"I found Cho and Ernie, and they said they'd tell the others in their house. It took me forever, though. Cho was hiding behind Madam Pince's desk in the library from Roger Davis, who apparently is trying to get a little too fresh with her. Ernie was in his common room, and it seemed to take forever for anyone to enter or leave the place!"

"So everyone will know within the hour?" Harry asked.

"Hopefully," Ron said. "If not, the D.A. meeting might be short a few members."

"And Cho knows not to invite Marietta?" Harry asked.

"I told her," Ron ensured. "No new people?"

"Except Kelly," Harry confirmed, though she wouldn't be joining them, of course. They waited.

Dean, Seamus, Neville, Parvati, and Lavender entered the common room almost simultaneously from their dorms.

"Thanks for waiting," Lavender said.

"No prob," Harry said as Ron picked up a heavy box. "Let's go then."

Harry felt in his robes to make sure his wand and parchment were still there—they were. Harry led them out of the common room and walked along the seventh floor until he reached the stretch of blank wall that he recognized so well from the year before. Harry paced around it three times wishing for the hidden room he was so familiar with when Parvati gasped.

"They… they just appeared!" she whispered.

"They do that," Harry said dismissively, opening the doors and walking in.

The room was just as Harry remembered. Hermione's favored books were left along the innumerous bookshelves, dark detectors on the shelves against the back wall. Harry's much-used whistle lay on the shelf to his left. Harry picked it up and stuffed it in his robes.

"Sit down. The others should be here soon."

They all did so without another word, Ron laying the box he carried in a corner. They simply stared about the room and relived memories until more people entered. The first person to arrive was Cho Chang, leading the Ravenclaws. The Hufflepuffs came in groups, but by the usual eight o'clock everyone was present.

"Well, I'm glad to see you all could make it," Harry said, standing. "I told you not to invite any new members. We mistakenly spoke openly of the D.A. in front of Kelly Damen, whom you might recall as the transfer student. She will be joining us as soon as she and Hermione are out of the Hospital Wing."

Terry Boot raised his hand.

"Er… yeah, Terry?" Harry asked.

"How did she get there? What happened?" Terry inquired.

Harry hesitated before answering. "She and Hermione fell into the Forbidden Forest after they were kidnapped. That's all."

"Fell? As in they were above it?" Hannah Abbott asked.

"Their captor tried to escape on brooms," Harry said.

"Who did it? V… V… You-Know-Who?" Dean asked.

Harry sighed. "We don't know who did it, at least I don't, but now that you mention it, I want to get something straight."

Everyone paid rapt attention as Harry continued. "I don't care how scared you are of him, but from now on, you will call him Voldemort." Shivers ran through the room followed by audible gasps. "It's his proper name, and I don't want to hear another person call him 'You-Know-Who'. Say his name with me now. Vol-de-mort."

Very few people said the name with him, and they finished long after he did, still terrified of the word.

"C'mon, that was terrible," Harry criticized. "Vol-de-mort."

"Harry, how can you expect us to get over it so fast? We've been afraid of him our whole lives."

"Ernie, I've encountered him multiple times, and how many of you have even seen his face?" Harry asked. "You fear him when you've never met him, and I've met him countless times and could laugh in his face. I want you to say his name out loud several times before we continue."

The room was slowly attacked with the sound of "vol" as people attempted to get his name out, for none could immediately say it without fear. For ten minutes Harry waited, listening to the most substantial amount of use of the letter "v" he could ever remember in his life, seldom hearing the full name.

Finally, it was only Zacharias Smith who was left, still attempting to say his name. "V… vol… volde… oh, I can't do it!"

"Yes you can!" Ginny said, standing and walking over to him. She sat down in front of him, looked into his eyes, and said, "Voldemort."

Zacharias flinched terribly. "Vol… voldem… mo… mort."

Ginny's face showed one of slight exasperation. "Voldemort. Say it at once."

Zacharias stared at her. "I can't."

"VOLDEMORT!" Ginny yelled, the fear hidden far behind her eyes. "VOLDEMORT, VOLDEMORT, VOLDEMORT!"

"STOP SAYING HIS NAME!" Zacharias yelled back.

"You say it, or I will yell it the entire lesson," Ginny threatened.

Zacharias considered this. Quietly, he spoke. "Vold… Voldemort."

"Again."

"Vol… demort."

"Correctly."

Zacharias took in a deep breath. "Voldemort."

"Once more."

"Voldemort, gosh dang it! Stop making me say it!"

"One more time." Harry knew she asked again just because of his last statement.

"Voldemort."

Ginny nodded curtly, stood, and walked back to her seat next to Dean.

Harry gave her a quick nod of thanks. "Get used to it. I don't want to hear 'you', 'know', and 'who' in the same sentence coming from you guys, all right?"

There was a silent crowd of heads going up and down in unison.

"Good. Now let's get on with this lesson. I want to get a start on the Impediment Curse, for those of you who don't know how. Ron will come up and help with a demonstration, and then we'll get started."

Ron walked up and stood next to Harry.

"Okay, Ron, back up and run towards me," Harry ordered.

Ron backed up, braced himself, and started running towards Harry.

"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled, pointing was wand at the approaching Ron.

