Harry left the Great Hall, and the DA walked after him. Marched after him, practically. Harry thought wryly that Fudge might have been right after all. If they hadn't been an army before, they were now.

The energy had left him at this point, and once they left the Hall he sagged against Ron. Draco was still being propped up by Blaise, the effort of holding himself poker straight for Harry's speech having exhausted him.

Harry looked at Draco, 'What now?'

'Hmm?'

'What do we do now?'

'You don't have a plan?'

'That was it.'

Draco smiled tiredly. 'Unbelievably, that's vaguely reassuring. I wouldn't like to think you had turned into a military leader without my noticing.'

'No. One speech and then that's me.'

Draco giggled, actually giggled, and that's when Harry knew something was wrong. Draco leant forward to repeat in a whisper what Harry had asked, 'What do we do now? Everyone knows.'

'About you or about us?' Harry asked in the same whisper, ignoring the curious looks of the rest of the DA, still milling around the hallway.

'Me. I have to live with those people. I use the dungeons. I need to sleep.'

'Is it safe?'

Blaise walked up to them, Nott and Daphne trailing behind. 'We'll make sure he's okay. If worst comes to worst he can stay in my room. Then if we're lucky they'll think I'm having a threesome with the two of you...'

'How is that lucky?' Harry asked bemusedly.

'It would do wonders for my social status,' he answered blithely. Then, more softly, a hand on Draco's arm, 'C'mon blondie, I'll make sure you're not killed in your sleep. And bed for you too, Captain. You look as if you're about to topple over.'

'Add Captain to the list of things you can't call me,' Harry muttered. He made to head for the stairs. 'Does anyone else need anything?'

'Go to bed, Harry,' Hermione answered. He nodded, and turned to go up. He didn't notice Hermione gather the rest of the DA round her as he went.

'Harry?' Hermione asked. It was breakfast the next morning, and he was still too tired to be suspicious of her innocent look.

'Yes?'

'We're having a meeting today, right?'

'Suppose we probably should, why?'

'I wanted to check something with the charms on your galleon before you sent out the time, that's all. Do you mind?'

'Go ahead.' Draco had the chain, so he pulled his coin out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She tapped at it with her wand. 'What time do you want the meeting anyway? I'll do it for you.'

'Umm...eight?'

'Okay.' She flicked at it again. 'Done. I'll see you in Potions, okay? I need to go to the library.'

Harry looked at Ron questioningly. The other boy shrugged elaborately in response.

Harry entered the Room of Requirement, and to his surprise found the entire DA already there. 'Am I late?'

Ron shook his head.

Harry looked around. Unless he had some deeply buried dark thoughts, the room was picking up on someone else's designs. It hadn't looked this ominous since the night Slytherins had joined. 'What's wrong?' he asked Draco.

'Don't look at me,' Draco protested, cocking his head towards Hermione.

They were all watching Harry now. 'What's wrong?' he asked again, louder this time.

'Nothing's wrong, Harry,' Hermione replied soothingly, though her eyes looked troubled. 'We just...you were right.'

'When?'

'At Hogsmeade. Before...before. We need to be stronger.'

'Blood magic. I thought it was too dangerous.'

'It is dangerous. If it wasn't for this I wouldn't even be suggesting it. But you're right. We need to be ready.'

Harry nodded reluctantly. Now that Hermione had agreed he wasn't so sure he wanted her to. He didn't particularly want to be the reason that she, of all people, decided to throw caution to the wind. But he was right, and she was determined. 'So what do we do?'

'We're agreed on it,' she answered, motioning with her hands to encompass the whole group. 'We're going to tie the bond to you, that way it's safe.'

'What?' Harry asked incredulously. 'Why do I have to be in charge?' He stopped when he realised how ridiculous that sounded.

'It's not being in charge,' Ginny corrected. 'Or at least Hermione says it's not. It's just that we trust you most. This time you don't need to do anything, we're the ones who do the tying.'

'Trust us, mate,' Ron said,

'Of course I trust you,' Harry replied in disbelief. 'But this is powerful magics - Voldemort used blood magic to bring himself back to life! You can't all just suddenly decide that it's okay.'

'It isn't sudden, Harry.' Ginny said. 'You make lots of decisions that are dangerous all the time. Like last night. We don't think its fair that you're always the one in danger.'

'You're all in danger just by being here!' Harry cried.

'And if this works, which it will, it'll be safer for us to be here,' Hermione responded. 'We're going to make it so that we can all mind-talk to each other using the galleons. In case someone's in trouble, or someone attacks us.' Like last time, was the unspoken codicil.

'Is that even possible?' Harry asked

'The Order talk to each other, so they must be able to do it. And we should be able to do it with the stronger magic. We should be able to do it well enough that the person won't even need to think the shout for help – you'll be called anyway. But we need to use the galleons as a conduit so you're not tied up to everyone all the time. Then it'd be as bad as you and Draco, with the magic all mixed up. The problem is that anyone could steal one and try to use it to trick us. So we're linking it up through you. You'll be able to talk to anyone, and anyone can talk to you, but no one will be able to just pick one up and talk to the entire DA.'

