Well! Thanks to all my really nice readers! Especially to: Mary Ichijouji, lyss33, dramagirl, harryptaxd204, Gina Bina, and Silver Streak. It was so nice of you to take time out and review! You all made my day!
Special thanks to my betas: icycoolHermione, dreamermarie, and to Hayzel- my Mary Sue extraordinaire!
Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned Harry, sadly I do not. Only Fiona....
centerChapter Nine: The DA Restored/center
At exactly seven thirty, the members of the DA found themselves gathered in the Room of Requirement. It was surprisingly bare.
"Where's all our stuff?" Zacharias Smith asked rudely. Fred and George, who had snuck into the castle to attend the DA meeting, glared at him.
"Listen!" Harry shouted, trying to get everyone to pay attention. "This is our meeting spot for tonight only. I have found a new room for us to have our meetings in- one that no one else knows about. The only way to get to our new room is through house elf passageways. iWill you pay attention/i?" He yelled at Zacharias who was whispering furiously to Ginny. She looked like she was about to hex him. Zacharias immediately stopped talking.
"Thank you. This is really important because the room is really hard to find. I will go first because I know where the room is. If you get lost, don't panic, simply think of where you want to go and as long as you keep walking, you will eventually get there."
"What do you mean, eventually?" Ernie Macmillan asked, looking nervous for a moment.
"Anyway," Harry said, ignoring him. "The easiest way to enter a house elf corridor is to tap the third brick from the left on the very top of the fireplaces in your dormitories. Tonight, we will, of course, be using the one from in here. Now, follow closely."
Harry walked to the opposite side of the room and opened a door that no one else had even bothered to notice.
"I must warn you, these are a bit small. Crawling seems to work best," Harry said, right before he crawled into the corridor. The Patil twins and Lavender exchanged looks of equal horror and looked down at their clean clothes.
Hermione dropped to her hands and knees and followed Harry. Slowly, all the other members dropped to their hands and knees and followed Hermione. It didn't take very long to reach the room that Harry had found.
"Welcome to the old Hufflepuff common room," Harry said, after they all entered the room.
The room reminded them all a lot of the Room of Requirement and Harry secretly wondered whether Dobby had stolen things from it. One wall contained nothing but bookcases. Strewn about the room were pillows and cushions in various shapes and sizes. There were even a couple of couches. Harry counted three fireplaces.
"This is iperfect/i," Hermione sighed. "And look- our attendance sheet is on the wall with today's date on it. Everyone's names are already checked off!"
"Ok everyone, if you could sit on a cushion somewhere I'll explain what's going on," Harry shouted at everyone. Neville and Ginny were playing with a drawer of sneakoscopes. Fred and George walked over to a chest of drawers looking like Christmas had come early. Luna was standing in the middle of the room in a haze. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually everyone sat down in front of Harry.
"This is the old Hufflepuff common room that was abandoned when more students began enrolling in Hogwarts," Harry started.
"You already told us- hurry it up," Fred said impatiently.
"Erm, sorry. All right anyways, the DA has changed slightly. Every once and a while we will be required to take a test," Harry said. Neville suddenly turned very green. "Don't worry though, I'll just pass everyone anyways. Ok, let's get started. The first thing we are going to do is practice everything we learned last year. We'll begin with Stunning. Break off into pairs and make sure you have a lot of cushions around you!" Harry called out as everyone immediately began practicing.
After Stunning spells, they practiced Disarming, the Impediment Jinx, and finally the Reductor Curse. Harry was pleased to note that everyone had retained most of the skills they learned from the year before. The members that had fought at the Ministry of Magic, especially Neville, had a new confidence in them that was reflected in their spells. Ginny's Reductor curse had even obliterated a couch and Neville managed to Stun Hermione twice.
As Harry had expected, the members of the DA were not very excited when he mentioned that they would be spending a lot of time simply dodging hexes, especially when he said they could only use the Jelly Legs curse.
"Jelly Legs? That's it?" George asked, looking completely let down. "I thought we were going to be doing something icool/i!"
"This is really important," Hermione snapped. "And Jelly Legs is one of the easiest jinxes to reverse. If you want to stand around reviving people all night be my guest!" Everyone stopped whining after that. Even though they originally complained about having to dodge jinxes, in the end everyone ended up having a lot of fun and invented a new game of tag. After about an hour, though, Harry stopped them.
"All right, one last thing," he said.
"Oi, come on, Harry, we were having fun!" Fred called out as George hit Zacharias Smith with a Jelly Legs curse. Hermione went to his rescue, but only after he wobbled around for a couple minutes. She was still really annoyed at Zacharias for being so rude to Harry earlier.
"Well actually, we were just going to practice Patronuses," Harry said. Everyone got really excited. "Now remember to say iExpecto Patronum/i really loud and clear and try to think of your happiest memory while you are saying it." Everyone nodded. Hermione and Cho immediately produced their own Patronuses. Cho was giggling at her swan that was floating around her in circles.
Harry looked over and found that now, he could correct Cho whenever he wanted and he was no longer embarrassed when he talked to her. He didn't even care that she was going out with Michael Corner, who seemed to be having difficulty producing his own Patronus. He appeared to be getting angrier by the second and having Harry point out some of his mistakes was not helping him at all.
"He's just jealous of you because you went out with Cho," Hermione whispered to him.
"What? But we went out once and it was a complete disaster!" Harry replied.
