I do not own Harry Potter; at least I don't think I do.

Revelations

They couldn't find it. No matter how hard they searched, Harry and Ron were unable to find information on some of the key aspects of potions theory. Actually they had only been looking for a couple of hours, but it was a rather frustrating couple of hours. There were entire sections of the library dedicated to properties of potions ingredients. However, in two hours of concentrated research, they hadn't found a single reference to how you determined what ratios and quantities to use.

They had expected that it would take them a great deal of time and study to fully grasp this aspect of potions. Neither Ron nor Harry had thought that they would be unable to find the information to study though. They knew that the information must be available. After all, it didn't make sense that people just randomly threw the ingredients together in varying amounts until they worked. It was with a great deal of frustration that the two boys packed up their study aids and headed off for Runes class.

Hermione was already in the classroom when Harry and Ron entered quietly from the rear. The two boys shared a conspiratorial look between them before dropping into chairs on either side of their friend.

"Excuse me, is this chair taken?" Harry asked Hermione as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be in the class with her.

Hermione looked up at Harry with an expression of shock, "What are you doing here? This is the Newt-level ancient runes class." Her voice came out in a harsh whisper.

While Hermione was looking at Harry, Ron had slid into the chair on the other side of her, "Yeah Harry, what are you doing here? Don't you know that this is the ancient runes class?"

Hermione whipped around so quickly that her hair fanned out from her head. "Ron, you two shouldn't be in here, class is about to start."

Before Hermione could say anything else she was interrupted by Professor Babbling entering the room. "Ah, I see that everyone is here. As some of you have no doubt noticed we have some new additions to our class. Mister Potter, and Mister Weasley decided to study runes independently. Their test results were both easily high enough to be admitted into my class. I hope you will all do your best to make them feel welcome."

When the class was over, Hermione practically attacked Ron and Harry with joy. "When did you two have time to do an independent study? Why didn't you tell me what you were doing, I could have helped."

Ron supplied the answer as the trio walked, "We just started this summer. We didn't think that it was fair to ask you for help on this, you do too much for us anyways."

Hermione's joy was suddenly replaced by a look of immense irritation. Harry thought that he could almost see his friend's mind drawing the proper conclusions. "That means that you two knew about the Dreamless Draught all summer. That is the only way you could have learned runes, and done your Occlumency. Where you even planning on telling me about the potion this year?"

Harry held up his hand in a placating gesture, "Hermione, we always planned on sharing the Draught with you. We just thought that you deserved a normal summer. If you had taken the potion, you would have spent all the time you saved from sleeping studying."

Hermione bristled, "Well, what's wrong with that?"

"Hermione, everyone needs time to relax. The only time you relax is when you are sleeping; I didn't want to take that away from you. Besides, your parents were worried enough about you pushing yourself as it is."

Hermione was interrupted before she could make a retort. Ron, in a sudden change of topic asked, "So are you willing to partner with Harry and I on the sixth year runes project that professor Babbling talked about today."

The young witch let out an exasperated huff, before smiling. "Of course I am going to partner with you two." She suddenly had an evil looking grin on her place, "But now that I know you are capable of doing the rune's work on your own, I expect you to handle your share of the workload for the project. You can start by coming up with a topic for us to research."

Harry grinned, "We already have one. We were hoping to look at the relationship between runes and wand movement, and how a knowledge of this can be used to improve the power of spells."

For the first time in their school life, Hermione looked completely bewildered about a school topic. "What are you talking about?"

Ron stuttered, "Y'y'you mean you don't know?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't know." Hermione exclaimed with more than a little exasperation.

Harry and Ron quickly dragged their friend into an unused classroom, and explained about Ron's discovery. It took a while to convince Hermione that they were right. However, by the time that they were done explaining their experiments in the tunnel outside of the chamber of secrets, Hermione was already planning out the path for their project. Ron was practically glowing with the knowledge that he had figured something out that Hermione didn't know. Harry was once again surprised to see that his best friend tried not to gloat too much about his discovery.

Ron and Harry also took the time to explain their independent study of potions to Hermione. Harry was surprised that Hermione agreed it was best that he didn't take potions with Snape. She had been genuinely interested in their plan for their study, and had made a deal with her two friends. She agreed to provide them with notes from Snape's potions class, if they would keep her up to date on any discoveries they made in their study.

The rest of their classes went by in a normal fashion. Hagrid was especially happy to have them all back in his Care of Magical Creatures class. Harry was surprised to see Crabbe and Goyle in the class, especially since Malfoy was not. Later on Hagrid confided in Harry that the two large Slytherins had just barely passed enough classes to remain in school, and hadn't had a choice about taking his class.

Hagrid had also been more than delighted to tell Harry and his friends about all of the animals he had arranged for them to study during the year. By the time he was done going over the list, Harry was beginning to wonder if he should even bother preparing for Voldemort, or if he should just accept that he wasn't going to survive Hagrid's class.

