Astra, Starbeam, Heather, Samuel, Hermione, Crookshanks, Ron and Harry were all sitting around the Gryffindor common room. Harry had recently gotten back from serving a detention with Filtch, which Professor Umbridge had given him.
"I was thinking that - maybe the time's come when we should just - just do it ourselves," Hermione said.
"Do what ourselves?" said Harry suspiciously.
"Well - learn Defense Against the Dark Arts ourselves," said Hermione.
"Come off it," groaned Ron. "You want us to do extra work? D'you realize Harry and I are behind on homework again and it's only the second week?"
"But this is much more important than homework!" said Hermione.
Harry and Ron goggled at her.
"I agree," said Astra.
Harry and Ron looked back and forth at Astra and Hermione, confused.
"I didn't think there was anything in the universe more important than homework!" said Ron.
"Don't be silly, of course there is," said Hermione, her face was alight with fervour. "It's about preparing ourselves, like Harry said in Umbridge's first lesson, for what's waiting for us out there. It's about making sure we really can defend ourselves. If we don't learn anything for a whole year -"
"We can't do much by ourselves," said Ron in a defeated voice. "I mean, all right, we can go and look jinxes up in the library and try and practice them, I suppose -"
"No, I agree, we've gone past the stage where we can just learn things out of books"' said Hermione. "We need a teacher, a proper one, who can show us how to use the spells and correct us if we're going wrong."
"If you're talking about Lupin…" Harry began.
"No, no, I'm not talking about Lupin," said Hermione. "He's too busy with the Order and, anyway, the most we could see him is during Hogsmeade weekends and that's not nearly often enough."
"Who, then?" said Harry, frowning at her.
Hermione heaved a very deep sigh.
"Isn't it obvious?" she said. "I'm talking about you, Harry."
There was a moment's silence.
"About me what?" said Harry.
"I'm talking about you teaching us Defense Against the Dark Arts."
Harry stared at her.
Ron was frowning slightly, apparently thinking. Then he said, "That's an idea."
"A good one," Heather said.
"What's an idea?" said Harry.
"You," said Ron. "Teaching us to do it."
"But…"
"But," Harry said, "I'm not a teacher, I can't -"
"Harry, you're the best in the year at Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione.
"Me?" said Harry. "No I'm not, you've beaten me in every test -"
"Actually, I haven't," said Hermione coolly. "You beat me in our third year - the only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew the subject. But I'm not talking about test results, Harry. Think what you've done!"
"How d'you mean?"
"Seriously?" Astra said.
"You know what, I'm not sure I want someone this stupid teaching me," Ron, smirking slightly.
Heather chuckled at that
Ron turned to Harry. "Let's think," he said, pulling a face.. "Uh… first year - you saved the Sorcerer's Stone from You-Know-Who."
"But that was luck," said Harry, "it wasn't skill."
"Second year," Ron interrupted, "you killed the Basilisk and destroyed Riddle."
"Yeah, but if Fawkes hadn't turned up, I -"
Astra had not heard of those two things, but the second one sounded so horrifying that she was confused as to why Ron and Hermione were smiling.
"Third year," said Ron, louder still, "you fought off about a hundred Dementors at once -"
Astra glanced at Heather, who just looked confused. At least she wasn't smiling.
"You know that was a fluke," Harry said, "if the Time-Turner hadn't -"
"Last summer," Ron said, almost shouting now, "you fought off You-Know-Who again-"
"Listen to me!" said Harry, angrily. He looked at Ron and Hermione. "Just listen to me, all right? It sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck - I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I didn't plan any of it, I just did whatever I could think of, and I nearly always had help -"
Astra looked at the other. Ron and Hermione were still smirking. She looked at Heather, who looked scared now, and back at Hermione and Ron. "How are you two smiling? Those things were probably all horrifying."
"Exactly!" Harry said, turning to Hermione and Ron again. "Don't sit there grinning like you know better than I do, I was there, wasn't I?" he said heatedly. "I know what went on, all right? And I didn't get through any of that because I was brilliant at Defense Against the Dark Arts, I got through it all because - because help came at the right time, or because I guessed right - but I just blundered through it all, I didn't have a clue what I was doing - STOP LAUGHING!"
"You don't know what it's like! You - any of you - you've never had to face him, have you?
"You think it's just memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something? The whole time you're sure you know there's nothing between you and dying except your own - your own brain or guts or whatever - like you can think straight when you know you're about a second from being murdered, or tortured, or watching your friends die - they've never taught us that in their classes, what it's like to deal with things like that - and you two sit there acting like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here, alive."
At least no one was smiling anymore.
"We weren't saying anything like that, mate," said Ron, looking aghast.
He looked helplessly at the girls.
"Harry," Hermione said timidly, "don't you see? This… this is exactly why we need you… we need to know what it's r-really like… facing him… facing V-Voldemort."
Still breathing hard, Harry sank back into his chair.
Astra got up, set Starbeam down on Harry's lap, and then sat back down. She was tense, but she thought that Harry needed Starbeam more right now.
Starbeam rubbed against Harry, and he started to pet her, but Starbeam also kept an eye on Astra.
Crookshanks rubbed against Astra's leg, and then jumped into her lap. Astra pet him, thinking that he had clearly learned this from Starbeam, but she kept an eye on Harry. Crookshanks didn't have the calming effect of Starbeam, but he was still nice.
"We're sorry Harry," Hermione said. "We're not trying to make light of anything you went through. We're just trying to point out that -"
"That you're a hero," Ron said.
There was another moment of silence. Hermione eventually broke it. "Well… think about it," she quietly said. "Please?"
Harry nodded, looking ashamed. Hermione stood up.
"Well, I'm off to bed," she said, in a voice that was clearly as natural as she could make it. "Erm… night."
Hermione got up, started walking toward the girls dormitory, and then turned to look at Astra and Heather.
Heather got up and looked at Astra.
Astra looked at Harry, and then to Heather. "I'll be along a little later," she said.
Ron, who had gotten to his feet, too, looked back at Harry. "Coming?" he awkwardly said.
"I'll be along a little later," Harry said.
Everybody went to bed, except for Astra, Harry, and the two cats.
"Are you alright, Harry?" she asked
Harry looked at Astra. "I don't know," he said. "Thank you."
"For what?" Astra said, confused.
"Partly for lending me Starbeam, but mainly for noticing that the supposedly heroic things I did were horrifying."
"Oh. Well, you're welcome. I'm sorry they're not more sensitive about that."
"Well, they don't know any better."
"You're right. They don't."