Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I know what's happening a couple chapters from now.  I had a severe case of writer's block. I'm not overly proud of this chapter, it's not my bester work, it's the result of trying to over come the dreaded block.

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CHAPTER 60: New Recruits

            Harry spent the week interviewing the final 20 candidates and had Hermione gather them before the next D.A. meeting. Everyone else was inside the Room of Requirement except Hermione and whoever the new candidates would be.

            "They're outside waiting. I've accept 11 of them and brought another member in, we haven't discussed him, but does anyone object to making Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington part of our group?" He's used the ghost's full name to add more dignity; Nick hated being made fun of.

            There were puzzled glances and murmurs of, "Who?"

            Harry tapped an impatient foot. "Nearly-Headless-Nick!"

            "Oh!"

            "Him!"

            "He's great."

            "Alright, then. Ron, tell them they can all come in."

            Ron got up and went to the door. He opened it and in they came.

            Hermione came first, followed by: a boy with the strong arms of a Quiditch Beater (7th year, Ravenclaw); the 2nd year girl from Hermione's list; two of the three 5th years from Ginny's list; three people from Luna's list; a girl from Terry's list; one of Neville's Herbology friends; Hannah's 3rd year cousin; and a girl Harry had chosen. The line ended with Nick.

            "These are the new recruits," he told the current D.A. members. "They've all signed, and won't be blabbing anything we say." He turned to face the "new recruits" most of which looked as though they felt very awkward. "Welcome. Take a seat." Harry had left the front row empty for them and they went to it quickly. "Discipline. This is not a joke. Too many people here treat this like that. We mean business. We're not here to plot against or ambush Slytherins. We're here because Dumbledore needs us. Does anybody remember what the letters D.A. stand for?"

            "Dumbledore's Army," said Ginny.

            "And Defense Association," added Hermione.

            "Right. We are here to learn how to defend ourselves and to do what we can to help Dumbledore. That's why we're here. Most of you don't seem to get the message that I've been trying to impress upon you. Last week, in order to discourage the attacks you were causing the week before, I ambushed each of you. That didn't seem to help wise any of you up. This past week, the same joking around and fooling and torturing the Slytherins has continued. That can't be allowed. Would Dumbledore approve?" He gave each of them a hard stare and more than a few shifted guiltily. He knew what they'd been doing to the Slytherins. He looked at the new recruits. "Do you know the tripping jinx? Stunning spell? The Petrifying spell? The leg-locker curse? The Impediemente jinx? A basic shield?" There were a mix of yes and no. "Ron? Hermione? Neville? Would the three of you mind dividing this group up and working with them in the back? I've got a list of spells they need to learn." The list was really three times longer than what he had just listed, but it was all stuff the three of them knew how to do.

            "Sure, Harry," Neville said.

            Harry had noted Neville's rise in confidence over the last two years, and especially this year, but it wasn't like the others. Neville wasn't really getting arrogant (though it wasn't as if Malfoy didn't deserve everything Neville had done to him); it was mostly just his making up for self-confidence that he'd lacked in his earlier years. Harry looked at the remaining students. "The rest of us are going to be continuing our work on Occlumency."

            Zacharias asked, "When do we get to learn Legilimency?"

            "Do you think that you're responsible enough? Do you think I should trust you with the power to break into someone's mind and discover their greatest fears and deepest secrets?"

            Zacharias looked at him defiantly, but said nothing more.

            Muriel and Colin were of course still excellent at Occlumency. As for the others, the fact that they'd been out of practice for several weeks now and Harry's words hadn't done anything to ease their minds. Ernie was still just below par, and Terry was doing quite well. Lavender was about equal with Ernie. Zacharias was still doing miserably.

            The boy couldn't get past his emotions. He had anger, and hatred, and embarrassment. "Smith, come down to McGonagall's room, 7 o'clock Wednesday night."

            "Why?"

            "Because you need more help than you're getting here. I'm not going to lie. You need help and I am going to make sure that you get it."

            Zacharias frowned at him.

            "Look, Zach, I just—"

            "My name is Zacharias."

            "Fine. Zacharias, you need to be able to stop these attacks. Voldemort," Smith flinched at the name, "Voldemort is a Legilimensist. If he came up to you and asked you something, he'd know if you were lying. If you managed not to respond at all, he could break into your mind as though all that was blocking it was a spider web, and get in and find out whatever he wanted to know. Depending on what you knew, you could put not only this organization, but this school, Dumbledore himself, and maybe the freedom of free wizards everywhere at risk." Harry was exaggerating a little, the chances were, Smith would know anything of that great of importance, but he had to get the point across. "You've heard stories from the Dark times, haven't you?"

            Smith nodded.

            "You don't want to be living in those times, do you?"

            Smith shook his head.

            "Then you'll come down to McGonagall's room at 7 on Wednesday."

            Smith nodded.

            "You look tired. Get out of here," Harry sighed. He didn't mean it to come out rude, and despite the wording, it didn't sound rude either.

            Zacharias abruptly left.

            Harry called it quits on the Occlumency. They'd had enough and the Legilimensists were getting tired. "We're just going to finish up with some stunning spells and the reviving charms."

            Everyone except Hermione, Ron, Neville, and the new recruits, broke up into pairs alternating in stunning their partner, reviving them, then switching off.

            Harry walked around the pairs, commenting. "Good. Much better. Your reaction time is improving," the last comment was added when he had them add in the shield spells to block the attacks from coming. "Good work, everybody. Keep it up and please keep away from the Slytherins if at all possible this week."

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            Wednesday came and Harry went down to McGonagall's room early to meet Luna and tell her that Zacharias Smith would be joining them.

