Good morning to you too." Said Ron sarcastically.
"Sorry." Said Harry quickly, not wanting them to start arguing. They left the common and headed down to breakfast. Harry sat down next to Seamus and took a piece of toast. Ron sat down opposite Harry and grabbed everything within reach.
"Where's Hermione?" asked Harry, seeing that she had not sat down with them.
"Gone to get timetables, I think." Said Ron through a mouthful of bacon. A minute later Hermione came back. She passed Harry his timetable and then gave Ron his. Ron groaned aloud.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins first thing." Harry glanced down at his.
"Same"
"That's going to be fun." Said Ron through gritted teeth.
"What about you Hermione?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said Hermione.
"That's not too bad then," said Harry turning to Ron. Ron didn't hear him; he was glaring at his timetable as if he could force it to change by looks alone. Harry looked down his timetable to see what else he had today, after potions he had charms then lunch followed by transfiguration in the afternoon.
"On the whole it's a pretty good day for me." Said Harry. He leaned over to check what Ron had. To his relief Ron had exactly the same lessons as him.
"Have you got the same, Hermione?" Ron asked, having given up his attempt to change his timetable by glaring at it.
"For today, yes." The finished their breakfast and hurried up to their dormitories to get their things. They quickly grabbed their potions stuff and rushed down to their dungeons. They only just avoided being late. They saw that the class was much smaller than it was last year, Harry noticed, with disappointment, that Malfoy was there as well. They managed to get seats at the back and had only just sat down when Snape walked in. The class immediately fell silent.
"Well," he said quietly, "You are the people that did sufficiently well in your OWL's to continue with the subtle art of potion making, however I must say that I am surprised to see some of you here." His eyes rested on Harry for a minute. Malfoy turned round and smirked at him. Harry ignored it and listening to Snape.
"This does not mean," Snape continued, "That you will have to try any less hard. You will continue to work just as hard or you will find yourself punished severely. Do I make myself understood?" The class nodded.
"Excellent, today we will be brewing the Heating Draught. This is a potion that will allow you to warm up whenever you take it. I warn you, this is a very complicated potion, make sure you pay careful attention to what you are doing." Again he stared at Harry, Harry stared back, hating him. The instructions appeared on the board; Harry took out his cauldron and started adding the ingredients. Half an hour later the potion was meant to be turning a deep red, however Harry's was only a violent orange. As Snape passed Harry's cauldron, he smirked.
"You haven't added enough borlion powder," whispered Hermione as soon as Snape was out of earshot.
"Thanks." Harry whispered back. He added more of the borlion powder and to his immense satisfaction the potion proceeded to turn red.
"Right," said Snape five minutes later, "This potion will need to simmer for the rest of the lesson. What I want you to do in the meantime is write a essay on the effects of adding too little gortan weed to the Heating Draught." At the end of the lesson everyone collected some of their potion in a flask and took it up to Snape's desk. Snape looked extremely disappointed when he saw the colour of Harry's potion.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," he said to Hermione nastily when she handed her potion to him, "You should not have helped Potter." Harry turned to him angrily but Snape had turned away.
"Homework tonight is to write a two foot essay on the effects of borlion powder in potion making." Snape said to the class before dismissing them. Hermione looked tearful as they left the class.
"That was seriously unfair." Said Harry angrily.
"What was?" asked Ron.
"Snape just took ten points from Gryffindor because Hermione told me how to turn my potion from orange to red."
"The git!" said Ron equally angry. They headed off to charms. Ron was still fuming as they entered the charms room.
"Right class," squeaked Professor Flitwick from the front, "today we will be learning the hovering charm. This charm will allow things to hover for a short period of time; the incantation is 'asendio' raise your wand upwards and say 'asendio'." They turned to the cushions that they had to make hover. Within five minutes most of the class had got it.
"How easy is this?" asked Hermione making her cushion hover for about ten seconds.
"Not very!" said Ron through clenched teeth. "C'mon!" he said angrily as his cushion gave a feeble sort of bounce before falling back down onto the table.
"You're doing the wand movement wrong" Hermione stated softly, not in her usual superior voice. Ron must have noticed this because his reply wasn't filled with anger.
"How do you do it right then?" he asked.
"It's more of flick when you raise your wand, not a straight up movement." Ron tried it and to his surprise it worked.
"Thanks." He said awkwardly.
"No problem" she smiled at him. They continued practising for another five minutes until Professor Flitwick told them to stop.
"Tonight's homework, write a foot and a half essay on the hovering charm!" They hurried off to lunch and sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"What have we got after lunch again?" said Ron through a mouthful of food, Hermione looked repulsed before answering in a disgusted voice,
"Transfiguration"
"Cool." Ron said before returning to stuffing his face. They finished their lunch before hurrying to the transfiguration room. They entered and sat down at the back. Professor McGonagall walked in. She surveyed the class before speaking.
