Chapter 136: An Army Is Born

"Umbridge has been reading your mail, Harry. There's no other explanation." said Hermione as we sat in Charms the next day.

"You think Umbridge attacked Hedwig?" he said, outraged.

"I'm almost certain of it," said Hermione grimly. "Watch your frog, it's escaping."

Harry pointed his wand at the bullfrog that had been hopping hopefully towards the other side of the table ("Accio!")and it zoomed back into his hand.

"I've been suspecting this ever since Filch accused you of ordering Dungbombs, because it seemed such a stupid lie," Hermione whispered. "I mean, once your letter had been read it would have been quite clear you weren't ordering them, so you wouldn't have been in trouble at all, it's a bit of a feeble joke, isn't it? But then I thought, what if somebody just wanted an excuse to read your mail? Well then, it would be a perfect way for Umbridge to manage it, tip off Filch, let him do the dirty work and confiscate the letter, then either find a way of stealing it from him or else demand to see it. I don't think Filch would object, when's he ever stuck up for a student's rights? Harry, you're squashing your frog."

Harry looked down; he was indeed squeezing his bullfrog so tightly it's eyes were popping.

"It was a very, very close call last night," said Hermione. "I just wonder if Umbridge knows how close it was. Silencio."

"If she'd caught Snuffles-"

Harry finished the sentence for her.

"-He'd probably be back in Azkaban this morning." He waved his wand without really concentrating; his bullfrog swelled like a green balloon and emitted a high-pitched whistle.

"Silencio!" said Hermione hastily, pointing her wand at Harry's frog, which deflated silently before us. "Well, he mustn't do it again, that's all. I just don't know how we're going to let him know. We can't send him an owl."

"I don't reckon he'll risk it again," I said. "He's not stupid, he knows she nearly got him. Silencio."

I had the wonderful (*groan*) pleasure of working with a raven. It let out a huge caw, instead of letting out nothing.

"Silencio. SILENCIO!" I said, brandishing my wand

The raven cawed more loudly.

"It's the way you're moving your wand," said Hermione, trying to guide my hand, which I stupidly snatched away from her. "You don't want to wave it, it's more a sharp jab."

"Ravens are harder than frogs," I said, clenching my teeth in frustration.

"Fine, let's swap," said Hermione, switching animals. "Silencio!" The raven continued to open and close its sharp beak, but no sound came out. I smirked. I couldn't even be mad at her, she had done it so flawlessly.

"Very good, Miss Granger!" said Professor Flitwick's squeaky little voice. "Now, let me see you try, Mr. Weasley"

"Wha-? Oh-oh, right," I said, pulling me out of my admiration. "Er-silencio!"

Unfortunately, I jabbed the poor creature in the eye, causing him to croak in agony. So I wasn't surprised when Harry and I were given additional practice of the Silencing Charm for homework.

We were allowed to remain inside over break due to the downpour outside. We found seats in a noisy and overcrowded classroom on the first floor in which Peeves was floating around chandelier, occasionally blowing an ink pellet at the top of somebody's head. We had barely sat down when Angelina came struggling towards us, looking excited

"I've got permission!" she said. "To re-form the Quidditch team!"

"Excellent!" said Harry and I together.

"Yeah," said Angelina, beaming. "I went to McGonagall and I think she might have appealed to Dumbledore. Anyway, Umbridge had to give in. Ha! So I want you down at the pitch at seven o'clock tonight, all right, because we've got to make up time. You realize we're only three weeks away from our first match?"

She walked away, narrowly dodged an ink pellet from Peeves, which hit a nearby first-year instead, and vanished from sight.

Her announcement made my face fall. Three weeks was not that far away, and with lack of practice (and already being a blunder), I really didn't think I would do well for my first game.

"Hope this clears up. What's up with you, Hermione?" asked Harry, as Hermione gazed out the window, frowning.

"Just thinking ..." she said vaguely, still frowning at the rain-washed window.

"About Siri- Snuffles?" said Harry.

"No ... not exactly." said Hermione slowly. "More ... wondering ... I suppose we're doing the right thing ... I think ... aren't we?"

Harry and I looked at each other.

