AN: Okay, so I've been having some trouble writing this, and lack of time (or it's spent doing other things like playing Transport Tycoon, which I must say that I am indeed the Tycoon at that game), I am actually going to take the time to personally thank my reviewers though I normally don't do this on and only on , though due to lack of reviews I am. Lol. As long as I have readers who appreciate my work I'm fine.
Max: Thanx for the review, the legal sex joke I actually modified from another story, I know it's not really original but I'm glad you liked it! About Cho Chang, well, Harry did see her at least…
Sun-star-n-moon22: Thanx for reviewing! I like Harry OC fics too but I really like Harry/Ginny ones. Harry and Hermione fics are good if they are properly written and I also like Harry/Blaise Zabini fics (see below).
Keeper Darius: Thanx for the review!
Prof. Spider: I didn't really write a new song due to the fact that I couldn't think of one; I just put in the PMP one. Soz.
Harrie: :D I changed my pen name cause I'm normally just known as Nixi anywayz, so it's easier. Thanx for reviewing though!
Torifire126: I couldn't remember if Snape required an O or EE, I was sure its EE but never mind, thanx for the note of it. About Charlene, :p, well, that was something that took me ages to decide. She was originally a minor character that Harry flirted with just for the main purpose of showing Ron up in a later chapter (in the second plot for this story where Harry was dating Ginny), the role of Harry's girlfriend originally belonged to Blaise Zabini, then Ginny Weasley, then Charlene, so just imagine how many plots I had to re-write. Lol, silly me.
Btw, I have a Yahoo! Group. It's tiny but I'm working on it at all spare moments (which isn't often). You can also see my very botched up attempts at HTML! How fun! Lol, note the sarcasm…
Anywayz, on with the story…
Chapter 7 – MissingHarry sat with Professor Alessandria Alston, Remus and Ron, and also Hermione, Sara and Charlene who were playing with Jake in Alessandria's smallish quarters (or reading Alessandria's huge DADA books in Hermione's case).
This had become like routine for them over the past few weeks back into term and Remus visited daily, though they only met up in the quite reasonably sized living room of the Professor, who said that her elder brothers huge and empty quarters were incredibly annoying and that she preferred her small and cosy ones.
Charlene now knew of the Order as her mother and stepfather had recently been approached by Dumbledore about it and though she thought Quinton wasn't really trustworthy, she was assured that they didn't know too much (though at least her suspicions on Quinton being a squib were right, he was now a 'primary researcher' of the Order). She also knew of Sirius and the Marauders. Sara knew of the Marauders and Order also, though she didn't understand the threat to the wizarding world as much as the others did.
"So how is school life treating you so far Sara?" Remus asked, he had gotten to know her recently and he treated her like he would Harry as they acted so much like brother and sister. He wondered if this would be how Harry would treat a blood brother or sister if he had had the chance to have one.
"It's alright." She said softly as she set a little muggle toy car rolling across the ground for Jake to dash after. "I miss my sister though strangely enough." She added, and then glanced down at Jake, "But he's cool enough, and so is Harry so I don't miss her as much." Harry, who had been talking with Ron about Quidditch looked up as he heard his name mentioned.
"What about me?" He asked.
"I just said that I don't miss Dawn as much because of you and Jake." Sara stated, Harry grinned.
"Thanks." He said before turning back to his conversation with the red head.
"Isn't Sara's curfew soon?" Alessandria asked reprimandingly as she glanced at her watch that read eight twenty-two, and Sara's curfew to be in Gryffindor Tower was eight-thirty.
"Yeah but we have the invisibility cloak. Unless you want us to head back already?" Hermione said questioningly, the elder woman shook her head.
"You can stay, I just wanted to know how you were going to hide her." She stated.
"Oh." Hermione muttered under her breath.
"Professor I was having trouble with my homework." Sara said to Alessandria after a small moments silence.
"Oh? What were you having trouble with?" Alessandria asked.
"You said that we had to list what five differences that a werewolf has from a normal wolf." Sara told her and Alessandria nodded for her to continue, "Well I have the snout shape, pupils of the eyes and tufted tail, but I can't remember the other two."
"Wasn't that question on our OWL exam?" Ron asked.
"Yes it was." Hermione said as she looked like she was about to go into full lecture mode.
"It was on mine and Lessa's too." Remus told them with a grin which Harry mirrored.
"Hey Remus, d'you think you managed to get all of the signs?" He asked with mock concern, Remus shook his head with a laugh.
"That's exactly what James said to me." He stated.
"Where d'you think I got it from?" Harry asked, Alessandria looked a little shocked. "I like how you answered it though."
