September that followed remained equally busy. There didn't seem to be much time for Hermione to carefully deliberate on the plan she had put forward that night. For a while, we thought she'd forgotten about it. Day by day, we got accustomed to fifth - year life. Even when entering Umbridge's classroom and seeing her sitting there all smiles, we'd just lower our heads, rummage through our bags for textbooks, and randomly flip open a page to space out before she wrote the day's reading assignment on the blackboard.

Harry and Neville's detentions with Umbridge were over, leaving scars of different depths on the backs of their hands. I convinced Harry to try another scar - removing sticker of mine (he was fibbing; he's rather sensitive to pain). However, the sticker barely worked. Instead, it irritated his hand, making it swollen and red for days. Ron attended every single Quidditch team training session with great diligence. According to Taurus, he made notable progress each time, and Angelina no longer chided him in a fretful tone. Neville continued to study assiduously. In Transfiguration class, we all managed to make the rats vanish. Of course, Hermione had already started practicing the spell to make a kitten disappear. The boys coaxed her into using Mrs. Norris for the experiment, but she firmly declined.

"I think," as a fierce wind howled at the end of September, we were gathered around a table in the library, working on our Potions homework. After carefully drying the ink on the parchment and double - checking the spellings, Hermione suddenly said, "We should give some thought to what we discussed earlier."

We looked up at her blankly from our parchments, unable to recall for a moment what she was referring to. Hermione glanced around at the bookshelves on either side. After making sure no one was paying attention to our conversation, she lowered her voice and said, "The matter of us teaching ourselves Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry, Iris told me you agreed too."

"Oh." Harry, still looking down and copying the chart of Chinese Chomping Cabbages, said, "Yeah, I mean, we're all friends, so if it's just teaching a few of you—"

"Um," a slightly uneasy expression crossed Hermione's face. "If, and I'm just saying it's a possibility, if there are other people who want to learn, could we teach them too? Aren't we setting up some kind of extracurricular support group? We're talking about how to protect ourselves and resist You - Know - Who. So why not offer the opportunity to others who want to participate?"

My mouth fell open. Before I could voice my opinion, Harry was already shaking his head. "I admit what you said makes sense, but I've said many times that I've done a lot of things by luck—"

"Have some confidence in yourself, Harry." Hermione said gently. "No one can deny your excellent performance in Defense Against the Dark Arts. You can do things at your age that many adult wizards can't. Breaking free from the Imperius Curse, conjuring a Patronus. Viktor used to always say—"

Ron, who had been looking at Harry, suddenly turned his head to look at Hermione so quickly that we all heard a "crunch" sound from his neck. He asked, "What did Viktor say?"

Hermione pursed her lips as she looked at Ron, who was rubbing his neck, and said, "He said there were some spells Harry could do that he couldn't, and he was almost graduating at that time."

Ron gave Hermione a meaningful look as her cheeks turned a bit pink. "Are you still in touch with him? How do you communicate?"

"Just writing letters occasionally." Hermione replied coldly, though I thought she was actually quite pleased. "I can have a pen - pal, can't I—"

"Occasionally?" Ron seemed to be calculating in his head how often Hermione received letters from the owls. He said in a suspicious tone, "He probably doesn't just want to be your pen - pal, does he?"

Hermione shook her head, determined not to continue this topic. She turned to me and Harry. "Shall we give it a try? The first weekend of October we're going to Hogsmeade. How about we meet with all those who are interested and discuss this matter then?"

"Sure!" Taurus nodded cheerfully. "I'll ask tomorrow who's willing—"

"No, you're not going to ask." Hermione shook her head immediately. "Ron and I will handle this."

"Why?" Taurus looked extremely aggrieved. "I can—"

"I don't want to waste time figuring out whether those girls who come flocking are interested in Defense Against the Dark Arts or in you personally." Hermione stated her reasons calmly as she looked at Taurus's drooping face. "We need to be cautious about this. If Umbridge finds out what we're about to do, she'll be very unhappy—and that's why I chose to meet outside the school."

