Chap 20: The Defence Association

"Harry, did you see the new Daily Prophet," Hermione whispered to him in the library. Harry was once again spending time with Hermione, Ron and Cho, attempting to complete his assignments before his scheduled career meeting together with McGonagall.

"Nope, why?" Harry answered, looking up from his Potions essay, something that he had felt a little more motivated to do these days, largely due to Snape's less harsh treatment of him and kinder grading of his work, something that he reckoned was due to his encounter with Malfoy together with Daphne, the exact reason however, eluded him.

"Umbridge tried to implement other Education Decree, this time to ban all student groups and only allow them to restart with permission from her."

"What?" Harry, Ron and Cho exclaimed together, leading to Madam Pince loudly shushing them.

"Exactly, 2 days after our meeting, this can't be a coincidence," Hermione whispered.

"You reckon she was spying on us in Hogs Head?"

"I don't think so, I think that the information just somehow leaked out, it isn't from the group itself either because the list hasn't said anything."

"When you say tried, do you mean that was vetoed?" Cho asked.

"Mhm, the surveillance group vetoed it, Madam Bones was really against it, said that limiting student behaviour is a stupid move and that if any group was dangerous or harmful, Dumbledore himself should be the one who decides and disbands it."

"I really need to meet her and thank her myself," Harry said, internally thanking Susan's aunty for all her good work.

"But we have to be more careful, Umbridge definitely knows about this now and would be trying to get you into trouble for it," Hermione warned.

"Any school rules that explicitly says that we can't organise the group."

"Nope, I checked it multiple times and even asked Flitwick myself, this is the equivalent of a study group and as long as nobody is getting hurt in the group, it isn't against the school rules."

"Then we should be really careful with what we teach, nobody can get hurt in the group itself, so we can't use any overly dangerous spells," Harry said, "Have you found anywhere to host it?"

"No, I would have to keep finding but at the moment, I can't find anything," Hermione admitted.

"Alright, let me know when you find somewhere, in the meantime, ima go for my career talks," Harry said, getting up and bidding goodbye to the group, giving Cho a peck in the process.

When Harry finally entered McGonagall's office, he was surprised and rather annoyed that Umbridge herself was there, making eye contact with McGonagall who telepathically communicated that she felt the same.

"Mr Potter, take a seat please," McGonagall said in her usual professional voice.

"May I know why Professor Umbridge is here, last I checked, this conversation is meant to be between the Head of House and me only," Harry said after sitting down.

"I am here to invigilate Professor McGonagall's conduction of these career talks, as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, I have to authority to watch over the teacher's education of the students," Umbridge said in her usual high-pitch and insufferable voice.

"But this is meant to be a private matter, it is my career that we are talking about, I think that I should have a say on who I want as an audience, this isn't even education, it's just the providing of advice no?" Harry asked back, keeping a falsely pleasant tone, something that he had mastered to communicate with Umbridge.

"It's in my authority and right as the High Inquisitor to watch over everything in this school," she replied, temper rising now.

"Forgive me Professor, but isn't that the Headmaster's duty, not the High Inquistor's, I mean as Madam Bones allegedly said, it is Dumbledore's responsibility to watch over student activities isn't it?" Harry asked, subtly mentioning the Ministry's failure to pass the proposed Educational Decree.

"Let's move on to the career talks shall we?" McGonagall interrupted before Umbridge could reply, a rather large smirk on her face however told Harry that she was enjoying every second of the interaction, Umbridge's plumb red face however, told a different story.

"Well Mr Potter, you told me last year that you are aiming to become an Auror and a Quidditch player, I would assume that those are still your targets?"

"Indeed Professor, but I would like to add being a Professor to that list, I've been thinking about it recently and figured that it might be a career worth pursuing," Harry added, completely ignoring Umbridge now.

"May I know why you think that Mr Potter?" McGonagall asked, eyes intently on Harry, genuinely curious.

