CHAPTER SIX:

Dumbledore's Army

(AUTHORS NOTES: For those curious, my OC's adventures at Hogwarts and giving Snape a daughter, and a life, a reason to smile, are mostly what the story is about.. She will eventually be paired with a canon and interact with more than just Luna, her best friend. I'm trying to stay as true to the series as I can while also inserting a little fuckery - who the hell am I kidding, a LOT -at random here and there, to make people laugh and smile. If you don't like those kinds of story, you won't like it. You were warned on my bio, I am a fangirl, so this is stuff I'd probably try and do if the stories actually existed. -le sigh- The three OTHER ORIGINAL CHARACTERS are mostly so my oc's not going off alone all the time.. They're based on 3 old friends of mine from high school. They won't be paired. Just minor players.. It's sort of like a story within a story, if that makes sense?

Did I mention that this story is over 5 years old? I started writing it when I was probably 14, so yeah.. if it seems a bit immature, it's because I found nearly all of it on an old flashdrive and decided what the hell, I'll upload it, see if anyone thinks it's funny or anything... Again I stress this.. IT IS AU. THINGS WILL CHANGE, THOUGH NOT TOO MUCH. ORIGINAL CHARACTER SHENANIGANS (like the totally made up Devil's Snare scenario below).. BE WARNED. NO FLAMES PLEASE?

OMG.. THANKS TO CHEMICAL77. Your review made me smile! I'm glad you like this so far!)

"Charmaine.. Wakey.." Mary Beth mumbled, sitting on her best friend in a rather inappropriate way, licking the sleeping Huffie's face as she shot up in bed, swinging a fist, swearing aloud. "What the ruddy hell, Mary Beth?"

Holding her nose as Rosa stated, "See now why I clearly told you YOU were waking her, not me?" Mary Beth grumbled the healing incantation and then said mockingly, "Oh.. Mmmm.. Neville.."

She blushed and sat up in bed on her elbows, propping as she fanned herself and asked, "Who the hell switched over my cold air spell?" as she looked at her friends with a raised brow, cranky facial expression, trying to figure out why in the name of Merlin she were being sat upon and woken up via facial licks during the night. Then it hit her and she shot up from bed.

And breathed a huge relaxed sigh of relief when she realized that the DA meeting didn't start for another 45 minutes. Her books all lie open on her bed and she'd fallen asleep while attempting to study, apparently.

"Do you really fancy Neville Longbottom, Charmie?" Mary Beth asked, sprawling impishly across Charmaine's bed in their shared dorm room, looking up at her friend.

"No.. I.."

"You what, Charmie?"

"Nothing you prats. Hand me some clothes."

"Just go like that.. Just go as you are. You're a pretty enough girl without caking all that Muggle shite on your face, Charmie." Josie stated as she held out a pair of low rise silky pajama bottoms and one of Charmaine's floaty pajama tops with lace straps.

"Trying to whore me out, girls?" Charmie giggled as she muttered the spell to at least curl her hair in the kinky long tendrils she loved wearing them in, and shoved her pajama bottoms on, pulling on a form fitting black camisole tank with lace trim and a soft cashmere black cardigan over it.

"Can't I just put a little on?" she asked, biting her lower lip, nervous at the prospect of leaving her dorm room WITHOUT makeup.. "I look disgusting.. This is.. I have to put a little on or ... "

"Luna's waiting in the hallway for us, damn it." Josie hissed as she looked at her best friend and then said "Oh.. And Neville's a member of Dumbledore's Army."

Charmaine smiled to herself and said "I knew it! He's so... "

"Girl, you totally have it bad."

"Yeah.. This is actually really, really interesting to see, actually.. For once, you're not making the poor guy do ALL the work and chasing."

"But, that being said.." Mary Beth started as Josie spoke up and added, "It can't hurt to make him do a LITTLE of the work and chasing."

Rosa looked at her best friend and then said "Wait just a second." fixing so that a little of the fringe bangs fell haphazardly out of the big clip with rhinestones that only barely held the wild pouffy curls of her friend at bay.

"Better."

"Can we like.. Go now?" Marybeth asked as Josie shuffled her feet impatiently and said "We need to learn this.. We are going to have to pick a side in the war, sooner rather than later. And that cow isn't teaching any of us a damn thing with those fucking books."

"Okay, I'm ready. And you're SURE everyone else will be wearing normal clothing?"

"Mhmm.. Let's fucking go already!" her friends chorused as they dragged her practically down the hallway and into the Room of Requirment. Hermione raised a brow and Luna muttered quietly, with a satisfied smile, "My best friends.. They'd like to join?"