On the morning of the day we were going to Hogsmeade, I first made an excuse of having a headache and asked Hermione to leave first. Then I dawdled around, changed my clothes, and walked to the Gryffindor common room. I thought they had all had breakfast and gone to queue up at Filch's place. But Harry was sitting in the armchair by the fireplace, reading today's Daily Prophet, obviously waiting for me.

"I don't think many people will show up." He smiled after I mumbled to him that I seemed to have a cold and didn't want to go to Hogsmeade. "Don't forget that most people think Neville and I are attention - seeking liars. Don't be scared, okay?"

He saw through my lie right away and pointed out what I was worried about. I could only look at my toes and say in a low voice, "I'm not good at getting along with people I'm not familiar with. I only agreed because I thought I'd just be teaching Hermione and the others."

"I've already told Hermione, and she didn't mention you to anyone. Let's go and have a look today. If you don't want to teach them, I can do it alone." Harry said to me gently.

I had nothing to say. He casually picked out all the excuses I could think of and then came up with a solution that I couldn't find any reason to refuse—I realized that Harry Potter might not just be the star who zooms around the Quidditch pitch in the eyes of Gryffindor girls. The way he was looking at me with a smile in his eyes at this moment clearly showed that he was certain that I would choose to go to Hogsmeade with him because of my sense of responsibility, thinking that "I was the one who nodded and agreed in the first place and couldn't leave the whole thing to him."

"You only said that because you know I won't leave you to deal with it alone." The sun was shining brightly outside, but there was a gentle cold wind blowing. I muttered softly. "Don't think I can't see through that."

"Yeah." Harry said with a beaming smile. "Of course I know you can see through it."

There was already a long queue in front of Filch. The third - year students who were going to Hogsmeade for the first time were extremely excited, pushing and shoving in the line, eager to rush out. We were pushed forward and soon reached Filch. When Filch saw me, the jowls on his chin trembled. He nodded curtly at Harry and me and let us go, whispering to Mrs. Norris, who was curled up beside him soaking up the sun, to come back to his side.

"He's really afraid you'll do something to Mrs. Norris." As we quickened our pace, trying to catch up with Hermione and the others who had set off earlier, Harry said with a hint of mockery in his tone.

"If I took revenge on that cat, I'd be just like him." A few weeks had passed, and I had become much calmer when talking about Vivian's incident. But seeing Filch undoubtedly strengthened my determination to head to Hogsmeade. "I will never be like him. His worry is unnecessary."

"I thought you'd be crying in the Gryffindor Tower because of your father's matter, Potter." Draco's drawling voice came from behind us. Crabbe and Goyle were trailing behind him like two slow - moving gorillas. "Being kicked out of the Ministry of Magic isn't something to be proud of. If I were you, I'd be too ashamed to go out and face other people's pointing and whispering."

"Shame?" Harry sneered. "I didn't think you had such a thing, Malfoy. I've never received any special treatment at Hogwarts because of my father. So whether my father is unemployed or takes up a post somewhere doesn't affect me at all."

Draco's eyes half - closed, and he asked coldly, "What are you trying to say, Potter?"

"We're in a hurry." I tugged at Harry's sleeve. "Come on, don't keep them waiting for us two."

Draco didn't follow. He seemed to be waiting for someone. Harry and I passed through the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars. The road leading to the village was sparsely populated. I asked, "Mr. Potter, he—" "It was to be expected." Harry reached up to smooth his wind - tousled hair and said sincerely, "Of course, the Daily Prophet made a big fuss about it... But what does it matter? I know my father best. He always says that as long as he has his family's support, he can ignore other things. I guess he's quite happy. He can take some time to accompany my mother, although surely the Order of the Phoenix is also very busy."

We wasted quite a bit of time making twists and turns before turning into a small path. Hermione had actually chosen such a shabby - looking pub. To be honest, compared to the constant bustle of the Three Broomsticks, this pub could only be described as desolate and dilapidated. It made people wonder if the things sold here were at least ten - year - old expired goods. We hesitated at the door for a moment before pushing it open. A strong smell of mutton immediately rushed into our noses. Harry took a few steps forward, and when he saw Taurus sitting in the corner, he let out a sigh of relief and motioned for me to follow him in.