"Well, I figured that teaching the next generation, imparting knowledge and influencing professors like you, Professor Flitwick, Professor Dumbledore or Professor Lupin would be a noble endeavour to pursue-" Harry said before being interrupted by the Pink Toad.

"I would have to inform you that Professor Lupin was an unsuitable professor while he taught Defence Against the Dark Arts at this school," She said.

"I would have to politely reject your notion Professor Umbridge, Professor Lupin had taught me much at this school and is probably the best Defence Against the Dark Arts professor I've had in my 5 years and many students will share that sentiment, personally, I think that he taught me more than in his first week than you had in the last month and he continued to teach my excellently throughout the year, I mean he did teach me how to cast a corporal Patronus Charm, something that many adult wizards can't do," Harry added.

"He is a Werewolf, a highly dangerous creature Mr Potter," she snarled.

"Indeed, however, having an uncurable illness should not define him and his capabilities, he is a fine human and Dumbledore ensured the protection of the students through the Wolfbane Potion, he unfortunately, was too caught up with protecting his students from Sirius Black and thus did not drink his potion that night which led to his unfortunate transformation, I believe that shows that despite his disease, he was a fine man through and through, in fact, he should not be discriminated for his illness through legislations such as the Anti-werewolf legislation but helped and provided support."

"Werewolves are dangerous creatures! They harm our society more than you think!" Umbridge yelled.

"Unfortunately Professor, when wizards like you draft legislations like that, throwing them into poverty, how else do you expect them to react other than hatred?" Harry asked back, internally enjoying her outrage.

"ARE YOU QUESTIONING THE MINISTRY'S POLICIES?" she yelled.

"Dolores, this is meant to be a career talk between myself and Potter, would you do us a favour and not interrupt us otherwise you may leave my office now," McGonagall interrupted, the smirk on her mouth now more obvious.

"As you previously said, I believe your sentiment to become a professor is admirable, the requirements to become a professor are rather stringent though, you would have to become at least a Master at a subject and ideally become a Grandmaster, I would assume that you understand the mastery system?" McGonagall continued, to which Harry nodded, Cho had previously taught him about the system when she took up lessons with Flitwick, upon graduation from Hogwarts, students who receive at least Exceed Expectations in a subject will be granted the status of Novice, should they continue studying, they will progress up the ladder to Elite, then Accomplished, then Junior Master, then Master, then Advanced Master and finally, Grandmaster.

"Fantastic, looking at your subjects, your strongest ones that you can pursue a mastery in are Charms, Transfiguration and Ancient Runes, all of which you are making outstanding progress in along with most of your other subjects, what mastery would you want to pursue Mr Potter?"

"Probably Transfiguration Professor, and ideally under you."

"Ah understood, I have immensely high expectations from my students, are you sure that you want me as your Master?"

"I do," Harry said confidently.

"Understood Mr Potter, I will accept you as my student alongside Ms Granger who had agreed to pursue the mastery under me earlier today, I do expect you to work your hardest."

"I would Professor, I won't let you down."

"Then it's settled," McGonagall said happily, "Let's move on to becoming an Auror, I do believe that you are on the right track for all your subjects, including Potions which Severus has reported immense improvements, should you keep this up, you be eligible to apply as an Auror."

"He would never become an Auror!" Umbridge shrieked.

"May I know why Dolores?"

"He has been subpar in my classes as of recently!"

"Well, Mr Potter has shown a track record of being excellent at Defence, probably one of the best the school has ever seen, I have confidence that he would achieve the proper grade required."

"Outrageous, the Ministry would never want an Auror like Potter!"

"The current Ministry would never," McGonagall corrected.

"The current Ministry? You are hoping that Albus takes over aren't you?" Umbridge snarled.

"Actually, no, with the way the Ministry is operating right now, I won't be surprised that Fudge gets voted out soon," McGonagall said.

"THAT'S TREASON MINERVA!"

"That isn't treason, I'm not planning to overthrow him, in fact, his demise would be both you and his doing."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Umbridge shrieked, starting to hurt Harry's ears with her high-pitched shrieking.

