Chapter Six - Dobby's Information
Friday evening was the meeting of Quidditch captains. They would all decide the match dates and practice times. Harry didn't know of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin captains, but he knew the captain of the Ravenclaw team. Very well, actually. His face fell when he saw Cho Chang standing with the Captain badge pinned to her chest and an annoying smile on her face.
"Good evening, Harry," she said in a stiff manner.
"Evening, Cho," he replied politely, feeling a bit awkward.
"I'm surprised you don't have a torrent of girls flanking you," she said in an airy tone.
What he was about to reply with wasn't nice, but just as he opened his mouth, Professor McGonagall arrived, fortunately stopping his offensive outburst before it began.
"Everyone take a seat," she gestured to a small table, "We'll begin."
Harry made sure to sit as far from Cho as possible, though it meant sitting next to the Slytherin. Professor McGonagall discussed the dates with the captains and, Harry was pleased, she put Slytherins practice for Wednesday night, during the DA meeting, though she had to give into letting Slytherins have Saturdays instead of Sunday. This meant the Hufflepuff Quidditch team members, who were scheduled for practice Sunday evenings, would miss out on half of Sunday's meeting. Gryffindor would have tryouts on the next Saturday afternoon morning.
As soon as the meeting came to an end, Harry hurried out so that he wouldn't be stopped by Cho, who was trying to catch his eye. Probably wants to go on about me or start crying again, he thought as he made his way up the marble staircase to the common room.
Fall was coming in with cold winds and harsh rain. Harry was beginning to feel anxious, as if something should have happened by now. There were a few odd deaths in the Daily Prophet but nothing else. It was as if Voldemort was trying to catch them off guard and Harry wasn't going to let it happen. Harry and Ron sat in the back of their Charms class drawing pictures one afternoon. Hermione had taught them a neat little charm to make the drawings move around. They found that their efforts to learn the spell were very much well worth it. It kept them entertained for many of their lessons.
Ron's knomes were trying to behead Harry's manticore. Harry quickly drew in four or five bludgers in hope of getting them to back off. Ron added a dragon and all hope was lost for the manticore. Hermione glared at them while she steadily took notes. Harry scribbled down a few dates every once in awhile but Professor Flitwick's class was too boring. He set them to taking notes while he talked endlessly.
Harry was begging for the bell to ring soon, signaling lunch. There was only five minutes left but they droned on slowly. As soon as class ended Harry shoved his books into his bag roughly, taking off with the rest of the Gryffindors down to the Great Hall.
"Just a bit immature, running down to lunch," Hermione said as she sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later.
"Nah when youh hunree as us," Ron said through a mouthful of chicken.
Hermione shook her head with a look of disgust and muttered, "Honestly, when are you going to stop acting like such a wart."
"When are going to stop acting like my mother?" he snapped back. Harry covered his laugh at the too true comment.
Hermione opened her mouth to retort but luckily Fred, George, and a seventh year friend of theirs, Dallas, arrived in time to stop the argument that was about to ensue.
"Transfiguration was hell today," Fred complained.
"Yeah, McGonagall is in a mood for some reason," George said.
"Oh no. We have her next," Harry moaned.
"She seemed to be in a good mood when I saw her this morning," Hermione said, beginning her History homework.
"That's because she didn't have us in class yet," George laughed.
"We bewitched the chalk to start writing on it's own," Dallas said, "Class was becoming a tad bit too uneventful."
Fred and George smiled slyly, "Don't know how she knew it was us."
"As if it ever isn't you," Ron said laughing.
"But, of course, that wasn't enough for them," Dallas said.
"We needed some revenge for the twenty points she took from Gryffindor," George said.
"So we accidentally," Fred winked, "Transfigured her instead of our goblets."
Hermione looked up from the essay she was working on and shot the both of them reproving looks.
"Didn't go quite right. She ended up with two long ears and a fluffy rabbits tail," the seventh year said.
"She gave us two weeks detention and took another thirty points from Gryffindor," George said.
Harry looked over to where the house points were recorded. Gryffindor was getting pretty low.
"Some greasy Slytherin saw us and told her. We tried to make it seem like an accident but the slimy rat told her we were both aiming right at her with our goblets set aside," George said.
"She looked ready to spit fire. Had the whole class in fits of laughter. Yelling with her ears flopping around. Ah, yes, it was well worth it," Fred said, still smiling.
Harry couldn't help but laugh as he pictured McGonagall the half rabbit shouting. Ron's eyes were tearing, he was laughing so hard. Hermione pursed her lips and kept at her homework.
"Dunno if it anything is worth five nights of detention with a livid McGonagall," Dallas said grimly.
Harry saw Malfoy over at Slytherin table pointing over his back towards him and whispering to his friends. They all started laughing. Harry ignored them but Ron had saw them, too.
"I would give anything to hex that slimy little git," he mumbled under his breath threateningly.
Harry made his way out of the great hall towards Transfiguration class a bit early today with Ron, Aira, and Hermione, Neville tagging along. As they neared their class, Harry heard the familiar drawl that was Draco Malfoy's voice.