Harry grinned and then said "We're working on duelling tonight." as he quickly caught the girls up on what they'd missed from the two prior meetings.

The girls settled into duelling, Rosa disarming Mary Beth of her wand, shouting a little, doing a backwards handspring as Charmaine disarmed Josie's wand and then did a cartwheel, laughing impishly. Righting herself, she turned to Hermione and smirking a little asked, "Duel?" as Hermione studied her, laughed a little and then said "You?"

"No, the green fairy one sees when they drink Absinthe. Yes, me."

The duel lasted maybe a second, Hermione disarmed Charmaine's wand and Charmaine scowled, pouting a moment as she asked, "What else have we missed?" of Harry, who took her aside, caught her up on how to make a Patronus, the proper way to shield yourself from an attack, the few other lessons. She thanked him smiling as the meeting ended and she leaned against a wall, waiting on Luna, her friends to finish talking to some of the other girls.

"About earlier.." Neville spoke from behind her, cautiously. She turned and then asked, "What about it?"

"It's going round school that we're.." he started, stopping as his face heated in embarassment, and he looked at her. Before he could stop himself, he blurted, "I understand if you laugh it off. Won't blame you."

Her eyes flickered over him slowly as she looked up at him and then said quietly, "So? Let them think it.. I mean unless you're bothered by it? I never really bother to explain anything I do or anything anybody thinks about me anyway." as she held his gaze a moment.

"So you don't care?"

"Why the hell would I care?" she asked, her hand going to her hair, fixing it back out of her eyes, only to have it flop down again. His hand shot out, smoothed the hair behind her ear as he looked at her a moment.

"Because.."

"Age is only a number. In case you don't notice, I don't act mine." she stated with a hint of a smile as he laughed a little and then said "I wasn't.. Wasn't referring to our age."

"What then?"

"I'm.. Well, I'm me."

"And?"

"Lots of girls... They laugh if I try and talk to them or something.."

"Do not."

"There's this Halloween thing.." he muttered clumsily as she leaned in, aware of how close they stood before answering boldly, "Pick me up outside of the Hufflepuff commons room.. I'll be the girl with the black mask and the black cat ears."

"You're going as a black cat?"

"A sexy black cat, Nevvie.. There IS a difference." she explained with a wink as she shuddered a little, rubbing her arms with her hands as she muttered grumpily, "They keep it so bloody cold in this damn castle."

"Maybe if you weren't barefoot 90 percent of the time I see you." Neville muttered as he looked at her and asked, "Are you still going out to the lawns?"

"Whenever Luna's ready to go, yeah.. The other girls are all sneaking out to the Whomping Willow, snogging with their boyfriends or something. Luna and I hate being the 3rd wheel, so yeah.. Why?"

"Just don't get caught." he said as he looked at her, smiling a little, adding in an almost whisper, "You look better without all that bloody crap on your face."

"No, I do not. I'm hideous." she said as Luna gave her hand a tug and the two girls made their way silently down the hallway and out into the lawns. Charmaine ran to catch up to her friend, sipping from the bottle as she ran. Hearing voices, the two girls crouched, biting their lower lip.

"Who is that?"

"Whoever it is, they're really mad."

"What the hell? Did Umbridge just go into the Forbidden Forest?"

"She did." Luna observed as the pair exchanged worried glances.. If she found the unicorns and the pegasus..

"Let's go inside.. last thing either of us needs is that cow catching us out here.. Should we tell Potter?"

Luna nodded as they walked quickly and silently back up to the castle, and splitting up, each girl went to her own dorm.. Or Charmaine was about to when a stern and calm voice spoke from the darkness. She froze in her tracks as Professor Snape asked casually, "What are you doing out of your dorm, Ms. Morgan?"

The name still felt foreign on his tongue. She was his child, damn it. He wanted more than anything to tell her, especially given what he'd been hearing via other teachers, some students about her Muggle adoptives.. The nerve of them to call themselves parents.

"I, umm.. I couldn't sleep, sir.."

"Perhaps you should try harder.. Go on, go to your dormitory now." he said as he waved her away, no punishment, no lecture only the faintest look of concern in his eyes as she walked past, obviously scared witless by his having appeared out of nowhere.

"To hell with Dumbledore.. I'm telling her." he mumbled as he turned, walked back down the hallway to his own quarters.

Charmaine collapsed on her bed and squeezed her eyes shut, willing her heart down out of her throat.. If they were caught at night, if Umbridge found out about the brave and noble thing Harry was doing for his fellow students in teaching a REAL DADA class.. Then there would be hell to pay. Lots and lots of hell.