Sorry about the delay in updating. I am almost to the end of what I like to refer to as the "necessary extra info", basically it's the various beginning of the year stuff that you get in every book. Within the next two chapters I will be able to start moving the story along at a faster pace and concentrate more on my vision for the rest of Harry's time at Hogwarts. Yes, I already have an outline begun for my version of year 7 and am finally at a point where I can really start evolving my story the way I have invisioned it from the beginning.

I would like to thank my reviewers for their kind words. You flatter me too much. It's one thing for my family to tell me they think I write well, but to hear it from people I don't even know floors me every time. If my high school writing teacher could see me now, she would probably have a stroke. It's hard to believe that I barely passed that class. It must have been because I didn't really have anything that excited me enough to write about passionately.

Thank you, J. K. Rowling for writing a wonderful story and finding a way to share it with the rest of the world and especially here on 14 - The Defense Club

Harry woke up Tuesday quite refreshed, considering all of the information he had to take in yesterday. Still marveling at the support that his friends are willing to give him even with the knowledge of what he must eventually do. He laid in bed thinking about the situation his life had become, until he heard his dorm mates beginning to stir. Once Ron and Neville got up, Harry decided to get ready himself so they could all head down for breakfast together. The boys met up with Hermione and Ginny in the common room and as a group they headed out.

The mood in the great hall continued to be upbeat as everyone was looking forward to the classes they hadn't had yet. Ron and Neville were a little more excited than Harry due to the fact that today Harry got to deal with Snape for the first time this year while Ron and Neville were going to be working with Moody. After putting it off as long as possible, Harry and Hermione finally finished their breakfast and made their way down to the dungeons for Double Potions.

The two Gryffindors did a double-take upon their arrival at the class, uncertain if they were indeed in the right room. There were fewer students in this class than any class Harry had had in all five of his previous years at Hogwarts. They were the only Gryffindors in the class. They were joined Terry Boot and Padma Patil from Ravenclaw along with Blaise Zabini, Millicent Bulstrode, Pansy Parkinson, and Draco Malfoy from Slytherin. There was just one chair at each table, which indicated that there would be no working together this year. Harry and Hermione each chose a table near the back of the room in hopes of avoiding as much as possible the wrath of Professor Snape.

Professor Snape made his usual intimidating entrance as everyone was settling in. "Welcome to NEWT level Potions. Somehow you all have achieved good enough scores on your OWLS to continue with this course of study, meaning that you all should have a rudimentary understanding of the subtle art of potion brewing." He paused here for a moment to glare in Harry's direction before continuing with his trademark sneer, "You will find that this class moves along at a substantially quicker pace than the previous years. Some of you will probably not be able to keep up. I assure you that those who can not keep up will find themselves with a free period instead of continuing to waste my time. Each time we meet I will be giving you a list of ingredients and directions for brewing an unspecified potion. Once you've made the potion it will be your responsibility to figure out which potion we made and what its uses and effects are."

All through the professor's opening speech, Harry sat stonily silent and still. He was bound and determined not to give his least favorite teacher any reason to remove him from the class and ruin his chances to become an Auror. He was concentrating on reinforcing his occlumency walls to block his usual emotional responses to the digs that he had become accustomed to receiving from Snape. Soon the potion they were to be working on today was on the board and silence fell upon the classroom as the students began the process of brewing potions.

The class was half over before Snape began to move among the tables checking on the progress of his students. Harry, although he was concentrating on his own potion quite diligently, was keeping track of the progress of his teacher around the room. He was not about to allow this man to sneak up on him and push him to distraction. Before long, Harry could sense the close scrutinizing gaze of his greasy haired potions master over his shoulder.

"I don't know how you managed to achieve a score high enough to make it into this class, Potter," the professor hissed, "but rest assured that I will not hesitate to remove you if you can't keep up. You are so much like your father. He often found himself getting special treatment too, just because he was good on a broom." Professor Snape continued with his attack for several minutes. After finding himself frustrated by not seeming to be able to get under Harry's skin he moved on to try to terrorize another student.

The class continued on without any noticeable interruptions, and by the end Professor Snape was obviously perturbed about something. "If you have brewed your potions correctly, they should be ready for bottling by now. Prepare a flagon as a sample of your work and bring it up to me. Your homework is three feet of parchment on what potion you just brewed, its qualities, and its possible uses and side effects, due next class."