"Professor, I'm not sure that having Professor Umbridge here is helping with your career talk, it's getting ridiculously side-tracked at the moment, I do have Prefect Patrols tonight, I would love to get this over with as soon as possible," Harry said.

"Understood Mr Potter, Dolores, please leave my office now."

"I'M THE HIGH INQUISTOR, YOU DO NOT COMMAND ME!"

"Do you want me to call the Headmaster down to assist in this, I can't help but feel that this would be a waste of his time."

Glaring at McGonagall and Harry, Umbridge stormed out of the office, her face a brighter red than her ridiculous outfit.

"You are playing a dangerous game Harry," McGonagall said after Umbridge left, a large smile on her face.

"She can't actually get me into trouble for this so I frankly don't care," Harry replied

"You should still be careful, while it's definitely enjoyable to see you verbally outmatch her, you should stay on her good terms," McGonagall warned.

"Understood Professor, but not putting her in her place is truly a challenge if I do say so myself," Harry smirked.

"Trust me Harry, I wholeheartedly agree with you here," McGonagall said, "On a different note Mr Potter, let's continue our career talks."

"Professor, may I know why you keep alternating between Harry and Mr Potter, I understand that in public but when we are having private lessons, I don't exactly understand why you keep alternating, it's a little confusing honestly."

"Well it's a little of a dilemma Harry," McGonagall admitted, "You see, I was a friend of James and Lily and when I visited them after you were born, I always known you as baby Harry, Lily even taught you to call me Aunt Minnie-"

Harry stared at McGonagall as her eyes widened at what she just said.

"Oh my days," Harry said, laughing loudly.

"Don't you dare Mr Potter," McGonagall warned.

"Oh I'm so going to call you Aunt Minnie from now on," Harry said, almost falling from his chair in laughter.

"You are just as insufferable as James," she snorted, looking annoyed even though her eyes told a different story.

"For your sake, I would call you Professor in public, but in private," Harry said, barely managing to complete his sentence due to his laughter, "But you should call me Harry in private too, since you knew me and my parents when I was a baby, I feel that it is only natural."

"Understood Harry, but if you ever call me Aunt Minnie in public," she said, her eyes erupting in flames as she said it, "I will make sure that you suffer in our mastery lessons."

"Yes Aunt Minnie," Harry said, smiling at her annoyed reaction, "Anyways we should continue with the career talks."

"Indeed," McGonagall replied, "I would have to commend you for your work as a Quidditch captain thus far, I've received information that you have been getting the best out of your fellow teammates."

"I'm just doing my best Aunt Minnie," Harry replied, "Though I'm still a little worried about how Ron would deal with the pressure in the Slytherin game."

"Progress takes a while Harry, with time I'm sure that Mr Weasley will reach his potential."

"That's what I hope as well," Harry sighed.

"In terms of your capabilities, you have continued to improve throughout the years and I doubt that that would change soon, Nimbus themselves should be happy to continue sponsoring you especially with all the added attention to you, all press is good press after all."

"Agreed."

"However, as the Head of the House and an avid competitor at heart, I would have to voice my concerns over you giving your Firebolt to Ms Chang," McGonagall added, "Ravenclaw is suddenly looking a lot more deadly with her on the Firebolt."

"Well, I would agree with you that Ravenclaw is actually a threat, but I personally just wanted to help Cho get the needed attention to get a sponsorship, she wants to go professional and has the potential to do so, she just needs a better broom to fully show it."

"Very noble indeed, I do hope that they do not end up winning the Championship this year, otherwise I will come for your throat," McGonagall warned, something that made Harry a lot more determined to win.

"Well, in that case, I reckon we are finished with the career talks, as long as you keep working hard on the pitch and in your academics, you should be able to achieve either one of the 3," McGonagall concluded.

"Thanks Professor, I won't let you down."

"I know you won't."

