Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they all belong to JK Rowlings. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.

– CHAPTER TWENTY –

Dumbledore's Army Reborn

The next few weeks were a blur for Harry. Between Hermione insisting on spending every free period in the Library, his classes, and Moody's training sessions, Harry barely found time to spend with Ginny, and hadn't decided yet when he would start the DA again. Professor McGonagall had asked him to meet her that evening, and after another two hours spent pouring over ancient volumes referring to Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw, Harry hurried up to her office. Reaching the spot in the seventh-floor corridor where a single gargoyle stood against the wall, Harry whispered the password that he had been given at breakfast.

The gargoyle leapt aside, the wall behind it slid apart, and a moving spiral stone staircase was revealed, on to which Harry stepped, hesitating when he remembered the last time he had entered this particular office. As he was carried in smooth circles up to the door with the brass knocker that led to McGonagall's office, he recalled sadly how angry he had been with Dumbledore that night, and he fingered his wand nervously in anticipation.

Hesitating for only a moment when he reached the door, Harry knocked.

'Come in,' came McGonagall's voice.

'Good evening, Professor,' said Harry meekly, walking into the Headmistress's office.

'Sit down, Potter,' she replied tersely, 'I announced at the start of the year that you would be reforming the DA, but I haven't heard on any meetings yet. May I ask why you have not arranged any meetings yet?' She demanded without preamble.

'Err …' began Harry awkwardly, but McGonagall's expression softened.

'I have heard that Professor Moody has been giving you additional classes, are you too busy to organise the DA? I could ask a teacher to lead it if you would prefer.'

'No!' Harry answered sharply, 'I'll start it up again; it's just that I've been quite busy recently. I'll put up notices this weekend.' McGonagall nodded in agreement.

'Thank you Potter, that will do, have a pleasant evening.' She said with a small smile.

'Yes, Professor,' Harry replied.

He got to his feet, but did not leave.

'Professor, will there no longer be any Quidditch?' The smile left McGonagall's face instantly.

'Unfortunately not, the Governors deem it too dangerous to have such large gatherings at the present. It would almost be an invitation for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to attack the school, now that Dumbledore is – is gone.' Harry nodded mutely, and swung his bag over his shoulder.

Reaching the door, he turned to see McGonagall weeping silently, her composure forgotten. Harry hesitated, uncomfortable in her presence.

'Goodnight, Professor.' McGonagall looked up slowly, but Harry had already left.

'Goodnight … Harry.'

Harry related his meeting to Hermione and Ginny when he reached the Common Room, which was now void of other students. Hermione immediately set about writing a notice for him to put up, and Ginny snuggled into Harry's side, while he started stroking her hair gently.

'Harry, have you looked at Dumbledore's Pensieve yet?' She asked him suddenly. Harry stopped stroking her hair, looked down at her and shook his head. 'Why? He probably left something important for you to see; otherwise he wouldn't have bothered leaving it to you at all.'

Harry silently agreed with her, and was sure that Dumbledore had left him clues regarding the Horcruxes, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Viewing Dumbledore's memories would make his death final, and he couldn't do it. Finally he just shrugged, saying that he'd do it later. Ginny looked at him suspiciously for a moment longer, before shrugging and curled into his side once more.

They sat in comfortable silence for some time, the only noise coming from the soft scratching of Hermione's quill. When Hermione finished, Harry had a quick look at her handiwork, and happy with the notice, wished the two girls good night.

The following Tuesday evening found Harry pacing nervously in the Room of Requirement. He had absolutely no idea how many people would respond to the announcement, which he'd put up three days ago, and was worried that the only people who would return would be those who'd joined two years ago. He had made some hurried plans for the meetings, but needed a minimum number of participants for some of them, which would include realistic scenarios.

There was a gentle knock on the door; Harry turned around. Ginny entered, closely followed by Hermione and every remaining member of the original DA, except Ron. Harry's heart dropped, he had hoped that Ron would at least come to the meetings to learn how to defend himself. Not noticing Harry's sad look, Ernie whistled in appreciation as he looked around the room.

'I like what you've done with the room Harry, much more space to spread out.' There were nods and murmurs of agreement from the rest of the group, as they looked around the room. Harry had asked for a similar room to the one that he was using with Moody, but had expanded it, and asked for more cushions.

Hermione immediately headed towards the bookshelves, and started running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes, whispering to herself in awe. 'Five Easy Steps to Perfecting your Wandless and Non-Verbal Spells … A Guide to Offensive Spells … Magick Most Evile …wow, this is in the Restricted Section …' and without further ado, slid A Guide to Offensive Spells from its shelf, sank into the nearest cushion and began to read.