"Two more bottles of Butterbeer, please." Taurus said to the tall and thin old man with a mass of grey beard behind the counter. The man looked somewhat familiar, and I noticed that Harry was also eyeing him with a puzzled look for a while. It was not until the boss asked grumpily who was going to pay the four Sickles that he dug out a handful of silver coins from his pocket and placed four on the counter.

"Doesn't this place seem a bit strange?" People here were all wrapped up layer by layer, making one unconsciously lower their voice when speaking. Harry looked around. "Look at that man with bandages - the drink he's having is spitting fire!"

"I think this place is safer than the Three Broomsticks." Hermione was nervously looking out of the door all the time. "Although I've carefully checked the school rules and also asked Professor Flitwick - students are allowed to come to the Hog's Head. But he clearly thought the Three Broomsticks was a better choice and kept reminding me to bring my own cup. The rules don't say we can't form an extracurricular group, but considering the current situation, keeping a low profile is naturally the best."

"Do you think he'll sell us some other kind of drink?" Ron said curiously. "Like Firewhisky, I've always wanted to have a taste - "

"You - are - still - wearing - the - prefect - badge." Hermione said viciously.

"I was just joking." Ron mumbled and took a big swig of Butterbeer from the dirty bottle mouth.

"Who's going to meet us here?" Harry unscrewed the bottle of Butterbeer in front of him, then wiped the bottle mouth and put it in front of me. He unscrewed another bottle and took a few sips.

"Two or three people." Hermione looked at her watch. "It's almost time. If they haven't gotten lost, they should be - oh, I think this is it."

I almost choked on the swirling dust. The door of the pub slowly opened, but a large crowd blocked the sunlight that was shining in so tightly that everyone in the pub turned to look at the suddenly opened door, as if they had never seen so many people before. I knew quite a few of them. For example, Neville, Dean Thomas and the Patil sisters who were leading the way in, Luna Lovegood who was stretching out her hand trying to catch the dust, several members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Ginny walking in front of several Gryffindor boys, and some Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students who I just found familiar but couldn't remember their names. The last tall figure who walked in closed the pub door, and I heard Hermione let out a low exclamation.

"Is he here to punish us?" Hermione asked Ron nervously. "We didn't invite him. This could be a bit of a problem—"

"I heard you asking Ernie during the shift change." Cedric Diggory, wearing the boys' Head Boy badge, sat down calmly. Cho Chang beside him gave us an embarrassed smile, but the Ravenclaw girl next to her didn't seem very happy and sat down on the chair with a straight face.

"I'm also interested, so I thought I'd come and have a look—am I disturbing you?"

"No, not at all." Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "I mean, it would be great if you want to join too."

"Then, we need twenty - six more bottles of Butterbeer here!" The Weasley twins quickly counted the number of people and squeezed to the bar counter (the familiar - looking boss kept eyeing us). "Excuse me, could you all chip in? I don't have enough money to buy that many beers—"

"I'll pay." Taurus whistled, and only then did many girls notice he was there, exchanging surprised glances with each other.

"Er, hello, everyone." After everyone was seated, Hermione began to speak in a much shriller voice than usual. "I think you all know why you're here..."

Her voice sounded rather faint to me. I felt my throat was extremely dry, as if it was completely blocked by dust. Most of the people who had found seats were looking at us blatantly. I felt my face turn bright red and almost wanted to stand up and run out of the door immediately.

The discussion didn't go very smoothly at the beginning. A Hufflepuff boy stubbornly kept asking what evidence there was to prove that You - Know - Who had returned, making it seem like he came here today just to hear the "elaborately woven lies" of Neville and Harry with his own ears. After Hermione managed to bring the topic back to Defense Against the Dark Arts itself, the boy started to question Harry's modesty, thinking that "he's just being slippery and actually doesn't know anything."

"Harry can do a lot of things. I saw him conjure a corporeal Patronus in the maze of the Triwizard Tournament with my own eyes." Cedric said calmly (the noisy chatter stopped immediately as he spoke). "Although it was a Boggart disguised as a Dementor, it was still very remarkable. At least I couldn't do it."

"He's saved me many times," Neville said to those around him (his voice was very firm and he didn't seem affected by the Hufflepuff boy before). "The basilisk, the protection array for the Philosopher's Stone - I would have died several times without his help."