"Oh yes, it went something like One: He's sitting in my chair, Two: He's wearing my clothes, Three: His name is Remus Lupin." Remus said with a grin as they all laughed at the old joke.
"How did you know what Remus said, Harry?" Alessandria asked curiously, though a small smile graced her features. Harry grimaced slightly.
"Well," He said slowly, "I sort of like accidentally went into your brothers pensive and saw his worst memory." He continued quickly.
"His worst memory?" Alessandria muttered, her eyes then widened slightly, "Not the one after the DADA exam in fifth year?" She asked, Harry nodded silently. "Oh gosh, that must've been horrible. Watching your Dad do something like that."
"Yeah, it was. But Sirius and Remus told me not to worry about it too much." Harry told her, he took a breath as he thought of his deceased Godfather.
"Don't forget what we said either." Remus said, "I've got thousands of memories of your Dad that I could show you that are much better than that one."
"Why don't you then Rem?" Alessandria asked, Remus smiled at the nickname that she had given him years ago.
"I haven't got a pensive and I'm sure that Severus won't let me use his." He replied with a smile at her.
"I could try get it off of him." Alessandria suggested.
"Don't worry, I know my parents were good people already." Harry said with a smile. "So what are the other two signs? I've forgotten."
"Enlarged canines and thinner legs." Hermione said without looking up from the large book she had sitting in front of her in her position on the floor. Sara quickly pulled a muggle pen and paper from her bag and jotted the two answers down. Ron looked confusedly at the pen.
"What's that?" He asked curiously, Sara looked up at him with a strange expression on her face.
"Erm, a pen?" She replied hesitantly with an incredulous glance at Harry who laughed.
"Do remember that he's a pure-blooded wizard Sara." He said to his little sister.
"So he doesn't know what a pen is?" Sara asked.
"Nope, now pass it to me so I can get a better look." Ron demanded, the girls giggled and Sara threw the pen to Ron, who caught it and started drawing on his hand to test it.
They all sat in a comfortable silence for a moment and with the only sounds being Hermione turning the pages of the advanced DADA book from Alessandria's bookshelf and Jake, Charlene and Sara playing with the toy cars.
Banging on the wall of the portrait hole startled them all from their peaceful silence, causing both Jake and Sara to jump with shock.
"Sandi!" Someone shouted frustratedly, Alessandria giggled and heaved herself up from the plush settee and opened the portrait hole, revealing one very annoyed looking Snape.
"Hiya Sev." Alessandria said perkily, Snape glared.
"Since when did you change your damn password?" He said demandingly.
"Hello Sandi, how are you today? Why I'm fine, thanks for asking Sev." Alessandria said sarcastically, Snape rolled his eyes.
"Evening Sandi, how are you today?" He asked in a bored tone.
"I'm great." Alessandria replied huffily as she spun around with a swish of her flaring sapphire robes and collapsed back onto her dark red settee. Snape glanced at all of the people in the room.
"Lupin." He said with a nod at Remus.
"Severus." Remus replied with a nod. Snape sneered at Sara, who looked a little frightened.
"Shouldn't she be in her dorm?" He questioned, "Ten points off of Gryffindor for breaking school rules."
"Ten points to Gryffindor because I like her." Alessandria retorted, her gaze never leaving her brothers eyes as she annoyed him, "Now what did you want?"
"I wanted those lacewing flies which you stole so that you could feed your bloody kneazle." Snape snarled, "And I know that you took them as you were the one complaining about it earlier today."
"Why Sev, how could you accuse me of such a thing?" Alessandria asked innocently, a little too innocently, Snape glared. "Okay okay, Joli-Belle is only a kitten! I needed to feed her something!" Alessandria said with a pout, "You don't want her to starve do you?"
"Lacewing flies now." Snape demanded with one of his hands out, Alessandria rolled her eyes and pushed herself up from the settee again.
"You have a kneazle?" Hermione asked, Alessandria nodded, "Can I have a look at it? Crookshank's is meant to be half-kneazle and I've never really had a chance to study a proper one."
"Oh, well that's okay because when she's older Joli is coming to class." Alessandria stated, "Let me just get her." She left the room and went into her bedroom and came out a moment later with a jar in one hand and a small fluffy thing in her other arm. She handed the jar to Snape reluctantly and readjusted the bundle in her arm so that she could hand it to Hermione, who reached up and carefully took it.
"Oh she's adorable!" Hermione squealed, in her arms was a small white kitten with black spots. It yawned and blinked it's large green eyes at her and looked around. Alessandria smiled at the three girls who crowded around the small creature, as well as her son who was trying to grasp the kneazle's hairs, though Charlene was thankfully stopping him.
