The first meeting took place on November 2nd around eight in the evening. A Thursday. It was the soonest they could manage and it was more just a meeting to make sure everyone was still in, as well as a way to pass out the messenger galleons.
Cedric, surprisingly, did not have a detention that night, which he was relieved about. His jélvre gel had healed the words to the point where he could wear his prosthetic. Unfortunately, the few days without it made it painful and difficult to use.
Though he was the first to arrive at the Room of Things, he waited in the corridor to direct people inside and wave off outsiders. At least the members arrived in small clumps. Less suspicious that way. The last to arrive were the Slytherins and they stuck together, led by Tabatha.
Cedric checked the Marauder's Map to make sure no adults were around and ducked into the room. If he thought it right, the door should disappear when any unauthorized people walked by.
Everyone who was at the Hog's Head had arrived and were sitting on old cushions in a circle. Cedric took his seat next to Harry. The room had a few more things included this time like dark magic detectors, though more than a few of them were broken. At the very least they would know what the items looked like and research how they were supposed to work.
"All clear," he said. "The Thing of Evil is none the wiser about our whereabouts. The first meeting of this club has officially come to order."
"I think we need a name," said Luna. "It will make it feel more real. All secret societies have a name."
"Theater Club?" Cedric suggested. "That way anyone asks where we were, we'd be like 'oh, Theater Club, I'm helping with the sets'."
"Nah, Umbridge banned the theater club," said Lee Jordan sourly. "We were supposed to be off book next week."
"It wasn't even a bad play," muttered George. "We were doing Little Shop of Horrors. Do you know how hard we worked on the sets?!"
"I know and my work for Audrey II has gone to waste!" Lee lamented, pulling a puppet of a plant out of his bag. "What do I do with this now?"
"Feed me!" the puppet whined.
"I think a hand is supposed to make it move," said Cho.
"Alright, focus people," said Harry.
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.
"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.
"Could be called Three Thousand for short," said Cedric.
"We need something more subtle," said Harry.
"The Defense Association," Cho suggested. "D.A. for short, that way no one will know what we're talking about."
"I like D.A.," said Ginny, leaning back on her hands. "But we should call it Dumbledore's Army."
"So we can use him as a scapegoat in case we get caught," said Tabatha, nodding. "Clever."
"Actually, it was because that's the Minister's worst fear."
"Oh…" Tabatha blushed. "Well, I like it anyhow. Raise your hand for Dumbledore's Army."
The majority raised their hands in agreement. Even Draco, though Cedric could see that the boy's opinion of the old wizard had gone from contempt to pure apathy. Which seemed fair. The more Cedric learned of Dumbledore, the shorter the pedestal got. Then again, he supposed Dumbledore didn't exactly build it himself. He did something great and nobody checked back in to see if he was still on the right path. Good intentions, but out of touch was how he, Cedric, saw it.
"Right," said Harry. "So, I've been practicing a lot of defense stuff over the summer with Tonks and Professor Lupin, so I thought we could maybe go over what Tonks taught us in her lessons. Go over the bread and butter of spells and once we're all good with that, we could move on to more advanced stuff."
"I could use some help with that," said Neville. "I'm surprised she even passed me, I didn't do well with those spells at all."
"Don't worry, Neville," said Harry. "That's what this is about."
"Being prepared for when shit goes down," said Cedric.
"I'm starting to wonder if Granger got the right idea abandoning ship," said Ernie.
"She left because she made an agreement with her parents," said Harry. "I guarantee you that if she were here, she'd be running this club. Not me."
"You're running this club because you're a good teacher, Harry," said Cedric, rummaging around his bag for a protein bar. "Hermione told me about how you taught her the Patronus Charm. Lupin taught her the spell, but further instruction from you helped her actually cast it. And I only knew Expelliarmus because my mum taught me."
"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 my life last June."
Smith opened his mouth stupidly then closed it.
"But what if it isn't enough?" Blaise asked. "For all we know, you could have something that prevents you from getting hurt too badly. Your parents most likely died trying to protect you and that can create protective charms."
"He's got a point."
"Yeah, we should be learning more advanced stuff," said Ernie.
"I think we're ready for more advanced stuff."
"Speak for yourself."
"This stuff is plenty advanced, if you don't like it—" Harry began but was interrupted by a wave of arguments.
"Well, seems this club is already going better than expected."
Everyone turned to see Hermione standing there in full Día de Muertos garb, her face done like a skull and a large, orange hat with candles was perched on her head, which perfectly matched her orange robes.