"Not to mention how we all saw him snatch the Golden Egg from the Hungarian Horntail," Taurus said, his eyes shining as if he were talking about his own great deeds. "And at the bottom of the lake, in the maze..."

"Ahem." Harry's face and ears were already bright red. He clenched his fist and coughed a few times by his lips.

"If we're all in agreement on this, I think we can start discussing where and when to meet—"

"Can we learn something else?" A Ravenclaw boy asked. I noticed he had been staring at me. "Like Potions, for example. I think that would be useful too—"

"No," Harry said bluntly, and several people laughed.

"I can also... offer some help. I mean, with Defense Against the Dark Arts," I whispered, forcing the words out of my dry throat. "I think the knowledge Professor Snape teaches in Potions class is sufficient."

"Most of it will still be taught by me, though," Harry said dryly, looking at the Ravenclaw boy. "If some people are here for other purposes, I think it's best to leave now."

"Well, I think our help is mutual," Hermione said, trying to smooth things over. "The number of people here actually exceeds my expectation. Relying only on Harry and Iris—"

"If it's something I already know, I can offer some help too," Cedric nodded, flashing a bright smile.

It took quite a while to discuss the class time. Avoiding the Quidditch team trainings of the three houses, as well as all those messy clubs, was really no easy task. It seemed impossible to set a fixed time. Finally, Hermione could only wave her hand impatiently. "We're sure to find an evening that suits everyone, but there may also be conflicts with the schedules of some of you—I hope you can understand. After all, we're talking about how to protect ourselves—how to resist You - Know - Who and the Death Eaters."

" Well said! " The Hufflepuff prefect exclaimed loudly, then gave an enthusiastic speech. Everyone joined in, united in their condemnation of the Ministry of Magic and Umbridge, and it felt as if they had grown much closer to each other in an instant. Ginny brought up the problem of a venue for the classes, which was another difficult issue. People offered suggestions like the library and empty classrooms one after another, but they were all rejected.

"Get out!" Suddenly, the boss's irate roar came from outside the pub. "What are you sneaking around for here!"

The lively discussion came to an abrupt halt. Everyone watched as the boss, rubbing his dirty, grey beard, grumbled and opened the pub door, then slammed it shut. The upside - down glass on the counter wobbled from the loud noise.

"Was someone eavesdropping on us?" The Hufflepuff prefect who had just given the speech immediately showed a look of fear.

"Even if there was, they wouldn't hear anything," I said calmly. "I cast a Muffliato Charm before entering - simply put, others can't hear what we're talking about."

"Is there such a spell?" He looked at me suspiciously. "I've never heard of it."

"Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, does it?" Ginny retorted bluntly. "If you're scared, you can just say so. No one will laugh at you if you quit now."

"I - I'm certainly not quitting!" I guessed the boy originally wanted to say something unkind to Ginny, but after staring at her face for a while, his face turned inexplicably red. In the end, all that was left was a weak mumble. Ron coughed loudly a few times, reminding the boy not to keep his eyes glued to his little sister.

"Here's the thing. Once we've decided on the time and place for our first gathering, we'll find a way to send out notifications," Hermione said. She bent down and rummaged through her school bag for a long time, finally pulling out a carefully rolled - up blank parchment and a quill. Taking a deep breath, she said to everyone, "I - I hope you can write down your names. First, it'll be convenient for us to check and make sure no one is left out when we notify you. Second... we should all agree not to make this public. So once you sign this piece of paper, it means you agree not to tell Umbridge or anyone else who isn't here today any information related to this matter - the people involved, the time and place of participation, etc."

The Weasley twins cheerfully took the parchment and signed their names, but quite a few people didn't seem to think this was a good idea. They showed hesitant expressions and made excuses that they could get the notice from others.

"We're prefects," the Hufflepuff boy stammered. "If the list is found by others - by Umbridge, and you said there's that possibility - "

"I don't think Miss Granger will misplace this list," Cedric said with a gentle smile after leaving his fancy signature on the parchment. "And if they do get hold of this list, they should come after me, the Head Boy, first, I suppose."

