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Thanks to: Cherry Tree Blossoms, the Anon, Sam and rowellylovesgryffindor who reviewed
So… this chapter mostly takes place during the first DA meeting, but there is some more at the end…
So… I have nothing else to say here…
Chapter 7: The Meeting
"… Ok, I walked down this hallway yesterday… and that door was definitely not there!" Mia said as her, Fred and George stood in front of the large, wooden door.
"Well that's good isn't it? It means this has to be the place!" Fred said excitedly and he pushed the door open, striding through it.
"Oh my god…" Mia muttered, staring around at the large room, with bookcases along every wall, cushions stacked in corners and weird-looking instruments. In the middle of the room, a small bunch of people were sitting on cushions. Mia, Fred and George sat down next to Katie, and waited for everyone else to arrive.
Finally, everyone that had been at the Hog's Head got there, and Harry stood up.
"Well," he said, "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've… er… obviously found it OK."
"It's fantastic!" Cho Chang said, and everyone nodded in agreement.
"It's bizarre," Fred said, looking around the room, "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then…"
"Hey, Harry!" Dean called, looking at the weird instruments, "what's this stuff?"
"Dark detectors," Harry replied, "basically, they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around-"
"So if Umbridge turns up anywhere near here," Mia cut in, "we'll know?"
"Yeah, but you don't want to rely on them too much; they can be fooled."
Everyone looked around at the Dark detectors in wonder for a second, and then Harry spoke again.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and… er, what Hermione?" everyone looked back to the front of the room, where Hermione was lowering her hand.
"I think we ought to elect a leader," she said.
"Harry's leader!" Cho said, in a 'duh' voice.
"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, "it makes it formal and it gives him authority. So- everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?" everyone in the room raised their hands'.
"Yeah, 'cause we're really gunna elect, say, Zacharias Smith as our leader," Mia muttered to Katie, who suppressed a giggle.
"Er… right, thanks," said Harry, who's face had just turned bright red, "And- what, Hermione?" a few people in the room rolled their eyes.
"I also think we ought to have a name! It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina suggested.
"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" Fred said as and a few people in the room snorted.
"I was thinking… more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings," Hermione told him.
"The Defence Association? The DA for short," Cho said, "so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
"Yeah, the DA's good," Ginny mused, looking up at the ceiling, "only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" everyone seemed to agree.
"All in favour of the DA?" Hermione counted all the hands that had gone up, "that's a majority- motion passed!" Mia glanced over at Cho, who looked slightly sulky. At the front, Hermione wrote the words Dumbledore's Army on the sheet they had all signed a few days earlier, and stuck it on the wall.
"Right," Harry said, clapping his hands together, "shall we get practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful-"
"Oh, please!" everyone looked around at a scoffing Zacharias Smith, "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"
"I've used it against him- it saved my life in June," Harry replied darkly, as everyone glared at Zacharias. "But if you think it's beneath you," Harry continued, "you can leave."
Nobody moved. Nobody made a sound.
"Ok, I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practise." Everyone stood up and got into pairs. Mia went with Katie, Angelina and Alicia went together, and Fred and George.
"Right- on the count of three, then… one, two, three-"
"Expelliarmus!" everyone in the room yelled. Mia's spell missed Katie, and hit Cho's friend in the back- she twisted round, but Mia was already scrabbling for her own wand, which Katie had successfully knocked out of her hands. She snatched up just before Zacharias stepped on it.
"God, watch where you're walking!" she told him, stalking away and back to Katie.
"Ok… Expelliarmus!" Mia's wand went flying across the room, past Fred and George who were disarming Zacharias Smith behind his back, past the Creevey's who were sending books off the shelves, past Luna Lovegood, who was still staring dreamily at anything and everything as she said the spell. She shot daggers at Katie, who just grinned, before going off to retrieve it.
Suddenly, a whistle pierced through all the shouts and sounds of clattering wood, and everyone lowered their wands, turning towards Harry as he said, "That wasn't bad… but there's definitely room for improvement! Let's try again."
"Expelliarmus!" Mia and Katie said to each other. Mia's wand flew up in the air, again, and came back down and Mia caught it.
"Skills…" she muttered, before trying to disarm Katie again. Katie seemed to very good at disarming, there was only once when Mia's wand didn't fly out of her hand. Mia, on the other hand, was not. She only managed to disarm Katie once, but she had her suspicions it might have been a badly-aimed spell from Ernie Macmillan. Harry passed them on during one of Mia's more failed attempts.
"You're not flicking your wand enough… just a little more should do it though," Harry told her.
"Um… ok… Expelliarmus!" Mia flicked her wand and Katie's flew across the room. "WOO!"
"Right, just keep doing that!" Harry moved away towards Luna and Justin Finch-Fletchy as Mia focused of flicking her wand. When Mia managed to disarm Katie ten times in a row, she 'whooped' and punched the air. Katie took this as an opportunity and sent Mia's wand flying and falling onto Ernie Macmillan's head. Finally, Harry blew his whistle again.
"Well, that was pretty good, but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?" he said.
"Sooner!" Dean said, excitedly.
"Definitely sooner!" Mia agreed.
"The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!" Angelina said.
Harry thought for a moment, before saying, "Let's say next Wednesday night, then, we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going." He pulled out a piece of parchment and Mia smirked at Fred and George, recognising it as the Marauders Map.
Slowly, everyone left the room in small groups, scurrying back to their common rooms.
A few days later, the Quidditch team had just finished practice, and were walking to the changing rooms. Harry was telling Alicia and Katie about their last Charms lesson, in which, apparently, Lavender Brown had almost sent Flitwick flying out of the window. Angelina was lecturing Ron on his Keeping technique, and Fred was trying to talk to George. Note the word trying. George was not listening; he was thinking about Mia.
He hadn't actually told her what he'd realized, for a few reasons. First off: there hadn't really been time- what with all of her homework, and Quidditch practice and the DA. Granted, he probably could have made time, she would have loved being taken away from doing homework with Angelina, but then there were other reasons. Second: he wanted to make sure it wasn't just a one off thought- that it was real, which, as it turned out, it was. The feeling hadn't left. And third… well, it was the classic, of course. What if she didn't feel the same? Sure, they were going out. And sure, she definitely liked him… a lot… but-
"GEORGE!"
"Wah?" he asked, blinking and looking at Fred.
"You spaced off there for a second!"
"I'm allowed to space off!"
"Not when I'm talking, your not," Fred replied, grinning. George rolled his eyes and punched Fred's arm as they entered the changing room.
Defence Against the dark Arts lessons hadn't really gotten any better. Multiple times, Mia hadn't bothered to take notes, and multiple times she had been given extra homework. Every lesson, she tried to get through a Sugar Quill, and every lesson she failed. Mia was surprised she hadn't snapped yet, and thrown something at Umbridge… but she was pretty sure that day would come… and, to be honest, she really couldn't wait for it…
So… just a quick paragraph on Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons there at the end… means the argument is coning soon! Definitely within the next three chapters…
So… I hope I wrote the first DA meeting ok…
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