Chapter 29:
Alicia was so excited the next morning that she woke Hermione up as soon as she was awake, yawning and tired but excited enough to ignore it.
"What?" Hermione grumbled
"Hermione, we found it." Alicia confessed
"Found what?"
"A place for the Defence Against the Dark Arts Lessons." Alicia said and Hermione was awake instantly
"You what?" she asked.
"Last night Harry and I fell asleep in the common room and Dobby turned up." she said "By the way, Dobby's the one who's been taking all your scarves, socks, hats and other things. And because you've been hiding things everywhere no one but Dobby will touch the common room, so thanks for that." Alicia said acidly before she shook her head "Anyway. We asked him if he knew of a place we could use to practice and he said he did."
"Dobby did?" Hermione asked
"It's the Room of Requirement." Alicia admitted "The Come and Go Room."
"The what?"
"Hermione I read about it in a book, didn't you?" Alicia asked her and Hermione shook her head.
"Well the Room of Requirement is always equiped with the seekers needs but its hard to find and very few people know about it because of this. It's perfect for our lessons!" Alicia admitted.
Hermione didn't say anything as Alicia got up and moved over to Parvati and Lavender's beds.
"Lavender! Parvati wake up!"
Both were grumbling just like Hermione had.
"We found somewhere to hold the Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons."
"Great." Parvati mumbled
"Eight o'clock tonight. Be at the seventh floor corridor where the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls." she said and Parvati nodded as she yawned as Lavender sat up.
"Why are you waking us up for this?" she mumbled
"I'm excited!" Alicia grinned and she moved for the doorway.
Alicia descended to the common room and was happy to find Fred and George already there, muttering to one another.
"Fred! George!" she beamed and they turned to her, surprised by her sudden enthusiasm.
"Did someone get hexed?"
"Is Umbridge fired?" George offered
"God I wish." Alicia said "No. We found somewhere for the Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons." and the girl lowered her voice as she said this. The twins' expressions grew into identical grins.
"Excellent." she beamed
"Eight o'clock tonight. Be at the seventh floor corridor where the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Tell Lee!" she said and the twins nodded "And anyone else you see from the Hog's Head."
"Including Ginny." George pointed to see the girl coming down the girl's staircase yawning.
"Ginny!" the red head jumped as Alicia called her. She replayed the message and Ginny immediately said she'd go and tell Michael.
"Come on, let's go find them." Alicia nodded and they moved from the common room and along the corridors towards the Great Hall.
The girls sat at the Gryffindor table until the three boys emerged and after a minute got up to move over towards them. They greeted the girls as they sat down with them and both replayed Alicia's message before Cho walked up to them.
Alicia smiled at the girl but was a little sad as she knew Harry would want to see Cho and tell her about the meeting himself as an excuse to talk to the girl. Ginny however went forwards and told Cho about the meeting regardless.
Alicia returned to the breakfast table before Harry, Hermione and Ron walked in and told them who she'd already informed.
"That should be enough until lunch time though." Alicia decided "Or it'll look suspicious." she believed and Hermione agreed instantly.
"We can tell a few more at lunch." she decided.
Their robes billowed and swirled around them as they splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology, where they could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof. The afternoon's Care of Magical Creatures lesson was to be relocated from the storm-swept grounds to a free classroom on the ground floor and, to their intense relief, Angelina sought out her team at lunch to tell them that Quidditch practice was canceled.
"Good," said Harry quietly, when she told him, "because we've found somewhere to have our first Defence meeting. Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie?" he asked.
She looked slightly taken aback but promised to tell the others; Harry returned hungrily to his sausages and mash. When he looked up to take a drink of pumpkin juice, he found Hermione watching him.
"What?" he said thickly.
"Well… it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe. Don't you remember when he lost you all the bones in your arm?"
"This room isn't just some mad idea of Dobby's; Dumbledore knows about it too, he mentioned it to me at the Yule Ball."
Hermione's expression cleared.
"Dumbledore told you about it?"
"Just in passing," said Harry, shrugging.
"Oh well, that's all right then," said Hermione briskly and she raised no more objections.
"What part of I read it in a book didn't convince you?" Alicia asked her and she replied with nothing.
Together with Ron they had spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list in the Hog's Head and telling them where to meet that evening and by the end of dinner the four were confident that the news had been passed to every one of the twenty-five people who had turned up in the Hog's Head.
At half-past seven Harry, Ron, Alicia and Hermione left the Gryffindor common room, Alicia clutching a certain piece of aged parchment in her hand. Fifth years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o'clock, but all three of them kept looking around nervously as they made their way up to the seventh floor.