The students began to fill their sample flagons and bring them up to the front. Harry, having a bad feeling about the situation, decided to give his potion a little more protection. He quickly pulled out his wand and cast an unbreakable charm on the flagon before taking it up to hand in. Once he was headed back to his desk, his bad feeling was confirmed by a loud 'clunk' behind him. He turned around to see a startled professor looking at his unbroken potion sample rolling harmlessly on the floor.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I use very sturdy flagons for my potions," Harry commented as he retrieved his potion off of the floor. "Sometimes I'm not as careful as I should be. I must not have placed my potion securely on your desk, sir." Harry was doing his best to keep from smirking at Snape as he spoke. He was happy that he prevented his teacher from destroying his sample.

Snape's eyes narrowed as he replied, "Yes, that is a good thing, but ten points from Gryffindor for your clumsiness nonetheless, Mr. Potter."

Harry showed no emotion as he returned to his table to clean up his stuff in silence. He could tell that the rest of the class was staring at him amazed that he hadn't blown up at Snape, let alone shown any emotion at all. They had all heard the taunts the greasy git had directed at Harry earlier and saw him push the potion off of the edge of his desk. They were also pretty sure that Harry knew it wasn't his fault or an accident either.

Once they were outside the classroom, Hermione spoke up, "Harry, I'm impressed with your ability to control your temper. I can't believe how vindictive he's being toward you this year. Everyone in the class heard and saw what happened in there. If you were to go to Professor Dumbledore and complain, I'm sure everyone except the Slytherins would back you up."

"Hermione," Harry replied, "I appreciate your concern, but I won't give him the satisfaction of feeling like he got the better of me. This is something that's between him and me. I will let him be however he wants and let him figure out that he needs to grow up and stop hating me for something my father did." They walked in silence for a moment before he got a grin and continued, "Besides, you forget I have a pensive that I can store these memories in to collect and show to the headmaster later if the greasy git doesn't let up."

Hermione shook her head in amusement causing Harry to laugh as they entered the great hall for lunch. Ron and Neville, who were already seated at the table, looked up as they heard the laughter.

"What so funny, Harry?" Neville asked.

"Yeah," Ron added, "What happened? Did Snape make you guys take some kind of laughing potion or something?" Once they were all seated, Harry began to fill them in on what happened in potions and laughed at the astonished looks on their faces as well. No matter how much time they spent around Harry, they still found themselves speechless at some of the changes he had made over the summer.

Soon it was apparent that the news of what had happened in the dungeons was traveling quickly around the school, as students at the other tables began to look over at Harry and his friends. At every table, there were looks of astonishment as students realized that something about Harry had changed over the summer. They all knew that the old Harry would have virtually exploded in anger at the actions of Professor Snape. These reactions even carried up to the head table, where all but two people were showing looks of surprise at Harry's control. Professor Smith simply smiled while Professor Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling on overdrive.

After lunch, Hermione was off to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, while Harry, Ron, and Neville headed off to the Room of Requirements, which was where they were having all of their special classes except healing, to meet Professor Dumbledore. They arrived to find the room was arranged in two parts. One side of the room was similar to a library with a couple of chairs around a single desk with a book shelf against the wall. The other side of the room was a large open area to practice the spells they would be learning.

They were informed that they would be spending the first half of the class learning the theory behind the spells, and the second half practicing them. This was some of the most advanced magic they had been exposed too and it didn't surprise them that it was stuff they wouldn't normally cover in school. Dumbledore was teaching them spells taught at the Auror academy. Harry and Ron were quicker to pick up the spells than Neville due to the work that they had put in over the summer. What really surprised everyone was the fact that Neville didn't take nearly as long to get a spell as he used to. It was clear that it made a difference for him to finally have his own wand.

Before they knew it, it was time to return to the great hall for dinner, where Harry and his friends excitedly began to discuss what had gone on in the special classes. Harry asked Ginny to see if Luna would be available on Thursday night for a catch-up session with the rest of them, since she'd be seeing Luna at Astronomy class later that night.