Harry and Ron looked over and even they had to admit that the kneazle was cute.
"How old is she?" Sara asked curiously, Snape left with his jar of lacewings and a slam of the portrait hole (which made Jake jump again).
"She's about six weeks, I've been looking after her since she was born." Alessandria told the girls, "And as I said earlier she's called Joli-Belle."
"Pretty-Beautiful?" Charlene inquired, "Nice name." She added with a small smirk.
"Well the words sound nice." Alessandria defended when they started laughing. "In French at least."
"It's not as bad as Barney." Harry stated, Sara looked offended.
"Hey, I like that name and it suits him!" She exclaimed, talking about her black kitten which was about three months old now and was found chasing mice around Gryffindor Tower most of the time.
They quickly sobered up and Alessandria put Jake to bed as he was nearly sleeping on his feet. She came back during the conversation about Quidditch, surprisingly enough.
"…So we have filled the spots on the team." Ron was saying to Remus.
"Oh? Anyone I know?" Remus asked, Harry and Ron nodded.
"You might know them." Ron stated with a smirk.
"We just needed to replace Alicia and Angelina." Harry explained, "Well Ginny tried out and she's an excellent chaser, so she got on the team and also a third year called Natalie MacDonald. You won't know her though. We also have mad up a reserve team, as we seem to need one."
"Ginny got onto the team?" Remus asked, "Well, I knew that you'd probably be having your position back but it's great that she's still allowed on the team."
"Who knew she was so great at playing Chaser?" Ron asked rhetorically, "She's bloody brilliant out there!"
"Well if you and your insolent brothers actually let her play from time to time you'd have known." Hermione stated, she looked at her watch. "Anyways, we had better head back, I have homework to get done."
"You already finished all the work that's due in this week!" Ron exclaimed.
"Well I have that Potions essay that needs doing." Hermione retorted.
"Didn't we just get that on Friday?" Harry asked.
"Yes but better done early than done at the last minute." Hermione retorted, Ron and Harry rolled their eyes as Harry covered Sara with the cloak. Charlene placed the tiny kitten down carefully into Alessandria's arms and picked up her things.
"See you tomorrow Professor, bye Remus." Harry said with a wave as he left. Sara's disembodied voice said goodbye also, as did the other teens and they left.
"It's great that Harry is happy." Alessandria said softly to Remus as she curled her feet underneath her and snuggled into his side.
"Yeah." Remus agreed quickly and awkwardly, "I have to go back to HQ now, I promised Tonks I wouldn't leave her by herself tonight." He added then shot up off of the chair, causing Alessandria to fall over as he had been holding her up.
"Oh, well you could stay a little longer." Alessandria stated, Remus shook his head.
"No, I had better head back." He said, "I'll pick up Jake tomorrow morning." And then he flooed out. Alessandria sighed and headed to bed, Jake was currently asleep in the middle of her double bed, after she had changed she lifted up the covers and slipped in carefully as not to wake him. Brushing the hair back from his face she sighed.
"One day we're going to be a family; me, you and Remus." She whispered before settling an arm over the two year old and falling into a peaceful slumber.
"Morning." Ron greeted the girls with a yawn.
"Morning Ron, morning Harry." Hermione replied absentmindedly; her face was hidden behind the Daily Prophet.
"You don't still read that rubbish do you?" Ron asked with disgust as Harry pecked Charlene on the cheek and sat down.
"It has information." Hermione replied, Ron scoffed.
"Like what? Who Harry's currently scamming?" He asked sarcastically.
"No, like this." Hermione turned the newspaper round and showed the others the headline:
Marie Keriney Goes Missing!
"Isn't that Bill's new girlfriend?" Ron asked incredulously, Hermione nodded and read the article out loud to them.
"Marie Keriney- primary researcher in Gringott's Discovery Department- has gone missing. She was last seen a few nights ago on a date with Bill Weasley- a leading Curse Breaker in Gringott's Discovery Department- in muggle London.
Marie is presumed kidnapped by those close to her, and when Bill Weasley was asked for a comment on his girlfriend's situation, he replied that he had no idea as to what was going on. Though this reporter highly doubts that.
Marie's grandparents, Michelle and Michael Keriney, who had been explorers a while back, last researched the Green Flame Torch, an ancient mythical entity. It seems that Marie shares her Grandparents life-long passion for the magical artefacts of the ancient world as she spends most of her time in Egypt and other countries of ancient interest, though she has recently come back home to 'settle down in her crazy ways'.