            "Harry," she said softly. She was turned away from him, facing the desk.

            "I'm here. What is it?" He put a hand on her shoulder. He noticed that none of the furniture was moved aside as it usually was when they came here on Wednesdays.

            "Do you love me?"

            "Wha—? Luna, do I love you?"

            "That's what I asked. Do you?"

            "Luna, that's…" Luna asked if he loved her. Where had that come from? Love, love was hard for him to understand. Growing up and before Hogwarts, he hadn't known any love since he was an infant. It'd been hard for him to get used to the idea that somebody was looking out for him, but he'd eventually realized that Dumbledore, and his friends, and Sirius all cared about him. But love? Did he even really know what love was? What it meant? Love was about as foreign to him as trust was, even more so.

            "I'm here," a voice came from the doorway.

            Harry wanted to angrily tell the voice to go away, but vaguely in the back of his mind it registered that this was Zacharias and it'd taken a strong bending of will for Zacharias to even bother coming tonight. "We'll finish this talk later, Luna," Harry whispered. He turned to face Zacharias.

            "Okay, Smith. Glad you could make it. What are you thinking about right now?" Harry asked.

            "What's it to you?"

            "Smith, if you don't clear your mind we'll never get through this and you'll be here all night. What are you thinking?"

            "Why's your girlfriend crying?"

            "What are you talking about? Luna's not—" Harry stopped midsentence, looking at Luna. She was crying. Why was she crying? Luna almost never cried. "Luna, are you okay?"

            "Just a moment." She turned back to the desk again and looked back after a moment, all signs of tears gone from her face. "Hello, Zacharias. Ready for your lesson?"

            He nodded. He knew something fishy was going on.

            Luna waved her hand and the furniture rearranged itself somewhat to allow them free space to practice in. She conjured a pile of cushions. "Lie down, Zacharias."

            Grudgingly, he lay down.

            "Don't think about anything. Just clear your mind. You don't have any feelings. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to think about. No Quiditch trophy to win. No scary blonde girls with bulging eyes threatening to terrorize you. No redheads with brothers threatening to beat you up. No O.W.L.s in a few months. Nothing. Just nothing. Empty."

            Harry watched Luna work with Zacharias and Zacharias improved some during the night, more improvement than Harry would have guessed. When Zacharias's lesson was over, Luna left immediately without giving Harry a chance to talk to her.

            "She wasn't acting like herself tonight."

            "You don't know the real her," Harry said. "But you're right. Something's wrong." He waited for an hour outside the Ravenclaw common room, hoping to see someone coming or going so that he could get a message to Luna or ask her to come out so they could talk.

            Finally, Terry came out. "Oh, hi, Harry. I didn't think anybody would still be out of their house this late. I was going for a walk."

            "Is Luna in there?"

            "Yeah, she came in a little over an hour ago. She's really not herself tonight. Something's upset her."

            "And I think I know what it was," Harry said glumly, sitting down against the wall.

            "What did you say to her?"

            "Nothing much. But she said something to me and I didn't say it back."

            Terry nodded knowingly. "Couldn't say the L word?"

            "Exactly. I do, you know. I really do. I think. I just couldn't say it. I was in shock. Now, I don't think she's speaking to me."

            "Do you want me to see if she'll come out?"

            "Would you?"

            "Sure." He patted him on the arm. "I'll be back."

            Harry waited nearly ten minutes. Terry came back alone. "Well?" Harry asked hopefully.

            Terry shook his head. "She was sitting by the window, staring outside. It's raining. She ignored me for a full 6 minutes. Then she answered in that voice that makes everybody think she's a dummy. After 3 minutes of arguing with her she flatly said that she wasn't coming."

            "But I've got to talk to her, Terry!"

            "Sorry, but she's not coming out and the other Ravens would kill me if I gave you the password."

            "Ravens?"

            "That's just what we call ourselves. We think it sounds better than Ravenclaws."

            "Oh. I'm going to sit here then until she comes out for breakfast tomorrow."

            "Don't be ridiculous."

            "I'm not. If I stay here, she doesn't have a choice but to talk to me when she comes."

            Terry shook his head. "Just like a Gryffindor to think with your heart and not with your head."

            "How do you mean?"

            Terry sat down next to him. "Look, is there any particular reason you're talking to me about this and not to one of your Gryffindor buddies?"

            "They wouldn't understand. Gryffindors are…impulsive sometimes. And stubborn. How long was it before Ron finally admitted to liking Hermione? Seamus and Dean, honestly, what do they know? Nothing. And Neville, well actually Neville gives decent advice."

            "Do you love her?"

            "The truth is, I'm not sure what love is."

            "Well, spend some time thinking on it and when you've decided, let her know. Let her know in a big way."

            "But how?"

            "Think about it. You Gryffindors are after all, notorious for thinking with your hearts." He gave him a friendly smile and clapped him on the back. "Goodnight. I'm going for a walk."

            "At this hour?"

            "I need inspiration for my next picture. I'm thinking maybe the giant squid if I can talk him into posing. He comes out to the surface of the lake at night sometimes."

            Harry didn't go to bed. Instead he went to the Astronomy tower and stared at the stars from the roof. He stayed there all night meditating. What was love? What was love?

            He watched the sun rise in the pink sky, many hours later. And a slow smile grew on his face. He knew the answer.

            The answer was Luna.

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Thanks. I hope you review and keep reading! The writer's block kicked in when Harry got there early to talk to Luna. All the stuff with Harry and Terry was an attempt to clean up the mess left by the Luna stuff.

I know that especially after this chapter, I'm not worthy, but please review.