── ⲇ ──
"Quidditch practice is cancelled."
Y/n told her team during lunch.
"Good—" Harry was cut off by his sister's intense look. "I just mean... good, because... I found a place to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Really? Where?"
"Room of Requirements."
"Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?"
Y/n stared a bit before she nodded and turned to walk away, taking with her a piece of sausage. She made her way to the common room, and up to her dorm room where Alicia was sat on her bed with a book in hand.
"Hey... umm... Harry says he found a spot where we could, y'know..." Y/n trailed. Alicia looked up from her book. "Great! So, when do we start?"
"Tonight, at eight. If you see Katie, could you tell her? I'm going to tell Fred. And—"
"I'll make sure to let George, Lee, and Angelina know, if I see them." Alicia smiled in response. Y/n smiled back and walked out the dorm.
── ⲇ ──
After everyone had been informed, the group of six had the sole mission of going to seventh floor. Usually it's not such a suspicious act when it's one person, but with six of them; two of which have a notorious reputation, the act was, well, suspicious.
As the group of six made their way to the seventh, eyes and ears peered for anyone who may tell Umbridge, they eventually came across a highly polished door.
"Uhh... think that's it?" Alicia questioned.
"Of course not, this randomly placed door is clearly not what we're looking for." Fred spoke sarcastically to which Alicia glared at him.
"I remember this room, though I don't see how a broom cupboard is going to be a great place to practice." George commented.
Y/n stepped forward and knocked on the door. The door opened and the group of six made their way inside into a spacious room lit with flickering torches.
The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass.
By 8, every cushion had been filled. Y/n sat beside Fred, the two talking amongst each other and making small comments on the room.
Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him. Hermione carefully marked her page of Jinxes for the Jinxed and set the book aside.
"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. T"his is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've - er - obviously found it OK."
"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.
"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "George and I once hid from Filch in here. But it was just a broom cupboard then."
"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.
"Dark detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled..."
He gazed for a moment into the cracked Foe-Glass; shadowy figures were moving around inside it, though none was recognisable. He turned his back on it.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"
"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.
"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.
Harrys stomach did yet another back-flip.
"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So -everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"
Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly.
"Er - right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And - what, Hermione?"
"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.
"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.
"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."
"The Defence Association?" said Cho. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledores Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"
There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.
"All in favour of the DA?" said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority - motion passed!"
She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters.
"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"
"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know- Who, do you?"
"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June." Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.
"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said.
Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.
"OK," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all these eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practise."
Everyone stood to their feet, Fred helping Y/n onto hers as he pulled her aside. "Go easy on me." He pleaded, grinning. "In a real duel, there is no going easy." Y/n remarked, sending him a sly wink as they awaited Harry's command.
"Right - on the count of three, then - one, two, three -"
The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air.
Both Fred and Y/n's wands went flying into the air. He caught her wand as she caught his, then they tossed it back to each other.
"Hey, love." Fred motioned his head towards Zacharias Smith who's wand kept flying out of his hand before he could cast the spell.
The culprit was George. Y/n and Fred chuckled before catching Harry's eye. "Sorry, capitán." George chuckled. "Couldn't resist myself."
Harry walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong. "OK, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop! STOP!"
I need a whistle, he thought, and immediately spotted one lying on top of the nearest row of books. He caught it up and blew hard. Everyone lowered their wands.
"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement. Let's try again."
Fred and Y/n turned to look at each other. Fred prepared his wand before he heard "Expelliarmus!" and his wand shot out of his hand. Fred jokingly narrowed his eyes at her. "I wasn't ready!" She merely shrugged in response before he grabbed his wand.
"Should've been focused—"
"Expelliarmus!"
Her wand shot out of her hand as he laughed in triumph. "Should've been focused." He remarked, mimicking her exact words.
The two stared at each other with an intense glare as they held their wands tightly. He shot first.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Protego!"
She quickly reacted in defense, casting the shielding charm with a proud smirk.
"Hold on, is that allowed?" He questioned. She shrugged in response.
At ten past nine, Harry blew his whistle and everyone settled down. "Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"
"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.
Y/n, however, said quickly "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"
"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."
He pulled out the Marauder's Map again and checked it carefully for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. He let them all leave in threes and fours, watching their tiny dots anxiously to see that they returned safely to their dormitories: the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor that also led to the kitchens; the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait.
── ⲇ ──
So, over the course of two weeks, Dumbledore's Army was getting better and stronger. Neville had successfully disarmed Hermione, Colin Creevey had mastered the Impediment Jinx after three meetings' hard effort, and Parvati Patil had produced such a good Reductor Curse that she had reduced the table carrying all the Sneako‐ scopes to dust.
Meetings were unpredictable but it was better that way. And everything that Umbridge and the Ministry feared was all becoming true.
Dumbledore had an army that not even he knew about and a rebellion was brewing right under Umbridge's pointy, toad like nose.