"Doesn't matter, he feels threatened by you. Maybe you should just leave him alone," Hermione commented. "Look, Neville's almost got his! Good job, Neville!" Harry walked away from her when he noticed Fiona waving her wand viciously.
"Fiona, you are trying way too hard," Harry said, watching her. "Calm down and try to think of something happy!"
"I'm trying, but it's so hard!" She said, looking extremely annoyed at her wand.
"Come on, Fiona, remember when I told you about the swamp me and George made?" Fred called to her. Fiona started laughing and threads of silver streaked out the end of her wand.
"That's better," Harry said. "See what I mean?"
"Thanks Fred, thanks Harry," Fiona said and once again began concentrating on her Patronus.
"Harry, look at the time!" Hermione called to him. Harry looked at his watch. It was almost curfew.
"It's time to go!" Everyone grumbled as they headed towards the door. Hermione and Ron stayed behind with Harry. Fiona was off in the corner of the room giggling at something Fred was showing her and George was off looking in the chest of drawers again. Luna was with him and she appeared to be idoting/i on him. Harry shuddered at the thought.
"What did you think?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry.
"It went pretty well," Harry said. "No one got any worse. Ginny and Neville got loads better. You better study up, Ron, because pretty soon Ginny will be passing you by!" Ron scowled at him, but really he felt pride for his little sister; she was really good with jinxes and a fast learner.
"What about Fiona?" Hermione asked.
"She did pretty good," Harry said.
"Not so good aim with the Stunning, though. Hit Dean once or twice when she was supposed to be aiming for Fred!" Ron said laughing.
"Sure that wasn't on purpose?" Hermione asked him. "Her aim was ok. Her Reductor Curse needs some work and she's a little behind with the Patronus, but it was her first class."
"I noticed," Harry said, thinking of how Fiona had barely blown apart one of the cushions.
"Wait, why wouldn't that be on purpose?" Ron asked, still thinking about how Fiona had Stunned Dean. Hermione rolled her eyes at him; sometimes he was so slow.
"Because of Ginny," Hermione said, looking at him as if it were the most obvious thing. "Girls always stick together."
"Cho came without Marietta," Ron pointed out.
"Yes, well, Marietta was a flake and besides, who would let her back in after what she did? I was surprised Harry asked Cho back."
"Why?" Harry asked, looking surprised at Hermione. "She's really good." Hermione just looked at him.
"Well, I'm going back to the common room. I have some Arithmancy to finish before tomorrow."
"Night Hermione," Ron said.
"Yea, night Hermione," Harry added. Hermione picked up her bag and walked through the house elf sized door.
"What is going on with Fred and Fiona?" Ron asked, watching them from across the room.
"No clue, looks like they like each other, though," Harry said, watching as Fred helped a laughing Fiona stand up. She had tripped over one of the giant cushions on the floor.
"You can never tell with Fred. He acts like that around every girl. Er, Harry, what is Looney doing?" Ron asked, looking over Harry's shoulder.
"I don't think I want to know," Harry said, glancing in her direction. Something pink and foamy was coming out of her wand and George was next to her, laughing hysterically.
"Oh, never mind, one of George's fake wands again," Ron said. He didn't seem to have noticed that Luna was sneaking looks at him all night or that she started faintly humming 'Weasley is Our King' when he had mentioned something about Quidditch to Harry.
"Alright, we are past curfew!" Harry called out to them. "Bye Fred, bye George!"
"Bye Harry, we'll keep you updated about business!" George called back after he cleaned up the mess Luna had made.
That night, as Harry lay in bed, he couldn't help but think of the DA and how happy he was that meetings started again. He was really looking forward to all the new things that Professor Skont was going to teach him. He was also looking forward to getting into the DA room alone. He was just as curious as Fred and George about what was in that chest of drawers. He drifted off to sleep right as he was remembering the look on Luna's face as pink foam streamed out of her wand.
"Harry! Harry, wake up!"
Harry sat up quickly. "What? What's going on?" He asked quickly. He looked over to find Ron still grasping his shoulders.
"You were muttering in your sleep again. Rather loudly, too. Sorry, but I had to wake you," Ron said, looking at him skeptically. "I thought the Occlumency lessons were working?"
"They were, for a while," Harry said. "What time is it, anyhow?"
"Four in the morning," Ron answered. "You sure you're ok cause I'm goin back to bed if you are."
"I'm fine," Harry said. "Remember what I was saying this time?"
"Nothing intelligible, really. Something about the Hog's Head, though. That's about it," Ron mumbled as he trudged back to bed. "Night, Harry. I'll see you in a couple hours." Then he drew the curtains on his bed. Within minutes, Harry heard him snoring again.
Harry had never felt so wide-awake. He looked over at the stack of books lying haphazardly on the floor. i'Might as well get something done since I'm awake,' /i he thought. By the time Ron woke again, Harry had finished an essay for Charms and was beginning one for Potions.
"So that's how you've been finishing all of your homework," Ron said, accusingly.
"Yea, right," Harry said. "Maybe if you didn't spend so much time with Lavender, you could finish your work too." Ron looked at him in shock.
"Harry, I only played her in chess a couple times," Ron said, yet Harry could see his ears beginning to turn pink. But then, Ron's ears turned pink when he talked about any girl.
Ron walked into the bathroom to begin getting ready for classes.
