In the Hog's Head

Disclaimer: I only own Kitty.

'Four Butterbeers, please,' said Hermione.

The man reached beneath the counter and pulled up four very dusty, very dirty bottles, which he slammed on the bar.

'Eight Sickles,' he said.

'I'll get them,' said Harry quickly, passing over the silver. Harry, Kitty, Ron and Hermione retreated to the farthest table from the bar and sat down, looking around.

'So, who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?' Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his Butterbeer and taking a swig.

'Just a couple of people,' Hermione repeated, checking her watch and looking anxiously towards the door. 'I told them to be here about now and I'm sure they all know where it is-oh, look, this might be them now.'

The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by the incoming rush of a crowd of people.

First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with (Harry's stomach did a back-flip) Cho and one of her usually-giggling girlfriends, then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Colin Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff girl with a long plait clown her back whose name Kitty did not know; Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Boot, Ginny, closely followed by a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom Kitty recognised vaguely as being a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and, bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko's merchandise.

'A couple of people?' said Harry hoarsely to Hermione. 'A couple of people?'

'Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular,' said Hermione happily. 'Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?'

In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around Harry, Kitty, Ron and Hermione, some looking rather excited, others curious.

'Er,' said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. 'Well-er-hi.'

The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry.

'Well ... erm ... well, you know why you're here. Erm ... well, Harry here had the idea-I mean,(Harry had thrown her a sharp look) I had the idea-that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts-and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us- '(Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident) '- because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts-' ('Hear, hear,' said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione looked heartened) '-Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands.'

She paused, looked sideways at Harry and went on, 'And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells, because You Know Who's back.' Silence followed this statement.

'Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?' said the blonde Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.

'Well, Dumbledore believes it-' Hermione began.

'You mean, Dumbledore believes them,' said the blonde boy, nodding at Harry and Kitty.

'Who are you?' said Ron, rather rudely.

'Zacharias Smith,' said the boy, 'and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes them say You-Know-Who's back.'

'What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?' Harry repeated, looking Zacharias straight in the face. 'I saw him. Kat saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe us, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone.'

Zacharias said dismissively, 'All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you and your sister brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, or why your sister was in the Hospital wing, I think we'd all like to know-'

Kitty's heart sank. The last thing she wanted to hear was a retelling of the events that had happened at the graveyard.

'If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you,' Harry said. His temper, always so close to the surface these days, was rising again. He did not take his eyes from Zacharias Smith's aggressive face, and was determined not to look at Cho. 'I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out.'

'So,' said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. 'So ... like I was saying ... if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to-'

'Is it true,' interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back, looking at Harry, 'that you can produce a Patronus?'

There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.

'Yeah,' said Harry slightly defensively.

'And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?' demanded Terry Boot. 'That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year ...'

'Er-yeah, I did, yeah,' said Harry.

'And in our first year,' said Neville to the group at large, 'he saved that Philological Stone- '

'Philosopher's,' hissed Hermione.

'Yes, that-from You-Know-Who,' finished Neville.

'And that's not to mention,' said Cho (Harry's eyes snapped across to her; she was looking at him, smiling; his stomach did another somersault) 'all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year-getting past dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and things ...'

'Yes, well,' said Hermione hastily, moving on ...'the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?'

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded his arms and said nothing.

'Right,' said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. 'Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week-'

'Hang on,' said Angelina, 'we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice.'

'No,' said Cho, 'nor with ours.'

'Nor ours,' added Zacharias Smith.

'Nor Vandyll's,' said Kitty.

'I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone,' said Hermione, slightly impatiently, 'but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters. We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts,' said Hermione, 'is that she's got some ... some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilise us against the Ministry.'

Everyone stared at her.

'Well, once a week sounds cool,' said Lee Jordan at last.

'As long as-' began Angelina.

'Yes, yes, we know about the Quidditch,' said Hermione in a tense voice. 'Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet ...'

This was rather more difficult; the whole group fell silent.

'Library?' suggested Katie Bell after a few moments.

'I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library,' said Harry.

'Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere,' said Hermione. 'We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting.' She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to say something.

'I-I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think,' she took a deep breath, 'that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to.'

She passed the sheet around so that everyone could write their names. When the parchment reached Kitty, she wrote down her name and Vandyll's, Luna's and Dennis' also.

'Well, time's ticking on,' said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. 'George, Lee and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later.'

In twos and threes the rest of the group took their leave, too.

'That went well,' thought Kitty as she left with Harry. Harry meanwhile was staring at the retreating figure of Cho Chang.

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