"Hermione!" Cedric got up, but as he approached, he realized she wasn't actually there in the room with them. He pressed his hand against the glass. "How did you get in the mirror?"
Hermione pressed her hand against his, though he couldn't feel her.
"Well, you accidentally touched your mirror when you said my name. I heard what was going on while I was getting dressed, thought I'd try out this new spell I learned. My physical form is actually in meditation on my couch while my consciousness is here. I'm not part of any decorating committee and Día de los Muertos doesn't begin until sunset."
"Maybe you can convince these people that Dumbledore's Army is a good idea, Mione," said Ron.
"Dumbledore's Army? Is that what you're calling yourselves? I would've gone for a misnomer, but that's just me. Something like… Junior Wizengamot… or the Adventure of Martinn Miggs club or… the lettuce club and when you're checked up on, you all just try to eat a head of lettuce really fast and whoever wins is the host of the next meeting."
"Those clubs are all terrible," Terry scoffed. "Who'd want to join any of them?"
"All of those are very real clubs at Castelobruxo."
She walked along the side of the room until she was closer to the group. "It's odd. I'm absolutely useless in combat, yet I seem to be rather good at running things behind the scenes."
"Why are you dressed like that, Granger?" Ernie asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said. "This is how we all dress in Latin America. If you visit you have to dress exactly like this all day every day."
"Stop teasing him," said Cedric, leaning against the mirror. "Now, what were you going to say?"
"Oh, right." She snapped her fingers. "We've got people from every house in this club, which means things are pretty serious if you've got Gryffindors and Slytherins, and Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws working together. I know you have your individual beeves, but you've got to put all that aside for one common enemy."
"You-Know-Who?" Colin Creevey asked.
"No. Umbridge," she said. "And the Ministry. The laws are unjust so you need to fight the law."
"I fought the law and the law won," said Cedric.
"Right now, you fight the law by being rebels," said Hermione. "Spread the truth, protest where you can, resist. Law is not equivalent to morality. Don't be the mindless sheep the Ministry wants you to be. In order to do that, you need to work together. Trust each other. Listen to Harry. He might say he doesn't know what he's doing, but he's got amazing intuition and knows what to do in a pinch. You don't have to believe him about Voldemort, just believe that he has your best interests in mind." She looked at Cedric. "How was that?"
"Brilliant pep talk, love," he said. "Everyone is really feeling inspired."
"If I didn't know you so well I would think you were being sarcastic," she said. "But I know you aren't." She paused and tipped her head. "The bells are ringing, Día de los Muertos has begun! Adiós, everyone! I've got a party to get to."
She paused and looked around. "How do I get out of here? Oh, there's the door."
Hermione opened a door that wasn't there before. Cheers and music erupted through it, cutting off when the door was shut.
"Right," said Harry. "This is your last chance everyone. If you want out of this, go ahead and leave right now."
Nobody moved and Cedric saw that they had accepted that they were already in too deep to leave now.
"Great, let's begin with the disarming charm. Everyone pair up. Neville, why don't you team up with Luna?"
"Er, right."
Cedric paired up with Tabatha and since this was an old hat for both of them, they focused more on trying to do it non-verbally while the rest of the room filled up with a cacophony of voices. Harry went around the room correcting forms and passing out encouragement, particularly to Neville.
"Daphne, you're a little rigid, the wand will go farther if your arm is relaxed but your movements are sharp. It's in the elbow, not the wrist."
"Thanks, Harry," said Daphne. Her wand flew out of her hand and was caught by Draco.
Harry opened his mouth and closed it. Draco stared him right in the eye.
"Do you have something you'd like to say, Potter?" he asked.
Harry sucked in a sharp breath and said through gritted teeth, "Great work, Malfoy."
"There. Was that so hard?"
"Wow… that was almost too painful to watch," said Daphne, getting her wand from Draco.
Harry rolled his eyes and moved on. Near the end, everyone was more or less consistent.
"That went brilliantly," said Harry. "Well done, all of you. Before you go, I'd like to give you these."
He passed out the coins Cedric made and they were studied with interest. However, their interest turned to confusion when Cedric had them lick the coinage so he could cast the tether charm.
"These are how we'll spread the word for the next meeting," Harry explained while this was being done. "Cedric's binding them to you so they can't be lost or get stolen."
"How clever," said Cho.
"We should have the next one as soon as possible!" said Dean eagerly.
"Don't forget there's still Quidditch practice," Angelina warned.
