Author's note: Here's chapter 9. The Italics indicate flashback. Enjoy!

ashtree22: Yes, but that I second nature to Hermione; worrying about everything.

Starzinmieyez: haha yes! Too much fluffy for Christmas, yet one more chapter to before Christmas.

Lightningblade49: Yes, that is why I've paired them together. You'll know how important it is going to be in the upcoming chapters.

Thank you all for the reviews!

…..

Harry Potter was not definitely a morning person. His morning laziness would normally make him late for his classes. That Sunday morning Harry got up in a daze and started looking for his school clothes and bags frantically. The sun was almost up and he was sure Professor Filtwick would give him detention for coming to class late for the fourth time in a week. He opened his trunk, collected his books and deposited them on his bed. He shut the trunk with his leg which closed with a loud 'thump.' Ron startled awake while Neville stirred in his bed. Dean and Seamus were snoring loudly. Ron opened his eyes to see Harry running around his dormitory collecting his things.

"Mate? What are you doing?" Ron's voice was thick from sleep and he cleared his throat loudly.

"We will get late for class Ron, hurry up." Harry said sleepily.

"Yeah sure mate." He said sarcastically.

"Seriously. It's pretty late already, wake the others up." Harry moved towards Neville to shake him but Ron stopped him,

"Mate, it's Sunday and you've got bonkers." Ron smiled at Harry who flushed in embarrassment.

"Oh sorry." Harry said and flopped down on his bed still red.

Ron muffled his laughter and within minutes Harry heard him snoring again. Harry lay back on his bed, thousand thoughts running through his mind.

Harry thought of the first DA meeting which was to be held today, sometime in the eve. They had held a meeting yesterday again to go through the final arrangements. All eight of them had met in the empty classroom on the sixth floor.

"Starting with the room, the seventh floor Room of Requirement will be the best option." Harry said as he sat down on the desk once again. The Room of Requirement was found by Neville when he was running from Filch that morning. They were yet to visit it.

"I think it'll suit our requirements." Neville said, sitting up straighter in his seat.

"We'll see that Nev, once we get to see the room ourselves. Fred, George did you get to know how many students are interested?"

"Aye aye Caption!" They both shouted.

"Total 25 are interested." Fred said. Harry had come to know the difference between Fred and George a long time ago and still refused to tell anyone how he came to know who is who.

"And?" Hermione asked.

"15 from fifth year." George said and Fred continued further.

"5 from sixth year."

"2 from year below you and…"

"3 from seventh year."

They finished one after the other and earned grins from everyone else. Harry smiled at them thankfully and continued, "All right then. First we'll go and see the room and if it's satisfactory we'll arrange the first meeting tomorrow."

"Okay." Everyone nodded their approval and left the classroom to head towards the seventh floor. Once on the seventh floor Neville demonstrated how he had managed to make the room appear. They did in a similar manner and a huge rusty door, an average height of the doors of the Great Hall stood before them. The doors had ancient carvings in them; on close inspection it revealed the carvings of men and women with spears and wands in their hands ready for a battle.

Harry pushed open the doors to reveal a huge room, the size of the Great Hall. The floor was made of cold stone; huge book cases lined the far away wall while paintings hung on the left and the right side of the room picturing various scenes from various unknown battles.

"This is perfect." Harry announced breaking the awestruck silence that surrounded them.

They sat on the couch and the armchair in front of a fireplace near the huge windows. The fireplace glowed from the fire giving the place a very ancient look. They sat there for some time discussing further about the meeting.

"So we'll keep the meeting tomorrow at around 7:00pm?" Seamus asked and Harry nodded his approval.

"Then it's fixed, tomorrow will be our first meeting." Hermione recited.

"We ought to have a name." Ginny said, excitedly.

"How about Defence Tuition? Or Defensive Learning?" Dean suggested.

"Or how about OTAPWADT?" Fred asked, earning confused looks from everyone.

"Does it even mean anything?" Ron asked, voicing on behalf of everyone.

"Of course it does little brother." George said grinning evilly.

"Our teachers…

"Are prats…"

"So we have to…"

"Arrange Defence…"

"Ourselves." They both finished together and grinned at each other.

"Creative thinking. I like it." Seamus said enjoying the twins joke.

"How about DA? Dumbledore's army?" Hermione suggested and everyone instantly agreed much to the twin's frustration.

"It's settled then." Harry concluded the meeting. "The first DA meeting will be held tomorrow at 7:00 pm here. Fred, George, Dean and Seamus it will be your responsibility to inform them and bring them here without detection." They nodded their head in approval of their responsibility and everyone left the Room of Requirement to enjoy the Saturday.

Harry was not nervous but excited to teach. He still thought he would not make a better teacher but he wanted to give it a shot since people were eager to learn from him. He sighed as he looked around. His clothes were strewn across the table with his books and Hedwig slept on its perch near the window.

His thoughts circled around a certain old man who he had refused to think about. He had tried desperately to forget about Dumbledore but his mind and heart had a different plan. They didn't leave his body and he was forced to think about him. Harry didn't know if Dumbledore was still in the school or not but it seemed to him that he was quite busy with whatever he was doing to pay any attention to him.

