Chapter 22 – A New Class

The rest of the week had gone by without any more incidents between the Slytherins and Gryffindors. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Professor Dumbledore had told them that he would suspend the next two members of Gryffindor and Slytherin that had a fight, or maybe it was because none of the students in the school could quite believe that Neville Longbottom had actually not only lost control of himself, but that he had actually physically beaten up Draco Malfoy. Darren had been stunned after the fight, but he knew why Neville had reacted the way he did. Two years before he had seen Malfoy make a similar gesture towards Neville and it had solicited the same reaction. Only that time Ron and Harry had stopped Neville before he got to Malfoy, and also Darren had no idea why such a gesture would make Neville fly off the handle like that. He did remember wanting Ron and Harry to let Neville go then, but now he wished they hadn't. Neville had spent the last week in detention with Professor Snape, and would spend the next week there as well. He had also lost his Hogsmeade privileges for the next two months, and Darren had no idea how he would be able to do what Lord Voldemort had ordered him to do when he could not get Neville alone.

He also had on his mind the fact that he had completely ignored Cho since returning to Hogwarts after the Christmas holiday. He would probably see her the next weekend in Hogsmeade, and he knew what he had to do, even though he did not want to do it. Cho had to stay away from him and there was no denying that fact. He did not want it, but it had to be done. Her safety was too important to him to drag her into the middle of his problems so he had to break her heart, and soon too.

As Darren walked back to the dormitory in Gryffindor Tower one afternoon, he was stopped by Harry.

"Hey Darren," Harry had said in greeting.

"Hey Harry, what's up?"

"Not much. Look, I want to talk to you for a minute, okay?"

"Okay, no problem," Darren answered. "What about?" He had thought it would be about Neville, but he was surprised to find out that it was something he had not expected.

"Well, I was wondering if you would like to come to a meeting tonight with some of the other students?"

"A meeting? What kind of meeting?"

"Well, it is a group of us that get together to work on Defense Against the Dark Arts. We meet every so often and try to use the defensive spells we are taught in class in a practical manner."

Darren had never heard of this group before. All the other clubs or study groups were common knowledge. "Who teaches this group? Professor Lupin I guess?"

"No, I do."

"You do?" Darren exclaimed. He had always known Harry was the best student in their year at Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he had never seen Harry as a teacher.

"Well, I wouldn't call it teaching exactly. It is more like we get together to practice and work with each other. Neville comes, and Cho too. I'm surprised none of them had invited you before."

"Well, maybe they thought I knew and didn't want to come, or something."

"Maybe. Anyway, we will be meeting in the Room of Requirement in the seventh floor corridor at seven tonight. Do you know where that room is?"

"Yeah, I do. I've been there before once or twice."

A smile slipped out from Harry and he told Darren to bring his wand and that would be all the supplies he would need, unless he wanted to write notes, but it was not required.

"Yeah, I'll see you then Harry."

"Good. We will be working on the Patronus Charm. We did it some last year. But we didn't have enough time for everyone to get good enough at it. See you there at seven Darren."

"See you too Harry," he said to Harry as he walked away.

Darren looked at his watch. Five o'clock, and almost dinner time. At least he didn't have a lot of homework tonight. Professor McGonagall had been lenient that week for some reason. Snape had buried them as usual with essays, but he had been able to finish the last one that afternoon before meeting Harry. He was able to get to dinner and do some reading for Charms class before meeting the rest of the students at seven.

At fifteen minutes to seven Darren was in the seventh floor corridor thinking of the room when the door appeared. Just as he put his hand on the knob, Cho came around the corner. She just looked at him as eh held the door open and followed her inside. She just went in and sat down on a pillow and ignored him. He couldn't blame her really. He had not spoken to her since they had gotten back to school, and he knew that she was mad at him.

As he sat and waited, he was amazed to see what the room looked like that night. It was filled with everything needed to study Defense Against the Dark Arts. The walls were lined with bookcases filled with defensive spell books and the floor had a generous pile of pillows that Darren guessed were used as cushions when practicing stunning and other such spells. He walked around the room for a few minutes, not noticing that Harry, Ron and Hermione were watching him from the opposite side of the room.

"The books are very interesting, aren't they?" he heard Hermione ask.

"What?" he replied.

"The books. They are very interesting; and helpful as well. The room will even let you take one with you if you want," she said to him.

"Really? I thought they would stay here until the next time you come back."

"Well, Harry has made it a habit of asking the room for books that can be removed, and it works, so we can take them when we want."

Darren just nodded at the information and stored it away for future reference. For a few more minutes he flipped through a huge book titled Curses for the Cursed until more students came in. He was surprised to see so many from other houses. For some reason he had imagined that only Gryffindors would be there, but he did notice that none of the members of Slytherin came.

However, he did notice that Cho was there. She saw him and looked averted her eyes and feigned interest in a large yellow pillow. He wanted to go over and talk to her, but Harry started talking to the group.

"Okay everyone, please take a seat." The students sat down and became quiet. Darren noticed what seemed to be respect towards Harry from the others and he was impressed. Most of the time the teachers, other than Snape, had to tell their classes to be quiet more than once, but Harry got them to quiet down immediately.

"Okay, tonight we will be doing some more work on the Patronus Charm. We went over it last year, and some this year, but we need to do more work on it."

"Why?" a blonde haired boy in Hufflepuff colors asked. Darren didn't know him except from seeing him around school, but he immediately disliked him.

"Because Harry says so, that's why Zacharias," Ron said threateningly. At least he wasn't the only one that seemed to dislike the boy Darren thought to himself.

"Anyway," Harry continued, "we need to get to work. Lets all split up into pairs and get to work."

