Chapter 7: Armies

Harry Potter stood on a Philadelphia side street, talking to the souls of Adam Travers's parents.

"There is great unrest in Death," Mr. Travers said. "His spell pulls souls back to earth, then he abruptly stops them."

"Do the souls know what their bodies are doing?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and that is causing the greatest disruption. Many of us want to fight back, but Death can't let them. The situation is near revolution. Death was forced to do something, to openly fight back against Travers."

"What did he do?" Harry asked eagerly.

"We cannot say," Mrs. Travers said.

"Do you know what your son is doing," Harry asked after a long pause.

"He is not our son," Mr. Travers said. "He killed us and everyone else he knew. Our son is dead; a monster has taken his place."

"But do you know what he is doing?" Harry asked.

"I'm sorry, but no. He has not raised our bodies, we just can't see," Mrs. Travers said.

Harry sighed. "Is there anyone who can help me who's actually alive?"

"Perhaps his teachers," Mr. Travers said. "If he would let anyone live, it would be them."

Harry nodded, "Thank you for everything, rest in peace," he said as he turned the stone in his hand three times and the Travers family disappeared. He didn't know what to do now. He wanted to know where Travers was going to be before calling over his department. For that he needed to talk to a soul in Travers's army. But he couldn't raise a soul without being able to see them. There were pictures of Travers's parents on their graves, but he hadn't found any pictures of anyone who Travers had raised. 900 bodies and he couldn't talk to any of them.

But maybe he didn't need to. Maybe he just needed someone to act as a liaison. He turned the stone three times and a small form took shape in front of him.

"Yes, sir?" the shape asked.

"I need a favor. I need you to talk to a spirit in Adam Travers's army and ask them where he is and what he is up to. Can you do that?"

"Of course Harry Potter sir, it would be an honor!" the shape said.

"Thank you. I owe you one," Harry said.

"No, Harry Potter sir, Dobby considers it a privilege!"

Albus Potter paced the far end of the Room of Requirement. The room was set up as a wizard dojo for the first meeting of the New Dumbledore's Army, or NDA as he had started calling it. The idea had seemed intriguing at first, and it felt good to be doing something. But now that he had to try and teach his peers something, it was starting to seem like a much worse idea.

But he had to try. It was clear that his friends weren't going to stay behind when the battle took place, and they needed training bad before facing Travers. He needed training too, and the preparation for these meetings would be good review for him. Whenever the battle was, he had vowed that they would be ready.

"Relax, I'm sure you'll do fine," Hugo Weasley said as he entered the room with Lily Potter close behind.

Albus smiled. "How many are coming?" he asked.

"Just a few," Ashley Wright said as she followed Lily in and kissed Albus on the cheek. "Cheer up, you're a natural."

"My dad was a natural, I'm better with my nose in a book than in front of a class."

"Hey, is this the DA meeting?" a couple of 4th year Hufflepuffs asked. They were followed by 3 Ravenclaws, 8 Gryffindors, 2 more Hufflepuffs, a mob of Ravenclaw girls and a few more Gryffindors.

"A few?" he asked, leaning over to talk is Ashley's ear. "48 is a few?"

"49," she said, pointing to the door where Albus was shocked to find Scorpius Malfoy standing. Albus motioned for him to enter. When the group had settled down, Albus addressed them.

"I want to be clear; this is not a study group or a fun club. We are preparing for a real encounter with a real enemy." He told them about Travers, Grindelwald and their army. "If any of you don't want to fight, you should leave now." Albus scanned the group, waiting for someone to leave, but no one did.

"We're here to fight, this is our generation's battle," Scorpius said. "I intend to win."

"Here, here!" the mob shouted.

"You are the best dueler here," John Wright added. "There's no one better to teach us to fight."

"Very well," Albus said. "If you're going to survive out there the first thing you need to know is how to defend yourself against anything. You don't have time to remember the counter curse, if you even know what spell your enemy is using. You have to be ready for anything. There are two spells which allow you to do this. They are the backbone of your arsenal. They are Protego, the blocking spell and Expelliarmus, the disarming spell. If you master those two spells, you might stand a chance against the zombies."

Albus instructed the group in casting the two spells and then split them up into pairs to practice. He was immediately disappointed. No one got the spells right. Ashley could disarm but couldn't block a fly. John took three tries just to cast any spell at all. Hugo cast flowers instead and handed them to a cute Ravenclaw, who then got blasted by her partner, Ashley's, disarming spell, sending the flowers into the fray. Scorpius actually lit his partner's hat on fire.

But they improved as the night went on. Scorpius was the first, besides Ashley, to disarm his partner. Albus teamed Scorpius up with Ashley and soon both were blocking successfully. Hugo managed to get partnered up with the cute Ravenclaw and they weren't practicing magic, but they were making progress. Lily and Rose were soon successfully disarming each other though they never got the blocking. Albus got Ashley, Rose, Lily and Scorpius to go around the room and help the others. By the end of the night, everyone had successfully cast a disarming charm at least once and Rose had pulled Hugo away from his new friend.

Albus dismissed the group around midnight and began cleaning up.

"You want help with that, dear?" Albus looked up and saw Ashley, Hugo, Lily, Rose and Scorpius still standing behind him

"Got anything else?" Scorpius asked.

Albus thought and then motioned for Scorpius to join him. "There is something I discovered," he whispered into Scorpius's ear. "If you add the word 'omne' to any spell it will attack everyone in your vision. It also divides the power of the spell, but since they're not paying attention, I bet you could disarm them all."

Scorpius smiled, turned toward the others and shouted, "Expelliarmus Omne!" Four red spells erupted from his wand. Ashley had seen it the previous summer and jumped out of the way. Hers missed but the rest hit their unsuspecting opponents, sending everything in their hands flying around the room. Ashley got up laughing just as loud as Albus and Scorpius.

"That works with everything then?" she asked. Albus just winked a reply.

Hugo picked up his watch, "It's almost midnight. Maybe we should get to bed," he said.

"Yea, probably," Albus said, finishing clean up. "See you at breakfast." And the six of them left laughing.