Chapter 22: Dumbledore's Army
Severus returned that night in full health. Voldemort had been exceptionally pleased with his progress and had praised him in front of all the other death eaters. "He is very interested in how Hermione seems to be sticking by Ginny and Ron by Harry." Snape told Albus. "He believes that an irrevocable rift has been created between the 'Golden Trio' and Harry will be even more depressed since he seems to have lost both his girlfriend and one of his best friends."
"So you think we should further these rumors of Hermione taking Ginny's side?" Harry asked him as they sat in Albus' office at headquarters.
"I think it will help the Dark Lord to think he is getting exactly what he wants. He wants you completely depressed to the point where you are week and have given up. I also think we should make that gradual. For now I think you should be angry and upset but act like you are trying to work things out with the girls. As the school year progresses I can report how you are drifting further apart and becoming more and more depressed." Snape told him.
"I agree. I think we should have your visit to Diagon Alley be in two days. That is close enough that it is still fresh in the publics mind and yet far enough that it doesn't seem suspicious." Albus told them, "You will go at the same time as Ron and the girls except you and Ron will go off together and the girls will go off together and we can make sure you are seen avoiding each other."
"And who will my escort be?" Harry asked, "They think I've been holed up in Hogwarts all summer under lock and key so it would be suspicious if I was allowed to wander alone."
"We'll have both Tonks and Remus go with you. It will show that I only let you out because your guardians are with you." Albus told him with a smile.
"What happens once we get back to school?" Harry asked them, "I don't want to have to pretend to be mad at Ginny and Hermione at school."
"We should have that under control," Severus told him. "The dark lord was ranting the other day about how I was his only accessible servant at Hogwarts now that the rest are in prison. He believes that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle are all eager to join him after graduation. I also have the names of about 10 other younger students he thinks will join. We know for a fact that all of these students are loyal to the light and it should be easier than in the past to control the information out of Hogwarts."
"Good, I know the school is united but I am still worried there may be a mole in there someplace." Harry told them.
"I understand your concern and I have added many additional wards to the school to insure no information gets out that I don't authorize. The only people allowed on the grounds will be students and faculty this year, no guests to insure there are no breeches. I am also limiting the number of Hogsmead weekends for the younger students." Albus told him. "We don't want another attack like last year and by only allowing the students under 5th year to the village with an auror escort from the ministry I think we will be protecting them."
"I am sure the DA would help out during those visits, take patrols with the aurors and keep their eyes open." Harry said. "I don't plan on adding onto my core group of the EDA but I thought I should break the DA up into squads and appoint leaders from the EDA to each squad to coordinate secessions and practice times. We are growing too large in numbers and I think smaller groups will be necessary."
"Impressive," Severus said with an approving nod. "I think you should talk with Remus and Tonks to develop the different squads. We should mix and match the students by their strengths. Each squad will then learn to fight as a unit and if a battle needs to be fought, they will be ready to stand together and used to taking orders from their commanders."
"So we really are building an army now?" Albus asked with a chuckle. "And here I swore to Fudge that I was not breeding soldiers."
"You're not sir," Harry told him with a grin, "but I am. It can never hurt to be over prepared. We are not teaching them anything dark or questionable. They are learning advanced defensive moves and basic combat moves emphasizing on immobilizing the enemy not hurting them."
"I agree Harry," Albus told him. "I expect that with Ron and Neville's help you will have your squads organized including the current members before school starts." Harry then went to meet with Ron and Neville to plan their strategy.
Harry and Ron moved quickly through Diagon Alley to gather their supplies. Even with Remus and Tonks with them Harry could hear all the whispers and see all the people looking at him. He kept his head down but his eyes forward and made sure to plaster a frown on his face. He quickly bought all his books deciding in the bookstore that he would not be taking care of magical creatures even though Ron decided to continue with it. The only time they strayed from their school list was to go into the Quidditch store and that didn't even take much time as Harry knew he had better equipment that what was for sale there. As they saw a reporter nearing them Harry said loudly enough for her to hear, "I can't believe she would do that, there has to be some explanation. She's been telling me how they are friends; maybe they just got caught up in his victory."
