There are some AU elements so please don't expect everything to match cannon.

A/N: The Characters and the universe all belong to J.K Rowling. Nothing is mine.

"Harry, be a little faster would you?" Hermione is getting impatient with all the hype that is around this 'meeting'. It is the second weekend of November so the chill has already seeped into the air. The snow will also be coming soon in a few weeks or so. Rosaline and Hermione are walking ahead of me, giggling and chatting all the while.

It is nice seeing them happy like this, considering a war's brewing right beneath our asses. The road's a little long towards hogsmade so I take out some muggle chocolate that I keep on me. I catch up to the girls, munching on my chocolate in small pleasurable bits. Though the chocolate is stiff because of the cold, it melts immediately on entering my mouth. This chilly wind combined with the melting chocolate is almost divine. I am not a chocolate addict per se but I have my moments. The girls on the other hand…

Rosaline makes a wild snatch towards the chocolate, while Hermione tries to keep me from moving. I raise the chocolate in the air taking advantage of my height, but Hermione flips out her wand to 'disarm' me of the chocolate. Just before she completes the movement and the spell I give the chocolate bar a long nice lick.

Heh heh. That was mean… and funny as hell.

That expression on their faces should be banned for heaven's sake. Did I kill their cat or what? It's my chocolate first of all, and I will decide when to share it. I was going to give it to them if they had spared me a moment alone enjoying a little bit of my chocolate.

Hermione is holding the chocolate with her fingertips at the corners of the bar, seemingly disgusted. I think I see fire burning in her eyes, but it could just be my imagination. Wait, is her hair sparkling with electricity?

Rosy comes towards Hermione to soothe her and uses 'scourgify' on the chocolate bar. "See, it's as good as new now."

'Mione still doesn't look convinced, "But, it will not erase the picture of him licking the bar from my mind." Even Rosy makes a disgusted face, "True that."

How irritating.

"Oh OK, then why don't you give it back to me." I think logic should work on 'Mione at least.

"But I wanted to eat Chocolate!" She stomps her feet on the ground and crosses her arms, pouting like a kid. What is she… five? Seriously. But it's so adorable her behaving like this. I want to kiss her for being so cute…

…kiss her…

…I wonder what…stop it!

I'm going to zone out if I start daydreaming like this.

"So you want some chocolate, right?" Hermione just huffs at my question and mutters something like 'as if you care'.

"I'll give you some chocolate, to the both of you" I point to both Rosy and Hermione, "if you close your eyes for 20 proper seconds."

"How is that going to achieve anything?" Hermione questions and even Rosy is skeptical.

"Just Do it" I tell them. Have I heard that phrase somewhere before?

They still look doubtful but comply nonetheless.

As soon as they close their eyes Rosy starts counting. I immediately whip out the ingredient list that I had given to all the members of the SP 2 days ago and scribble down a quick note for Dobby.

Rosaline has reached 7 seconds and success of this mission will depend on how fast Dobby is. I will be chewed out by Hermione if she sees Dobby after they open their eyes so I will have to put my faith in Dobby's abilities.

At 16 seconds Dobby silently appears with three cups of hot coffee and two bars of chocolate. I float all the items with my wand and Dobby silently pops back. I wonder where Dobby got the ninja outfit from? Meh. Whatever.

Just as Rosy finishes the count and they both open their eyes I float the two cups of coffee in their hands and place the chocolate bars on top of the cups. I take my chocolate bar that Hermione is holding in one of her hands awkwardly and float down the final cup into my hands as well.

So we all stand there with a nice cup of coffee in our hands with some delicious chocolate. Hermione and Rosy still have their mouths open from the shock… and the drool.

"How…" Rosy begins to ask but seeing the smug look on my face, drops it "Oh, forget it! Let's enjoy the treat." Saying that we all begin to move while feasting on our treat.

As I fall into step besides Hermione, I make one final comment, "See, I do care."

Hermione immediately ducks her head and covers her face with her hands and the coffee mug at the same time, while looking in the opposite direction.

Rosy starts giggling furiously and snorting and making all the weird girl noises that are way over my Runic abilities to translate.

There is a comfortable silence after that and we soon reach the Hogshead, where the 'meeting' is supposed to take place. Hermione vanishes our three mugs and we throw our wrappers before entering the Hogshead.

The place is still empty, with just a broke looking Dumbledore standing behind the bar.

All three of us take a seat and make ourselves comfortable.

"Rosy, will you now tell me what the meeting is about?"

"Harry, Daniel will be coming in a few minutes anyway, why don't you be patient?"

Kill me for being curious.

So we waited for the others to arrive, which was not that long actually. Daniel arrived with Ron Weasley and Sophia Granger on his either side. Daniel was rubbing his hands together in order to get them some warmth while Ron Weasley's face matched the color of his hair as the cold seemed to have gotten to him. Sophia was the most composed of them all, scanning her surroundings with an air of authority.

Now that I think upon it, Sophia has this one vital difference from Hermione. While both the sisters are extremely intelligent, Sophia has an air about her. She seems authoritative, both physically and in her demeanor. Like, she always ties her hair in a neat looking ponytail, with a set of angular glasses on her nose. Her facial features are also more pointed like that of McGonagall or the general depiction of a teacher in the muggle culture. Of course there's her attitude too. She is like a code of conduct written by some nasty old farts.

