Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling.

Finally the day of the first meeting of the D.A. had come. Harry was nervous; worried that he would be laughed at for trying to teach despite having gone over a lesson plan with his dad. Hermione was going to speak to the group first, having come up with a way for the members to know when the next meetings were.

The Room of Requirement was perfect; it was equipped with their needs just like Dobby had said. There was more than enough space to practice and bookshelves that held helpful books like Self-Defensive Spellwork and The Dark Arts Outsmarted. There was even a shelf of Dark Detectors for them to use.

"This is so brilliant!" Ron said as he looked around.

"It's like Hogwarts wants us to fight back," Draco commented with satisfaction.

Harry watched as the room got fuller with students. There were some from each House, including Slytherin. Most were the younger years, like Astoria, who hadn't gotten caught up in feuding and there a couple of older years that Draco and Theo had vouched for. He began to feel more nervous. "Oh Merlin," He whispered.

Daphne heard him and grabbed his hand. "It'll be fine and you'll be great," Daphne said quietly. "We're here with you."

Hermione had been having everyone who entered the room sign a parchment so she could keep track of who was joining. She had also secretly charmed the parchment so that if anyone spoke of their club to a non-member, it would be known. She handed the parchment to Draco and stood in front of the group. "Welcome everyone," She said with a smile. "Before Harry starts, I wanted to hand out these." She held out a box.

"Galleons?" Fred Weasley asked curiously.

"Well, fake galleons," Hermione said. "You see the numerals that are surrounding the edge of the coins? On real Galleons that's their serial number but on these fake ones, the numbers will change to show the time and date of the next meeting." She began handing them out. "And remember, these meetings are a secret. If you choose to not stay a member of the D.A., that's okay. But we still expect you to keep quiet."

"These are pretty brilliant," Anthony Goldstein, a Ravenclaw, commented as he looked at the Galleon. "I'm surprised you weren't sorted into Ravenclaw."

"I almost was," Hermione replied as she finished handing out the fake coins. She missed the admiring look Anthony was giving her, but Draco had noticed and was scowling at the Ravenclaw.

Harry cleared his throat and stepped forward, aware that all eyes were now on him. "So, obviously we are learning nothing from Umbridge." Snorts of amusement came from the crowd. "The Ministry doesn't want us learning how to defend ourselves because they are afraid, Fudge is afraid, because he doesn't want to believe Voldemort is returning." He paused as everyone winced at the name. "By being afraid of his name you are giving him power over you," Harry said softly. "It's just a name he made up for himself."

There was unease murmuring throughout the crowd when suddenly a voice spoke out.

"Voldemort!" Astoria said loudly with a brave look on her face. She was sitting with Tabitha and Neville. The tension dropped in the room and several people laughed.

Harry grinned and nodded at her. "Good job." He cleared his throat. "I'll teach you what I've learned. I've had to learn some spells sooner because…well, I've faced Voldemort several times and I want to be ready when I face him again. I want all of you to be ready."

"But we're just students," A voice called out from a second year Hufflepuff.

"So? Didn't every great wizard in history start out as nothing more than what we are now? Students?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "If they could do it, why can't we?" He looked at his friends and at their encouraging nods, began the first lesson.

"The disarming charm is an extremely useful spell for removing an object from an enemy's grasp," Harry began. "It's ideal for duals, to make your opponent drop their wand. It saved Ron and I our second year from being obliviated by Lockhart. Um, for those who weren't here yet, Lockhart was our DADA professor and –"

"A complete moron!" Ron chuckled.

Harry grinned. "He was, but the one thing he was actually good at was Obliviation charms. I was able to disarm him thanks to my…to Professor Snape. He had demonstrated that charm earlier in the year. So, I think it's a good one to start with. Go ahead and pair up."

Harry waited while everyone found a partner. He noticed Hermione and Draco had paired up and Ron was watching them with a slightly irritated expression before Lavender walked up to him, causing the red-head's expression to relax. Theo and Tracey partnered up and he saw Daphne walk up to Neville, who was standing with Astoria and Tabitha. It looked like Astoria didn't know which one of her friends to partner with.

"Want to be partners Neville?" Daphne asked with a friendly smile.

"Sure," Neville said shyly.

"All right, so the spell is Expelliarmus and the wand movement is like this," Harry demonstrated the movement slowly. He turned. "Hey Draco, raise your wand and do the movement."