"Let's go, Ron, it's time for breakfast," Harry called to him a few minutes later. Ron stumbled out of the bathroom. It looked like he had been sleeping. "Ron, please tell me you didn't fall asleep while you were brushing your teeth."
When the owl post came at breakfast, Ron was extremely surprised when Pig flew over to him with a letter attached to his leg.
"Who is that from?" Lavender asked, sweetly. Harry could tell she was just being nosy.
"My mother," Ron said, frowning at the long letter in his hand.
"Oh, that's nice," Lavender said, suddenly sounding really bored. She got up and went to sit next to Dean. Ginny scowled at her.
"Well, Percy got married," Ron said. "And he got demoted. He's junior secretary for some department in Ministry of Magic. Fudge sacked him, apparently. Dad reckons its cause he doesn't need Percy to spy on Dumbledore anymore. I say its cause Percy's a big idiot and really obnoxious."
"What?" Hermione burst out, obviously ignoring the rest of the news. "He got imarried/i? To who?"
"Penelope Clearwater, of course. Who else could ever stand him for more than five minutes? What a git, he didn't even invite mum or dad to the wedding. Mum's really upset. She wishes you the best, though Harry. Funny, she's all upset about Percy and yet, she still manages to check up on Harry."
"Let me see," Ginny demanded.
"Hold on, I'm not finished yet," Ron said. "Oh, and she warned us not to do anything stupid. I guess she found out about Fred and George coming the other day cause she mentions it briefly and she doesn't seem too thrilled about it. All right, Ginny, I'm done now." He said annoyed as he handed her the letter.
"Um, sorry but, who's Percy?" Fiona asked innocently.
"One of my older brothers," Ron answered. Hermione gave Fiona a look that warned her against asking anything else.
"Look at those boys over there! They're fighting and making a huge mess!" Hermione said. She immediately jumped up and began scolding them. Ron looked on, clearly amused.
"Shouldn't the iother/i Gryffindor Prefect be doing something?" Harry asked him, mockingly.
"What's the use? Hermione's doing a good enough job already," Ron answered, laughing as a bowl of porridge flew past Hermione's head.
Ernie Macmillan began helping Hermione clean up the mess that had gathered around the table. Ron's ears began to turn red.
"Ron, let's get to class," Harry said, trying to get Ron's mind elsewhere.
"That Ernie Macmillan is a big git, you know? Always trying to look better than everyone else," Ron said as he gathered his books.
"He's just trying to help, Ron," Fiona interrupted. "Do we really have to go to class already? I hate Transfigurations!"
"Only cause you're bad at them. You're the only iweirdo/i I know that doesn't mind going to Potions," Ron said.
"It's not so bad if Snape doesn't bother you. I still have that dumb detention with him on Thursday!"
"Snape's detentions aren't so bad," Harry said, remembering all the detentions he'd ever done. The ones with Umbridge and Lockhart stuck out the most.
"Let's go, Hermione looks like she's going to hex someone and Ginny doesn't look so happy either," Ron said, pushing Fiona out the door.
"That was probably my worst class yet," Fiona groaned as they walked out of the Transfigurations classroom. "I tried everything she said, and nothing happened!"
In class that day, McGonagall had started an entirely new unit- how to transfigure objects from pure air, or conjuring. Harry had remembered how Professor McGonagall had once absentmindedly conjured a chair for him to sit in. It had proved to be a lot harder than he expected.
"All we had to do was conjure quills," Hermione said. Hers had come out perfectly almost as soon as she had tried, of course. "If you really need help, I'd be happy to help you."
"Thanks, Hermione, but not tonight," Fiona moaned.
"Quidditch practice at exactly six o'clock," Harry reminded her. "I'll see you there, Fiona. Oh, and don't worry about getting a broom. McGonagall said she has one for you."
"Great, just what I need," Ron said, thinking about Quidditch practice.
"Ron, you are still being our Keeper whether you like it or not," Harry said. "You have a lot of work to do, though." Ron really was a good keeper, but he tended to get nervous when other people watched him. In the last game, he managed to do really well and actually saved Gryffindor from losing. Harry hoped that this would make him more confident.
"Quaffle," Hermione said, waiting for the portrait to swing open. She walked over to a particularly large table and began spreading out her books.
"She's starting her homework already?" Ron asked, looking at Harry disbelievingly.
"Yes, Ron. I, unlike you, like to be caught up on my homework. I'm busy tonight too," she said, looking him square in the eye.
"Well, have fun wherever you're going," Ron said, his feelings a little hurt. He walked away and went up the stairs leading towards the dormitories. Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione and Ron were always disagreeing about something, even something as stupid as when they did their homework.
"Starting your homework, Harry?" Hermione asked him.
"Not yet, I still have Quidditch positions to look over. Four people are trying out for Chaser and only two for Beater. Fiona, looks like you're our second Beater. Jack Sloper decided he'd rather play Chaser. Let's hope he's loads better at Chaser than he was at Beater or we're in real trouble. Then there's Ginny, Colin Creevey, and Dean. This is going to be interesting. Colin Creevey probably weighs less than his broom!" Harry replied, looking crestfallen at the paper in front of him.
"Collin Creevey?" Fiona asked.
"He's in the DA," Hermione said. "Sitting over there with his camera. That's his brother Dennis sitting next to him on the couch."
"Oh, him. Ok, I remember him now," Fiona said. "Isn't he the one who managed to Stun himself?"
