Hey Freddie

In The Hogs Head

There was a murmur of impressed agreement around the table. And I smiled up at Fred, who looked quite excited.

"Look," he said, and everyone fell silent at once, "I ... 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 ..."

"Not with the dragon, you didn't,' said Michael Corner at once. 'That was a seriously cool bit of flying ..."

"Yeah, well-"

"And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer," said Susan Bones.

"No," said Harry, "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, before Harry could speak, "why don't you shut your mouth?"

Perhaps the word 'weasel' had affected Ron particularly strongly. In any case, he was now looking at Zacharias as though he would like nothing better than to thump him. Zacharias flushed.

"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," snarled Fred.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?"enquired Greorge, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," I smiled sweetly.

"Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, moving on ... "the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded his arms and said nothing, though perhaps this was because he was too busy keeping an eye on the instrument in George's hand.

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. "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-"

"Hang on," said Angelina, "we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"No," said Cho, "nor with ours."

"Nor ours," added Zacharias Smith.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione impatiently, "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 OWLs coming up!"

He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry "Surely not!" When nobody spoke, he went on, "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 ... 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."

"Well, once a week sounds cool," said Lee Jordan.

"As long as-" began Angelina.

"Yes, yes, we know about the Quidditch," said Hermione in a tense voice. "Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going to meet ..."

This was rather more difficult; the whole group fell silent.

"Library?" suggested Katie Bell after a few moments.

"I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes in the library," said Harry.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" said Dean.

"Yeah," said Ron, "McGonagall might let us have hers, she did when Harry was practising for the Tri wizard."

"Something tells me she won't be so accommodating this time." I smirked.

"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," said Hermione. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting."

She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to say something.

"I--I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think," she took a deep breath, "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."

Fred reached out for the parchment and cheerfully wrote his signature, but plenty of people looked a little hesitant.

"I--well, we are prefects," Ernie burst out. "And if this list was found ... well, I mean to say ... you said yourself, if Umbridge finds out-"

"You just said this group was the most important thing you'd do this year," Harry reminded him.

"I--yes," said Ernie, "yes, I do believe that, it's just-"

"Ernie, do you think Hermione would leave the list randomly lying around?" I asked, grabbing the list from Fred and putting down my full name in large legible letters. "I trust my Head Girl ship with this list."

"I--yes, of course I'll sign." Said Ernie, looking less anxious.

Nobody raised objections after Ernie. When the last person--Zacharias-- had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though we had just signed some kind of contract, and in a way, we did.

"Well, time's ticking on," said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. "George, Lee, Y/n, and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."