Your special correspondent,
Rita Skeeter."
"Well, at least she's reporting something of interest for once." Ron stated, he looked in thought. "Though what the hell does she mean by 'this reporter highly doubts that'?" He exclaimed, re-reading the paper over Hermione's shoulder.
"Why would Voldemort want Bill's girlfriend?" Harry asked, ignoring Ron.
"Plenty of reasons," Hermione stated, "She's a member of the Order, she works in Gringotts, she's close to Bill, and Voldemort knows you consider the Weasley's family-"
"Yes but I don't think he's that stupid, he knows that I'm in school, and I don't even know the woman, I hardly even know Bill!" Harry interrupted.
"It was a suggestion." Hermione mumbled.
"Sorry." Harry said sheepishly.
"We had better talk about this later as now we should head to class." Charlene advised, glancing down at her watch, the others agreed and they all left.
Harry and Hermione waited in class at five past, this was normal, but what wasn't normal was that the professor hadn't turned up yet.
"I wonder where Lessi is, she's never late!" Hermione whispered hurriedly to Harry.
"I know." He replied just as the door was slammed open and a frustrated Alessandria walked in.
The strange thing was, was that she had Jake huddled up on her left side whilst her briefcase was in her right hand.
"Sorry I'm late class." She said hurriedly. "My babysitter didn't turn up."
"Oh he's so cute!" One of the girls at the back squealed.
"He is isn't he?" Alessandria said with a smile at her son, who had buried his head into her shoulder. "Jakey? Wanna sit on Mummy's big desk?" She said, trying to lure him from the death grip he had on her shirt, Jake only shook his head, which made Harry and Hermione laugh. "Argh, Jake, Mummy has work." Alessandria stated as she tried to get Jake off of her, "Remus is so dead." She muttered to herself.
"Need help?" An amused voice came from the door, Alessandria glared at him.
"Professor Lupin!" Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw and some other girls exclaimed.
"Morning." Remus said with a smile at the class before he took Jake from Alessandria, who glared.
"Your late." She stated.
"I overslept." Remus retorted.
"So it took you until ten past nine to get here?" Alessandria asked, "Remus, work is important to me and you told me that you'd be here this morning to pick him up."
"Well I didn't really say what time exactly." Remus said with an innocent look, Alessandria rolled her eyes.
"You want to know how much you are reminding me of Padfoot and Prongs right now?" She stated, "That whole 'cute-little-lost-puppy-dog' was their thing."
"Excuse me?" Remus asked incredulously, "I own that." He stated with a grin, "And it always works on you."
"It does not." Alessandria said with a huff, hitting him lightly on the arm. "Now go, I have a class to teach."
"Okay, I'll see you later?" Remus asked, Alessandria nodded.
"As always, you can't keep him from me that long." She stated, then smoothed back the hair on Jake's forehead and kissed his temple, "Be good for Remus, Baby." Remus walked out of the room with a wave that Jake mirrored.
"Professor, is Professor Lupin your sons Dad?" Su Li of Ravenclaw asked curiously, Alessandria looked shocked before giggling slightly.
"I wish!" She exclaimed, surprising the class.
"He's a monster, why would anybody want him to have a child?" Malfoy sneered, the Slytherin's laughed whilst the rest of the class looked angry, including the professor.
"Mr Malfoy, it is me who runs this class and me who hands out detentions and me who can also kick you out of my class." Alessandria stated, she looked extremely pissed off.
"You couldn't kick me out of a class!" Malfoy said with a little less confidence, "My father would never have that."
"Well I don't give a damn about your father," Alessandria spat out the word as if it were poison, "And he does not have any ruling in this school." What she really wanted to say was that Remus would make a better father than Lucius Malfoy ever would; but that could easily make her lose her job. After a few calming breaths she continued. "Now, today we shall be debating Dark Magic in general…."
"… and she showed us some dark magic which she had to go to the ministry just so she could get permission to show it." Hermione concluded as they ate their lunch and talked of their day so far.
"So what do you all have next?" Ron asked, "I've got DADA with Charlene."
"I'm stuck in charms." Harry informed his friends.
"I have arithmancy next. It's going to be fun as we are constructing our own spells with numbers and-"
"You can do that?" Harry asked, Hermione nodded.
"Of course, numbers have magical properties, like languages do. So we are experimenting different languages and numerical properties to create a spell of our choice." She told him matter-of-factly.
"I really wish I studied arithmancy now," Charlene said, "Because then I'd be able to create some decent hair-controlling spells." The others laughed as Charlene eyed her now dark purple locks in distaste with her delicate tanned fingers pulling at it.