"That was an accident; he didn't know there was a mirror behind Dennis," Harry said, frowning at the paper as he drew different defense positions on it.
"Well, you should have a fun practice," Hermione said, looking up from her Arithmancy book.
"Don't remind me," Harry groaned, turning over the paper and beginning to fill up the back.
Six o'clock came a lot faster than Harry would have liked, but he suddenly found himself out on the Quidditch field. It felt weird to be playing without his old team, especially Fred and George. Now all he had to look forward to was Ron, who currently was looking as if he were about to be sick.
"Ron, why do you look so nervous? You're already on the team," Harry reminded him.
"Are you sure about this?" Ron asked, secretly envisioning the entire stadium filled with people.
"Remember how well you did last year- you won the House Cup!" Harry said, encouragingly.
"Yeah, yeah I guess I did," Ron answered, remembering the goals he had saved. Harry winced slightly, hoping Ron wouldn't get overly confident. For weeks after he made all those catches, Ron walked around like he owned everything. It kind of reminded Harry of Percy.
"Ok, first we are going to have Chaser tryouts. You'll each take turns with the quaffle and try to score. Ron, if you would please resume your position as Keeper. We'll take Ginny first, Dean second, Colin third, and Jack last. Good luck to all of you," Harry said, wishing that he would find at least one other decent player besides Ginny for Chaser.
Ginny made her first shot effortlessly. Harry could tell that Ron was upset, but Ron didn't say anything. He just threw the quaffle to Dean, who was waiting next. Dean turned out to not be so bad. From what Harry could see of his first shot, he was a decent flyer and had decent aim. He liked to show off a little too much for Harry, but all in all he wasn't iso/i bad.
Harry looked over and groaned. Colin was holding the quaffle and looking down at ground with a look of fear clearly etched on his face. i'Who would try out for a Quidditch team if they were scared to fly?'/i Harry thought to himself. He was beginning to loose patience and would rather have taken a bludger to the face than watch Colin staring at the ground for ages. Suddenly, Ginny flew over to him and began talking to him. Colin smiled and looked towards the goal. He finally started to move.
"He's not so bad," Fiona said. She was standing next to Harry. "Well, once he starts moving anyhow." Harry had to admit, Colin really wasn't so bad. The only thing that seemed to be against him was his size. He was pretty small and would probably get injured really easily, especially against Slytherin. Slytherin seemed to pick their team based on size, or in Draco Malfoy's case, their father's money. Colin almost succeeded in scoring but in the last second, Ron saved the quaffle. It was a pretty impressive save and Harry called out to him in encouragement.
Jack Sloper was next. Harry remembered how Fred and George had made fun of his flying the year before. Harry watched him closely. He wasn't a great flyer, but he wasn't so terrible either. At least he wasn't scared of heights. He even managed to get the quaffle past Ron, whose ears turned bright red in shame.
Harry had the Chasers continuing this practice while he watched the Beaters. Andrew Kirke got to the bludger first and tried to be very nice about hitting it in Fiona's direction. Harry scowled at him. In Quidditch, you couldn't be nice to a player simply because she was a girl. Oliver Wood had taught him that when his first year when he was playing against Cho.
Then Harry turned his attention to Fiona. She wasn't a very good flyer, Harry could tell that immediately. She seemed to look a little confused at how high up she was. Harry rolled his eyes. i'Oh, great. Maybe I can convince Jack to stay as a Beater,'/i he thought desperately.
As Harry was beginning to lose faith in Fiona, she began to swing her bat. It connected with the bludger and Andrew had to roll over on his broom to get out of its path. Barely a second later, it flew directly where his head had been.
"You're not supposed to try and kill me, you know! I'm still on your team!" he called to her, clearly annoyed.
"Sorry, just a little nervous," Fiona replied. Harry could have jumped for joy. He would personally give Fiona flying lessons as long as she was on the Gryffindor team as Beater.
A little while later, he called everyone in. "I just want to thank everyone for trying out," Harry said. "Positions will be posted on Monday. Good practice everyone; you may head back to the common room. Quickly, too because Slytherin should be getting here soon."
Ron waited behind everyone else so he could walk with Harry. Ginny and Fiona were chatting up ahead.
"What'd you think of Fiona hitting that bludger? I don't think I'll ever get her angry," Ron said.
"Now the only thing we need to do is give her flying lessons," Harry said.
"She wasn't that bad, Harry."
"Ron, she could barely fly. If it weren't for Andrew hitting the bludger nicely at her, she wouldn't have been able to hit it. I thought she was going to fall off!" Harry exclaimed.
"You thought ishe/i was going to fall off? What about Colin Creevey? I thought he was going to wet himself when the first time he looked at the ground. That was incredibly pathetic," Ron said.
"He wasn't so bad once he started moving."
"Harry, please say you aren't putting Colin Creevey on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team," Ron pleaded with him.
"Obviously not. He'll be reserve. We'll have to try to find a way to get rid of his fear of heights, that way we can use him next year. And I wouldn't say anything about Colin Creevey; at least his little sister's quaffle didn't get past him," Harry taunted, ignoring the fact that Colin didn't have a little sister.
"Hey, she's my little sister! I ihad/i to let her score," Ron said quickly, his ears burning red.
"Whatever you say, Ron. Come on, I'll race you to the common room."
"All right, but expect to lose, Harry. Expect to lose."
