Chapter 18
Harry plopped down in a squishy chair next to a pile of parchments that he was fairly certain Hermione was lurking behind somewhere. He grabbed a hand full of the papers to see just what she was working on so diligently. Some of them were complex diagrams of magical objects that Harry had never seen before and a few that he had, like a sneakoscope. Others were spells, potions, and lists of exotic materials that Harry also was mostly unaware of.
"What is all this stuff?" he asked.
"Fred and George sent it along with a list of credentials of the new people they've recruited," Hermione replied, "Some of the new recruits sent us whatever they thought might be useful."
"Are we sure that these people are reliable and not dark spies?" Harry asked.
"Well that's part of the reason they're sending us these backgrounds on them. Plus each person is isolated for now, none of them have much knowledge of our overall operations. Besides, Fred and George have only managed to recruit four people so far," Hermione said. Harry raised his eyebrows with faint surprise. "Honestly Harry did you really expect people just to uock to our banner for no reason?
These four wouldn't even have joined except they saw first hand our fight in Diagon Alley."
"We should be able to recruit quite a few students here in Hogwarts from the D.A. membership." Harry said.
"Yeah hopefully and we need to move swiftly to call another
D.A. before all these bloody aurors somehow manage to foil us. They could seize the Room of Requirement any time for
all we know. I'm sure that foul Umbridge told the Ministry all about the room." Hermione said.
"Did you say something about the D.A.?" Neville asked. He and Ginny had just come down their respective staircases. Harry and Hermione looked at each other meaningfully. It was still early enough in the morning that it would probably be safe to discuss their impending dissolution of the D.A. with their friends.
"This will be the final D.A. meeting," Hermione said bluntly. Harry had planned to dance around the details of their plans but Hermione insisted through their mind link that Neville and Ginny had a right to know ahead of time.
"But why? We need the D.A. now more than ever. Tonks is a good teacher but you and Harry..." Neville protested.
Hermione held up her hand to indicate she would explain.
"The D.A. is no longer sufficient for our fight against Voldemort so Harry and I have decided a more direct approach is required. D.A. isn't being disbanded its being replaced."
"All D.A. members will be given the opportunity to join the Bearers of the Light," Harry said with a sense of pride at the uedgling group Hermione had envisioned to replace her first idea, the D.A.
Neville goggled at them, "Really? How do you guys know them? They're the ones that saved me and gran in Diagon Alley."
Hermione smirked, "Didn't you notice anything strange about those two?"
Neville shook his head. "I was too busy thrashing around on the ground to see much. Although, now that you mention it I thought it was strange that only one of them fought. Gran was a little miffed that the wizard didn't even help the witch."
"The wizard couldn't help, he isn't of age yet," Hermione grinned.
Neville's jaw dropped, "It was you two?"
"Why didn't you tell me? Ron's cover story was horrible by the way. I thought you two were off, er..." Ginny trailed off sheepishly at Harry and Hermione's twin glares. Thankfully Neville seemed oblivious to Ginny's incorrect guess and near outing of their relationship.
"We needed to keep it quiet while it's in the development stage. We're going to eventually displace the Order and the Ministry as the leading faction against Voldemort. Not that it will be difficult as ineffective as their resistance is at the moment." Hermione said.
Ginny and Neville looked uncomfortable in the face of the Ministry and especially the Order being spoken of in such unuattering terms. Hermione took out a box and enlarged it to accommodate her mass of papers. Harry helped her shovel them into it as they continued to talk in low tones to Neville and Ginny.
