Chapter Twenty One
Hermione gave Harry two weeks, and although no one said anything to him, it was clear that they all thought it was a good idea.
Harry wished he could talk to Severus about it, it was the sort of thing that would be good to talk over with someone who wasn't involved and he didn't think Ron would make a good alternative.
He sat eating his porridge one morning, he glanced at the teachers table, hoping to catch a glimpse of his Dad and saw Umbridge smiling down at him. Harry felt his temper burn inside him.
"I'm in." He said suddenly.
Draco, Daphne and Pansy turned to look at him.
"In what?" Pansy asked.
"I'll teach you all." Harry said, carefully activating his bracelet so no one could see, "I'm not sure how much I can actually teach you but I'll give it a go."
Pansy smiled and tired to contain her excitement, "Thank you Harry."
Draco nodded, "I know it seems daunting but you can do this."
Harry smirked, "So you keep telling me. Look, Umbridge has been staring at me all morning, will one of you pop out and tell Neville and Hermione that I'm going to help?"
Daphne nodded, "Yeah not a problem. Makes sense not to draw any more attention to us than we need to."
Harry nodded and headed off to class. Hermione slipped him a note on the way into Defence Against the Dark Arts saying they would meet tomorrow, the first Hogsmead trip of the year.
Harry woke up with a knot in his stomach, it was all well and good agreeing to teach them, at least partly to get back at Umbridge, but Harry felt there was very little that he could actually teach them; they already knew a lot after all and he had no idea what would, or wouldn't, be coming up in the exams so he was no help there.
It was a mild day as they wandered down the path to Hogsmead. Harry felt so much better being out of the castle, it was nice to not have to worry about Umbridge looking over his shoulder.
"So, where are we meeting Hermione and Neville?" Harry said, once they reached the large gates to Hogsmead and he felt clear of Hogwarts's shadow.
"The Hogs Head." Pansy said, trying her best not to wrinkle her nose.
Harry stopped in his tracks, "You can't be serious."
Pansy nodded, "I know it's not… the nicest of places, but it's nearly always empty so there is less chance of being over- heard."
Harry, begrudgingly, nodded and followed along. The door to the Hogs Head was dirty and clearly in need of repair.
Inside was no better; it was made up of one small, grubby room with a bar. The bar tender glared that them, wiping the bar down with a filthy rag. Harry didn't think he would be drinking anything out of a glass from here.
There were a few people around, all hooded with their faces covered and Harry couldn't help but think how out of place they all must of looked. Daphne led them to a small table in the corner where Neville and Hermione were waiting with several bottles of butter beer.
"Couldn't find somewhere a little nicer?" Harry smirked.
"We did suggest the Shrieking Shack but there were several people who weren't so keen on going there." Neville shrugged.
Harry froze, "How many people are coming?"
Hermione blushed slightly, "Just a few. I mean, we're not the only ones unhappy with the level of teaching we're getting currently."
"Hermione, the whole school is unhappy with the level of teaching we're getting currently!" Harry said, a little louder than he'd planned. Thankfully no one seemed to pay him any attention.
"There won't be that many." Hermione said, waving her hand somewhat unconvincingly.
Harry slid into the corner seat and opened a bottle of butter beer, watching the door. It didn't take long for it to creak open again, letting in a stream of people.
Ron and another boy for Gryffindor, Harry thought his name was Dean along with Lavender Brown and Ginny. Harry felt his face flush red as Cho entered with one of her friends, who was looking less than comfortable.
Harry counted another two dozen with a lot of students from all four houses and turned to face Hermione, "I'm going to say this in the nicest way I know how. You are an intelligent girl, Hermione, you should know that 'a couple' is TWO!"
Hermione grinned, "I told you, no one is happy with the level of teaching we're getting at the moment."
Fred and George went over to the stunned looking bar keeper, "Hi, lots of butter beers please."
"Can I try Fire whiskey?" Ron asked, popping up between them.
"No you can't, Ronald!" Hermione snapped at him, "Stop being stupid."