Ok, well that wasn't my favorite of chapters, but you know.... important to the story, etc. Hope you liked it, though. And please, take the two seconds to review...it just makes my day!
Special thanks to my betas: icycoolHermione, dreamermarie, and to Hayzel- my Mary Sue extraordinaire!
Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned Harry, sadly I do not. Only Fiona....
centerChapter Nine: The DA Restored/center
At exactly seven thirty, the members of the DA found themselves gathered in the Room of Requirement. It was surprisingly bare.
"Where's all our stuff?" Zacharias Smith asked rudely. Fred and George, who had snuck into the castle to attend the DA meeting, glared at him.
"Listen!" Harry shouted, trying to get everyone to pay attention. "This is our meeting spot for tonight only. I have found a new room for us to have our meetings in- one that no one else knows about. The only way to get to our new room is through house elf passageways. iWill you pay attention/i?" He yelled at Zacharias who was whispering furiously to Ginny. She looked like she was about to hex him. Zacharias immediately stopped talking.
"Thank you. This is really important because the room is really hard to find. I will go first because I know where the room is. If you get lost, don't panic, simply think of where you want to go and as long as you keep walking, you will eventually get there."
"What do you mean, eventually?" Ernie Macmillan asked, looking nervous for a moment.
"Anyway," Harry said, ignoring him. "The easiest way to enter a house elf corridor is to tap the third brick from the left on the very top of the fireplaces in your dormitories. Tonight, we will, of course, be using the one from in here. Now, follow closely."
Harry walked to the opposite side of the room and opened a door that no one else had even bothered to notice.
"I must warn you, these are a bit small. Crawling seems to work best," Harry said, right before he crawled into the corridor. The Patil twins and Lavender exchanged looks of equal horror and looked down at their clean clothes.
Hermione dropped to her hands and knees and followed Harry. Slowly, all the other members dropped to their hands and knees and followed Hermione. It didn't take very long to reach the room that Harry had found.
"Welcome to the old Hufflepuff common room," Harry said, after they all entered the room.
The room reminded them all a lot of the Room of Requirement and Harry secretly wondered whether Dobby had stolen things from it. One wall contained nothing but bookcases. Strewn about the room were pillows and cushions in various shapes and sizes. There were even a couple of couches. Harry counted three fireplaces.
"This is iperfect/i," Hermione sighed. "And look- our attendance sheet is on the wall with today's date on it. Everyone's names are already checked off!"
"Ok everyone, if you could sit on a cushion somewhere I'll explain what's going on," Harry shouted at everyone. Neville and Ginny were playing with a drawer of sneakoscopes. Fred and George walked over to a chest of drawers looking like Christmas had come early. Luna was standing in the middle of the room in a haze. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually everyone sat down in front of Harry.
"This is the old Hufflepuff common room that was abandoned when more students began enrolling in Hogwarts," Harry started.
"You already told us- hurry it up," Fred said impatiently.
"Erm, sorry. All right anyways, the DA has changed slightly. Every once and a while we will be required to take a test," Harry said. Neville suddenly turned very green. "Don't worry though, I'll just pass everyone anyways. Ok, let's get started. The first thing we are going to do is practice everything we learned last year. We'll begin with Stunning. Break off into pairs and make sure you have a lot of cushions around you!" Harry called out as everyone immediately began practicing.
After Stunning spells, they practiced Disarming, the Impediment Jinx, and finally the Reductor Curse. Harry was pleased to note that everyone had retained most of the skills they learned from the year before. The members that had fought at the Ministry of Magic, especially Neville, had a new confidence in them that was reflected in their spells. Ginny's Reductor curse had even obliterated a couch and Neville managed to Stun Hermione twice.
As Harry had expected, the members of the DA were not very excited when he mentioned that they would be spending a lot of time simply dodging hexes, especially when he said they could only use the Jelly Legs curse.
"Jelly Legs? That's it?" George asked, looking completely let down. "I thought we were going to be doing something icool/i!"
"This is really important," Hermione snapped. "And Jelly Legs is one of the easiest jinxes to reverse. If you want to stand around reviving people all night be my guest!" Everyone stopped whining after that. Even though they originally complained about having to dodge jinxes, in the end everyone ended up having a lot of fun and invented a new game of tag. After about an hour, though, Harry stopped them.
"All right, one last thing," he said.
"Oi, come on, Harry, we were having fun!" Fred called out as George hit Zacharias Smith with a Jelly Legs curse. Hermione went to his rescue, but only after he wobbled around for a couple minutes. She was still really annoyed at Zacharias for being so rude to Harry earlier.
"Well actually, we were just going to practice Patronuses," Harry said. Everyone got really excited. "Now remember to say iExpecto Patronum/i really loud and clear and try to think of your happiest memory while you are saying it." Everyone nodded. Hermione and Cho immediately produced their own Patronuses. Cho was giggling at her swan that was floating around her in circles.
Harry looked over and found that now, he could correct Cho whenever he wanted and he was no longer embarrassed when he talked to her. He didn't even care that she was going out with Michael Corner, who seemed to be having difficulty producing his own Patronus. He appeared to be getting angrier by the second and having Harry point out some of his mistakes was not helping him at all.
"He's just jealous of you because you went out with Cho," Hermione whispered to him.
"What? But we went out once and it was a complete disaster!" Harry replied.
