𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒛𝒆 - pjo x hp [₂]

viii. stealing boyfriends, are we?

Raya nudged Meredith, who was sitting across from Raya and giving Harry a mistrustful look. If it weren't for Cho's insistence, Raya wasn't even going to force Meredith to come.

She pursed her lips, but stopped glaring at him.

In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around the Golden Trio, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna Lovegood gazing dreamily into space. When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry.

"Er," said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. "Well — er — hi."

The group focused its attention on her instead, though Raya noticed that some eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry.

"Well... erm... well, you know why you're here. Erm... well, Harry here had the idea — I mean — I had the idea — that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us—" Hermione's voice began to grow more confident, "—because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Hear, hear," said Elias, grinning over his butterbeer.

"Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands." She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells—"

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" said Michael Corner.

"Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because..." She took a great breath and finished, "Because Lord Voldemort's back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Meredith shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot — a younger Ravenclaw — gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. Thomas flinched, though he looked more determined than usual. 

Raya, having heard the Dark Lord's name multiple times over the summer, didn't even blink. She respected Hermione for saying his name out loud. It was time to stop being scared of it.

All of them — even those who jumped at the sound of the name — looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.

"Well... that's the plan anyway," said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going t —"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said one of the Hufflepuffs.

Raya recognized him as Zacharias Smith, a younger kid in Harry's year. She didn't know much about him, except the fact that Cedric wasn't his biggest fan.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it—" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," Zacharias, nodding at Harry.

"Who are you?" asked Ron rather rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," he said, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about—"

"It's okay, Hermione," said Harry. He looked at Zacharias, "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back? I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke.

Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory was attacked by You-Know-Who and that you brought him back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory was attack, I think we'd all like to know—"