Chapter 13

The next morning I was woken up by the sound of people whispering. Confused I cracked my eyes open a bit. After registering what my surroundings were they flew open and I jumped up. We had freaking fell asleep in the Common Room.

Before I could tell all the gawkers to leave Hermione came down and started shooing people to breakfast. Once the room had cleared out a bit she gave me a look. A very angry look.

I slowly raised my hands in surrender. "We just fell asleep."

Unconvinced she looked at George who was following my lead with the hands thing. "Nothing happened"

She gave a huff, and left.

"I think she's going to kill us." I said.

"Only if she catched you guys again." Fred said with a wicked grin. "Next time try to be a little more discrete."

I put my hands on his shoulders. "I am going to say this very slowly so you can understand me. We. Just. Fell. Asleep. Got it?"

"Whatever you say." He replied with a wink.

There was going to be no way to win this. "You're lucky you're one of my best friends. Or I would have to kill you."

Fred placed his hands over his heart, mocking injury. "Libra how could you be so cruel."

I held up my right hand. "It's in my blood." I completely killed the mood, but at the moment I really didn't care. I just wanted the whole week to be over.

Fast forward two weeks and I was still in detention with Umbridge and Angelina was about ready to throttle me. Turns out I was way too much of a smartass to last more than half an hour in Umbridge's class. Friday night after detention I found the boys waiting for me in the Common room, with Hermione.

"What did you guys do?" I asked plopping down on the couch next to George.

"Nothing love." He said. "Hermione just wants to run a brilliant idea past us."

I looked at Hermione.

"Well, I've been thinking that since it's clear that Umbridge has no intention of teaching us how to defend ourselves we would have to learn a different way."

"You mean figure it out ourselves?"

"Not really. I was thinking Harry could teach us."

"Not a bad idea. Crazy kid has done more battles with evil than any one of us. Where would we hold these classes that are going to be totally unapproved?"

"We're holding a meeting in Hogsmeade tomorrow to sort everything out. Will you guys come?"

I glanced at the boys. They looked as pumped as I was. "I think you can add this little band of rule breakers to the list. Where and when?"

The next morning could not have come fast enough. I practically bounced down the stairs in my jeans, black leather jacket, and boots. "Today is going to be awesome." I announced when I met the boys at the bottom of the stairs.

"George, I hate to break it to you, but your girlfriend has been replaced by an imposter. This person is way too chipper." Fred whispered loudly.

"Funny." I deadpanned. "Now come on. We need to move fast if we want to hit up Zonko's before going to the Hog's Head."

We ended up needing to sprint to make the meeting because they did not want to leave Zonko's. When we got there the place was filled with Hogwarts students. "There's a lot of people here." I whispered.

Fred rolled his eyes and went up to the bar. "Hi. Could we have…twenty-five butterbeers, please?"

The guy glared at him before pulling out the bottles.

"Cheers. Cough up everyone, I don't have enough gold for all of these."

When it was my turn to take a glass I tossed a little more on the counter and said, "I'll take a firewhiskey."

The guy raised his eyebrows, but poured me a glass anyway.

When I sat down Fred and George were looking mildly amused, and Hermione was burning a hole into my soul. "Guys, it's just one and I have at least one more week of detention with Umbridge."

When Hermione didn't say anything Ron leaned over. "How come you aren't yelling at her?"

I smirked when I heard him. "Cause you're a prefect and I don't follow many rules. Are we starting this meeting or not?"

Once everyone had settled into a seat Hermione stood up. "Er. Wll, hi." Well you know why you're here. Erm… well Harry here had this idea-" Harry threw her a wicked glare. "I mean I had the idea. That it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Darks Arts- really study it, not the rubbish Umbridge is doing with us. I thought it would be good if we took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory, but real spells."

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though I bet." Michael Corner broke in.

"Of course I do. But I want to be properly trained in Defense because...because Lord Voldemort is back."

Everyone promptly began freaking out at his name, but at the same time trying to cover up their fear.

Hermione continued on. "Well… that's the plan anyway. If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to-"

"Where's the proof that You-Know-Who's back?" A Hufflepuff interrupted her.

"Well Dumbledore believes it-"

"You mean Dumbledore believes him." He said nodding in Harry's direction.

"Who are you?" Ron asked.

"Zacharias Smith and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

Hermione tried to intervene. "Look, that's not really what this meeting is supposed to be about-"

"It's okay Hermione." Harry said. He looked Zacarias straight in the eye. "What makes me say You-Know-Who is back? I saw him. Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you don't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know-"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you." Harry burst out. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

Zacharias went to open his mouth again.