Hermione on the other hand is like flowing poetry; written by a young man in search of a perfect love. There is a command in her tone for sure, but the command has no bite. You simply obey her for the reason of not wanting to disappoint her. People often don't consider her to be a classic 'pretty girl', but the fact that she cannot be specified into designations like these only adds to her beauty. I do remem-

"-arry, are you list-"

What? Huh? Did I just zone out?

"Harry!" That was Rosy, for sure.

Tch. I was so into the zone too.

What do these people want now?

"Haha, I know that look well. Dreaming 'bout them birds mate?" Yeah Weasley I was, now go away. He also probably knows the look from his own in capacitance to think about anything else, except maybe food, chess and quidditch. As if anybody's going to believe him.

Wait.

Why are Hermione and Rosy giving me these looks? They won't believe that… that food addict would they?

Looks like I need to change topics before I am mincemeat.

"So… Who else thinks grapes are better than apples?" I finish lamely. Everybody just scoffs at my pathetic attempt to change the topic but get on with it nonetheless.

Daniel clears his throat to start speaking, when the door opens and a multitude of students come pouring in. There is somebody from every house except from Slytherin. Even the shy Colin Creevey is here, making it about 25 people in total.

After everyone has found some semblance of an order Sophia claps her hands to gather everyone's attention.

Claps her hands? Pfft.

What is she going to do next, clink her silverware on expensive wine glasses?

That would be fucking Hilarious. I cannot wait to see the day, when Ron Weasley will try to eat a seven course meal in proper English custom.

"Good day fellow students."

Fellow who? Man, this is way over my head.

"You all are well aware, I am sure, of the lackluster performance of our defense against the dark arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge. I have a proposal for you all which I am sure will be a relief to those burdened by the overly theoretical direction the DADA course has taken."

So… it's about tackling the DADA issue right?

"As you all know, Daniel here has been an outstanding prodigy in the subject of DADA since his first year." Everybody here nodded their heads at this including me.

"He has been taught personally by his father James Potter and his Godfather Sirius black. Daniel has also had the privilege of getting private lessons from the wizard Albus Dumbledore himself." People were starting to stare with awe at Daniel now, "Also, he is the only one who can tell us about the experience of facing down Lord V-Voldemort himself," She did not have to add the 'Lord' but at least she got the name down; though the other students don't seem to be too pleased about it. "As we should all know by now, that the threat of Lord Voldemort is indeed very real."

"Says who?" Fuck you, Zacharias Smith.

This set a flurry of conversation going about in the crowd. People speculating the credence of the rumors floating about Voldemort's return, the ministry's denial and all other such bullshit. The buzzing was broken by a slightly bold yet nervous voice among the gathered students,

"I b-believe in Daniel." Good old Neville.

There was silence for just a split second.

"Me too" It was Rosy this time.

Their voices of support were soon followed by mostly everyone in the room including me. Barring a select few individuals, the vote of belief seemed to be going strong. Seeing the tide in their favor, Sophia decided to push forward, "Therefore we have decided to form a Secret Club, whose purpose will be learning to defend ourselves under the tutelage of Daniel Potter."

"We have not fixed on the timings or the place of meeting yet, but if you sign on this list here we will make sure to contact you and let you know of the details, regarding the.. err… um .. well details." Sophia slipped up for a moment there, but then I guess nervousness can get to anyone.

More importantly, I absolutely cannot sign up for this! This is a disaster. How am I going to refuse? Everybody will be shocked and hurt by my refusal. Especially Hermione, since she keeps looking towards me and Rosy and is unable to stop talking about 'how cool this is going to be'.

I simply do not have the time and the commitment to be able to attend something like this. If I bind myself to the group it is only going to get in the way of the Shadow Phoenix. I also know that Sophia must have put some sort of enchantments on the list to account for defaulters, and I absolutely cannot pledge my loyalty to a group that I might have to cross at some point.

As I ponder my Dilemma, the ingredient list in my pocket starts turning warm…

Holy Cow! Is it time already? How fast do these guys work? I excuse myself into a corner and take out the list.

Most of the ingredients have been brought in and… I knew it!

About 55% seem to be the work of Trevor. I had my theories when he was able to procure the unicorn hair, but I am sure Trevor is the treasure hunter of our group.

The list seems full, except…

I look over towards Daniel wondering how we are going to manage the final item in the ritual list when suddenly, there is a sound of shattering glass and Hedwig comes barreling in.

What the-

Hedwig swoops over towards Daniel and makes a swipe at his face with her sharp talons. Daniel ducks and covers his face with his arms resulting in Hedwig leaving a gash on his arms. Before anyone can even respond to the situation, Hedwig has flown away through the same window she came from.

Everybody is stumped when suddenly Ron Weasley marches over towards me, "What the bloody hell was that mate?"

Hermione decides to come to my defense, "How can you say that? It's not as if Harry ordered Hedwig to do so, you know."

I would have agreed with Hermione, I would have apologized in that moment to Daniel who was being treated by a concerned Ginny Weasley at the moment, I would have scoffed at the irritated look on Sophia's face, but all I could do at the moment was run.

I shouted a 'I need to talk to Hedwig' before I was running in the chilly November air.

The warm paper in my robes told me all I needed to know. The final ingredients had been gathered, the shadow Phoenix had found its moment to rise from its own white ashes.

We must wake up now, while the blood is fresh.

A/N: Please Review and let me know your thoughts.