Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter Ten: The First Attack.
Harry was allowed to leave the hospital the next day, much to the relief of Cho. He quickly realised what Ron had said was true; he was more of a hero than he already was. He had complete strangers come and ask him how he did it, how he managed to do something like that, at first it took him by surprise, then he just got used to it. For once he was more famous for doing that then he was for being the Boy-Who-Lived. Every time he was asked Harry gave the same answer.
"I dunno, I just did it, I guess."
People would stop and stare more than they usually did, whispers followed him like shadows.
"He jumped right off of his broom.", "How did he manage to pull it off?"
Not everyone was impressed, the Slytherins hated him more than ever after what had happened. Every day groups of them would appear out of the shadows and from behind statues, wands raised but would slink off disappointed when they saw that he was surrounded by Gryffindors, who had taken it upon themselves to protect Harry. Although Harry suspected that it was not entirely at there own disposal, he suspected that Professor McGonagall had something to do with it. Nevertheless he was very grateful for it.
Harry left transfiguration on Monday morning and went down to the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. He sat down at the Gryffindor table between Ginny and Seamus and started eating his lunch. A couple of minutes later Ginny nudged him.
"What?" Harry asked her.
"What's wrong with Cho?"
"Huh?" Harry looked over to where Ginny was pointing. Cho had entered the Great hall crying heavily. "What the-" Harry jumped and ran over to where Cho was. All eyes seemed to be on him as he reached her, the noise level died down as everyone turned to watch them.
"Cho! What's wrong?" he asked her. Cho put her arms round Harry.
"Not here." She said between sobs. Harry took her hand and led her out of the Great Hall. As he did so, Professor Flitwick, as head of Ravenclaw stood up to go after them. Dumbledore pushed him down again.
"Let Harry go," he said smiling. Professor Flitwick sat down again.
"From what I've heard," he said in his squeaky voice, "they act just like James and Lily.
"They do." said Dumbledore smiling.
Harry led Cho out into the grounds and they sat down leaning against a rock looking out over the lake. Cho put her head on Harry's shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked her gently.
"Roger Davies cornered me as I was leaving the common room to go down to lunch and he tried to kiss me, he wouldn't let me go, I was so scared! He just wouldn't let me go!" Harry felt furious.
"He didn't!" Harry exclaimed.
"He did."
"Its alright now, I'm here!" Harry kissed her on the softly on forehead. "Wait here, I won't be long."
"Where are you going?" asked Cho in a terrified voice.
"Just wait here." Harry said reassuringly before walking purposely across the grounds to the door leading into the entrance hall. His footsteps were loud on the stone floor as he walked towards the door into the Great Hall. He drew his wand and threw open the large double doors. They made a huge crash as they hit the walls. Every conversation had stopped as people turned to look at what had made the noise. They saw Harry Potter standing there, wand drawn looking furious. He looked so angry he was terrifying. Harry strode towards the Ravenclaw table where there was one conversation still going on, Roger Davies was talking and laughing, his back to Harry, with a couple of his friends.
Harry grabbed Davies by the collar, pulled him upwards and threw him across the floor. Davies skidded across the floor for about six metres before coming to a stop. He looked surprised and shocked as he got to his feet. Nobody moved or did anything, they were all too surprised.
"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Harry growled.
"What?" asked Davies surprised.
"Don't play guessing games with me, Davies, you know exactly what."
"I don't." He said but there was a hint of fear in his voice. Davies raised his wand. No one had seen Harry like this before, this was a completely new side of him.
"You try anything like that again and you won't live to see the next day."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" he said desperately. As quick as lightning Harry pointed his wand at the floor between Davies' legs.
"Reducto!" Harry's curse hit the floor where he had aimed it, with a bang like a gunshot, fragments of stone flew upwards and Davies jumped backwards, lost his footing and fell over. Harry turned and strode out of the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione jumped up and ran after him. They saw him leave the castle and walk out into the grounds.
"Harry!" yelled Hermione running to catch up with him. Harry just ignored her and continued to where Cho was waiting. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. Ron and Hermione caught up with him.
"What was that all about, mate?" asked Ron.
"What did he do?" asked Cho tearfully. Hermione told Cho what had happened in the Great Hall.
"You shouldn't have, Harry, you'll get into so much trouble." Said Cho sobbing.
"I don't care." Said Harry.
"What happened that made you do that?" asked Ron again. Cho told him what Roger Davies had done.
"He didn't!" said Ron astonished. Cho nodded dumbly. Just then Dumbledore walked out into the grounds.
"I think you had better come with me Mr Potter, you too Miss Chang" Dumbledore said calmly. Harry and Cho got up and followed Dumbledore into the entrance hall. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were standing there with Roger Davies. Dumbledore led them all into his office. He surveyed Harry and Davies.
"Would you care to explain what that was all about?" asked Dumbledore calmly.
"Gladly," Harry growled, "Davies tried to. he tried to." Harry didn't seem able to get the words out.