"So this is the place?" Cho asked, as they entered the Room of Requirement. Through the assistance of Dobby, Harry had successfully found the ideal place to hold meetings for their Defence Club, something that Harry was showing Cho now, 30 minutes before the actual meeting.

"Yeah, I would have to give Dobby even more socks this Christmas, this place is actual magic," Harry commented, walking around the room filled with practice dummies, books on Defence Magic and even a duelling ring at the back, something Harry aimed to avoid as he did not want anyone to get injured.

"So I would assume that you can spawn anything you want in this room?" Cho asked, looking around the room in amazement as well.

"I suppose so, let me test it out," Harry said, mentally focusing and envisioning a couch to spawn, and as expected, one magically appeared in front of the fireplace in the room.

"Wicked," Cho said, taking a seat on the couch, right next to Harry, snuggling into his arms.

After several minutes of silence, enjoying the warmth of Cho's body, taking in her scent and enjoying her presence, Cho finally broke the silence.

"So, what are you planning to teach them today?" She asked.

"Nothing much really, today is kinda the admin day where everyone figures out how things are going to run here, I will probably just teach them the Disarming Charm."

"Expelliarmus? Isn't that rather basic?" Cho asked back.

"You will be surprised by how weak some people are at disarming, come, let me show you," Harry said, getting up from the couch with Cho.

"Alright try to disarm me," Harry said, now standing a few feet apart from Cho.

"Expelliarmus!" Cho casted, a red spell exiting her wand and hitting Harry, causing his wand to fly out of his hand, though it fell right beside Harry.

"Not bad, but it's a little weak," Harry commented, picking up his wand and walking up to Cho to guide her.

"You are performing the spell motion rather well, but you are firstly, doing too much with your hand motion, you should keep it small and fluid, makes your casting faster and makes the spell more powerful, secondly, when you draw the circle at the end with your hand, you have to speed up how fast you cast it, you are doing it too slowly, while it still works, the speed at the end makes your spell more effective and the target's wand will fly away further, last but not least, you need to put more intend into your spell, you have to know exactly what you want it to do, in this case, you want my wand to fly away and ideally to your hand, this is the same as any spell, you must have a strong intend behind it, the harder the spell, the more willpower you need," Harry taught, holding her hand and demonstrating how exactly she had to do it.

"Let me show you," Harry said, mentally picturing a dummy with a 'wand' which immediately appeared in front of them.

'Expelliarmus!' Harry shouted, casting a strong and intense red light which hit the dummy square in the chest, throwing it back while its 'wand' flew high up, allowing Harry to summon it into his hands.

"That's brilliant Harry," Cho exclaimed in delight, "I didn't know it could throw people back like that."

"It isn't supposed to, but if you cast it strong enough it will do exactly that, did that to Snape in my 3rd year," Harry shrugged.

"It's a miracle he didn't kill you for that," Cho commented.

"Indeed," Harry replied, "Come on, you now."

After a few more tries, Cho began to cast stronger Disarming Charms, while it wasn't able to throw a dummy back like Harry did, it did result in the dummy tumbling back and its 'wand' flying high and away, something Harry considered as a success.

"I see that you are already soothing into your teacher role," Hermione commented, startling Harry and Cho who didn't even realise that she was there together with Ron.

"Blimey Hermione, didn't know you 2 were here already."

"Well, we've been here for a minute or 2 but you 2 lovebirds are too busy casting spells to notice," Ron joked, resulting in glares from Harry and Cho.

"To be honest though, that was pretty impressive teaching from you Harry," Hermione commented, nodding her head in approval.

"Cho was already pretty decent at the spell, let's hope the others are capable enough too, I can't be going around giving everyone 1-to-1 assistance the entire night."

"You know Zhu, you can teach Ron and Hermione first too, we 3 can be your assistant teachers," Cho suggested.

"Great idea Cho," Hermione said, "Come on, we have 15 minutes, let's get going."