"Your hair looks fine." Harry reassured her with a smile and peck on the lips.
"Please! This is the dining table! People trying to eat here!" Ron exclaimed, he jokingly covered both his and Hermione's eyes.
"Ick, scarred for life, scarred for life." Sara repeated, approaching the four with Lauryn and two other first year girls in tow. One of them had blond hair that was cropped short and the other had chestnut brown hair that swung around her lower back.
"Oh ha ha." Harry said sarcastically, he noticed that the brown haired girl behind Sara was looking at him incredulously. "Hi, I'm Harry, Sara's big brother and you'd be…" He trailed off as the girl went wide-eyed. Sara rolled her eyes.
"Guys, meet Helena and Lira. Lira's muggle-born like me." She explained, Harry nodded.
"Nice to meet you both." Hermione said to the girls politely.
"Your Hermione Granger." The brown haired girl who Harry assumed was Helena said to Hermione in awe.
"Yes, I am." Hermione said hesitantly.
"Oh wow! You realise how famous you are in Bulgaria?" Helena asked enthusiastically.
"Famous in Bulgaria?" Hermione asked, Helena nodded.
"My cousin, he goes to Durmstrang, and he says that he's seen you in the paper more often than he" She pointed at Harry, "is in there! It must be all of those love scandals and other stuff."
"Oh." Hermione muttered, "That's nice to know, now if you'll excuse me." She got up from her seat and half finished lunch and left with her book.
"Did I say something?"
"Man we're busy tonight." Harry said quietly in their Care of Magical Creatures class.
"Yeah, DA meeting and Quidditch practice." Ron replied in a whisper, Hagrid was telling them about the centaurs in the forest, they thought that anyway, they weren't really listening.
"The DA is growing." Hermione whispered to them.
"I can't wait to go to the first meeting." Charlene told them, "I heard you were a good teacher Harry."
"He's really good actually." Neville put in, "I would never have gotten through the DADA exam without the DA."
"Well you did really well in the Department of Mysteries too." Harry stated confidently, "I could really do with some of you guys help teaching this year, sorry, not you Charlene, I don't know how they'll react to a new girl teaching but I was thinking of splitting the class into groups so the new members work with those at their own level."
"That's a great idea." Hermione beamed, "How are you going to work that out though?"
"Well, I was hoping that you and Ron would take a group, then Neville, Luna and Ginny would also.
"Me?" Neville squeaked.
"Yes you." Harry stated, "You'll do great, especially with that new wand that's suited perfectly for you."
"Okay, I'll try." Neville muttered.
"Good, I'd take the older members whilst you will have the new ones split between you. Then I can find new material for the class with you guys so you won't have to learn it at another time." Harry explained.
"That sounds like a great idea Harry." Hermione complimented. She noticed that the rest of the class had started to pack up and alerted the others, they all said a hasty goodbye to Hagrid and left quickly, Ron had divination in the North Tower next so he prompted them to hurry up so he wouldn't be late, no matter how batty the professor was.
They split up where Ron had to go and they carried on walking to transfiguration. They had been working on animal transfiguration recently and Harry seemed to have mastered it wonderfully; he was even helping Charlene and Neville with it.
At the end of class the four headed for Gryffindor Tower. Harry went up to his dorm to get ready for Quidditch practice when Ron came in, he looked extremely pissed off.
"What is it Ron?" Harry asked his friend.
"Trelawny that's what." Ron grumbled, "She's finally gone off you."
"Oh, that's good." Harry stated.
"But she's all annoying about my death now." Ron continued as if Harry hadn't spoken, Harry winced.
"Sorry mate." He said, grabbing his Firebolt from his trunk he straightened up. "I'll meet you down on the pitch, I have to practice a little."
"See you down there." Ron said with a short wave. Harry let and found Charlene and Hermione waiting in the common room talking to Sara and Lauryn, without their little friends.
"I'm heading down for the pitch now." Harry told them.
"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked, looking behind Harry and up the boys' staircase.
"Still getting ready, I told him I needed to loosen up a bit." Harry told her, Hermione nodded.
"Okay, I'll wait for him." She said with a smile, Harry and Charlene shared a look but said nothing.
"See you later then Mione." Charlene said with a wave as her and Harry left through the portrait hole.
They walked in silence for half of the way, passing only a few students on their way.
"You know, I think I kinda like seeing you in Quidditch gear." Charlene said with an impish grin, Harry looked at her from the corner of his eye with a small blush.
"I kinda like seeing you in a skirt." He said, Charlene giggled and looked away.
