I do not make money off of my writing so please don't try to sue. This is only for my own pleasure and hopefully anyone who reads it.

Harry and Draco parted ways at the entrance of the library, and Harry had to take a deep breath before he entered, knowing that the knowledge that he might gain in this establishment might cripple his efforts irrevocably or, as he hoped, would elevate his efforts to epic proportions. Baring that in mind, Harry strode in purposely and headed toward the librarian and when he had her undivided attention asked, "Can I see the bylaws and governing documents concerning Hogwarts as well as the job description of Hogwarts Headmaster, including duties and responsibilities."

Much later, Harry returned the documents to Madame Pince. Harry did a Tempus Charm and realized that he was going to be late for the meeting as he still had to head towards the Gryffindor Common Room to have an alibi before heading to the seventh floor, and it was five minutes to midnight, the appointed meeting time. Harry did a full out sprint for the Common room, knowing that it wouldn't look too strange as it was close to curfew and he was target number one. He would have the worst punishments if he was found breaking the rules. He arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady out of breath and panted out the password. She slid open and Harry turned and left before she closed, making sure she didn't see him leave.

The Fat Lady will have to do as my alibi because I shudder to think what would happen to Hermione if I don't show up close to on-time, Harry thought to himself as he slid quickly in and out of the shadows, trying to not draw any attention. He had to use a less direct route to the Room of Requirement due to Peeves haunting one of the staircases. Harry checked the time again, and was relieved to find that he was only two minutes late when he walked into the room.

He was, therefore, surprised to see Ron nose to nose with Cormac McLaggen, having a very loud argument.

"Shut your mouth, McLaggen! If Hermione says that Harry will be here then he will be here," Ron shouted.

"I will say anything I want, Weasley! Obviously, the Great Potter isn't going to risk his skin by coming to a meeting tonight and Granger is insane to call this meeting. Just because she is his little…" Cormac started to shout back at Ron but suddenly looked as though he was being strangled.

"I wouldn't finish that sentence, Cormac, if I was you, considering how Harry is a little protective of the people he cares about and Hermione is someone he loves," Fred said before he realized that Cormac hadn't stopped talking on his own free will.

"But, obviously, he might have figured that out on his own, Fred," George piped up before turning to the door where Harry had his wand levelled towards Cormac's throat, "Hello, Harry. Glad you could make it!"

Harry cancelled the spell on Cormac as he stepped further into the room, making his way into the centre of the few people who had risked coming to the meeting.

"It's good to be here, George," Harry replied before turning to address Cormac, who was still clutching his throat and looking a little intimidated, "Obviously, McLaggen, Fred is correct about my protectiveness of Hermione and people I care about so if you are going to act like a oaf, please see yourself out." Harry paused for a minute to see if Cormac made to leave, but after he just glared at Harry, he continued with, "For your and everyone's information, I called this meeting and not Hermione so of course I was going to come to it. Sorry I am late, but I was at the library and had to take a less direct route in order not to be detected."

Harry slowly caught the gazes of everyone in the room: the pack (Neville, Luna, Fred, George, Daphne, Blaise, Draco and Hermione); Ron, Ginny, Dean, Katie and Colin from Gryffindor; Padma and Terry from Ravenclaw; Ernie, Hannah, and Susan from Hufflepuff. Draco, Blaise and Daphne were under the Invisibility cloak, standing behind Hermione but still in the group circle.

He smiled at the differences of expressions of the students who came. Some of them, like his pack, had eyes that were blazing with anticipation of hearing what his plan was, others were fearful and nervous, seemingly thinking that they were going to be caught immediately and carted off to jail, while still others looked a strange mixture of curious and wary of being at the meeting.

"I want to start off by saying that I know that calling this meeting tonight after the whole fiasco at dinner is a little crazy," Harry paused when Ernie mumbled just loud enough to be heard, "You got that right that this is crazy. No one in their right mind would have."

Harry's smile grew wider as he responded, "Exactly the point, Ernie. No one in their right mind would have a meeting after dinner tonight, so everyone in their right mind wouldn't be looking for us to have one. So we should be safe from Umbridge and her cronies tonight."

At Harry's logic some of the groups' tension eased up and they started to appear more relaxed.

"That is brilliant, Harry," Hermione said quietly before continuing with a grin, "though completely arse backwards logic."

"So according to your messed up logic we are safe to have this meeting tonight. Ok, I get that. The question still remains why we are having this meeting in the first place." Cormac said with a little rancour still rubbing his neck unconsciously.