"Potter, I can't believe you still hang around these Mudbloods and muggle-lovers," he sneered. He seemed to always know the right thing to say to get under Harry's skin.
"Go to hell, Malfoy," he spat.
Ron had his wand drawn already; he was just waiting for an excuse to hex Malfoy.
"Weasley, I would love to have a go at you, but am not feeling challenged enough. Perhaps a more difficult opponent would be better. I hear Hagrid still has some flobberworms left-"
Before Malfoy could say any more, Ron sent a bright red spell at him, nearly missing; it hit the edge of sleeve and Harry saw his arm begin to bulge. Crabbe threw some purple hex towards Ron that made his nose begin to swell at a fast rate. Harry retaliated with a Knee reversing hex as both Crabbe and Malfoy had their wands raised at Ron. Crabbe fell to the stone floor, as Neville surprisingly joined in, throwing a weak yellow jet towards him also.
Goyle was trying to hit Harry with a curse or two but his aim was terrible. Harry would have been more nervous if he was aiming at someone else. He was still thankful when Ron threw some spell at him. Malfoy's red sparks hit Harry and his nose began to bleed. Ron and Neville became involved in a furious tumble with Goyle just as Harry got to his feet. Harry was about to give a good hex to Malfoy when he was drug back a few feet by his collar.
"What is going on?" Professor McGonagall looked outraged, as angry as Harry had ever seen her. No one answered her. She had Ron and Neville by their arms.
Harry turned to see who had him by his neck and his heart dropped into his stomach to see Snape's face. He had Malfoy by the shoulder in his other hand. Goyle lay on the floor unconscious.
Harry was glad to see Crabbe sitting on the floor nursing what looked to be a broken nose. Students were whispering to each other. Harry had been oblivious to the crowd of students that gathered in the corridor until now.
"My office. Go. Now," McGonagall said angrily.
She let go of Ron and Neville and conjured up a stretcher for Goyle and she performed the counter-curse for the Jelly Legs Jinx on Crabbe so he could walk once again. Snape didn't relax his grip on Harry the whole way, though he let go of Malfoy completely.
"You won't get away with it this time, Potter," he hissed quietly so no one but Harry could hear, "Just as arrogant as ever."
Harry didn't respond. That was what Snape wanted him to do. And no doubt he had already lost enough points for Gryffindor this evening. Snape reluctantly freed Harry of his grip when they entered McGonagall's office.
"Goyle will need to go to the Hospital Wing. I can take it from here, Severus," she said, leading Harry to a vacant chair beside Ron and Neville.
Snape left, looking angry at missing the chance to reprimand Harry. He obviously couldn't think of a good reason to stay instead of take Goyle to the Hospital Wing because he left.
Malfoy strode across the room to sit with Crabbe. Harry wiped away the blood running down his face with his robes. He felt lucky to have not been hit with any of the worse spells. Neville also seemed to be lucky, as he looked relatively fine except for a few bruises. Ron's nose was now bigger than the rest of his face and Malfoy's sleeve was rolled up to reveal nasty yellow boils. Ron's spell seemed to have the same effect as bubotuber puss.
The Slytherins were the worst of the lot, Harry, Ron, and Neville were glad to see.
"I have half a mind to leave it," she muttered as she restored Ron's nose back to it's proper size and magicked bandages onto Malfoy's arm "Mr. Malfoy, you can go to the hospital wing after to fix out your arm better."
She sent angry glares down at all of them.
"Fifty points from both houses and detention to all of you!" she said. Then she turned to Ron with eyes narrowed, "Step out of line again, Mr. Weasley and that Prefect badge of yours will be removed. And that goes for you too," she said, rounding on Malfoy.
"Weasley started it, Professor," Malfoy whined.
"I don't care who started it! All I know is I walked out of my office to see six sixth years battling in front of my classroom! Two of them prefects!" she shouted angrily.
The bell rang signaling the start of class. As she opened the door for them to leave, she added, "I will be writing to your parents to ensure this does not happen again."
Malfoy only sneered and went on towards the hospital wing. Ron's look of fury did turn to one of dismay. Harry didn't really care if she wrote to the Dursley's as they wouldn't care much if he did get himself into trouble. It must have shown on his face because she swiftly added to him, "I will not be writing to your Aunt and Uncle, as you may have thought, but to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, seeing as they are more a family to you."
Now Harry definitely regretted rising to Malfoy's provocation. Now he understood why Ron always dreaded having his parents written. It never really did matter to Harry before. The Dursleys never cared about him.
Harry only half paid attention during class, instead thinking of what Mrs. Weasley would say. He already knew from his experiences with the Weasleys that Mr. Weasley wasn't the one to be worried about. He had actually already had a fight with Malfoy Senior a few years earlier. Ron looked to also be thinking the same things. As a result, he and Harry missed a few key points to the lesson and ended up with furry spoons instead of mice, receiving bottom marks.
Hermione looked as though she were holding her tongue. She was. At least until they left the class.
"You really shouldn't have hexed him, Ron. He was trying to get you into trouble. And then you had to join in Harry," she said.
