That next night, Neville, Luna, and Ginny reconvinced in the Room of Requirement to discuss what the newly formed D.A. should learn.
"So," piped up Ginny clearly, "We should definitely get in some good practice on the Patronus Charm. We were starting on Patronuses when Marietta betrayed us. Given that the Dementors are on Voldemort's side now, it is imperative that we are able to protect ourselves against them."
"I have to agree with that,' nodded Neville, "Especially considering how dangerous dementors are."
"That's definitely on the list," agreed Luna, "What do you think, Neville?"
"I think we should start by remastering the basic stuff like stunning and disarming and progress from there," suggested Neville.
"That makes sense, " agreed Ginny, "Start simple and slide to sophisticated."
"Oh, our first few meetings will definitely focus on the core basics," promised Luna, "But I have an idea for when we do need to go sophisticated."
"What might that be?" inquired Neville and Ginny at the same nanosecond.
"We need to be able to catch Death Eaters and Dark Wizards off guard," said Luna matter of factly, "I believe the best way to accomplish this feat is to use spells and tricks against them that they have never seen before."
"Does that mean?" asked Neville, "That we will be studying rarely used spells and magic? Or perhaps lesser known spells and magic?"
"Or that we will be delving into spells and magic that used historically but have long since died out?" inquired Ginny.
"Doing some of those sorts of things could be useful,' acknowledged Luna, "But I'm looking more out of the front mirror than the rear view mirror."
"Do you mean?" said Neville seriously, "That we need to invent new spells and magic?"
"I do," said Luna clearly, "Being a great witch or wizard means thinking outside the box and creating new things.'
"You know," interjected Ginny, "There's a difference between what people think is intelligence and what is actual intelligence. I can clearly observe the difference via my brothers. My mom thinks Percy is highly intelligent because he is extremely academically motivated and gets mostly Os. But, if you ask me, Fred and George have more true intelligence than Percy because they think outside the box, challenge existing ideas and limits, and creative produce new things and results. Most of Percy's academic success comes from reading and remembering and reading and remembering isn't true intelligence. Percy doesn't think outside the box at. He's very stiff and rigid in his insistence that the official academic way is always right, and he doesn't create anything new or even come up with any ideas of his own. In contrast, Fred and George aren't academically motivated and they only got three O.W.L.s each, though it's worth noting that two of those O.W.L.s came in the most important subject of Defense Against the Dark Arts and the most fundamental subject of magic in Charms. But, they experiment, try things, think outside the box, and come up with things."
"No true wisdom can be gained by merely reading and remembering," agreed Luna, "True wisdom comes from thinking for one's self. And on that note, when it comes to recruiting new members, we need to keep our eyes and ears open for open minded people are good at thinking outside the box. We do need to watch who we trust. But let's keep that idea in mind for recruiting new members. "
"Will you set the coins for the first meeting?" inquired Ginny.
"I will," promised Luna.
A shout out to the following members who have added Luna Lovegood and the Reformation of the D.A. to their favorites and/or follows lists since the last update:
HSousa
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Much love from Arizona for all the support. Love you all-Michael. :)