"Doesn't matter, he feels threatened by you. Maybe you should just leave him alone," Hermione commented. "Look, Neville's almost got his! Good job, Neville!" Harry walked away from her when he noticed Fiona waving her wand viciously.
"Fiona, you are trying way too hard," Harry said, watching her. "Calm down and try to think of something happy!"
"I'm trying, but it's so hard!" She said, looking extremely annoyed at her wand.
"Come on, Fiona, remember when I told you about the swamp me and George made?" Fred called to her. Fiona started laughing and threads of silver streaked out the end of her wand.
"That's better," Harry said. "See what I mean?"
"Thanks Fred, thanks Harry," Fiona said and once again began concentrating on her Patronus.
"Harry, look at the time!" Hermione called to him. Harry looked at his watch. It was almost curfew.
"It's time to go!" Everyone grumbled as they headed towards the door. Hermione and Ron stayed behind with Harry. Fiona was off in the corner of the room giggling at something Fred was showing her and George was off looking in the chest of drawers again. Luna was with him and she appeared to be idoting/i on him. Harry shuddered at the thought.
"What did you think?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry.
"It went pretty well," Harry said. "No one got any worse. Ginny and Neville got loads better. You better study up, Ron, because pretty soon Ginny will be passing you by!" Ron scowled at him, but really he felt pride for his little sister; she was really good with jinxes and a fast learner.
"What about Fiona?" Hermione asked.
"She did pretty good," Harry said.
"Not so good aim with the Stunning, though. Hit Dean once or twice when she was supposed to be aiming for Fred!" Ron said laughing.
"Sure that wasn't on purpose?" Hermione asked him. "Her aim was ok. Her Reductor Curse needs some work and she's a little behind with the Patronus, but it was her first class."
"I noticed," Harry said, thinking of how Fiona had barely blown apart one of the cushions.
"Wait, why wouldn't that be on purpose?" Ron asked, still thinking about how Fiona had Stunned Dean. Hermione rolled her eyes at him; sometimes he was so slow.
"Because of Ginny," Hermione said, looking at him as if it were the most obvious thing. "Girls always stick together."
"Cho came without Marietta," Ron pointed out.
"Yes, well, Marietta was a flake and besides, who would let her back in after what she did? I was surprised Harry asked Cho back."
"Why?" Harry asked, looking surprised at Hermione. "She's really good." Hermione just looked at him.
"Well, I'm going back to the common room. I have some Arithmancy to finish before tomorrow."
"Night Hermione," Ron said.
"Yea, night Hermione," Harry added. Hermione picked up her bag and walked through the house elf sized door.
"What is going on with Fred and Fiona?" Ron asked, watching them from across the room.
"No clue, looks like they like each other, though," Harry said, watching as Fred helped a laughing Fiona stand up. She had tripped over one of the giant cushions on the floor.
"You can never tell with Fred. He acts like that around every girl. Er, Harry, what is Looney doing?" Ron asked, looking over Harry's shoulder.
"I don't think I want to know," Harry said, glancing in her direction. Something pink and foamy was coming out of her wand and George was next to her, laughing hysterically.
"Oh, never mind, one of George's fake wands again," Ron said. He didn't seem to have noticed that Luna was sneaking looks at him all night or that she started faintly humming 'Weasley is Our King' when he had mentioned something about Quidditch to Harry.
"Alright, we are past curfew!" Harry called out to them. "Bye Fred, bye George!"
"Bye Harry, we'll keep you updated about business!" George called back after he cleaned up the mess Luna had made.
That night, as Harry lay in bed, he couldn't help but think of the DA and how happy he was that meetings started again. He was really looking forward to all the new things that Professor Skont was going to teach him. He was also looking forward to getting into the DA room alone. He was just as curious as Fred and George about what was in that chest of drawers. He drifted off to sleep right as he was remembering the look on Luna's face as pink foam streamed out of her wand.
"Harry! Harry, wake up!"
Harry sat up quickly. "What? What's going on?" He asked quickly. He looked over to find Ron still grasping his shoulders.
"You were muttering in your sleep again. Rather loudly, too. Sorry, but I had to wake you," Ron said, looking at him skeptically. "I thought the Occlumency lessons were working?"
"They were, for a while," Harry said. "What time is it, anyhow?"
"Four in the morning," Ron answered. "You sure you're ok cause I'm goin back to bed if you are."
"I'm fine," Harry said. "Remember what I was saying this time?"
"Nothing intelligible, really. Something about the Hog's Head, though. That's about it," Ron mumbled as he trudged back to bed. "Night, Harry. I'll see you in a couple hours." Then he drew the curtains on his bed. Within minutes, Harry heard him snoring again.
Harry had never felt so wide-awake. He looked over at the stack of books lying haphazardly on the floor. i'Might as well get something done since I'm awake,' /i he thought. By the time Ron woke again, Harry had finished an essay for Charms and was beginning one for Potions.
"So that's how you've been finishing all of your homework," Ron said, accusingly.
"Yea, right," Harry said. "Maybe if you didn't spend so much time with Lavender, you could finish your work too." Ron looked at him in shock.
"Harry, I only played her in chess a couple times," Ron said, yet Harry could see his ears beginning to turn pink. But then, Ron's ears turned pink when he talked about any girl.
Ron walked into the bathroom to begin getting ready for classes.
"Let's go, Ron, it's time for breakfast," Harry called to him a few minutes later. Ron stumbled out of the bathroom. It looked like he had been sleeping. "Ron, please tell me you didn't fall asleep while you were brushing your teeth."
