Sorry it took so bloody long for this chappie. Bridgette got on though

Well… enjoy.

And btw, for the past while, I've only been getting one review for chapter. Please… it isn't that hard to review! Even if you don't like the story! Just press that button, sign in or write in your name and write your comments. It takes about 2-3 minutes, tops and the encouragement will make me write faster (or tell me what I need to fix). Please? ::puppy eyes::

Last thing: I know it's shorter but the next post is like… really long so I decided to cut off early, so you guys could get this chapter. Sorry but yeah, enjoy.

It had been decided the night before that everyone needed to work on contacting former members of the DA and recruiting new, but only if they were trustworthy.

Neville said he could talk to the Hufflepuffs and Dennis would talk to all those in his year.

That left Seamus, Harry, Hermione and Ron to talk to anyone else. There weren't that many people to contact, really. Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst were two of the only seventh-year Ravenclaws left, but they said they'd spread the word and Harry trusted them. They were wise and wouldn't allow anyone in who would hurt them.

The night before the first meeting, Harry was anxious about who would show up.

Hermione was sitting at the coffee table, looking over the paper she made in the Gryffindor Common Room. Finally, she crumpled it up and threw it into the fire in anger.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"It's too hard to make this stupid paper," she said as she began to try again. She expected them to know but the fact that she hadn't told them what she was doing yet was still there.

"What're you doing?" he asked, peering at her paper. She'd been working for thirty minutes and had thrown many balls of paper into the fire. He was starting to get curious.

"Trying to make another contract for everyone to sign. This one with better effects," she said as she tried again. Using a special quill and her wand at different moments, she continued to try and make the paper.

"What are they?" he asked. She was always coming up with new and ingenious things. He was looking forward to hearing about it.

"It's quite simple. They just can't talk about it except to other members of the DA, or to people whom Harry, you or me deem as okay to talk to. And I mean they can't."

Ron grinned. "Brilliant," he said, kissing her on the cheek. "Have I told you lately you're a goddess?"

Hermione gave a soft smile. "Yeah well, I'll be a goddess if I can actually complete it." She went back to the parchment, writing different spells and charms with the quill that seemed to have no ink on it, and within a matter of seconds, the words had disappeared deep into the paper.

Harry, who had been having mild panic attacks all over the place, looked over at her from where he was lying on the couch. "I hope it works, Hermione," he said. "I don't know if we'll be able to trust everyone at the meeting. Why am I doing this again?"

"Because you need to," she said simply. She continued to write on the paper. "I don't think we should even do DA if I can't get this. I mean… with all the Slytherins and… you guys saw the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! I may be completely off here but I… something has to be up. I heard she wasn't here when… it happened," she said, referring to the raid. "And I heard she was in Azkaban for murder of 10 people but got out because someone proved the court hearing to be corrupt, even though it wasn't." When she was bored, she had researched it.

"Yeah, well, Professor Hardgrave won't be chucked out any sooner than any other corrupt teacher," Ron said darkly. "Look at Moody and Umbridge. Sure, we didn't know Moody wasn't Moody, but still, these people've worked with him for ages. Shouldn't they have known?"

Harry nodded. "I've thought that too," he admitted. "Something's going on, but even if we figure it out all we can do is be prepared to defend ourselves. Dumbledore won't do anything."

Hermione looked at the two of them then looked down at the paper, continuing to write different spells. She worked in silence for about 15 minutes until she suddenly dropped the quill to the table and stared into the fire, trying to remember anything she had to write.

"Bloody slag!" Seamus said loudly as he walked into the common room.

Harry looked over at him and Ron spared him a glance before going back to staring at Hermione raptly.

"What is it?" Harry asked when didn't say anything else.

He stalked over to the couch. "Budge over," he said.

Harry just lifted his legs and with a sigh, Seamus sat down and Harry dropped them into his lap.

"Hardgrave. She gave Dennis a detention for no good reason."

Hermione looked at him then back at the paper. "We have to watch out for her. Probably more than we did for Umbridge." She then suddenly remembered a few more spells and wrote them down rapidly, and seemed to start to write down symbols too.

"Yeah, well, she's a hag," Seamus said. "I mean, Parkinson was yelling at this little Hufflepuff and Dennis stood up to her and who swoops by at that exact moment but her and next thing anyone knows he's doing Merlin knows what for three hours after dinner. Biased cow."

Hermione looked at Seamus again. "I'm pretty sure she's more on the Slytherin's side than Snape is." Then, with an irritated look, went back to writing.