"He tried to kiss me as I was going down to lunch and wouldn't let me go when I struggled." Said Cho tearfully. McGonagall and Flitwick gasped.
"And then you saw what I did." growled Harry.
"Is this true?" Dumbledore asked Davies still calmly.
"No!" Davies protested. Harry's wand rose.
"Don't lie, don't you dare lie!" he said forcefully.
"Harry I suggest you lower your wand." Said Dumbledore coolly.
"Not until he starts telling the truth." Said Harry even more forcefully, his wand still pointing at Davies' chest
"Harry." Said Cho gently. Harry lowered his wand. The Professors all smiled faintly at how easily Harry had given in to Cho.
"I ask you once again, is this true." Said Dumbledore.
"Yes." Said Davies.
"Then you have earned yourself two weeks detention the only reason I am not taking points off is that it is unfair on Miss Chang. Is that all right with you Professor Flitwick?"
"That is perfectly fine with me, headmaster."
"Now off you go." Harry, Cho and Davies left the headmasters office.
"I'm warning you, Potter, be very careful." Snarled Davies.
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Harry retorted.
"One of these days you're going to end up like your precious godfather."
"What did you say?" Harry asked, stunned.
"You heard, one of these days-" In a flash Harry's wand was out and pointing straight at Davies' heart.
"Give me a reason and I will curse you from here to next month." Said Harry dangerously.
"Harry, don't, he's not worth it." Said Cho pulling him away from Davies. Harry put his wand back in his robes and followed Cho out into the grounds. Ron and Hermione saw them and sprang up and ran towards them.
"What did Dumbledore do?" asked Hermione.
"He gave Davies two weeks detention."
"That's good," said Hermione
"C'mon, we'd better get to lessons." Said Ron. They all ran inside and headed off to their lessons.
The next day Harry woke up late and hurried down to breakfast. He arrived in time to see the owl post just arriving. He sat down in between Ron and Hermione. He had barely sat down before gasps of horror sounded throughout the hall. Hermione gasped loudly. Quivering she held the Daily Prophet out to Harry, Harry looked at the headlines and barely stifled a gasp. In big, bold letters was,
YOU-KNOW-WHO MAKES HIS FIRST MOVE.
You-Know-Who attacked a small village in the north of England last night, killing at least twelve witches and wizards and forty muggles. Ministry experts are unsure why he chose to attack this small, virtually unheard of village. Aurors rushed to the sign in the early hours of the morning.
Harry didn't read anymore. He saw someone run up and give the Daily Prophet to Dumbledore who read it looking grave. A couple of minutes later the Hall fell silent as every eye turned to Dumbledore. He stood up his face serious.
"This is it. The second war has begun." He said gravely.
At ten to eight Harry, Ron and Hermione proceeded to the Room of Requirement. By five to eight the last person, Zacharias Smith, had arrived.
When everyone was seated and quiet Harry stood up.
"The second war has begun so we are no longer an organisation where we are simply taught curses and other spells like that. We are now an army, we are Dumbledore's Army." There was a good deal of cheering at that. When it died down Harry spoke again.
"I am not going to lie to you, this is not going to be safe. There are going to be risks in doing this. If anyone doesn't want to take those risks than you can leave." Nobody moved. "Right, first of all, I am not going to pretend that nothing could happen to me, a lot could happen to me. If something does happen, then don't give up. Ron will take over from me, ok?" They all nodded.
"Before the war ends there is almost certainly going to be pitched battles. If we happen to be in one of those battles and we all get split up then the leader, either me or Ron, will send up green sparks like this." Harry sent up a shower of emerald green sparks. "That shows you where you are to rally." Everyone nodded.
"Right, the spell I thought I would teach you to do today is," Everyone relaxed as they slipped back into the normal routine of a DA meeting, "demurus, deh-mur-us and you have to concentrate very hard on the spell. Basically this is an advance form of the shield charm. The shield charm can only block one spell before fading, this spell will last for up to ten seconds and it will deflect every spell that hits it for the ten seconds that it lasts. Very few of you will get it first time, it is a very advanced spell but very useful, I'll demonstrate, now, I haven't practised this before so you may have to wait for me to get it." Harry took out his wand and held it out at chest height, his arm bent so his wand was about thirty centimetres away from him. He concentrated hard,
"Demurus" To Harry's immense surprise a semi-transparent silver wall that was about the thickness of a sheet of paper appeared in front of him. It shimmered there for about ten seconds before disappearing.
"Ok, split up into pairs and practice using the spell, one person will practice the spell and the other person will try to disarm them, and only disarm them." He said. People divided up into pairs. Cho walked over to Harry and put her arms around his neck and looked at him; he put his hands on her hips. The noise died down.
"Ron, don't bother," said Harry without turning his head, sure enough Ron's wand had been rising as people stopped what they were to doing to watch.
"Am I really that predictable?" Ron pouted; Harry turned his head and looked at him.
"Yes." Several people laughed at this and Ron put on a mock hurt expression. Harry turned back to Cho.