Before things had time to settle into a routine Harry had an interesting distraction from Luna Lovegood. During breakfast, shortly after morning post, Luna had gotten up and left the great hall in a very agitated manner. Because Luna normally was able to react to just about anything without become upset, Harry immediately abandoned his breakfast to see what was wrong.

To Harry's surprise, Hermione followed him from the great hall. They found Luna sitting on the staircase nearly in tears. Harry approached his friend and asked, "Luna, what happened?"

Luna looked up, her large eyes glistening with moister, "The stupid minister of magic wouldn't know a Crumple-Horned Snorkack if it bit him on the nose, and he definitely doesn't know what good journalism is."

"Luna, did the minister do something to your father?" Harry asked with as much concern as he could muster.

Luna sniffled, "Dad wanted to help with the war, so he ran a article asking for his readers to send in any information about Death Eater activity. The readers of the Quibbler responded wonderfully, but the minister of magic laughed at my dad when he tried to give him the letters. That stupid idiot Fudge said he didn't trust the judgment of anyone stupid enough to read our paper."

Secretly Harry agreed with the minister that most of the readers of the Quibbler were a little on the nutty side. So he was completely shocked when Hermione asked, "Do you think you father would be willing to send those letters here to Hogwarts? We could look through them and pass on any important information."

"I think daddy would do that." Luna looked happy about the prospect at first. Her features suddenly turned slightly suspicious. "You are not just saying that are you? You will really read the letters?"

Hermione nodded resolutely, "It is stupid to turn down any information that might help us win the war."

Luna jumped up, "I will go write to daddy immediately."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Harry turned to Hermione, "What are you doing?" He didn't even try to keep the shock and surprise out of his voice.

"Look, Harry, I know that most of the letters will be people suspecting neighbors, or various famous and or dead people. But some of them will be legitimate. This is the type of thing the Ministry should already be doing. The Aurors can't be everywhere, and neither can the Order. We shouldn't turn our backs on the common witches and wizards that are everywhere." Hermione had quickly switched into lecture mode.

Harry interrupted her before she could get too carried away. "But how are we suppose to tell the difference between the loonies and the legitimate Death Eater sightings?"

Hermione looked at Harry as if the answer to his question was the most obvious one in the world. "We look for patterns of course. If multiple people are saying the same thing, then it makes it more likely to be true. If enough of them are saying the same thing, then it is at least worth looking into."

"And when are we going to read all these letters Hermione?"

"At night, in the chamber of course. Although, if we get too many sources of information, we might need to look for someone else to recruit to help us."

Harry was shocked at the size of the package that Luna dropped off at Harry's table the following day. Hermione however seemed completely undaunted. That night in the chamber Hermione showed Ron and Harry some sorting spells she had been working on. She created a list of all known Death Eaters, and cast a charm that sorted out all of the letters that mentioned one of the known Death Eaters, or Voldemort, by name.

Hermione explained that this pile was the first priority. After she had read through each of those letters, and made notes, she quickly scanned the remaining letters, and sorted them into two piles. The largest of the piles was the 'highly unlikely' pile. The second pile was what Hermione had termed her 'quite possible' pile.

While Hermione was looking at Luna's Letters, Harry and Ron spent their time sorting through all of the recorded conversations from around the castle. After the first couple of nights, they had decided to follow Hermione's example. They created a list of all the words that they could think of that related to possible danger for the school, or Death Eater activities. They then used a highlighting spell that Hermione had taught them for their OWL use the year before.

Ginny spent most of her time in the chamber helping Hermione. Hermione had so far been unable to solve the problem of transportation back up the tunnel. She claimed that she was getting closer, and spent at least two hours a night secretly working on that project. Harry felt guilty for not helping her more, but he actually liked the slide down the tunnel, as well as the broom ride back up it.

One night while working in the chamber, Harry happened to glance at the marauder's Map, which he normally kept open. What Harry saw on the map caused him to leap up and grab his broom. Without so much as a word to his friends, Harry took off flying at break neck speeds towards the pipe that led back to Myrtle's bathroom. Instead of the normal slow leisurely flight up the pipe, Harry took the opening at close to the Firebolt's top speed.

Harry's speed was so great, that his lit wand did little to help him navigate the winding pipe. Instead he flew by a combination of memory, and blind instinct. When Harry flew into Myrtles bathroom, he dropped off his broom and raced to the door. With the broom in his right and, and the map clutched in his left, Harry kicked open the bathroom door. He remounted his broom, and raced after the small dot labeled Pettigrew.

Harry entered the darkened classroom at a speed that no sane person would ever attempt while flying inside. His seeker-trained eyes instantly spotted the glint off of the rats silver paw. Wormtail must have spotted Harry at almost the same time, because he turned and ran full tilt towards a small hole in the wall. As Harry bolted across the room, he fired off curse after curse at the fleeing rat, but was unable to strike his tiny target.

Harry screamed one last curse at the rat as it disappeared through the hole in the wall. Harry wasted a few precious moments trying to bring the interior wall of the castle down. In a near panic, Harry looked down at the map and quickly found the fleeing form of Peter. The rat must have known every hole and tunnel in the castle, for he was already one floor down, and moving rapidly towards the entry hall.