"Right, welcome to advance transfiguration. This year we will be transfiguring furniture into animals mostly," an excited whisper went round the room, they had wanted to transfigure furniture into animals ever since they had been shown it in their first year, "but we may do some minor human transfiguration. However, first take out your toads and we will transfigure them into plates. The incantation is 'platonius'" At the end of the lesson only Hermione had been able to transfigure her toad into a plate. Harry had managed to transfigure his toad into sort of plate shape plate but it still had the toad skin.
"Potter, Weasley! I want to speak to you please!" Professor McGonagall said from the front of the class. Wondering what it was about, Harry and Ron walked up to her desk.
"You have been made captain for the Gryffindor quidditch team." Ron turned and grinned at Harry.
"Well done, mate!"
"Yes, congratulations Potter. However could you please make sure that you win the quidditch cup again this year? It is starting to look natural in my office." She gave him a small smile.
"I would like you both to work extra hard this year at your quidditch. That is all." Beaming from ear to ear Harry left the classroom with Ron.
"I didn't expect it to be me," Harry said as they were walking up towards Gryffindor tower.
"When you think about it though who else could it be?" Ron asked him.
"Yeah, I suppose so." They gave the password to the Fat Lady, doxy fur, and climbed through the portrait hole. Hermione was working beside the fireplace. She turned round when she heard them enter.
"I've been made captain of Gryffindor quidditch team." Harry told her grinning.
"Oh, Harry that's excellent!" she exclaimed jumping up and giving him a hug, "congratulations!"
"Thanks" He said smiling at her. He sat down at the table in the corner of the common room and started to do his homework. He had managed to complete Snape's essay before he went down to tea. After tea he went up to his room to get the sheet with the spells he was going to teach the DA on. At quarter to eight he left the common room with Ron and Hermione and proceeded to the room of requirement.
At eight o'clock people began arriving. Five minutes later everyone was here and sat down looking up at Harry. He decided to get straight to the point.
"Now that Voldemort is back then we will have to work extra hard." They flinched at Voldemort's name then nodded. "I have two spells I want to teach you." What I need is a dummy, he thought, intending to demonstrate the slashing curse. He spotted one in the corner.
"Go get that dummy for me." He said to Ron, wondering what was coming Ron obeyed. When he had put the dummy about ten yards in front of Harry, Harry took out his wand. He pointed it at the dummy's chest.
"The first spell I'm going to show you is the slashing curse, observe. Slasio!" a beam of silver light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the dummy. Immediately a deep gash appeared, about ten inches long, horizontally along its chest. They all looked impressed, even Zacharias Smith.
"That is one cool curse." Said Dean in an awed voice. Quickly Harry counted them, twenty two, which would mean he would need eleven dummies. He spotted them in a corner.
"Okay everyone, find a partner and get one of those dummies and practise the spell." Cho came up to Harry.
"Hey Harry."
"Hey, long time no see." Harry replied. He leaned in and kissed her. The whole room fell quiet as everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to watch. Ron's wand rose. "Unless you want me to hex you all into oblivion, I suggest you get on with what you are doing and stop watching Harry and Cho. Ron looked so angry that everyone immediately hurried to their tasks, everyone that is apart from Zacharias Smith.
"Oh yeah," he sneered, "You reckon you can take us all on?" Ron's ears turned red, always a danger sign.
"Watch it, Smith"
"No, I don't think I will." And with that he sent a curse at Ron, who immediately deflected it with a shield charm.
"STOP IT" yelled a voice. Everyone turned and saw Harry with his wand out, flicking it from Ron to Zacharias repeatedly. He looked furious.
"We are here to learn to fight Voldemort," most people flinched at the name, "Not each other, so get a grip you two." They both looked embarrassed and mumbled an apology.
"I'd better get practising," said Cho when Harry turned back to her. Harry watched her until she reached a spare dummy and started practising. Harry walked around the class correcting problems, after about ten minutes most people seemed to have got the spell sorted. At half past nine he called a halt,
"On the whole that was good, it's not a difficult spell but it will be useful," said Harry, "the next spell I want you to learn will also be quite useful. It is called the healing spell. This spell will heal most cuts. After I demonstrate it I want you to practise it for the remainder of the session." Harry stopped before showing them the spell. It wouldn't quite be the same demonstrating it on a dummy; they have to see it on a person as well. Summoning his determination Harry pointed his wand it his left arm, where the bicep is. Hermione realised what he was going to do but bit her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. People gasped as they realised what he was going to do, some opened their mouths to protest but Ron and Hermione shook their heads at them and they closed them again. "Slasio" said Harry. Immediately pain ripped through his arm, it was like when Wormtail had cut it to get the blood in his fourth year. Harry looked at his arm and saw a very deep cut that was bleeding freely. He waved his wand over it and said,
"Healify" immediately the cut closed up and the pain disappeared. The room broke out into loud applause. Panting slightly fro the pain Harry silenced them.