"Thanks for this morning," she said softly. "No problem." He said, just as softly. They leaned in and kissed gently.
"Why did you do that to Davies?" asked Dean when Harry and Cho had broken apart, but they still had their arms round each other.
"I'm not going to tell you."
"You were damn scary though, I've never seen you like that!" He said, people called out in agreement.
"It was extremely brave of you though!" said Lavender.
"Do something to Cho and he'll do that to you." Called out Ron from the back.
"So that's what it's all about! Davies did something to Cho, what did he do?"
"I'm not-"
"He tried to kiss her as she was going down to lunch." Said Ron casually, grinning at Harry. Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Ron.
"You'd better have learned the demurus charm!" threatened Harry, smiling. Ron, still grinning, held his hands up in mock surrender. Everybody was laughing at this.
"Ok," said Harry after five minutes, "I'll let you know when the next meeting is." They all left the room of requirement. Hermione and Ron walked towards Gryffindor tower for a couple of minutes before realising that Harry was not going to catch up with them, they stopped and turned round.
"Where is he?" asked Ron.
"If I'm not mistaken he didn't leave the room of requirement," she turned her head and grinned at Ron, "and I don't think Cho did either."
Half an hour later Harry climbed through the portrait hole to see, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Seamus, Dean and Neville looking at him, clearly waiting for his return.
"And where have you been?" asked Ron, trying to look stern but failing dismally. Harry blushed.
"In the room of requirement" he said sheepishly.
"Doing what?" asked Ron relentless of Harry's blushing.
"Tidying up!" he said defensively, blushing even more.
"With who?" asked Ron, by now everyone apart from Harry was grinning broadly.
"Cho."
"For half an hour!" exclaimed Ron in mock surprise. Everyone was laughing at Harry blushing and Ron teasing him mercilessly
"Alright, I don't suppose I need to tell you this but I expect I'm gonna have to tell you anyway, Cho and I were kissing. Everyone let out a loud cheer and started laughing noisily, Harry grinned sheepishly.
Professor McGonagall entered the common to find out what all the noise was about.
"What is the cause of all this noise?" she asked. Ron grinned evilly at Harry.
"I'm warning you!" Harry said to Ron seriously.
"Harry's been in the room of requirement for the last half an hour." Ron said to professor McGonagall cheerfully.
"I'm warning you, Weasley, one more word!" Harry said dangerously.
"Oh yes?" said professor McGonagall, her eyebrows raised. A small smile playing on her lips.
".with Cho."
"Weasley, I really am warning you," said Harry even more dangerously.
".and they've been kissing." Ron threw a triumphant look at Harry that quickly changed to horror. Harry sprinted across the room and rugby tackled Ron, they both flew over one of the couches where they both disappeared from sight. A second later Ron's torso appeared above the top the couch; he threw his arms in the air in a gesture of success.
"I'm alright!" He yelled triumphantly. He suddenly yelped as Harry dragged him back down out of sight. Everyone was rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically apart from professor McGonagall who was standing there looking amused and making no move to stop them. All they could hear was Ron's yelps of pain.
"Gerroff" screamed Ron.
"I warned you, Weasley." A couple of minutes later Harry got off Ron. Ron stood up looking thoroughly beat up.
"You are such a prat!" said Ron sulkily before trudging upstairs.
"Well, I did warn you." Said Harry fairly, smirking at Ron's retreating back. Everyone was still rolling about on the floor, howling with laughter. Professor McGonagall smiled at Harry before leaving the common room. A couple of minutes later everyone had recovered.
"He got what he deserved." Said Ginny trying not to burst out laughing again,
"He was warned, I don't exactly want every teacher in the school knowing!" said Harry.
"Come on Harry! They already know!" said Hermione exasperated.
"Yeah, well," said Harry. Eventually everybody went to bed. Harry crawled into bed,
"I'm never speaking to you again," came Ron's voice.
"But you just have." Said Harry.
"Yeah, but that was to tell you I'm not going to speak to you ever again."
"But you've just spoken to me again." There was silence for a minute.
"Shut up!" came Ron's indignant voice, knowing he had been beaten. Harry grinned to himself in the darkness, he heard Seamus, Dean and Neville sniggering as well.
Malfoy, Davies, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott were in the library before breakfast the next day.
"What did you do that made Potter do that to you yesterday?" Malfoy asked Davies. Davies stared at him trying to decide whether he should tell or not.
"I tried to kiss Chang before breakfast." He said.
"And I thought Ravenclaws were meant to be smart." Said Malfoy smirking.
"So that's why you've got the two weeks detention." Said Nott, Malfoy's smirk widened.
"I didn't know that! What did Potter get?" he drawled.
"Nothing."
"Nothing! Something has to be done about Potter!" said Malfoy angrily.
"I know."
"What do you propose?" asked Malfoy. Davies leaned back on his chair.
"There's no point in trying to get Potter in secret. We'll have to do it obviously."
"But that's suicide! We'll be expelled for sure!" exclaimed Nott.