"I hate to agree with McLaggen, but he does have a point," Ron added before asking, "It isn't like you expect us to practice our spells tonight, right?"

"No, I didn't call this meeting to work on our spell work. I called this meeting to officially end the Defence Association, the D.A., Dumbledore's Army or whatever you would like to call it."

At Harry's response a gasps of astonishment and angry mutterings went up around the room, getting louder and angrier as more of the group joined in. Harry just stood quietly and listened to the anger that his statement caused feeling a little blossom of hope bloom in his chest.

Luna shocked them all to silence with a spell that cause great big colourful butterflies to fly around the room and coat them all in glitter every time they spoke.

"Please explain, Harry," Luna said with what couldn't be mistaken for anything but a predatory smile that demanded compliance.

Harry actually had to take a gulp at the expression on Luna's face before speaking. "The D.A. was formed as a quiet rebellion on Umbridge's decision to not teach us defence. We learned the spells, charms, and physical responses we needed to, both to pass our coming O.W.L.S and possibly escape an attack that Tommy Boy might instigate."

Harry paused and looked around the room making sure that everyone accepted his reasoning so far before continuing, "I have taught you all that you need to know for those events. All of you have the ability to continue to train yourselves and get stronger. You don't need me for that and it is frankly too dangerous to keep meeting in such a large group, what with Umbridge and her group having an idea of where to find us. Thus, I propose that from now on, the D.A. is non-existent."

"You coward!" Hannah cried out, surprising everybody, "Are you really just going to end the D.A. because you think you taught us enough?"

Harry opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter a word Padma said frostily, "Some of us didn't join the D.A. just to learn spell work. Some of us thought that what we were doing made a difference."

Padma linked her arm around Hannah and started towards the door. Everyone else seemed to freeze to see what Harry would do.

"If you really want to make a difference I wouldn't leave just yet," Harry called out to them, smiling a wry smile when they turned around but didn't come closer.

"The D.A. was a passive form of rebellion because even though we didn't follow the rules we didn't fight the source of those rules. I called this meeting tonight for two purposes. One being, as I have said before, I knew it would be safe for us to meet. The other is that I wanted to see who would be brave enough to come to a meeting even after seeing what could be the result of being a member of the illegal organization."

The whole group looked at Harry, judging him with their eyes and weighing his words on their tongues. Hannah and Padma walked back to the group circle, with curiosity in their eyes.

"I think it is time that we attack our enemies instead of just defending ourselves," Harry stated in the silence. He continued as everyone's eyebrows shot upwards, "We all know that Umbridge has been trying to take over Hogwarts since she has arrived and now with getting Dumbledore ousted she will have even more power which means life is going to get intolerable for anyone who doesn't agree with her. It is time to show her that the students of Hogwarts will not be bullied into not learning all that we can and I have a great idea of how to do that."

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Ron finally asked after no one else said anything.

"Pranks," Harry said with finality, as though that one word would explain his plan completely.

"Pranking Umbridge is your big idea?" Dean asked with incredulity.

"Yes, my idea is that we prank her until she cannot stand to be at Hogwarts for another second," Harry replied seriously.

The group looked helplessly around at the rather absurd idea that Harry had until Padma slowly said, "That idea is actually kind of brilliant."

At the confused faces she continued, "Umbridge cannot claim that the pranks on her are an attack on the Ministry or the Minister of Magic because they would be just pranks. So we wouldn't have to worry about being arrested."

When Padma had finished the reasoning that Harry had figured out, the looks on the group turned slightly hopeful and excited.

"The only problem I see with this plan, Harry, is that Umbridge could just expel us if she catches us," Hermione said, dashing the slowly hopeful thoughts the group had.

"She doesn't have the power to expel us, Hermione," Harry replied, "that is what I was researching in the library before this meeting. The only person who has the authority to expel a student from Hogwarts is the Headmaster with the recommendation from the student's Head of House."

Harry held up his hand to stop the obvious outburst of "But Harry, Dumbledore left so why wouldn't Umbridge just take his spot." He continued, "The Headmaster's position is regulated by the Board of Governors. Dumbledore is the official Headmaster of Hogwarts until the Board votes for his removal. They only meet every other month or so and the decision to remove the current Headmaster has to be unanimous. The official documents that I have found also state that in the time that the official Headmaster is not present, the Deputy Headmaster can only suspend students from attending classes, not completely expel them from the grounds. Umbridge would have to gather enough power to rewrite Hogwarts bylaws to get us expelled and even if she does manage it, it would take a long time. We only have to worry about detentions and her blood quill, which we can avoid if we are careful."

