Apologies for the late and quite short chapter! has been down for about a week for me so that's why, but I did manage to sort it out. This chapter is quite short as it is more of a filler chapter but the next one will be a lot more meaty I promise ;)

happylady – I'm so glad you enjoyed that bit, I enjoyed writing it because I felt that support between Sirius and Harry was missing in the books yk? And since you liked that I'm sure you'll be happy to know there'll be some more of that in the next chapter as well :)

Chapter 18

Harry twisted the quill anxiously in his hand as he looked over the finalised plans for the DA. While he had enjoyed running it in fifth year, this was not only going to be so much bigger but also supervised by teachers. What if no one listened to him or did what he said? He'd look like a complete fool.

A tap on the shoulder caused him to glance up to see Hermione smiling softly at him. "It will be fine. You worry too much."

Harry just shrugged, regretting agreeing to run it even more than last year. If what Ron had said was right, more than half the school would be there! And that wasn't even including first years as they were too young.

"Listen to her," Ron said, chewing on a cookie. "Many of them will come for your fame I bet, try be your new best friend so they'll listen to you. Or flirt. Or maybe both," he concluded, looking thoughtful. Harry snorted with laughter though Hermione was less impressed, scowling.

"If they are then they can leave. It is a Defence club, not a 'who can get Harry Potter's attention club'."

That only made Ron join Harry in laughing, annoying Hermione even further.

"On a more serious note though," Harry said, "if anyone has come just for me –"

"Which they will," Ron added helpfully.

"Then they can leave. I'm sure Hermione would be happy to escort them out," he said, flashing a grin at his girlfriend who nodded.

"Ready to go?" Hermione said, getting up. Harry groaned but got up, Ron looking no happier at the prospect of moving.

"Come on Hermione, I was just getting comfortable."

Hermione rolled her eyes, dragging them both out of the common room. It was show time.

Harry let out a bang from his wand, Hermione having decided that was the best course of action to gather everyone's attention. As always she was right and everyone turned to him. Judging by Hermione's scowl Ron's theory that some people were here for him must be correct and he could see her itching to throw someone out already.

"Um, well, it's great to see you all here," Harry began awkwardly. He'd never been very good at having the attention all on himself. "Since it's such a large group of you all, I won't be teaching all of you at once, instead you'll be split off into groups based on ability. To do so first we'll just group the years together so second and third years if you head over there, fourth and fifth years over in that corner and then the sixth and seventh years gather around me."

Harry then watched as Parvati, Lavender and Dean strode off to the youngest years while Luna, Neville, Hannah and Susan went to do the OWL students. That left himself, Ron, Hermione and Katie to take the NEWT students.

"Right, firstly we're just going to go over the shield charm and some it's variants which was covered in fifth year to warm up before splitting off into pairs for a quick duel. Myself, Ron, Hermione and Katie will come around correcting you if need be and otherwise just seeing everyone's abilities so we can divide you down into four groups to make it easier to teach. Is everyone good with that?"

At the collective yes he began to wonder around, correcting a few people but relieved that most seemed up to standard on Shield charms, especially the seventh years since they had their NEWT's this year.

Professor Minks and Professor McGonagall were keeping an eye on them, along with Champion dueller Professor Flitwick. He gave a grin at Minks who slid over to him, pink hair loose around her shoulders. "Going well, don't you think?"

Harry shrugged, hesitant to say anything till it was over. Minks wasn't impressed with that, continuing on. "In a few weeks I think we should bring in some people, because though Flitwick would be great for duelling, Tonks, Kinglsey and Moody would be good too and we could invite Bill or Charlie to do something with curse breaking or magical creatures, though maybe not dragons," she finished with a grin.

Harry snorted at that but did consider what she said. "It would be good for them to get some practise with people who use DADA in their jobs but if we do start having people come in I think it would be most helpful if we had people come in for fifth years to demonstrate their jobs. While I know you can get internships in seventh year knowing what you want to do is almost impossible in fifth year because all we get is pamphlets, similar to our electives for third year which are completely useless."

