DISCLAIMER: Yatta, yatta, yatta, you know the drill. Don't own Harry Potter, don't own JKR's series, don't own the Harry Potter movies—wait, I own the disks! Ha! Take that, millionaires!

A/N: Hellooo! Over 4,500 hits! This story is growing so very fast right before my wide, happy eyes. Thanks, guys! Reviews are always welcome, but they are not obligatory. However, enjoying this chapter is!

Also, I sincerely apologize for the somewhat late update (at least, for me). Things have been really crazy recently (do I really need to elaborate?) and I haven't had as much time to write as I normally do. I know this chapter is a bit on the short side, so, again, I'm sorry. It will not take this long to update again (hopefully).

OoOoO

"Right, then. Dumbledore's Army, bane of Umbridge!"

Cass was surprised that so many people liked the name she picked. Bello flashed her a toothy smile from the mat he was sitting on. Cass shrugged back, looking at the older students.

"So, now that that's all taken care of, we can begin," Harry said to the gathered members. "I reckon we should split into pairs of two—uh, first-years you can have a group of three," Harry directed, noticing the uneven number of first-years. That was nice of him, making sure we weren't forced to pair up with the older students. "Right, so I was thinking the first spell we should practice is Expelliarmus, the Disarming Charm. It's basic, I know, but I've found it quite useful—"

"Expelliarmus? You're joking," a fifth—maybe sixth—year was saying as he rolled his eyes. Cass and Rose exchanged shocked and confused looks—this boy came here on his own accord, why was he scoffing at the person that was teaching them? With pursed lips, Cass recognized him as the boy from earlier, the one who had questioned the first-years being here. "I doubt a simple Disarming Charm is going to help us fight You-Know-Who," he continued pompously.

"I've fought with it against him," Harry said in a low voice. "This simple Disarming Charm saved my life last June."

Cass's eyes pricked uncomfortably as a flash of red and a net of gold splashed dizzily behind them. She blinked several times, clearing whatever it was—she assumed it was spellfire from Harry and Voldemort's fight. The vibrant lights fled from her head as Harry said,

"...think it's beneath you, you can leave."

The boy didn't move. Next to Cass, Brooke gave a loud snort—at least, it sounded loud in the silence. Cass shot her an incredulous look from under her eyelashes. She saw Sarah nudge Brooke with her elbow reproachfully.

"Okay," Harry said. "We should pair up, now. I don't want to run out of time—curfew is at nine." Cass had a feeling he was only saying that for the first-years' sake. The older students probably already knew the curfew (Cass did, too, but she was pretty sure Brooke had no idea).

The room was a flurry as everybody got up and paired with their friends. Rose volunteered to be in the group of three and Brooke and Bello joined her. Cass took her wand from her robes and walked with Sarah a little way away from where Rose, Brooke, and Bello were standing.

"Do you know how to cast a Disarming Charm?" Cass asked Sarah, hoping the witch might have been taught by a family member or something.

"Nope," she replied, shrugging.

Luckily, Harry was making his way over to the first-years, gesturing to a fifth-year boy that he would be back. "Okay, I know you guys don't know Expelliarmus. You shouldn't—I learned it in second-year," he said to the first-years. "But have you gone over the Knockback Jinx?"

"Only the theory," Cass said sourly.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, well, Umbridge's 'theoretical lesson plans for exemplary performance'—"

"You forgot pointless," Brooke interrupted.

Harry chuckled, "Right, Umbridge's horrible method of teaching is exactly why this club exists. Anyway, the Knockback Jinx is like the Disarming Charm—at least, the results are similar. What Expelliarmus does is disarm your opponent. For some, it just pushes their opponent back a bit. It's meant to dislodge the enemy's wand from their hand—powerful ones can do both of those things." He paused, checking if they were listening; they were. He went on to demonstrate the wand movement and incantation, making them repeat it until they got it right.

"Okay, I'm going to go help my friend practice, so you guys work on it with each other," Harry announced, walking away.

Cass and Sarah faced each other, both looking nervous. Thanks to Umbridge, Cass had never really used any offensive spells and didn't want anything to go wrong. She could tell Sarah felt the same way, but the Slytherin looked determined. "Do you want to go first?" Cass asked.

Sarah nodded. "Sure." She took a deep breath and Cass gripped her wand tighter—tight enough to turn her knuckles white. Don't let go, she told herself. "Expelliarmus!" Sarah cried.

The hairs on Cass's arm stood on end and she felt a slight pull on her wand arm, but her wand didn't fly from her grasp. Sarah looked distinctly disappointed in her spell.

"It's okay, most likely no one has ever done it on their first try," Cass said. "Besides, even some of the older students aren't getting it right." A nearby seventh year narrowed her eyes at Cass and she quickly looked away. "My turn!" she said excitedly.