"Well, that clears that up," I said sarcastically. "It would've been really annoying if you hadn't explained yourself properly."

Hermione looked at me as though she had only just realized I was beside her.

"I was just wondering," she said, her voice stronger now, "whether we're doing the right thing, starting this Defense Against the Dark Arts group."

"What?" said Harry and I together.

'Hermione, it was your idea in the first place!" I exclaimed.

"I know," said Hermione, twisting her fingers together. "But after talking to Snuffles ..."

"But he's all for it," said Harry.

"Yes," said Hermione, staring at the window again. "Yes, that's what made me think maybe it wasn't a good idea after all."

Peeves floated over us on his stomach, peashooter at the ready. We lifted our bags to cover our heads until he had passed.

"Let's get this straight," said Harry angrily, as we put their bags back on the floor, "Sirius agrees with us, so you don't think we should do it any more?"

Hermione looked tense and rather miserable. "Do you honestly trust his judgement?"

"Yes, I do!" said Harry at once. "He's always given us great advice!"

"You don't think he has become ... sort of ... reckless ... since he's been cooped up in Grimmauld Place? You don't think he's ... kind of ... living through us?"

"What d'you mean, 'living through us'?" Harry demanded.

"I mean ... well, I think he'd love to be forming secret Defence societies right under the nose of someone from the Ministry. I think he's really frustrated at how little he can do where he is ... so I think he's keen to kind of ... egg us on."

"Sirius is right," I said, perplexed, "you do sound just like my mother."

Hermione bit her lip and did not answer. The bell rang just as Peeves swooped down on Katie and emptied an entire ink bottle over her head.

The weather did not improve as the day wore on, so that at seven o'clock that evening, when Harry and I went down to the Quidditch pitch for practice, we were soaked through within minutes. We found Fred and George debating whether to use one of their own Skiving Snackboxes to get out of flying.

".. but I bet she'd know what we'd done," Fred said out of the corner of his mouth. "If only I hadn't offered to sell her some Puking Pastilles yesterday."

"We could try the Fever Fudge," George muttered, "no one's seen that yet-"

"Does it work?" I asked hopefully, as I wasn't too keen on flying in this rain either

"Well, yeah," said Fred, "your temperature will go right up."

"But you get these massive pus-filled boils, too," said George, "and we haven't worked out how to get rid of them yet."

"I can't see any boils," I said, looking them over.

"No, well, you wouldn't," said Fred darkly, "they're not in a place we generally display to the public."

"But they make sitting on a broom a right pain in the ass."

"Alright, everyone, listen up," said Angelina loudly, emerging from the Captain's office. "I know it's not ideal weather, but there's a chance we'll be playing Slytherin in conditions like this so it's a good idea to work out how we're going to cope with them. Harry, didn't you do something to your glasses to stop the rain fogging them up when we played Hufflepuff in that storm?"

"Hermione did it," said Harry. He pulled out his wand, tapped his glasses and said, "Impervius!"

"I think we all ought to try that," said Angelina. "If we could just keep the rain off our faces it would really help visibility-all together, come on-Impervius!OK. Let's go."

The rain didn't hit my face, but visibility was still extremely hard. I had no clue how I was going to see the quaffle, and I said a quick prayer that the weather would be kinder on game day.

After an hour long of not being able to see shit, but still be expected to keep goals, we went back into the locker room, soaked to the bone.

"I think a few of mine have ruptured," said Fred, speaking on his boils, which I really wished he would have kept to himself.

"Mine haven't," said George, through clenched teeth as he walked funny, "they're throbbing like mad ... feel bigger if anything."

"OUCH!" said Harry, pressing his towel hard on his face. I could tell he was in some intense pain.

"What's up?" asked the team.

"Nothing," said Harry, trying not to wince, "I-poked myself in the eye, that's all."

But he gave me a significant look and the two of us hung back as the rest of the team filed back outside.

"Was it your scar, mate?" I asked after Alicia had left.

Harry nodded.

"But he-he can't be near us now, can he?"

"No," Harry muttered, sinking onto a bench and rubbing his forehead. "He's probably miles away. It hurt because ... he's ... angry."