Harry shook his head in amusement, smiling in recollection. Ginny slid her arm around his waist and was about to say something, when she was interrupted by another knock. They turned to see a large group of Fifth and Sixth Year students enter, soon followed by Lisa Turpin, and some shy Third and Fourth Years. All of them stood near the door, their jaws hanging in astonishment.

They weren't the only ones with their jaws hanging though, Harry was astonished by the turnout; there were easily forty people in the room. Recovering quickly, he addressed the newcomers.

'Well – err – hi.' Every head turned towards him, and the talking stopped instantly. 'Welcome to Dumbledore's Army,' he hesitated to collect the thoughts running around in his head, 'as I hope you all know, this club was formed to help people learn how to defend themselves. We will be practicing spell work, shields, and hopefully some offensive spells, aiming to put them into practice later this year. As there are a lot more people than I expected, I'm going to have to divide the club into groups, based on ability. Are there any questions?'

He looked around the group, his eyes falling on a small group of ex-Slytherins standing at the back of the room. He was happy that they'd decided to come, as hopefully their presence would help break down some of the usual inter-House animosity. Noticing a raised hand, he waved in its general direction.

'Yes?' He asked, praying that it wouldn't be a question about his past exploits. He really didn't want a repetition of the DA's first meeting in the Hog's Head.

'How are you going to divide us into groups?' A small girl piped up. 'You haven't even seen us do anything yet.' Harry smiled indulgently.

'Well that's what the rest of this session is for, so everyone partner up. You lot,' he said, turning to the original DA members, 'partner up together. There's no point in pairing up with someone vastly outclassed.' Ginny and the others nodded, and separated themselves from the rest of the assembled students.

Everyone else divided up quickly, and Harry soon had two rows of people facing each other, wands drawn.

'Right, we're going to start with Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. Does anyone not know how to cast it?' He looked around the room, and a few Third Years raised their hands, blushing furiously.

Some of the older students sniggered behind their hands, and Harry scowled.

'I don't see what's so funny, Ackerley. Can you cast it properly?' He arched an eyebrow in accusation. Stuart's lips immediately straightened, and he nodded. 'Alright then, try and disarm me.'

The room was instantly filled with whispers, as people bet on Ackerley's chances of success. He pulled out his wand, and with an unnecessary flourish, yelled 'Expelliarmus'. Harry, who hadn't even bothered to raise his wand, stood his ground, as the spell whooshed over his head.

Several people snickered, and the Third Years laughed openly, as Ackerley's face turned beetroot red. Harry sighed, and with a sudden flick of his wand, which was so fast no one noticed it, disarmed Ackerley. More people laughed as the wand sailed into Harry's hand, but Harry's eyes were narrowed.

'You think that that was funny?' He called out to the assembled students. 'Well it's not. That spell has saved my life several times in the last few years, and you should all know how to disarm an opponent.' He handed Ackerley his wand back, and turned back to the rest of the room.

'Right, any student who can't cast the spell, stand over there.' He said abruptly, pointing to one corner of the room. 'For the rest of you, Disarming Charms only. On the count of three – one, two, three –'

There was a rush as people ran back to their partners, and the room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions, and as Harry walked around, he almost got hit several times, and not only by wands. Some spells were hitting the bookshelves, and several books were leaping off the shelves around him. Fortunately the dark detectors were on the other side of the room, because a couple of them were hit by stray spells, and were lifted off their table, crashing to the floor around the students.

After a few minutes of mayhem, during which Harry paced up and down the room looking for the most competent students, he tried to stop them.

'OK, stop!' He shouted. 'Stop! STOP!'

Remembering his first session nearly two years ago, he thought about needing a whistle. He spotted one lying on a bookshelf immediately, and picking it up, blew into it hard. Everyone lowered their wands.

'Right, there was some very poor spell work there, but don't worry, you're here to improve. No one is absolutely perfect, there's always room to improve, so don't worry about which group I'm going to put you in, you can be moved if you improve.'

He noticed that several people looked worried, and were eyeing people around themselves, comparing each other. He sighed, but started going around the room, dividing people into two groups. When he finished, he looked at the two smaller groups, counting heads 'sixteen and twenty-six, well that's not too bad, I can deal with that'.

'Right,' he said, clapping his hands, 'you,' he pointed at the smaller group, 'are the advanced group. As most of you were in the original DA, I want you to practice all the spells you learnt last time together and anything new you learnt last year. Hermione, could you help the new members learn any spells they don't know? I just want a review this session, ok?' Hermione and the rest of the advanced group nodded, and headed off to the other end of the room.