"Not if there's a lot of us. The worst that will happen is we'll all get detentions. Think about it, if there's, say, thirty or forty of us than Dumbledore can't expel forty of us, nor can he take off points, it would take too many off. Like I said, he can only give us detentions."
"That's good, when can we do it?" asked Malfoy pleased. Davies smirked maliciously.
"Can you find forty people who hate Potter before dinner tonight?"
"Easily." Said Malfoy.
"Then go and do it."
Harry, Ron and Hermione left the portrait hole and hurried down to dinner after lessons. To their surprise at the bottom of the marble staircase stood a crowd of Slytherins, fifty at least. Harry also saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Davies standing in the crowd. Malfoy spoke.
"You are so dead, Potter."
"Go get Dumbledore, I'll take care of these clowns," said Harry taking out his wand, Ron opened his mouth to argue, "Go!" Harry ordered him. Hermione and Ron ran off, the Slytherins shot spells at them but none of them hit.
"You are so dead, Potter." Malfoy repeated. Harry raised his eyebrows,
"Yeah? And you need a small army to do it?" Without waiting for him to respond Harry darted off to the right and ran out into the grounds. He turned round and saw the slytherins running after him. He produced an advanced shield charm as the Slytherin's spells came towards him they bounced off and hurtled back towards the mass of Slytherins. Three of them got hit by the spells, all of them developing deep cuts.
Harry's shield charm faded so he threw himself to the right.
"Slasio, slasio, slasio." He had time to yell before being forced to make another shield charm. He saw another three people develop deep cuts. Malfoy, to Harry's horror, sent a group of people round to Harry's left and a group round to his right. Knowing he wouldn't be able to defend three sides at once he fell further back, as he turned round to produce another shield charm he felt a searing pain develop in his shoulder. He looked down and saw blood pouring through his robes. He looked up and one of the Slytherins was sprinting towards him, wand raised, opening his mouth to perform a curse.
"Delegaste!" yelled Harry; the boy fell forwards, bound by invisible ropes. "Stupefy!" The boy was knocked unconscious. Harry's wand became a blur as he set up shield charms and sent out stunning spells and slashing curses.
Ron and Hermione ran into the Great Hall,
"Professor Dumbledore! Harry's been attacked by the Slytherins!" The Great Hall fell silent at these words. Suddenly, before anyone else had recovered, eighteen people jumped up and, with Ron and Hermione, sprinted out of the Great Hall,
"Where is he?" asked Dean,
"Out in the grounds I reckon!" said Ron. They sprinted out into the grounds and they saw a huge crowd of Slytherins, with several lying on the ground, firing spells at a lone figure, whose wand was a blur. They saw Harry send up emerald green sparks and they sprinted towards him.
The Slytherins saw a group of people run and gather round Harry. The DA began firing spells back towards the Slytherins. The teachers, closely followed by the rest of the school arrived out into the grounds to see two groups of people rapidly firing spells at each other, neither group realised the arrival of the teachers or the other students.
Although outnumbered two to one the DA managed to inflict casualties on the Slytherins. Harry saw Parvati get hit by a jet of red light; she fell to the ground unconscious.
"Ginny, help Parvati!" Harry yelled. Ginny nodded and ran to Parvati to revive her. "Ginny, Parvati, Cho, Hermione, Lavender, Luna help anyone who gets hit" Harry yelled as two more people fell. "Goldstein, Smith, Boot protect them." The two people who were hit, Seamus and Michael Corner, both stunned, were soon revived. After five more minutes the DA, gradually pushed the Slytherins back. Just then Dumbledore stepped between the two groups.
"That will do." He said calmly. The DA all lowered their wands.
Seeing an opportunity he could not bear to pass up, Malfoy sent a slashing curse at Harry.
The curse caught everyone by surprise as it flew through the air at Harry, recovering quickly Harry managed to get a shield charm up, it had been up less then a second before the curse hit and bounced off back at Malfoy, Malfoy however was not quite so quick and the curse hit him in the face, causing a cut to appear on his cheek. Furious he pointed his wand at Harry who raised his own wand. The DA all raised their wands and Malfoy was forced to admit defeat.
"This isn't over yet, Potter!" He said maliciously.
A/N Right, another chapter done. Hopefully this fic will be about twenty to twenty five chapters long, these next few chapters are going to be the last chapters in which nothing really happens. In response to Anime-Master7's question this is unlikely to be a Ron/Hermione fic, I don't know exactly quite yet, but it is unlikely, let me know in your reviews if you want this to include Ron/Hermione. Thanks to everyone for their reviews.
Daisie- Half term is a week long holiday in the middle of the term/semester.
LogicalRaven- I know that Roger Davies was in seventh year, I just thought it might make the story a bit better if he was out to break Harry and Cho up, and about what you said about him being a nice guy, you'd be surprised what love does to you! Not that I've ever tried to break people up, but I've seen it happen. Thanks a lot for all your reviews.
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing!
