The Great Hall was filled with the buzz of whispering students as they stole glances at Ben and pointed out the new face to each other. After everyone was in the hall, Dumbledore stood up and silenced everyone.
"Now, I'm sure you've all noticed the new face joining us this evening." he began, motioning to Ben. "This is Professor Grimsley. He was hired by the Smith Academy to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts to its students. He is, however, willing to tutor any Hogwarts students that feel they need help with the subject, for a small fee."
Umbridge had turned red in anger and couldn't seem to decide between glaring at Ben or at Bree. Bree grinned at her with sharp canines then reverted back to human teeth as Umbridge did a double-take. Snape saw this and from then on made a point of not looking at Bree.
Bree's first lesson with Ben started with the man taking her boots and adding steel toes and hidden pockets for iron, salt, silver, and vials of holy water. It was less "Defense Against the Dark Arts" and more of a crash course in hunting, with magic. Later they would move on to other things, like aliens and humans that acted like monsters, but for now they were just going to focus on one thing at a time while trying to cover each subject as quickly as possible because they didn't know for sure how long they had until Voldemort made his move.
All of Ben's lessons were conducted in the room that Hogwarts had showed Bree since the room would become anything you wanted. It became place to spar, a track for running laps (running was very, very important), a library stocked with a copy of every book that had ever been inside Hogwarts (exculding the ones Ben had brought with him since they were already in the room), and a shooting range for target practice (magic that is, Bree wouldn't learn how to use a gun until later). The only homework Ben had given Bree was a book by David Rossi that she was to read until she memorized it.
The Gryffindor Quidditch team finally got permission to reform so practice was back on. Fred and George weren't exactly happy with this, but then again their latest test batch of fever fudge had left them with massive pus-filled boils on a place they generally didn't display to the public. And that's why Bree avoided testing things, it was never pleasant.
While the Gryffindor Quiddicth team was practicing, Bree was debating whether or not to tell Harry about the room that could turn into anything. On one hand, Harry did need it for the defense group, but on the other hand, Bree found it first and she didn't want to share damn it!
It was Hogwarts that decided for her, giving her a nudge when Harry walked into the common room with Ron after Qudditch practice. Bree didn't respond to the nudge and continued reading the book by David Rossi.
Harry and Ron sat down to study and Hogwarts gave Bree another nudge. Bree pulled her book closer to her face.
Hogwarts continued nudgeing and Bree contiuned ignoring it until her book was inches from her nose. Finally after Ron had gone to bed Hogwarts gave Bree a hard shove, knocking her to the floor. Harry, who had been drifting off, was startled.
"Er… are you alright?" He asked.
"I'm fine. I just decided that now would be a good time to get acquaintted with the floor." Bree stated. She rolled over so that she was on her back looking up at Harry.
"We never think about them do we? The floors. But imagine if there were no floors one day. We'd notice then." Bree said. Harry loooked utterly confused.
"Uh… yeah I guess." He said.
"Do you want to see where you can teach Defense?" Bree inquired ubruptly.
"What?" Harry asked, taken aback by the sudden change in subject.
"Do. You. Want. To. See. Where. You. Can. Teach. Defense." Bree repeated, making sure each word was clear.
"Now?" Harry questioned.
"Now." Bree repeated. "We could go tomorrow but I'll have probably changedmy mind by then and won't want to share anymore."
"Er… well alright I just need to get something." He said before heading to the boys dorm. He paused at the door. "You know you'll have to get off the floor." He said. Bree just sighed.
The "something" Harry had to get turned out to be an Invisibility Cloak. Bree and Harry had to stand close together and were awkwardly bumping shoulders all the way to the seventh floor. When they got to the room was spacious and lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below. The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments.
"This is where Ben has been teaching me defense."Bree explained. "Well sort of." She added as she flopped onto the cushions.
"What do you mean "sort of"?" Harry asked.
"Well the room becomes whatever you want it be. Whatever you need. It could be a shooting range if you want to practice your aim, a library if you want to read, a track if you feel like running laps-"
"And if you really needed a bathroom," said Harry, suddenly remembering something, "would it fill itself with chamber pots?"
"Probably." Bree answered.
There was a sudden popping noise that caused Harry to jump and Bree to sit up in surprise.
"Dobby has your owl, ma'am!" said a squeaky voice.
"Dobby?" said Harry.
Dobby the house-elf was standing next to a bookshelf. His large, pointed ears were now sticking out from beneath what looked like all the hats Hermione had ever knitted; he was wearing one on top of the other, so that his head seemed elongated by two or three feet, and on the very topmost bobble sat Aries, hooting serenely and obviously cured.
"Dobby volunteered to return Miss Bree's owl," said the elf squeakily, with a look of positive adoration on his face, "Professor Grubbly-Plank says he is all well now, ma'am." He sank into a deep bow so that his pencil-like nose brushed floor and Aries gave an indignant hoot and fluttered over to where Bree was and settled onto a cushion
Bree stroked Aries' head and surveyed Dobby more closely. The elf was also wearing several scarves and innumerable socks, so that his feet looked far too big for his body.
"Er… have you been taking all the clothes Hermione's been leaving out?" Harry asked.
"Oh, no, sir," said Dobby happily. "Dobby has been taking some for Winky, too, sir."
"Yeah, how is Winky?" asked Harry.
Dobby's ears drooped slightly.
"Winky is still drinking lots, sir," he said sadly, his enormous round green eyes, large as tennis balls, downcast. "She still does not care for clothes, Harry Potter. Nor do the other house-elves. None of them will clean Gryffindor Tower any more, not with the hats and socks hidden everywhere, they finds them insulting, sir. Dobby does it all himself, sir, but Dobby does not mind, sir, for he always hopes to meet Harry Potter and tonight, sir, he has got his wish!" Dobby sank into a deep bow again.