"So what should we do instead?" Minks asked, looking interested. It was odd to have a teacher ask for his opinion for something and he was slightly flattered she thought he was worth listening to.

"Before second years have to choose their electives they could have a week when they try out each elective to see which they find interesting. Then in fifth year for each job in the pamphlet you could sign up to… five max? and then have a few hours with a witch or wizard from each job to do a small thing with them. For example Tonks could come and set up a job beginner Aurors might be put on and anyone who signed up for that could try it out, see how they find it?"

"That's smart," Minks said, humming. "Charlie and Tonks both knew what they wanted to do back in fifth year because… well Charlie's always loved dragons and Tonks wanted to follow in Sirius's footsteps but they did have the advantage of growing up knowing about magic."

"Exactly. Hermione's muggleborn and I'm muggle raised and there's so little accomodation for that in the magical world, we really need to improve it in Hogwarts at least. I mean, for a welcoming school to all, it really is catered to purebloods."

"Speaking of you being muggle raised, Charlie mentioned how awful the Dursleys were to you. Have you got that sorted out or should I send Tonks a message? Or –"

"You still talk to Charlie?"

Harry felt bad for his response the minute he blurted it out. It's just, he knew that Tonks and Charlie were still close but Minks had rarely been mentioned by either so…

"I'd hope so, after all, he is my boyfriend."

"You're dating Charlie?" Ron said loudly, having wandered over.

Minks scowled at him, hissing shhh before shooing Harry and Ron away, saying "Come on now, lead the DA."

"Speaking of what Minks was talking about, what is Sirius doing about the Dursley's? I doubt he left them be after what they did to you?" Ron asked quietly, pretending to be watching a pair of the seventh year duel.

"He spoke to Kingsley about conducting an investigation of them and sent him my memories to help with that at the end of summer. According to Sirius, we'll get a letter form Kingsley explaining whether there is enough evidence to convict them or not in the next week. If they are convicted Sirius doesn't want me involved in the trial so he'll go alone."

"What about Dudley? Would he go to – what is it in the muggle world? Juice?"

"Do you mean Juvy?" Harry replied dryly, noting something down on Cormac which Ron was almost certain had nothing to do with his duelling abilities.

"That's the one! Anyway, what will happen with him?"

"I know Sirius wants to punish him but," he sighed heavily, "all he was doing was what his parents taught him and I don't want to blame him for that. Sirius and I have agreed that we'll have a talk about what will happen with Dudley but if I get my way, he'll just get a warning."

Ron gave a grunt of agreement. "You're to nice for your own good sometimes."

Harry snorted. "That's what Sirius said."

"Maybe you should listen to him more," Ron said dryly.

Harry slowly turned to his friend who looked just as horrified as he felt shocked. "Did you, Ronald Weasley, just say I should listen to an adult?"

"It's Sirius? He barely counts," Ron squeaked out, desperately trying to salvage his defence.

"I can't believe it," Harry lamented. "You betrayed me –"

"Just what are you two doing?" Hermione snapped, appearing behind them and causing them to jump. She frowned, glancing at Ron's mostly bare notepad. "You should be paying attention to this, we're basically their teachers now."

She then swanned off and Harry bit his lip trying not to laugh at Ron's face, his mouth agape. "The cheek of her! Like she's doing so much more than us? And anyway, it was her idea," he grumbled.

Harry just laughed, giving Ron a clap on the shoulder. "I wouldn't complain too loudly, after all, she's the one who'll be helping you with our potions essay."

Ron cursed under his breath, turning to Harry. "Please can I borrow your notes?" he asked, gesturing to the notepad. Harry danced away, calling back to Ron's outraged noise "You think she wouldn't notice?"

"Maybe we should put you in juvy, not Dudley!" Ron hollered back, scowling and ignoring Hermione's confused face. Next week was going to be an interesting one.