A/N
The Houses Competition
Round One
House: Hufflepuff
Student: Year 5
Category: Short (1500-3000 Words)
Prompt(s): "Name told me to. So I did" [Speech]
Word count: 1876 (Per Google Docs)
Beta(s): Trish, Aya

Lessons and Detentions

"Great job, Luna!" Harry called from where he was working with Neville on banishing and summoning charms.

Luna waved at Harry and concentrated on banishing the pillow she had just summoned from the pile on the other side of the room.

Cho ground her teeth and had Marietta send a banishing charm at Luna when the girl wasn't looking. Luna stepped lightly to the side, narrowly missing the jet of light aimed at her. She looked around and turned slightly to keep her House-mates in view, so they could not get the best of her again.

"That was too close," Luna muttered as Harry called a stop to the spell casting.

"Okay, everyone!" Harry called out. "Gather around. We are going to start working on something a bit harder now."

Hermione stepped up and whispered in Harry's ear. He nodded in response and she smiled before stepping back to let the students focus on their unofficial leader.

"Oi, Potter," Zacharias Smith sneered.

"What, Smith?" Harry sounded exasperated with his year mate.

"What are you gonna teach us now? Longbottom still doesn't have a basic understanding of which end of his wand is the right end." Smith laughed at his own little bitter remark with his friends.

"Neville is just fine with his wandwork, Smith," Harry snapped. "I won't have anyone bullying another in this room. You can see yourself out if you continue."

Smith glared at Harry, but he and his friends quieted their snickers and waited to see what the next lesson would be.

"I will be demonstrating the Patronus Charm. Hermione will pass out study materials copied from books that were used when I was taught the spell in Third Year by Professor Lupin so that everyone has an even start to master the spell. The books are not in Hogwarts' Library which is why it took this long to get to this lesson. I had to wait for Professor Lupin to get back to me with the materials he used to teach me."

Harry paused and looked out over his peers, watching as Cho and her cronies gave Luna a shove with a practiced air of nonchalance. His gaze narrowed and he flicked his eyes to Hermione who noticed immediately that her friend was not pleased. She followed his gaze to the gaggle of girls, crossed her arms, then turned back to Harry, giving a subtle nod. The entire interaction between Harry and Hermione took less than fifteen seconds and was caught by no one else.

Harry clapped making sure everyone had their eyes on him.

"Alright then. The first thing about the Patronus Charm is that it is useful not only against Dementors but also Lethifolds. There are two types of Patronus, corporeal and non-corporeal. You should know that casting a Patronus is highly difficult. It took me quite a while, and a lot of chocolate, to be able to cast one against a Boggart that took the form of a Dementor. I won't be testing you against a Dementor, or even a Boggart shaped like one, simply because we do not have the time, nor resources to do so. Now–" Harry braced himself with feet shoulder width apart, "You must begin with thinking of the happiest thought you can—"

"Happy thoughts?!" Zacharias scoffed.

"Silencio!" Hermione snapped. "This is your last warning, Smith. One more and you are gone for good."

Zacharias glared at the Muggle-born girl, folding his arms angrily when he realized that everyone was glaring at him. His friends didn't even bother to remove the spell from him.

Harry shook his head. "As I was saying, think of your happiest thought. The Patronus Charm is an emotion-based spell that relies on good thoughts. Why do you think Azkaban is such a cold and dreary place? Dementors pull your happiness from you leaving nothing but negativity and despair."

Zacharias nodded in recognition. Hermione snapped her wand and cancelled the spell on him wordlessly.

The group looked at Hermione with wide eyes before she rolled her own and motioned for them to pay attention to Harry.

Luna took the opportunity afforded to her by Cho's inattention to move away from her in order to avoid another shove or hex being aimed at her.

"The wand movements are fairly simple. You just draw small circles with your wand in order to amp up the power level of your Patronus." Harry demonstrated the movements and continued, "The incantation is Expecto Patronum." At his last words, Prongs leaped from the tip of his wand and silently cantered about the room amid the gasps of his peers.

Harry let the spell fail once Prongs made a full circuit and stood by his side once more. "That's it for tonight's lesson."

"I have the reading in packets right here," Hermione stated, pulling a stack out of her bag and moving to stand by the exit. "Make sure you don't let anyone know what you are studying. I took precautions to ensure that the packets look harmless to non-D.A. members, but better safe than sorry, no?"

Everyone lined up to receive their study materials and head back to their dorms in ones and twos.

When the last student besides Harry and Hermione left – Ron had missed the lesson due to being in detention with Snape – Harry turned to Hermione with anger sparking in his eyes.