"We'll aim for next Wednesday," said Harry. "I'll try and confirm with you all twenty-four hours before and don't worry if you can't make it to each meeting. Life happens. Alright, brilliant work once more everyone."
"Harry, stay behind," said Cedric. "I want to talk to you."
"Sure."
They waited until everyone had left. Cedric removed a couple books from his bag.
"I still haven't started teaching you Occlumency," he said. "I think it's high time we've begun."
"Oh, yeah," said Harry. "Sure."
"How are your guardians helping?"
"They seem to keep me from dreaming at all," said Harry. "One time I did dream and when I woke, I found out Neville accidentally kicked the dog out of place on his way to the loo."
"May I inspect the dream?" Cedric asked. "I promise, I won't look at anything you don't want me to see."
"Yeah, sure," said Harry.
"Okay. Bring the dream to the forefront of your mind. Do you have it pictured?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I'm going in."
It had all the usual odd things a dream had. A place that felt normal in the moment and then when you awoke you wondered how you ever thought it could have been real. If he hadn't been looking with the full purpose of finding something off, Cedric would have missed it when the scene changed. The longer he stayed, the more the scene melted away and he was walking towards a door in a dark corridor. Cedric moved and when he touched the door, he could hear the raspy voice of Voldemort trying to push images in Harry's head.
"Remember this place. Remember. Find it."
Cedric backed out, his skin going cold.
"Yeah, it's bad," he said and held up the books. "I need you to read these and we will meet every night and work on your Occlumency, okay? These books will give you a better understanding of how legilimency works and how to protect yourself from it. Now, I might learn some things you might not want me to learn, but I'll try and be as non-invasive as possible. Okay?"
"Okay," said Harry, slightly shaken at knowing Voldemort was trying to lure him somewhere. He put the books in his bag. "Cedric? Thanks."
"No problem, Harry." Cedric left the room and made his way to his dorm.
After each D.A. meeting, Cedric worked with Harry on Occlumency. They worked through different methods to try and find what best suited Harry. The go-to was emptying your mind, but Harry's was constantly moving. He didn't get moments where he could think of absolutely nothing. So Cedric would need to try a different approach.
"I made up a game," he said during one of their meetings. "It's called 'capture the thought'."
"How does it work?"
"You'll think of something and try to prevent me from finding it. Build whatever you need to. A fortress, a maze, whatever you think will prevent me from finding the thought. I think exercising your mind to think like a legilimens will help you better with blocking them. Shall we try it?"
Harry shrugged and pushed up his glasses.
"Alright, think of the thought. Not that loudly. Think of another one and construct your obstacles. Ready? Go!"
~o0o~
For a change of pace and in hopes he could get some fresh air, Professor Sprout sent Cedric to serve detention with Hagrid. Most days she didn't actually make him do anything except give him a chance to do homework or work on filling orders, but Umbridge started breathing down her neck about proper punishments.
"I give proper punishments," Professor Sprout had muttered when the thing of evil left. "And for Cedric that's no punishment at all."
Still, they had to keep up some semblance of detention or he'd be right back to writing lines.
Hagrid's hut glowed warmly against the cold grounds of Hogwarts. The first snow crunched under Cedric's boots, but he was warm thanks to the fur-lined cloak Viktor had sent him for his birthday.
Pulling a leather glove off with his teeth, Cedric quickly knocked on Hagrid's door.
Moments later, it swung open to reveal the half-giant's furry face.
"Good evening, professor," said Cedric.
Hagrid glowed from the title and let him in.
"Evenin' Cedric," he said. "Been a while since I've seen yeh."
"Yeah, 'specially since you were on that secret mission Dumbledore sent you on. I hear classes have gotten a little dull without you around."
"You know about my mission?"
Cedric sent him a cheeky grin. "Now I do. Is that what happened to your face?"
Indeed, Hagrid's face was puffy like he got hit with a large hammer. Both eyes were black and swollen, his nose looked to be broken twice, and his fingers were bent awkwardly like he had attempted to set them himself.
"Er… yeah, but you shouldn't be poking your nose into things that don't concern you," said Hagrid sternly. "You could get in mighty big trouble."
"Professor, I pretty much have detention for the rest of the semester," Cedric replied and went digging in his backpack. "Umbridge would give me detention if I so much as scratch my bum in her presence. At this point, I wonder if I should just be in for a penny, in for a pound. Now have a seat, I'll take care of those injuries for you."
"Oh, you don't have to do that, Cedric," said Hagrid. "I can take care of meself just fine."
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you have to," he said and muttered, "I'm still trying to remember that for myself."
"Alright then, if you're insisting we'll just count it as part of your detention."
He nodded and went about tending Hagrid's injuries. He supposed it was a good thing he spent the first couple years at Hogwarts helping Madam Pomfrey out in the hospital wing. He learned a lot and he might as well use that knowledge. Hagrid was quiet and pensive while Cedric helped him. Unusual for him. He always found something to talk about even if his oversharing could be a source of trouble.
"Is there something on your mind, Hagrid?"
"Hm? Oh, well, that Umbridge woman worries me some. She's setting one o' those inquiries on me. It's clear she looks down on my heritage."
"Yeah, hard to believe that woman was a Hufflepuff."
"Was she? Way she talks and acts, you'd've thought she'd be Slytherin."
Cedric shook his head. "We have past alumni on our walls dating back to when the camera was invented. She's up there. It makes sense if you think about it. Her undying loyalty to the Ministry? Loyalty can be toxic if you aren't critical to those you are loyal to. And her obsession with "fairness" is twisted to the point of pulling the rug from under anyone, even if all they're doing is trying to make life fair for themselves."
"I suppose."
There was no supposing. What was with people assuming that all bad witches and wizards were Slytherins? He could name ten evil Gryffindors off the top of his head and twenty evil Ravenclaws! It was just the Slytherins people took seriously to begin with all because of something their Founder believed ten centuries ago. The other Founders weren't exactly saints! Helga Hufflepuff supported the enslavement of house-elves, Rowena Ravenclaw experimented on and then killed magical creatures, and Gryffindor was the one who wrote the rule that werewolves and so-called "half-breeds" like veela, vampires, half-giants, and half-goblins weren't allowed to attend Hogwarts. It actually wasn't until Dexter Fortescue that this rule was overturned. Even so, most veela and vampires attended Beauxbatons as they were more openly accepting closer to the beginning.
Guess it was time to change the conversation. Cedric brought out dry shampoo in hopes to get the congealed blood out of Hagrid's matted mane.
"So, I'm guessing your secret mission had to do with Giants?"
"How'd yeh guess?"
"Hagrid, you're over eight feet tall. It was either dragons or giants and if it were dragons you would be gushing about them."
"Nothin' gets past you. Have you always been like this or did you just spend too much time around Harry, Ron, and Hermione?"
"A little bit of both." Cedric tossed the comb in the trash. "That's about all I can do for you right now and we still have two hours left in this detention."
"I still don't think I should be tellin' you what I've been up to. It's more trouble than it's worth. I could get in trouble."
"Who would I tell without getting in trouble myself?"
"Fair point. I'll put the kettle on."
2 hours later
Dearest Hermione,
Holy fuck! You'll never believe it! So, Dumbledore sent Hagrid and Madame Maxime to try and get the giants to reject our good friend Morty. He almost succeeded, but the giant who was going to agree with him got smashed with a rock by a bigger giant who's gonna fight alongside the Death Munchers. And, get this, Hagrid brought his little brother back with him. I'm pretty sure Grawp is a full-giant, because he's apparently living in a cave in the nearby mountain.
Cedric
Dearest Cedric,
WHAT THE F #!
Love,
Hermione
~o0o~
"I think I figured out the problem, Harry."
"Is it that I'm no good at Occlumency? Because I already know that."
"No… we're looking at it from the perspective of someone who didn't have a screwed up childhood. Someone who has a healthier mental state."
"Gee, thanks."
"Harry, you need therapy, there's nothing wrong with that. Frankly, I think everyone could benefit from therapy at least once in their life, but I digress. You can't dodge the legilimens because your mental state is already fragile. So you just need to make it so they don't ever want to enter your head again."
"Brilliant. How do we do that?"
"By trapping them! Do you ever get hung up on a memory or thought and you just can't shake it no matter what? Not even a bad one, just something that randomly pops up and you think of it no matter how hard you try not to?"
"Give me a break, give me a break. Break me off a piece of that KitKat bar," Harry sang.
"Yes, good. Trap them in a commercial jingle or a music video. Psych them out before they get a chance to mess with you."
"You know," said Harry thoughtfully, "maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a link with Voldemort. I'd be able to see what he's doing."
"Harry," said Cedric incredulously. "Voldemort has had much more practice with Occlumency and Legilimency than you have. You'll only see what he wants you to see, okay? You're much safer with him out of your head, now come on. I'm going to go spelunking and you're going to stop me. Ready?"
"Yeah… I guess you're right. Okay, I'm ready."