Disclaimer-Here is a list of things I own:

Spells: Enscriban-writing charm. Hanawa-gardening charm. Bomitus-tuberculosis/projectile vomiting curse. Descansas-calming charm

Characters: Gibson Aldo, Bernice Amherst (AKA Bennie), Linda Applegate, Livia Applegate, Marie Applegate, Elizabeth Attison, Mary Barnegate, Ann Berkley, Anita Beylea, Emmanuela Chestnut, Corrine Colgate, Thomas Dover, Amy Lloyd, Tony Michelle, Elise Neptune, Christina Park, Noah Spruce, Joan Sunset, Maria Tilton, Lynn Windward

Side Characters: Lydia Attison, Michelle Attison, Marie Applegate, Kelly Applegate, Denise Applegate, Clifford Applegate

Shoutouts:

Ronsgirl33-Maybe…maybe not…BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

BferBear-I wanted to make things more up-to-date, so I worked out this whole complicated thing…I won't bore you with it. Let's just say 6th years are 16 in the year 2004, and you can figure out the rest yourself.

The New D.A

"Hello, class, and welcome to Defense Against The Dark Arts."

Tonks absentmindedly twirled her wand between her fingers as she spoke. A class larger than any other Defense class prior to it was watching her every move.

"In case you missed my grand entrance at the feast, I'm Professor Tonks. I am also an Auror for the Ministry of Magic."

Draco snorted.

"I heard that, Draco," Tonks said, not even glancing at him. "I know that my amazing youthful powers make me seem a schoolgirl, but as you know, being my cousin, I'm 24 and proud of it."

Harry gave a little gasp. He had completely forgotten that Tonks's mother was Draco's aunt.

Draco leaned over and whispered something to Goyle.

"I heard that as well, dearest cousin Draco. As for the rumor that I am currently dating Remus Lupin, I say: bite me, it's none of your business. 5 points from Slytherin for discussing my personal life without the brains to do it behind my back. Keep it up and I'll be forced to tell them stories about your amazing stuffed pink bunny, Mr. Snufflelopolus."

Draco's face wet bright pink. Ron was laughing so loudly he nearly fell off his seat.

"Now, on to Defense Against The Dark Arts." Tonks went around her desk, planted her palms on it, and hoisted herself up so that she sat on it. She leaned forward slightly, hands folded in her lap. "I don't want to scare any of you, but if you haven't heard the news yet, there was a Death Eater attack yesterday."

There was a collective gasp, and murmuring broke out between groups of friends.

"A Death Eater was captured, and no one was killed. However, one of our side was hit by the Cruciatus Curse, which I'm sure you all remember from 2 years ago, when it was performed by our own impostor Professor Moody. I don't know if he used it on you, but understand that it is so incredibly painful that the victims practically beg for death."

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Hermione stiffen slightly. He reached out and grabbed her hand.

"She deserved it," Hermione whispered.

"I understand," he whispered back. His eyes shot to Neville. The Longbottom boy was staring straight ahead, his hands folded so tightly that his fingertips were red.

"Also, a Death Eater tried to kill two of our own with Avada Kedavra," Tonks continued. "Luckily, he was too far away, and they were able to dodge it. Avada Kedavra is a curse that needs a lot of power and absolutely no room with which the victim can dodge it for it to work. This is a case where keeping your friends close and your enemies closer is not a good idea."

There were nervous giggles throughout the room.

"Those two, along with the Imperious Curse, which can force someone to do whatever they're told, are the Unforgivables. But Death Eaters don't care to be forgiven, do they? They have no problems with using them. However, since your parents do, I'm not here to show you how to use them. I am here to show you how to block them."

There was a bubble of whisperings, and Tonks raised her hand for silence.

"There is no known protection against Avada Kedavra, unless someone takes the hit for you, as in the case of Lily Potter, Harry's mother." The class's eyes swept to Harry, and then went back to Tonks. "I understand you have some practice with fighting the Imperious Curse, but that was cut short, and that you have no practice dealing with the Cruciatus Curse. Is that right?"

There was a soft assent.

