(Y/n) had been unable to have a run-in with Harry, Ron, and Hermione without raising suspicion. Hermione had passed the message that the trio believed Harry's mail had been intercepted by Umbridge and (Y/n) had no doubts on the matter. (Y/n) was absolutely ecstatic that her old pen pal's, Fleur Delacour, letter had finally returned. She greeted Fleur's owl, Henriette with an assortment of Henriette's favourite treats before letting her rest in the dorm for the day. (Y/n) was in the middle of reading Fleur's letter with Cho and Marietta at her side when Roger called out to them.
"Team's been reformed," Roger said. "Practise this Sunday."
"How'd you do it?" Cho asked.
"Flitwick talked to her," Roger huffed. "I heard the Gryffindors had to do the same with McGonagall... Weird, considering Hufflepuff and Slytherin were instantly given approval to reform."
"You know, I reckon she's not allowing reformation for any nonmagical extracurricular subjects," (Y/n) said. "Which is ironic, isn't it?"
"What d'you mean?" Marietta asked.
"I've heard that the Muggle art and music clubs have been denied and I have yet to hear anything about theatre or the movie club," (Y/n) said. "And I know for sure that the program that helps Muggle-born students get settled into their magical lives has been denied... But Gobstones, Apparation, Ancient Studies, you know things like that, were all approved."
"What about yoga?" Cho answered.
"I really doubt it'll be approved," Marietta said. "Trelawney runs it and Umbridge has got it out for her."
"Talk about a bad continuation of the year," Cho mumbled.
"Hey!" Ginny shouted from behind them, emerging from the Great Hall as the trio made for their Herbology class. She proceeded to jog up to them, glancing around that they weren't being watched. "There's a meeting tonight at eight o'clock on the seventh floor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls."
"Is there a room up there?" Cho asked.
"Apparently," Ginny shrugged. "Uh, pass the message to whoever you can."
"Will do," (Y/n) nodded, waving her fingers at Ginny. She, Marietta, and Cho passed out the entrance and down the steps, heading for the Greenhouses, where Professor Sprout greeted them shortly, looking quite agitated.
"Professor Umbridge will be inspecting the class today," Professor Sprout said once most of the class was present. (Y/n), Katie, Marietta, and Cho all exchanged looks of annoyance. "You lot are my best students and I am so very glad that you have chosen to continue Herbology at N.E.W.T.-level. I hope you will show her how capable you are—" There was a knock on the glass door and Professor Sprout seemed to be holding back an eye-roll as she walked over and opened the door.
"Forgive my tardiness," said Umbridge. "I seemed to have mixed up the greenhouses... So many, no?" Professor Sprout smiled fakely.
"Hm, yes... It was, however, labelled quite clearly, was it not?"
Fifteen minutes from eight, (Y/n) finally found Luna and started hurrying her off to the description Ginny had given her. Luna was taking her sweet time, much to (Y/n)'s amusement. By the time they finally reached the corridor in question, they were running late.
"I think that's it," (Y/n) said, peering at a wooden door that most definitely wasn't there before. She hesitantly rose her fist and knocked. Luna had wandered over to (Y/n), looking around the corridor as though it was the most interesting thing ever.
"Hey," Fred greeted casually, opening the door. "You're late."
"I know," (Y/n) huffed. Fred chuckled and stepped aside, allowing (Y/n) with Luna in tow inside.
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.
Fred had pointed his wand at one of the two remaining pillows and levitated it over to Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Lee, and George. He proceeded to pull (Y/n) over to the group. When Luna and (Y/n) took the last cushions, Hermione had carefully marked her page of Jinxes for the Jinxed. (Y/n) was able to catch the end of Harry's explanation that Dobby the house-elf had made Harry aware of the room.
"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've— er— obviously found it okay—"
"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.
"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hit from Filch in here, remember, George? 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 recognizable. He turned his back on it.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and— er—" Harry 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.
"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?"
Everyone raised their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it halfheartedly.
"Er— right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And— what, Hermione?"
"I also think we ought to have a name," Hermione 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 of meetings."
"The Defence Association?" Cho suggested. "But it's a bit obvious, isn't it?"
"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "But I reckon a name that the Ministry fears would be better, right?" (Y/n) snorted.
"Who does the Ministry fear more than Dumbledore himself?" (Y/n) mused.
"Dumbledore's Army!" Ginny grinned.
"Yeah, since that's already what they think we've got going—" (Y/n) cut herself off. "You aren't serious, are you?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Why... why would we name ourselves that?" (Y/n) asked, looking absolutely bewildered.
"You suggested using Dumbledore's name," Ginny shrugged. "What else fits? Might as well mock them since they consider learning to be forming a private army. Now we'll be the Ministry's worst fear."
There was a mixture of appreciative murmuring and laughter at the girls' interaction.
"Ginny, please—"
"All in favour of the D.A.?" Hermione interrupted bossily. She kneeled up on her cushion to count. (Y/n) kept her hand down in protest. "That's majority— motion passed."