Draco raised his wand and –

"Expelliarmus!" A jet of red light sprung from Harry's wand, and Draco's wand flew in the air and clattered to the ground behind him, causing laughter from everyone.

Draco glared at Harry as he retrieved his wand. "Gee, thanks Potter."

Harry swallowed a laugh. "Sorry mate. I didn't think you'd mind helping with a demonstration."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Can we just get on with –"

"Expelliarmus!" Once again Draco's wand flew out of his hand, though not as high in the air as before.

"Good job Hermione!" Harry said with a chuckle.

Draco picked up his wand. "This is becoming annoying." He narrowed his eyes at Hermione, who was staring at him with an innocent expression. "Don't even try that look, I know you too well."

Hermione laughed. "I couldn't resist." She winked at him.

Harry shook his head in amusement as he walked around the room, offering help to anyone who was having trouble. He stopped by Neville and Daphne just as the Neville tried to disarm Daphne.

"Ah, Expelliarmus!" Neville's voice was slightly shaky and his wand movement was wrong. Instead of disarming Daphne, his own wand flew into the air.

With his seeker reflexes, Harry caught it. He handed it back to Neville.

"Sorry," Neville looked crestfallen.

"No worries, that's why we are practicing," Harry said in an encouraging voice. "Try again. Keep the wand movement precise."

Harry continued walking around, noticing a girl with long dark blonde hair partnered with Ginny performing the spell correctly. "Good job, um," He didn't know her name.

"Luna Lovegood," The girl responded in a dreamy voice.

"She's in my year, a Ravenclaw," Ginny said, twirling her wand. She stared at Harry. "Why isn't Dean here? Or Seamus?"

"Seamus and I aren't really getting on well," Harry said with a sigh. "I don't know if we can trust him not to tell a professor about the D.A., and Dean is his best friend so…"

Ginny gave him a mild glare. "They need to learn this too. Yeah, Seamus is being a git about you but Dean isn't."

"She wants her boyfriend here," Luna interjected with a vacant smile.

"He's not," Ginny blushed. "Dean would know if Seamus would tell but I really don't think he would. He might be against you but he wouldn't want the rest of his friends in trouble."

Harry nodded. "All right. I'll talk to Dean and see what he thinks, okay?"

Ginny looked surprised but pleased. "Okay."

Harry continued walking; stopping here and there to help a fellow student and when they concluded for the day everyone was in good spirits.

HPHPHPHP

Harry kept his word and spoke to Dean who had been excited to join the D.A., but had agreed that it would be best if Seamus stayed out of the loop for the time being. Seamus had been hanging around McLaggen and his cronies and was getting his head filled with lies about Harry, Dean had explained. Dean was confident his friend would come around but until then, it was better not to risk the D.A. getting found out.

For the second meeting of the D.A., Harry wanted to review with the students who were still struggling with the Expelliarmus spell before moving on. "Hmm, if only we had a dummy or something," He mused. His eyes widened when suddenly as a mechanical dummy suddenly moved from the wall. Harry hadn't even noticed it there before…

"Why does it look funny?" Ron asked as the students crowded around in front of it.

Harry looked at it thoughtfully. He knew what it was supposed to represent, he had been shown what a death eater wore by his dad during his summer training. "It is a mechanical death eater dummy," Harry said. "They wear all black with hoods and masks like that."

"Ugh," Ron shuddered as did most of the students.

Harry didn't blame them, it was creepy. The silver mask had snake like slits for its eyes and a mouth grate. The dummy also had a wand; apparently the room once again had known what they needed.

Harry pointed his wand at the dummy, which began to raise its own wand in response. "Expelliarmus!" The dummy's wand flew out of its hand. "Okay, line up!"

After everyone had taken a couple of turns with the dummy, they moved on. The next spell Harry decided to show them was the stunning spell. Pillows were strewn on the floor so the stunned student didn't get hurt when they fell.

"This spell is extremely useful, it's basically a wizard's bread and butter," Harry said. "Make sure when you practice that you have enough pillows behind you for if you get stunned. Now, who can I demonstrate on?" He grinned. "Ron? You don't mind, right?"

Ron made a face but moved to the center of the room. He heard Fred and George chuckling and threw them a glare. "Oh, shut it," He mumbled. "Go on Harry."

"Stupefy!" Harry incanted and watched as Ron was hit and thrown backwards a bit, landing on the pillows.

"Wicked!" Fred and George grinned.