Fireboy.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter Ten: The First Attack.
Harry was allowed to leave the hospital the next day, much to the relief of Cho. He quickly realised what Ron had said was true; he was more of a hero than he already was. He had complete strangers come and ask him how he did it, how he managed to do something like that, at first it took him by surprise, then he just got used to it. For once he was more famous for doing that then he was for being the Boy-Who-Lived. Every time he was asked Harry gave the same answer.
"I dunno, I just did it, I guess."
People would stop and stare more than they usually did, whispers followed him like shadows.
"He jumped right off of his broom.", "How did he manage to pull it off?"
Not everyone was impressed, the Slytherins hated him more than ever after what had happened. Every day groups of them would appear out of the shadows and from behind statues, wands raised but would slink off disappointed when they saw that he was surrounded by Gryffindors, who had taken it upon themselves to protect Harry. Although Harry suspected that it was not entirely at there own disposal, he suspected that Professor McGonagall had something to do with it. Nevertheless he was very grateful for it.
Harry left transfiguration on Monday morning and went down to the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. He sat down at the Gryffindor table between Ginny and Seamus and started eating his lunch. A couple of minutes later Ginny nudged him.
"What?" Harry asked her.
"What's wrong with Cho?"
"Huh?" Harry looked over to where Ginny was pointing. Cho had entered the Great hall crying heavily. "What the-" Harry jumped and ran over to where Cho was. All eyes seemed to be on him as he reached her, the noise level died down as everyone turned to watch them.
"Cho! What's wrong?" he asked her. Cho put her arms round Harry.
"Not here." She said between sobs. Harry took her hand and led her out of the Great Hall. As he did so, Professor Flitwick, as head of Ravenclaw stood up to go after them. Dumbledore pushed him down again.
"Let Harry go," he said smiling. Professor Flitwick sat down again.
"From what I've heard," he said in his squeaky voice, "they act just like James and Lily.
"They do." said Dumbledore smiling.
Harry led Cho out into the grounds and they sat down leaning against a rock looking out over the lake. Cho put her head on Harry's shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked her gently.
"Roger Davies cornered me as I was leaving the common room to go down to lunch and he tried to kiss me, he wouldn't let me go, I was so scared! He just wouldn't let me go!" Harry felt furious.
"He didn't!" Harry exclaimed.
"He did."
"Its alright now, I'm here!" Harry kissed her on the softly on forehead. "Wait here, I won't be long."
"Where are you going?" asked Cho in a terrified voice.
"Just wait here." Harry said reassuringly before walking purposely across the grounds to the door leading into the entrance hall. His footsteps were loud on the stone floor as he walked towards the door into the Great Hall. He drew his wand and threw open the large double doors. They made a huge crash as they hit the walls. Every conversation had stopped as people turned to look at what had made the noise. They saw Harry Potter standing there, wand drawn looking furious. He looked so angry he was terrifying. Harry strode towards the Ravenclaw table where there was one conversation still going on, Roger Davies was talking and laughing, his back to Harry, with a couple of his friends.
Harry grabbed Davies by the collar, pulled him upwards and threw him across the floor. Davies skidded across the floor for about six metres before coming to a stop. He looked surprised and shocked as he got to his feet. Nobody moved or did anything, they were all too surprised.
"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Harry growled.
"What?" asked Davies surprised.
"Don't play guessing games with me, Davies, you know exactly what."
"I don't." He said but there was a hint of fear in his voice. Davies raised his wand. No one had seen Harry like this before, this was a completely new side of him.
"You try anything like that again and you won't live to see the next day."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" he said desperately. As quick as lightning Harry pointed his wand at the floor between Davies' legs.
"Reducto!" Harry's curse hit the floor where he had aimed it, with a bang like a gunshot, fragments of stone flew upwards and Davies jumped backwards, lost his footing and fell over. Harry turned and strode out of the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione jumped up and ran after him. They saw him leave the castle and walk out into the grounds.
"Harry!" yelled Hermione running to catch up with him. Harry just ignored her and continued to where Cho was waiting. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. Ron and Hermione caught up with him.
"What was that all about, mate?" asked Ron.
"What did he do?" asked Cho tearfully. Hermione told Cho what had happened in the Great Hall.
"You shouldn't have, Harry, you'll get into so much trouble." Said Cho sobbing.
"I don't care." Said Harry.
"What happened that made you do that?" asked Ron again. Cho told him what Roger Davies had done.
"He didn't!" said Ron astonished. Cho nodded dumbly. Just then Dumbledore walked out into the grounds.
"I think you had better come with me Mr Potter, you too Miss Chang" Dumbledore said calmly. Harry and Cho got up and followed Dumbledore into the entrance hall. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were standing there with Roger Davies. Dumbledore led them all into his office. He surveyed Harry and Davies.
"Would you care to explain what that was all about?" asked Dumbledore calmly.
"Gladly," Harry growled, "Davies tried to. he tried to." Harry didn't seem able to get the words out.