"I wasn't going to let him take on Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle alone!" Harry snapped.
"And I wasn't going to let him get away with talking about us like that. Besides, we aren't the only ones that got into trouble. They did, too," Ron grumbled.
"Like they really care about that," she said, turning to the portrait of the fat lady and giving the password.
Hermione was right, though Harry and Ron would never give her the pleasure of knowing it. Snape would make sure that his house got their points back and he would probably take the three Slytherin's detentions. And as for writing home, their parents would be pleased that they had been fighting with a Weasley, a Potter, and a Longbottom.
At dinner, Fred and George sat with them, wanting to here all about their rumble with the Slytherins. Ron and Harry told them about it in detail, figuring they should at least get some enjoyment out of the whole thing. After all, they weren't the ones that ended up in the hospital wing. And they were glad to see that Goyle still didn't return from the hospital wing.
With Fred and George entertaining them throughout dinner, Harry and Ron had managed to forget that McGonagall was writing to the Weasleys until they received their detention notices as they were leaving. Harry, Ron, and Neville were to be cleaning the Owlery without the use of magic the next evening. It seemed to be a popular punishment, the whole wandless cleaning thing.
"Don't even tell us we deserve it," Ron snapped at Hermione as she opened her mouth.
"I wasn't going to, Ron!" she said, "I was going to say look over at Malfoy. He doesn't look very pleased with his detention, either."
Harry wheeled around and saw that Hermione was right. He was arguing with Snape only a few feet away. Harry caught a bit of what was said.
"But Professor-"
"Professor McGonagall arranged it. Not I. You'll live through it," Snape stated.
A skinny Slytherin boy behind Malfoy said jeeringly, "Yeah, Malfoy. There aren't that many trophies. You'll be done in a few hours." Malfoy glared viciously at the boy, who's smile faded quickly as he saw Crabbe approaching, flexing his arms.
Harry's worries about the letter to Mrs. Weasley were wiped away until later that night. It was the first meeting of the DA and he wanted to be focused. He had decided that the first meeting should be a review from last year so he set up a bit of an outline of the things he wanted to go over with them all.
Whitley was eager to join the DA, but she could only come to Saturday meetings, as Slytherin had Quidditch practice on Wednesday evenings. She was the only Slytherin to join the DA and many thought her untrustworthy. Harry decided it was best if the DA included only its original members since they would be loyal but he did make two exceptions. One being Whitley and the other being Aira. No one complained except Zacharias Smith, but he shut-up quick when Ron threatened to pin his ears to his ass, with Fred and George nodding grimly behind him.
Harry pocketed the outline and clambered out of the portrait hole. He was going to the Room of Requirement early to make sure everything was in order. When he arrived, he was mildly surprised to see Dobby sitting on a cushion with his usual amount of ten hats, mismatched socks, and the Weasley sweater.
"Hello, Harry Potter, sir!" he squeaked.
"Hello, Dobby," Harry said, "How are you?"
"Dobby is fine, sir. Dobby is wanting to warn Harry Potter, sir," Dobby looked at him with wide eyes.
"Again?" Harry asked, "I want you to out and say it, this time, Dobby."
"There is a boy in the dungeons and Dobby sees bad thing. He sees a very bad thing, sir," Dobby shook his head as if trying to rid himself of what he saw, "The boy had the bad thing on his arm."
"The bad thing?" Harry asked, "What's that?"
"Like Professors Snape and Grubblyplank had. On their arms, Harry Potter, sir. They had the snake mark," Dobby said gravely.
"The Dark Mark?" Harry asked and Dobby nodded.
"Wait a minute," Harry said, "Professor Grubblyplank was a Death Eater?"
"No, Harry Potter, sir. She not was a Death Eater. She is a Death Eater, sir," Dobby whispered.
Harry was in shock. He had always thought Professor Grubblyplank was a good person and would have never taken her to be a Death Eater. He looked down at Dobby and asked, "Are you sure?"
"Oh yes. I sees it on her arm when she comes to school in summer for job. I tells Professor Dumbledore, sir. And she tells him that she is. Now she is gone away," Dobby squeaked.
Harry let all of this new information settle over him. He still could not believe Grubblyplank was a Death Eater, but what Dobby said made sense. That was why Dumbledore had hired Lupin and not Grubblyplank. Then he remembered why Dobby was here and asked quickly, "What about that boy? He had a mark? Who was he?"
"Dobby does not know. He had a hood on. Dobby tries to tell Professor Dumbledore, sir, but he cannot be found. So Dobby tells Harry Potter, sir, instead," Dobby said.
"You didn't see-" Harry was interrupted when Professor Green entered the room.
"Evening, Harry," she said.
"Evening, Professor," he said. When he turned back, he saw that Dobby was gone.
Once everyone arrived, Harry began. Professor Green stood off to the side watching him. This made him feel anxious. He was happy to see that Cho and her friend, Marietta did not show up.
"We'll start now that everyone is here," Harry said loudly, causing the talking to come to a stop, "Today we'll review from last year. To make sure no one is behind."
"We're not going to do anything new? This is a waste," Zacharias Smith exclaimed.