"All right. Now, we will be practicing defenses against the Imperious Curse in the second half of all my classes until our entire class can properly protect themselves. Afterwards we will advance to the Cruciatus Curse. The first half will be spent using other defensive spells. Later on this year you'll learn offensive spells. The statement to know this year: Defense is the best offense, and offense is the best defense. Know this, love this, make this your friend."

There were giggles from some of the girls.

"All righty then. I imagine you are out of practice, due to my predecessor, Dolores Umbridge. I've had the misfortune of having to work with her within 50 yards of myself, so I understand your pain." A girl snorted. "I don't expect your wands to be in tip-top condition, but I do expect them to be so at the end of this year."

She clapped her hands and jumped off her desk.

"Right. First on our agenda are Patronuses. Most people think that these are useful only against Dementors. True, they work best against Dementors, but they are also extremely useful against wizards. They have a certain knack for weakening an opponent's wand power. Who besides Harry can conjure a Patronus? A real Patronus?"

Hermione raised her hand, thinking of her otter, and someone else raised their hand. Harry turned to see Cho.

But she looked different than when she last saw him. Her face was even more drawn in than just after Cedric had died, her hair limp, eyes damp and heavy.

Tonks surveyed Cho, clearly not believing her. "Who's got at least some sort of hang on it, even if it's just a little silver puff?"

Neville, Lavender, and Seamus raised their hands.

"Who knows the incantation?"

All the other D.A members raised their hands.

"All right. All of those who have no clue what to do, go over to that corner and I'll be with you shortly. Everyone who knows the incantation, try to produce one. Everyone who can get a little out of it, work on getting more. And you three." She pointed to Harry, Hermione, and Cho. "Come up here."

The class divvied up obediently. Harry, Hermione, and Cho went to Tonks.

"I need you three to do a bit of reading. Professor Snape isn't teaching right now, so the Room of Requirement is open. It's filled with books from the Ministry of Magic Library, and I need you to look up information on the Unforgivables. A huge point of this class is to find ways to counter or block them. You know how to get in, so get going. I'll see you guys in 4 hours for the D.A. meeting."

"Yes, ma'am," Cho said nicely, and the three proceeded out of the room.

"So, you two are…together now?" Cho asked delicately.

Hermione looked up from her copy of Combating the Dark Arts. Harry stopped in the midst of pulling a book from the shelf.

"Yeah…yeah, we are," he said evenly.

"Oh, um, I see."

"May I inquire why you ask?"

"It was just gossip I heard from Luna Lovegood. You know she fancies your friend Ron, right?"

"Yes, we know, and don't change the subject," Hermione said, shutting the book, her finger marking the page.

"I was just asking," Cho said defensively.

Harry sighed. "Cho, you know that all chances of us being together are over now, right?"

"Of course I know!" she yelled. "It's so obvious, the way you hang all over her!"

Harry turned on her, eyes flashing. "Don't talk that way about Hermione."

"Of course, darling Hermione, it's always been about her, even on our first date all you could talk about was her!"

"So? You were talking about Cedric the whole time!"

Cho inclined her head drastically, eyes snapping fire. "That is different. Very, very different, Harry."

"Yes, but even so, I don't think reliving past loves is a good thing to do on a first date!"

Cho's mouth formed a very thin line. All of a sudden, Harry felt like slapping both her and himself.

"The reason I can make a Patronus is because my happy memory is the very first time he kissed me. That's not something you can easily drop, now, is it? It is very difficult losing the love of your life, and moving on is even harder."

She opened the book in her lap and turned her face to look at it. She began speaking into the book.

"Before I die, I would like to find the Death Eater who killed him, and destroy him."

"Wouldn't we all like to. The one who killed him is the one who betrayed my parents to Voldemort."

"Sirius Black?"

"No."

"But—"

"Sirius was framed, he was completely innocent, and he died trying to save my life. Peter Pettegrew was the traitor, he was the one who killed Cedric, and he…is the one I want to kill first."

"Hmm." Cho looked up. "Mind if I join you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Revenge is sweet when it is shared with someone else. Much like chocolate. I want a piece of him before I go out. Mind sharing the satisfaction?"

Harry stared at her for a moment. Then, he grinned and shrugged.

"Why not?"

"If you're both quite finished, we have some reading to do," Hermione said, opening her book again.