"Mate, she never even kissed you like that after a match," Ron said, both along their scripted conversation.
"I'm just upset and mad at the same time. It's like I'm mad that all this is happening and upset that Ginny won't even talk to me about it. She just keeps telling me that things got blown out of proportion by the media. But Ron, I saw the picture of them kissing. How am I supposed to believe what she tells me?" Harry ranted.
"Harry, come on let's finish up our shopping and get you back to the castle," Remus said interrupting right on cue. "Albus wanted you back there by early afternoon."
"Alright, I just need to refill my potions ingredients, ink, quills and parchment." Harry told him and they headed off to the apothecary first. Ginny and Hermione were walking towards the store just as the boys were leaving and stopped in the middle of the alley and then turned and went into the bookstore instead. Harry put a lost puppy face on and hung his head as they made their way to get his ink, parchment and quills.
"That was the weirdest trip for school supplies ever," Ron stated as they laid out all their stuff on his bed. "We rushed through it all and then we pretended not to like the girls. I really hate this acting stuff and will be glad once we are back safe in Hogwarts."
"Once more week is all," Harry told him with a smile. "And I leave for the World Cup in 2 days and you guys get there Tuesday. It should be fun, although in a way I wish I could hang out with you guys like in 4th year."
"You get to play in the match that is way better than just watching it!" Ron said as he started packing his school trunk. "Dad got us two new tents this year so we don't have to borrow any. Draco has his own and so do the Longbottoms but we all have campsites next to each other. We'll tell you all about it when we get back."
"I have press conferences and photo shoots all day Sunday and Monday plus practices and we get Tuesday to rest up and only have team meetings to plot our final strategies." Harry told him with a grin. He was getting totally excited for the match. "Can you believe it Ron, I am the starting seeker for the English national team and we are going to the World Cup! It will never get any better than this!"
"Sure it will," Ron said with a grin. "Once you get rid of Moldy-Voldy you can play as yourself and be in the World Cup!"
"How about his," Harry said with a grin. "Voldie is gone, everyone survived the battle, I'm married to Ginny, we all have First Class Order of Merlins, and I'm the starting seeker for the World Cup that is once again being hosted by England?" The boys just laughed at their fantasy.
"You forgot to mention that Dumbledore retired to travel the world looking for exotic sweets and eloped with McGonagall so that Snape takes over as headmaster, starts wearing colored robes and Hermione becomes head of Gryffindor and transfiguration professor." Ron said getting into the hang of it.
"Oh and Oliver Wood runs off with some chick and they give you his place as Keeper for the national team, otherwise you would be the Cannons star keeper. You're married to Susan and outdid your parents by having triplets on your first try." Harry said as the boys laughed even harder.
"Plus Hermione is married to Charlie who will have taken over as the Care of Magical Creatures professor while Malfoy becomes prince of the universe and raises a dozen silver haired part veela kids." Ron said while he and Harry were laughing so hard they were crying and decided to quit before things really got out of hand.
"I'm going to go get packed for school so that it's ready before I leave for the Cup. Don't forget we're meeting with Albus later to discus the divisions of the DA." Harry said to his friend and hurried to finish his packing before their meeting.
"I can't believe how crazy everything is getting," Ginny said sadly to her girlfriends. The girls decided to have a girl's night in and get their looks ready for the new school year. "At least we won't have to pretend once school starts."
"I can't believe that your first real order mission was to cheat on your boyfriend," Gabrielle said with a laugh as she didn't know who X really was.
"So is X a good kisser?" Luna asked her with a grin. "You looked like you were enjoying yourself at the match!" The other girls laughed at that.
"Yes, he is a very good kisser. I'd rank him right up there with Harry." She told them truthfully.
"Who do you think is cuter X or Harry?" Gabrielle asked her.
"Harry of course, those emerald eyes of his and his messy hair make him irresistible," Ginny said laughing.
"What about you and Charlie?" Luna asked Hermione as they had been mentioned in the articles as well.
"We're just friends; we had to double with them for extra protection. That was my first order mission outside of research." Hermione told them.
