A/N: This is one of the shortest chapters you will (probably) ever get because it is only half. The last line was too good a conclusion for me to add it to the next chapter. I'll also say this: no new chapter until I get reviews! I'll take anyone's suggestion of a prank from the twins (I'm out of ideas and I need them soon!), but the 125th reviewer's idea will be used, no matter what - see last chapter's author's note for clarification. The others will be screened. Deal?

Chapter Twelve: One (Part I)

They trickled in slowly at first, then faster, in tight groups as if afraid of the room behind the door that magically appeared from a small strip of wall at a simple need. The returning members were silent, only speaking to reassure the new that this was it and that it would start soon.

And then the last three members arrived and all hell broke loose.

"Slytherins!" Zacharias Smith exclaimed as soon as Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zambini, and Bertha Matlock (a Slytherin fourth-year who Harry only recognized by sight) strode into the room.

"What are you doing here?" Dean Thomas shouted almost at the same time.

"This isn't a Death Eater meeting!"

"Yeah, get out!"

The exclamations blended together like a sort of hate-stew that made Harry suddenly want to vomit. All at once, it clicked, and the realization hit him like a punch in the gonads. For the first time since he'd destroyed Professor Dumbledore's office after Sirius's death, Harry saw red.

"SHUT UP!" he roared, startling the mob and the Slytherins who were trying to ignore the threats and find a seat. Everyone shut up.

"They are here for the same reason you are," Harry continued, his voice considerably more controlled. "I invited them just as I did you. They are your allies, if not your friends." Someone who sounded very much like Smith snorted and Harry whipped his head around to glare menacingly at him before continuing.

"If you are too prejudice to see beyond the color of their dorms, get out now because no matter how you look at it, we have something in common.

"Everyone look at your robes. Look at your house badge." Everyone, even the stoic-faced Slytherins, followed Harry's orders and looked at the pocket of their uniform. "What do you see?"

He answered the rhetorical question after a second of pulsating silence. "You see your house mascot, right?" A few people nodded and Harry went on. "But what else is there? Forget about the damn animals for once!" Harry shouted suddenly, his barely contained anger flaring up again at the sight of Seamus Finnegan looking confused. "Do you see it now, Seamus? Smith? Corner?" he called. "Do you see the crest? Hogwarts' crest? That is our house.

"We are the DA, Hogwarts' army. Even if we don't all agree with Professor Dumbledore, we are all willing to fight for the safety of our home, are we not?" Ashamed nods followed his moment of silence. "Good. Now if I ever hear that you've forgotten what's behind the ruddy mascot, I'll show you why parselmouths have been feared for centuries."

Hermione yanked her eyes from her best friend to look about the room. It seemed like he'd already showed them. Power, pure and simple yet terrifyingly complicated, was pouring off him in almost visible and definitely palpable waves. Suddenly she knew why Voldemort feared the Boy-Who-Lived, and in that moment, sandwiched between anger and conviction, Hermione saw her best friend come into his destiny. Her eyes grew wide in shock and pride.

Harry speaking again, this time in a much softer tone, broke the silence that followed his threat. "You can bicker and curse each other all you want outside of the meetings, but the moment you step through that door," he gestured to the innocent door leading out into the corridor, "it all stops. Got it?"

As the crowd nodded their consent, another wave of power swept through the school, sending a shiver of excitement and peace down the spines of all the inhabitances. Up in a certain circular office, a particular hat stretched its brim into the curved shape of a smile and a flame-plumed phoenix sang its pleasure.

Hogwarts was mending for the first time in almost a thousand years.

A/N: Remember lovely people, I need prank ideas. Write them in a review or send me a PM. Even if you don't have an idea, you know writers love comments!