Hermione and the rest of the group looked stunned for a moment before smiles started to break out. The pack looked especially predatory.

"I now turn this meeting over to our resident pranksters, Forge and Gred," Harry finished off by saying.

Soon Fred and George were in their element with the group crowding around them asking for different types of pre-made pranks and for ideas of other things that the group could do.

Harry and Hermione stood to the side watching as each person were either handed out something from Fred and George's bags or arranged another time to meet with them later on in the week.

"So, are you going to tell them about us or are we always going to be under these damn cloak," Draco whispered to Harry and Hermione, annoyance colouring his words.

"What? You don't like hanging out under there? Hermione, Ron and I stayed under that cloak for a lot longer, many different times," Harry whispered back with amusement.

"Potter! I will…"Draco growled low struggling with words due to anger.

"And if he doesn't, I will," Daphne chimed in, "Do you know how uncomfortable it is to be under here with two boys?"

"Actually, I do know," Hermione said cheekily as both Draco and Blaise protested.

"Fine, we will take pity on you," Harry said with a chuckle before raising his voice to get the attention of the group.

"There is one other thing that I need all of you to know," Harry started off by saying, he continued after he had the attention of everyone in the room, "We have other allies that will work with us."

"You got the Professors to agree to help," Dean said with awe in his voice.

"No, I got the Slytherins," Harry deadpanned.

"WHAT!" Almost the whole group yelped.

"We can't trust them! Are you crazy?" Ginny shouted out.

"Yes, I am crazy. Well at least according to most of the Wizarding World," Harry replied simply but then rolled his eyes and asked, "Do you guys trust me?"

The group looked around and then nodded in affirmation.

"Well, than I should tell you. I have had a few Slytherins come to the past D.A. meetings and hide under an Invisibility Cloak. And before you start making up reasons not to trust them may I remind you that they were not the ones who ousted us to Umbridge," Harry said in a tone that brooked no argument.

"Let's all welcome our new friends, then, why don't we?" Ron said sarcastically, knowing whom Harry was referring to.

"Thanks for the warm welcome, Weasel," Draco said coldly, while emerging with Daphne and Blaise from under the cloak to a chorus of gasps.

"Oh, I will give you a welcome, Ferret," Ron replied while shaking his fists and taking a step forward.

Draco raised an eyebrow at Ron's fists before asking in a mocking tone, "Fists? Do you really expect me to engage in such a muggle form of battle? You really are a vacuous person."

Draco paused and reached into his robe, pulling out his wand before continuing with, "I guess I need to remind that we are wizards and thus this long slender piece of wood in my hands, otherwise known as a wand, can do a lot more damage to you than any fists."

Ron turned an ugly colour red and reached for his own wand as Draco started to level his. Hermione jumped in between the two boys and held out her arms with her palms facing the two boys.

"Stop it both of you! We are all on the same side, fighting among us isn't going to help anything," Hermione tried to reason, but as they continued to ready themselves for a fight, she turned to Harry and asked exasperatedly, "Harry, aren't you going to do anything?"

"No," Harry replied simply. Hermione and the pack looked astonished as Harry recently had been quick to jump into any fight involving them. The other group looked a little confused at the reactions around them and the tension running underneath.

Harry saw Hermione's reaction and decided to explain further, "I am not going to stop them because if they are really going to be such idiots and engage in a pointless fight, then it is better that they do so now and not when we are in the middle of our attack. Voldemort knows that Draco is not on his side but on mine and we have to assume that the information is eventually going to trickle down to our enemies making him vulnerable. Ron is a blood traitor who is probably already on the list of people our enemies have to get rid of, so he is also vulnerable to attacks. So, it really is stupid of them to hold onto petty grudges and have a duel right now but I would rather have them fight it out now and not when the whole group is vulnerable."

Both boys turned a crimson colour as Harry's logic penetrated their anger at each other and slowly put their wands away.

"I am never going to like him," Ron grounded out between his teeth.

"We finally agree on something, because that sentiment is mutually felt," Draco responded.

"You don't have to like each other, just work and trust that you are on the same side," Harry said with a shrug.

"And how are we supposed to trust them, Harry," Ginny asked.

"Yeah, how are we to know that these guys won't tell our enemies that we are working with you? We were going to continue working undercover and if these guys let it slip that we are actually yours, it could be disastrous," Blaise asked also, causing the group to grumble about how they were trustworthy but the others weren't.