Harry let out a curse that had nothing to do with magic, and flew back into the hallway. He raced towards the grand staircase, and flew down between the stairs. It seemed as if the castle itself was trying to slow him down, as he had to dodge a couple of moving staircases on his way down. When he reached the ground floor he pulled out of his vertical dive bare inches from the unforgiving stone floor.

Harry had to pause in his flight to open the main doors of Hogwarts, all too aware of the fact that Pettigrew was already outside. Harry looked at the map, and saw that Peter was headed towards the relative safety of the Forbidden Forest. Harry tore after him on his broom, pushing it to new speeds. Harry's speed allowed him to quickly eat the distance between himself and his quarry.

Unfortunately no matter how fast Harry was able to fly, Pettigrew's lead was just too much. The little rat dropped off of the map just seconds before Harry reached the boundary of his map. Harry forced himself to stop. He glared at the forest. He had been so close to catching the traitor. Even though he knew that he would have no chance of finding the rat in the forest, a large part of him still wanted to charge into the darkness.

Harry leaned back his head, and let out a primal scream of anger and frustration. He was more than a little shocked when something in the forest screamed back in the same manner. Harry slowly backed out of the forest, and headed back to the castle. Harry was lucky enough to somehow avoid any patrol's as he made his way disconsolately back to the chamber to explain to his friends what had happened.

After he had explained everything to his friends, Harry made his to the Headmasters office. After a few failed tries to guess the password, he decided to try the obvious password of "Sherbet Lemon". The Gargoyle opened up revealing the staircase to the Headmasters office. When Harry reached the office he knocked firmly on the door, and waited for just a couple of moments.

In no time at all Dumbledore had ushered Harry into the office, and asked him what was wrong. Without any preamble, Harry told Dumbledore of Pettigrew's presence in the castle, and his escape into the Forrest. Harry decided to leave out the fact that he had given chase to the rat, and instead excused himself as soon as he had delivered his message, and returned to Gryffindor tower, just in case Dumbledore sent someone to check up on him.

A couple of days later, Harry had a few moments of free time on his hands, and decided to go for a walk by himself. He was wondering the halls of the castle aimlessly, when he say a small group of Slytherins heading out the main doors. Normally Harry wouldn't have paid any attention to the Slytherins, but he couldn't help but notice that one of them was Zalena. Harry remembered how much he had enjoyed dancing with the fifth year Slytherin, and made a spur of the moment decision to follow her.

He followed the small group of Slytherins out of the castle, and tentatively approached them. "Um Hi. I was just wondering if you enjoyed the dance?" As soon as Harry said the words, he felt like an imbecile. He wished that he could turn back time, and think of something suave or debonair to say.

Zalena bit her bottom lip, and blushed furiously. Before she could answer though, one of her friends spoke up for her. "Oh, she enjoyed the dance. She especially enjoyed two of the dances. Actually she hasn't stopped talking about them. What was the name of that boy she was dancing with?"

One of her other friends immediately jumped in, "Oh, I think it was Garry, or Barry, or something like that. No wait, I remember now, it has been Harry this and Harry that since the beginning of term."

Zalena looked completely mortified. She gave a friendly shove to the girl that was talking. One of the boys in the group interrupted the conversation, "Don't mind Sherrie, I think she was hit with a babbling curse earlier today." The boy stuck out his hand towards Harry, "I'm Conlaugh Travers by the way. You already know Zalena, the other girls are Sherrie, Amanda, and Persephone, and the bloke over there is Jacob."

Harry shook the boy's proffered hand, as he quickly connected names with faces. "Thanks Conlaugh." Something about the boy was tickling the back of Harry's mind, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Conlaugh sighed heavily, "You're trying to figure out where you have heard my name from I expect. My dad was a Death Eater during the first war. He died a couple of years ago in Azcaban."

Harry was so stunned by the information that his mind wasn't quite functioning. He said the first thing that popped into his mind. "I'm sorry about your loss."

Conlaugh laughed bitterly, "I lost my dad before I was even born." He looked at Harry, "Before you ask. No, I am not interested in following my father's footsteps. I hate you-know-who probably as much as anyone. I don't know why anyone would follow him. All you get is tortured anytime the bastard isn't happy. He threatens to kill you if you don't do what he wants, and if you do what he wants, then he leaves you to rot in prison."

The boy looked at Harry defiantly, "The only thing worse that Voldemort, is the bloody ministry. Why did people like my dad go to prison, when people like Malfoy's dad didn't?" He suddenly hung his head, "My dad deserved prison, I've read about the stuff he did." His eyes suddenly flashed dangerously, "But it wasn't justice that the ministry was after. Justice doesn't care if you have enough money to pay off the minister. If they cared about Justice, all of the Death Eaters would be in prison."

The young boy looked defiantly at Harry, "I hope that you, or someone like you kills you-know-who for good this time. But I wouldn't be too depressed if he levels the Ministry of Magic before you take him out."

