Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Harry Potter series. That credit goes to the brilliant mind of J.K. Rowling. Go Jo! I also do not own some of the material used. Again that belongs to Jo and Warner Brothers.
Chapter 3 The D.A.
It was now a week since the start of classes. And it had been the worst week Ron had ever had. The weirdest thing that had happened though in Ron's opinion was when Professor Snape had called him to his office. Ron had been expecting it, of course, but what he hadn't expected was the conversation they would have.
"Good evening, Mr. Weasley," Snape had greeted Ron.
Ron swallowed hard, and then replied, "Good evening, Pro… professor." He despised himself for the crack in his voice.
"I am sure that you are aware of why I summoned you," Snape said.
"The Dark Lord wishes me to divulge information about Harry Potter to you," Ron replied, trying to act as normal as possible.
"This is correct," Snape nodded. "I also don't want you to speak of this to anyone, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," Ron said, not wanting to his eyes to shift from his Head of House.
Ron's eyes grew as Snape bent closer to him before their eyes were now level and said, "I want you to listen carefully to me, Ron, because it's a matter of life and death."
"Sir?" he asked, not fully understanding what his teacher was talking about.
"You are to report to me once a week. In addition to giving me information on Potter, I will be giving you Occlumency lessons," Snape said.
Ron sank into the nearest chair, not caring if he had been invited to or not. This was big. How was he supposed to close his mind?
"May I ask why, sir?" Ron asked.
"You will in due time. But for right now, all you need to know is how to close your mind," Snape said, and Ron was glad that he didn't sound mad about him just sitting down.
"All right, Professor," Ron nodded.
Ron knew his Potion's professor was up to something, and he wasn't about to say anything about it.
xxx
Harry and Hermione looked extremely angry as he met up with them the next morning.
"She's an old hag, isn't she?" Hermione surprisingly said.
It wasn't like her to say something like that. But Ron knew she was talking about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge, and he could not help but agree with her. Ron saw Harry clutch his left hand.
"Harry, what's wrong?" he asked.
"It… it's nothing," Harry said, his eyes moving towards the ground.
"Nothing made you grab your hand like it had just been stabbed?" Ron asked, because that was exactly what it had looked like to him.
Harry sighed and showed him the back of his hand. The scar on it spelled out "I must not tell lies".
"You need to go to Dumbledore," Ron said, making Hermione roll her eyes.
She put her hands on her hips and said, "Don't you think I've already tried telling him that?"
"Well, we have to do something about this," Ron said, knowing that he would want to do the same if it had been him in Harry's situation.
"Hermione already has," Harry said, finally looking back up, but not at Ron or Hermione.
"Really? That's brilliant," Ron said happily, and then he turned and asked Hermione, "Why haven't you told me?"
"I wanted to," she started to explain, "but I don't think… well I knew you'd be for it, but being in Slytherin, I thought you might want to keep up appearances."
Ron had to smile. He loved it when Hermione got all flustered when she didn't know what to say.
"You do have a point about that," Ron said, a big smile still on his face.
Hermione smiled and gave him a quick kiss, and then told him, "I wish you could be a part of this."
"And why can't I?" Ron asked in an almost whiny voice.
"I don't know what I'd do if Draco… or anyone else from Slytherin found out you were in on this," Hermione said in a whisper as she held on to Ron's arm tightly.
"All right, fine," Ron said with a sigh. "Be careful."
"Of course," Hermione said as she finally let go of him.
Harry cleared his throat and said, "We better get to class."
"What exactly are you two doing?" Ron asked, but knew they weren't going to say anything if they didn't have to.
And sure enough, Hermione only told him, "Let's just say it's called the D.A."
xxx
Before they knew it, it was already time for the Christmas holiday. Ron was surprised when Hermione had grabbed his hand while boarding the Hogwarts Express. His Occlumency lessons with Snape hadn't improved very much, so he didn't know how his Head of House would react when he saw him and Hermione together. However, Ron had a feeling Snape already knew.
"How's that D.A. thing going?" Ron asked Harry and Hermione in a whisper as they walked through the train, trying to find a compartment.
"Oh, brilliant," Harry said, and Ron was surprise to see him smiling about it, which meant that it must be true.
"No one has tried to tell on you?" Ron asked.
"No, why?" Hermione wondered in a panicked voice. "Do you know something?"
"No," Ron quickly assured her. "But I wouldn't doubt Umbridge is trying to find out what's going on."
Harry groaned and placed his hand over his scar.
"Harry, is everything okay?" Ron asked as they finally found a compartment.
"No, my scar's been hurting even more since Snape's started giving me Occlumency lessons," Harry explained as he sat down.
"You're joking, right?" Ron asked, starting to get a bit panicked himself now. Snape hadn't told him anything about this. "Why would Snape…"
Ron saw Hermione and Harry glance at each other.
"Dumbledore wanted him to," Hermione said.
"Oh," Ron replied, calming down.
He didn't know what he'd do if Snape were to ever tell Harry that he was getting lessons also.
AN:
None that I can think of right now lol.
