The next day, a message came from Harry through Ginny to Luna and Isabella that they were to go the seventh floor where the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy was at eight o'clock.

At seven fifty Luna, Alex, Morgan, and Isabella came to where the tapestry depicting Barnabus trying to teach ballet to trolls was hung. Terry, Michael, and Anthony were coming along later, but Cho and Marrietta had left the common room before them.

They closed their eyes and walked back and forth in front of the blank stretch of wall until a large door appeared. Isabella pulled it open and let her friends in, following shortly after.

It was a spacious room lit with torches. There were bookshelves filled with texts on jinxes, hexes, and counter-curses. Instead of chairs, large plump cushions were scattered over the floor.

A few other students were gathered at the far end, looking over a range of dark-magic detectors in some glass cases.

"What is this place?" Morgan asked, her green eyes wide. When an older Gryffindor boy, Isabella thought his name might be Dean Thomas, turned to explain, Morgan nearly fainted with excitement.

Isabella and her friends sat down on the cushions and looked around. When Terry, Michael, and Anthony arrived, Isabella smiled at Terry and moved over to make room. He blushed and sat next to her, his leg brushing against hers. Michael looked green with jealousy.

At eight o'clock everyone had arrived and Harry locked the door. When the key clicked, everyone fell silent and looked expectantly at him.

"Well," said Harry slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've - er - obviously found it okay."

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard them."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the collection of objects in the glass cases.

"Dark detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. He explained very briefly about them, then turned away abruptly and regarded them all.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -" he seemed to notice Hermione's raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be leader?" Everybody put their hand up, even Alex and Morgan who had never met Harry.

"Er - right, thanks," said Harry, flushing heavily. "And - what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still hanging in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"Hey, some of us have parents in the Ministry," Isabella said hotly. "Including you, Fred!"

"Oh, right," Fred shrugged. "How about Fudge is an Idiot Society?"

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred. "More of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

"All is favor of DA?" said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority - motion passed!" She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters:

DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again. "Shall we get practicing 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," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life last June." The entire room went very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said. Smith did not move, nor did anybody else.

"OK, I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice." Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Luna went with Ginny, and Alex and Morgan stayed together.

"Do you want to practice with me, Terry?" Isabella asked. He smiled and nodded eagerly.

"Right - on the count of three, then - one, two, three -"

"Expelliarmus!" Isabella shouted, flicking her wand and sending Terry's flying. "Sorry, Terry," she smiled as he stood still, looking slightly stunned. She fetched his wand back with a Summoning Charm.

"Here, your turn," she said, tossing his wand to him. They took a stance again.

"Expelliarmus!" Terry shouted, waving his wand with slightly too much enthusiasm. A book flew off the shelf and Isabella barely ducked in time.

"You don't need to wave your wand that much, Terry," Harry advised, walking past. "It's like this, Expelliarmus." Isabella allowed her wand to go spinning across the room, where Harry caught it in an experienced way.

"Expelliarmus," Terry tried again once Isabella had her wand back. It tugged feebly in her hand. She disarmed him a few more times and finally Terry succeeded in sending her wand flying every other time.

"OK, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop! STOP!" He picked up a whistle and blew hard, causing everyone to lower their wands.

"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry. "But we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.

"We need Quidditch practices, too!" Angelina said quickly.

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry. "We can decide on additional meetings them. Come on, we'd better get going."

Isabella and Luna had Alex and Morgan sign the parchment with everyone else's name before they left.

"Well, did you like it?" Isabella asked them at they hurried back to the common room.

"It was brilliant!" Morgan said enthusiastically. "I finally got Alex's wand away from her!"

"It was pretty cool," Alex agreed reluctantly. "Like a really good study session. I had fun, too."