The next morning Ginny appeared next to the trio at the Gryffindor table during breakfast and pulled them from their seats.
"Fred, George and I have already warned the others. You need to see this." She said as she led them to the entrance of the Great Hall.
She pointed to a new sign on the wall encased in glass. It was an order by 'The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts' saying that all school teams, clubs, and organizations of any kind were banned.
"Can she do that?" Ron asked.
"I'm sure Fudge gave her the power to do it." Hermione grumbled.
"How did she find out?" Harry asked.
"It wasn't any of us" Hermione said.
"How do you know?" Ginny asked.
"Because I spelled the parchment we all signed. If anyone sold us out then we would know."
"If it wasn't any of us how did she know?" Ron asked.
"She must have overheard us talking on our way back to the castle. I don't think she knows exactly what we were planning on doing." Hermione replied.
"This just means we have to be extra careful. We need to find a place to meet that no one will be able to find." Harry said.
"Angelina is furious. She's going to ask Umbridge if they could reinstate the Quidditch teams." Ginny said. "I hope she pulls it off."
Harry shook his head, "This is only going to get worse isn't it."
Hermione and Ron nodded.
/
History of Magic was more eventful than it had ever been. Hedwig had come to see him with a letter and she had somehow gotten injured. He quickly made an excuse to leave class early and find Professor Grubbly-Plank. Hopefully the substitute Care of Magical Creatures professor could heal her.
"Is Hedwig alright?" Hermione asked as soon as she was within earshot.
"Yeah, I asked Professor Grubbly-Plank to take a look at her."
"How do you think she got injured?" Ron asked.
Harry shrugged, "I don't know. Professor McGonagall told me, though, that channels of communication in and out of Hogwarts may be being watched."
"You don't think Umbridge attacked her do you?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"She better not have" Harry growled.
"So who was the letter from?" Ron asked.
"Snuffles" Harry replied quietly. "He said tonight same time and place."
They nodded.
/
On their way to Potions, Malfoy was boasting about how the Slytherin Quidditch team had permission to play. Hermione made sure Harry wouldn't rise to the blond boy's bait. Surprisingly, it was Neville that lunged for Malfoy first.
The day only seemed to get worse from there. Umbridge was auditing their Potions class.
As they continued with their Strengthening Solutions from the previous class, Umbridge was interrogating Snape.
Harry had a hard time concentrating on his potion, trying instead to eavesdrop on their conversation. Hermione had to step in several times to stop him from doing something stupid.
By the end of class, his potion wasn't very good, not terrible, but not great either.
"If you want to pass your O.W.L Potter, I would suggest you start paying attention." Snape sneered.
Harry huffed, one side of him flaring up at the comment while the other wallowed in disappointment at another botched potion.
/
Near midnight that night, when everyone had gone to bed, the trio sat in front of the fireplace, waiting for Sirius' face to show again.
"Hello" Sirius' head popped into the flames.
"Hi" the trio greeted.
"How're things?" Sirius asked.
"Not good" Harry said. "The Ministry's forced through another decree banning all kinds of teams and –"
"Secret Defense Against the Dark Arts clubs?"
"Wha – you know about that?" Harry asked.
"You should really pick the place to hold secret meetings better."
"The Hog's Head is better than the Three Broomsticks. That place is always so loud."
"Makes it harder to be overheard." Sirius replied. "Something to keep in mind in the future."
"If someone from the Order heard us, maybe Umbridge had spies there as well." Ron suggested.
"Impossible to tell" Sirius said. "Oh, Ron, I have a message from your mother. She told me to tell you not to join this secret group. Hermione, Harry, she tells you the same thing."
"That's ridiculous, there's no way I'm skipping out on this." Ron said.
"What do you think about the group Sirius?" Harry asked.
"I think it's a great idea. You all need to learn how to defend yourselves. You already know hand to hand combat, now you need to perfect your dueling skills. Remus is already writing lesson plans" He smirked.
The trio nodded. "We're still looking for places to meet and how to communicate with one another without getting caught."
"Well, if anyone can figure it out, it's you three." Sirius smiled.
"Thanks" they said.
"Now –" Sirius broke off. His face was suddenly tense, alarmed. He turned sideways, apparently looking into the solid brick wall of the fireplace.
