Another week, another chapter! And another fun one this time as we steam ahead into 5th year… There's a brief mention of Hogwarts Legacy in this chapter as I headcanon why we can walk to the village freely in the game but Harry and co couldn't later on.

Some dialogue is borrowed from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Chapter 16 – In The Hog's Head.

The first week of term passed relatively quickly for Leo, although the constant reminder on how important their upcoming O.W.L.s were and the ability of Harry to just turn around and snap at every little thing did challenge that and create some awkward, lengthy moments. The Boy-Who-Lived did seem fairly pleased when both Leo and Fay told him that they believed him however, and Leo could only imagine the stress that he was under given the scrutiny the entire school was giving him.

The second week of term brought about the biggest change though as it was announced in the morning's Daily Prophet that Professor Umbridge had been appointed the first ever Hogwarts High Inquisitor, giving her the power to sit in on lessons and effectively judge the teachers. Leo didn't have one of those lessons until the Tuesday however, when Professor Umbridge came up against an equally defiant Professor McGonagall. After that however, school progressed as normally as it ever could for Leo. He hung out with Fay, and even Anna after she had spent a few days after the first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson ignoring them, he did his homework getting relatively good grades in most of his subjects despite an A in his first Potions essay on moonstone, and he tried to keep as far away from Harry Potter related drama as he possibly could.

Time then settled into its usual pattern, and soon enough it was the first weekend of October which brought about the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, and Leo was excited to get away from schoolwork for a day. It was his mum's birthday a couple of weeks later so he wanted to find a good gift to send back to Loch Ryan while he was in the wizarding village. Dressing in a comfy black jumper and some baggy jeans he met up with the two girls in the common room, quickly getting their breakfasts in before making their way to the northern exit, queuing up for Filch to check their names were on the list of students that had permission to visit Hogsmeade. Thankfully that was over with quickly, and they began the walk to the village.

"I can't believe it's been a hundred years since students could go freely." Leo pointed out as they passed through the gates.

"Why did that change?" Anna asked. "I would love to be able to just nip down to Hogsmeade during a free period and spend it in Gladrags."

Leo shrugged. "It's not very clear. I think some students abused it and skived off lessons."

"As fascinating as the history lesson is…" Fay rolled her eyes. "Have either of you thought about what you want to do after Hogwarts?" She asked them both as they walked.

Leo was slightly taken aback having not expected such a heavy question. "Urm." He murmured. "I dunno, why?"

"Because we need to start thinking!" Fay exclaimed. "We have to pick NEWTs soon after all."

"Fay!" Anna groaned. "We haven't even taken our OWLS yet."

Fay pouted, and Leo rolled his eyes back at her. "What do you want to do?" He asked, realising that she had obviously put some thought into it beforehand to ask the question.

Grinning, Fay answered. "I don't think I'm ever going to become a world-famous beater any time soon unless for some reason next year I get picked for the team and surprise everybody, including myself…" Her smile dropped quickly however and she grew serious. "Though with everything that's going on… maybe an Auror would be useful. They will need as many people as possible."

Anna snorted, and Leo elbowed her. "That's a wonderful idea." He said pointedly. "And you are good at Defence…"

"Nobody is good this year." Anna rolled her eyes. "That old hag is making sure of that."

Fay had an odd look on her face, which Leo noticed. "What is it?" He asked her.

"Anna is right, nobody will be passing at this rate." She began. "And I only thought about being an Auror when I overheard Hermione Granger telling the Weasley twins about a meeting…"

"No." Anna said quickly. "I'm out."

"You don't know what I'm about to say!" Fay exclaimed.

Anna crossed her arms. "You said meeting and Hermione Granger in the same sentence. I don't want to know what you're about to say! I spend far too much time with her in the dorm as it is, I do not need Hogsmeade ruined by her too." She looked around and grinned as she saw a familiar face. "You two can go and be bored to death by Hermione, I'm going to actually enjoy myself and stick my tongue so far down Wayne's throat…"

"Ew." Fay grimaced. "Fine, go then." Anna stuck her tongue out at the pair of them and skipped away towards her Hufflepuff sort of boyfriend. "I'm so glad I don't like boys."

Leo pouted. "We aren't all that bad."

Fay snorted. "Don't tell me you wouldn't like to do that." She pointed at Anna who was sticking true to her word and looked like she was hoovering up Wayne's face with her mouth. "To Hermione."

"What?" Leo questioned too quickly. "No… I… what do you mean?"

Fay snorted an extremely unfeminine laugh. "Come on, let's go and get good seats. I hear Harry is going to actually talk about what happened in the Third Task."