A slow grin started to spread itself over Harry's face; "I can't disagree with you too much there. Although there are a couple of good people in the ministry, they just don't seem to have any real power." Harry suddenly switched Gears, "So are you coming to the DA meeting later this week?"

The Slytherins were starring at Harry in shocked surprise now. Finally Conlaugh asked, "Are you sure that Slytherins are welcome, especially the son of a Death Eater?"

"The class part of the DA is open to anyone fifth year and above that wants to learn defense." Harry suddenly added, "If you are really what you seem to be, I would be more than happy to have you as a DA knight next year as well."

Harry wasn't sure how it happened exactly, but before long he and Zalena were alone. The two walked hand in hand and talked quietly for almost an hour before they decided to head back to the castle.

Later that day, Harry told his friends about what had happened. Ron was visibly upset about his best friend hanging out with Slytherins, but was able to be calmed down slightly by his sister and Hermione. Neither of the girls seemed entirely pleased with Harry either, but they were at least willing to give the Slytherins a chance to prove themselves. Ron grudgingly agreed that he wouldn't say anything rude to them, but claimed that he wasn't going to become their friend either.

Harry was surprised to find two letters in his room one afternoon. Neither of the letters was from someone that Harry had expected to hear from. The first of the two letters was from Victor Krum. It was short, and to the point.

Dear Harry

I have wished to prove to the world that students of Durmstang are not all dark wizards. I, and a group of my fellow Durmstang graduates, have approached the ministry of Magic to offer our support in the war. We were turned away. I do not wish to serve Dumbledore, not that I don't trust him, but he is the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and Hogwarts will get the credit for anything done in his name. We will therefore go our own way, and try to fight as best we can. I know that you will be involved in the fight against the Dark Lord. I and the son's and daughters of Durmstang stand ready to assist you if you ever need us.

Victor Krum.

Harry was stunned at the letter. Even though Hermione had told him that he needed to become the visible leader of the war, he still wasn't use to people offering him their help. He was troubled by the thought that he didn't know Victors friends, and wasn't sure he could trust them. He was even more disturbed by the realization that people he had never met before had just offered to fight and die alongside of him.

The second letter was from Percy Weasley. It was however as unlike Percy as any letter could have been. The letter contained hints of the pompous writing style that Harry associated with Ron's Brother. It was however lacking the arrogance that was normally present. The penmanship itself was changed, somehow bolder, and less neat and tidy.

Harry

I made a mistake, I don't know if my family will ever forgive me. I want to prove that I am opposed to V's return. I have quit the Ministry, and will dedicate my life to correcting the wrongs I have done. I can't even begin to see how to bridge the gap with my family. In apology for my earlier abandonment of you, I pledge my loyalty to you and your fight. If you are willing to accept my help I will serve you even more tirelessly than I served the Ministry.

Percy

Harry decided that he needed to find out what was happening with Percy before he would be able to respond to this letter. He quickly wrote a short letter to Victor, thanking him for his support, and warning him that he would probably take him up on his offer sometime in the future.

After Harry had sent the letter of with Hedwig, he sought out Ron. "Ron, I was wondering. What ever happened to Percy?"

The tips of Ron's ears went pale, a sure sign of his anger, "Why do you care about that bloody prat?"

"I was just curious, I hadn't heard anything about him in a while. I was wondering if he is still causing problems for you and your family." Harry quickly tried to supply an excuse that he thought would make sense to Ron.

Ron shrugged, "I don't know what is up with him, and I really couldn't care less." After a brief pause Ron continued, "Dad saw him about the start of summer. He said that the great git looked lost. Percy told my dad something about not knowing what to believe in anymore, then walked off. Dad found out later that Percy had just quit the Ministry. He didn't even bother to clear out his desk. Just told Fudge he was done, and walked out. No one has heard anything from him since then. Serves the Stupid prat right you know. He finally realized that he was wrong, but still wasn't man enough to apologize. I hope he is starving to death in some back alley in muggle London."

After Talking with Ron, Harry still wasn't sure what to make of Percy's letter. He sent a noncommittal letter back to the Weasley outcast, and then pushed thoughts of Percy into the back of his mind. He suspected that he would have to deal with Percy sometime in the future, but just didn't' want to expend the effort at the moment.

The first day for the fifth year DA students was rapidly approaching. In preparation for the upcoming meeting Harry had asked to speak to the heads of the Hogwarts houses. He looked around at Professors McGonagall, Flittwick, Sprout, and Snape. After Making eye contact with each of the professors' Harry launched straight into his presentation.

"Professors, I would appreciate your help. The DA is about to start its open classes for all fifth year and above students. I would appreciate it if you encouraged your houses to participate. The area I need the most assistance from you in though is in recruiting fourth year students. We have decided to include a male and female fourth year student from each house if possible. These students would be responsible for the instruction of their peers during their seventh year. We are not exactly looking for the best students. We are looking for students who are going to be able to mix and work with older students, but also will be able to instruct their peers. The current members of the DA will be providing recommendations. Their recommendations along with yours will determine which fourth year students are invited into the group. It will of course be the students themselves who decide whether or not to accept this invitation."