I was stunned. I had no idea he was so in tune with You Know Who's emotions like that. It was pretty horrifying.

"Did you see him? Did you ... get a vision, or something?"

Harry looked down at his feet, as if he was searching for something in his mind.

"He wants something done, and it's not happening fast enough," he said.

"But ... how do you know?" I asked.

Harry shook his head and covered his eyes with his hands, pressing down upon them with his palms. I sat down beside him, gazing at him worriedly.

"Is this what it was about last time?" I whispered. 'When your scar hurt in Umbridge's office? You-Know-Who was angry?"

Harry shook his head.

"What is it, then?"

"Last time, it was because he was pleased," he said. "Really pleased. He thought ... something good was going to happen. And the night before we came back to Hogwarts, he was furious."

"You could take over from Trelawney, mate," I said, awestruck.

"I'm not making prophecies," said Harry.

"No, you know what you're doing, Harry? You're reading You-Know-Who's mind!" I exclaimed in a low voice.

"No," said Harry, shaking his head. "It's more like ... his mood, I suppose. I'm just getting flashes of what mood he's in. Dumbledore said something like this was happening last year. He said that when Voldemort was near me, or when he was feeling hatred, I could tell. Well, now I'm feeling it when he's pleased, too ..."

"You've got to tell someone," I insisted.

"I told Sirius last time."

"Well, tell him about this time!"

"Can't, can I?" said Harry grimly. "The bitch is watching the owls and the fires, remember?"

"Well then, Dumbledore, of course."

"I've just told you, he already knows," said Harry, sounding annoyed and getting to his feet. "There's no point telling him again."

"Dumbledore'd want to know," I said.

Harry shrugged. I could tell he really didn't want to speak on it anymore, so I changed the subject.

"C'mon ... we've still got Silencing Charms to practice." I said, leading the way back to the common room. None of us said much on the way back. Harry seemed like he had a lot on his mind, so I left him to his thoughts and kept the silence going as we reached the common room and worked on the Silencing Charms.

Hermione wasn't there, much to my disappointment. I just wanted to talk to her. With everything that had been going on lately, I was starting to feel like we hadn't had a real conversation out of plotting and schoolwork.

The next morning on the way to breakfast, Harry told me about his encounter with Dobby and about the room Dobby told him about called the Come And Go Room, and also the news about what was really going on with Hermione's knitted garments. I hadn't thrown any to the fire since that first night, so to find out that not only was Dobby collecting them, but that since she was doing it, Dobby was doing extra work since the other house elves didn't want to, I felt bad for the little bloke. It wasn't his job to pick up the slack, and it was a shame that he had to volunteer himself so the others could avoid accidentally freeing themselves.

It was another miserable and rainy day, and after our morning classes, Angelina let the team know that practice had been canceled.

"Good," said Harry quietly, "because we've found somewhere to have our first Defense meeting. Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?"

When he was done. he turned to Hermione, who was giving him a particular look.

"What?" he said thickly.

"Well ... it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe. Don't you remember when he lost you all the bones in your arm?"

"This room isn't just some mad idea of Dobby's; Dumbledore knows about it, too, he mentioned it to me at the Yule Ball." said Harry.

Hermione's expression softened.

"Dumbledore told you about it?"

"Just in passing," said Harry, shrugging.

"Oh, well, that's all right then," said Hermione briskly and raised no more objections.

The three of us spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list in the Hog's Head and telling them where to meet that evening. At half past seven, we left the Gryffindor common room with the Marauders Map. Although fifth-years were allowed to be out in the corridors until nine o'clock, we still kept a nervous eye out until we reached the seventh floor.

"Hold it," Harry warned, unfolding the piece of parchment at the top of the last staircase, tapping it with his wand and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

A map of Hogwarts appeared on the blank surface of the parchment. Tiny black moving dots, labelled with names, showed where various people were.

"Filch is on the second floor," said Harry, holding the map close to his eyes, "and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."

"And Umbridge?" said Hermione anxiously.

"In her office," said Harry, pointing. "OK, let's go."

We hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had described to Harry, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

"OK," said Harry quietly. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."

