AN: I don't know the ins and outs of the ROR, but let's just say it can be used by multiple people for multiple things - cause I want the DA to be in there but Draco's got to use it for the cabinet as well.
Juno normally filled her Saturdays with books, and homework, and letter writing - she'd go down to Hogsmeade if she needed something and, of course, she would wander the grounds and visit with the creatures, oftentimes bumping into Hagrid and going to his hut to have tea and play with Fang, and see whatever new creature he was rearing. This Saturday rolled around, and as usual, she was one of the later ones to breakfast, sleeping well into the late morning. She perched on the end of the Hufflepuff table, eyes fixated on an article in The Quibbler about a Nargle infestation in a house in Pennsylvania, her brows furrowed as they theorised the source was too much ginger ale and not enough pine cones - she made a mental note to only drink ginger ale if she had her pine cone earrings. Her reading was interrupted as Luna bounded up to her.
"Have you seen this? In The Quibbler? About the Nargles in Pennsylvania?" Juno asked, lifting the paper up to Luna's face. Luna scooted in beside her sister.
"Terrible, isn't it? I love ginger ale-"
"I don't drink it too often, you can have my pine cone earrings,"
"Oh, no thank you, I think I'll make some of my own,"
They fell into a silence, Juno dipping apple slices into marmalade, Luna getting lost in a daydream.
"Did you need me for something?" Juno eventually asked, snapping them both out of their daze.
"Oh yes," Luna giggled, "we're having a DA meeting this afternoon, meet me up on the seventh floor, left corridor, 12 o clock,"
Juno swallowed, and nodded, unable to respond before Luna skipped off, waving her a cheerful goodbye. Looking down at herself, she realised she couldn't really meet all these new people in what she was wearing, so she quickly finished her lavender and nettle tea, before hurrying back to her dorm to change out of her phoenix pyjamas. She threw on a pair of jeans and a knitted sweater, braiding her hair in two long plaits, and stepping into the shoes Draco had gifted her. With no time to waste, she climbed onto her dresser, unlatching her window and hanging as much of her head out as she could reach to smoke a joint - she needed it to calm her nerves. She felt instantly more relaxed as the smoke settled in her lungs.
Noticing the time, she sighed and hurried out of the dorm room, pocketing her wand as she left. She struggled for a little while to find Luna, the corridor she'd told her to meet her in was practically deserted, she'd only ever been there a handful of times, and the fact the staircases moved was just an extra obstacle. Eventually, Juno found her sister, who was talking up towards the ceiling.
"Who are you talking to?" Juno asked, startling Luna.
"Oh," She looked back up, "He's gone now, it was a shy little ghost, I've been trying to coax him out of hiding for weeks. Anyway, I'm glad you're early," Juno had thought she would be late, "I'd like you to meet Harry before everyone arrives,"
Juno suddenly felt nervous all over again. She'd obviously heard of Harry Potter and his famous friends, and she'd seen him in her classes, she'd never actually spoken to him; the things she'd heard from Draco had not been so favourable,.
"Don't be nervous," Luna grabbed Juno's hand, "Just follow me,"
Luna began walking up and down the corridor, leaving Juno slightly confused, but she was shocked as the large wall transformed into a great door.
"Wh-what?"
"The room of requirement," Luna began, "It's a secret room, it only appears when someone is in great need of it - it transforms into whatever the witch or wizard needs most at the time,"
"Wow," Juno breathed, eyeing up the intricate details on the room's door. "I can't believe I've never even heard of this before,"
"Come on," Luna motioned, pulling her sister through the door. Juno was even more amazed upon entering, the room was vast, the perfect space for duelling practice, lined with various tools they could use to help build up their expertise. There were hundreds of books on defence, dark detectors, moving mannequins to practice more dangerous spells on, a pillowed floor to soften the blows of any blasts and falls - it was equipped with everything you could ever imagine. She hadn't noticed Harry Potter stood in the centre of the room, almost gawking at the Lovegood sister he seldom paid attention to, he was kicking himself for that now - he thought she was very pretty.
"Umbridge and Malfoy and the inquisitorial squad busted us last year." Juno was snapped out of her inquisitive trance at the mention of Draco's name, it felt foreign tumbling from her sister's lips, like they were two worlds that could never, and should never, collide. "We thought the DA would be over, but we let it blow over for the rest of the year and picked it back up again after summer - we decided we wanted it to be even bigger and better, to recruit as many people as we could, and we've made sure the room can't be found by anyone who isn't a DA member, or with a DA member, that's why you could get in, you need to add your name to the official list before the room starts letting you in alone,"
"Okay," Juno shrugged, reaching her hand out to her sister.