Harry turned to look directly at Professor Snape. The sight of the Potion's master still made Harry want to attack in mindless rage, but he forced down his hatred for the good of the organization he was trying to form. "Professor Snape, your input will be especially helpful, as we unfortunately do not currently have any members of your house in our group. Because of this lack, we don't know the fourth year Slytherins well enough to judge which ones would be good prospects for the DA."

Snape sneered at Harry, "And what if I don't think that any of my students should be involved in your little club, Potter?"

Harry bristled with furry, "This isn't my club, Professor. This is a permanent addendum to the school, which will be here long after I am gone and forgotten. The Slytherins are already underrepresented due to the events of last year. If you wait until after I am gone before your house enters the DA, I fear that the precedent will be too firmly entrenched. Would you deprive Slytherins of glory for the next century, just because of your dislike for me?"

Snape leaned back in his chair, "Fine Potter, I will give you some names. But if I hear of you mistreating my students the Headmaster will not be able to protect you."

"I will hold every member of the DA to the same standard. Anyone from any house is welcome, but I will not allow disturbances from anyone of any house."

The first meeting of the new DA students contained a rather large surprise for Harry. It appeared as if almost the entire fifth year of Hogwarts had showed up. There were also quite a few sixth and Seventh year's that Harry didn't recognize. Harry looked at the gathered students and realized he was going to have to change his plans.

Harry stood up and addressed the assembled group. "I would like to welcome you all out to the first meeting of the DA. Today we will just be going over the nature of the DA lessons, and I will answer whatever questions you have about the DA. It looks like there is a larger group than I expected. If you all decide to stay in the D.A.," Harry paused and looked around the room, "And I hope you do, we will need to split into smaller groups. This is because one of the main focuses of this organization is practical training in Defense, and it would be hard to give you the individual attention you deserve in this large of a group. Having said that, I think it is important for us to view ourselves as one unit, so we will continue to occasionally have meetings with the entire group involved."

After Harry's introduction he spent a few minutes explaining what would be taught to the DA members throughout the year. He also introduced the group to the returning DA members who had volunteered to help with the instruction. He answered as many questions as he could that related directly to the D.A., and even answered questions about his personal experiences with Death Eaters, and Voldemort. Harry carefully sidestepped any questions that he did not feel related directly to their defense activities.

At the end of the meeting he handed out books to everyone who didn't have one, and once again promised refunds to anyone who had already purchased a copy. He also tentatively set up a schedule for the group to split into three smaller training groups. Before Harry disbanded the group for the evening he decided to give them a little show to spark their interest in the organization.

"Ok, I know that we haven't done any practical work today, and some of you may be feeling a little cheated. I thought that you might be interested in seeing one of the more useful spells that you will be learning this year." Harry had hardly let the words out of his mouth before he had his wand in hand, and shouted "Expecto Patronum." The familiar form of Prongs leapt from Harry's wand. Harry looked around the room as everyone stared in rapture at the large silver stag before them. "That is the Patronus spell, it is useful in defending yourself from Dementors, and Lethifolds. I have heard it claimed that the Patronus spell is above NEWT level, and that some fully qualified witches and wizards can't cast it. I was taught to cast that spell in my third year, and am supremely confident that everyone in this room can learn to cast it as well."

Harry had the attention of every student in the room, "In the DA we don't worry about what supposed level a spell is, we look at how useful it could be, and then how to learn it. You will perfect spells in this class that any first year could perform with little effort, you will also learn spells that many adults don't know because they have been told they are too difficult to learn. As far as I am concerned the only limitation to what we can learn, is the effort we put into learning. Last year we had a second year student who attended the underground DA meetings, and he learned all of these spells. Not because he is a genius or a prodigy, but because he was determined to give it his best shot. If you do the same, there is no limit to what you can accomplish."

Harry noticed a few students waiting off to the side, as the majority of the group left the room. Harry approached to see what was going on, and was surprised to see that the small group was Zalena, and some of her Slytherin friends.

Conlaugh, who seemed to be the most talkative of the group, extended his hand to Harry, "Even after meeting you I was a little skeptical about coming here, but it sounds like this will be a really good organization. I can't wait to learn that Patronus thing, I have always hated Dementors."

Harry Shook the proffered hand "Thanks for coming out. I see that Slytherin is still a little underrepresented, but with the house rivalry's I guess that is a to be expected. Hopefully you can spread the word that you guy's are really welcome here."

Zalena stepped forward after Harry had released Conlaugh's hand, "Thanks for inviting us Harry." The young girl blushed red, then suddenly stood up on her tiptoes, and have Harry a quick peck of a kiss on his cheek. Harry hadn't even had time to react, when Zalena, followed by her friends, turned and fled the room.