"I'm not forcing you to stay. You can leave at any time as I have reminded you many times previously," Harry said coolly.
"It seems pointless to keep-" Zacharias was interrupted by George, who smacked him around the back of the head.
"Don't you know when to shut up, Smith?" he said exasperatedly.
"If you cannot do it on your own. George and me will be glad to help," Fred offered.
Zacharias glared at the two, but kept his mouth closed. Harry glanced at Professor Green. He was surprised to see her ignoring the situation completely. If it was in her class, she would have handed weeks of detention for students threatening each other.
"Okay, now as I was saying. We're going to review, today. Everyone into pairs. We'll warm up by trying Expelliarmus. Once you've successfully done that, move on to the next on the list I give you. I'll come around and help you with anything you need help with," Harry said.
He took a paper that had a list of Spells, Curses, Charms, Hexes, and jinxes of all sorts and handed it to Hermione as the group chose partners. She performed the spell to duplicate the paper and Harry handed one to everyone.
"What can I do, Harry?" Professor Green asked brightly.
"Er- You can walk around and help them. You know, make sure they're doing it right," Harry said. He felt awkward giving one of his teachers instructions.
He walked over to Neville who was practicing with Aira. Neville had completed the Expelliarmus spell perfectly.
"That's great, Neville. Really good," Harry commended.
"Thanks, Harry! I got an 'E' on the Defense O.W.L. thanks to you," Neville said happily.
After watching Aira have a go at Neville with the spell, Harry moved on. The class was going through the list very quickly. Harry had to correct very few people during the whole meeting and he handed out many compliments. In an undertone, he told Hermione and Ron about what Dobby said as he watched them do the spells.
"So the Slytherins are taking the Dark Mark now?" Ron asked.
"Not Slytherins. It could be a student from any house," Hermione said.
"Most likely, though, it's a Slytherin," Ron said.
"Probably. They were in the dungeons. Slytherin common room is down there. But let's not rule out anyone else," Harry said.
"More Polyjuice potion?" Ron grimaced.
"No," Harry said quickly, "What are we going to do if we do find out anyway?"
"Harry's right. We better stay out of it this time. Dumbledore will probably know anyway," Hermione said
Harry got back to the meeting, checking over other's progress. Twenty minutes into the meeting, Terry Boot accidentally missed his partner with Stupefy and hit Zacharias, who retaliated with a Jelly Legs Jinx. There was almost a full out duel between the two, until Harry used the Full Body Bind on both of them, stopping the fight.
"Don't dare try that in here again! I won't have fighting between members in this club!" Harry was surprised to hear himself shout. He performed the counter curse and the both got to their feet gingerly, shooting daggers at each other. Harry went back to checking how the others were doing.
"Nice work there, Harry," Professor Green whispered.
"Why didn't you do anything? You're a teacher," Harry asked curiously.
"I am a teacher when I am in a classroom, an auror when fighting Dark wizards, and right now I am Annissa Green, assisting you with a school club," she said.
Harry looked at her curiously and moved on to the next pair of practicing students and helping them. He walked from person to person, complimenting and admiring their work. Nearly everyone had finished his list. When the meeting ended, Harry felt very happy. He was proud of the members, who had done excellently.
"That was terrific, Harry. You would make a very good teacher," Professor Green said.
"Thanks, Professor," Harry said.
"Annissa, if you would. I believe I told you I am your teacher only when we are in class," she smiled, "Harry, if you don't mind, I'd like to make a suggestion for the meetings."
"I don't mind," Harry said.
"Well, I think Professor Dumbledore agrees that defending yourself is very important. So I suggest letting these meetings last longer. I could speak with Dumbledore and see if he will extend the curfew of DA members to ten on Sunday and Wednesdays," she said.
"That would be great!" Harry said eagerly.
"I'll go speak with the Headmaster in the morning, Harry," she said, "Goodnight."
"Night, Prof -er- Annissa," it felt odd to call a teacher by their first name.
Harry made his way to the common room with Aira. Ron and Hermione had already left but Aira stayed behind to walk with him. It seemed she was always trying to be with him. Once in the common room, he told Ron and Hermione about the extended meetings and they were just as excited.
"That's really good. We can get more practice in!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yeah, that will be cool," Ron said. He groaned as he pulled a book towards him, "This homework is really starting to pile up."
"You only have two classes that actually give out homework," Hermione said, "How do you have so much?"
"I kind of put it all off till late," he muttered.
Harry frowned, realizing he had his own homework to catch up on. He pulled Snape's essay to him and began work on it. He scribbled 'The Seventeen Uses of Occamy Blood'. Then he opened his Potions book and flipped through pages until Hermione gave him the page to find it on. He had only been at it for a few minutes when there was a clicking from the window.
Errol was tapping her beak against it. Hermione crossed and let the old owl in. Before collapsing on a chair, it dropped a scarlet envelope on the table. On the front read:
Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter
Gryffindor House,
Hogwarts.
Harry and Ron exchanged looks of dread as the steam seeped through the seal on the envelope. Ron took it in his hands and began to nervously open it.