Cass lifted her wand and breathed deeply, trying to find the part of her mind that twitched when she had a vision. Cass grasped it, let it fill her, and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

Sarah's hair flew back from her face, as if a fierce wind had gripped it. Cass felt a warmth in the tips of her fingers. Whoa.

"Great job!" Sarah encouraged as her hair (now a bit windblown) fell back down to her shoulders. "EXPELLIARMUS!" she cried suddenly.

Cass's feet disappeared beneath her and the room spun dizzily as she flew through the air. I need a mat! she thought desperately, envisioning a blue cushion.

Cass landed on the mat with a thud and a huff. The wind was knocked out of her, so she took a shaky breath. Then she exclaimed, "That was wicked!"

Sarah came running over to Cass, a look of guilt on her face. She offered her hand to her, saying, "Are you alright? I didn't expect that to happen."

Cass nodded her head and took Sarah's outstretched hand. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought of needing a cushion and the Room just kinda…did the rest. SARAH, YOU DID IT! GOOD JOB!" she exclaimed, beaming at her friend.

"Nope, I didn't," the Slytherin replied, gesturing at the silver wand still gripped in Cass's hand.

Harry had started going around the room, correcting people, and he was walking over to them now.

"Great job, that was a really good start," Harry commended. "Can I see what you did—er, without the incantation?" Sarah did the wand movement for Harry.

"Okay, that's really close, but try to flick your wrist a little more sharply and bring it into a smaller loop after that," he instructed, demonstrating.

Cass and Sarah copied him—Cass did it even though he had been correcting Sarah, not her. She thought it was good practice.

"Good job, guys," said Harry. He then walked away to go help Brooke, Bello, and Rose.

As soon as Harry left, Cass decided to take a page out of Sarah's book and surprise the Slytherin. She shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and used the corrected wand movement Harry had shown them.

Sarah's wand arm gave a sharp tug, and her wand almost slipped from her fingers. However, she held on to it tightly as she fell to the ground in a huff.

"You alright?" Cass called, slightly pleased that she had very nearly done the spell correctly.

"Yep! That seemed a lot better; Harry's technique is working," Sarah replied as she picked herself up and brushed her robes off. "Expelliarmus!" she cried, a look of intense concentration on her face.

Cass was shoved backwards, sliding on the floor almost as if she were ice-skating before loosing her balance and falling over backwards. She landed on her bum hard, but she picked herself back up and prepared to cast the Disarming Charm again.

And so the time passed in a flurry of flying hair and jerking arms. Cass noticed all of the first-years were having trouble casting Expelliarmus, and she blamed Umbridge (even though this was a second-year spell). Cass felt her frustration growing until, finally, it happened.

"Expelliarmus!" Cass yelled at Sarah, pushing everything she could into it. Sarah's wand flew from her hand into the air and hit the ceiling, a shower of green sparks shooting from its tip. Sarah herself was pushed backwards and landed on her bottom, hard.

Cass just stared for a second, taking in the fact that she had done it! A bright smile flashed across her face before she realized Sarah was still on the ground, an almost cartoon-ish look of shock on her face.

"Oh, sorry, Sarah!" Cass exclaimed, running over to help her up. Cass grinned. "I had to get you back for earlier," she said, referring to the surprise attack Sarah had performed just moments ago.

Sarah grinned back. "You did it!" she told Cass excitedly. Then her brown eyes hardened. "Don't ever do that again," she said with complete seriousness.

Cass snorted, "Uh huh. Don't try to cover it up—you would have done the same."

"Well, my turn to take your wand from you," said Sarah as she picked her wand up from the ground.

The rest of the session passed in a slightly painful exchange of spells between Cass and Sarah. The Slytherin hadn't managed to cast the spell correctly until her fourth try after Cass's first successful one, however she made up for it by constantly knocking Cass back. Cass tried to catch Sarah's wand when it flew from her hands, like how some of the older students were doing.

Harry had continued to walk around and give corrections. Although the first-years had mostly been able to perform Expelliarmus (though it took a lot of practicing, since they had never performed any defensive spells before), Harry said that some of the other spells Dumbledore's Army would be reviewing would be much more difficult, so he promised to help them with first-year jinxes next meeting.

Towards the end of the meeting, Hermione suddenly exclaimed, "Harry, have you checked your watch?"

Across the room, Cass saw Harry glance at his watch, surprise flickering across his face. She peered at her own, simple watch; it was almost ten past nine—past curfew for first-years. Way past curfew.

A shrill whistle blew across the room. Everyone stopped shouting, "Expelliarmus!" and a few wands dropped to the floor, then the students turned their attention to Harry.