"Oh, I don't have the list-"
"Hermione has it," The addition of a third voice startled her. Her gaze fell on the infamous Harry Potter, red cheeked, and smiling brightly as he walked towards the sisters.
"Have you always been there?" Juno asked, quirking her head to the side. He gave a slight chuckle, his heart thrumming a little as he spoke to Juno Lovegood for the first time.
"Yeah, you were in a bit of a daze-"
"Oh, sorry. That happens a lot,"
"No, no, that's okay, it is pretty amazing," He beamed, his eyes fondly trailing the length of the room. Her gaze followed his, fixated on the tall ceilings, noticing more and more intricacies about the room. Harry had seen it all before, there was new art to spectate, he couldn't draw his gaze away from Juno's wondered features. The moment was interrupted as pockets of people entered through the door. He gave her a shy smile, and she offered him one back as he retreated to the centre of the room; "I'll speak to you in a little while, Juno," She hadn't expected him to know her name.
She recognised most of the faces that entered the room, amongst them were her dorm-mates, Aoife, Hannah, Susan and Megan, who offered her a friendly, but slightly surprised smile, they had always been kind to her, and never excluded her, particularly when they first arrived at Hogwarts. They'd always ask her to join them whenever they would go to explore the castle, or to lessons, or to the great hall, but she often found herself occupied with other things, like reading about creatures, or hunting for them, or cooking something up, and she found if she did join them the conversation felt disjointed and awkward. Neville Longbottom entered with the only Weasley girl, Luna bounded up to them, and they greeted her happily, they seemed to all be quite close. Juno's heart warmed as she watched Luna interact with the friends she had come to adore, and spend half her time at home gushing about. So many familiar faces wandered through the doors, and she wondered how she had never even caught wind of such an organisation - she tried not to feel a little stung that her sister hadn't told her about it earlier. Ron and Hermione came in a few moments later, elbows nudging but bickering quietly amongst themselves, Juno noted a hint of a blush to both of their cheeks as they quarrelled. She felt rather lost in a room full of people she knew of, but didn't really know, she pulled the sleeves of her jumper over her hands and played with them nervously, chewing the inside of her cheek - she wished Draco was here. In another world he could be beside her and they could be friends overtly and she wouldn't have to face this alone. She tried her very hardest to blend into the background. Harry must have noticed her discomfort, mouthing "it'll be okay," at her, before silencing the group.
"Okay, I think that's everyone," He shouted, "so as you know, we've been 'recruiting', and I'd like to welcome our newest member, Juno Lovegood, Luna's sister,"
Juno found it strange being referred to as Luna's sister, she felt a fraction of her identity melt away with the label - it was particularly odd to her as she was the oldest. All the faces in the room turned to face her, some shooting her a puzzled look, but most greeting her with a friendly smile. Luna shuffled towards her sister, and took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. Harry's gaze lingered on Juno a little too long, the room falling into a slightly awkward silence, before he coughed and continued.
"Today I want to practice 2v2 duelling, get into groups of four and use what we've learnt and work together to disarm your opponents-"
The room dispersed, Luna tugging Juno over to her friends. "Juno, this is Ginny," The fiery haired girl gave her a beaming smile, pulling her into a side hug excitedly;
"Luna talks about you constantly, I can't believe it's taken us so long to officially meet," Ginny grinned.
"And this is-"
"Neville, I'm Neville," The boy stuck his hand out and Juno shook it.
"It's lovely to meet you both. I'm probably not going to be great at this-"
"Don't worry," Neville comforted, "we'll help you out, you'll be caught up in no time,"
Juno stumbled her way through the hours as they fought, duelled and practiced various spells - Ginny, Neville and her sister helped out as much as they could, but she felt rather deflated knowing that everyone around her was so well equipped for the looming war and she was so useless and in the dark about it all. She worried she'd continue to fall behind, anxious about the amount she had to catch up with - this sort of thing didn't really matter in the classroom, but this was real life, it was life or death.
"Great work today guys, I'll see you all again soon," Harry concluded, waving everyone out. "Oh, Juno, can I have a quick word?"
