A/N: Yayyyy!! I have 102 reviews! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! :-D Lol! Thanks for the reviews!! My reviewers are the best! : ) Sorry the last chapter was short, and for everyone worried a/b Harry/Ginny, etc., don't worry! I promise! Would I do that to you guys? Of course not!
~Jinglez**
Chapter 34:
Harry chased quickly after Ron, Hermione, Draco, Ginny and Lenore, none of which were in the best mood, needless to say.
"Oi!" he shouted. "Ron! Hermione! Wait- up!" The two spun around.
"What is it, mate?" asked Ron, puzzled.
"Ron, Hermione… where's Ginny? Dumbledore is going to tell us what Voldemort is up to… Oh, and we need Draco, too."
Ron scrunched up his nose. "Malfoy," he complained, but Hermione cut him off.
"Oh, shut it, Ron… Dumbledore trusts him. But," she continued, looking around, "Let's just the three of us go; I don't see Draco or Ginny, and Lenore is taking a shower…"
Harry nodded. "Okay, then. Come on…"
As they approached the far too familiar stone gargoyle, Harry sighed. "I've been here too much…" he said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, mate," laughed Ron. "You could practically move in…"
Harry gave the password and the three climbed the stone steps. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, scribbling on a sheet of parchment, his eyes squinted behind his half-moon glasses.
He looked up as they walked in and he smiled. "Ah. Sit down. Lemon drop?" he asked, offering the three a box. Harry and Hermione took one each, but Ron politely declined, looking revolted at the thought of eating candy that didn't do something to the person that ate it. "Now," said Dumbledore, "I believe you three have some… ah, questions about Voldemort?" Ron slightly shivered, but not as bad as he used to.
"Yes," said Harry immediately. "We couldn't find Lenore or ginny or Draco, sorry…"
"That's quite alright. Please go on."
Harry exchanged glances with his friends. Where to start? "Well, does Voldemort… do you think he knows about Acacia?"
"Hmm…" said Dumbledore, "A very difficult question to answer. I'm not quite sure if he knows, Harry. I doubt it very highly, though… but I suppose I should tell you what the Order suspects. We think that Voldemort was the heir of Acacia, somehow, not Slytherin. You see, Acacia and Slytherin supposedly had a daughter, who became the heir of Slytherin. But now we have reason to believe Acacia might have lied, and that Amara, her daughter, was not Salazar's, but, rather, an evil lord at the time."
"Well then who's the heir of Slytherin?" asked Hermione quickly.
Dumbledore smiled wanly. "Please do not tell anybody, but I trust you… Slytherin's son, who was younger than Amara and was born of a different woman; his name was Vladimir. And his last remaining descendent is none other than Lenore."
"Well then couldn't Harry be the heir of Slytherin, too?" asked Ron.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Lenore's Slytherin lineage comes from her father's side of the family.
"I thought he was American?" asked Harry.
"His grandparents were very prominent members of Great Britain's wizarding community. Lenore's great grandmother was betrothed to a Malfoy and her great grandfather to a Black, but they ran away with each other to America… funny, the Malfoy and the Black ended up killing each other, though, after they drank to much at their own wedding. Sad story… Anything else?" Harry slightly smirked at the story of the Malfoy and the Black killing each other at their own wedding…
"Yeah, actually," said Harry. "What is Voldemort doing? There have only been a few killings…"
Dumbledore sighed sadly. "Biding time, still. We have some insight as to what he's planning, but we don't know all the details, but, let me assure you, we are working as hard as possible to put up more wards and everything possible to ensure the safety of people everywhere. We have actually placed- oh, never mind. Never mind. Is there anything else?"
"What, sir?" asked Ron eagerly.
""Now, I fear, is not the time to tell you, Mr. Weasley."
Ron's face dropped. "Ohhh…"
"Now, I trust you three are tired… why don't you go on to your dormitories now. Good night."
"'Night, Professor," came the three voices of the sixth years. They tiredly left the office, whispering worriedly.
"What do you think Voldemort's doing?" asked Hermione nervously. "What kind of protections was Dumbledore talking about? I will get to the library tomorrow and see what I can find…"
"Yeah, and what have they 'placed,' and on what, I wonder?" asked Ron puzzledly. He put a hand through his red hair.
"I have no idea," said Harry in a low voice, "but I think that a DA meeting is in order tomorrow night…"
"But don't you and Lenore, Ginny, and Draco have defense and then you have an extra lesson?" asked Hermione, who seemed to have memorized everyone's schedules.
"Yeah," said Harry, disappointed. "And Quidditch… Then Tuesday we'll have a meeting. I think that we need to do what we can in protecting wizarding Britain, even if the Order is as well… I'm thinking Marauders maps of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, and patrol duties, and spies; the whole lot. And more members, and a bigger curse if one of them is a traitor, and we need to put our own protections on the castle…"
"Blimey," said Ron. "Will we really be able to do all that?"
Harry nodded decisively. "Hermione, will you be in charge of looking up protections and the curse for a traitor and stuff?"
"Of course," said Hermione.
"And Ron?" asked Harry. "Could you possibly create patrol rounds? Hermione could help you if you need… Make it in mind that the people patrolling will have maps and invisibility cloaks."
"Okay," said Ron with a set face.
"And I'll get Ginny and Draco to work on recruiting new members that are trustworthy…"
"Malfoy?" asked Ron dejectedly.
