Selena cracked a smile, glancing at the door opening and closing. The Hog's Head was full of students in just a few minutes. Finally, it stopped. Some people murmured.
Then, in walked Ron, Hermione and Harry. And the meeting began.
Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats at the bar, and chatted as the last stragglers walked in. Selena saw Avery walk in with Sasha, Alexanda trailing behind them. The Creevey brothers - Colin and Dennis, both Gryffindors - were next, then Bronwen (Selena waved to her.) Other students she recognized but didn't personally know also arrived. It was long before everyone turned and watched Harry.
Selena twined her fingers together, trying to contain her excitement.
Instead of Harry saying something, however, Hermione spoke. "Well - er - hi."
No one talked, but glanced from Hermione to Harry. Selena and Tess exchanged a confused glance. Why wasn't Harry commencing the meeting? "Well... erm... well, you know why you're here. Er... well, Harry here had the idea - I mean," the bushy-haired girl paused, Harry having given her some angry, yet warning look. "I had the idea - that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts - and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us." Hermione's voice rose, slipping into confidence. "Because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Hear, hear," a blond boy said, making Hermione look grateful.
With a smile tugging at her lips, she continued. "Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." She stopped, looking sideways at Harry before going on. "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells-"
"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" commented a boy, his eyes focused on the girl talking. Selena recognized the term, all Fifth Years having to take the Ordinary Wizarding Level exams.
"Of course I do," Hermione almost snapped. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because..." She gasped in air. "Because Lord Voldemort's back."
One girl shrieked, spilling butterbeer into her lap. A boy twitched, one of the Patil twins shuddered, Neville Longbottom yelped, trying to cover it with a cough. Selena shivered, glancing over at Tess. Her friend had gone pale. Even though Tess was a Muggleborn, she of course knew enough about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The many Daily Prophet articles since last June flashed through Selena's mind, the smear-campaign that had turned so many against Harry Potter when he claimed the dark wizard had returned. Selena turned her attention back to the Boy-Who-Lived, taking a calming breath through her nose.
"Well... that's the plan anyway," Hermione said. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to-"
"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" asked a blond Hufflepuff boy almost angrily.
"Well, Dumbledore believes it-" Hermione began.
The boy interrupted again, this time nodding to Harry. "You mean, Dumbledore believes in him."
"Who are you?" Ron asked, his voice clipped with rudeness.
"Zacharias Smith," the boy replied, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."
"Just leave it be," Selena heard Tess whisper anxiously next to her.
"Look," Hermione said quickly. "That's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about-"
"It's okay, Hermione," Harry said, speaking for the first time during the get-together. For a moment, he stared at them, just looking from behind his wire-frame glasses, then began speaking. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" He stared hard at Zacharias. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."
For a moment, the air felt tight, waiting for Harry to continue to speak, yell, leave, whatever - just so he did something. Selena felt herself holding her breath, wanting the tension to be over. She believed him. She believed Harry for Cedric Diggory. Lord Voldemort was back, and they needed to know.
Zacharias, however, didn't seem to care. "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know-"
They continued their little fight until Hermione interrupted them. Selena could've hugged her she was so grateful. "So," Hermione said shrilly. "So... like I was saying... if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where it's going to-"
"Is it true?" a girl with a long braid blurted, facing Harry. "That you can produce a Patronus?"
People suddenly began to whisper. Selena's mind whirred, remembering Damon on the train when she was eleven, casting away the Dementor. Harry could do that when he was thirteen, he told her and Anne about the lake and dementors back when they saved Sirius Black. Would he teach them that? Selena sure hoped so.
"Yeah," Harry said confidently.
"A corporeal Patronus?"
"Er - you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" Harry asked.
The girl smiled. "She's my auntie. I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So - is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"
Selena's eyebrows rose. The Patronus Damon had created wasn't even a true corporeal Patronus.
"Yes," Harry said.
Lee Jordan looked impressed. "I never knew that!"
"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," said Fred, smiling widely at Harry. Anne sat next to her boyfriend, smiling proudly at him. Or, Selena thought, maybe it wasn't Fred whom Anne was admiring. "She said you got enough attention as it was."
"She's not wrong," Harry mumbled. Selena laughed quietly along with a few others.
"And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" a boy asked. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year..."
"Er - yeah, I did, yeah," Harry said.
A boy in a Hufflepuff scarf whistled, and the Creevey brothers grinned at each other. A girl whispered "wow" and Harry had a slight blush, his eyes forcing him away from a certain direction Selena couldn't place.
"And in our first year," said Neville to the group, "he saved the Sorcerous Stone-"
"Sorcerer's," Hermione whispered.
"Yes, that, from You-Know-Who," finished Neville.
"And that's not to mention," Cho Chang began. Harry's eyes darted to her, and Selena realized that Cho was who Harry had been trying to avoid. However, the minute Harry's gaze met Cho's, he melted a shade darker of pink. "All the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year - getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas and things..."
People muttered, and Selena smiled at Tess. The morale of the meeting was changing.
"Look," Harry said, quieting everyone. "I... I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything but... I had a lot of help with all that stuff."
"Not with the dragon, you didn't," a boy quipped. "That was a seriously cool bit of flying..."
"Yeah, well-" Harry began, only to be interrupted by Susan Bones again.
"And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer," she said.
"No," said Harry. "No, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is-"
"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacharias Smith said.
Selena scowled. How can one person be so rude?
"Here's an idea," Ron Weasley said loudly. "Why don't you shut your mouth?"