When the owl post came at breakfast, Ron was extremely surprised when Pig flew over to him with a letter attached to his leg.
"Who is that from?" Lavender asked, sweetly. Harry could tell she was just being nosy.
"My mother," Ron said, frowning at the long letter in his hand.
"Oh, that's nice," Lavender said, suddenly sounding really bored. She got up and went to sit next to Dean. Ginny scowled at her.
"Well, Percy got married," Ron said. "And he got demoted. He's junior secretary for some department in Ministry of Magic. Fudge sacked him, apparently. Dad reckons its cause he doesn't need Percy to spy on Dumbledore anymore. I say its cause Percy's a big idiot and really obnoxious."
"What?" Hermione burst out, obviously ignoring the rest of the news. "He got imarried/i? To who?"
"Penelope Clearwater, of course. Who else could ever stand him for more than five minutes? What a git, he didn't even invite mum or dad to the wedding. Mum's really upset. She wishes you the best, though Harry. Funny, she's all upset about Percy and yet, she still manages to check up on Harry."
"Let me see," Ginny demanded.
"Hold on, I'm not finished yet," Ron said. "Oh, and she warned us not to do anything stupid. I guess she found out about Fred and George coming the other day cause she mentions it briefly and she doesn't seem too thrilled about it. All right, Ginny, I'm done now." He said annoyed as he handed her the letter.
"Um, sorry but, who's Percy?" Fiona asked innocently.
"One of my older brothers," Ron answered. Hermione gave Fiona a look that warned her against asking anything else.
"Look at those boys over there! They're fighting and making a huge mess!" Hermione said. She immediately jumped up and began scolding them. Ron looked on, clearly amused.
"Shouldn't the iother/i Gryffindor Prefect be doing something?" Harry asked him, mockingly.
"What's the use? Hermione's doing a good enough job already," Ron answered, laughing as a bowl of porridge flew past Hermione's head.
Ernie Macmillan began helping Hermione clean up the mess that had gathered around the table. Ron's ears began to turn red.
"Ron, let's get to class," Harry said, trying to get Ron's mind elsewhere.
"That Ernie Macmillan is a big git, you know? Always trying to look better than everyone else," Ron said as he gathered his books.
"He's just trying to help, Ron," Fiona interrupted. "Do we really have to go to class already? I hate Transfigurations!"
"Only cause you're bad at them. You're the only iweirdo/i I know that doesn't mind going to Potions," Ron said.
"It's not so bad if Snape doesn't bother you. I still have that dumb detention with him on Thursday!"
"Snape's detentions aren't so bad," Harry said, remembering all the detentions he'd ever done. The ones with Umbridge and Lockhart stuck out the most.
"Let's go, Hermione looks like she's going to hex someone and Ginny doesn't look so happy either," Ron said, pushing Fiona out the door.
"That was probably my worst class yet," Fiona groaned as they walked out of the Transfigurations classroom. "I tried everything she said, and nothing happened!"
In class that day, McGonagall had started an entirely new unit- how to transfigure objects from pure air, or conjuring. Harry had remembered how Professor McGonagall had once absentmindedly conjured a chair for him to sit in. It had proved to be a lot harder than he expected.
"All we had to do was conjure quills," Hermione said. Hers had come out perfectly almost as soon as she had tried, of course. "If you really need help, I'd be happy to help you."
"Thanks, Hermione, but not tonight," Fiona moaned.
"Quidditch practice at exactly six o'clock," Harry reminded her. "I'll see you there, Fiona. Oh, and don't worry about getting a broom. McGonagall said she has one for you."
"Great, just what I need," Ron said, thinking about Quidditch practice.
"Ron, you are still being our Keeper whether you like it or not," Harry said. "You have a lot of work to do, though." Ron really was a good keeper, but he tended to get nervous when other people watched him. In the last game, he managed to do really well and actually saved Gryffindor from losing. Harry hoped that this would make him more confident.
"Quaffle," Hermione said, waiting for the portrait to swing open. She walked over to a particularly large table and began spreading out her books.
"She's starting her homework already?" Ron asked, looking at Harry disbelievingly.
"Yes, Ron. I, unlike you, like to be caught up on my homework. I'm busy tonight too," she said, looking him square in the eye.
"Well, have fun wherever you're going," Ron said, his feelings a little hurt. He walked away and went up the stairs leading towards the dormitories. Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione and Ron were always disagreeing about something, even something as stupid as when they did their homework.
"Starting your homework, Harry?" Hermione asked him.
"Not yet, I still have Quidditch positions to look over. Four people are trying out for Chaser and only two for Beater. Fiona, looks like you're our second Beater. Jack Sloper decided he'd rather play Chaser. Let's hope he's loads better at Chaser than he was at Beater or we're in real trouble. Then there's Ginny, Colin Creevey, and Dean. This is going to be interesting. Colin Creevey probably weighs less than his broom!" Harry replied, looking crestfallen at the paper in front of him.
"Collin Creevey?" Fiona asked.
"He's in the DA," Hermione said. "Sitting over there with his camera. That's his brother Dennis sitting next to him on the couch."
"Oh, him. Ok, I remember him now," Fiona said. "Isn't he the one who managed to Stun himself?"
"That was an accident; he didn't know there was a mirror behind Dennis," Harry said, frowning at the paper as he drew different defense positions on it.