After dinner, Harry and company went up to the common room to work on homework and relax. By this time, the 6th, 7th, 1st, and 4th year Gryffindor's had all had their first defense class and were pressing Harry for information about his extra class. The other years were also getting information about the defense group and soon the entire house was letting Harry know they would be interested in joining the group. Harry was starting to wonder if he was going to be getting the same response from the rest of the houses.

The rest of the week transpired much the same. Professors Sprout, McGonagall, and Flitwick all gave the same speech about this being the beginning of their most important years at Hogwarts as the amount of information they would be learning was going to be increasing beyond anything in years past. The healing class on Wednesday was quite informative and they all were able to successfully perform some basic healing charms for minor cuts and bruises.

Neville and Luna were excited about the opportunity to study with Harry on Thursday evening. Since they were expecting to learn to do physical things such as dueling, they were surprised to hear that they wouldn't need their wands for this lesson. At first they were taken aback to find that they would be focusing on the basics of meditation and mind organization, but when Harry told them it would make it easier for them to pick up the spells that Dumbledore was teaching they were willing to give it a go. By the end of the two-hour class both Neville and Luna had been able to relax enough to begin the process of organizing their memories. They agreed to continue the classes a couple of times a week.

By Friday night there was an expectant buzz around the castle, everyone was talking excitedly about Harry's class that night and Harry was starting to feel somewhat apprehensive. He had had another meeting with Professor Smith that morning about how they were going to keep the 'less than trustworthy' students out of the class. Harry was impressed with the professor's idea and thought it would work but he was still apprehensive just the same.

As dinner finished that night, the only people who rose to leave the hall were the teachers. All, that is, except for Professor Smith. As Professor Dumbledore got up to leave, he made an announcement. "As I'm sure you are all aware, the first meeting of the defense group is planned for this evening in this room. I believe that now would be as good a time as any to begin this session. As I said before, this group is under the direction of Mr. Harry Potter and his faculty advisor is Professor Smith. Any questions about this will be addressed by them. So without further ado, Mr. Potter, the floor is yours." And with that he bowed and made his way out of the hall.

All eyes in the room turned to Harry as he made his way to the front of the hall. Once there he surveyed the room for a moment while bringing his emotions under control. He had been nervous last year when he was only teaching a small group of people. Now the entire school had turned out to learn from him. As far as he could tell, every person from every house was here, even the children of the Death-Eaters. Harry took a quick look over at Professor Smith, who gave a kind smile and a nod to go ahead, then turned back to the assembled students and began.

"Welcome to the first meeting of the defense club. I am going to assume that you are all here to learn how to better defend yourselves in a real fight. Some of you might be a little skeptical about learning from me, and I don't blame you one bit. Some of you are probably wondering what I can teach you that your professors can't. The answer to that is: Nothing." Muttering broke out all over the hall, "Everything that you will learn from me is something that you could learn from the teachers here…IF, they were to decide to teach it to you."

Just then a drawling voice called out from the side of the room, "If you're going to teach us things that they could teach us, then why don't they just teach us?"

Harry gave a soft chuckle and shook his head, "Do you ever actually listen to what the teachers here say, Malfoy? I distinctly remember Professor Smith telling you that the teachers are bound by the rules of the school. If they teach something to one person in class, they have to teach it to every student in class. This group since it isn't a class and is not taught by a teacher doesn't apply to those rules. I don't have to teach something to someone if I don't want to."

"So," replied Malfoy, "What are you going to teach us then?"

Harry started to smile quite widely, "Well first of all, I very seriously doubt that I will be teaching you anything, Malfoy. I seriously doubt you will ever attend one of my meetings ever again."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Why is that?"

"I'm glad you asked. You see, last year this group was created so we could actually learn to defend ourselves, since the ministry didn't think we should. Now, the ministry feels that we should learn how to defend ourselves, and I agree. The question is, what are we trying to defend ourselves from?"

Harry looked around the hall expectantly. It wasn't long before a voice from the back said, "You-Know-Who."

Harry looked to where the voice came from, "Who?"

The voice, belonging to a young Hufflepuff, spoke again, "You-Know-Who."

"No, I don't know who. Who are you talking about?"

The Hufflepuff responded with a slight stutter, "Th-The D-Dark Lord."

