Harry Potter And The Breeding Darkness

Chapter 18

By September 18th, Hermione had gotten the two pieces of parchment back from her parents. It turned out that her mother was a squib while her father was just a muggle. Hermione had been incredibly excited to have this tangible evidence that she truly did descend from a magical lineage and that she hadn't just popped into existence as some sort of freakish anomaly.

Harry and Hermione already had all of the supplies for the second potion ready. There were only two ingredients differences between the maternal and fraternal versions of the tapestry potions, and now that they knew it was the maternal version they needed, they were all set to start brewing on the autumnal equinox on the 22nd of September.

That afternoon they had Defense class again, and Harry knew this was the day that Thor was going to officially announce the start of the Defense clubs. He had waited this long so that he could complete some additional observations of his own of the students, but also to give the student body as a whole some time to adjust being back in school. He'd put up a sheet that people who were interested in the club could sign. Most of them were going to end up in the 'Intermediate club'. All of the Slytherins had signed up, mostly because their parents had told them to, and the rest had been quietly nudged by their housemates. Most of them were headed for the 'Advanced club'.

Harry had stayed after Defense class on Monday to share some of his opinions and observations with Thor on the students who had signed up. He'd actually been a bit surprised by some of the names that had appeared on the sign-up sheet. The most surprising of them all was Neville Longbottom. Harry had to admit that even after sharing a dorm room with the quiet boy for more than four years, he barely knew him. Hardly anyone did, really. Neville was just the quiet, shy boy, who messed up in Potions, was terrified of Snape, and spent a lot of his free time in the greenhouses and talking with Professor Sprout.

Out of all of the classes that Neville wasn't very good at, his two worst were Potions and Defense. Harry didn't see Neville has actually having a strong interest in Defense as a subject, but he imagined that Neville probably signed up for the club because he felt he needed the extra tutoring in the subject.

Hermione had signed up for the club too, of course, and Harry knew she was eagerly expecting acceptance into the Advanced group. Harry had tried to remind her that, while she had always been good at answering questions and completing her essays with good marks, her practical performance of the material had always been a little iffy in their DADA classes. Defense had never been one of her top subjects, and was the only class that Harry had been able to get better results in, even before his magical reserves were released after he stopped suppressing Tom's soul the previous fall.

She had gotten a bit disgruntled with his suggestion that she might not be good enough for the advanced group but Harry had tried to placate her by pointing out he just didn't want her to get disappointed if things didn't go as she expected. She'd looked at him oddly for a moment but before she could question him further, Professor Rowle had entered the classroom and called the class to order.

"Today I wanted to officially announce the start of the Defense clubs," Professor Rowle started as the students settled into their desks and quieted down.

"Quite a few of you signed up to participate and I am very happy with all the interest I have gotten for this. Those who were selected for the Advanced group will be notified individually with specific instructions for the time and place of the meeting. Unless you receive one of these notices, simply come to the Intermediate group meeting that will be held Saturday afternoon from two o'clock until four. The club will be held in one of the larger, unused, classrooms. It's on the third floor, right-hand side. Four doors down after exiting the grand staircase, just before the turn-off into the Serpentine Corridor. Does anyone not know what room I'm talking about?"