"Well, everyone did pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better head to our dormitories. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" a Gryffindor boy eagerly called out. Cass nodded her head in agreement, and the other first-years were doing the same.

Another Gryffindor objected, saying that Quidditch teams need practices, too.

"Yeah, and the first-years need time for Galloping Gargoyles Club!" Brooke shouted.

Cass gave her an exasperated look from under her eyebrows. "We don't have a Galloping Gargoyles Club," she said dryly.

Brooke shrugged, "I know, I just wanted to be included." Next to her, Sarah was rolling her eyes.

"Let's meet next Wednesday night, then," said Harry diplomatically, "and decide the next meetings there…Come on, we'd better get going…I can already hear the hem, hem if Umbridge catches us…"

Harry withdrew a blank parchment from his robes. Cass gazed at it with curiosity, wondering what it was. Did it teleport people to their dormitories? Did it turn people invisible so they could sneak around?

Harry muttered something at the parchment, and Cass saw it fill up with ink. He didn't offer any explanation, just told everyone to leave in groups of threes and fours. She watched him look at the parchment after the students filed out, telling other students when to go.

Sarah, Rose, and Bello were among the first to leave. Cass and Brooke waved goodbye to them, Cass saying, "Be careful! Don't get caught!"

Most of the Gryffindors waited for the other Houses to leave, as the entrance to their common room was on the seventh floor. While they waited, she and Brooke practiced the Disarming Charm as quietly as they could.

Brooke's wand clattered to the ground as Harry said, "Okay, Cass, Neville, and…Brooke, right?" Brooke nodded. "You guys go together."

Cass picked Brooke's wand up for her and handed it to her. The two first-years walked over to Neville, a fifth-year boy in Gryffindor. Cass stuck out her hand, "Hi, I'm Cass McGarther."

"Neville Longbottom," Neville replied, shaking Cass's hand with a small smile. She recognized the boy as the one Harry had been working with.

Brooke coughed, but Cass, who had heard the girl trying to cover a laugh many times before, saw through it. She shot Brooke a warning look that said, 'Don't even think about making fun of his name.'

Fortunately, Neville didn't notice. "And I'm Brooke Miller," the blond-headed girl introduced herself.

The three left the Room of Requirement. About halfway there, Cass noticed Neville looking at her weirdly. When she asked him about it, he said, "Oh, sorry, it's just…you really do look like Harry."

Cass resisted the urge to sigh. "I know, people say that a lot."

"I'm not just talking about your eyes or your hair…I mean the way you hold yourself. Proudly, but not boastfully…I don't know. I sound stupid, sorry."

Cass thought about what he said with a slight frown. No one had ever put it like that…

They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady. She seemed to look down at the three Gryffindors disapprovingly. "You know, you guys are the third group to come back after curfew…what is going on?" she asked with suspicion.

"Er…" said Neville nervously.

"Nothing. We—" Cass gestured to Brooke and herself, "—got lost a while ago. Hogwarts is so big. But Neville found us, I think he was giving something to the prefects…" Cass lied with an innocent face.

The Fat Lady raised a skeptical eyebrow but let them pass after Brooke gave her the password.

Once inside the common room, Brooke burst out laughing. "Cass, that was brilliant!" she exclaimed.

"No, it wasn't. I can't believe we got lost," Cass said through gritted teeth, giving a significant look to the people who hadn't gone to the meeting—even though she doubted her housemates would tell on them.

"Uh, right. Thanks, Naval!"

Neville blushed. "It's Neville, Brooke," said Cass wearily, giving the older boy an apologetic look.

"Oh, sorry…"

Back inside the warm tower, Cass finally realized how tired she was. It was probably from all the Disarming Charms she cast, and she dragged her feet up the stairs to her dormitory.

After getting ready for bed and saying a weary, "Hey, Pauline," (to no response), Cass melted into her blankets and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

OoOoO

In History of Magic on Friday, Cass gave a soft, "Psst!" to Cyrene, who sat right next to her in the front. Professor Binns didn't falter in his monotone speech, and the Ravenclaw turned to Cass curiously.

"Okay, can I talk to you after class? It's important," Cass said, not really caring if anyone heard since History was always filled with a low hum of chatter; almost no one ever paid attention to Binns. After going to her first meeting of D.A., she had decided to include Cyrene in it. Cass figured it was something the girl would like, and all the first-years (really every student in the school, thanks to Umbridge) needed help with Defense.

Cyrene looked at Cass interestedly before nodding her head. Both girls returned their attention to the lesson, a difficult task when Brooke was playing with cards that exploded on Cass's right.