"Ron told me you kissed Charlie," Ginny said with a wicked grin at her friend. "We all know he fancies you, tell us the scoop!"
"There is no scoop." Hermione insisted but seeing the other three wouldn't back down decided to just give in. "Fine, I kissed him after our date. He is a very nice guy and I like spending time with him but there is no relationship. I told him I just wanted to be friends that went out every once in a while and he's fine with that. He gave me beautiful rose that was charmed to recite one of Shakespeare's sonnets and when I took my NEWTs last month he gave me a glass rose hair pin to help me relax."
"So he is romantic, cute, a good kisser, nice, and showering you with gifts and you just want to stay friends?" Gabrielle asked her seriously.
"Yes," Hermione said trying to figure out how to explain. "I just know that there will never be anything else between us. I know what I want in a mate, I have my whole life and I'm not going to settle until I find Mr. Right. Now enough about me, I want to know about all three of you and your serious relationships."
Harry, Ron and Neville sat around the Kitchen table with Albus, Severus, Moody and Tonks. "We have devised a way to organize the DA that we think best utilizes our strengths." Ron started out as he was the one designated as the reigning strategist. "First of all we are limiting the squads to 4th years and up. We will have self defense secessions for the younger years but we want them safe from the fighting." The 4 adults nodded their agreement and motioned for him to continue. "Second we have divided the DA into 4 main squads.
"Each squad had a primary mission or attack strategy and is led by three members of the EDA." Ron told them. "We named them Green, Red, Blue and White Squad to make things easier. We will be handing out scarves to each member in their squad's color to use as an easy way to identify their comrades."
"What are the main functions of each squad and who are the primary leaders?" Moody interrupted wanting to get the necessary information first.
"I will be leading Green Squad as well as being in charge of the DA as a whole," Harry spoke up. "Green Squad's primary mission is Attack and Conquer. We will be an offensive squad. Directly reporting to me will be Draco and then Ginny. We have decided that within each squad we will have five job classifications: Duelers, Protectors, Runners, Lookouts and Healers. Each DA member will be required to achieve mastery in at least 2 of these areas. Once they have done this they will be granted their scarf or official membership. Before then they are considered a trainee."
"Go through the other 3 squads and then expand on the inner workings of the squads, ranks and training regimen." Tonks told them.
"Hermione will be leading Red Squad," Neville spoke up. "Their primary mission is Search and Destroy. They are also an offensive squadron but not as aggressive as Green Squad. Under Hermione will be Luna followed by Dennis. I will be leading Blue Squad. Our primary mission is Protect and Defend. We will concentrate on protecting any innocent bystanders and the other squads. Our primary focus is defense but will have a strong contingent of Duelers as well."
"I will lead White Squad," Ron told them. "We are the unique or special ops squad as our primary mission is Rescue and Heal. Almost everyone in our unit will be training in healing. We have two main groups. I will lead while Hannah will be in charge of healing any wounded and Colin is in charge of the rescue missions. We have already assigned Susan to this group as she is interested in healing along with Hannah."
"Those divisions sound acceptable," Severus said impressed with their foresight to include a healing squad.
"We decided on a military ranking system throughout the squads to make for easier control and chain of command." Ron continued, "As this is a student run operation we started the ranking with Harry as General. He will be in charge of every DA member. Each squad also has a Colonel, that would be Draco, Hermione, Neville and myself. They then each have a Major, which would be Ginny, Luna, Justin and Hannah. After that we go to Captain with Dennis, Gabrielle and Colin. We have assigned Lieutenants and Sergeants that we will officially nominate once the groups are set up. For Green we anticipate having Blaize Zabini as Lieutenant and Pavarti Patil and Seamus Finnigan as Sergeants. Red anticipates having Padma Patil as Lieutenant and Ernie McMillian and Dean Thomas as Sergeants. Blue anticipates having Terry Boot as Lieutenant and Lavender Brown as Sergeant. White we anticipate having Susan as Lieutenant and Crabbe and Goyle as Sergeants."