She waited behind as the masses dissipated, silently clearing up some of the discarded pillows and books with Harry as they waited. As soon as everyone left he turned to her, smiling softly and scratching his neck awkwardly with one hand, extending a piece of parchment out with the other;
"Here, if you add your name to the list the room will let you in,"
She nodded, taking the parchment from him and leaning on a table that appeared as she needed it, along with a quill and some ink;
"Listen, Juno," She noted he scratched his neck again, a nervous habit, "I don't mind stopping back for an extra half an hour or so after the meetings to help catch you up on the stuff you've missed-"
"Was I really that bad?"
"No! No, God, no that's not what I meant-"
"Harry, I was kidding,"
"Oh, oh right, yeah!" He chuckled. She couldn't help but laugh at his awkwardness.
"Are you sure you'd have time for that? You are the Harry Potter after all-"
"I think I can spare an extra half an hour a week, especially after the duelling I saw earlier-"
"Hey! You just said I wasn't that bad!"
"I didn't actually say that-" She swatted his arm, and he laughed, his eyes crinkling in the corners, his mouth slightly open as he threw his head back. "No, you weren't terrible, we can just tweak a few things - refresh your defensive spells, catch you up on anything that isn't covered in Defence and you'll be good to go,"
"Yeah, yeah - that would be good actually, thanks, Harry,"
"Yeah! Brilliant - do you want to start today, or after the next meeting?"
"Well, mummy always used to say there's no time like the present- so, we can start now, if you like?"
"Sure," He beamed, pulling out his wand a stepping backwards. "Let's start with the basics. It might seem pedantic but if you have the foundation of your defence, the more complex stuff will come a lot easier. Now, I'm not going to do anything, just disarm me-"
"Disarm you?"
"Yes, I want to see your technique-"
"Expelliarmus," She cut him off before he could finish, leaving him with a shocked expression, before he composed himself and broke out into a grin.
"Fast, I like that you strike your opponent, try and catch them off guard - being sneaky is the best way to be, they can never predict what you're going to do, and, never let your guard down - the battle isn't over until one of you is down for good. Try it again, this time I'm a moving target-"
Harry started to move, Juno struck at him with the disarming spell - it missed slightly.
"You have to try and get them on the first go, if you miss they know what you're trying to do, they can use that to their advantage - and it alerts them of your position in regards to them. Try again,"
They kept trying until Juno got it, then they were both moving, and disarming each other.
"A lot of keeping yourself alive isn't just about offence, it's about defence - it's in the name. I'm going to try and disarm you, cast a shield. Once you get this down and we've done more of the advanced spells, it will feel a lot more useful, it will feel easy while you know what I'm going to throw at you and you're prepared for a more harmless offensive spell-"
He shot a spell at her and she countered it; "Protego," . It wasn't strong enough, and her wand went flying out of her hand - she looked rather dejected at failing such a simple piece of magic.
"Hey, look," Harry approached her, grabbing her wand and passing it to her, "your stance is a little off," He stood behind her, touching her shoulders ever so gently, straightening her back towards him, and indicating for her to loosen her legs and arms. They were both very aware of their proximity, his hands lingered on her arms, savouring the feeling of their bodies so close together and the smell of pine and lavender that invaded his senses. "You stood as though you were attacking," his voice was much more hushed now, as he reluctantly backed away, "which is understandable as we moved quickly from offence to defence, it'll come with time. With defence you have to be a little looser, your movements are more fluid, you're protecting a larger surface area, compared to offensive spells where the target is much smaller."
She relaxed her shoulders, sighing, rolling her neck, trying to swallow down the frustration she felt at herself. She could do with a smoke right about now.
"You're better than you think you are. We'll carry on next week, okay?"
"Yeah," she hummed. They both headed out of the room together.
"Bye, Juno," He waved, turning to walk in the opposite direction, smiling over his shoulder at her.
"Thank you, Harry Potter,"
She couldn't deny the guilty feeling that spread throughout her very veins as she stood alone in that cold, dark corridor. She was associating with the people Draco hated the most. She'd just spent the last half an hour alone, laughing and joking around with his sworn enemy. She knew if he knew he'd feel betrayed, they were supposed to be alone together - that's why they got each other so much - he'd feel hurt if he knew. She also felt guilty knowing she was learning things that he wasn't. She vowed to herself if she learnt anything that might help keep him safe, she'd teach it to him - it probably went against everything the DA stood for, but she couldn't stand knowing the thing that might get Draco killed could have been prevented by her knowledge. The guilt ate away at her. But she had to do this, she wouldn't stand a chance in battle without these meetings, without Harry Potter teaching her.
Juno Lovegood was having a hard time accepting that the sun and the moon could never meet, no matter how much she wanted them to.