She took his arm and dragged him further into Hogsmeade, and Leo was growing suspicious when they reached the Hog's Head. "Fay… what are we doing here?" He asked quietly.

"Come on!" She just insisted, dragging him through the door close behind the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan.

The pub was disgusting. Grime covered the windows so much that the only light coming into the room was from the lit candles floating around the place, and the floor felt like compressed earth, yet was clearly stone with hundreds of years of filth having been squashed down by customers boots. Leo grimaced as he entered, looking around and he was surprised to see Harry, Ron and Hermione already sat down inside. He looked around and saw more familiar faces. Dean and Neville were there from his dorm, while fellow Gryffindors Ginny Weasley and Parvati Patil were mixed with a group of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. "What are we doing here?" He asked Fay yet again.

"You'll see." She smirked, annoying Leo even more.

Leo just shook his head, but he still reached into his pockets when Fred ordered 27 butterbeers from the barman. Leo took his bottle, making sure to wipe the rim vigorously with his jumper sleeve before he and Fay took a seat with everyone else, all eyes on Harry Potter.

When the group was completely silent, Hermione cleared her throat. "Er." She began, her voice sounding nervous. "Well, er, hi." She looked around, and Leo tried to give her a quick smile, although he was sure that it looked more like a grimace. As he began kicking himself for being an idiot, Hermione continued. "Well… erm… well, you know why you're here. Erm… well Harry here had the idea… I mean…" She looked nervous at speaking to so many people, and Harry glaring at her couldn't have helped. It was a side of Hermione that Leo had never seen before. "I had the idea, that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts… and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Hear hear!" A Ravenclaw from Leo's year, Anthony Goldstein, said, giving Hermione a welcome boost.

"Well I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." She looked at Harry briefly. "And by that, I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells."

"You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL too though, I bet?" Michael Corner asked.

Hermione nodded. "Of course I do, but more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because… because…" She took an audible deep breath before continuing. "Because Lord Voldemort is back." Leo gripped his chair, wincing at the name. There were numerous other inevitable reactions, but all eyes were quickly fixed on Harry, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there at that moment. Hermione continued her speech. "Well, that's the plan anyway. If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to…"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" A blonde Hufflepuff, Zacharias Smith, asked aggressively.

Hermione looked surprised. "Well, Dumbledore believes it…"

"You mean Dumbledore believes him." Smith countered, nodding at Harry.

"Who are you?" Ron asked defensively.

Smith answered with his full name before adding. "And I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him saw You-Know-Who's back."

"Look. That's not really what this meeting was supposed to be about…" Hermione began saying, and Leo felt himself feel slightly disappointed that the full story wasn't going to come out. He shouldn't have worried however, as Harry interrupted her.

"It's ok, Hermione." He said to her, before staring out at the gathered crowd, although his eyes were pointed directly at Smith. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back? I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The group had held their breath as Harry spoke, Leo included. Smith wasn't happy with the answer. "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details; he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered. I think we'd all like to know…"

Leo felt angry at the brazenness and almost went to say something, although as always Harry got there first. "If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you." Harry explained coldly. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out." He looked angrily towards a bashful Hermione, a move which Leo felt was uncalled for himself.

Leo looked around briefly and noticed that nobody moved a muscle after the speech, and that must have been a signal for Hermione to continue. "So… so like I was saying… if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to…"

"Is it true that you can produce a Patronus?" Susan Bones asked. Leo was surprised at that, a Patronus was advanced magic.

"Yeah." Harry muttered defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus?" Susan asked undeterred. Leo was even more surprised at that, being able to produce a corporeal patronuses was very advanced magic and most 7th years struggled with it.

Harry stared at Susan questioningly. "Er… you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" He asked for some reason.

Susan just smiled. "She's my auntie. I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing." Leo had no idea what was going on now. "So… is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes." Harry confirmed.

Leo was impressed, as were a number of other students as they all let their feelings known. The loudest of whom was Lee Jordan. "Blimey Harry! I never knew that!"

Fred Weasley looked proud as he grinned at Harry. "Mum told Ron not to spread it around. She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong." Harry mumbled, and Leo shrunk into his seat, feeling a bit ashamed for being jealous of the boy.

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office? That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year." Terry Boot explained.

Harry looked uncomfortable, but he confirmed the story. Leo let out an audible whistle of amazement. "How big was it?" Fay asked.

"Huge." Ron grinned. "I only saw the skin, but it was massive!"

"Bloody hell Harry." One of the Ravenclaws gushed.

"And in our first year, he saved that Philological Stone…" Neville began.

"Philosophers." Hermione corrected.

Neville nodded. "Yes that… from You-Know-Who!"

Leo was in awe at that point. There he had been usually stressing about homework and exams when Harry was fighting You-Know-Who at 11 years old. Cho Chang then spoke for the first time, immediately capturing Harry's attention. "And that's not to mention all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year. Getting past dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and things."

Leo nodded, remembering the horrific things that had been thrown at all the champions. He turned to Fay who just had a look of pure joyous bewilderment on her face. Harry meanwhile looked even more uncomfortable. "Look. I… I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but… I had a lot of help with all that stuff."

"Not with the dragon you didn't. That was a seriously cool bit of flying." Michael Corner explained.

"Yeah well…" Harry tried to counter.

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer." Susan added. Leo was taken aback, what were Dementors doing going after Harry?

"No." Harry sighed. "No, ok. I know I did bits without help, but the point I'm trying to make is…"

Zacharias Smith of course, couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?"

"Here's an idea." Ron stated loudly. "Why don't you shut your mouth?"

Leo had taken a sip of Butterbeer at the time and snorted it out, spraying the obnoxious Hufflepuff in the process. Smith looked aghast and clearly thought he had done it on purpose, but it served to shut him up once and for all. Hermione had a smirk on her face, but she quickly set her face again as she said. "So are we all agreed, we want to take lessons from Harry?" Leo nodded, he knew why Fay had brought up becoming an Auror now, and hearing some of Harry's deeds had made his mind up. He hated Umbridge as much as the rest of them and wouldn't risk his OWLs if he could help it. Hermione looked pleased at the response. "The next question is how often do we do it? I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week…"

Then came the bartering of begging against clashing with different clubs, as the three houses Quidditch representatives reminded Hermione of their practices, while Fay was vocal about the Gobstones club, much to the Weasley twins' amusement. Fay crossed her arms and pouted. "It's important." She tried, but her eyes twinkled in amusement.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everybody, but you know this is rather important too." Hermione explained. "We're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters…"

"Well said!" Ernie Macmillan exclaimed. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our OWLs coming up!" Leo frowned at that statement disbelievingly. Nothing was more important than OWLs. Ernie looked around as if he might have shocked more people, but when nobody reacted he continued. "I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells…"

"Because they are interfering at Hogwarts." Leo said quickly, suddenly feeling bad when he saw Hermione had opened her mouth to speak at the same time. He took a deep breath and then continued. "Umbridge made that clear enough in her speech at the Welcoming Feast, that the Ministry didn't want anything other than their own tried and tested methods. And now they're combing through the teachers and inspecting them, probably with a view to kick out anybody that they feel don't match whatever stupid criteria they have."

He saw Ron Weasley lean into Harry and whisper. "Blimey, Hermione's found her match with that one."

Hermione heard that and glared at Ron, before looking apologetically at Leo. "Leo is right, and the only theory that makes an inkling of sense in my eyes, is that the Ministry have a feeling that Dumbledore will use the students as some form of private army."

Fay snorted in amusement, while Leo just put his head in his hands at the thought of the Ministry being so idiotic. "We can't even use magic outside of school." Fay laughed. "How are we meant to fight for Dumbledore?"

"Exactly." Hermione agreed. "But Umbridge seems to have it in her head that that's what we will become, so she is refusing to allow us to practice and become capable with defensive spells. Which is why it is so important that we meet regularly so that we can keep everything we learn fresh in our minds."

Lee Jordan stuck his hand in the air. "Once a week sounds cool." He shrugged.

"As long as…" Angelina Johnson began to say, but Hermione was already knowing the point she was going to make.

"It doesn't clash with any clubs, yes. Now, about where we will meet."

Leo racked his brains to think of somewhere that could both fit them all in, as well as be conspicuous enough to not be found by Umbridge. He couldn't think of anywhere.

"The Library?" Katie Bell suggested.

Harry grinned. "I can't imagine Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library."

"Maybe an unused classroom?" Dean input.

"Yeah, McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practicing for the Triwizard." Ron nodded.

Leo shook his head. "That was for an official school event, this is for a group that by all accounts shouldn't be needed and almost certainly wouldn't be sanctioned. I can't see Professor McGonagall letting us toe the line of the school rules, even if it does annoy Umbridge."

There were a few murmurs of agreement, even from Ron as he realised the reality of his suggestion. The room grew quiet as they tried to think of somewhere else, but nobody could. Hermione spoke up to stop their thoughts. "Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere. We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and place for the first meeting." She then reached into her bag and rummaged around for a moment, before bringing out a sheet of parchment and a different quill to her usual one. She stopped herself for a moment before speaking once more. "I… I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. I also think that again, Leo is right. This is bordering on breaking the school rules, so we shouldn't tell anybody what we are up to. Especially not Umbridge."

The parchment began to go around the room, but some of the non Gryffindors began to hesitate, until Hermione insisted that the list wouldn't be seen by anybody else. When it came to Leo he signed it without hesitation. Zacharias Smith was the most hesitant, but even he signed the parchment after everybody, giving it back to Hermione who placed it carefully in a section of her bag.

"Well." Fred Weasley said, standing up. "Time's ticking on. George, Lee and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."

Leo and Fay looked at one another and decided that they should leave too, getting to their feet and taking their grimy bottles of Butterbeer with them. As they stepped into the sunlight of Hogsmeade, Fay let out a relieved sigh. "That was…"

"It was good." Leo nodded, checking his watch and realising they still had plenty of time left in the village. He found a bin and threw his almost full drink into it, having not wanted to drink too much from the filthy bottle. "I can't believe Harry did all those things without us knowing."

Fay nodded, putting her hands in her pockets as she walked. "It really puts things into perspective. You just know if Malfoy had done those things the Slytherins would have put on a parade."

Leo gagged at the thought. "Could you imagine?" He shuddered. Turning back, he saw Harry, Ron and Hermione stepping out of the Hog's Head together. "But knowing he did everything that was said… it's made me see him in a new light?"

Fay grinned. "Aww do you fancy Potter now?"

Leo shoved her with his shoulder, ignoring her cackling laughter. "I'm not the gay one here." He said, ensuring that he said it quietly because while Fay didn't mind talking about it between themselves, the wider school didn't know yet. Fay just stuck her tongue out at him before pulling Leo into Honeydukes. "I'm being serious though; I've always been jealous of him for no apparent reason. I'm the quiet geek who doesn't speak much and always does his homework. He was the cool one with all the attention simply because he did something as a baby." Leo shrugged. "Hearing his story has put a lot in perspective."

Fay smiled at the admission. "Just don't be so quick to judge people in the future." She looked down an aisle at some of the sweets. "Oh, your mum loves those!" She was pointing at the liquorice wands.

Leo nodded and grabbed a handful. "I still need to get her a book. Maybe a fancy quill from Scrivenshaft's too." He mused. He paid for the sweets, buying Fay some chocolate frogs in the process before he finished shopping for his mother's birthday. As they left Tomes and Scrolls with a book about his grandmother's family business, the alcoholic drink Quintin Black, Leo had filled his bag up with things for both his mother and himself, and the pair of Gryffindors were walking towards the Three Broomsticks to meet up with Anna again. Before they entered Fay pulled on Leo's arm. "What is it?" He asked.

"Perhaps it's best we don't tell Anna anything about the meeting." She said quietly. "You heard Hermione, we shouldn't tell anyone."

Leo shrugged. "I wasn't planning on it myself, she's mainly your friend."

Fay hit him lightly again. "She's your friend too!" She grinned at Leo's pointed look. "Fine, I just wanted to be on the same page."

Leo nodded in agreement. "We are." He insisted. He looked at the door to the pub. "5 sickles that she's snogging him right now."

Fay groaned. "No way I'm taking that bet, of course she is." She pushed through the door without taking the bet and barked out a laugh when she saw their friend, doing exactly as Leo had predicted.

Leo went and bought some butterbeers while Fay went to interrupt Anna and her Hufflepuff boyfriend. When Madame Rosmerta handed him the drinks he sat down beside Fay, nodding awkwardly at Wayne. "What did I miss?" He asked.

"Nothing." Anna said quickly, patting her hair down to look presentable again. "What have you two been doing all day then?"

Leo looked at Fay, who was just smirking. "Oh nothing much." She answered. "I did almost buy a new beaters bat though…"

Leo grinned at the ease of which Fay took the conversation as far away from the Hog's Head as possible. He took a sip of his actually drinkable Butterbeer and his mind went back to the meeting. He felt oddly excited about the future defence lessons, and really hoped that Harry was as good a teacher as he was with performing acts of sheer bravery.

Reviews:

AZW330: Yes Leo is one of the few people that do not fall asleep to Binns! He will start getting more connected as time goes on of course, but I really liked that idea of being far away from it before being dragged into it almost unwillingly, until he's more than willing and grows massively into a big role… but we're a long way off that for now! There will definitely be more scenes with Hermione!

SkepticPrinceArthur: I don't remember anybody other than Ron and Hermione finding out about the quill, so the answer there is no I'm afraid.

Dante687: I'd call it a slow burn I guess! They aren't immediately going to get together; I want it to feel natural. Leo's been an outsider for 4 years pretty much after all.