After 10 more minutes of teaching, both Hermione and Ron were able to cast at a similar level to Cho, Hermione did not require much teaching, getting it after 3 tries, Ron on the other hand, struggled more with perfecting the hand motion, something he was getting a little embarrassed about."

"Ron, there is nothing to be embarrassed of, you are probably better than most of the students who will be coming," Harry reassured.

"Kinda sucks when you are the weakest among the 4 people here," Ron muttered.

"Oh come on Ronald Weasley, it isn't that deep," Hermione interjected, casting another successful disarming charm at the dummy.

"I mean being worse than Harry is understandable, he literally fights dark wizards, Cho is a year higher than us as well," he continued.

"Are you saying that you are embarrassed because you do not think that I'm impressive enough," Hermione said, face turning slightly red.

"OH! No! No! You are brilliant Hermione, just that I wish I was better, normal competitive friend thing you know," Ron responded, looking very flustered indeed.

"Competitive friend thing," Hermione snorted before grabbing Ron from Harry, "Come on Ronald Weasley, let's get this over and done with."

Watching Hermione teaching Ron patiently and Ron's tense and focused face, Cho gave Harry and knowing look, something that made them chuckle in silence.

As Ron continued to practice, getting better every attempt, other members began pouring in, every one of them stunned by how impressive the room was. Soon, the last members arrived and Ron successfully casted a good Disarming Charm.

"Alright, everyone is here," Hermione said to the crowd, "We are all gathered here to obviously learn defensive magic from Harry but before we get to get, we need to address some admin matters, namely the leader of the group and the name of it."

"Isn't Harry the leader?" Daphne asked.

"Well, he technically is, but I want to officially elect one leader, anyone opposes Harry as a leader?" Hermione replied. Harry looked at the crowd and was pleasantly surprised that no one raised their hand.

"Fantastic, now the name, suggestions?"

"How about Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina said hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" Fred suggested, resulting in waves of laughter throughout the crowd.

"I would prefer to not get into trouble with Umbridge or the Ministry please?" Harry said, resulting in another roar of laughter.

"How about The Defence Association, or DA for short?" Cho suggested something that Harry found respectable as it was straight to the point.

"We can keep the DA part, but how about we name it Dumbledore's Army," Ginny suggested, "After all, isn't Dumbledore the person the Ministry fears the most?"

"That is a good idea but I think it's a little risky, if we hypothetically got found out, the name would get us into trouble," Harry replied with murmurs of agreement emerging from the crowd.

"All in favour of The Defence Association?" Hermione asked the crowd, counting the number of hands raised, "Majority agree, motion passed!"

After writing the name onto the piece of parchment, Hermione then passed on the time to Harry to start the lesson.

"Well, I've decided that we should start with an easy but useful spell today, expelliarmus, something that most of us should be familiar with-"

"Oh come on, the Disarming Charm, isn't that a second-year spell?" Smith asked from the crowd, clearly not learning from his lesson in Hogs Head.

"It is actually, but I believe that many of you here are not able to cast a strong and effective one, perhaps you would want to demonstrate Smith?" Harry called out, turning Smith's face pale, hesitantly moving to the Duelling Area.

"I want you to try and disarm me," Harry said, smirking at his attempt to put on a brave face.

"Expelliarmus!" He shouted, firing a weak red spell at Harry which completely missed.

"Try again," Harry said.

"Expelliarmus!" He casted again, a similar weak red spell exiting his wand and this time hitting Harry. Harry's wand wiggled a little in his hand, but he did not drop it.

"As you can see, that's a rather weak Disarming Charm, something that I believe many of you are only able to cast, key pointers to take note, the hand motion has to be spot on and the circle at the end has to be done rapidly to cast a more effective spell, your wand motions has to be small and precise, that would not only ensure a quicker cast and a more effective spell but also help with your aim, Smith, your first spell missed largely because you drew a very big circle and when you ended, the tip of your wand wasn't pointing at me anymore, another thing you should take note of is leading with your foot, your front foot should always be pointing at your opponent, that will ensure that your spell hit them, the more advance you get, the more precise your aim can be, targetting specific areas and you wouldn't need to lead with your front foot then, but for now, I advise everyone to practise using that," Harry said to the crowd.