We walked back and forth. My mind focused on the thought of needing somewhere to hold our secret.

Hopefully it wouldn't turn into a bedroom or some shit.

"Harry!" said Hermione sharply,l, pointing to a polished door that had appeared out of nowhere. Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs the re were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass.

"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning," I said enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with my foot.

"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions ... The Dark Arts Outsmarted ... Self-Defensive Spellwork ... wow. Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

She looked so cute when she was excited. And without further ado she slid Jinxes for the Jinxed from its shelf, sank on to the nearest cushion and began to read.

There was a gentle knock on the door. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean had arrived.

"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"

Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and locked it. Hermione saved her place in her book and put it down.

"Well," said Harry nervously. 'This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've-er-obviously found it OK."

"It's fantastic!" said Cho delightfully, causing Harry to blush.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and-er- what, Hermione?"

Hermione had her hand raised as if we were in a real classroom and Harry was a professor. "I think we ought to elect a leader," she said.

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad and should have known that already.

I looked over at Harry and seen he was blushing even harder. I couldn't help but grin.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So-everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hand, even Slick Git Smith, though he acted like he really didn't want to. I forced myself to keep my cool for the sake of everyone else.

"Er-right, thanks," said Harry. 'And (Hermione raised her hand once again) what,Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Wankers Group?" suggested Fred, earning some laughs.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this. I was proud of my sister for coming up with it, that clever girl.

"All in favour of the DA?" said Hermione, as if we were in court, counting hands. "That's a majority-motion passed!"

She pinned the piece of parchment with all of our signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters:

DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "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," said Zacharias, rolling his eyes and folding his arms like a fucking seven year old. "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 in June."

"Exactly, so shut the fuck up." I couldn't help but say.

Smith opened his mouth to retort, but found himself rendered speechless. For once.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"OK," said Harry. "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Hermione and I paired up ("Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." I said, winking. "Thank you Ronald" said Hermione, playfully) and chose a spot to practice, standing a good ten feet away from each other.

"Right," said Harry, loudly, "on the count of three, then-one, two, three-"

The room was suddenly full of shouts of flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. I gave Hermione a smirk, to which she returned a determined look. She knocked me back before I could even say a word.

I winced as Hermione walked over to me, giggling. I wasn't too keen on giggling girls, but hers was adorable, and it was rather sweet to watch.

"I let you get that one," I said as she helped me up. "Good manners and such. I was being a gentleman."

"Right," teased Hermione. "Shall you show off your gallantry to me once again?"

"Are you mocking me, Miss Granger?"

"I believe I am." she said, walking backwards to her original spot.

"We shall see about that."

We took another couple tries at each other, each one resulting in the same thing: Hermione laughing while I ended up on my ass.

Soon, Neville had joined us, saying that Harry wanted to walk about (I made a mental note not to thank Harry later) and the three of us practiced. Neville was starting to get the hang of it.

After a while, Harry blew a whistle, causing us all to lower our wands.

"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement. Let's try again."

As everything went on, I found myself starting to get better. I tripped a couple of times, but I managed to disarm Hermione at least three times. She was proud of the first one, and was annoyed by my boasting by the third.

As we took a breather, I spied Harry making conversation with Cho. He looked more relaxed than he usually did talking with her. Maybe he was starting to make some progress.

Soon, it was all over. Everyone seemed to have had a really good time. Harry told the others that he would let them know when the next meeting was, and then we retreated to our respectable common rooms.

"That was really, really good, Harry," said Hermione, as we slipped out the door and watched it disappear.

"Yeah, it was!" I said enthusiastically. "Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?"

"Only once," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "I got you loads more than you got me-"

"I did not only get you once, I got you at least three times."

"Well, if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand-"

"No, I'm counting the TWO that when you were nowhere near me and I made the wand fly out of your hand.

"I don't know that you're talking about." said Hermione, sticking her nose into the air.

"Keep sticking your snoze up like that, and a doxy might fly in."

"Oh you are insufferable!"

"No, I'm the one that disarmed you three times."

"Wait until next class. We will see then how cocky you are."

"Oooh, did Hermione just say cock?"