Friday evening was the meeting of Quidditch captains. They would all decide the match dates and practice times. Harry didn't know of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin captains, but he knew the captain of the Ravenclaw team. Very well, actually. His face fell when he saw Cho Chang standing with the Captain badge pinned to her chest and an annoying smile on her face.
"Good evening, Harry," she said in a stiff manner.
"Evening, Cho," he replied politely, feeling a bit awkward.
"I'm surprised you don't have a torrent of girls flanking you," she said in an airy tone.
What he was about to reply with wasn't nice, but just as he opened his mouth, Professor McGonagall arrived, fortunately stopping his offensive outburst before it began.
"Everyone take a seat," she gestured to a small table, "We'll begin."
Harry made sure to sit as far from Cho as possible, though it meant sitting next to the Slytherin. Professor McGonagall discussed the dates with the captains and, Harry was pleased, she put Slytherins practice for Wednesday night, during the DA meeting, though she had to give into letting Slytherins have Saturdays instead of Sunday. This meant the Hufflepuff Quidditch team members, who were scheduled for practice Sunday evenings, would miss out on half of Sunday's meeting. Gryffindor would have tryouts on the next Saturday afternoon morning.
As soon as the meeting came to an end, Harry hurried out so that he wouldn't be stopped by Cho, who was trying to catch his eye. Probably wants to go on about me or start crying again, he thought as he made his way up the marble staircase to the common room.
Fall was coming in with cold winds and harsh rain. Harry was beginning to feel anxious, as if something should have happened by now. There were a few odd deaths in the Daily Prophet but nothing else. It was as if Voldemort was trying to catch them off guard and Harry wasn't going to let it happen. Harry and Ron sat in the back of their Charms class drawing pictures one afternoon. Hermione had taught them a neat little charm to make the drawings move around. They found that their efforts to learn the spell were very much well worth it. It kept them entertained for many of their lessons.
Ron's knomes were trying to behead Harry's manticore. Harry quickly drew in four or five bludgers in hope of getting them to back off. Ron added a dragon and all hope was lost for the manticore. Hermione glared at them while she steadily took notes. Harry scribbled down a few dates every once in awhile but Professor Flitwick's class was too boring. He set them to taking notes while he talked endlessly.
Harry was begging for the bell to ring soon, signaling lunch. There was only five minutes left but they droned on slowly. As soon as class ended Harry shoved his books into his bag roughly, taking off with the rest of the Gryffindors down to the Great Hall.
"Just a bit immature, running down to lunch," Hermione said as she sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later.
"Nah when youh hunree as us," Ron said through a mouthful of chicken.
Hermione shook her head with a look of disgust and muttered, "Honestly, when are you going to stop acting like such a wart."
"When are going to stop acting like my mother?" he snapped back. Harry covered his laugh at the too true comment.
Hermione opened her mouth to retort but luckily Fred, George, and a seventh year friend of theirs, Dallas, arrived in time to stop the argument that was about to ensue.
"Transfiguration was hell today," Fred complained.
"Yeah, McGonagall is in a mood for some reason," George said.
"Oh no. We have her next," Harry moaned.
"She seemed to be in a good mood when I saw her this morning," Hermione said, beginning her History homework.
"That's because she didn't have us in class yet," George laughed.
"We bewitched the chalk to start writing on it's own," Dallas said, "Class was becoming a tad bit too uneventful."
Fred and George smiled slyly, "Don't know how she knew it was us."
"As if it ever isn't you," Ron said laughing.
"But, of course, that wasn't enough for them," Dallas said.
"We needed some revenge for the twenty points she took from Gryffindor," George said.
"So we accidentally," Fred winked, "Transfigured her instead of our goblets."
Hermione looked up from the essay she was working on and shot the both of them reproving looks.
"Didn't go quite right. She ended up with two long ears and a fluffy rabbits tail," the seventh year said.
"She gave us two weeks detention and took another thirty points from Gryffindor," George said.
Harry looked over to where the house points were recorded. Gryffindor was getting pretty low.
"Some greasy Slytherin saw us and told her. We tried to make it seem like an accident but the slimy rat told her we were both aiming right at her with our goblets set aside," George said.
"She looked ready to spit fire. Had the whole class in fits of laughter. Yelling with her ears flopping around. Ah, yes, it was well worth it," Fred said, still smiling.
Harry couldn't help but laugh as he pictured McGonagall the half rabbit shouting. Ron's eyes were tearing, he was laughing so hard. Hermione pursed her lips and kept at her homework.
"Dunno if it anything is worth five nights of detention with a livid McGonagall," Dallas said grimly.
Harry saw Malfoy over at Slytherin table pointing over his back towards him and whispering to his friends. They all started laughing. Harry ignored them but Ron had saw them, too.
"I would give anything to hex that slimy little git," he mumbled under his breath threateningly.
Harry made his way out of the great hall towards Transfiguration class a bit early today with Ron, Aira, and Hermione, Neville tagging along. As they neared their class, Harry heard the familiar drawl that was Draco Malfoy's voice.