"Who is this Dark Lord? I mean what-is-his's-name" Harry's pointed question was followed by complete silence. Harry looked around expectantly. When he got no response, he looked to his friends at the Gryffindor table, "Neville, who are we trying to defend ourselves from?"

Every face in the hall turned to look at Neville. Neville visibly swallowed and took a deep breath before responding in as strong a voice as he could muster, "VOLDEMORT!"

There was a collective gasp from the students assembled in the hall. Many people gasped just because he said the name, while many more because it was Neville, who was never known to be very brave at all let alone brave enough to say his name. Harry smiled one of the biggest smiles he had ever smiled before. "Exactly! Ron, who are we fighting against?"

"V-V-VOLDEMORT!"

"Yes! Hermione?"

"VOLDEMORT!"

"Ginny?"

"We're fighting against VOLDEMORT, Harry!"

"That's right! We are fighting against VOLDEMORT! A very wise person once told me, 'Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself.' In this group, we WILL refer to him BY NAME. No more of this He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named nonsense. He MUST-BE-NAMED if we plan on actually being able to fight against him, and believe me when I say that I do plan to fight against him. Voldemort has been trying to kill me since I was only a year old and has taken just about everything I care about away from me. I have had enough, and I am going to do whatever I can to make sure he loses."

"Now, that brings me back to your question, Malfoy. You see, I'm pretty sure that you would rather fight on his side than against him, and I refuse to teach someone who will be using the knowledge I give them to fight against me."

Malfoy responded, "So just because you don't like me and my family, you think I want to follow him?"

"Are you saying that you don't want to follow Voldemort?" Harry waited patiently for an answer while the hall remained silent again. "Because, all you have to do to be in this group is prove that you will not use the training I provide to fight against me."

"And how, exactly, would I prove that I would not fight against you?"

Harry looked to Professor Smith with a knowing smile, "Professor, would you be kind enough to explain?"

Professor Smith rose and held up a piece of parchment, "Everyone who wants to be a part of this group has to sign a Wizard's Oath." There were more gasps in the hall, "Yes, a Wizard's Oath, a binding magical contract. If you sign this Oath, then you can be in the group, however it is very important to remember if you break the Oath, you will loose your magic."

Professor Smith turned to Harry, who picked up where the professor left off. "I am taking this war very seriously. This Wizard's Oath states that you will agree not to fight on Voldemort's side. You don't necessarily have to fight against him but you can NOT join him. You don't have to decide right now. You may take a parchment with you to think about it and get back to me later, after you've had a chance to think about this. So long as you have signed a copy of the Oath, I will gladly teach you no matter what house you are in, or what year you are. If you refuse to sign, then you should expect to look elsewhere for your real life lessons."

Harry and Professor Smith then each took a parchment and signed it in front of everyone. Once they signed, the parchments glowed with a bright white light for a moment before placing themselves in a nearby file box. Harry then looked back to the assembled students and motioned for them to retrieve a parchment for themselves. Neville, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Luna immediately came forward and signed their own copies of the parchment. They were quickly followed by the most of the returning members of the DA from last year along with a few other students. Malfoy and his goons were quick to storm out of the hall followed by many of the rest of the older Slytherins. The younger years were somewhat worried about doing this. They wanted to learn to protect themselves but weren't sure if they were ready to sign an Oath to learn it.

Many students came up to get a parchment only to say that they wanted to think about it before signing and would give their answer at a later date. Soon the only people left in the hall, were the ones who had signed and a small group of ten Slytherins who were all eyeing each other warily. Finally, Blaise Zabini made his way over to Harry slowly never taking his eyes off of him as if he were sizing him up.

"Potter, were you serious about teaching us no matter what house were in?"

"Yes. If you are against Voldemort, even if you're not with us, I have no problem teaching you. I assume you're worried that I will hold your house against you?" Seeing Blaise's nod, Harry continued, "Mr. Zabini, there are more important things in this world than hating somebody because of their house. If I were to do that, I would be no better than Voldemort. I don't believe that there is anybody in this school that only possesses the qualities of one house. Hermione, for instance, is very intelligent and would probably have fit in Ravenclaw as well as Gryffindor. Ron's loyalty could rival that of any Hufflepuff. Luna showed an incredible amount of Gryffindor bravery when she accompanied me to the Ministry of Magic last June. Ginny and her twin brothers show a cunningness that would rival many Slytherins in the pranks they like to pull on others. You are showing a great deal of courage yourself in simply being here and talking to me about this right now. I hold nothing against the house of Slytherin at all, only against some of the members of that house. If you are interested in joining, sign the Oath and you are in. Like I said, you don't have to decide now. Feel free to take some time to think about it. I will hold no ill will toward you whatsoever if you decide not to. You have never done anything to me and I don't get the impression that you are going to start now."