After class ended, she quietly explained to Cyrene about the D.A. with Brooke adding something here or there. Cass hoped that the Ravenclaw's love for new, odd things would outweigh her fear of getting caught. To her happiness, Cass's wish came true.

"This is a good idea; it'll be cool to see more advanced spells—or really be able to practice any defensive spells," Cyrene said thoughtfully. "But I reserve the right to deny having any connection to this club at all if we get caught," she said seriously.

"Of course—I'll be doing the same if Umbridge finds out. No way I'm losing magic when I've just discovered it," Cass agreed quickly. "But…I think this is bigger than getting expelled or passing our exams. I-I want to—I need to be able to defend myself."

Cyrene surprised Cass by saying, "I know what you mean. I—my family and I believe Harry Potter, not the rubbish the Daily Prophet is shoving down our throats."

"Hear, hear," Cass muttered as the three first-years headed off to their break period.

OoOoO

During the weekend, Cass and Cyrene decided to do their Charms homework together, and sometime while they were completing it, Sarah joined them.

"So, Sarah, may I introduce Cyrene, new addition to the D.A.—er, our study-in-the-library-club!" Cass said quietly.

Sarah raised her eyebrows at the codename (which wasn't very creative on Cass's part) but smiled at Cyrene. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sarah," the Slytherin introduced.

The Ravenclaw smiled back at Sarah. The three first-years continued their work in silence for a while, quills scratching on parchment being the only sound in their quiet area of the library.

Suddenly, Cyrene said, "Guys, look at this." Cass and Sarah stopped writing at peered at the thick volume Cyrene was showing them.

"Out of all subjects, Charms is, perhaps, the moste compatible with wandless magick- that is, of course, excluding the arte of Potions, which rarely requires any wand movement. It is common for one to be more adept with this type of magick than with any other area," Sarah read in a whisper.

"I think I've heard of wandless magic. Isn't it really advanced, though?" Cass asked.

"Yeah, my mum says it takes a lot of power—or a lot of practice—to be able to do it," Sarah replied, looking at Cyrene with curiosity.

The golden-haired girl was smiling softly to herself. "This sounds really interesting. I'm going to ask Professor Flitwick about it on Monday."

"Good idea," said Cass, giving one last glance at the big book before going back to her homework.

OoOoO

"Professor? I was researching in the library and came across wandless magic. Could you please explain it to us?" Cass heard Cyrene ask the small Charms teacher on Monday. She looked up, as eager as the Ravenclaw to learn about wandless magic. Next to her, Brooke scoffed at their enthusiasm.

Professor Flitwick looked absolutely giddy that a student had asked about this. "Well, certainly, Miss Lyonslatter," he said jovially. Both Cass and Cyrene hurriedly picked up their quills, preparing themselves to write everything down. Professor Flitwick continued, "Wandless magic is a very difficult thing to perform. A wand, as I've said many times before, acts as a channeler. It does all of the reaching for magic for you; all you have to do is provide the power. Therefore, without a wand, the channel to your magic is closed off—meaning it is harder to access."

He paused, letting Cass and Cyrene write that down. Behind her, Cass could hear a couple other students doing the same.

"Wandless magic," the tiny wizard continued, "works best with Charms. Although one must maintain most charms in order to keep them working, it is best for wandless magic because of the very light connection to your magic it requires. Now, the real powerful wandless magic would be wandless and non-verbal casting. It demands intense concentration, and quite an ample supply of magic."

Cass raised her hand in the air. Professor Flitwick smiled and said, "Yes, Miss McGarther?"

"Could accidental magic be considered wandless magic? If so, how can young kids do it?" she asked, writing her question down on parchment as she talked.

"Excellent question!" Flitwick commended. "To answer, no, accidental magic is not the same as wandless magic—although neither use wands, there is a big difference between the two. Accidental magic happens in response to one's emotions—it is, as its name implies, purely accidental. Wandless magic is deliberate, therefore far more powerful and concentrated."

"Could we learn wandless magic?" Cass asked with a very hopeful tone of voice.

Professor Flitwick shook his head negatively. "As first-years, no. In fact, the subject is normally not broached in Hogwarts—except for highly dedicated and skilled N.E.W.T. students." At the first-years' confused looks, Professor Flitwick elaborated, "N.E.W.T.'s are a wizarding standard test, and you will be studying for them in your sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts. It stands for Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test," he finished.

There were a few giggles at the name. However, Cass and Cyrene looked at each other and grinned eagerly, making Brooke groan and say, "I have a bad feeling that you two are going to be studying wandless magic now."

"Oh, no, Brooke. We're going to be studying wandless magic," Cass said mischievously. "In the D.A.," she added quietly, sharing another mischievous smile with Cyrene.

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