Harry tried but he couldn't hide the hurt he felt when he realized Dumbledore was ignoring him. Harry had grown up to love him more like a grandfather than a headmaster. He got up hurriedly, trying to run away from his thoughts. He dressed in his jeans and a blue t-shirt and ran down the stairs.

The common room was empty except for a chair near the huge windows. He saw Hermione reading a muggle novel. She smiled at him when he sat down opposite her.

"Up early?" she asked closing the book.

"Yeah." He said his thoughts still distant.

"You are worried. What have you been thinking?" she asking, creases forming on her forehead.

"It's…it's about Dumbledore. You know how he is ignoring me these days." Harry let it all out. He knew it was no use hiding from Hermione. She would find out one way or the other.

"You know he's not ignoring you, he would never do that to you." Hermione argued.

"But he's doing it Hermione. Do you have any explanation to the way he is behaving right now?" Harry lost his patience and he was visibly angry now. Hermione tried to make him see some sense.

"But there must be something logical behind his behaviour. You know he wouldn't do it otherwise."

"I don't know." Harry said slowly. "I mean…it happens every year. He'll hide something from me, then I'll assume the worst of his behaviour and won't talk to him, then I'll do something in a life threatening way and then I'll realise that whatever he did and hid was for my own good, so I'll have to go back all the way to apologize for my rude behaviour and then the next year will be the same. Why does he hide things from me Hermione? Doesn't he trust me enough? I've proved my worth again and again but still he chooses to trust Snape and not me." Harry took a deep breath at the end of his long speech and looked at Hermione.

Hermione knew Harry was confused and he needed reassurance. Ginny's words came back to her, He might be brave and all but behind this curtain of being brave I know he's just a small kid scared of a thunderstorm. Harry was just scared of losing the people he loved.

"He loves you, you know." Hermione said quietly and opened her book again to let Harry digest it for a while.

The words swirled around his head. Does Dumbledore really love him? Did he love him back? Of course he did. He loved Dumbledore there was no questioning there. Dumbledore had stood by him when majority of the world had stepped back. He was the rock of his life, someone on whom he could lean on.

"I guess you are right." Harry said slowly and Hermione was glad Harry had seen some sense in her words.

"So…" she said changing the topic to a safer one.

"Hmm…" he said still deep in thought.

"I and Ginny are going to Hogsmeade today. You want to come?" she asked and Harry blushed.

"I….well….if you insist." he said sheepishly and Hermione laughed loudly.

"Oh Harry, why don't you tell her?" she asked.

"Tell her what? He said suddenly interested in his long fingers.

"Oh c'mon on, do you think I don't know?" She was enjoying Harry's discomfort more than she should.

"I can't Hermione. She is Ron's sister." Harry said as if it was an obvious fact.

"So?"

"So, you are not allowed to date your best friend's sister. Rule no. two of friendship." He sated as a matter of fact.

"What's rule no. one then?" Hermione asked frowning at his statement.

"You don't want to know." Harry smiled sheepishly and Hermione decided she definitely didn't want to know.

Before Hermione could say anything two seventh years walked down the stairs followed by a couple of sixth years. Ron came after half an hour followed by Ginny and the four of them set off to Hogsmeade. They discussed the evening's meeting along with a variety of topics which they couldn't discuss in the open atmosphere of the common room or the school.

They came back at around six in the evening and hurried back to their common room to change into comfortable clothes for the practice. The four of them waited in the Room of Requirement for the others. Harry's heart thumped loudly as he waited and realized he was scared more than nervous. Ginny grabbed his wand arm tightly when the door opened for the first time and he returned it back with a tight squeeze and suddenly he felt light. Maybe he'll have to dump the rule no. two of friendship after all.

The door opened and he saw Seamus walking in with a couple of students who were staring around them in an awestruck way. Dean walked in sometime later with more students followed by Fred and George who had bought the older students with them.

Harry recognized majority of the students. He saw Luna, Hanna Abbott, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Katie Bell, Lee Jordon, Anthony Goldstein, Lavender Brown and many others who he knew. Majority of the people present belonged to Gryffindor which Harry was glad for, they knew him and he knew them. So he had an idea how to deal with them, whereas others were concerned he wasn't so sure.

Harry then stood on a small podium when all twenty five along with the others were present. He turned to face them and cleared his throat. He glanced at Ginny who gave him a reassuring smile and a small nod of her head.

Harry began, "Hello, everyone." His voice was surprisingly strong and confident. Everyone greeted him back with excited looks. "Before we begin I want to have a few words with you all. First things first, keep this a secret. Stop yourself from pilling the beans to your best friends or your family or teachers. These will be the basic rules. You are not to talk to anyone about this. I'm trusting you all enough and not forcing every one of you to take an oath. Second thing, make sure you're regular here. Quiddtch captains can come to me later on with their practice dates so we'll meet on the eve when everyone is free." Everyone nodded their approval.

"Next thing, the announcement of the next meetings will always be passed on to Seamus and Dean who will let it out to you all. For the next couple of days we'll be practicing the basic spells and then we'll start with whatever your syllabus is. Mind you, basic spells are the root to most of the complex ones therefore it is important for everyone to master them before we begin with the complex ones. Does anyone have any objection to this part?" Harry asked his tone authoritative.