"You will be glad to know that I am not going to ask you to do that. I just felt you needed to see the spell on real skin. With your partner one use the slashing curse to create a cut and one heal it. Once you have done that the person that cut it heals it, and the person that healed it cuts it. Understand?" Everyone nodded. Harry walked towards Cho who had been on her own.
"Do you want to cut or heal first?" he asked her.
"I'll cut" she said. She sent the slashing curse at the dummy. Harry immediately healed it.
"That was very brave of you," she said after five minutes. Harry's heart swelled, she had called him brave.
"Thanks" he said. After another five minutes, Harry had to walk round to correct any mistakes. Cho went off to practise with Ron and Hermione. Cho seemed to be getting on well with Hermione after what had happened last year. Harry was pleased about that.
Ginny was struggling with the healing part. She would wave her wand and say the incantation but nothing would happen. Harry thought about this for a moment and then he had an idea.
"Try to concentrate on the cut more." She tried this and it worked. She smiled at him.
"Thanks." Harry continued walking around. At nine o'clock Harry stopped them.
"Today has been excellent, well done. I set the time of the next meeting when I have decided when it shall be." Harry let them go and started tidying up with Ron and Hermione. Cho tapped on the shoulder.
"See you, Harry"
"See you" They kissed each other and then Cho left. They finished tidying up and then they walked back to Gryffindor tower.
"That was excellent, Harry" said Hermione as they were walking back.
"Yeah it was." Agreed Ron.
"Thanks, but you," said Harry, addressing Ron, "Need to control your temper."
"I didn't start it!"
"Doesn't matter, you should have just ignored him." Said Harry.
"Easier said then done."
"I don't care, just do it."
"You 're starting to sound like Hermione!"
"Ron Weasley! You say that like it's a bad thing!" She snapped. Ron yelped realising he had made a mistake.
"I didn't mean it like that!" He said worriedly.
"What did you mean it like then?"
"Well, you're the one that's meant to give the advice like that, not Harry"
"You're just digging a bigger hole for yourself." Harry said absent- mindedly. Harry stopped listening to them arguing.
They reached the portrait hole and climbed through into the common room.
"Night" said Hermione as she turned to go up to the girls' dormitories.
"Night" said Ron.
"Yeah, night." Harry followed Ron up into the boy's dormitory. Seamus, Dean and Neville were already asleep. Harry and Ron quickly got changed and crawled into their beds.
"That was great." Said Ron.
"Yeah it was" agreed Harry. They both turned over and fell asleep.
Harry was woken up the next morning by the sounds of the other four getting dressed. He got up and got dressed and followed Ron down to breakfast, Seamus, Dean and Neville just behind them. As they got into the entrance hall they saw Malfoy standing there with Crabbe, Goyle and Theodore Nott, the latter who seemed to become a regular crony of Malfoy's. When Malfoy saw them standing there he grinned at Nott, Crabbe and Goyle and raised his wand, Crabbe's, Goyle's and Notts's all raised as well. Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville all raised their wands.
"You are so dead, Potter." Spat Malfoy. Harry raised his eyebrows
"Remember what happened in Diagon Alley?" Harry asked coolly. Malfoy had obviously not forgotten because with a furious look at Harry he put his wand away and muttered to Crabbe, Goyle and Nott who followed him into the Great Hall.
"Damn!" Said Ron angrily, "I was hoping for a fight."
"Where've you been?" asked Hermione when Harry and Ron sat down opposite her. Ron immediately began stuffing himself. He began to open his mouth to tell her,
"No!" said Hermione hurriedly, "Harry can answer!" Ron closed his mouth looking offended.
"We got held up by Malfoy." Harry explained.
"I hope you haven't been fighting again!" said Hermione seriously.
"No." Harry reassured her.
"Unfortunately" muttered Ron but so that only Harry could hear. Harry grinned.
"Oh, by the way." Said Harry before Hermione could ask what he was grinning at, "I want to do Chaser trials today and I want the whole team there."
Ron nodded,
"Ok." He said. They finished their breakfast and went and got their things, Harry looked at his timetable, Herbology first, then Defence Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy in the afternoon.
Grabbing his things for Herbology he ran down to the greenhouses, closely followed by Ron and Hermione. They hurried through the door of greenhouse three and managed to slip in unnoticed by Professor Sprout.
A/N Right I am going to have to leave it there because otherwise I would not be able to get this chapter up for a couple of weeks. I am going to be on half term for about ten days so I won't be able to get a chapter up for about two weeks as I won't have access to the internet while I am on half term.
On a more serious note most of you will have noticed that my story has been messed up. This is not my fault; someone knew my passwords and was messing it up. I have got that problem sorted, I am sure of it. I think I have worked out how they were doing it and I sorted it out. But thanks for your patience, especially LogicalRaven. Keep reading 'cos I'll keep writing!
Fireboy.