"Harry, aren't the grounds that way?" Charlene asked confusedly, pointing to the corridor they had just left, Harry smirked at her and stepped through a large canvas painting of a fight.
"Or we could take the quicker and more private way." He said with a smirk as he pulled her behind the canvas. Charlene looked shocked at the secret staircase but didn't have time to register anything there because Harry pulled her to him in a passionate kiss.
"Wow." Charlene muttered as she came out of the kiss, she looked down, unable to control the blush that spread across her cheeks. She looked back up and Harry leant his forehead on hers lightly.
"We should do this more often." He said, Charlene nodded dumbly before leaning in for another kiss.
To say they were a little late for Quidditch practice was an understatement, and the looks Harry got from his teammates made him blush, along with what they were saying.
"I thought you wanted to get a gist of flying again?" Ron asked with a smirk, Harry glared at him.
"Don't start." He warned.
"Well, even I saw you leaving the tower twenty minutes early, now you're ten minutes late, what have you been up too?" Ginny asked innocently, Harry blushed and avoided their eyes.
"Start by doing a few laps around the pitch to warm up and then Natalie, Ginny and Katie can practice formations and try get something past Ron, Andrew and Jack, I'm going to put out both bludgers today and you are going to stop the team from getting hit." Harry instructed with a stern look at the pair, who nodded determinedly. "Vicky, Ashanti and Zeek, I want you practicing the formations that I showed you in the changing rooms earlier whilst you try get past DW, Lionel and Seamus, I want you to fly up to the stands and ask Hermione for the balls that will be charmed to fly at you and I want to practice your aim as that's the only thing holding you back. Understood?" The reserve team of Gryffindor nodded and flew off in different directions. Harry then turned and smiled at the fourth year reserve seeker, Jessie Clarke, she had light brown hair that was styled in a bob around her ears and nice blue eyes. "Jessie, I want to see how many balls you can catch." Harry stated, indicating a bag next to him that was full of golf balls. "I'm going to throw them and I want to try and catch them quickly and with style, can't let the team down now can we?" Jessie grinned happily and shot into the air after Harry.
"Oh you won't get rid of us that easily." Ron said, sharing a smirk with his sister before they mounted their brooms and flew off. Charlene had joined Hermione in the stands to watch the practice, though Harry noted from his position high in the air that the Creevey brothers were rapidly making their way towards his girlfriend and best friend. He groaned slightly but left it as he saw Charlene and Hermione start what seemed like a pleasant conversation with the hyperactive brothers.
The practice went smoothly enough and Harry was pleased with the progress that the team had made. He dismissed them and rushed up to Gryffindor Tower with his friends, realising that the DA meeting was in less than an hour and he wanted to get there early to prepare with his 'helpers'.
He had of course, asked for Dumbledore's permission to restart the club and the wizened professor though it a 'splendid' idea. Harry had also told the last years group that they were invited those who they thought trustworthy with them, though the same precautions as the year before were to be kept.
Forty minutes later, showered and changed, Harry found himself in the Room of Requirement with Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, Charlene, Sara and Lauryn. The latter three were looking around at the huge room in awe whilst the others went over session plans.
"So we start with the disarming spell this session, then only if our group have it perfected do we move to the stunning?" Ginny repeated, Harry nodded.
"That's how we done it last year, I'm going to be doing a revision like session, so I won't have to go over it with you later." He replied. "Of course, explain to them the other types of spells and charms they'll be studying also." Harry added as an afterthought.
The door then opened and the first lot of people came through the door. It was the remaining Gryffindor's from the year before and more Gryffindor's who had tagged along excitedly (namely the Creevey's friends).
More people flooded into the room and Harry was surprised to see a few younger Slytherin members. He cleared his throat hesitantly as the time for started came to.
"Okay, I'm glad you all made it, either your friends brought you here or you were genuinely curious, it doesn't really matter." He started off, his leadership skills coming back in full force, "We started this last year because of the lack of a… decent education in the Defence against the Dark Arts and after last years members asking I brought the subject to Professor Dumbledore who decided that it was alright to continue.
This time will be a little different from last year so you'll have to bear with us as it's just a testing thing, after this session, if you'd like to come along for another session then you'll have to sign up." Harry turned to Hermione who held up a parchment with a slightly modified charm on, this time, it would hex a person if they attempted to tell a Death Eater about the meetings (or someone with dishonourable intentions) and anyone who signed up wouldn't be able to tell the details of the club to anybody else unless they asked one of the leaders.