"Snapes changed though, hasn't he?" Seamus said. "Since You-Know-Who came back he's been quieter. Still hates you though," he said with an apologetic look at Harry who shrugged.

"He hates my dad vicariously through me," he said with a smirk. "You get used to it after six years."

Hermione smiled slightly and after about 5 more minutes, she sat back with a smirk. "Done." The parchment was still blank though.

Ron stared at it. "Seriously? That's it? You go through all that and it just… is? What does it do? When we sign it I mean."

She smiled softly. She grabbed her wand and tapped it twice then said, "I am Hermione Granger and swear I hate Voldemort." The parchment slowly seeped with ink, forming words that read what it would do. "It will only work if you, Harry or I say our names and the rest of the spell, so that means even if anyone finds it, they think it's a simple piece of paper. Anyone who signs it can not speak of the DA except around members, and they will not be able to speak unless it is only members around in a 50 foot radius, even if the speaker knows or not. That's what took so bloody long."

Ron smiled at her. "You're brilliant," he said. "And this is perfect."

Harry nodded. "We couldn't do anything without you, Hermione," he said.

Hermione grinned a bit. "I know. But, if anyone destroys it, I will kill them. No matter who it is." She tapped it again and said, "My work is managed," and the words quickly disappeared.

"No one would dare touch anything you've made," Ron assured her. "Not after what happened to Cho Chang's friend fifth year." He grinned fondly in remembrance before frowning. "That cow. Who did she think she was?"

Hermione sighed. "At least nothing that bad happened." Which she was right. It could have been a lot worse, as Harry could have been expelled or captured by the Ministry, as so many things had gone insane that year.

Harry shot her a look but was interrupted when Neville walked into the Common Room.

"Has anyone else noticed anything different about Malfoy?" Neville asked once they'd gotten near enough to the Trio that they didn't have to shout.

She gave a small nod then furrowed her brow in confusion as she remembered the dinner. "When he heard his… father was Minister, he looked… I don't know but almost scared." The words threatened to tangle themselves up when she had spoken them, as she could still not believe that a Malfoy was in charge of them.

Neville frowned. "Don't know why he would be. He should be over the moon about it."

Seamus stood, seeming to forget his anger and walked over, then clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Don't try to fathom how a Malfoy's mind works," he said. "You'll just get a headache."

Neville gave a small nod. "Watcha working on Hermione?" he asked after a moment, changing subjects easily and peering over her shoulder.

She looked up at him with a small smile, as she was still confused with the Malfoy situation. "It's a contract for the DA. One so no one can say anything about it, except to other members when non-members aren't near them."

Seamus nodded. "Right. That's good. I dunno. Some of these people who want to join seem a bit off so this is necessary for our well-being."

Neville nodded his agreement and then, with a small smile and a wave, made his way up to the dorm room to work on a herbology assignment.

She quickly rolled the parchment up and put it into her bag. After a moment, she got herself interested in buttoning her bag closed then opening it again, and kept repeating it as she thought over everything.

Seamus made his way over to the sofa and pushed Harry's feet out of the way to sit down. "I overheard Flitwick talking," he said, rolling his eyes when Harry put his feet back up, this time in his lap.

"'Bout what?" Hermione asked as she snapped out of her stupor and was able to notice everything around her again.

Seamus shrugged. "I dunno. He squealed and fell over the minute he saw me. But I managed to catch something about Lucius Malfoy and some new policies he's put out. They're supposed to be all official now he's Minister of Magic."

"This isn't good. How can a follower be Minister of Magic?" she asked then sighed. "And there has to be a reason Draco looked so worried." By the tone of her voice, she was thinking about not saying more of her thoughts.

Ron nodded. "Something's up."

"Maybe… well, I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye out," Harry said. "Once the DA's been set up and is stable we can think about taking action."

She gave a nod. "I'm really scared though," she murmured after a second. She could remember during their sixth year, when she had come back from a terrible Christmas thanks to the fact of her father hurting her after she accidentally broke a plate, Draco had looked worse than she did. He had been bruised very badly, and had been quiet for a week then had brought the torment and insults onto the three of them worse than ever. "I don't know why but…" she trailed off, shaking her head a bit.

Harry and Ron looked over at her.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. It's sort of stupid," she murmured and looked away, but feeling their eyes on her, she sighed. "Maybe it's just… I'm looking too into my own life but I think I may know why Malfoy looked afraid in the Great Hall."

Harry frowned. "You don't think… Lucius Malfoy abuses him?" he said softly.