Upon hearing this, Cho Chang playfully slapped Cedric's shoulder and told him to knock on the table corner three times. She tucked her waterfall - like long hair behind her ears, wrote her delicate signature next to Cedric, and then passed the parchment to her female companion. The girl with pale red - gold curls looked very reluctant. She gave Cho a dirty look before signing. Then Luna happily took the paper and scribbled her name on it (Neville watched worriedly from the side, as if afraid that Luna, who had been enthusiastically discussing the Blibbering Humdinger just now, would write something strange on the paper). Finally, the Hufflepuff boy who had been saying unpleasant things - his name was Zacharias Smith - also dawdled and wrote his name.

Hermione carefully folded the paper and put it in her school bag. I didn't know if others felt the same as me, but after signing that parchment, it felt like everyone present shared a common secret, and we had just signed a contract vowing to protect it.

I've signed my name on many documents later. Quite a few of them directly determined the course of a certain period of my life, like my work contract in the United States. Some even changed my name, like the newspaper announcement of my marriage to my husband. Compared with these signatures, the signatures crowded on that parchment lacked a sense of ceremony and even seemed rather hasty. I don't think any of us at that time could have imagined that this list would be included in the Hall of Fame at Hogwarts and even occupy an important chapter in A History of Modern Magic. Only when we look back can we realize that the great turning points in life, and even in the whole world, often start from the tiniest of things. At that time, we were completely unaware, not even realizing that we had lit the first faint candle.

After signing, people left in twos and threes. Stepping out of the pub suddenly, the intense sunlight made our eyes go dark. Hermione happily patted her school bag and said, "I think things went fairly smoothly today."

"I came here with a friend." Just as I finished speaking, Taurus came shuffling over from the shelves behind, holding a quill decorated with strange scales in his hand. "Hermione, I think this one is really cool - "

He leaned over to look at the quill in my hand and said proudly to me, "Mine is even better - looking."

"Hey." A soft voice came from the other side of the shelves. I looked up and saw Astoria nervously playing with her hair.

"Oh - it's you!" Taurus tilted his head.

"What a coincidence." Astoria said softly, a blush rising on her pale face, making her look much more lively.

"Yeah." Taurus nodded casually and then turned around. "Hermione, look at this quill - "

I gave Astoria an apologetic smile. Seeing her lower her eyelashes and show a disappointed expression, I couldn't help but say to her, "He's like this to everyone. Don't be sad."

On the other side, Hermione was impatiently explaining to Ron the reason why Ginny had hidden her relationship from him. She stamped her foot, pleading with Ron to stop babbling about it. When I turned back, I found that Astoria had already left.

"I wouldn't fly off the handle just hearing about this!" Ron still didn't give up, muttering. Taurus stubbornly tried to sell Hermione that strange quill. Hermione shook her head, chose another one and was about to pay. Taurus puffed out his cheeks and decided to buy the one in his hand himself. "I always thought Ginny liked Harry. She - "

"She was just a kid back then - " Harry tried to chime in, but Hermione rolled her eyes and interrupted them. "For god's sake! Ron, your sister is very happy now. She's much happier than when she liked Harry! Harry has always liked - he has a girl he likes, and Ginny is no longer troubled by this - you should be happy about it!"

Ron was still breathing heavily, but he seemed to be unable to think of anything else to refute Hermione. I slowly took the quill in my hand to pay, pretending that I had missed all the conversation just now, though it was just self - deception.

"Um... Ginny had a crush on Harry?" The boys wanted to check out Zonko's Joke Shop again, while Hermione and I wanted to buy some candies at Honeydukes before going back to Hogwarts. After we parted ways, I asked Hermione, "You've never told me about this."

"Why should I?" Hermione turned around and looked into my eyes. "It's her business. You don't need to feel sorry for Ginny just because Harry likes you. She never meant to blame you either - feelings between people are never fair."

"Don't pretend you don't know Harry still has feelings for you," she said gently, stopping me from arguing. "He's not good at hiding such things. Although I've always advised him... But it seems you two are getting along well."

"What are you talking about?" I mumbled, looking down at my toes.

"Then just take it as me talking nonsense," she said affectionately, linking her arm with mine. "Come on. Oh, there are new flavors of Exploding Chocolate!"