The students started to gather in what Darren interpreted to be their usual pairings but he did not have a partner. He had figured that he would see Neville there, but Neville was in detention again that night with Snape, no doubt skinning boiled toads or something even worse. Cho was also alone and without a partner. He tried not to make eye contact with her, but Hermione came up behind him and suggested eh work with her.

"Well, I would, but, err, we, umm…"he stammered.

"Oh come on Darren, we all know you two have barely looked at each other since before Christmas, and she needs a partner. Neville works with her usually because her friend she used to partner with doesn't come anymore."

Darren just looked at Hermione with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing in response.

"It will be good for you both, and maybe you two can work out your problem."

With that she pushed Darren towards Cho, who was still acting as if she did not see him until he was right in front of her. When she looked up, he thought he could see a hint of a tear in her eye but she wiped her nose to cover it up.

"Hey Darren."

"Hi Cho."

"So, Neville isn't here then?" she asked.

"No, and Hermione seems to think that we should work together tonight."

"Well, okay, but only because I don't have someone else to work with," she said coldly.

Before he could respond, Harry got everyone's attention once more. He started telling them the proper way to perform the spell and gave them an example. He made the proper incantation and a huge silver stag erupted from the end of his wand. It glowed brightly and cantered around the room and came up to Darren as if to question why he was there but then vanished into the air. Darren could not help but be impressed by Harry's obvious ability to cast such a complicated spell and he was anxious to get to the point where he could do it just as well. He had been given the basics by his father a while back, and he had never understood why his father had felt it important to try to teach him at such a young age, but ever since the Dementors had left Azkaban, he had understood. His father had known what could happen, and was trying to prepare his son for the worst. Unfortunately, he had never expected his own father to turn on him and betray his son and his son's family to Voldemort and his followers.

"Darren?" He could feel a tug at his sleeve that pulled him from his thoughts. "Let's get going Darren," he heard Cho tell him. "What's with you all the time Darren? You are always daydreaming. You seem to always be somewhere else."

"Sorry Cho."

"Well, be sorry later. Let's work on this spell, okay?"

"Okay, you first then," he told her.

She rolled her eyes and sighed, but stepped back and pulled her wand out and looked straight into his eyes. "Expecto Patronum!" she said loudly and Darren saw a swan burst out of the end of her wand and start to fly around the room. He looked around at the rest of the class and saw a large hairy thing that looked like a gorilla running around Seamus and beating its chest, and an otter next to Hermione. Ron had a lion next to him that was lying at his feet and watching Dean's owl that was flying around the room with Cho's swan. After a minute or so, they all dissipated into the air just like Harry's had.

He must have had a questioning look on his face because Cho said "They disappear after a little while if there is no threat to the person that casts them."

"Oh, well, that makes sense," he said as he prepared to try to cast the spell.

"Now remember, think of something that is a happy thought and keep that memory in your mind as you do the incantation. It has to be a strong memory or the spell wont work."

Darren pulled the memory of the first time he had been allowed to do magic at home and cast the spell. However, only a small wisp of silvery smoke came from his wand. Cho raised and eyebrow at his failure, but tried encouraged him to try again. The next time, he thought of the day he had learned his sister was born, but again he failed.

"Look Darren, try to think of the thing that makes you happy. Really happy."

Darren took a moment to think of something that might work and came up with the day he had first found out that he was a wizard. His father had sat down with him and explained to Darren why at the age of six he could do so many things that seemed so unnatural to Darren even at that age. His father had then made himself apparate to the other side of the room to show Darren that he too was a wizard and that someday he would be able to do the same things. A small smile crossed Darren's face as he made the incantation again but again only a wisp of silvery smoke came out of his wand.

Frustration was setting in but he did not want to let the others se it. Several of the students around him had successfully cast the spell, even that blonde haired Hufflepuff had a small rodent looking creature running around his feet, but Darren couldn't do it. Every time he thought of something that made him happy, the thought of his mother and sister popped into his mind and drove the happy thought away, at least enough to make him not be able to conjure a Patronus.

"Darren, its okay," he heard Cho telling him.

"What's okay?"

"Well, none of us, not even Hermione, could do it on the first try."

What she didn't know was that his father had taken the time to try to teach him the spell, but he had never mastered it. At that age all Darren had wanted to do on his summer holiday was relax and have fun, not do magic that required actual work. Only now did he realize that his father had been trying to prepare his son for what the future could hold. He had known then that there were things that were dangerous, and he had wanted his family to be able to protect itself, and Darren could not get the thought that if he had paid attention more he might been able to save his father that day at Mortice Manor.

"Yeah, well I don't care about whether Hermione could or couldn't do it, just that I can't do it."

Cho raised an eyebrow at his frustration but said nothing. Instead she asked him to watch her and then try again. She cast the spell one more and the swan appeared and flew around the room again before disappearing. However he didn't feel like trying anymore. He just wanted to go back to the dormitory. Before he could tell her this, Harry called for everyone's attention and told them he would let them know soon when the next meeting would be and as Darren was leaving Cho stopped him.

"Darren, I want to ask you something."

He pursed his lips before answering her. "Okay, go ahead."

"Why did you ignore me that day at King's Cross and why have you avoided me ever since we got back?"

"Cho, I haven't been…"

"Yes you have Darren," she interrupted. "You won't even look at me when we pass in the halls anymore and I want to know why."

"Look, I have to get back to the dormitory."

"Fine," she said angrily. "I'll tell you what then. I'll be outside Madam Puddifoot's on Saturday at two. If you are man enough to talk then, be there. If not, you know what you can do."

And then she turned her back and stormed out the door and down the corridor without looking back.