Harry walked over to Ron. "The spell will wear off eventually but the there is a counter-spell," Harry said. He pointed his wand at Ron. "Rennervate."

Ron opened his eyes and got up. "Well, that was fun," He joked.

Harry patted Ron on the back and faced the group. "Ready to try? Pair up and take turns casting."

Harry once again walked around the room, watching and helping as the new spell was practiced. He had just finished showing a younger year the wand movement when he was suddenly struck with the spell himself. When he came to, Astoria was kneeling next to him with panic on her face.

"Harry, I'm so sorry! I meant to cast it at Neville but I got distracted," Astoria looked like she wanted to cry. She had been watching and laughing as the Weasley twins kept 'pretending' to miss casting each other and casting stupefy on Ron over and over.

"It's okay Astoria," Harry said hastily as he got up, not wanting her to cry. He knew she was sensitive kid. "Despite, um, missing your target there was a lot of power behind the spell. Good job."

Astoria's eyes brightened and she smiled. "Really? Thanks Harry!" She returned to Neville who looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Harry chuckled to himself as he went to observe Daphne and Tracey, who were partnered up today.

Daphne's eyes were dancing with amusement. "You okay Professor? It looked like you…fell," She said teasingly.

Harry snorted and then gave her a mock glare. "Manners Miss. Greengrass, unless you would like a detention?" He imitated his dad's voice almost to perfection.

"Detention? Hmm..." Daphne gazed at him and winked, causing Harry to blush.

"Would you two lovebirds quit flirting? Some of us are trying to learn," Tracey called with a smirk.

"You're right, so sorry Tracey. Stupefy!" Daphne lowered her wand and turned back to Harry. "You were saying?" She asked innocently.

Harry shook his head and grinned. "Are you trying to distract me from teaching?"

"Maybe," Daphne reached out and grabbed his hand. "I've missed you." She shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.

Harry felt guilt settle in his stomach. Between worrying about Voldemort, Umbridge's detentions, homework and planning his teaching lessons he and Daphne hardly spent time just the two of them. His dad had also mentioned teaching him a new skill, which would take up even more of his time. He also knew he had been distant with everyone lately, as well as short tempered. It was a wonder she hadn't gotten completely fed up with him. "I'm sorry," He said sincerely. "It's my fault, I've been a pain."

Daphne sighed. "I don't mean to sound like one of those girls who have to have her boyfriend around her all the time. I've been busy too with preparing for OWLs and prefect duties. I just feel like we haven't really talked in awhile and I miss it." She flushed. I sound pathetic, she thought wryly. She didn't know how to say what she meant. She knew something was bothering Harry, something was wrong. She hated feeling distant from him, she had felt a connection with him since the first time he sat at the Slytherin table. But she also knew Harry had a lot on his plate with the threat of Voldemort returning. She didn't want to add to his worries and make him feel worse.

"Uh, guys? Are you going to wake Tracey anytime soon?" Draco looked amused.

"Oops!" Daphne dashed over to her friend and cast Rennervate.

"That wasn't nice Daphne," Tracey complained as she stood up. "I wasn't ready."

"Well, to be fair you can't expect a warning when someone tries to curse you right?" Daphne asked lightly, though an apologetic look was on her face.

Tracey looked thoughtful. "True," She agreed as she watched Daphne return to Harry's side and she quickly raised her wand. "Stupefy!"

"Protego!" Harry yelled and the spell hit the protective shield he had cast in front of him and Daphne.

"Nice one!" Draco said as several students around them clapped.

Harry looked around. "For those who haven't learned that yet, obviously that is a shielding charm. I'll demonstrate again and then you guys can practice shielding yourselves from the stunning spell. Draco, cast a spell at me."

Draco's eyes lit up. "Gladly!" He moved in front of Harry. "Scared Potter?" He smirked, remembering the dueling club from second year.

"You wish," Harry grinned, struck by how much things had changed since then. He easily shielded himself from the jelly-brain jinx Draco sent his way. He glared at the blonde Slytherin. "That wouldn't have been funny if my shield hadn't held, Malfoy."

"I beg to differ," Draco said with a snicker. "And I knew your shield would be perfect."

Harry rolled his eyes and instructed everyone to practice the shielding charm. Everyone was working hard and it made Harry feel happy and proud. In fact if this kept up, the D.A. would know even more defensive spells than if they had had a competent Defense professor. In a way, it was thanks to that toad Umbridge. Harry smirked at the thought.

TBC: