A bit of a jumpy chapter today as we skip through a couple of months, but it's one that is truly building up to some major things over the next couple of chapters…

This chapter has some borrowed dialogue from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Chapter 18 – Dumbledore's Army and Chapter 21 – The Eye of the Snake.

As usual in Hogwarts, nothing ever ran smoothly. Once the weekend had rolled over and Monday crept up on them once again, a brand new notice on the notice board had taken over the chatter in the Gryffindor Common Room. Educational Decree Number Twenty Four decreed that Professor Umbridge was required to approve of all extra-curricular clubs and groups.

"That means Gobstones." Anna was the first to talk, looking surprised at the parchment. "Wayne is going to be pissed…"

"Wayne is?" Fay raised an eyebrow. "Everyone is! Quidditch, Gobstones, Band, Potions… this affects nearly everyone." She turned to look at Leo with a worried look, and Leo could only agree with the unspoken addition, that Harry's new Defence club was the reason that this was being made. "I best go and speak to Marcus and find out what's going on… sorry guys." She added, before hoisting her bag over her shoulders and rushing out of the Common Room.

As the portrait closed behind her a commotion was sounded from behind and Leo turned at the sound of a wailing klaxon before a thud, and Ron Weasley was on the floor beneath the girl's dormitory… "Slide?" Leo voiced.

Anna snorted. "What an idiot." She nodded at Ron. "Everyone knows boys can't go up the girl's stairs." She yanked his arm and snaked her own inside. "Come on, before we miss breakfast."

The Great Hall however was just as abuzz with the new Decree as the Common Room had been. Leo and Anna sat down, with Leo making sure to be as far away from Harry as he possibly could be. Thankfully Wayne Hopkins joined them at the Gryffindor table so he could melt into obscurity as the couple gossiped, thinking about what could have happened. His eyes kept darting to the Staff table and Professor Umbridge, the obnoxious pink cardigan glaringly visible as her eyes kept a watchful gaze over the entire room.

It even distracted Leo for History of Magic, and for the first time in memory Leo barely took any notes from Professor Binns' lecture, instead fretting about who else had been in the Hog's Head, and what on earth Harry's owl was doing on the ledge…

By the time Potions had come around however Leo was fully immersed in his schoolwork. Professor Umbridge was there inspecting Professor Snape as they continued with their Strengthening Solutions, so it wasn't until Arithmancy that Leo had a chance to ask about the Defence Club, though the mutter of "We'll let you know." From Hermione didn't inspire any confidence in him.

News eventually came on the Wednesday, when Harry managed to corner Leo in double Herbology to let him know that the first meeting was to be that night at 8 o'clock, and to go to a certain location on the 7th floor. Leo could barely contain his excitement throughout Transfiguration that afternoon and he kept glancing at his watch after dinner so much that even Anna was noticing. The three friends were sat together in the Gryffindor common room as it got to half past 7 when Fay nudged Leo, who saw that Ginny Weasley, Neville, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were all heading out of the common room. Nodding, Leo packed away his book and began the charade. "Are you coming to the library, Fay?"

Fay nodded, while Anna looked at them in disgust. "Has Homework Club been approved? Urgh, why am I friends with you two?" She asked dramatically.

Leo shrugged. "You can't be seen as a loner; it would ruin your reputation." He said in jest. Anna just threw a cushion at him.

"We'll see you later, Anna." Fay said kindly. Anna just waved, returning to the new issue of 'Witch Weekly.'

The pair caught up with the other Gryffindors not far down the corridor, and together they moved across the castle to where they were supposed to meet. "I've never seen that door before." Parvati said curiously.

"This must be it then." Ginny said confidently, knocking on it. Harry poked his head around as he opened it, letting them all in. Leo gasped at the large space behind the door. There were bookcases lining the walls filled with large leather books, each tome dedicating itself to a different area of defensive magic. More shelves at the far end of the room housed instruments such as secrecy sensors, sneakoscopes, and even a large, cracked Foe Glass. He noticed Ron surveying the room too whilst Hermione was sat on a cushion, her nose buried deeply into Jinxes for the Jinxed.

"Whoa." Dean surmised everybody's feelings as he looked around too. "What is this place?"

"The Room of Requirement." Harry explained. "It's a part of the castle that barely anybody knows about, so we won't be interrupted…" There was another knock on the door then, and a group of Hufflepuffs walked inside.

"This room is great!" Ernie exclaimed in awe as he looked around. "Why haven't I heard about it?"

Harry began to explain again, but more and more people entered the room. Leo and Fay moved further into the room towards where Hermione was sat. "This is awesome." Fay whispered to him.

Leo just nodded, going over to the bookcase and having a look at the number of tomes that were on display. "Most of these aren't even in the library…" He muttered, before he picked up The Dark Arts Outsmarted and settled into a beanbag opening it and immersing himself in the pages.

A few minutes later Leo heard the door lock and he placed his book back down to join the group. After a few moments of Harry having to explain what the Room of Requirement was and what some of the instruments dotted around the room were, the Boy-Who-Lived turned back to the wider group and began. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and… er… what Hermione?"

Leo turned to the girl in question and saw her hand was raised. "I think we ought to elect a leader." She told Harry.

"Harry's leader." The Ravenclaw seeker that Leo had spotted on the train answered back at once, almost angrily.

Hermione, however, wasn't fazed at the tone. "Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly." She explained. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority." Then she directed her words towards the group at large. "Everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Leo's hand went up almost immediately, as did everybody's. Harry looked awkwardly at the raised hands. "Er… right, thanks. And…" Hermione's hand was the only one that was in the air still. "What, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name." She replied brightly. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

Leo smirked at the suggestions that followed, with the Anti-Umbridge League and the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group being his favourites. A joint effort from Cho Chang and Ginny led to Dumbledore's Army being chosen, to which Hermione quickly wrote the name of the group down on some parchment and allowed Harry to finally begin.

"Right. Shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful…"

"Oh please." The annoying Hufflepuff from the Hog's Head piped up. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

Harry, to his credit, didn't respond angrily. Instead he quietly replied saying. "I've used it against him. It saved my life last June." Zacharias Smith opened his mouth to retort, but Leo was thankful that all that came out was breath. Harry then continued. "But if you think it beneath you, you can leave." Nobody moved a muscle. "Okay, I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Leo and Fay quickly moved into a space, ready to begin. Fay was smirking at Leo, twirling her wand in her hand. "Do you remember Second Year, the duelling club?" She asked.

Leo did. "You won't get the jump on me that easily again." He grinned, his own wand at the ready, pointed at her torso.

"Right, on the count of three then." Harry called out. "One, two, three!"

"Expelliarmus!" Leo cried, and Fay's wand quickly jumped out of her hand, and Leo scrambled to his left to catch it. Grinning at his friend's scowl, he looked around to see only a handful of people had done the spell right. Feeling smug, Leo threw Fay her wand back and they went again. "Expelliarmus!" Leo called out again, and once again Fay's wand jumped into his hand.

"Urgh!" Fay stomped her foot, and Leo laughed, throwing her wand back again and readying himself. He intentionally cast his spell a fraction slower that time, but instead of being disarmed, he felt himself being pushed back a few inches and his stomach felt as if he had been punched. "Sorry." Fay winced.

"It's your wrist movement, Fay." Harry was now walking around the room and had stopped to give her some pointers. "It's a movement more like this." He waited for Leo to be ready, and before Leo could register what had happened, his wand flew out of his hand towards Harry. "You see?"

Fay nodded. "I think so, thanks Harry." Happy with that answer, Harry walked over and handed Leo his wand back, watching as Fay managed to cast the spell correctly before he moved on again.

They carried on like that for the rest of the lesson, with Leo winning their duels more often than not, and by the time Harry called a halt to the session the pair were panting through exertion. Another lesson was scheduled for the following Wednesday, and the group of Gryffindor's filed out of the room all with huge smiles on their faces.

"Who knew Potter would be such a good teacher?" Fay said quietly from the back of the group.

Leo nodded. "It really makes you sure he's done it all, doesn't it?" He commented. "He disarmed me so naturally it was scary; I didn't even have time to think before he caught my wand."

Even Neville was feeling really cheerful, hearing the pair's conversation. "I've never disarmed anybody before tonight." The Longbottom was grinning.

"You did well, Neville." Leo nodded, presuming his words were correct, having been focused on his own duels rather than watching the others closely. "I didn't think I'd be this excited for the next one, but I can't wait for Wednesday now!"

The D.A. meetings had given all of its members an added spring in their step, with the entire group learning more from Harry than they had from pretty much all of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers. Spells like Expelliarmus had become like second nature to Leo, while he also had developed a good Impediment Jinx. The Reductor Curse was slightly trickier, but with Harry's patience he was getting there. It truly felt like an underground movement once Hermione had handed both him and Fay a golden Galleon, before explaining the magic behind it. Leo was once again left gobsmacked at the brilliance of the 5th Year witch.

Unfortunately, as the year pushed through to November the time available for D.A. meetings began to lessen as Quidditch took priority leading up to the first match of the year. Leo made sure to dress in crimson and gold the morning of to show his unwavering support for his House, and was delighted to see that Fay had done the same, her jumper showing a snarling lion.

"Looking good!" Leo noted as the fabric lion went to bite him. "How did you do that?"

"A present from Mum." Fay grinned. "I figured I'd try and walk behind as many of the Slytherin team as I could, and maybe try out my new favourite spell…"

"What favourite spell?" Anna's songful voice sounded from behind them, and Leo and Fay both froze as she neared them, noticing their worried looks and frowning. "What spell?"

"Silencing Charms." They both said in unison, grinning at one another at how they'd just saved an awkward conversation. Fay continued. "If I silence enough of the Slytherin's then we'll be the loudest in the stands of course."

Anna tilted her head curiously, but accepted the answer. "You'll have to teach me; I've not got the hang of them just yet." She turned to leave the Common Room. "Come on!" She summoned.

Fay gripped Leo's arm tightly. "We need to tell her at some point." She whispered.

Shaking his head quickly, Leo retorted. "The parchment is jinxed, Fay, we can't." He didn't fancy a face full of whatever Hermione had ingeniously planned. "We just need to be more careful around her…"

Thankfully all the talk over breakfast was about Quidditch, and though the game started off poorly for Gryffindor with Ron Weasley seemingly letting the songs of Slytherin get the better of him, Harry once again caught the snitch sending the crimson fans into jubilation… a state that they remained in right up until Harry threw a punch into Draco Malfoy's stomach…

"Bloody hell!" Fay roared. "GET HIM HARRY!"

It looked as if Harry took that to heart, pummelling the blonde boy until Madame Hooch herself was forced to jinx the black-haired boy and send him and the Weasley twins away, though it wasn't until a while later that the full extent of what happened became clear, when Harry, Fred and George had to announce that they had been banned from Quidditch for life…

While the disappointment over Quidditch lingered on for the next few weeks, the rest of the school term seemed to fly by almost uneventfully for Leo. He didn't take Care of Magical Creatures so he could only hear about Umbridge's next evil deed second hand, and for the most part his time was taken up with homework and the DA meetings. After Leo's success with the early spells that Harry was teaching them, the Reductor Curse was a little bit more challenging for him.

Thankfully, his last few spells of the term were the stunning spell, and that was a spell that Leo enjoyed casting. At the end of the hour Harry called a final halt of the term and gathered everybody around to talk to them. "You're getting really good." He told everyone happily. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff… maybe even Patronuses."

That excited Leo, who had been reading up on the guardians since the meeting in the Hog's Head. When he left the Room of Requirement with Fay, he excitedly beamed at her. "Patronuses, finally!"

"I wonder what ours will be." Fay wondered aloud. "I've always resonated with the lioness…"

Leo smirked. "We'll find out soon enough." He said happily. As it was getting late, Leo didn't bother with socialising in the common room and instead went up to bed early that night, eager to get some sleep before the long journey the next day. Closing his blinds on his four-poster bed before anybody else had entered the dormitory, Leo closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep…

He had been dreaming of facing off thousands of Dementors and casting a Patronus, expecting it to be some kind of dragon, when a magpie erupted from his wand. Waving it around he kept the Dementor's when one of them opened whatever the creature's mouths were, and it let out a high pitched scream that sounded awfully like Harry. Leo opened his eyes and sat upright, but it was only when someone scrambled audibly out of bed and started shouting "Harry!" that Leo moved, opening his curtains and moving over towards Potter's bed. Ron was leering over the Boy-Who-Lived, frantically calling out his name whilst the others in the dormitory began to converge on Harry's bed. "Harry! HARRY!" Leo watched as Harry's eyes opened, his chest rising and falling drastically and beads of sweat dripping down from his face. He was tucked unceremoniously into the covers and almost as immediately as Harry opened his eyes, he winced in agony. Leo was starting to get extremely worried, but not as much as Ron who cried out again trying to get Harry's attention. "Harry!"

Harry finally moved, though it wasn't a good thing. His hands shot up to his head to try and counter the pain, before Harry rolled over to the side of the bed and violently threw up. Leo grimaced as the room began to smell of vomit, but he couldn't move out of horror.

"He's really ill." Neville said, fear in his voice. "Should we call someone?"

Ron didn't respond. "Harry! Harry!" He called out again.

That seemed to register with Harry as he rolled back over and tried to sit upright. He looked like he was desperately trying to force himself to not be sick again. "Your Dad." Harry panted breathlessly. "Your dad's… been attacked…"

Leo turned to look at his dorm mates and every single one of them had horror in their eyes at the words, Neville most of all. "I'm going for help." Neville told them all before he bolted out of the dormitory.

Ron looked nervous, but he turned back to Harry and told the Boy-Who-Lived. "Harry, mate, you… you were just dreaming…"

"No!" Harry cried out furiously. "It wasn't a dream… not an ordinary dream… I was there, I saw it… I did it…"

That sentence terrified Leo more than any other. He had heard enough about prophecies and seers from his Mother when she spoke about the Unspeakables, and nothing that she had been talking about had made the subject seem anything other than horrifying. The retching reminded Leo of the smell, and he turned back to grab his wand and pointed it at the mess on the floor. "Evanesco." He muttered, remembering Transfiguration lessons from earlier that schoolyear, and the sick disappeared.

Ron was still staring at Harry with concern. "Harry, you're not well. Neville's gone for help…"

"I'm fine!" Harry cried out, wiping his mouth shakily. "There's nothing wrong with me, it's your dad you've got to worry about! We need to find out where he is! He's bleeding like mad… I was… it was a huge snake…"

He tried to get up, but Ron was having none of it and pushed him back. Leo moved quickly to help Ron. "Harry, calm down. Help's coming I promise." He tried to reassure, but Harry was getting angry.

Thankfully, Neville's voice came through the doorway. "Over here Professor…"

The Head of Gryffindor came rushing inside, and Leo took a step back to allow her to get closer to Harry. All he could do was watch on as the Professor spoke. "What is it, Potter? Where does it hurt."

Harry looked relieved to see an adult. "It's Ron's dad." He explained, sitting upright. "He's been attacked by a snake and it's serious, I saw it happen."

Leo couldn't see McGonagall's face, but he could imagine the cogs whirring around her head. "What do you mean you saw it happen?"

"I don't know…" Harry began. "I was asleep and then I was there…"

"You mean you dreamed this?" The Professor asked.

"No!" Harry shouted impatiently. "I was having a dream at first about something completely different, something stupid, and then this interrupted it. It was real, I didn't imagine it. Mr Weasley was asleep on the floor and he was attacked by a giant snake, there was loads of blood, he collapsed… someone's got to find out where he is!" Leo felt ill at the description, and internally his mind was racing to think of any other seers that had described something in such horrific detail. He couldn't think of any. Harry was getting angrier by now, thinking that nobody believed him. "I'm not lying and I'm not mad! I tell you; I saw it happen!"

"I believe you, Potter." Professor McGonagall said shortly. "Put on your dressing gown, we're going to see the headmaster." Harry didn't waste a moment, leaping out of his bed and putting on his dressing gown and glasses. "Weasley, you ought to come too." Professor McGonagall stated. Ron followed suit, and soon the three of them left the dormitory, leaving Leo with Neville, Dean and Seamus to try and process exactly what had just happened.

"I told you all he was barmy." Seamus grunted, moving back towards his bed.

"He had a vision." Leo said coldly. "That doesn't make him crazy."

Seamus snorted. "If you say so, MacDonald." The Irishman muttered dismissively before shutting his curtains. Dean shrugged and followed suit, but Neville was stood there still trembling.

"I don't know if I can sleep again." Neville whispered. Leo agreed with him, and he stood still for a moment before an idea came to mind.

"We can go to the Common Room; you can help me with my Herbology homework if you like? I still don't really understand why Gillyweed can't grow in fresh water." Leo suggested, hoping that taking his friend's mind off of it with the subject he was best at would help. Neville nodded gingerly, and Leo went to grab his bag, hoping more than anything that Harry had simply had a dream and hadn't witnessed anything too sinister.

Reviews:

SkepticPrinceArthur: While I'm changing it and not having Ron 'get the girl' in this story, I've always been a fan of the character and his lines are brilliant, so I'm glad that one of my own matches that! There will definitely be a conflict… there's a bit more to Anna that meets the eye.

Dante687: That's definitely the plan!