Author's Notes: Sorry I've been MIA, guys. So much homework. So much working. So much partying. It's good to be back at school.

Huzzah, chapter. There's probably several people who asked me to be in the FU, but I need sleep almost as much as I need gas prices to decrease significantly, so I'll induct you all officially later. P.S. Damn you, Petro Canada.

Saturday, 14 October

3:45 p.m.

We did it! We actually held our very first meeting of "Dumbledore's Army" (Ginny's idea…the "DA" for short) Thursday night, and everything went so well!

I'll confess that after we spoke to Sirius I had my doubts…and well, I hate to admit it, even if only to myself, but what Umbridge said last week struck a nerve. I am a prefect, and what she said combined with Sirius' flippant remark about getting expelled sort of made me a bit wary for a little bit. But I realize now that that kind of thinking is just foolish. We're learning to defend ourselves against Voldemort. That is so much more important than anything else, even…even getting expelled. And it's really working; after only one meeting everyone had improved greatly, and Neville actually disarmed Harry. Neville! I've never even seen Neville hit his target with a spell on the first try, never mind successfully disarm someone!

We finally found the perfect location, thanks to Dobby. I was a bit wary about this as well, seeing as last time Dobby tried to help Harry, Madam Pomfrey ended up having to re-grow all of the bones in his left arm. I guess Dobby showed up in Gryffindor tower one night and woke Harry, who was frantically trying to finish his Potions essay (note to self: give Harry another lecture on procrastination). Dobby had brought Hedwig back, and she's fine now, thank goodness.

"He asked me if he could do anything for me, and then I thought that maybe he would know of a place we could practice, since he works in the castle and he probably knows it pretty well," Harry explained the following day at breakfast. "Dobby said he knew the perfect place…it's called the Room of Requirement. It's on the third floor, in that blank wall across from that bizarre painting with the trolls - "

"You mean the one where that bloke is trying to teach trolls ballet?" Ron asked through a mouthful of oatmeal.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Nutter," Ron muttered, shaking his head.

"You're sure this room can fit all twenty-eight of us?" I asked skeptically.

"That's the thing – the room only appears when someone really needs it, and apparently it'll be filled with just the stuff we need and be just the right size for what we need it for," Harry explained.

"And Umbridge?"

"Dobby said the door to the room will disappear once we lock it from inside."

"What about Filch? Mrs. Norris? A bunch of students all wandering around a blank wall on the third floor may attract some attention," I pointed out, frowning.

"Why d'you have to be so negative all the time?" Ron asked irritably.

"I'm not being negative, I'm simply being practical," I shot back.

"Give it a rest," Harry said quickly when Ron opened his mouth to respond. "We'll take the Marauder's Map," Harry told me.

I was still skeptical at this point, but Harry looked so excited and determined that I decided not to pursue it further and changed the subject. "So how was Dobby? Did he mention anything about the other house-elves? The ones I've freed?" I asked eagerly.

"Er…no, not really," Harry said. "He was wearing some of your clothes, though…said he really liked them…"

I frowned. "Well I'm glad he likes them, but I hope he's leaving enough for the rest of the house-elves!"

Ron sighed loudly. I glared at him. He gave me an innocent smile back. My stomach did a flip-flop. Why, oh why?

I couldn't remember reading anything about the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts: A History, and I even skimmed through the book once more to see if I could find anything on it, but it wasn't mentioned at all. It must really be a secret room. Harry said that Dumbledore mentioned it last year, but the headmaster didn't seem to understand it any more than we do.

We spread the news of the meeting time and location, and then on Thursday night, the three of us headed up to the Room of Requirement. We walked back and forth in front of this blank stretch of wall a few times, concentrating on what we needed, and then suddenly a door appeared in the wall.

We walked into the room, and it was amazing! There must have been a thousand Defense Against the Dark Arts books in there! There were cushions for practicing Stunning, and Dark detectors, and it's a really big space that we can all easily practice spellwork in. Everyone else showed up moments later. We took a vote and elected Harry as leader, and then Ginny came up with the DA.