"Hold it," said Harry warningly, "Alicia," and she began to unfold the piece of parchment at the top of the last staircase, tapping it with her wand, and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
A map of Hogwarts appeared upon the blank surface of the parchment. Tiny black moving dots, labeled with names, showed where various people were.
"Filch is on the second floor," said Harry as he and Alicia held the map close to their eyes and scanning it closely, "and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."
"And Umbridge?" said Hermione anxiously.
"In her office," said Alicia, pointing. "Okay, let's go."
They hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had described to Harry and Alicia, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.
"Okay," said Harry quietly, while a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would-be ballet teacher to watch. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."
They did so, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-size vase on its other side. Ron had screwed up his eyes in concentration, Hermione was whispering something under her breath, Harry's fists were clenched as he stared ahead of him and Alicia was walking with her eyes on the floor as she thought.
We need somewhere to learn to fight… Just give us a place to practice… somewhere they can't find us…
"Harry," said Hermione sharply, as they wheeled around after their third walk past.
A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Ron was staring at it, looking slightly wary and Alicia was excited. She bounced slightly on her feet with anticipation as Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door, and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.
The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody's office.
"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning," said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.
"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, as Alicia had moved over to one of the shelves and removed a book grinning. Hermione ran a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions… The Dark Arts Outsmarted… Self-Defensive Spellwork… wow…" She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right. "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"
"Oh my god I'm so excited!" Alicia said as she spun around the room and then laughed as she collapsed onto a cushion giggling. "It's perfect! Like Hogwarts is on our side!" she thought.
Hermione slid Jinxes for the Jinxed from its shelf, sank onto the nearest cushion, and began to read.
There was a gentle knock on the door. Harry looked around; Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived.
"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"
Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived, and he had to start all over again.
Alicia took a few and explained the room to them as Harry finished telling some more only to begin yet again.
By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied and the two had explained the room more than ten times. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at Harry and Alicia who was standing where everyone could see her near the doorway. Hermione carefully marked her page of Jinxes for the Jinxed and set the book aside.
"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay —"
"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.
"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then…"
"As we said, the room creates itself to hold what ever it is we need." Alicia grinned
"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.
"Dark Detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled…"
"Especially around here where students are lying and sneaking about." Alicia added "Fake Moody had a heap of them last year. I wouldn't be surprised if they were his to be honest." Harry turned his face to the Foe-Glass.
"When you're ready Harry." Alicia said with a smirk earning a chuckle from everyone as he turned his back on it looking at her slightly annoyed.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and — er —" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"
"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.
"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.
"Isn't it Alicia and Harry?" Anthony wondered
"Technically I think you usually only have one leader." Alicia thought with a shrug
"And technically Alicia's a bit better with her leadership skills." Harry said
"But you've done more." Ginny reminded him.
"I guess we should make an exception and just have both." Dean said
"See, I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives either one or both the authority."
"Well I think Alicia knows more than Harry but cause of the Triwizard Tournament Harry's put it into action more so we should have both." Ron said and many people nodded in agreement after this.
"So — everyone who thinks both Alicia and Harry ought to be our leader?" Hermione asked
Everybody put up their hands, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very halfheartedly.
"Er — right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And — what, Hermione?"
"Would you like to teach instead Hermione?" Alicia asked with a sigh and the girl blushed but spoke anyway.
"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.
"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.
"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."
"The Defence Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.
"All in favour of the D.A.?" said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority — motion passed!"
She pinned the piece of paper with all of their names on it on the wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters.
"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful —"
"Oh please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"
"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved mine and Alicia's life last June."
Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.
"To be slightly more honest though," Alicia said looking at Harry "That's because yours and Voldemort's wands are brothers and refused to fight against one another." Alicia said to which everyone was surprised. "However Expelliarmus holds a bit more power than just disarming your opponent." she said turned to everyone else "When you use the Disarming Charm, it usually means you've won, whether it be a duel or not. When you win against another opponent the opponents wand can sometimes change its allegiance and then becomes yours, whether you've got one or not. So not only does it disarm your opponent but it could leave them defenceless even if they get the chance to pick up the wand again as it wont work for them properly." Alicia explained and a few people looked at her surprised. "Also, a wand will never attack its owner."
"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said turning to Zacharias. Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.
"Okay," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all those eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."
"Unless you guys would like a demonstration?" Alicia offered. Most of those here though had seen Snape demonstrate the charm in the fifth years' second year and were comfortable going without one.
Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Predictably, Neville was left partnerless.
"You can practice with me," Harry told him. "Right — on the count of three, then — one, two, three —"
Alicia moved around through the pairs as Harry helped Neville and she simply observed for a bit as the room was suddenly filled with shouts of "Expelliarmus!". Wands flew in all directions, missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air.
