"Quickly please," Hermione Granger called out to the students. Her position as Head Girl meant that she had been chosen by Dumbledore to see to it that all the pupils assembled safely in the Great Hall. "If you will all settle down the prefects will make sure everybody is here."
"Why are we here?" asked the drawling voice of Draco Malfoy. "Don't we have a right to be told, especially us prefects?"
"Shut up Malfoy," Ron said.
"Now Ron, he does have a point," Hermione responded. "The reason we are here, as I'm sure you already know Draco," her voice was particularly civil as she addressed Malfoy, the effort obvious, "is because Lord Voldemort has launched an attack upon Hogwarts." There was a collective gasp of shock throughout the hall at this news, while many pupils reacted violently to the mention of Voldemort's name. "You-Know-Who's attacking?" was quietly asked by many of them. There were, however, some students who were noticeably less than shocked, Crabbe and Goyle prominent amongst them, while several other Slytherins seemed to be uncertain as to how they should react.
"So the day's finally come then," Malfoy said. "The Dark Lord has come to take this school away from that Muggle-loving fool of a headmaster. It's about time if you ask me."
"Nobody asked you, Malfoy," said Ernie Macmillan, the Head Boy, "so why don't you keep your mouth shut?"
"As the senior Slytherin prefect I have every bit as much right to my opinion as anybody else has. I can't help it if all you Mudbloods don't like it."
"Shut up Malfoy," Ron repeated.
"Make me." Ron began to draw his wand ready to cast a spell but he was prevented from doing anything to Draco by Hermione's intervention. "Now's not the time for this, Ron," she said. "We really need to make sure that everybody's here and that they are all fine."
"All right," Ron grudgingly agreed as he put his wand away. "I'll look after the Gryffindors."
"Thank you Ron. Hannah, would you be willing to deal with the Hufflepuffs and Padma, will you look after the Ravenclaws?" After seeing the two DA members nod she turned back to Draco. "And I presume you are quite happy to be put in charge of the Slytherins?"
"Oh of course, your mighty Head Girlness," he replied sarcastically. "It would be an honour to obey the instructions of a Mudblood."
"Shut up Malfoy," came a chorus of several voices.
"If that is all, your Knowallness?" Hermione nodded tiredly before Malfoy said "Crabbe, Goyle, we'd best get our housemates prepared."
"You don't seriously believe he's going to help, do you Hermione?" Ernie asked.
"Of course not, Ernie. I know very well he hopes the Death Eaters get in here and kill or torture us all, preferably starting with Ron and me. Unfortunately, we don't really have anybody else we can reasonably ask to deal with the Slytherins since the other prefects are almost as bad as he is. That's why we wanted you here," Hermione said, turning to the DA member she had not yet addressed, the perpetually surly Zacharius Smith.
"What do you want me to do?" Smith asked.
"You've got a younger sister in Slytherin, correct?" After seeing Smith nod, Hermione continued "We'd quite like it if you would go and talk to her."
"Ursula and I don't exactly get on. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs aren't really close, you know."
"Still, you don't think she wants Voldemort to win do you?" After briefly flinching at the name, Smith shook his head. "In that case, if the two of you could quietly counteract whatever Malfoy tries to do to sabotage Dumbledore's plan that would be exceptionally helpful."
"All right, I'll go and have a word with my sister." Smith moved off to the Slytherin table where he stopped to talk to a blond girl who looked much like him. After a short discussion, the two of them moved off to have a private conversation, completely ignoring the dirty looks Malfoy was giving them.
A few minutes later, Hannah, Padma and Ron returned to tell Hermione that everybody from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, with the exception of the DA members helping to defend the castle and the first years, who had gathered in the infirmary to give Madam Pomfrey whatever help they could, had arrived in the Great Hall. Zacharias Smith rejoined them a short while afterwards. "Ursula says she will keep an eye on Malfoy. She's going to try to get the Slytherins to keep to Dumbledore's plan, but she says she can't promise anything."
"That's good enough, Zacharias," Hermione told him. "We should at least get some warning of whatever Malfoy's up to now. All we can do now is wait to see what happens."
"I'm not very good at waiting, Hermione," Ron objected.
"None of us are Ron, at least when it comes to waiting for Voldemort to attack. But we don't have much choice. Until Dumbledore tells us differently or a Death Eater turns up here, we are responsible for looking after all the students here. We have to wait and hope." The other DA members nodded in unhappy agreement, each of them wishing that they could be fighting the Death Eaters, where they would at least feel they were useful.