"Well, you should have a fun practice," Hermione said, looking up from her Arithmancy book.
"Don't remind me," Harry groaned, turning over the paper and beginning to fill up the back.
Six o'clock came a lot faster than Harry would have liked, but he suddenly found himself out on the Quidditch field. It felt weird to be playing without his old team, especially Fred and George. Now all he had to look forward to was Ron, who currently was looking as if he were about to be sick.
"Ron, why do you look so nervous? You're already on the team," Harry reminded him.
"Are you sure about this?" Ron asked, secretly envisioning the entire stadium filled with people.
"Remember how well you did last year- you won the House Cup!" Harry said, encouragingly.
"Yeah, yeah I guess I did," Ron answered, remembering the goals he had saved. Harry winced slightly, hoping Ron wouldn't get overly confident. For weeks after he made all those catches, Ron walked around like he owned everything. It kind of reminded Harry of Percy.
"Ok, first we are going to have Chaser tryouts. You'll each take turns with the quaffle and try to score. Ron, if you would please resume your position as Keeper. We'll take Ginny first, Dean second, Colin third, and Jack last. Good luck to all of you," Harry said, wishing that he would find at least one other decent player besides Ginny for Chaser.
Ginny made her first shot effortlessly. Harry could tell that Ron was upset, but Ron didn't say anything. He just threw the quaffle to Dean, who was waiting next. Dean turned out to not be so bad. From what Harry could see of his first shot, he was a decent flyer and had decent aim. He liked to show off a little too much for Harry, but all in all he wasn't iso/i bad.
Harry looked over and groaned. Colin was holding the quaffle and looking down at ground with a look of fear clearly etched on his face. i'Who would try out for a Quidditch team if they were scared to fly?'/i Harry thought to himself. He was beginning to loose patience and would rather have taken a bludger to the face than watch Colin staring at the ground for ages. Suddenly, Ginny flew over to him and began talking to him. Colin smiled and looked towards the goal. He finally started to move.
"He's not so bad," Fiona said. She was standing next to Harry. "Well, once he starts moving anyhow." Harry had to admit, Colin really wasn't so bad. The only thing that seemed to be against him was his size. He was pretty small and would probably get injured really easily, especially against Slytherin. Slytherin seemed to pick their team based on size, or in Draco Malfoy's case, their father's money. Colin almost succeeded in scoring but in the last second, Ron saved the quaffle. It was a pretty impressive save and Harry called out to him in encouragement.
Jack Sloper was next. Harry remembered how Fred and George had made fun of his flying the year before. Harry watched him closely. He wasn't a great flyer, but he wasn't so terrible either. At least he wasn't scared of heights. He even managed to get the quaffle past Ron, whose ears turned bright red in shame.
Harry had the Chasers continuing this practice while he watched the Beaters. Andrew Kirke got to the bludger first and tried to be very nice about hitting it in Fiona's direction. Harry scowled at him. In Quidditch, you couldn't be nice to a player simply because she was a girl. Oliver Wood had taught him that when his first year when he was playing against Cho.
Then Harry turned his attention to Fiona. She wasn't a very good flyer, Harry could tell that immediately. She seemed to look a little confused at how high up she was. Harry rolled his eyes. i'Oh, great. Maybe I can convince Jack to stay as a Beater,'/i he thought desperately.
As Harry was beginning to lose faith in Fiona, she began to swing her bat. It connected with the bludger and Andrew had to roll over on his broom to get out of its path. Barely a second later, it flew directly where his head had been.
"You're not supposed to try and kill me, you know! I'm still on your team!" he called to her, clearly annoyed.
"Sorry, just a little nervous," Fiona replied. Harry could have jumped for joy. He would personally give Fiona flying lessons as long as she was on the Gryffindor team as Beater.
A little while later, he called everyone in. "I just want to thank everyone for trying out," Harry said. "Positions will be posted on Monday. Good practice everyone; you may head back to the common room. Quickly, too because Slytherin should be getting here soon."
Ron waited behind everyone else so he could walk with Harry. Ginny and Fiona were chatting up ahead.
"What'd you think of Fiona hitting that bludger? I don't think I'll ever get her angry," Ron said.
"Now the only thing we need to do is give her flying lessons," Harry said.
"She wasn't that bad, Harry."
"Ron, she could barely fly. If it weren't for Andrew hitting the bludger nicely at her, she wouldn't have been able to hit it. I thought she was going to fall off!" Harry exclaimed.
"You thought ishe/i was going to fall off? What about Colin Creevey? I thought he was going to wet himself when the first time he looked at the ground. That was incredibly pathetic," Ron said.
"He wasn't so bad once he started moving."
"Harry, please say you aren't putting Colin Creevey on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team," Ron pleaded with him.
"Obviously not. He'll be reserve. We'll have to try to find a way to get rid of his fear of heights, that way we can use him next year. And I wouldn't say anything about Colin Creevey; at least his little sister's quaffle didn't get past him," Harry taunted, ignoring the fact that Colin didn't have a little sister.
"Hey, she's my little sister! I ihad/i to let her score," Ron said quickly, his ears burning red.
"Whatever you say, Ron. Come on, I'll race you to the common room."
"All right, but expect to lose, Harry. Expect to lose."
Ok, well that wasn't my favorite of chapters, but you know.... important to the story, etc. Hope you liked it, though. And please, take the two seconds to review...it just makes my day!