Harry was still reeling from the unexpected kiss, when Ron cuffed him a little too hard on the back of the head, "Gee Harry first Cho, now that Slytherin bird, you plan on making a habit of girls kissing you after every lesson?"

Harry rubbed the back of his head slightly as he looked at Ron, "Of course I am. Isn't that why you agreed to help teach, so you could get a couple kisses yourself?"

Ron narrowed his eyes slightly, "Well I wouldn't be kissing the Slytherin girls."

Harry put his arm around Ron's shoulders, "Ok Ron, it's a deal, I get the Slytherin girls, you kiss the Slytherin boys"

Ron angrily shoved Harry away from him, "That wasn't what I meant." Suddenly Ron shrugged, "I'm sorry mate, it is just, well Slytherins, you know I've never liked Slytherins."

Harry turned to his friend, "Look Ron, I know that a lot of the Slytherins are jerks, but that doesn't mean all of them are. Voldemort has followers from every house. They didn't chose their house, the sorting hat did. If we hate them for something they didn't choose, we aren't any better then people like Malfoy how hate muggleborn's for something they didn't chose. Look, just give them a chance. You might be surprised at some of them."

Ron didn't look entirely convinced, "But don't you have to be evil for the sorting house to put you in Slytherin?"

Harry closed his eyes briefly, "Ron, am I evil?"

"Of course not mate." Ron snorted.

"Ron, if I hadn't met you, and Malfoy, I would be in Slytherin. That is where the Hat wanted to put me initially. I didn't want to be in the same house as Malfoy, and because of what you said I didn't wanted to be in the same house as you and your family. Even with that, it was difficult to convince the sorting hat not to put me in Slytherin."

Ron looked completely shocked, "Blimey Harry, I didn't know." He looked contemplative for a few minutes, "Alright Harry, I will try, but I'm not making any promises mate. I still might not like any of the Slytherins, but if they behave themselves I will try to do the same."

Harry decided that that was probably the best he would get out of his friend. Harry knew that it was difficult overcoming a lifetime of prejudice, and was proud that Ron was willing to at least make a small effort on his behalf.

Only a few days after the first DA meeting, Hermione was practically bouncing up and down with joy. "I've got it Harry."

Harry looked at Hermione with open curiosity, "You have what?"

"I have a way that we can get out of the chamber without having to take brooms."

Harry was a little torn by her statement. On the one hand, he actually liked the challenge of flying his broom up the pipe. On the other hand, he knew that Hermione absolutely hated the trip up the pipe. "Ok, Hermione what do you have in mind?"

"I will show you tonight."

That night, while Harry, Ron, and Ginny looked through the transcripts of recorded conversations, Hermione spent most of her time out in the tunnel next to the pipe. Harry was a little discouraged, that they had spent well over a week, reading private conversations, and hadn't found anything to really justify their eavesdropping yet.

They had been able to stop Malfoy and his goons from picking on a few first and second years, and had prevented a Ravenclaw seventh year from sabotaging the Hufflepuff Quidditch gear. Harry had been a little hesitant about stopping that one, since it appeared to be intended as a prank. It was actually Hermione that pointed out that having Quidditch pads bite you while up in the air could cause someone to fall off of his or her broom and get seriously hurt.

Harry had hoped to catch some information about possible Death Eater activity, but so far had had no luck. Dumbledore's office was sealed in a way that they hadn't been able to get past yet. Snape's quarters had yielded a small amount of information. They knew that he was still acting as a spy, and that he was providing the Order with information, but they hadn't been able to glean much beyond that.

It was almost light, when Hermione called everyone out into the tunnel. She had magically constructed, what looked disturbingly to Harry like a nice padded coffin. The 'coffin' had no lid, and also was missing the wall above the head. Hermione Laid down in it, and in a firm voice said, "Going up." Suddenly she shot out of the head of the box, and shot up the pipe.

When she was gone, Harry looked at Ron and Ginny in shock, "I'm not sure that looked any better than the broom."

Before either of them could answer Harry, Hermione came sliding back down the pipe, and landed in the coffin like box. She climbed out with a huge smile on her face. Isn't it perfect? Not only can we get out of here without brooms, but now we don't have to worry about getting our clothes dirty, or hurt when we shoot out of the pipe."

"Hermione, did you have to make it look like a coffin?"

Hermione gave Harry an odd look then looked down at the box she had built and charmed. She suddenly gasped, "I didn't even notice that, but it does look a little like a coffin. Don't worry, though. It is perfectly safe. Look, I am going to go up again, and I want you to each try it too. There is something else I want to show you."

After Hermione had disappeared for a second time Harry and Ron both looked at each other, silently daring the other one to go first. Ginny gave a short bark of indignation, "Fine, if you two brave boys are too scared to go, I will." True to her word, Ginny climbed into the device and with two quick words was on her way.