"If you wanted to invite somebody to these meetings then you'll have to speak with one of us five leaders for permission and we'll discuss it." Harry continued, "I suppose we should begin now, if last years members would all come over here, then we can see how we are going to split this." The twenty-odd members from the year before went to Harry's side and Harry looked over the 'newbies'. They ranged form houses to years and the turnout surprised him. There were at least thirty new people there, all waiting to be sorted.
"Alright, I'm going to split you into groups and there will be two leaders or three leaders per group; they are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger who will lead the first group, then Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood will lead the second group.
Any objections?" Harry finished; no one said anything so he clapped his hands together with a slight smile. "Good, so now I can split you into groups." He divided the newbies into two even groups and sent them off with Hermione and Ron, Ginny and Neville. He then turned to his group, "Okay, we are just going to revise the stuff we learnt last year now, then in the next session we are going to start working on actual duels." The group tittered excitedly. "Okay, so starting with the basics…"
The session went quite well that night and all of the 'newbies' signed to say that they wanted to be permanent members of the DA.
After dinner that evening, the group found themselves once again in Alessandria's quarters.
Remus had yet to show up, which was leaving the professor frantic with worry.
"He is never late." Alessandria muttered to herself.
"He was this morning." Harry stated, Hermione elbowed him in the ribs and shot him a glare.
"He probably just caught up or something." Charlene stated.
As if on cue, Remus tumbled out of the fireplace with Jake in his arms.
"You're late!" Alessandria exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know." Remus replied with a sigh, Alessandria took Jake from him.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Marie's gone missing." Remus stated.
"What?" Hermione asked, "Marie Keriney? The one in the paper this morning?"
"It was in the paper too?" Alessandria asked, "Merlin, that shows how late I was this morning." She added with a wince.
"I have the article somewhere in my folder." Hermione stated, pulling her bag over to herself and rummaging through it. She took out a blue folder and fished a cutting from it.
"You kept the article?" Harry asked, Hermione nodded at him.
"I'm going to start collecting things from the paper." She explained.
"Why?" Ron asked stupidly.
"Because then if I need it one day in the future I have a record of it." Hermione explained tartly. "And I know that you kept that article about when your family went to Egypt." Ron blushed a little at that and actually remained silent.
"So what happened to Marie?" Alessandria asked Remus, who shrugged.
"We have no clue." He stated, "We had a brief meeting and Bill said the last time he saw her was early Saturday morning after their date Friday night."
"I bet he did." Ron muttered, Harry stifled his laughter at his friend's obvious discomfort talking about his eldest brother's sex life.
"So she hasn't been seen since?" Hermione asked.
"That's right." Remus replied with a nod.
"I don't know her but I hope she wasn't kidnapped by Voldemort." Charlene said worriedly.
"I never want to have the unlucky chance of meeting him." Sara muttered.
"And you won't." Harry stated determinedly, "I'm going to make sure that I'm ready to face him for the final time soon, and I'm going to beat him."
"Harry, you really couldn't be ready for that." Hermione stated, "Anyways, Dumbledore could well be the final person to face him, you never know." Harry avoided their eyes and didn't say anything, he didn't want them knowing about the prophecy, that he'd be a murderer. Sara, the White's and Dumbledore were the only people who knew about it in detail if not at all, he wasn't about to share information that didn't need to be shared.
"I have homework to do, so I had better go." He stated, getting up to leave.
"We should head back too." Hermione suggested, the others nodded.
"See you tomorrow." Sara said with a wave as she head out first, the others followed suit and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.
"They are a close group." Alessandria said, shifting Jake on her lap, Remus nodded.
"It'll be a miracle if they all came out of the Final Battle alive." He stated.
"Charlene! Stop stop stop!" Sara squealed, Charlene grinned and carried on tickling her cousin in the Common Room. The others laughed at their actions.
"Why? It's funny to see you squirm Tiny." Charlene replied with a laugh, Sara was laughing and mercilessly begging Charlene to leave her alone.
Harry grinned at the two and looked down to the book he was reading, though sitting on top of the book was an interesting article from the Teen Witch magazine. It was the interview with Charlene.
This girl has hit the top of the modelling ladder with her worldwide success in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds; of course, we can only be talking about Charlene Therney…
So Charlene, you're famous, beautiful, smart and incredibly rich, what more could you possibly want for your future?
Well, I've always dreamed of being a teacher. I missed out of infant, junior and high school so it's strange that I love being around kids. Though I do have a set of adorable cousins that might help.
Okay, so a teacher is a great career choice, helping people reach their potential. What do you think you've missed out on whilst being a model?I've missed out on being a normal kid. Every kid wants friends to play with and every teen girl wants those friends who you just gossip with and trust so much, I've had friends but I hardly get to see them as I'm always working.