Ron blushed and shuffled back to where Ginny was sitting. Fred and George returned, handing out drinks to everyone before also sitting down.
Harry risked a smile to Cho, who beamed back at him, making him blush again. Hermione waited until everyone was sat down and ready to listen before standing up nervously.
"Well… um… thank you for coming," she looked to Harry who just glared at her, "Well we all know why we're here. Harry… I mean I had an idea. An idea that we needed a teacher, a proper teacher, someone who actually will teach us about Defence Against the Dark Arts, which we all want to learn."
She pause for a moment, looking around. Pansy gave her a smile and stood up,
"Now is the time to take matters into our own hands." Pansy said clearly, "Hermione is right, Umbridge isn't teaching us enough to pass our O. , let alone stay alive if… when we will have to stand against Voldemort."
Most of the students around them flinched at the name and fell silent.
"Is… is it true then?" a young Hufflepuff girl asked from the back.
Harry nodded, "Everything… everything Dumbledore and I have been saying is the truth."
"Maybe… if you could just tell us how Cedric died, exactly what happened to make you say You-Know-Who is back." a blond boy asked, rather aggressively.
"And you are?" Draco asked, sneering a little.
"Zacharias Smith." he said, sticking his nose into the air, "And I think we have a right to see proof."
Hermione glared at him, "I would think-" she snapped.
"It's OK Hermione." Harry sighed; he should of seen this coming, and was a little surprised that Hermione hadn't.
Harry looked over the thirty or more students before him, they just wanted to find out what happened that night, a lot of them, maybe as far as most of them, had only come to hear him speak, nothing to do with him teaching them.
Harry stood up, standing next to Hermione and Pansy, "You all want to know why I'm saying Voldemort is back, and honestly, if I were you I would want answers as well." he shrugged, "Thing is… I don't want to give you any. It's nothing against you, but I would do anything to be able to forget it, and having to repeatedly go over that doesn't help. If you can't understand that then fine, but I will not keep forcing myself to relive what is the worst day of my life. I will say this; I fought Voldemort that night, I saw him and one of his followers use the darkest of magic to bring his frail body back to life, I still have the scar on my arm from them stealing my blood. And I saw him kill Cedric, a good, pure-blooded wizard without a second thought. Voldemort is a threat to all of us; you either stand behind him or against him, he makes sure you don't have another choice."
The room fell very quiet. Harry glared at Smith until he sat down, looking rather sheepish. Hermione seemed unsure what to say now, Harry sat down, trying to keep his always simmering temper under control.
"We need to learn defence," Hermione said after a minute, "I think you all know that, that's why you're here, at least in part."
Harry wasn't so sure of that, but he'd made it very clear he wasn't going to tell them any more about Cedric's death and no one had left yet, that had to be a good sign.
Hermione took a deep breath, "And I think, under the circumstances, Harry is the best teacher we're going to get."
"But he's only a fifth year." Zacharias Smith said, "How much more than the rest of us can he know?"
"Is it true you can produce a Patronus?" a girl with a long plait down her back asked.
Harry nodded, "Yeah… yeah I can." a little confused by the sudden question.
Smith looked at him, "Really? A real one?"
Harry glared back, "Yes. It's a stag, like James's was."
"Blimey, Harry!" said Lee, one of Fred and George's friends, "I never knew that! That's way beyond normal fifth year level."
"Actually he learned to preform the spell in third year, when he fought off over a hundred Dementors, single handedly." Daphne said proudly.
"And he fought a Basilisk in second year." Neville pipped up.
Harry gave half a smile, "Yeah."
"And in first year he saved that Philosopher's stone." Draco added, "Again facing Voldemort alone and winning… or at least not dying."
Cho sat up, smiling to Harry, "And… not to mention last year, he managed to get through the Triwizard Tournament, he had to face dragons and merpeople and things..."
Harry couldn't help but grin at her compliments, she smiled at him making his stomach twist into happy knots.
"And that dragon was huge." someone called from the back.