"I think this is a wise decision, starting from the basics." Angelina said and everyone nodded their head in approval.

Harry smiled at her. "All right then, we'll begin now. Split into groups of twos."

Everyone obeyed and spread out into the huge room with their pairs. There were even numbers of pairs as they stood facing their partners waiting for Harry's instruction.

Harry got down from the podium and stood in front of everyone. "We'll begin with a simple disarming charm – Expelliarmus. You'll be shocked to know how many of you won't be able to do it in one go. So on the count of three; one…two…three."

A series of Expelliarmus was heard around the room. Only 15 people out of 32 were able to disarm their opponent in one go. "See what I told you. Not even half of you managed to disarm your opponent successfully." Everyone stopped to listen to Harry with disappointed looks. "This is the major reason why most of you aren't able to perform the difficult ones. But no problem, I'm here to teach you."

"The people on my left will cast the spell while the people on the right will let their partners disarm them. Then it will be the other way around." Harry waited till every one nodded their approval.

"Alright. Listen, the word Expelliarmus is made out of two words; the English word is 'expel' meaning remove and the Latin word 'arma' meaning weapon or the weapon. In simpler terms it means removing the weapon from your opponent's hand i.e. disarming them. First thing, hold your wand still in your fingers; don't loosen your grip on it. Hold it tightly and aim it towards your partner." Everyone did as Harry said. Harry surveyed everyone and corrected a few people who held it wrongly. "Now the next thing you need to understand is spelling it correctly, if your pronunciation is not clear enough it will set the victim's sleeve on fire. But if your spell is powerful enough it can knock your opponent unconscious just like a stunning spell."

"Blimey." Michael Corner said from the far end of the room. Everyone gave an excited look and got ready to disarm their opponent. "Okay, remember to spell it correctly and to hold your wand as tightly as possible, this is the key to disarm your opponent. Now, one…two…three…"

A chorus of Expelliarmus echoed around the room. Almost as twenty five students managed to disarm their opponents, this earned them a loud applause from everyone in the room. Harry personally went to teach the others who didn't manage to disarm their opponents and didn't leave until they succeeded. The other group of people finished in a similar manner; some succeeded on their first go while the others had to do it twice or thrice but they managed under Harry's constant guidance and encouragement.

The group practiced for another hour taking turns to disarm their partners. At around 9:00 pm Harry ended the first meeting. Several people came up to him to thank him for his lesson and time or to tell him how they had managed to disarm someone for the first time. Harry felt proud of himself and of all the others who had complimented and thanked him and who made sure he knew how excited they were for their next lesson. All in all it was a huge success.

-….-

A week later.

Location: Unknown

A tall, thin figure sat on a huge golden throne on a raised platform. His black robes bellowed with the gentle breeze. His long, pale fingers were snaked around his wand which he kept twirling in his fingers. His eyes were menacingly red which spoke of nothing but death and cruelty. His snake like features gave him an appearance which made the hair stand on the back of the person's neck that was unfortunate to see the inhuman figure. Death hung around the man like a best friend.

"Wormtail." He called out in his inhuman voice, authoritative and cruel.

"My Lord." Wormtail hurried forward with a hunched back and bowed at the figure.

"What is the status?" he asked, without giving the hunched figure a glance.

"Almost done; my lord, only a few more days. Lucius's work is almost done. He'll reach here in a couple of hours my Lord." Wormtail shrieked when Voldemort lifted his wand.

"Very well Wormtail. Summon him to me the minute he comes back." Voldemort finally looked at Wormtail.

"Yes my Lord." He nodded his head vigorously.

"Did Sebastian come back?" he asked further.

"No my Lord. But he'll come any minute now." Wormtail was still spread across Voldemort's legs.

A crack sounded some few meters away and Sebastian entered, his black cloak bellowing behind him. Sebastian Roberts was Voldemort's inner circle death eater which Voldemort prized after Snape. He had an average height with broad shoulders. His face wore an arrogance which rivalled Lucius Malfoy's.

"Still on the floor Wormtail?" he asked smirking before bowing before his mater. Wormtail squirmed but didn't look up.

"Sebastian, rise." Voldemort motioned with his hand and Sebastian rose and his eyes met the red ones.

"Tell me what news do you have?" Voldemort asked impatience clear in his voice.

"It's almost done master. We are just facing some minor problem with the giants and werewolves. Dolohov has already left with Rookwood for the mountains; Greyback will deal with the werewolves issue. Bellatrix has returned from her mission and she is currently helping Lucius with the one you gave him." Sebastian waited for his Master's orders after he had spoken.

Voldemort's lips curled at the corner. "Very well Sebastian." He said. "Soon, very soon…" and he laughed, a cruel and a high pitched laugh.

Thousands of kilometres away Harry woke with a start, sweating and panting rapidly; his scar stinging as a trickle of blood trailed down on his cheek.

-xxxxxxxxxxxxx-

Done! One more chapter to come before Christmas!

Hope you all enjoyed and loved it!

Review! Review!