That must be tough. So I guess that you're excited to be heading to Hogwarts then?
Oh definitely! Anything to be treated like a normal teenager, though it'll be strange because of the model thing. But really, I can't wait to meet normal teens and be like them.
What will be the downsides of heading to Hogwarts?
Umm… I'm not sure. I really don't like the idea of not seeing my muggle family. I have a cousin who's just starting a boarding school and every night I sit there begging Merlin that she'll start Hogwarts with me, but it's highly unlikely. I think another downside would be people thinking that I'm a bitchy and posh person because of what I do, the phrase 'never judge a book by its cover' stands out in my mind right now.
A question from a reader I think… Alrighty then, Sammy asks what it's like when you see yourself in the newspaper getting criticized.
I do? I never have time to read newspapers and there's not many mean columnists out there. But If I'm criticized, that's their problem. I'm happy with who I am and I think everybody should try being happy with themselves and not live up to the expectations of others.
One thing I think every girl is definitely jealous of you for, you never seem to have spots!
Hehe… Yeah, well I do, trust me. They're normally hidden by makeup or spells that the makeup artists use.
So, we all realise that you change colours as often as you change your undies, is it fun being a colourmorphus?
Yep! It's so funny freaking out my roommates on tours, once, they couldn't find me in the morning because I changed my colour to that of the wall behind me, they only found me when they realised that the wall was talking!
I wish I could do that! It's a shame that colourmorphus' are as rare as metamorphungus' though, what do you think of having a special power then?
I don't see it as a power; I see it as a gift. People seriously underestimate what they don't understand. That could be seen as a good thing though. If you have a gift, learn to use it instead of lose it.
K then, when you meet other celebs, what are they usaully like in personality?
Depends who they are. I've met some really bitchy people, but the Weird Sisters are some of the coolest and nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting! Then Viktor Krum and me are really close friends also, we have friends for ages now.
Who's the rudest celeb you've met?
Would you call Rita Skeeter a celeb? She seemed to be buzzing around me some of the summer and it was always questions like 'Whats I like to be in an affair with Viktor Krum when Hermione Grangers using love spells on him?' and stuff like that. Who said I was with Viktor and I'm intrigued about this Hermione now, I hope I get to meet her at Hogwarts; Viktor told me that she was nice.
Do you remember your first kiss? (She looks down and avoids my eyes right now)
Yes, it wasn't long ago either and it was very, very nice. We kissed later that night too.
Juicy question now. Have you ever been in love?
In love? No. I love people as friends and family but not like that. I am currently in like with somebody though. He's really sweet.
Oh? We need details now! (At this point Charlene blushes badly, like she thought she'd get away with saying something like that!)
Okay, he's great for starters. His names Harry and I met him at a family party; he's my cousin Sara's babysitter and goes to the boarding school where she's headed. He's been ringing me every night since. This now goes back to the Hogwarts being a bad choice thing.
Alright. How would you describe your Prince Charming?
Oooh, tricky one. Okay, he has to be sweet and charming (can't have a Prince without the Charming), he has to have a sense of humour and a nice smile, he also has to know what he wants for himself in the future, and he has to be able to stand the spotlight of being with somebody famous or it could never work out.
Okay, so what do you think about sex?
It doesn't bother me much. I'm just sixteen, I want a chance to experience everything and I will experience that one-day in the far future!
Harry laughed at certain parts of the article, especially the comment about Rita Skeeter. He was also surprised that he had been mentioned and when he had asked her about the first kiss, it had indeed been him, and that really made him feel a lot better that she liked him that much already. He definitely had a keeper…
You've been whipped.
Shut up Zodiac. Harry replied with a glare at the snake.
It's true.
I like her, but I'm not whipped.
Uh huh. Zodiac replied as he slithered away.
"I'm not!" Harry shouted after him.
AN: Okay, HUGE overuse of the word article. The magazine interview was just a little fun; I got carried away with it!
For those of you who have bothered to read to whole chapter as it's so long, please review/flame/comment/whatever you want to call it. I need some feedback, what's good or bad about this story? What advice can you give me for my writing?
I appreciate all reviews and I do take the time to read them, I normally don't reply but as I didn't have many I did anyways this time.
Thanks to you people who have reviewed!
:p Nixi the Hyperactive Pixie
P.S. A Beta-Reader is somebody who checks somebody else's work for grammatical mistakes right? Well if anybody needs one I'm happy to do that for you, I'm currently sorting out my friends which got completely botched when she sent it to me, it's thirty pages long so it shows how patient I am!