I stood up. "If you don't want to believe that Voldemort is back, fine. But you can't deny that something is up. Cedric murdered, Dumbledore's reputation being torn to shreds, the Ministry refusing to even investigate the fact that Voldemort might be back, and the fact the Ministry spontaneously decided that no Hogwarts student should be properly trained in how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts. Something shady of going on and we need to be able to hold our own."

There as about thirty seconds of awkward silence before Hermione spoke again. "So, like I was saying...if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to

A random girl interrupted her. "It it true you can produce a Patronus?"

Everyone's ears perked up at that.

"Yeah." Harry said. A little more defensively than was necessary.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

"You don't know Madam Bones do you?"

"She's my auntie. I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes." Harry answered.

Lee's shout made me jump. "Blimey, Harry! I never knew that!"

Fred grinned. "Mum told Ron not to spread it around. She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong." Harry mumbled.

"And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office? Terry Boot asked.

I could tell Harry was starting to get a little embarrassed with people bringing up every badass thing he's done since first year. Knowing that the questions were just going to keep coming I said, "Yes he did. And he saved the Sorcerer's stone from Voldemort, and let's not forget all the tasks he did last year. He's freaking brilliant. Now that we have that established, let's move on"

Everyone looked at Harry again.

"Look," he said. I had a lot of help with that stuff-"

"Are you trying to weasel your way out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacarias asked.

"Here's an idea," Ron said. "Shut your mouth."

"Well we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't' really do any of it."

Fred immediately shifted into protective mode. "That's not what he said," he snarled.

George went for a less direct threat. "Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" He asked as he pulled this some lethal- looking metal thing out a a Zonko's bag.

I had no idea what is was or where they got it, but it sure as hell made the git nervous. I finished the threat off. "Or any part of your body really. We're not fussy about where we stick this."

Hermione tried to draw attention away from the fact that we openly threatened that git's life. "Yes, well, moving on. The point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

Everyone murmured their agreement.

"Right. The next question is how often are we going to do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week."

Before Angelina opened her mouth I said, "We need to make sure if it won't conflict with Quidditch. Any matches or any practices."

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone, but you know this is important. We're talking about learning to defend ourselves against Voldemort's Death Eaters."

And then things clicked in Zacharias's head. "If we want to defend ourselves against Death Eaters, why is she here?" He asked pointing at me.

George moved to stand up. I pulled him back into his seat while standing up myself. "I am not a Death Eater. My parents might support Voldemort, but I don't. If you haven't heard the latest gossip I'll fill you in: I've been officially cut out of their lives. Really, this is news from the first week get yourself together. Besides having me around gives you an advantage. I know how they think. I can give you the best prediction on what attacks they will use and when they will use them. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but to me once a week sounds like a great way to start." I sat back down and downed the last bit of my firewhiskey.

"Well other the other thing is deciding where we're going to meet."

Everyone went silent trying to think of a place.

After a few minutes Katie Bell suggested the library.

"I can't see Madam PInce being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library." Mark my words, Harry's snark was going to be the end of him, not Voldemort.

"Unused classroom?" Dean suggested.

"Yeah," Ron said. "McGonagall might let us use hers. She let Harry use it last year for the Triwizard."

"Right well, we'll try to find somewhere. We'll send a message around when we've got a time and place for the first meeting." She pulled some parchment and a quill from her bag. "I think everyone should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think we all should agree not to shout about what we're doing, So if you sign, you're agreeing to not tell Umbridge-or anyone else- what we're up to."

Fred immediately reached for the paper and put down his signature before passing it along to the rest of us. Zacharias argued against it, but eventually signed it. Silence descended over the room as it sank in to everyone what we had all agreed to.

Fred stood up. "Well, time's ticking. George, Lee, Libra, and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."

We headed out the door and immediately made a right into the alley beside the building where we found Mundungus waiting for us.

Since time was short and it scared the crap out of Mundungus when I flipped to borderline sociopath mode I was nominated to run negotiations. "Afternoon Mundungus."

"Fifteen Galleons for the lot. I'm not going any lower so let's not waste time for any of us."

I raised an eyebrow. "Slow down. We have enough time to at least make sure what we're getting is worth the price you're charging."

He looked annoyed but he opened up the bag.

I scanned over the Tentacula seeds. It was more than he got for us the last time. "Fair enough." His expression went from stone cold to happy to surprised. "That look better be from shock that I can be agreeable and not because you're ripping us off." I warned keeping my tone low and dead calm.

His eyes got as big as saucers. "Oh no. No. There is no way I would ever rip you off. I-"

I cut him off. "I'm convinced." I took the bag from him and handed him the gold. "Now go."

Business done we started the trek back to the castle.