"I'm already on it, Harry. Don't worry." Hermione tried to soothe Harry before he could burst out in anger.

"How can they treat a girl a year younger than them and in their House like that?" Harry growled.

"I told you, Harry. I have it under control. I'm going to assign Padma as her designated protector in their House." Hermione pulled her coin out and waved it under Harry's nose. "Now let's go before Professor Not Pretty in Pink finds us out after curfew. We only have five minutes to get back."

Harry sighed and followed his best girl friend out of the Room of Requirement.

Luna looked around and sighed when she saw her things had once again vanished from her trunk and wardrobe in the Ravenclaw dorms. She knew that it could have been worse – Cho could have actually confronted her about her friendship with Harry, but she preferred to have her cronies torment Luna instead.

Luna frowned and waved her wand, summoning her trainers. She smirked in satisfaction when she heard a thunk and yelp from the common room before the trainers sailed into her outstretched hands. "Serves you right, Thief," she snarled as she charmed her trainers blue and pulled them on just in time for someone to come tromping up the stairs. She twisted her hair up and secured it with her wand. She quickly adopted her dreamy expression and smiled at the newcomer. "Oh, hello. How are you today?"

Padma looked down at Luna before saying, "Cho got hit with a pair of flying trainers downstairs."

Luna blinked owlishly, "Oh dear. Those wrackspurts are getting feisty."

Padma frowned, "Why do you let them get to you, Luna?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Padma arched a delicate eyebrow. "That's the story you're going with? Don't want to think about it for a minute?"

Luna shrugged. "It works for everything else. Why drop a good thing?"

"You can't keep letting them do this to you, Luna," Padma sighed heavily as she sat next to the younger girl. "You need to tell Harry and Hermione about them."

Luna jerked away from the older girl with a snort. "They can't do anything. They are not here when I am being attacked or having things stolen from me." Luna stopped and turned to her only friend in her House. "Why would you tell me to go to them?"

Padma pulled out her fake galleon and showed it to Luna. "Hermione told me to. So I did." She replaced the coin in her robe pocket and looked at the wide eyed fourth year. "She also told me to try to keep you under my wing, so to speak, and see if that doesn't help with the bullying. I know they don't listen to me, Luna, but they will listen to Harry and Hermione. If that doesn't work, I'll go with you to Professor Flitwick."

"Why would he do anything to stop them?" Luna scoffed. "He hasn't even noticed that I show up to most classes with no shoes, or ripped robes, or missing my books."

Padma looked startled at that revelation. "How is that even possible?"

Luna shrugged and pulled her wand out of her hair to try to mend her cloak.

"What about the Weasley twins? Fred and George?" Padma tried to come up with another source of help for the diminutive blonde.

"They are busy helping those that receive detention from Professor Umbridge." Luna gave up on repairing the damage and made a note to send for a new set from Madam Malkin's.

"Why would they need help? It's just detention. We all have them." Padma frowned as she watched Luna pace in front of her.

Luna shot a privacy and repelling charm at the door before turning to the Indian girl. "There is a reason that each professor pulls their favorite students, or in Professor Snape's case, all Slytherins, from Professor Umbridge's detentions, Padma. Professor Umbridge is using Black Quills on students. Some of the younger years are now permanently scarred by her machinations."

Padma paled drastically. "Pavarti has a detention with her Friday night!"

"I don't know what to tell you. If she doesn't have a professor to pull her from the detention, she will be subjected to the Black Quill and all its nastiness." Luna sighed and sat back down next to the now shell-shocked older girl.

They both jumped a bit when their galleons heated up to display a new message telling them the next meeting was going to be that night instead of Friday like planned.

The meeting had been going well, with Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and even Neville displaying corporeal Patronuses.

Just as the majority of the group was getting the hang of at least issuing the haze of a non-corporeal Patronus, the walls shook. Everyone stopped and stared at the walls in trepidation as another shock went through the room. Harry took a step forward as a small hole was punched through the wall. He gulped and spun to his students.

"Everyone run! They can't catch you all!" The Room or Requirement created several exit points and the class bolted in separate directions, each student hoping that their friends got out alright as they fervently tried to get away safely themselves while Harry, Hermione, and Ron provided spellfire cover for them.

In the events that followed, Padma and Luna didn't have to worry about trying to get Parvati out of detention. Professor Umbridge was too busy being terrified of the sound of clopping hooves to monitor any detentions she issued.

Luna no longer had to worry about Cho and Marietta bullying her as she became known as one of the Ministry Six and was firmly under the protection of four Gryffindor upperclassmen and one fiery redheaded female with a penchant for bat-bogey hexes.