"You're right, about our house. Not everyone in Slytherin is a Death-Eater wannabe, or even agrees with what V-V-Voldemort does, but it is very dangerous for us to show that just the same. If we were to join, could our being part of it be kept a secret so we wouldn't have to live in fear in our own house?"

"Yes. I won't tell you any more until you sign, though I can assure you that your participation in the group will be kept in the strictest confidence."

Blaise stood there contemplating for a moment before he took a parchment and a quill and signed. Once he finished, he motioned for the rest of the Slytherins to follow his lead, and much to the surprise of everyone present, they all did. The group consisted of mostly younger years with Blaise and Millicent Bulstrode being the only sixth years. There was one fifth year named Daphne Greengrass and the rest of the group consisted of first, second, and third years that had not had the chance to be corrupted by Malfoy yet.

Harry looked over the group of almost seventy students with interest. The members of the DA and Gryffindor house were no surprise, but the number of other students, especially the Slytherins, was. "All right then," he started, "Welcome, to the new defense club. The first thing I think I need to do is to finish answering Mr. Zabini's question. Last year, our club met in a room called the Room of Requirements. It was hidden well but isn't much of a secret anymore. In order to keep the contents of our meetings a secret this year, it was decided that we move to a new location which is even more secret. We have been allowed to use a rather old and out-of-use area of the castle that at this point is known only to me."

There was an outburst of muttering and confused looks which was interrupted by a question from Millicent Bulstrode. "If it's in the castle, how can you be the only person who knows about it?"

Harry smiled and continued, "A very good question, Miss Bulstrode, for which I have a very good answer. The corridor in question is under the Fidelius Charm, and I am the only one who knows about it because I am the secret keeper."

"You can cast a Fidelius?" Asked a very disbelieving Blaise.

"No, I can't, but Professor Dumbledore can. He cast it for me and made me the secret keeper." Harry replied to the question quickly and returned to his explanation. "Over the course of the next week, I will personally show each of you where it is so you will all know, and since I am the secret keeper we know that the only people who will be in that area of the castle will be people who have earned my trust."

Blaise still wasn't sure, "Don't you think it will be a little suspicious if any of us are seen wandering about the castle with you? I know for a fact that if any of us from Slytherin are seen with you we'll be found out for sure."

"First of all," Harry countered quickly, "no one will be seen wandering about the castle since the entrance to the corridor in question is located in the library. Secondly, no one will see me anywhere around you."

Blaise snorted in confusion, "How are you planning to show us this secret corridor without being seen with us?"

"I have my ways," Harry said mysteriously then continued. "Now, since we have students from every year in this group we're going to have separate meetings. The first through third years will meet on Monday nights and the rest of the years will meet on Friday nights. If I feel that any of the younger years are advanced enough to join the older years then I will let them know."

"This weekend, except during mealtimes and the Gryffindor quidditch tryouts, I will be spending all of my time in the library. Whenever I see one of you in the library, and am sure that it is safe, I will be letting you know where the secret corridor is and how to find it. I suggest that you do your best to make sure that you visit the library sometime this weekend."

Millicent was confused now, "Won't it still be a little obvious, I mean it would be natural for Granger to be spending that much time in the library, but not you. I don't think anyone has ever seen you spend any substantial amount of time in the library."

Harry continued to smile, "Yes, I suppose it would be somewhat obvious that something was not right if I were to be seen spending all of my spare time in the library. That is why I won't be seen. Yes, I will be there, but people will think I am simply in my common room. The Gryffindors won't say otherwise, so the only people who are going to know I am in the library are the people in this room. And before you ask again, I have my ways of not being seen. Now, I think it's time to let everyone be on their way or it will be quite obvious who is part of the group. I'll see you all sometime this weekend."