Harry found the book he had been taking out. Cho buried her face in her book again, and there was peaceful silence in the room, except for the occasional groan of "This book is useless!"

"Find anything?" Ron asked.

"Nope, nothing," Harry said. He, Hermione, and Cho were back in the Defense classroom, while other students were packing up their stuff and making to leave. "Wasted four hours."

"All D.A. members, please stay in here!" Tonks yelled over the din.

"Well, we didn't," Ron said. "We spent two hours on the Patronuses, and another two working on the Imperius Curse. We've got some pretty stubborn girls in this class, this girl Corrine's at the same level as Harry was when he started. And our Patronuses are great, too. I've finally conjured one. It's a dead rat." He grinned.

"How'd Luna do?" Cho asked slyly.

Ron didn't catch the tone. His face dropped. "She's the exception. She's having a horrible time of it. Look, she's still trying."

"Expecto Patronum!" Luna yelled. Nothing came out of her wand. She tried again. This time, a tiny silver puff came out and instantly evaporated.

"All right, people, is everybody here for the D.A.?" Tonks asked finally.

"Yeah," came from a few people. Everyone started to quiet down

"Good. Lemme see here." Tonks whipped out a piece of paper. "Just see who's here. All righty, Gryffindors: Gibson Aldo."

"Hmm-hmm." A tall, skinny, boy with black, not quite a half-fro but not a crew cut either, hair, black eyes brought down in size by his rounded-rectangular black-framed glasses, yellowing skin, and very muscular arms, looked up.

Tonks went on like this until she ended Gryffindor, then went on to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and to everyone's surprise, Slytherin.

The Gryffindors were, of course, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Colin and Dennis Creevy, Katie Bell, Dean Thomas, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, and Seamus Finnigin, as Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Fred and George Weasley, and Lee Jordan had graduated/dropped out the previous year. Besides Gibson, there were 5 girls and another boy.

Bernice Amherst, or Bennie as she preferred to be called, was about Hermione's height. Her hair was orange-red, extremely straight, pulled into a high ponytail with one long bang coming down the side of her face, not quite contrasting to her pinkish face. She had inquisitive hazel eyes that looked at everything around her.

Marie Applegate was tall, towering over everyone except for Tony and Thomas, who were taller than she was. Her hair was thick, dark brown, and reached ¾ down her neck, framing her face. Her eyes were dark brown, contrasting her extremely pale skin.

Ann Berkley was Bennie's height, also with red hair, but hers was pure red and hung loose to her shoulders. She looked so much like a Weasley, she'd could've been the lost Weasley daughter. Her eyes were blue, staring out amiably from her freckled, yellowed skin.

Corrine Colgate was inbetween Bennie's and Marie's height. She was extremely skinny, skinny enough to be knocked over with a feather. She had black hair cut in a boy's hairstyle and striking green eyes, with small, red-and-gold framed glasses covering the top half of her face. Her face was slightly darker than the rest of her, mostly because of her hair.

Another girl was Christina Park. Her corkscrew-curl hair was brown with blond highlights along her scalp, and it reached to her shoulder blades. Her eyes were cloudy blue, and her skin was pale. She was shorter than Bennie, but not by much, and skinny as well.

The last girl, Lynn Windward, was very short, the same size as Colin when he was a first year. Her chin-length hair was almost black but not quite. Her brown eyes were shining out from her tanned skin, even through her oval-shaped, purple-framed glasses. She was skinny, and brown freckles dotted the apples of her cheeks and her nose.

As for Hufflepuff, Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbot, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Susan Bones were back. Harry was not surprised to see that Zacharias Smith hadn't returned. There were 7 new Hufflepuffs, 5 girls and 2 boys.

Linda Applegate, Marie's cousin and oldest friend, was Harry's height. Her hair was black, and reached halfway down her back in a ponytail. Her eyes were the same shade as her hair. Her skin was very pale, almost yellow, and her frame was very skinny.

Livia Applegate was another cousin of Marie and Linda's. Her eyes were a very dark chocolate brown. Her hair was long and dirty blonde, and her skin was the color of desert dust. She was also about Hermione's height.

Mary Barnegate was about Bennie's height. Her hair was the same as Marie's, except it hung loose all the way down her back, tangling in upon itself, and blending with her pale, yellow-ish skin. Her eyes matched Marie's, too.