As soon as she had disappeared, Ron jumped in and took off, leaving Harry alone. Harry decided that he would have to just put aside his reservations, or look like a coward. He climbed into the box and spoke the password to take off. Harry was surprised; the ride up the tunnel was smooth and fast. It wasn't as exhilarating as a suicidal flight on his broom, but it was actually rather fun. Harry's second surprise came when he reached the top of the pipe. Instead of shooting out into Myrtle's Bathroom, Harry came to a quick stop at the top of the pipe, and found himself seemingly standing on air. He quickly stepped out of the pipe, and into the bathroom.

"I also made a magical platform for us to stand on when we first climb into the entrance. To deactivate it for a couple of seconds you just say drop me." Hermione looked extremely proud of her achievements.

"Um Hermione, why did you do that?" Harry asked with not a small amount of confusion.

Hermione looked as if the answer to Harry's question was completely obvious. "Well, this way we aren't being thrown out into the bathroom, but more importantly, it makes it easier for you to close the entrance. Just step in, turn around and tell the sink to close. That way we don't have to worry about someone coming into the bathroom and finding the entrance open."

"Oh, that is a good idea." Harry blushed with embarrassment at not having considered that possibility before.

Katie Bell, who was the new Quidditch captain, called for complete tryouts for the team. Harry was surprised that no one challenged him for the spot of Seeker. Ron, and Ginny both made the team again to Harry's immense delight. In the end Katie decided to go with two third year boys for beaters, Denis Creevey, and Jimmy Peakes. While Denis was extremely small for a beater, he made up for his size with his pure lack of fear. Katie had been a little hesitant about letting him on the team simply out of fear that he would kill himself. The Last addition to the team was Natalie McDonald who would join Ginny and Katie as chasers. Even though the team was fairly young, Harry was confident that they would be able to work well together.

During breakfast one morning, Harry received an owl from the Twins. At first Harry was more than a little bewildered when he opened the letter to find a blank mail order form for the joke shop. Ron who had been looking with curiosity at the owl laughed when he saw what it contained.

"Not so subtle, are they? I recon they want you to buy something." Ron asked with a laugh.

Suddenly Harry realized what he was really holding in his hands. He Gestured for Ron and Hermione to follow him. Almost as an afterthought he also included Neville, and Ginny. They were just leaving the great hall, when they saw Luna coming in. Harry quickly stopped the odd Ravenclaw girl, and took the whole group to an empty classroom.

After Harry checked to make sure that they were alone, he pulled out the parchment that the twins had sent him. "I asked Fred and George to come up with a more secure way for us to communicate, and then I forgot all about it until today. They are also suppose to be looking out for any Death Eater activities, and working on some other projects for me, so I don't know what this letter is about. Mostly I wanted to show you how their secret communications work, and apologize for not showing you guys this earlier."

Harry then pulled out his DA Galleon and pressed to the parchment. "Umbridge is Dead", he whispered. The order form suddenly dissolved into the parchment, and was replaced with a rather brief note.

Harry

We did it. Lupin helped us figure out the secret to the Map, and we made one for Diagon Alley. We also have been able to find a couple of friends for later. We are working on a way to make quick temporary maps since they might be useful. We have some new projects to show you. Trust us you will be impressed. Write back to set up a time to meet, you know how to get out of the castle.

Your humble servants F. G.

Ron whistled, "They made a Marauders map of Diagon Alley?" Suddenly it was like a light had gone off in his head, "That means they can track Death Eater activity in the alley, at least for the Death Eaters that we know."

Hermione looked at the note carefully, "Ask them to bring detailed notes on how they made the map when you meat with them. I would like to possibly make some changes to the map to make it more useful."

Harry was surprised; "You're not going to warn me about sneaking out of the castle to meet with them?"

Hermione shrugged, "As many rules as we have broken so far this year, what does one more matter, just be careful."

Neville asked, "So are you going to show us how to disguise letters like that?"

Harry grinned, "That was my intention, that is if you want to know." Harry decided to do something that he had been putting off for a while. "Actually Neville, and Luna, if you could meet me tonight, I have something I want to share with you, but we need someplace secret to talk." After both of his friends had agreed to meet him, he continued, "Neville, we will grab you tonight from our dorm. Luna, see me after dinner, and I will loan you my Invisibility cloak. I need you to meat us in Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom."

That night Harry led the last of the students who had fought with him at the department of mysteries into the chamber of Secrets. He had a hard time prying them away from the corpse of the Basilisk, and reminded himself that he really needed to do something with the thing. Harry then explained the prophecy to the two of them, and started them on the path to learning Occlumency. Harry also provided them with the potions that would reduce their need to sleep, to give them more time to study Occlumency.

Everything in Harry's life seemed to be pretty much on track for the first month back at Hogwarts. Quidditch was great. Harry had a girlfriend for the first time in his life, although they hadn't done much more than take a couple of walks together. His classes were going well, and the DA was awesome. Harry didn't need to spend much time with Snape, but to his surprise the Potions master had provided him with the names of a couple of fourth year Slytherins, that no one seemed to have a problem with. The one truly irritating aspect of Harry's first month back at school was his lack of progress on finding a decent recourse for Potion's theory.