Alicia frowned at a lot of the sloppy spell work, glad they'd started with something so simple as many people were not succeeding in disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backward a few paces or wince as the feeble spell whooshed over them.
Alicia began to stop a few pairs and moved to hold her wand and make the movements to show them how to correctly flourish their wands while Harry, who had left Neville with Hermione and Ron to help others, moved over to Zacharias Smith, who every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Harry did not have to look far for the solution of the mystery, however; Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.
Alicia noticed as well and flicked her wand to cause both their wands to go flying into her hand. They turned to her grinning sheepishly as Harry gave them disapproving looks as well.
"Sorry, Harry," said George hastily. "Couldn't resist…" as Fred was looking at Alicia to try and get her to stop giving him the disapproving look on her face.
Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them. Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchley's wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.
"I didn't think they wouldn't know the wand movements." Harry said
"Especially as Smith said it was easy but we're not in class with half of them and they haven't used it as much as we have." Alicia said as they stood at one end.
"Okay, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop! STOP!" but the cries fell on unheard ears as the spells and shouts were louder.
"How about a whistle?" Alicia offered and Harry suddenly left her side and picked one up of the nearest row of books. "I love this room." Alicia grinned before Harry blew the whistle.
Everyone lowered their wands.
"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement." Zacharias Smith glared at him.
"The key to good spell work is all in the wrist movement." Alicia said as she held her wand and she flicked it at Harry to have the whistle fly from his hand much to his surprise. A few people chuckled.
"Concentrate on your wand movement a little, perhaps before you point it at your opponent."
Everyone began to copy her movement and she watched them all, pointing out a few errors before she smiled.
"Better." she nodded with a grin.
"Let's try again…" Harry decided.
The two moved off around the room again and Alicia, after noticing Harry avoid Cho and her friend, moved over to help them herself. She caught him however after he'd inspected everyone twice.
"I'm not going to just pay attention to Cho just because you're worried about criticising her." she whispered to him and he blushed "You can give constructive criticism without being rude Harry now go give it a try." she ordered nudging slightly in the raven-haired girl's direction.
Alicia moved off to Zacharias and Anthony and stopped as Anthony flung his wand and the spell hit Fred behind Smith, to which Alicia laughed, earning a glare.
"Here." she said and stood beside him her wand out, he mimicked her. "Around and point." she said doing it slowly. Anthony copied her and she winked at him before doing it to Zacharias and his wand went soaring through the air and into Alicia hand. Anthony, Michael, Ginny, Terry and the twins all clapped and she bowed before moving to hand Smith's wand back. He wasn't looking at all happy.
"Look, if you don't want to be here there's no shame in leaving now. No one would really notice as they're busy. But you can't come to a lesson and then get angry about being told what to do, that's what a lesson's about." She scolded "Also, if you continue to be such a prat, you're gonna end up with many more people beside the twins disliking you. Try and have some fun instead of hating everything." she ignored his huff as she walked off towards Parvati and Lavender.
"Harry, Alicia, have you checked the time?" Hermione called from the other end of the room. Both instantly looked at their watches and Alicia cursed. It was ten to nine and they had ten minutes to get everyone out and back to their common rooms without getting into trouble with Filch.
Harry blew his whistle quickly and everybody stopped shouting, "Expelliarmus!" and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.
"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"
"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.
Angelina, however, said quickly, "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"
"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "and we can decide on additional meetings then…"
"And work around everyone's needs and free time as well as try and leave space for other things like homework." Alicia said pointedly at Harry, Ron and the twins who all rolled their eyes.
"Come on, we'd better get going…" Harry said as Alicia pulled out the Marauders Map, checking for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. After her assurance Harry began to let people out in groups of threes and fours and Alicia watched the tiny dots anxiously to see that they returned safely to their dormitories: the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor that also led to the kitchens, the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the seventh floor and the Fat Lady's portrait.
"That was really, really good, Harry. And I knew Alicia had the leadership skills. I liked how you added in the theory on the spell as well." said Hermione, when finally it was just her, Alicia, Harry, and Ron left.
"Well, adding a bit of why it works helps people understand and then master it better in my opinion." Alicia smiled "I do have to admit it was fun though." Alicia said to Harry.
"Yeah, it was!" said Ron enthusiastically, as they slipped out of the door and watched it melt back into stone behind them. "Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?"
"Only once," said Hermione, stung. "I got you loads more than you got me —"
"I did not only get you once, I got you at least three times —"
"Well, if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand —"
"I guess we'll have to give you both the chance to to stun one another and settle this." Alicia said stopping them as they neared the common room. She'd given Harry the map to watch for teachers on their way back and he said nothing, not even to complain about the two's bickering.