Harry just sighed before saying, "I am trusting you without spells or contracts because the punishment for a betrayal is the same for everyone at this point."

At the confused faces, he continued, "Look, if one of you ratted us out to Umbridge, what do you think she would do?"

Harry waited for an answer till Daphne slowly responded, "She would probably have us arrested, our wands snapped and thrown into Azkaban Prison."

"Exactly," Harry said with a smile, "She would do that to every single one of us and most likely to the person who told her because she cannot stand being shown her true incompetence. She wouldn't let the information that a bunch of students could and did disobey her so long without her knowledge ever come to light. So the punishment would be the same for everybody. Same thing with Voldemort. He will try to kill every single one of us because we defy him by simply existing."

Harry paused as everyone digested the information.

"So, you are saying, that we have to trust one another due to necessity. Why then did you make us do that ritual?" Draco asked heatedly, while the others there looked at each other in confusion.

"At that point, Draco, I had a lot more to lose than you did and our animosity towards each other didn't bode well for me trusting you. Right now, everyone has everything to lose so we are equal," Harry earnestly replied before continuing with a roll of his eyes, "The other reason for letting the cat out of the bag that you are actually on my side is that our enemies already know since you saved me, so it is better that our allies have the same information."

"He saved your life? When? How?" Ginny asked confusedly.

Harry just looked at her and didn't respond, not wanting to tell the group about his weaknesses or his mental shield's shortcomings even though he had been working on the shields ever since and another attack had not happened.

"It is none of your business, Weaslette," Draco snarled back, defending his alpha.

Ginny's eyes narrowed and she was about to go off on Draco when Hermione stepped in and said, "He is right, Ginny, it is none of your business although Draco could have used more tacit when reminding you of that."

Hermione then proceeded to cast a tempus charm and asked Harry, "It is getting rather late, Harry, do we need to go over anything else with these guys?"

Harry just shook his head in the negative and so Hermione continued, "Ok do we all understand what the plan is? Good, let's all get back to our dormitories and get some sleep as it all starts tomorrow and we will need to keep our wits about us!"

And with Hermione's dismissal, the group slowly filed out of the Room of Requirement with their hands full of materials and furtively ducking into the shadows towards safety. Soon the only people left were the pack.

Hermione immediately rounded on Draco, nearly shouting, "Draco! Why did you have to antagonize them like that? Couldn't you have been charming instead of an irritating berk?"

Draco grabbed Hermione by the waist, pulled her into his embrace, kissed her playfully before snickering and loudly proclaiming, "You think I can be charming! How adorable you are in your naivety! Don't you know that my charm is only a mask to make people, like you believe, in the lies I tell?"

Hermione swatted at him and pushed him away, before sniffing derisively, "Like you have ever fooled me."

Draco sputtered indignantly before shooting her a woe-be-gone expression that had the whole pack laughing. The teasing and good cheer that filled the room that moment had Harry releasing tension that he didn't know he was carrying.

He heard Hermione's mind voice comforting him by saying, "Harry, you know that people are going to be against you before they turn around and claim that you are a national hero during this war. They do not matter; Dumbledore does not matter. The only people who should matter are the people in our pack and who we consider family. Look around you and know we are with you."

Harry smiled softly at her as their eyes met. He wanted to end this meeting right then, play awhile, and then go to sleep with his mates cuddled up to him with the pack spread out around them but he knew that there was one more piece of business that they had to take care of; what to do about the Ministry and the general negative reception Harry received from other wizards and witches.

Luna saw Harry squaring his shoulders and brought everyone's attention back to business with an ear splitting whistle.

"The next part of business is taking down our enemies in the Ministry of Magic and getting the populace to support Harry, right Harry?" Luna asked while everyone else was trying to clear their ears.

She continued, barely waiting for Harry to nod in the affirmative, "I know we haven't really discussed how we are going to deal with those two things but I thought about it during the holiday and came up with a plan. I think we should have Harry be interviewed by a respectable reporter and get his side of the story out there."

Luna smiled as she finished talking as confusion swept through the pack. Harry immediately didn't like the plan as it included him being interviewed by the press and his utter dislike for the press due to last year's events, but he held his tongue because he wanted to hear what the others thought.

"That might work, except for two things: one, being we don't know any reporters and two, the fact that no newspaper will run the story. The Daily Prophet is run by the Minister, who obviously doesn't want anyone to hear Harry's side of the story. And all the other newspapers follow what The Daily Prophet reports, they would never run the story even if we found a reporter," Daphne said after a moment of thinking about Luna's plan.