Tess giggled, clapping her hand over her mouth. Selena grinned too, Zacharias' face turning beet red.
"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," Zacharias replied hotly.
"That's not what he said," Fred Weasley said angrily. Anne placed her gloved hand on his arm, staring stonily at Zacharias.
"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" George asked, pulling some metal thing out of his Zonko's bag. Selena's eyebrows rose again, looking at the dangerous invention.
"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," Fred commented smoothly.
"Yes well," Hermione said quickly. "Moving on... The point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"
Many people agreed, and Selena nodded; however, Zacharias said nothing. He simply folded his arms, stiff as a statue.
"Right," Hermione said happily. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week-"
"Hang on," Angelina Johnson said. "We need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice." Selena could see Sasha nod enthusiastically.
"No," Cho Chang added. "Nor with ours."
"Nor ours," Zacharias piped up.
"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," Hermione said, less patient than her past tone. "But you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters-"
"Well said!" a boy cried excitedly. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our O.W.L.s coming up!" He paused, looking as though he was expecting others to agree. Selena opened her mouth to speak, but he didn't see, continuing with his speech. "I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon us at this critical period. Obviously they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells-"
"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione interrupted, "is that she's got some... some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."
Everyone glanced up, surprised at what she'd said. Selena glanced at Tess who shrugged, eyebrows furrowed.
"Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army," Luna Lovegood added.
"What?" Harry said, confused as everyone else.
"Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths," Luna said calmly.
"No, he hasn't," Hermione snapped.
"Yes, he has," said Luna.
"I agree with Luna," Neil - one of the few Slytherins present - said, nodding.
Hermione glared at them both, digging her fingernails into the wooden table.
"What are heliopaths?" Neville asked quietly.
"They're spirits of fire," Luna said, her eyes wide. "Great tall flaming creatures that gallop across the ground burning everything in front of-"
"They don't exist, Neville," Hermione said sourly.
"Oh yes they do!" Luna said, the Ravenclaw angry for the first time Selena had ever seen.
"I'm sorry, but where's the proof of that?" Hermione asked.
"There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you-"
Neil stifled a laugh watching Luna speak until Ginny Weasley stopped the conversation.
"Hem, hem," the Weasley said in an uncanny imitation of Umbridge, and then laughed. "Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and get Defense lessons?"
"Yes," said Hermione at once. "Yes, we were, you're right."
"Well, once a week sounds cool," Lee Jordan said.
"As long as-" Angelina started before Hermione reassured her.
"Yes, yes we know about the Quidditch," she said rather tensely. "Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet..."
"Library?" suggested Katie Bell once the silence had faded.
"I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library," Harry contradicted.
"Maybe an unused classroom?" Dean Thomas offered.
"Yeah," said Ron. "McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practicing for the Triwizard..."
"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," Hermione said. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting."
She dug in her bag before pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill. "I-I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think," she drew in a breath, "that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge - or anybody else - what we're up to."
Fred eagerly grabbed the quill, and scribbled his name down. Anne was next, writing her name with a flourish. A couple of other boys, Susan Bones, and George all signed after that. George tried to pass it to Zacharias, but the Hufflepuff made no move to take it.
"Er..." he said. "Well... I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is."
The boy next to him looked a little frightened to sign as well, glancing at the parchment lined with names. "I - well, we are prefects," he blurted. "And if this list was found... well, I mean to say... you said yourself, if Umbridge finds outs..."
"You just said this group was the most important thing you'd do this year," Harry pointed out.
"I - yes," Ernie said. "Yes, I do believe that, it's just..."
"Ernie do you really think I'd leave that list lying around?" Hermione challenged.
"No. No, of course not," Ernie said softly before finally giving in. "I - yes, of course I'll sign."
Nobody stopped to think after that. However, one girl did look reproachful, a friend of Cho Chang's.
When the paper was passed to Selena, she bit her lip, trying to not smile. Taking the quill, she signed her name on the list, admiring how 'Selena Malast' looked, black ink drying on the parchment. It felt like a raspberry right in Umbridge's direction. She passed it to Tess who also signed her name.
"Well, time's ticking on," Fred said, standing up. "George, Lee, Anne and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."
Slowly, people walked through the Hog's Head door, leaving into the snow. Selena pulled her hat down, and scarf up, trying to stop the blowing wind from cutting her as she and Tess left. They stopped to wait for the rest of their dormmates. Alisson stepped out into the snow first, her blue eyes lit up. She bounced over to her friends, grinning like it was Christmas morning. Renee and Elizabeth were quick to follow, all five girls starting down Main Street back towards the rest of Hogsmeade. Selena shuddered, the chill biting her face.
Nevertheless, no amount of wind could frost away the warmth now set inside her.
WHEW!
So... SSOSOSOSOSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry it has been so long without an update. I have been busy every week of this short summer.
However, watching the movie gave me inspiration to write this long... long... LONG chapter.
Suffice to say, it's boring and not all that important if you've read the books. Any who, I'm happy it's summer.
Now, I will begin updates of this more frequently. This chapter was like a roadblock, and the traffic took forever to liquidate through.
So... tell me what you liked. No telling me what you didn't like, I'm pretty proud (and done and sick of this long-winded novel of a chapter.)
Blech. I think I'm done typing, my thumbs and fingers are... aching. TOODLES!
Please review!
Thanks for reading!
~Meghan
12/23/17: In the books, this took place on October 5th, not October 19th like in my story. Both are Saturday's.