"He tried to kiss me as I was going down to lunch and wouldn't let me go when I struggled." Said Cho tearfully. McGonagall and Flitwick gasped.
"And then you saw what I did." growled Harry.
"Is this true?" Dumbledore asked Davies still calmly.
"No!" Davies protested. Harry's wand rose.
"Don't lie, don't you dare lie!" he said forcefully.
"Harry I suggest you lower your wand." Said Dumbledore coolly.
"Not until he starts telling the truth." Said Harry even more forcefully, his wand still pointing at Davies' chest
"Harry." Said Cho gently. Harry lowered his wand. The Professors all smiled faintly at how easily Harry had given in to Cho.
"I ask you once again, is this true." Said Dumbledore.
"Yes." Said Davies.
"Then you have earned yourself two weeks detention the only reason I am not taking points off is that it is unfair on Miss Chang. Is that all right with you Professor Flitwick?"
"That is perfectly fine with me, headmaster."
"Now off you go." Harry, Cho and Davies left the headmasters office.
"I'm warning you, Potter, be very careful." Snarled Davies.
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Harry retorted.
"One of these days you're going to end up like your precious godfather."
"What did you say?" Harry asked, stunned.
"You heard, one of these days-" In a flash Harry's wand was out and pointing straight at Davies' heart.
"Give me a reason and I will curse you from here to next month." Said Harry dangerously.
"Harry, don't, he's not worth it." Said Cho pulling him away from Davies. Harry put his wand back in his robes and followed Cho out into the grounds. Ron and Hermione saw them and sprang up and ran towards them.
"What did Dumbledore do?" asked Hermione.
"He gave Davies two weeks detention."
"That's good," said Hermione
"C'mon, we'd better get to lessons." Said Ron. They all ran inside and headed off to their lessons.
The next day Harry woke up late and hurried down to breakfast. He arrived in time to see the owl post just arriving. He sat down in between Ron and Hermione. He had barely sat down before gasps of horror sounded throughout the hall. Hermione gasped loudly. Quivering she held the Daily Prophet out to Harry, Harry looked at the headlines and barely stifled a gasp. In big, bold letters was,
YOU-KNOW-WHO MAKES HIS FIRST MOVE.
You-Know-Who attacked a small village in the north of England last night, killing at least twelve witches and wizards and forty muggles. Ministry experts are unsure why he chose to attack this small, virtually unheard of village. Aurors rushed to the sign in the early hours of the morning.
Harry didn't read anymore. He saw someone run up and give the Daily Prophet to Dumbledore who read it looking grave. A couple of minutes later the Hall fell silent as every eye turned to Dumbledore. He stood up his face serious.
"This is it. The second war has begun." He said gravely.
At ten to eight Harry, Ron and Hermione proceeded to the Room of Requirement. By five to eight the last person, Zacharias Smith, had arrived.
When everyone was seated and quiet Harry stood up.
"The second war has begun so we are no longer an organisation where we are simply taught curses and other spells like that. We are now an army, we are Dumbledore's Army." There was a good deal of cheering at that. When it died down Harry spoke again.
"I am not going to lie to you, this is not going to be safe. There are going to be risks in doing this. If anyone doesn't want to take those risks than you can leave." Nobody moved. "Right, first of all, I am not going to pretend that nothing could happen to me, a lot could happen to me. If something does happen, then don't give up. Ron will take over from me, ok?" They all nodded.
"Before the war ends there is almost certainly going to be pitched battles. If we happen to be in one of those battles and we all get split up then the leader, either me or Ron, will send up green sparks like this." Harry sent up a shower of emerald green sparks. "That shows you where you are to rally." Everyone nodded.
"Right, the spell I thought I would teach you to do today is," Everyone relaxed as they slipped back into the normal routine of a DA meeting, "demurus, deh-mur-us and you have to concentrate very hard on the spell. Basically this is an advance form of the shield charm. The shield charm can only block one spell before fading, this spell will last for up to ten seconds and it will deflect every spell that hits it for the ten seconds that it lasts. Very few of you will get it first time, it is a very advanced spell but very useful, I'll demonstrate, now, I haven't practised this before so you may have to wait for me to get it." Harry took out his wand and held it out at chest height, his arm bent so his wand was about thirty centimetres away from him. He concentrated hard,
"Demurus" To Harry's immense surprise a semi-transparent silver wall that was about the thickness of a sheet of paper appeared in front of him. It shimmered there for about ten seconds before disappearing.
"Ok, split up into pairs and practice using the spell, one person will practice the spell and the other person will try to disarm them, and only disarm them." He said. People divided up into pairs. Cho walked over to Harry and put her arms around his neck and looked at him; he put his hands on her hips. The noise died down.
"Ron, don't bother," said Harry without turning his head, sure enough Ron's wand had been rising as people stopped what they were to doing to watch.
"Am I really that predictable?" Ron pouted; Harry turned his head and looked at him.
"Yes." Several people laughed at this and Ron put on a mock hurt expression. Harry turned back to Cho.