Ron froze in mid-step. Only a few people gaped in awe at the spell, the rest having seen it in action previously.

"Go ahead and get into pairs and try it," Harry said. "I'll come around and help you if you're doing it wrong."

With Hermione, Kelly, and Marietta not present, there was an even amount of people, leaving Harry free to roam about the room and correct people. Harry's heart soared as he went about the area, tweaking people's form, reliving memories, repeatedly returning to Dennis Creevey. The use of Voldemort's name so many times in ten minutes seemed to have scared people, but it was being handled well, only slightly decreasing the efficiency in their casting. The common mistake was that people tried to make it complicated, adding swishes and jabs as they said it. Ginny, Dean's partner, caught her hair on fire when he added two swishes and a sharp jab at the end of his incantation. When Neville reminded Harry that they had to be in their common rooms by nine-thirty, and that it was nearing that time, Harry took the red whistle out of his pocket and blew hard.

"It's time we got going," Harry said. "That was really good, though we'll probably work on it some more next time." A thought suddenly came to the forefront of Harry's mind. "Oh, one more thing! Ron?"

Ron grabbed the box of galleons he had carried over and set it next to Harry.

"On your way out, grab these. They work the same as last time, they're just new ones. Remember not to spend them. So, er, I guess you can go."

They filed out, Harry using the Marauder's Map to let them out when it was safe. Diane was busy talking to Dumbledore in his office, and Filch and Mrs. Norris stayed on the second and fourth floors, only once Filch suddenly appearing on the seventh floor and delaying students from leaving.

"That was a great lesson," Ron commented. "Except when Seamus shocked me."

"He scared you?" Harry asked. "How?"

"No, not scared," Ron said, correcting Harry's impression. "Like with lightning. He said 'Impediment' and zapped me."

Harry grinned as they walked into the common room, which still had a few lingering students.

"Go on to bed?" Ron asked.

"You read my mind," Harry said. "Except… well… I've been thinking about this for a while, and I was wondering…. Ron, could you help me with something?"

"Sure," Ron said lightly, pausing at the foot of the stairs.

"I've been thinking… since I'll need to be practicing Occlumency in my spare time and all, just blocking out my head at night…. Well, I kinda want to give Legilimency a try."

Ron was speechless.

"What?" Harry asked hurriedly.

Ron opened and closed his mouth several times before getting out a scratchy, "Why?"

"Well, I'd just like to be able to. It seems like… well, I dunno, I'd just like to know how in case I ever needed to know it."

"When would you need to know it?" Ron asked doubtfully.

"Er…" Harry paused. "I dunno. I may not. I'd just like to know how to do it."

Ron was silent for a long moment, then shrugged. "If you want, Harry."

Harry could tell he wasn't enjoying the prospect as they walked up to their dorm where Seamus, Dean, and Neville were already in bed.

"Great lesson," Dean complimented as Harry and Ron changed into their pajamas. "I'm getting better at saying… Voldemort."

"Yeah, it was great," Seamus said. "Oh, sorry, Ron."

"It's all right," Ron said facetiously.

"I enjoyed it," Neville added as Harry and Ron pulled the blankets overtop of them.

"I'm delighted," Harry said with a slight lack of enthusiasm.

Neville smiled in the dark, and Ron tried to hide a snort at Harry's tone. Curtains were pulled as each boy attempted sleep. Harry slept several hours later, Neville's snoring a steady rhythm in the room. He had no idea how much he would long for these uneventful nights by the end of the year. He had no idea how few of these nights there would be.

A/N:

BUM BUM—WAIT!!!!! No "BUM BUM BUM"ing allowed. It'll become a habit, and it wasn't even that suspenseful at the end. So what a lovely D.A. lesson. The Legilimens thing was actually added in because later I realized that Harry uses it without any practice. 'Course, he does that with another spell too… but that's a special thing. So what I was going to say is that you don't really hear much of Harry and Ron practicing Legilimency, you just have to keep it in mind that they are.

Next chapter…. Hermione and Kelly are out of the Hospital Wing, and they put Ron in it. We've got a quick thing of Quidditch tryouts (not like the last one I did… -shivers-) and three new Chasers. Kirke and Sloper are there too, but… well, you'll see. I've never pictured them as the brightest bunch. And then… that's all. So it's not that exciting. Slightly comical, depending on what you find funny. We just have to get the Quidditch thing going on.

-cries- I saw the new Teen Titans preview. I mean, I knew Starfire was going to get married (I cheated and looked on a website), but now… I dunno. I mean, Star's my favorite character, and I want a S/R relationship going! But according to the comic book, she marries the blob (ROBIN, DO SOMETHING YOU IDIOT! YOU CAN'T LET HER MARRY THAT GREEN… THING!), and that's just wrong. And why was Blackfire there? Isn't she supposed to be in jail? OR MAYBE THIS IS BLACKFIRE'S REVENGE! … That's pretty harsh revenge, Black. Getting your sister betrothed to an ugly green blob. That's bad. Maybe the show will do something different from the comic…. –pause- Not likely. But Star's my fav… and I'm going to repeat myself, and you don't want to listen to that. Thankx for listening, if you did.

Review! Make me smile! Sympathize with me about Starfire's fate!

Thankx,

Riles