"Sirius?" said Harry anxiously. But he had vanished. Harry gaped at the flames for a moment, then turned to look at Ron and Hermione. "Why did he —?"
Hermione gave a horrified gasp and leapt to her feet, still staring at the fire. A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings…the three of them ran for it; at the door of the boys' dormitory Harry looked back. Umbridge's hand was still making snatching movements amongst the flames, as though she knew exactly where Sirius's hair had been moments before and was determined to seize it.
"Well, that for sure proves Umbridge is reading your mail, mate" Ron said as they got ready for bed.
Harry nodded, "I think I'll call my dad, see if we can get Sirius a phone. It's safer than floo and letter."
/
The next day was better, Angelina told them they had permission to re-form the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And Neville found them a place to practice; a room that is hidden until it is needed, the Room of Requirement.
The only dampener on the day was his scar hurting.
"Your scar hurt earlier in the year didn't it" Hermione said.
"Yeah" Harry said.
"But he can't be here can he? Everyone would know." Ron said.
"I don't think it's because he's close. Dumbledore said I would be able to feel it whenever he experienced powerful emotions. Like hate."
"You should tell someone" Ron said.
"I told Sirius"
"Maybe you should tell your dads." Hermione said.
"No way, and have them come here and cause me more trouble?" Harry looked at her, "The last thing I need is for Papa to go on a rampage because my scar is hurting. Or if he finds out about the detentions and then starts killing off the Ministry."
"That doesn't sound too bad right now" Ron said solemnly.
Harry ignored him, "Besides, Papa is looking for someone and Dad is doing damage control because SHIELD apparently was compromised."
"Compromised?"
"Yeah, apparently they were infiltrated by an enemy organization back when they first started. It didn't sound good."
"Bloody hell" Ron said.
Harry nodded, "Which is why I don't want to bother them with my problems. They have enough to worry about."
Hermione still looked disapproving, but she didn't say anything.
/
The word was spread amongst the group where to meet the next day.
"This place is perfect" Hermione said as she examined the defensive spell books lining one of the walls. The group had gathered easily enough in the large room.
Harry stood in front of the group, "I see you have all found this place alright. This will be where we practice for the Defense Against the Dark Arts group."
"Is that what we're calling this?" George asked.
"Bit of a mouthful don't you think?" Fred added.
"Well…does anyone have anything better?" Harry asked, looking around.
"How about the Anti-Umbridge League" Angelina snickered.
"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" Fred suggested.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"How about something simple, like Defense Association. DA for short" Cho suggested.
"I like DA" Ginny said. "Only, let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army instead. Give the Minister exactly what he wants."
When no more suggestions were given, Harry held up his hand, "All in favor of Dumbledore's Army?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"Alright, next is our way of communication." He nodded towards Hermione, who was holding a box.
She walked forward and turned to the group. "Inside here are fake Galleons." She held one up. "On it is a serial number. On a real Galleon, this just refers to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake ones, the serial number will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the information changes. When Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."
A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked around at all the faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted. "Well — I thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly, "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But . . . well, if you don't want to use them . . ."
"You can do a Protean Charm?" Terry Boot asked, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Yes," Hermione said.
"But that's…that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is," he said weakly.
"I guess…" She trailed off.
"You've obviously never been around Hermione enough" Ron said in amusement.
"Are you sure you weren't supposed to be sorted into Ravenclaw?" Terry asked.
"It was an option, but ulitimately the Sorting Hat chose Gryffindor."
"Too bad" Terry said.
The group chuckled.
"Well, I think we should start practicing" Harry said. "I was thinking we could start with the Disarming Charm."
"Oh please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"
"I've used it against him," Harry said. "It saved my life last June."
Smith's mouth snapped shut. The rest of the room was very quiet.
"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said. Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.
"Okay," Harry's mouth was slightly drier than usual with all those eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."
They all practiced for about two hours with various ranges of success. Overall though, Harry didn't think it went too poorly.
"I'll set something up for next week" Harry said as they all prepared to leave. "Be careful on your way back. Don't want anyone getting caught after hours."
Woo! First DA session! I have to figure out how many I want to add...I don't think I have very many right now written so I might go add more…I guess we'll see. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!