"Thanks for this morning," she said softly. "No problem." He said, just as softly. They leaned in and kissed gently.
"Why did you do that to Davies?" asked Dean when Harry and Cho had broken apart, but they still had their arms round each other.
"I'm not going to tell you."
"You were damn scary though, I've never seen you like that!" He said, people called out in agreement.
"It was extremely brave of you though!" said Lavender.
"Do something to Cho and he'll do that to you." Called out Ron from the back.
"So that's what it's all about! Davies did something to Cho, what did he do?"
"I'm not-"
"He tried to kiss her as she was going down to lunch." Said Ron casually, grinning at Harry. Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Ron.
"You'd better have learned the demurus charm!" threatened Harry, smiling. Ron, still grinning, held his hands up in mock surrender. Everybody was laughing at this.
"Ok," said Harry after five minutes, "I'll let you know when the next meeting is." They all left the room of requirement. Hermione and Ron walked towards Gryffindor tower for a couple of minutes before realising that Harry was not going to catch up with them, they stopped and turned round.
"Where is he?" asked Ron.
"If I'm not mistaken he didn't leave the room of requirement," she turned her head and grinned at Ron, "and I don't think Cho did either."
Half an hour later Harry climbed through the portrait hole to see, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Seamus, Dean and Neville looking at him, clearly waiting for his return.
"And where have you been?" asked Ron, trying to look stern but failing dismally. Harry blushed.
"In the room of requirement" he said sheepishly.
"Doing what?" asked Ron relentless of Harry's blushing.
"Tidying up!" he said defensively, blushing even more.
"With who?" asked Ron, by now everyone apart from Harry was grinning broadly.
"Cho."
"For half an hour!" exclaimed Ron in mock surprise. Everyone was laughing at Harry blushing and Ron teasing him mercilessly
"Alright, I don't suppose I need to tell you this but I expect I'm gonna have to tell you anyway, Cho and I were kissing. Everyone let out a loud cheer and started laughing noisily, Harry grinned sheepishly.
Professor McGonagall entered the common to find out what all the noise was about.
"What is the cause of all this noise?" she asked. Ron grinned evilly at Harry.
"I'm warning you!" Harry said to Ron seriously.
"Harry's been in the room of requirement for the last half an hour." Ron said to professor McGonagall cheerfully.
"I'm warning you, Weasley, one more word!" Harry said dangerously.
"Oh yes?" said professor McGonagall, her eyebrows raised. A small smile playing on her lips.
".with Cho."
"Weasley, I really am warning you," said Harry even more dangerously.
".and they've been kissing." Ron threw a triumphant look at Harry that quickly changed to horror. Harry sprinted across the room and rugby tackled Ron, they both flew over one of the couches where they both disappeared from sight. A second later Ron's torso appeared above the top the couch; he threw his arms in the air in a gesture of success.
"I'm alright!" He yelled triumphantly. He suddenly yelped as Harry dragged him back down out of sight. Everyone was rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically apart from professor McGonagall who was standing there looking amused and making no move to stop them. All they could hear was Ron's yelps of pain.
"Gerroff" screamed Ron.
"I warned you, Weasley." A couple of minutes later Harry got off Ron. Ron stood up looking thoroughly beat up.
"You are such a prat!" said Ron sulkily before trudging upstairs.
"Well, I did warn you." Said Harry fairly, smirking at Ron's retreating back. Everyone was still rolling about on the floor, howling with laughter. Professor McGonagall smiled at Harry before leaving the common room. A couple of minutes later everyone had recovered.
"He got what he deserved." Said Ginny trying not to burst out laughing again,
"He was warned, I don't exactly want every teacher in the school knowing!" said Harry.
"Come on Harry! They already know!" said Hermione exasperated.
"Yeah, well," said Harry. Eventually everybody went to bed. Harry crawled into bed,
"I'm never speaking to you again," came Ron's voice.
"But you just have." Said Harry.
"Yeah, but that was to tell you I'm not going to speak to you ever again."
"But you've just spoken to me again." There was silence for a minute.
"Shut up!" came Ron's indignant voice, knowing he had been beaten. Harry grinned to himself in the darkness, he heard Seamus, Dean and Neville sniggering as well.
Malfoy, Davies, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott were in the library before breakfast the next day.
"What did you do that made Potter do that to you yesterday?" Malfoy asked Davies. Davies stared at him trying to decide whether he should tell or not.
"I tried to kiss Chang before breakfast." He said.
"And I thought Ravenclaws were meant to be smart." Said Malfoy smirking.
"So that's why you've got the two weeks detention." Said Nott, Malfoy's smirk widened.
"I didn't know that! What did Potter get?" he drawled.
"Nothing."
"Nothing! Something has to be done about Potter!" said Malfoy angrily.
"I know."
"What do you propose?" asked Malfoy. Davies leaned back on his chair.
"There's no point in trying to get Potter in secret. We'll have to do it obviously."
"But that's suicide! We'll be expelled for sure!" exclaimed Nott.