'You're like Q, you know that?' Harry joked weakly.

Hermione smiled at him, and a few of the others laughed softly. The rest looked simply puzzled. 'I'll explain later,' he mouthed across at Draco and Ron. He turned back to Hermione. 'So how do we do this?'

The room was already prepared. From one of the shelves Hermione lifted a slender, sharp, knife. 'It isn't difficult,' she said. 'You don't need to say anything unless you want. There isn't any actual spell. Just mean it.'

Harry wanted to stop her, to ask some more questions, to check if she was sure, but it was too late.

She raised the knife. 'My life.' She cut deeply into her palms, wincing.

Ron took the knife from her. 'My life,' he echoed. He nicked both palms. Reaching for Hermione, he clasped their bleeding hands together, and passed the knife to Neville.

Neville's face was pale, and his eyes were closed, but he slit both palms without hesitation. 'My life.'

Ginny, Luna, Seamus, Blaise, Draco. My life. My life. My life. My life. My life.

The knife went around the circle. If Harry had been a muggle he would say that it was like a spell. They said nothing but those two words, unflinchingly piercing their own flesh. And he knew how Hermione meant it went she said it – my life for our cause. He wouldn't blame her for how he heard it – my life in your hands.

It was his turn now. Draco held out the knife, a bright red line marring his pale hand. Harry took it. He slit both palms, then grasped Draco's hand in his right, and Hermione's in his left. As they completed the circle his veins caught fire. He had felt powerful magic before, but nothing like this. There were fifty voices clamouring in the back of his mind. Fifty people demanding his attention, calling for help, or consideration, or instruction. It swept over him, burning him from the inside, and then was gone.

They dropped hands with a sigh. There was silence. Then: 'did anyone else feel that?' Ron asked.

'Oh, thank Merlin!' Blaise answered in relief.

'Do you feel like that all the time?' Hermione asked, still breathing deeply.

'No... that was new. Like what, anyway?'

'All that power.'

'He does,' Draco interjected.

'Hey,' Harry protested, 'that's not how I feel all the time. I think I would know.'

'It's how I feel when you get inside my head for spells,' Draco answered. 'As if I might burst out of my skin.'

'That's how it feels?' Harry asked quietly.

'Yes. And don't apologise. It isn't a bad thing.'

Hermione took another little gasping breath. 'No, of course not, Harry. Just strange. Okay, let's test this. Take the galleon in your hand. Harry, give me yours, I didn't cast the second charm on it yet.' He obliged, and she chanted something long and complicated over it, drawing patterns in the air with her wand. She passed it back.

'So what do I do?' he asked.

'Hold it, and think whatever it is that you want to say.'

He squeezed the coin in his hand, wincing as it came into contact with the still open cut.

Hello?

No one said anything.

Draco looked over at him, 'That was me. Different spell. Think about the blood.'

He focussed on the blood spilling out of the cut, over the coin.

'Hello.'

'Whoa!'

'Umm...hi?'

'Cool!'

'Hiya!'

'Can you hear each other?' he asked

'No, just you'

He concentrated on Hermione, 'Hello?'

'Yes?' only she replied.

'It works,' he replied.

'Of course it does,' she answered, but he could hear the relief.

Harry spoke normally again. 'Can you fix it so that Ron can hear everyone too? Or would we need to do it again?'

'Umm...no. It should be fine. As long as you allow him to do it, he should be able to. I just need to put another spell on both of your galleons.'

'How many is that now?' Harry asked wryly. He looked over at Ron, who was silent. 'What's wrong?'

'You think we're going to fight in the school?'

'What do you...?'

'That's the only reason I would need to be able to talk to everyone. If you were duelling Voldemort and I needed to order the DA around instead.'

Harry nodded. 'That's why you're second-in-command. I trust you,' he echoed.

Ron nodded solemnly.

Hermione handed them back the coins. Harry looked at it properly for the first time that evening. 'What's this?' The back of the coin no longer bore the Gringotts crest, rather it showed a raised wand, with four sparks coming from it. As he held the coin, the sparks glowed softly – red, green, blue and yellow.

'Dean designed it,' Hermione told him. 'Draco and I did the charms. All of them look like that now.'

'What is it?' Harry asked, already half-knowing the answer.

'Us,' she answered. 'Remember?'

Draco finished for her, 'Four wizarding houses, one source of magic. We're one.'

A/N: Sorry that was so exposition-heavy, it needed to be done. Just hope everyone understood what was going on...

Thanks to HecateDeMort, angel of chaos, Cithara, and Love Alchemist. Glad you all liked that last scene. It's been a long time in the making - think it was the second or third scene of this story conceived.