"That's exactly what I think." She took a shaky breath. "Whatever. I'm probably wrong. It's just… remember last year after Christmas when I came back, claiming I fell down some stairs?" She looked down at her hands, finding one of her fingers very interesting. "Remember that he looked worse than I did, and how quiet he was? Just the way he acted and talked, it was like he was afraid he was going to be beaten." She knew it all too well and bit her lower lip hard to try to control her emotions.

Ron nodded. "I remember…" he said. "Yeah. And if he's the Minister of Magic now it'll be worse for him, won't it? No hope of anyone caring."

"Exactly." She sighed. "I… sort of feel sorry for him if it's true." Even though it was probably the last thing she'd ever think she would feel, she did feel sorry for him.

Harry nodded slowly. "Yeah… nobody deserves that. Not even Malfoy."

Not even Seamus and Ron could argue, so they all just sat in silence, thinking and wondering.

After a moment, she looked at everyone else. "Can we talk about something, anything?" Her eyes were filled with a few different emotions and she was trying to control herself from remembering things, and the silence wasn't helping.

"Well," Seamus said. "We could always complain about classes," he suggested.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh softly. "We do that anyways. So… I don't think so."

Seamus opened his mouth to suggest another topic but didn't have a chance because a third year girl named Sarah had flown into the Common Room.

"Fight! There was just a fight!" she shrieked. "It was so awesome! Dennis was completely cornered by these two Slytherins and they were beating him up and then this other guy told them to stop and said something mean to Dennis and he went crazy and attacked all three of them!"

Hermione's eyes widened and she just stared at Sarah, barely believing.

Seamus stood up so fast that Harry fell off the couch and would have glared at him if he'd been there to glare at. Instead he was standing in front of Sarah asking what had happened.

Hermione was still sitting in front of the coffee table and gave a small yelp as Harry fell on top of her. She glared at him then looked up at Sarah and Seamus, listening.

"What're you talking about?" he demanded.

Sarah shrugged. "Just like I said. Dennis got into this huge fight with these Slytherins. He's okay, but Hardgrave's put him in detention for two weeks."

Her eyes widened. "Two weeks? Shit." Quickly, she made a mental note to stay away from Hardgrave as much as possible so she had barely any chance to get detentions.

Sarah nodded. "Yeah. She'd have given more but everyone knew it wasn't really Dennis' fault."

Seamus growled something and then asked where he was.

"Hospital wing," she answered.

He nodded and took off.

Harry and Ron shared a look with Hermione. This behavior was pretty common anymore with the sandy-haired teen. Anything that involved Dennis was worth putting all else on the back-burner and rushing to his side.

Hermione just sighed and moved out from under Harry, then stood. "Maybe we should go too," she said softly, but wasn't entirely sure as she almost felt like she would have been invading Seamus' and Dennis' personal space.

"D'you really think we should follow him?" Ron asked slowly. None of them really felt comfortable about it. There was a way the two interacted that made them feel like an intruder even in a crowded room.

She was silent for a moment. "To be truthful, no," she then said, so instead the trio made their way up to the dorm.

Neville was sprawled out on his bed, scrawling something onto a piece of parchment when they walked in.

Hermione walked into the room and sat on Harry's bed lightly, looking around a bit bored.

A small breeze blew through the room as a window was open, and then suddenly Hedwig flew into the room. She was flying very badly, like a wing was broken and fell onto Harry's bed. Once snow white colored feathers were now filled with dirt and stuck together badly with blood. She held out her leg for Hermione to take the letter attached to it but fell over from weakness and she looked like she had lost weight, as the last time she had eaten was a few days prior when Harry had let her out for some exercise.

Ron cursed and Harry, speechless, rushed to his bed. He knelt beside it and stroked her dirty feathers gently.

"Can I do something?" Neville asked from somewhere off to their right.

"Yeah… get help for her, please," Harry breathed softly, wincing when Hedwig shuddered involuntarily.

Hermione quickly removed the letter with wide eyes as Hedwig tried once again to get someone to take the letter, as if it was important. She paled considerably as she noticed it read 'To Ron' in blood and she gave it to him, wondering what it was but she knew it would be rude if she read it.

Ron's hand shook when he saw it. "What…" he trailed off and bit his lip, opening it and heaving a shaky breath.

There you go! Now, I can NOT believe how much we've done. This makes the story hitting the 40,000 word mark! I've never had a story this long! And it's all thanks to Bridgette ::nodnod::

New chapter may be up soon, may not be. I'll try for sooner than later!