The Order of the Phoenix | Hermione Granger x Male Reader (Book Five)

12. The Hog's Head

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

Hermione replied. "Look, that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about-"

"It's ok, Hermione," said Harry, "so, 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 won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

Zacharias said dismissively. "All Dumbledore told us last year was that the Y/N boy got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought L/N's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how L/N got murdered, I think we'd all like to know-"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Harry said, as much as I wanted him to talk about Y/N more, I respected his decision not to say anything.

"I don't want to talk about Y/N, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

"Is it true that you can produce a Patronus?" asked a random girl.

"Yeah," said Harry slightly defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

"Er, you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" Harry asked.

The girl smiled. "She's my auntie," she said, "I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. Is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes."

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" demanded a boy I recognised as Terry Boot.

Harry shook his head. "No, that was Y/N."

"But without you he would've died!" the Terry boy said.

"No. Y/N was a talented wizard. Much better than me. I wasn't the real hero, he was." Harry said sadly.

There was a silence but the Neville Longbottom filled that silence. "In our first year, he saved that Philological Stone-"

"Philosopher's," hissed Hermione.

"Yes, that, from You-Know-Who," finished Neville.

"And that's not to mention," said Cho Chang, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year, getting past Dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and things..."

I wasn't there for the Triwizard Tournament so I couldn't say anything. I was merely just listening and making mental notes during this conversation.

"Look," Harry said, and everyone fell silent at once, "I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but...I had a lot of help with all that stuff..."

"Nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer," said Susan Bones.

"No, ok I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is-"

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith.

"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, "why don't you shut your mouth?'

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said.

"That's not what he said," I said cooly, giving Zacharias a hard glare.

Hermione stepped in hastily. "Moving on, the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement.

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved, "well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week-"

"We need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice." an older girl said.

"Nor with ours." Cho Chang said.

"Nor ours," added Zacharias Smith.

"Or mine either." I added, I was met with people saying that they didn't care but Hermione stood up for me.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone, but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's Death Eaters-"

"Well said!" barked Ernie Macmillan. "Personally, I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our O.W.Ls coming up! I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells-"

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione, "is that she's got some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilise us against the Ministry"

Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news.

After the silence, Hermione took charge again and started thinking about possible locations for where we could hold the sessions.

"There's this room I think we could go to." I said, there was a room I found that appeared when I wanted to get away and be alone.

"Why should we trust you?" asked Zacharias Smith. "I think it's quite suspicious how L/N dies and then you, a Malfoy heir from Durmstrang transfers over here."

If only I could say that I agreed with his suspicious, it was quite dodgy.

Hermione stepped in again. "I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to."

Once everyone had signed it, I made my way and wrote my name, F/N in my scrawny handwriting. Hermione let out a small 'oh' sound as she saw my handwriting. So did Harry and Ron, I looked at them, and raised my eyebrow.

They didn't say anything but I overhead Ron's whisper to the two others.

"T-that looks like Y/N's writing...it's so similar."

"Shut up Ron!" Hermione whisper shouted and I looked at the three, confused.

Who was this Y/N L/N because he was starting to sound awfully like me.