I was really impressed with the way Harry took charge. He got us all to pair up and started us out with practicing disarming. It's something that's not highly advanced, but it's a valuable spell to know nonetheless; a perfect way to begin. Besides, judging by everyone's first performances, the group wasn't exactly up to standards on their spellwork. But by the end of the meeting, everyone had improved considerably. Ron even managed to disarm me a few times. Actually, when he realized that the entire group wasn't watching us, waiting for him to mess up, and were far too busy practicing their own spells, Ron improved significantly. I really hope their first Quidditch match goes well for him; Ron could use the boost in self-confidence. Mrs. Crick would probably say that Ron's lack of confidence and fear of failure is due to his large family and the immense pressure he's under to live up to the high standards his older brothers unknowingly set for him, but I'm sure Ron wouldn't particularly care what Mrs. Crick would say and would most likely tell her to shove it.

Overall, the meeting was a huge success, and it was so immensely satisfying to sit there in Umbridge's class on Friday knowing that we were defying her, right under her nose. Harry couldn't stop smiling all day. I haven't seen him this happy in months. Although it may also have something to do with the fact that Cho was all giggly around him at the meeting. Sometimes I wonder about Cho. She went from crying about Cedric at lunch because they served his favourite kind of soup to flirting with Harry at the meeting.

Even Malfoy couldn't get us down at the prefect's meeting today. Rob was explaining that, as prefects, we can still enjoy the Quidditch game coming up but we are also to help keep the crowd under control and report any rowdiness or misbehaviour to the teachers. Malfoy was smirking an awful lot through all of this.

"Yes, Draco, since you're playing in the match you're obviously exempted from your prefect duties," Rob said wearily, after nearly five minutes of having to look at Malfoy smirking from the armchair he was lounging in. Malfoy said something to Pansy under his breath and smirked some more, then looked pointedly at Ron. They both snickered.

"You too, Weasley," Rob said a bit more cheerfully. He nudged Ron. "You've got to win it for us, eh?"

Ron turned a bit pale, as I've noticed he's been doing any time anyone brings up the match, and Malfoy snorted loudly. The colour returned to Ron's face and he gripped the sides of his chair, glaring at Malfoy.

"Can't wait 'til Harry teaches us some good jinxes," Ron growled as we left the meeting. "Then we can use them on Malfoy."

I smiled. "And he won't even be able to counter-jinx us, seeing as his Defense education consists of reading Slinkard, and Slinkard thinks that counter-jinx 'is just a name people give their jinxes when they want to make them sound more acceptable,'" I said mockingly, quoting the textbook.

"Well," said Ron in a breathy impersonation of Umbridge, "I'm sure as long as Mr. Malfoy has studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why he should not be able to defend himself from our relentless attacks under carefully controlled examination conditions."

I burst out laughing, and Ron joined in, looking pleased with himself. The laughter died away. I smiled at him. Ron grinned back. My stomach did the flip-flop. And so it goes.

Our next DA meeting is on Wednesday. It looks like there's going to be no way we can set a regular day of the week for meetings, seeing as we have to accommodate three different houses' Quidditch practices, not to mention everyone's homework schedule. We'll have to change it to accommodate everyone each week, but the problem now is how we're going to communicate the meeting day to everyone. It was quite the challenge to inform everyone about the first meeting, and it's going to look suspicious if we're crossing the Great Hall all the time to talk to people from different houses. Of course, we could say that we're striving for inter-house unity, but I have a feeling that no one but the Sorting Hat would appreciate that, and unfortunately the Sorting Hat is not the Hogwarts High Inquisitor.

Hm, I just got a very funny mental image of the Sorting Hat teaching us Defense Against the Dark Arts…

Anyways, I'm going to do some research into it and give it some thought. Perhaps I'll write Viktor about it; he always has good ideas.