Emmanuela Chestnut was the shortest of the lot, even smaller than Lynn and Dennis. She had brown hair with blonde highlights coming haphazardly at the tips of her hair. Brown eyes were hidden beneath round, red-and-gold-framed glasses, making her slightly browned face look sharp.

The first new Hufflepuff boy was Thomas Dover. He was taller and ganglier than everyone there, including Ron. His curly hair was brown and cropped. Icy-blue eyes were hidden against his Caucasian skin through oval-shaped, black-framed glasses.

With him was Amy Lloyd, his girlfriend. She was shorter than him, about Marie's height. Her hair was just normal brown, neither dark nor light. Her eyes were a bright and shining light brown, and her skin was lightly tanned.

The only other boy Hufflepuff was Noah Spruce. He was also Bennie's height, with dirty-brown colored hair leading halfway down his back in an 80's rat tail. A small mustache, the same color of his hair, was growing on his tan upper lip. He had light brown eyes that stared at everything around him.

Tonks read off the names of the Ravenclaws as well. Of course, Cho and Luna were there, and to Harry's relief Marietta was not. Padma Patil, Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot, and Michael Corner were there, too. There were two new Ravenclaws.

Anita Beylea was slightly shorter than Marie. She had messy brown hair, which shone with lighter brown, natural highlights in the light and hung to her shoulder blades. She also had friendly brown eyes that shone out from her olive brown skin.

The second Hufflepuff boy, Tony Michelle, as the girls were calling him, had brown hair with orange highlights, cut in the same style as Gibson's, and slightly tanned skin. He towered over everybody except Thomas, but his brown eyes did not reveal any intent to intimidate.

And then there were the only four Slytherins to ever have joined. One was Elizabeth Attison, whom they had last seen at the feast. Her blonde hair had been pulled back in a braid, leaving her hazel-green eyes free to be seen. She was around Marie's height, and her face was pink, contrasting to her white skin.

Another was Elise Neptune. Her black hair was comprised of corkscrew curls, like Christina's. Her eyes were dark chocolate brown, and her skin was hot cocoa-colored.

Yet another was Joan Sunset. Her eyes were dark blue, her skin was pale, and her shining brown hair was pulled back in a perfect ponytail. She was slightly taller than Maria, and pretty skinny as well.

The last girl was named Maria Tilton. Her hair was long and brown, reaching a point inbetween Mary's and Anita's, with blonde highlights spaced far from each other. Her eyes were green-blue, too, contrasting her pale-ish skin.

"All right, that's 19 Gryffindors, 11 Hufflepuffs, 8 Ravenclaws, and 4 Slytherins," Tonks said. "Coming to the grand total of 42 D.A. members."

"14 more than last year," Hermione said proudly.

"Good, we need them," Tonks said. "Now, here's what the whole point of the D.A. is. You are here because you want further training against Voldemort, so that if you meet him, you can use offensive spells. You'd've learned this before the end of this year anyway, but you'll learn before everyone else, and you'll all have time in class to practice or sleep or whatever it is you do when you're not busy while someone else is."

Lynn giggled.

"All right, you guys've been practicing Patronuses for the past couple hours. I just wanna see you do one to see where we are, and then we'll get going."

One by one, each member stepped up and produced a Patronus. There were several unexpected ones, ranging from a dead rat (Ron's) to a penguin (Marie's) to a fairy (Corrine's). Only Luna seemed to be having a problem with it.

"All right, I'll be helping you with that later, Luna," Tonks said. "And before we get down to business, there are some things we should discuss. Like the use of Unforgivables."

"I thought we're weren't gonna be using them," Lynn said, as her Patronus, a unicorn, galloped around the room. As she turned to look at Tonks, it disappeared

"We need to decide whether or not you're going to be trained to use them. I know that two of you—no names—have used the Cruciatus Curse before, and one of you made it extremely powerful. The question is, will the other 40 be learning them?"

"I don't like the idea," Tony said immediately.

"Well, personally, I think it's a good idea," Ernie interrupted. "If we're going to be face-to-face with Death Eaters, we should learn how to ultimately deal with them."