Severus raised an eyebrow at including Crabbe and Goyle but over all thought the boys did a better job than any of the grown order would have. "What of the training regimen for each of the 5 jobs you specified?" He asked them.
"That is where we will need the full support of the staff," Harry told them. "We will have separate meeting times for each squad so there is ample practice space. Poppy will have to help train all of White squad in field medics, triage and how and when to move someone who is injured. All current DA members will have met requirements for Duelers and Protectors. We are not exactly sure on the training that would be best for the Runners and Lookouts. The Runners will be the ones passing messages between squads or within the squad during a battle. They will need to be trained in Dueling and Protection to be able to qualify as a Runner. Lookout is the easiest of the 5 jobs as they do just what you think they would, watch for incoming attacks or Runners to inform the Protectors."
"I will work with Tonks and Remus to determine a list of necessary spells, charms and hexes needed for each of the first 4 jobs." Moody told them as he was in charge of the auror curriculum. "We can work on a list of advanced ones as well once the person learns each of the basics. Poppy will have to put together the Healer lists."
"I think we should assign order members and teachers to each of the squads," Tonks told them. "They will not be part of the squad but should be aware of the strengths and fight side by side with them when the time comes."
"Yes I agree," Albus told her. "We will assign the teachers to each group and they can help each other and the EDA to get everyone trained. We should talk about assigning the other order members at a meeting to make sure we all agree."
"The students will be an independent group from the order, perhaps it would be better to not inform them of the existence of the order." Neville spoke up. "As much as we trust everyone at school we are still young and make rash choices. I would rather see one squad compromised rather than a squad and the order."
"The boy has a good point," Severus said with a nod at how much confidence Neville had gained in a short time. At the beginning of last year he wouldn't stand up for himself and now he was a squad leader.
"Have you discussed the squad assignments with the rest of the EDA that is here?" Moody asked the boys as they answered no.
"We were awaiting your approval before we implemented," Ron stated.
"Approval granted," Albus said with a chuckle. "Now go tell your troops and get started planning your secessions." The boys all nodded and took their leave of the adults. "Would any of you have guessed they would have come up with something like that?" He asked as the other three all looked thoughtful.
"I never would have guessed before last year that the students had any idea that there were dangers in the real world." Severus told them, "I thought they were all oblivious of the coming war."
"We have Fudge and Umbridge to thank for their response," Tonks said with a laugh. "If Toad Lady would have taught them DADA they wouldn't have banded together like that."
"These students are the key to victory," Moody told them. "Voldemort has no idea that they are this organized. He knows of the DA but Severus can make him believe they only practice defensive spells other than Potter and his close friends."
"General Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World and Boy Who Lived to have way too many damn names," Severus said suppressing a smile. "So we let the children play army and march to real war, I hoped it would never come to this."
"It may yet not," Albus said with false hope in his voice. "He may not ever attack Hogwarts and we hopefully can band together and defeat him without the DA's involvement."
"We should induct Hannah and Justin so the entire EDA is in the order. Susan as well so they can have planning secessions without having to worry about breaching the order's security." Tonks told them all.
"Agreed," Albus told them. "They will all be 17 by the end of September. We can induct them once classes resume. We will have to keep it from their parents, but at least they will be of legal age."
"Hannah and Susan are both of age and Justin is muggle-born, perhaps we should induct them now." Severus commented.
"We will wait until Hogwarts," Albus told them. "I want to see what they make of the order first before revealing Headquarters and all our members."
"Agreed," Moody growled. "We need to keep up constant vigilance!" They all laughed at his catch phrase. "Potter has completed all of his Auror training. I am going to talk to Arthur about hiring him on as a part time auror. It would work to our advantage if he has all the privileges of an auror so nothing bad will come of his eventual duel with Voldemort."
"You want him granted kill privileges?" Tonks asked shocked. "He is only 17!"
"He may only be 17 but he is also the only one who can kill that man," Moody told them. "We don't want him sent to Azkaban for murder!"
"I agree," Albus told them. "Talk with Arthur, get him the privileges and a back up wand. We will keep this a secret from the public and most of the ministry." With that he dismissed the others to their tasks.