Chapter Five: Dumbledore's Army

It was mid-December – Christmastime was definitely in the air. The snowflakes had stopped hurdling toward the ground at record-breaking speeds sometime while I was asleep, because when I awoke, there was a beautiful blanket of fresh snow. I loved Saturdays; it was the first day of the weekend, and therefore the first day all week I wouldn't be waking up alone. Katie, Angelina and Alicia all slept in on those days. That's why I was confused as to why I was the only one in the dormitory that morning.

"Where is everyone...?"

I quickly got dressed and jogged down the spiral staircase to the common room to see Fred sitting practically alone – I didn't recognize the five or six others lazing around. "Sara, come on let's get out of here!"

"Where the bloody hell did everybody go?"

Fred was tugging me through the portrait hole and down the corridor before I knew where we were headed. "Last night Ron and Hermione told me that everyone's gathering at some little pub in Hogsmeade today. Something about actually learning magic."

It had been fourteen weeks since I'd done anything remotely related to defence against the dark arts; the idea of using magic made my head spin. "Really? Who with?" The first person who popped into my head was Snape – maybe he had finally found a way to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Harry!" Suddenly, my Snape theory seemed impossible. Why on earth would he want to help anyone but his slimy Slytherins? "Come on, if we hurry we can make it on time!"

He barely gave me enough time to put my coat and hat on. By the time we'd gotten down to Hogsmeade, Fred and I were running through the streets, trying to reach the place that Hermione had instructed we meet.

"Here it is," Fred said as we stopped in front of a small pub no one appeared to be going into. "The Hog's Head." He pushed the door open and held it for me, but didn't move far passed the front door. Apparently we weren't the only ones running late; the only other people in the pub were George, Katie, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and a Ravenclaw girl with long, platinum blonde hair and an equally pale complexion.

"Um, hey." I said, timidly. Over the past few months, the only person from their group of friends I'd really communicated with was Neville, which is probably why I didn't recognize their new friend.

"Fred! Sara!" Hermione jumped on the balls of her feet and gave us both a running hug. "I'm so glad you decided to show up."

Fred laughed. "Of course, Hermione."

She must have noticed my confused look, because she gasped. "Oh! Sara, Fred, this is Luna Lovegood." Hermione motioned to the blonde Ravenclaw, who sat on a stool next to Harry looking quite spacey. I wondered if she always looked like that or she was just waiting for the meeting to start. "Take a seat, we'll be starting soon!"

"Is this everyone?" I asked hesitantly.

Harry sighed and looked around. "Hermione, I told you this wasn't a good idea; no one's going to come and learn from me – they all think I'm some nutter who's claiming Voldemort is back."

"You never know; it's a nerve-wracking time, Harry." Ron explained, shuffling his feet side to side. "People will want to learn how to fight back."

"Not if they don't believe there's anything to fight back against," argued Harry.

Luckily, people started to pile into The Hog's Head a few minutes later; Hermione was getting anxious. From the row of chairs closest the trio, I noticed Ron whispered something into her ear – probably something about how he thought no one else was coming, and it was time to get things started. She took a deep breath and stood strongly before the group of almost thirty people. "You all know why we're here. We need a proper teacher..."

"Why?" A stern-looking Hufflepuff boy.

Ron stepped forward, defending Hermione's honour. "Because You-Know-Who is back, you lousy git!"

"Says who?"

"Dumbledore!"

"Dumbledore only says because Potter says."

Before the pub broke into mass chaos, Luna's tiny voice erupted. "Is it true you can produce a Patronus charm?"

The mob settled down and Hermione beamed at the fact that her plan was working out after all. "Yes, I've seen it."

"And he's slain a Basalisk with the sword in Dumbledore's office!" Neville exclaimed, feeling proud that he knew a personal detail about seemingly the most popular boy in school – for better or worse. All of these declarations were causing the mob to mutter amongst themselves.

"And one time," Ron said, getting much too involved in the conversation, "he fought about a hundred Dementors at once!"

Hermione grinned at Harry. "And last year he really did fight off You-Know-Who..."

"Would you all shut up?" Harry shouted, putting a stop not only to his friends' compliments and bragging comments about him, but also the constant muttering of about thirty Hogwarts students. "It sounds great when you say it like that, but I had no idea what I was doing; I nearly always had help."

"He's just being modest..."

"No, Hermione! Doing this stuff in the real world, it isn't like school. In school, you can try again tomorrow, but if you're a second away from watching a friend die..." His words made my eyes wide and tore through my heart. Cedric... "you have no idea what that's like."

Hermione sighed, breaking the awkward silence that had made a home in the pub. "No, we don't. But if we're going to fight..." Hermione hesitated before boldly saying "Voldemort, we're going to need some sort of help."

I looked at Harry pleadingly, as I could only imagine everyone else in the room was doing. He eventually nodded. "Alright."

"Good on you, mate." Ron slapped his best friend hard on the back.

Hermione had set up a piece of parchment and a quill for everyone to sign up for the lessons. Hers and Ron's signatures preceded Harry's at the top of the scroll, Ginny, Luna and Neville were next, and by the time I'd reached the front of the line my name was right under Fred and George's.

Lizzy wasn't in third year yet, and therefore couldn't come to Hogsmeade, but I was sure she wanted to be involved. Harry agreed to let her come to meetings, but wouldn't let me sign for her. I completely understood the issue with that, and thanked Harry for being so reasonable.

I also noticed that there were a majority of Gryffindors signing up with some scattered Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. No Slytherins bore witness to the creation of what the three of them had dubbed Dumbledore's Army. I only recognized a few other people who had signed up to join the DA: Cho, Parvati and Padma, Angelina, Alicia, and a few other Gryffindors I hadn't gotten a chance to get to know. I guessed this would have been a good way to meet people.

Once people had begun to disperse from The Hog's Head, Katie and I had also left and found a bench on which to sit just outside. The snow had started falling gently again, and I was grateful to have Fred's old hat keeping me warm.

"You think Harry will be a good teacher?"

I shrugged. "Could be. He's got experiences under his belt none of us can even imagine."

"I suppose." Katie nodded in agreement. "But he says he has no idea what he's doing."

"He's got to know something." I insisted. "He couldn't have escaped You-Know-Who purely on luck... could he?"