"In case you do not believe that the Disarming Charm is useful in real-world scenarios, I would like to add the fact that disarming your opponent fast and effectively ends a fight before it even starts, and if you really still need convincing, I used it against Voldemort back in June, it saved my life," Harry said softly, resulting in many shock faces staring at him

"If you want an example of a strong Disarming Charm," Harry said, before casting one at a nearby dummy, throwing it back and its 'wand' into the sky, allowing Harry to summon it into his other hand. At this display, the crowd erupted in applause, even Smith was clapping sheepishly, "I combined a summoning charm with the Disarming Charm itself, a very strong combination to end fights fast, I may touch on the summoning charm briefly in the future but for now, break up into pairs and practice it on each other, make sure you are all equally spaced apart and focus on the aim and casting first, here is no need for speed for now, partners, watch what your partner is doing wrong and give feedback, I've already taught Ron, Hermione and Cho earlier today so they will be going around helping out you guys together with me," Harry commanded, "Alright good luck practising guys!"

The crowd quickly dispersed, everyone picking their partner rapidly and excitedly beginning to practice, Ron and Hermione quickly took on their roles while Cho walked up to Harry.

"Looks like someone is an amazing teacher," Cho said, a bright smile on her face.

"I don't know, this spell is kinda my signature one, probably easier to teach because of that, the more advanced we get, the harder it will become."

"You will succeed Zhu, you always do," Cho said, before closing in and giving him a nice soft kiss.

"Oi lovebirds, stop snogging and start helping out!" Katie shouted, accompanied by wolf whistles and playful jeering from the crowd.

"We will continue this after the lesson," Cho said playfully, before turning away and moving in to help, something that Harry similarly did too.

To Harry's delight, the members were learning rapidly, with many older students successfully casting the charm quickly, allowing them to take up the role of assistant as well, moving around to help others. Over time, more and more students successfully casted their charms and the students who were originally struggling such as Smith and Neville soon got the hang of it after advice and feedback from other students. After everyone successfully casted their spells, Harry decided to host a small competition where the members competed within their pairs to see who was better at disarming, performing something like an old western standoff, seeing who could disarm who first, bringing a more fun aspect to the challenge. At the end of the day, Cho and Hermione came out as the strongest, followed by Angelina and Daphne. None of them however, held a candle to Harry who casted faster and stronger spells than any of them, Harry also had the additional benefit of rapid dodging, allowing him to avoid getting hit while firing back accurate spells which disarmed many of them, in order to prevent injuries, Harry intentionally used a slightly weaker version, ensuring that no one got thrown back.

"Fantastic session guys!" Harry said enthusiastically at the end, "Everyone here has done really well, I reckon we can move on to stunning spells which should be relatively simple in the next session and probably touch a little on the Shield Charm which would take a while as casting a strong one is surprisingly difficult."

There were murmurs of excitement among the members, all of which were equally as excited as Harry was. After strategically dismissing every student through the use of his Marauder's Map, including a passionate kiss Harry gave Cho under his Invisibility Cloak, the room was soon left with Hermione, Ron and Harry.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" Hermione asked smugly, proud that her brainchild had panned out successfully.

"I guess so, it's more fun than I thought it would," Harry admitted reluctantly.

"You are natural at teaching Harry," Ron commented, placing his arm over Harry's shoulder and grinning at him, "you should really consider teaching as a career."

"Actually, I already am, I told McGonagall about it during the career talk, something that she seemed rather delighted about."

"Then this is perfect for you to build experience Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in delight.

"Yeah yeah fair enough, but now, let's go back to bed, we have training tomorrow morning Ron, don't forget," Harry warned, resulting in Ron groaning in protest as they left the Room of Requirements together underneath his Cloak, something that never gets old for them.