Luna's smile got even bigger before she replied dreamily, "My father owns The Quibbler and he has already agreed to run the interview in the paper."

Instead of immediately scoffing at the idea of using the ill-thought of newspaper as a platform to spread the truth, Harry was surprised to see everyone accepting that without a problem.

"Well, that does solve the problem of who will run the story, but does anyone know a reporter that we can trust?" Blaise asked.

Everyone looked around at each other before Hermione groaned a little and replied, "We don't know a reporter who we can trust but we do know a popular reporter that we can blackmail."

Harry practically begged Hermione with his eyes not to say the name of the reporter that caused them such trouble and that he pretty much hated now.

Hermione read Harry's pleading but shook her head and continued after George asked in awe, "You have a reporter you have blackmail on?"

"Yeah, we do. Rita Skeeter." Hermione stated as Harry slumped down in defeat as he contemplated how horrible another interview with the witch was going to be.

"Ok, we can use her. Now the only things we have to plan is how to get in touch with her, and plan when and where to meet her," Blaise commented.

"Oh, I have already done that," Luna replied easily, she quickly ran to her book bag, rifled through it and brought back out her jar of sand.

This made the group send Luna many curious looks but Harry moved in closer to the jar. Looking at the jar and sand within, Harry could just make out a little bit of movement in the sand not caused by Luna jostling the jar. Luna handed Harry the jar and as he inspected the contents of it a small beetle burst climbed to the top of the sand.

With a growl, Harry quickly stepped up, invading Luna's personal space and handed back the jar to her before asking harshly, "What is the meaning of this? Why do you have her here? We cannot trust her. We all know that it is dangerous for us to all be here yet you gave us no warning that an intruder was present."

At the questioning looks of the pack, Hermione quietly filled in the rest of the pack at who the beetle in the jar was as Harry was completely focused on Luna.

Luna met Harry's eyes, slowly raised her chin up and away, giving Harry her neck in a display of submission and responded, "My life is yours, alpha, but please let me explain. The jar is bewitched to prevent her from seeing or hearing anything. I did let her out during dinner tonight but then made sure the jar was sealed before bringing her here tonight."

Harry stepped back and considered her words.

Luna continued, "I know she is not to be trusted and I don't trust her but my father and her have worked on projects together in the past. I am the reason she had access to the grounds last year as she made a bargain with my father and all I had to do was carry her onto the grounds in a container. I performed all the spells, charms, and runes on the jar to make it as safe for us as possible. "

Luna took a deep breath, suddenly nervous as she had the attention of everyone in the room. Harry motioned that she should continue and after small smile she did.

"I got in contact with her over the break to see if she would be interested in getting a news story that no other reporter could possibly get, and she immediately agreed to come," Luna finished.

"Her career did seem to be finished once we blackmailed her into not writing stories about Harry, so she probably is desperate to get a story that she could promote herself with," Hermione mused.

"We should lay down parameters on what she is to write about, and who she is allowed to tail before we give her any access to what could be the story of the century, which a bunch of students taking down Umbridge is sure to be," Fred said after conferring quietly with George.

"Like what parameters?" Neville said hesitantly.

"Well, like, she can be Harry's exclusive interviewer, as long as she doesn't use the Quick Quote Quill, writes the truth and doesn't stalk him as a beetle even as she will be in and around the castle," George elaborated.

"We will need to hide so she doesn't know who is exactly Harry is working with," Daphne added. "Everyone else should be quoted as anonymous as well, except for Harry, in her stories to protect the rest of Harry's Army and their parents from the overreaching arm of the Ministry."

Draco and Hermione nodded their agreement with which parameters they should set up with Rita Skeeter.

Harry growled his objection about being forced to work with the slimy reporter again, but Hermione grabbed his hand and whispered that she would be right next to him and would not let the witch take advantage of him. Draco came up and ran a reassuring hand down Harry's back and kissed his cheek before grabbing the Invisibility Cloak and draping it over Blaise, Daphne and himself.

Harry took a deep breath and said, "Let the beetle out of the jar, Luna."

Hi! Sorry for the long long delay in posting this. I wrote this a long time ago and didn't get it up due to many things (like getting divorced and if anyone is counting that was a 2 year marriage, go me!) and my beta writer leaving me...I have a new beta writer in TheNotSoTalentedPoet so yay! It will be slow going and somewhat disjointed but I hope to have a chapter out each month. Sincerely, Bemily Q