"Yeah, but those curses are still Unforgivable," Gibson said.

"It doesn't matter. They get what they have coming," Elizabeth said fiercely. "And I'll train my sisters, Lydia and Michelle, to kill off those—"

"No language, please," Tonks said, raising her hand, just as Ann said, "I'm with Elizabeth."

"Maybe we should use them as a last resort?" Marie offered.

"You can bet the Death Eaters won't use them as a last resort," Joan said bitterly.

"I don't like the idea of killing," Lavender put in. "I mean, I don't want to be like the Death Eaters."

"Yeah," Lynn said.

"I'm with Marie on the last resort thing," Bennie said.

"Yeah," Christina said, nodding her head and looking at everyone else with wide eyes.

"Hey, founders, what do you think?" Maria asked, looking over at Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Hermione was staring at her hands. After a few seconds' pause, she spoke in a low but clear voice.

"I know what it's like to use the Cruciatus Curse. I was one of the ones to use it on a Death Eater. When I was doing it to her, I felt on top of the world and in the depths of despair at the same time. I hated her, and I had vengeance to wreak on her, but while I was doing it I felt—I guess you could say, not myself. It was good and bad at the same time."

"Thanks, that helps," Elizabeth muttered.

"Be nice, Elizabeth," Marie said. Elizabeth frowned at her.

"Well, I don't think we should use them," Corrine said. "It's just like—who's she?" She pointed to Lavender, who said her name. "It's just like Lavender said. We'd be just like the Death Eaters."

"I don't care if I use an Unforgivable against them," Mary said. "They deserve it. I'm with Elizabeth."

"All right, this isn't getting us anywhere," Tonks said. "Let's just do it this way. Raise your hands if you think we should use the Unforgivables."

Ann, Mary, Ron, Susan, Ernie, Linda, Cho, Elizabeth, and Joan raised their hands.

"All right, you guys group off. How about those who think we shouldn't use them?"

Gibson, Lavender, Corrine, Parvati, Lynn, Hannah, Anita, Lydia, and Tony raised their hands, then shuffled to form their own group

"Who says last resort? And if you don't know, keep your hands down."

Bennie, Marie, Neville, Noah, Ginny, Maria, Terry, Michael, Anthony, Thomas, Amy, Christina, and Elise raised their hands and formed off into their own little group. Katie, Colin, Dennis, Seamus, Hermione, Harry, Dean, Emmanuela, Luna, and Padma were left under the "don't know" category.

"All righty, that's 13 for "Last Resort", so that's what we'll do. We won't tackle the Unforgivables for awhile. Now, onto business. I want you to divide up into pairs and practice stunning charms. That's "Stupefy" for those who don't know. It temporarily confuses or stuns the enemy so you can get past it. Work on that for a half hour, and we'll review for the next 15 minutes. Get it? Got it? Good."

A fairly sore D.A. crawled from the Defense room about 45 minutes later. It was time for lunch.

"So, you two are together now, right?" Marie asked, looking straight at Harry and Hermione. The Gryffindors had settled at their table, all grouping together.

"Um…yeah," Harry said slowly.

Marie grinned. "Good. I've been splitting the dorm with Hermione for 5 straight years, and I've been waiting for her to come barging in with the news that you two are dating."

Both Harry and Hermione looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm Marie Applegate. 6th-year. My cat ate the phone cord."

"WHAT?!" Ron snorted.

"Marie sometimes feels the need to spout off nonsense," Lynn explained.

"The cows are in the fish," Marie said, just to prove a point, and then grinned again. "Believe it or not, I'm just as sane as you are. How could I not be, my mother, Marie, was a Ravenclaw. I was almost one, too, but I asked to be put in Gryffindor. My sister Denise was a Gryffindor, like me, and my other sister Kelly and my dad were a Hufflepuffs. Harry, that's your aunt who just came back, right?"

"Yeah."

"My dad dated her in 3rd year. Clifford Applegate and Petunia Evans, they were for awhile, until they broke up. He started dating my mom and she dated someone else."

Harry pursed his lips. So his aunt had been popular once. Somehow, that was a hard image to conjure up.

"My mom went here," Corrine said. "I think my dad's a Muggle, but I don't know. My parents are divorced."