Harry turned back to the larger group.

'OK, quite a bit of your spell work and style was poor, so we're going to practice more with disarming. I'm going to go round and try and help everyone out, all right?' There were several nods, and Harry smiled, 'Now, partner up again.'

There was a bit of jostling around, but soon everyone had a partner, and Harry quickly had them practising again. He walked around the group, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly, the general performance of the group improved, especially from the Third Years, who were eager to prove that they were capable.

He continued moving among the pairs, catching stray wands, and demonstrating how to present as small a target as possible. As he approached Ackerley, he noticed that every time he tried to disarm his opponent, he waved his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get under his guard.

'No Stuart, stop.' Ackerley jumped in surprise, having not heard Harry approach him. Blushing a bit, he turned to listen to Harry, who motioned to Ackerley's partner to come over and listen too. 'Look, there's no need for the flourishes.' He said bluntly. 'They're a waste of time, and in a duel it could cost you your life.' He ignored Ackerley as his face blanched, and ploughed on. 'To disarm someone, all you need is a small flick, like this.' He demonstrated the motion, 'There's no need for any excessive waving, and it only allows an opponent to get under your guard. Do you understand?' The two students nodded warily, 'Now you try.'

He got Stuart to copy him, and after a few experimental flicks, Stuart nodded, and thanking Harry, turned back to his partner. Harry watched him for a bit longer, and satisfied, moved on to the next pair. Several minutes later, he heard Hermione calling him.

'Hey Harry, have you checked the time?' He looked down at his watch and was surprised to see that it was already five past nine, which meant they needed to return to their Common Rooms, or risk being caught for being out of bounds. He wasn't too worried about being caught by Filch, but did not relish the idea of running into an Auror, or even worse, a patrol of trolls.

He blew his whistle; everyone stopped shouting spells, and while the last few wands clattered to the floor, some of the advanced group, who had been practising Stunning, revived the stunned people lying around on the floor.

'Right, that was quite good, I saw a marked improvement in my group,' he motioned to the larger of the two groups, 'but I don't think this arrangement will work in the future. I think we need to have two separate practice sessions, so that I can help out both groups. How does that sound?' There were several murmurs of agreement around the room. 'OK, how about you,' he motioned again to the larger group, 'come back here at the same time next week?' They all nodded in acceptance, and Harry turned to the smaller group. 'The advanced group can come back here on Wednesday, is that alright?' Most of the group nodded, but Anthony and Terry both shook their heads.

'Sorry Harry,' Terry said, 'but we both have Charms Club, can we make it another day?' Harry nodded, thinking.

'How about Monday?' He asked. There were several nods of agreement, and he smiled. 'In that case, all of you hurry up and get back to your Common Rooms before we all get caught. Let's get going.'

People started hurrying out the room, and soon it was empty, apart from Harry, Ginny and Hermione, who were replacing the books and dark detectors in their place.

'That went really well Harry,' Hermione said, 'I'm surprised no one tried to ask you about what you've done in the past. Do you remember Smith at the Hog's Head?' Harry's face darkened.

'Yeah, I remember,' he said testily, but then brightened, 'didn't Fred and George threaten to poke something in his ear to clean it out?' Ginny giggled.

'I remember that!' She exclaimed. 'They threatened him with that metal thing they found in Zonko's; I never did find out what it was for –' She said reminiscently.

They quickly cleared the rest of the room up in silence, and when they finished, Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map.

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' he said, touching it with the tip of his wand. Checking carefully for any signs of goblins or Aurors patrolling the seventh floor, he motioned the two girls to follow him out the room. They hurried down the corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait, and whispered 'Leo Rex' as they approached it. She swung forward, and they clambered in.

They settled into the couches near the fire, and talked about the meeting, and how they could improve it. Several people came up to Harry to thank him for teaching them, turning his ears pink in embarrassment, and Ginny giggled at his look of discomfort. Hermione only smiled indulgently, but could not prevent a small laugh escaping when she saw Luna floating over to them just as Harry was getting up to go to bed.

'I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful lesson this evening Harry, although you should watch out for that Wrackspurt, I felt it zoom past me during the practise.' Ginny had to stuff her fist in her mouth to stop giggling, while Hermione tried to maintain a straight face, which only lasted until Luna drifted off to the girls' staircase.

As soon as she disappeared up the stairs, Hermione collapsed on the floor, while Harry smirked at her. After a few moments, Hermione calmed down a bit and sat back down on the couch, trying desperately to keep a straight face. Harry got up soon after that, and wishing the two girls goodnight, climbed up to his dormitory, thinking about the mystery that was Luna Lovegood.