"Potter, I can't believe you still hang around these Mudbloods and muggle-lovers," he sneered. He seemed to always know the right thing to say to get under Harry's skin.
"Go to hell, Malfoy," he spat.
Ron had his wand drawn already; he was just waiting for an excuse to hex Malfoy.
"Weasley, I would love to have a go at you, but am not feeling challenged enough. Perhaps a more difficult opponent would be better. I hear Hagrid still has some flobberworms left-"
Before Malfoy could say any more, Ron sent a bright red spell at him, nearly missing; it hit the edge of sleeve and Harry saw his arm begin to bulge. Crabbe threw some purple hex towards Ron that made his nose begin to swell at a fast rate. Harry retaliated with a Knee reversing hex as both Crabbe and Malfoy had their wands raised at Ron. Crabbe fell to the stone floor, as Neville surprisingly joined in, throwing a weak yellow jet towards him also.
Goyle was trying to hit Harry with a curse or two but his aim was terrible. Harry would have been more nervous if he was aiming at someone else. He was still thankful when Ron threw some spell at him. Malfoy's red sparks hit Harry and his nose began to bleed. Ron and Neville became involved in a furious tumble with Goyle just as Harry got to his feet. Harry was about to give a good hex to Malfoy when he was drug back a few feet by his collar.
"What is going on?" Professor McGonagall looked outraged, as angry as Harry had ever seen her. No one answered her. She had Ron and Neville by their arms.
Harry turned to see who had him by his neck and his heart dropped into his stomach to see Snape's face. He had Malfoy by the shoulder in his other hand. Goyle lay on the floor unconscious.
Harry was glad to see Crabbe sitting on the floor nursing what looked to be a broken nose. Students were whispering to each other. Harry had been oblivious to the crowd of students that gathered in the corridor until now.
"My office. Go. Now," McGonagall said angrily.
She let go of Ron and Neville and conjured up a stretcher for Goyle and she performed the counter-curse for the Jelly Legs Jinx on Crabbe so he could walk once again. Snape didn't relax his grip on Harry the whole way, though he let go of Malfoy completely.
"You won't get away with it this time, Potter," he hissed quietly so no one but Harry could hear, "Just as arrogant as ever."
Harry didn't respond. That was what Snape wanted him to do. And no doubt he had already lost enough points for Gryffindor this evening. Snape reluctantly freed Harry of his grip when they entered McGonagall's office.
"Goyle will need to go to the Hospital Wing. I can take it from here, Severus," she said, leading Harry to a vacant chair beside Ron and Neville.
Snape left, looking angry at missing the chance to reprimand Harry. He obviously couldn't think of a good reason to stay instead of take Goyle to the Hospital Wing because he left.
Malfoy strode across the room to sit with Crabbe. Harry wiped away the blood running down his face with his robes. He felt lucky to have not been hit with any of the worse spells. Neville also seemed to be lucky, as he looked relatively fine except for a few bruises. Ron's nose was now bigger than the rest of his face and Malfoy's sleeve was rolled up to reveal nasty yellow boils. Ron's spell seemed to have the same effect as bubotuber puss.
The Slytherins were the worst of the lot, Harry, Ron, and Neville were glad to see.
"I have half a mind to leave it," she muttered as she restored Ron's nose back to it's proper size and magicked bandages onto Malfoy's arm "Mr. Malfoy, you can go to the hospital wing after to fix out your arm better."
She sent angry glares down at all of them.
"Fifty points from both houses and detention to all of you!" she said. Then she turned to Ron with eyes narrowed, "Step out of line again, Mr. Weasley and that Prefect badge of yours will be removed. And that goes for you too," she said, rounding on Malfoy.
"Weasley started it, Professor," Malfoy whined.
"I don't care who started it! All I know is I walked out of my office to see six sixth years battling in front of my classroom! Two of them prefects!" she shouted angrily.
The bell rang signaling the start of class. As she opened the door for them to leave, she added, "I will be writing to your parents to ensure this does not happen again."
Malfoy only sneered and went on towards the hospital wing. Ron's look of fury did turn to one of dismay. Harry didn't really care if she wrote to the Dursley's as they wouldn't care much if he did get himself into trouble. It must have shown on his face because she swiftly added to him, "I will not be writing to your Aunt and Uncle, as you may have thought, but to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, seeing as they are more a family to you."
Now Harry definitely regretted rising to Malfoy's provocation. Now he understood why Ron always dreaded having his parents written. It never really did matter to Harry before. The Dursleys never cared about him.
Harry only half paid attention during class, instead thinking of what Mrs. Weasley would say. He already knew from his experiences with the Weasleys that Mr. Weasley wasn't the one to be worried about. He had actually already had a fight with Malfoy Senior a few years earlier. Ron looked to also be thinking the same things. As a result, he and Harry missed a few key points to the lesson and ended up with furry spoons instead of mice, receiving bottom marks.
Hermione looked as though she were holding her tongue. She was. At least until they left the class.
"You really shouldn't have hexed him, Ron. He was trying to get you into trouble. And then you had to join in Harry," she said.
"I wasn't going to let him take on Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle alone!" Harry snapped.
"And I wasn't going to let him get away with talking about us like that. Besides, we aren't the only ones that got into trouble. They did, too," Ron grumbled.
"Like they really care about that," she said, turning to the portrait of the fat lady and giving the password.
Hermione was right, though Harry and Ron would never give her the pleasure of knowing it. Snape would make sure that his house got their points back and he would probably take the three Slytherin's detentions. And as for writing home, their parents would be pleased that they had been fighting with a Weasley, a Potter, and a Longbottom.
At dinner, Fred and George sat with them, wanting to here all about their rumble with the Slytherins. Ron and Harry told them about it in detail, figuring they should at least get some enjoyment out of the whole thing. After all, they weren't the ones that ended up in the hospital wing. And they were glad to see that Goyle still didn't return from the hospital wing.
With Fred and George entertaining them throughout dinner, Harry and Ron had managed to forget that McGonagall was writing to the Weasleys until they received their detention notices as they were leaving. Harry, Ron, and Neville were to be cleaning the Owlery without the use of magic the next evening. It seemed to be a popular punishment, the whole wandless cleaning thing.
"Don't even tell us we deserve it," Ron snapped at Hermione as she opened her mouth.
"I wasn't going to, Ron!" she said, "I was going to say look over at Malfoy. He doesn't look very pleased with his detention, either."
Harry wheeled around and saw that Hermione was right. He was arguing with Snape only a few feet away. Harry caught a bit of what was said.
"But Professor-"
"Professor McGonagall arranged it. Not I. You'll live through it," Snape stated.
A skinny Slytherin boy behind Malfoy said jeeringly, "Yeah, Malfoy. There aren't that many trophies. You'll be done in a few hours." Malfoy glared viciously at the boy, who's smile faded quickly as he saw Crabbe approaching, flexing his arms.
Harry's worries about the letter to Mrs. Weasley were wiped away until later that night. It was the first meeting of the DA and he wanted to be focused. He had decided that the first meeting should be a review from last year so he set up a bit of an outline of the things he wanted to go over with them all.
Whitley was eager to join the DA, but she could only come to Saturday meetings, as Slytherin had Quidditch practice on Wednesday evenings. She was the only Slytherin to join the DA and many thought her untrustworthy. Harry decided it was best if the DA included only its original members since they would be loyal but he did make two exceptions. One being Whitley and the other being Aira. No one complained except Zacharias Smith, but he shut-up quick when Ron threatened to pin his ears to his ass, with Fred and George nodding grimly behind him.
Harry pocketed the outline and clambered out of the portrait hole. He was going to the Room of Requirement early to make sure everything was in order. When he arrived, he was mildly surprised to see Dobby sitting on a cushion with his usual amount of ten hats, mismatched socks, and the Weasley sweater.
"Hello, Harry Potter, sir!" he squeaked.
"Hello, Dobby," Harry said, "How are you?"
"Dobby is fine, sir. Dobby is wanting to warn Harry Potter, sir," Dobby looked at him with wide eyes.
"Again?" Harry asked, "I want you to out and say it, this time, Dobby."
"There is a boy in the dungeons and Dobby sees bad thing. He sees a very bad thing, sir," Dobby shook his head as if trying to rid himself of what he saw, "The boy had the bad thing on his arm."
"The bad thing?" Harry asked, "What's that?"
"Like Professors Snape and Grubblyplank had. On their arms, Harry Potter, sir. They had the snake mark," Dobby said gravely.
"The Dark Mark?" Harry asked and Dobby nodded.
"Wait a minute," Harry said, "Professor Grubblyplank was a Death Eater?"
"No, Harry Potter, sir. She not was a Death Eater. She is a Death Eater, sir," Dobby whispered.
Harry was in shock. He had always thought Professor Grubblyplank was a good person and would have never taken her to be a Death Eater. He looked down at Dobby and asked, "Are you sure?"
"Oh yes. I sees it on her arm when she comes to school in summer for job. I tells Professor Dumbledore, sir. And she tells him that she is. Now she is gone away," Dobby squeaked.
Harry let all of this new information settle over him. He still could not believe Grubblyplank was a Death Eater, but what Dobby said made sense. That was why Dumbledore had hired Lupin and not Grubblyplank. Then he remembered why Dobby was here and asked quickly, "What about that boy? He had a mark? Who was he?"
"Dobby does not know. He had a hood on. Dobby tries to tell Professor Dumbledore, sir, but he cannot be found. So Dobby tells Harry Potter, sir, instead," Dobby said.
"You didn't see-" Harry was interrupted when Professor Green entered the room.
"Evening, Harry," she said.
"Evening, Professor," he said. When he turned back, he saw that Dobby was gone.
Once everyone arrived, Harry began. Professor Green stood off to the side watching him. This made him feel anxious. He was happy to see that Cho and her friend, Marietta did not show up.
"We'll start now that everyone is here," Harry said loudly, causing the talking to come to a stop, "Today we'll review from last year. To make sure no one is behind."
"We're not going to do anything new? This is a waste," Zacharias Smith exclaimed.