"My mum's a witch," Lynn said. "My dad's a Muggle."

"Me too," Ann said. "My dad's the only Muggle in the family."

"And Gibson's the only wizard in his family, right, Gibson?" Marie asked.

Gibson made a noise in his throat.

"Noah's dad's a wizard, and his mom's a Muggle, right?" She addressed Noah.

"Uh-huh," Noah answered, taking a large bite from his chicken wing.

"Christina's and Mary's parents are all magical," Marie rounded off. "Well, anyway, I know everybody who's new in the D.A.; we've all been friends for years. Elizabeth and Maria are my oldest friends; I've known them since primer school. Too bad we all landed in different houses. Y'know, I wasn't worried when Elizabeth and Maria landed in Slytherin. Remember, Corrine, when we helped Elizabeth and Elise pull that prank on Malfoy?"

"Now, that was a little mean," Lynn said, whilst Corrine was nodding and smiling at the memory of locking Draco in the girl's bathroom while Myrtle was having mood swings.

"Oh, come off it, Lynn, just because you fancy him—"

Ron, who had been drinking, sprayed his pumpkin juice all across the table, earning himself disgusted squeals and glares from Lavender and Parvati.

"She WHAT?!"

"—doesn't mean it wasn't funny," Marie finished meekly.

"You-you-you…you FANCY MALFOY?!"

"Say it louder, I don't think the dead people in China heard you quite well enough," Lynn said, blushing furiously as Draco looked up from his table to see who had been yelling his name, and why.

Ron stared at her as if he was going to hurl.

"Take a picture, it lasts longer," Noah piped up.

"That was lame, Noah," Gibson said sagely.

"I don't believe it! Are you mad?" Ron was still staring at Lynn.

"Oh, chill," Lynn said, attempting coolness but failing.

"See? I'm not the only one who thinks he's a complete waste of time," Christina said, sending a glare over to the Slytherin table. Elise saw it and looked confused, Elizabeth saw it and glared back, and Joan saw it and ignored it.

"He's cute!" Lynn whispered fiercely.

"He's a prejudiced slimeball and a pretty boy," Gibson said firmly.

"Therefore, unworthy of our notice," Marie said, smiling again.

"Luna, you all right?" Cho asked, looking down at her 5th-year peer.

"I'm perfectly okay, thank you, Cho," Luna said, off-hand. She reached into her bag and pulled out a copy of The Quibbler.

"You're just so quiet," Cho pressed.

"And you're just so nosy," Padma snorted. The Ravenclaws had all grouped together as well.

"Padma, be nice," Anthony said teasingly, giving his girlfriend's hand a squeeze.

Michael looked at Anthony and Padma, and then turned his eyes to Cho. She had dumped him unexpectedly over the summer. It wounded his pride above all else to be dumped by both Ginny and Cho within three months, and he wanted to know why she had chosen to ditch him.

Cho watched Michael's face as well, and sighed inwardly. She busied her hands with her fork and knife, so to keep Michael's own away from hers.

She really had rushed into something after her disastrous date with Harry. She had just wanted someone to make her feel better, when her life seemed to be going completely downhill. Since losing Cedric, she just hadn't had the will to force herself into cheeriness.

Cedric. Just the thought of him made her depressed. She really had loved him, and still did, with her entire being. Harry and Michael had both been substitute lovers.

She looked over to the Hufflepuff table at Amy, who was smiling at Thomas, and at Padma, who was kissing Anthony. She glanced around the room and her eyes landed on Harry and Hermione. Since their conversation earlier she hadn't felt the least bit jealous, but now the feeling was coming back. She wasn't jealous of anyone having Harry. She was just jealous that it seemed like everyone had someone alive and whole to be in love with.

Luna's eyes scanned the scene above The Quibbler. She was watching Cho just as thoroughly as Michael, and read her eyes like a book. Grimly, she contemplated that Cedric's death was the least of Cho's problems.

She glanced down at her arm. The scar at her elbow was now a thin red line, a remnant of the open, gaping wound that had taken an hour for Madame Pomfrey to fix. A reminder of the Death Eater's power.

Yes, she thought, and almost grimaced, past deaths were the least of everyone's worries now.