Harry coughed, "Look I… I'm not trying to sound modest or anything, but I had a lot of help with all that."
"No you didn't." Draco pointed out, "At least not with the Triwizard tasks."
Harry shook his head, "I may have been standing alone, but I always knew people had my back and that was the important thing. I had help, people to help me train… when you're there you don't feel brave, I was terrified and I hate it when people call me brave as I didn't have a choice. Brave is when you have a choice, it's when you make a choice, not when you're thrown into a situation where you fight or you die."
The room had fallen very quiet, everyone was watching Harry, even his friends where watching him hardly daring to breath and break the silence.
"So be the one who trains us." Hermione said quietly, "Be the one who stands at our backs, the one who makes sure none of us stand alone. There will come a time Harry when many, maybe all of us, will have no choice but to stand or to die."
Harry took a deep breath and nodded, "Of course, you're right. Voldemort doesn't care about anyone, let alone anyone in this room. I can't promise you that luck will be on your side, like it was mine, but I will teach you everything I can."
"And pray that when the time comes, it will be enough." Pansy said softly.
"Why did the Ministry give us such a useless teacher?" a seventh year Ravenclaw asked, "I mean, clearly they are in denial about You-Know-Who being back but it doesn't make a lot of sense them sending someone who clearly can't teach."
"We… they think Dumbledore is going to build and train an army against them." Daphne said, rolling her eyes.
"You've got to be kidding?" the Ravenclaw asked.
Harry sighed, "No, she's right. Fudge is worried that Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic, and will use us to take power."
The Ravenclaw raised her hand "Well I promise that I won't wage war on the Ministry unless there is a very good reason and not just because Dumbledore said pretty please."
Harry smirked, "I think we can all make that promise."
"It's awful that they are putting our education at risk for such a stupid reason!" Ernie Macmillan huffed.
Everyone nodded. Harry was feeling a lot better about this meeting now, people seemed to be listening and they managed to move passed finding out what happened to Cedric.
"We need to meet fairly regularly," Hermione said, "otherwise we wont learn very well, which means we need to find somewhere we can get to easily without waving it under Umbridge's nose."
There was a murmur of agreement around the group.
"We could find an unused classroom." Ginny suggested.
Harry nodded, "I think everyone needs to come up with any ideas they can. I would like to meet at least once a week."
"Well it can't interfere with Quidditch." Bletchley said, "I think all the houses can agree on that."
Harry forced himself not to roll his eyes, "Yeah, I think we can work around that."
"Well while everyone looks for a place…" Hermione said, rummaging in her bag, she took a deep breath and looked at the piece of parchment she was looking at "we'll send a message out to everyone when we have somewhere. I think everyone should sign this, an agreement that we won't tell anyone, like Umbridge, who could get us into trouble about this. It's not against school rules but… well we all know what she's like. It will also give us a list of who's interested, make sure no one gets missed."
Pansy took the piece of parchment and signed it, handing it around the room.
"We're Prefects you know." Ernie said, looking over the parchment, "if this was found..."
"We're Prefects as well, but this is more important and you know it." Draco said condescendingly.
Ernie nodded and signed his name quickly. Cho came over, next to Harry using the excuse of needing the table to rest the parchment on.
"Hi Harry." she said, blushing slightly, "I think you're doing the right thing, helping us all. Not that you care about what I think of course."
Harry smiled and tried to look cool, "Yeah, yeah I thought so. And I do, care about what you think. I really do."
Cho smiled and passed the parchment on. When the last person had signed it, Hermione carefully put it into her bag, there was a feeling of finality in the air.
"Well, I suggest we all get going." Neville said after a few moments, "And enjoy our day trip."
Harry watched as the group left in twos and threes. Cho seemed to be hanging back, making a great effort of doing up her bag until her friend all but dragged her from the pub. In the end Harry was sat with Hermione, Neville, Pansy, Draco and Daphne and a lot of empty butter beer bottles.
"Honeydukes?" Draco said.
Harry smiled and nodded, standing up and heading out the door.