"Yes, Malfoy," said Harry. "Like it or not, he's on the good side… I'm going to contact Fred and George to see if they could invent a few things for us…"
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Tuesday Evening, a half of an hour before the meeting began, Harry was to be found in the Room of Requirements, going over his paperwork and smiling to himself. Everyone in the DA would be getting a job to do. And there were loads of new members, too. Harry knew that they would be loyal, or at least, he hoped so. There were many third and fourth years joining, as well as some new fifth years, but no new sixth years or seventh years as far as Harry knew, besides Robyn, Lenore, and Draco.
The first member to walk in was Luna Lovegood, whom Harry had hardly seen since the summer.
"Hello, Harry," she said languorously as she entered the room, a dreamy expression on her face.
"Hi, Luna," he said. "How's your year been?"
"I've been well," she said. "And you?" But before Harry could answer, she began speaking again. "How is Ronald? He isn't going with Hermione, is he?" Wow. This was as down to earth Harry had almost ever seen Luna.
"Er… I don't think so," said Harry, trying not to laugh. Luna brightened.
"There are some new Ravenclaws joining this year," she observed, reading Harry's list. He nodded.
"Yeah…" continued Luna. "Stewart Ackerly and Orla Quirke are the third year Ravenclaws joining… There is even a third year Slytherin, Malcolm Baddock… And another Ravenclaw, Serena Fawcett…"
Soon everyone started arriving in packs. First came Ron, Ginny, Neville, Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, Lenore, Robyn, Dean, and Seamus. Then came Serena Fawcett, Terry Boot, Michael Corner, Lisa Turpin, and Padma Patil, followed shortly by Cho Chang and, to Harry's great dismay, Roger Davies. After them came Dennis and Colin Creevey, followed by Natalie McDonald, a Gryffindor third year, and Alex and Tara from Quidditch. Behind them came some Hufflepuffs; Zacharias Smith, Susan Bones, Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott, and Justin Finch- Fletchley. Then came two third year Hufflepuffs, Eleanor Branstone and Kevin Whitby, followed by Katie Bell and two seventh year Gryffindors named Michelle Madley and Eric Jonstone. It was a very good turn-out. After Malcolm and Draco showed up, there were thirty-five people. Wow.
Harry linked eyes with each Ginny and Draco, sending them each thumbs up. After a minute he called the meeting to order. There were so many people, though, that Harry decided to cast a Sonorous charm on himself.
"Hello, everyone," he said happily. "To all of our new members, welcome to the DA, and to our old members, I'm glad to have you back. First of all, has everyone been issued a galleon?" There was a general murmur of assent and Hermione said that she'd given them out. "Good. Now, there will be a different hex on the contract this year, a worse one. That's all I'm going to tell you, but, believe me, everybody will know who the traitor is if you tell about us or give out any information you hear in the meetings. Even though this group isn't as illegal anymore, it's still top secret. Does anybody wish to leave that doesn't want to sign the contract?" Nobody said anything. "In that case, the contract is on the wall, if you would all go sign it." Whispers broke out as everyone rushed over to the wall and fought over quills.
After ten minutes, everyone had signed the contract. "Down to business," said Harry. "This year, there will be several important jobs for members of the DA to carry out. We have intelligence that Voldemort-" collective shudders around the room- "is planning something; a really big attack, and we are going to help protect the school, Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade. I've managed to get my hands on invisibility suits, actually, and they look very frivolous; Fred and George created them, but they make their wearer invisible. We will use these to patrol the school, watching out for death eaters and suspicious activity. Now, I'm going to ask for volunteers for jobs. I'll give the description, and if you think you meet the qualifications, raise your hand.
"The first job will be to make a certain type of map of Diagon Alley. We actually need two. We need somebody who's very talented at drawing, and two people who are excellent at charms, and by excellent, I mean, top in your class…"
Dean Thomas raised his hand for the artwork, and Hermione and Michelle Madley raised their hands for the Charms. The next job was a map of Hogsmeade, where they needed two artists and three charmers. Dean and Hermione decided to work on both, while Colin and Alex worked on Charms and Tara helped with the drawing.
"Good… Hermione will tell you the details on the map and such. For the next job, we need two people who are willing to intensely study defenses and protections for buildings and such. And probably someone who's very good at Ancient Runes as well." It turned out that Robyn was first in her Ancient Runes Newt class, so she worked with Draco Malfoy, whose manor had countless protections on it, and Serena, who was skilled in defense and in charms.
"Now, do we have anybody who has special skills for a job idea they have in mind?" Slowly, the little red-headed Slytherin raised his hand.
"Yes, Malcolm?" asked Harry.
"I want to spy," he said determinedly. "I need to pretend I'm on the other Slytherins' side anyway, so I might as well report the things I hear."
"Are you sure?" asked Harry doubtfully. "It could be really dangerous…" The boy nodded resolutely. "Okay, then," said Harry. "The rest of you will also be very important, and you'll be able to get extra assignments from time to time. You will all be patrolling, invisible, around the school. You will get Hogwarts maps and be able to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Ron, Hermione, and I are working on walkie talkie like things that you'll be able to use, and-" Everyone who'd grown up in wizarding families looked confused. "They're things we can talk to each other with. And we'll have people on shift 24'7 and a constant communication bout. Patrollers will have access to invisibility things, maps, dungbombs, extendable ears, and several other things." Many people's eyes lit up in excitement. "But we can't fool around; it's very important. We will be searching for a new room, too, since so many people know about this one, and we'll put charms on it and stuff… Always be on the lookout for new members; we will need them, after all, we have twenty-four hours a day and just thirty five members, and I was hoping for two members together on an hour long shift, but… we'll see. The next meeting will be in here again, and you'll get your schedules and when we start and all the details. Oh, and those of you with the jobs beside patrolling, please begin as soon as possible. Thanks."
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A/N: New chapter coming ASAP! Read and review!! Let's see how fast we can getr to 200! :-D