"Not if there's a lot of us. The worst that will happen is we'll all get detentions. Think about it, if there's, say, thirty or forty of us than Dumbledore can't expel forty of us, nor can he take off points, it would take too many off. Like I said, he can only give us detentions."
"That's good, when can we do it?" asked Malfoy pleased. Davies smirked maliciously.
"Can you find forty people who hate Potter before dinner tonight?"
"Easily." Said Malfoy.
"Then go and do it."
Harry, Ron and Hermione left the portrait hole and hurried down to dinner after lessons. To their surprise at the bottom of the marble staircase stood a crowd of Slytherins, fifty at least. Harry also saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Davies standing in the crowd. Malfoy spoke.
"You are so dead, Potter."
"Go get Dumbledore, I'll take care of these clowns," said Harry taking out his wand, Ron opened his mouth to argue, "Go!" Harry ordered him. Hermione and Ron ran off, the Slytherins shot spells at them but none of them hit.
"You are so dead, Potter." Malfoy repeated. Harry raised his eyebrows,
"Yeah? And you need a small army to do it?" Without waiting for him to respond Harry darted off to the right and ran out into the grounds. He turned round and saw the slytherins running after him. He produced an advanced shield charm as the Slytherin's spells came towards him they bounced off and hurtled back towards the mass of Slytherins. Three of them got hit by the spells, all of them developing deep cuts.
Harry's shield charm faded so he threw himself to the right.
"Slasio, slasio, slasio." He had time to yell before being forced to make another shield charm. He saw another three people develop deep cuts. Malfoy, to Harry's horror, sent a group of people round to Harry's left and a group round to his right. Knowing he wouldn't be able to defend three sides at once he fell further back, as he turned round to produce another shield charm he felt a searing pain develop in his shoulder. He looked down and saw blood pouring through his robes. He looked up and one of the Slytherins was sprinting towards him, wand raised, opening his mouth to perform a curse.
"Delegaste!" yelled Harry; the boy fell forwards, bound by invisible ropes. "Stupefy!" The boy was knocked unconscious. Harry's wand became a blur as he set up shield charms and sent out stunning spells and slashing curses.
Ron and Hermione ran into the Great Hall,
"Professor Dumbledore! Harry's been attacked by the Slytherins!" The Great Hall fell silent at these words. Suddenly, before anyone else had recovered, eighteen people jumped up and, with Ron and Hermione, sprinted out of the Great Hall,
"Where is he?" asked Dean,
"Out in the grounds I reckon!" said Ron. They sprinted out into the grounds and they saw a huge crowd of Slytherins, with several lying on the ground, firing spells at a lone figure, whose wand was a blur. They saw Harry send up emerald green sparks and they sprinted towards him.
The Slytherins saw a group of people run and gather round Harry. The DA began firing spells back towards the Slytherins. The teachers, closely followed by the rest of the school arrived out into the grounds to see two groups of people rapidly firing spells at each other, neither group realised the arrival of the teachers or the other students.
Although outnumbered two to one the DA managed to inflict casualties on the Slytherins. Harry saw Parvati get hit by a jet of red light; she fell to the ground unconscious.
"Ginny, help Parvati!" Harry yelled. Ginny nodded and ran to Parvati to revive her. "Ginny, Parvati, Cho, Hermione, Lavender, Luna help anyone who gets hit" Harry yelled as two more people fell. "Goldstein, Smith, Boot protect them." The two people who were hit, Seamus and Michael Corner, both stunned, were soon revived. After five more minutes the DA, gradually pushed the Slytherins back. Just then Dumbledore stepped between the two groups.
"That will do." He said calmly. The DA all lowered their wands.
Seeing an opportunity he could not bear to pass up, Malfoy sent a slashing curse at Harry.
The curse caught everyone by surprise as it flew through the air at Harry, recovering quickly Harry managed to get a shield charm up, it had been up less then a second before the curse hit and bounced off back at Malfoy, Malfoy however was not quite so quick and the curse hit him in the face, causing a cut to appear on his cheek. Furious he pointed his wand at Harry who raised his own wand. The DA all raised their wands and Malfoy was forced to admit defeat.
"This isn't over yet, Potter!" He said maliciously.
A/N Right, another chapter done. Hopefully this fic will be about twenty to twenty five chapters long, these next few chapters are going to be the last chapters in which nothing really happens. In response to Anime-Master7's question this is unlikely to be a Ron/Hermione fic, I don't know exactly quite yet, but it is unlikely, let me know in your reviews if you want this to include Ron/Hermione. Thanks to everyone for their reviews.
Daisie- Half term is a week long holiday in the middle of the term/semester.
LogicalRaven- I know that Roger Davies was in seventh year, I just thought it might make the story a bit better if he was out to break Harry and Cho up, and about what you said about him being a nice guy, you'd be surprised what love does to you! Not that I've ever tried to break people up, but I've seen it happen. Thanks a lot for all your reviews.
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing!
Fireboy.