"I'm not forcing you to stay. You can leave at any time as I have reminded you many times previously," Harry said coolly.
"It seems pointless to keep-" Zacharias was interrupted by George, who smacked him around the back of the head.
"Don't you know when to shut up, Smith?" he said exasperatedly.
"If you cannot do it on your own. George and me will be glad to help," Fred offered.
Zacharias glared at the two, but kept his mouth closed. Harry glanced at Professor Green. He was surprised to see her ignoring the situation completely. If it was in her class, she would have handed weeks of detention for students threatening each other.
"Okay, now as I was saying. We're going to review, today. Everyone into pairs. We'll warm up by trying Expelliarmus. Once you've successfully done that, move on to the next on the list I give you. I'll come around and help you with anything you need help with," Harry said.
He took a paper that had a list of Spells, Curses, Charms, Hexes, and jinxes of all sorts and handed it to Hermione as the group chose partners. She performed the spell to duplicate the paper and Harry handed one to everyone.
"What can I do, Harry?" Professor Green asked brightly.
"Er- You can walk around and help them. You know, make sure they're doing it right," Harry said. He felt awkward giving one of his teachers instructions.
He walked over to Neville who was practicing with Aira. Neville had completed the Expelliarmus spell perfectly.
"That's great, Neville. Really good," Harry commended.
"Thanks, Harry! I got an 'E' on the Defense O.W.L. thanks to you," Neville said happily.
After watching Aira have a go at Neville with the spell, Harry moved on. The class was going through the list very quickly. Harry had to correct very few people during the whole meeting and he handed out many compliments. In an undertone, he told Hermione and Ron about what Dobby said as he watched them do the spells.
"So the Slytherins are taking the Dark Mark now?" Ron asked.
"Not Slytherins. It could be a student from any house," Hermione said.
"Most likely, though, it's a Slytherin," Ron said.
"Probably. They were in the dungeons. Slytherin common room is down there. But let's not rule out anyone else," Harry said.
"More Polyjuice potion?" Ron grimaced.
"No," Harry said quickly, "What are we going to do if we do find out anyway?"
"Harry's right. We better stay out of it this time. Dumbledore will probably know anyway," Hermione said
Harry got back to the meeting, checking over other's progress. Twenty minutes into the meeting, Terry Boot accidentally missed his partner with Stupefy and hit Zacharias, who retaliated with a Jelly Legs Jinx. There was almost a full out duel between the two, until Harry used the Full Body Bind on both of them, stopping the fight.
"Don't dare try that in here again! I won't have fighting between members in this club!" Harry was surprised to hear himself shout. He performed the counter curse and the both got to their feet gingerly, shooting daggers at each other. Harry went back to checking how the others were doing.
"Nice work there, Harry," Professor Green whispered.
"Why didn't you do anything? You're a teacher," Harry asked curiously.
"I am a teacher when I am in a classroom, an auror when fighting Dark wizards, and right now I am Annissa Green, assisting you with a school club," she said.
Harry looked at her curiously and moved on to the next pair of practicing students and helping them. He walked from person to person, complimenting and admiring their work. Nearly everyone had finished his list. When the meeting ended, Harry felt very happy. He was proud of the members, who had done excellently.
"That was terrific, Harry. You would make a very good teacher," Professor Green said.
"Thanks, Professor," Harry said.
"Annissa, if you would. I believe I told you I am your teacher only when we are in class," she smiled, "Harry, if you don't mind, I'd like to make a suggestion for the meetings."
"I don't mind," Harry said.
"Well, I think Professor Dumbledore agrees that defending yourself is very important. So I suggest letting these meetings last longer. I could speak with Dumbledore and see if he will extend the curfew of DA members to ten on Sunday and Wednesdays," she said.
"That would be great!" Harry said eagerly.
"I'll go speak with the Headmaster in the morning, Harry," she said, "Goodnight."
"Night, Prof -er- Annissa," it felt odd to call a teacher by their first name.
Harry made his way to the common room with Aira. Ron and Hermione had already left but Aira stayed behind to walk with him. It seemed she was always trying to be with him. Once in the common room, he told Ron and Hermione about the extended meetings and they were just as excited.
"That's really good. We can get more practice in!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yeah, that will be cool," Ron said. He groaned as he pulled a book towards him, "This homework is really starting to pile up."
"You only have two classes that actually give out homework," Hermione said, "How do you have so much?"
"I kind of put it all off till late," he muttered.
Harry frowned, realizing he had his own homework to catch up on. He pulled Snape's essay to him and began work on it. He scribbled 'The Seventeen Uses of Occamy Blood'. Then he opened his Potions book and flipped through pages until Hermione gave him the page to find it on. He had only been at it for a few minutes when there was a clicking from the window.
Errol was tapping her beak against it. Hermione crossed and let the old owl in. Before collapsing on a chair, it dropped a scarlet envelope on the table. On the front read:
Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter
Gryffindor House,
Hogwarts.
Harry and Ron exchanged looks of dread as the steam seeped through the seal on the envelope. Ron took it in his hands and began to nervously open it.