It was during one of Harry and Ron's study sessions in the library, that Harry finally found the answer to his question about how to determine the quantity of ingredients for a potion. When he found the answer, he wished that he didn't.

Harry reread the paragraph in front of him for the forth time, willing it to say something other than what it had said the last three times. The words on the page however were uncooperative, and once gave the same information. Harry couldn't help himself; he let out a growl of anger, and stomped out of the library before Madam Pince could warn him about his noise.

Ron Quickly joined Harry in the Hall outside of the Library. By the time Ron found him, Harry was kicking the wall repeatedly mumbling "Stupid" with every kick. Ron looked quizzically at his friend, "Um mate? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? What's Wrong! I'll tell you what's wrong. I finally found out what we need to do if we want to actually understand potions theory, that's what's wrong."

"So, what is so bad about that? I thought that is what we were looking for."

"Gee let's see, First of all, Potion ingredients amounts aren't determined by the potency of the ingredients so much as they are by the numerological properties of the ingredients based on some weird formula I have never heard of. Then of course the number of times you stir the potion, and the direction you stir it are determined by how much positive or negative energy you need to add to the potion. In short, you have to be a bloody expert in Arithmancy before you can become a Master in Potions." Harry paused in his tirade, "Well, maybe you don't need to be an expert, but you need to at least have a basic understanding of Arithmancy, which neither of us do. To make it worse what type of cauldron you prepare the potion in, and what type of stirrer you use can affect the outcome of the potion. These as well as a few of the different types of Potions ingredients fall under the study of Alchemy, which isn't even taught at Hogwarts, so how are we going to figure that out."

Ron looked about as depressed as Harry felt, "Well, I guess we just focus on learning how to brew the potions, and don't worry about the theory. Unless…"Ron suddenly looked thoughtful.

Harry looked at him, "Unless what Ron?"

"Well, Harry, if you really want to learn the why as well as the how of potions, then we don't give up. We just need to accept that we will not have mastered it by the time we graduate. We focus on what we need to know to pass our NEWT's, but go ahead and start learning the rest of it too if we have time. Look Harry, I will admit that you are a lot more interested in grasping the Theory behind Potions than I was. But if you want to keep learning this stuff, I will do my best to help you, even if I don't learn it all with you."

Harry smiled, "Thanks Ron, I will think about it, but you are right about one thing, we need to focus on passing our NEWT's in two years."

As the Month of October started, the Death Eater attacks on muggles suddenly stopped. The silence from Voldemort and his Death Eaters was enough to bring the wizarding world to a state of panic. It seemed that everyone was waiting for the inevitable attack on the Wizarding World that was sure to come. The sense of impending doom managed to even penetrate the walls of Hogwarts.

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I am sorry that this chapter has taken so long for me to post. By way of apology, I promise that the next chapter titled, "A Change of Tactics" will be up within the next 48 hours. The reason that this chapter has been late is that I suffered from an attack of lethargy, where I just wasn't in the mood to write for a couple of days. It may have been partly because this chapter mostly just sets up the events that are going to carry us into the first major conflict of my story. So this chapter was important, but a little boring as well.

I know I said I probably wouldn't put in a lot of author notes, and I have included them in just about every chapter. It is just that for some reason, when I finish a chapter I find that I have one or two things to say that don't fit into a chapter.

There were a couple of comments made in reviews that I wanted to address.

First, the reason that Harry didn't jump up and turn Snape in to Dumbledore. I discussed some of this reason earlier in the story, but there are other reasons as well. One of which is that Dumbledore doesn't view the attempted attack on Harry's mind as a problem. I think that one of the flaws of legilimency is that once you learn how to look into peoples heads to see if they are telling the truth, you are probably going to use it. The concept of invasion of privacy would start to dissolve after time, hence Dumbledore trying the same thing earlier. Harry knows what Snape has done, or failed to do, but he has no proof. Dumbledore has repeatedly sided with Snape against Harry's complaints. The only way that Harry could convince Dumbledore about Snape's actions would be to lower his shields and allow the Headmaster free access to his mind, something that Harry will never do. Or agree to questioning under Veritaserum, once again something Harry won't do since he is keeping a number of secrets from the headmaster as well. Another Reason that Harry is not anxious to see Snape go is that he is useful. As long as Snape is spying on the Death Eaters, he is useful to Dumbledore. If Harry can find a way to bug the Headmaster's office, all of Snape's information becomes his as well. Harry plans on getting his revenge on Snape eventually, but he wants to use him first.

The second comment I wanted to briefly address is about the shape that memories take during Occlumency. Memories do not have actual physical form, so the shape they take is determined by your personality when you look at them. Harry's memories are currently Quidditch balls, at some time in the future that might change. This doesn't mean that he will have Quidditch balls and something else, if his personality changes enough to change the shape of his memories, the shape of all of his memories will change. That is why he doesn't have different shaped memories from before he learned about Quidditch. The reason that the other memories in Ron's head have a different shape is because they literally are not his memories. They are permanently in the shape that their owner appointed to them.