"But Dobby did not expect to find Harry Potter in the Come and Go room." Dobby went on, straightening up again.
"Come and Go room?" Harry echoed.
Dobby nodded. "That's what we house-elves call it or else as the Room of Requirement!"
"How many people know about it?" Harry inquired.
"Very few, sir. Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, sir, but often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, sir." Dobby replied.
"It's perfect." Harry stated.
Their robes billowed and swirled around them as they splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology, where they could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof. The afternoons Care of Magical Creatures lesson was to be relocated from the storm-swept grounds to a free classroom on the ground floor and, to their intense relief, Angelina had sought out her team at lunch to tell them that Quidditch practice was cancelled.
"Good," said Harry quietly, when she told him, "because we've found somewhere to have our first Defense meeting. Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?" She looked slightly taken aback but promised to tell the others.
At half past seven Bree, Harry, Ron and Hermione left the Gryffindor common room, Harry clutching a certain piece of aged parchment in his hand. Fifth-years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o'clock, but all Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept looking around nervously as they made their way along the seventh floor.
Bree rolled her eyes and strode confidently down the hall, while Harry pulled out the Marauders map.
"Amateurs." Bree muttered. She got to the Room of Requirement first.
"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning," said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot after he, Harry, and Hermione arrived.
"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions… The Dark Arts Outsmarted… Self-Defensive Spellwork… wow…" She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right.
"Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"
And without further ado she slid 'Jinxes for the Jinxed' from its shelf, sank on to the nearest cushion and began to read.
There was a gentle knock on the door. Harry looked round. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean had arrived.
"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"
Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him. Hermione carefully marked her page of 'Jinxes for the Jinxed' and set the book aside.
"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've - er - obviously found it okay."
"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.
"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."
"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.
"Dark detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled…"
He gazed for a moment into the cracked Foe-Glass; shadowy figures were moving around inside it, though none was recognizable. He turned his back on it.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"
"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.
"I thought Harry was leader." Said Cedric.
"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"
Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly.
"Er - right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And -what, Hermione?"
"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.
"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.
"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."
"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"
Bree felt like throwing up. The unquestioning loyalty to Dumbledore was sickening.
"After everything he's done you still want to name the group after him?" Bree hissed.
"Sure he's made some mistakes, but he's still a great wizard." Ginny argued.
"Some mistakes? He's ruined lives! Not only did he leave Harry on the doorstep of an abusive household, when he was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot he did absolutely nothing to see that Sirius Black got a trial and an innocent man went to Azkaban for twelve years. And you want to honor this man?" Bree sneered.
"So what, you're going to side with the Death Eaters now?" Ginny shout, face flushed red in anger. Well if that wasn't a massive leap in logic.
"No, see you don't get it. No one gets it. It's not as clear cut as side one versus side two, light versus dark, black versus white, there are shades of gray in between. Voldemort is a snake faced bastard who hurt me, Dumbledore is a manipulative old coot who has hurt people I care about so I'll be taking door number three thanks." Bree responded, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Right, so we'll be the D.A for defense association." Hermione said, trying to ease the tension in the room.
"All in favor of the D.A.?" said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority - motion passed!"
She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters: DEFENSE ASSOCIATION.
"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"
"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eye s and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"
"I'd rather he not have a weapon if I had to face him again. Wouldn't you?" Bree questioned.
Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.
"Okay," said Harry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."
Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Predictably, Neville was left partner less.
"You can practice with me," Harry told him. "Right-on the count of three, then-one, two, three-"
The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. Harry was too quick for Neville, whose wand went spinning out of his hand, hit the ceiling in a shower of sparks and landed with a clatter on top of a bookshelf, from which Harry retrieved it with a Summoning Charm.
Harry had been right to suggest they practice the basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backwards a few paces or wince as their feeble spell whooshed over them.
"Expelliarmus!" said Neville, and Harry, caught unawares, felt his wand fly out of his hand.
"I DID IT!" said Neville gleefully. "I've never done it before - I DID IT!"
"Good one!" said Harry encouragingly, deciding not to point out that in a real duel Neville's opponent was unlikely to be staring in the opposite direction with his wand held loosely at his side.
"Listen, Neville, can you take it in turns to practice with Ron and Hermione for a couple of minutes so I can walk around and see how the rest are doing?"
Harry moved off into the middle of the room. Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Harry did not have to look far to solve the mystery: Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.
"Sorry, Harry" said George hastily, when Harry caught his eye. "Couldn't resist."
Harry walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong.
Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her.
Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchley's wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.
Cedric and Cho seemed evenly matched and Bree kept knocking Marietta's wand out of her hand before the other girl could utter a word.
"Okay, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop! STOP!"
I need a whistle, he thought, and immediately spotted one lying on top of the nearest row of books. He caught it up and blew hard. Everyone lowered their wands.
"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement." Zacharias Smith glared at him. "Let's try again."
He moved off around the room again, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly, the general performance improved.
"Hey, Harry," Hermione called from the other end of the room after an hour had passed, "have you checked the time?"
He looked down at his watch and was shocked to see it was already ten past nine, which meant they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out of bounds. He blew his whistle; everybody stopped shouting "Expelliarmus" and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.
"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"
"Sooner!' said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.
Angelina, however, said quickly. "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"
"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."
He pulled out the Marauder's Map again and checked it carefully for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. He let them all leave in threes and fours, watching their tiny dots anxiously to see that they returned safely to their dormitories: the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor that also led to the kitchens; the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait.