"Traitors," (Y/n) grumbled to Lee, Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and the twins, all of whom had risen their hands. "This is mental."
"It won't kill us," Alicia snickered.
"It'll arrest us," (Y/n) argued.
"If we're caught."
"If we're caught," (Y/n) agreed. Hermione pinned the piece of paper with all of their names to the wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters.
"Right," said Harry, when Hermione had sat down again, "shall we get practising 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 last June." Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet. "If you think it's beneath you, you can leave." Smith did not move, nor did anyone else.
"Okay," said Harry, his mouth drier than usual with all those eyes on him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."
(Y/n) lingered to the side as people paired together. She knew there was an uneven amount of members and wondered if it would be her or Harry that would be partnerless. If it was her, she assumed Harry would eventually drop his partner in order to monitor the group's progress. By the time pairs were formed, Neville, (Y/n), and Harry were the remaining three.
"Come on," Harry said, nodding (Y/n) over. "You can take over for me... 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. Harry was too quick for Neville, whose wand went spinning out of his hand, hit the ceiling in a shower of sparks, and landed with a clatter on top of a bookshelf. (Y/n) retrieved it with a Summoning Charm. Harry was quite right to suggest that they practice the basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backward a few paces or wince as the feeble spell whooshed over them.
"Expelliarmus!" said Neville, and Harry, caught unaware, felt his wand fly out of his hand. "I DID IT!" said Neville gleefully. "I've never done it before— I DID IT!"
"Good one!" said Harry encouragingly, deciding not to point out that in a real duel situation, Neville's opponent was unlikely to be staring in the opposite direction with his wand held loosely at his side. "Listen, Neville, go ahead and pair up with (Y/n) so I can walk around and see how the rest are doing."
Harry moved into the middle of the room. Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith; every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Harry did not have to look far for the solution of the mystery, however; Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.
"Sorry, Harry," said George hastily when Harry caught his eye. "Couldn't resist..."
Harry walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong. Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flouring his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them. Luna was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchley's wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hand to stand on end. Cedric and the boy Harry learned to be Anthony (more commonly known as Tony) Whitaker didn't seem to actually be duelling and, instead, merely taking turns practising silent Disarming spells. Daphne Greengrass seemed to be taking it easy on her little sister. (Y/n) would silently Disarm Neville before Summoning his wand back and occasionally giving Neville the opportunity to Disarm her. She smiled every time Neville shouted with glee.
"Okay, 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." Zacharias Smith glared at him. "Let's try again..."
Harry moved around the room again, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly the general performance improved. He avoided going near Cho and her friend for a while, but after walking twice around every other pair in the room he felt he could not ignore them any longer.
"Oh no," said Cho rather wildly as he approached. "Expelliarmious! I mean, Expellimellius! I— oh, sorry, Marietta!" Marietta's sleeve had caught on fire; she extinguished it with her own wand and glared at Harry as though it was his fault.
"You made me nervous, I was doing all right before then!" Cho told Harry ruefully.
"That was quite good," Harry lied, but when she raised her eyebrows he said, "Well, no, it was lousy, but I know you can do it properly, I was watching from over there..."
Cho laughed. Marietta looked at them sourly before turning away.
"Don't mind her," Cho muttered. "She doesn't really want to be here but I made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything that might upset Umbridge, you see— her mum works for the Ministry."
"What about your parents?" asked Harry.
"Well, they've forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge too," said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. "But if they think I'm not going to fight You-Know-Who after how much he hurt (Y/n)..." She trailed off, throwing a glance towards the beaming girl in question. Terry Boot's wand went whizzing past Harry's ear and hit Alicia hard on the nose.
"I'd—"
"Well, my father is very supportive of any anti-Ministry action!" said Luna proudly from just behind Harry. Cho pressed her lips together. Evidently, Luna had been eavesdropping on the conversation while Justin Finch-Fletchley attempted to disentangle himself from the robes that had flown up over his head. "He's always saying he'd believe anything of Fudge, I mean, the number of goblins Fudge has had assassinated! And of course he uses the Department of Mysteries to develop terrible poisons, which he feeds secretly to anybody who disagrees with him. And then there's his Umgubular Slashkilter—"
"Don't ask," Harry muttered to Cho as she opened her mouth, looking puzzled. She giggled.
"Hey, Harry," Hermione called from the other end of the room, "have you checked the time?"
Harry looked down at his watch and recieved a shock— it was already ten past nine, which meant they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out of bounds. He blew his whistle; everybody stopped shouting, "Expelliarmus!" and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.
"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"
"Sooner!" Dean said eagerly.
Angelina, however, said quickly, "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"
"Let's say next Wednesday, then," said Harry, "and we can decide on additional meetings then... Come on, we'd better get going..."
He pulled out the Marauders' 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, the Slytherins to the dungeons, and the Gryffindors along the corridor to the seventh floor and the Fat Lady's portrait.
"That was really, really good, Harry," said Hermione, when finally it was just her, Harry and Ron left.
"Yeah, it was!" said Ron enthusiastically, as they slipped out of the door and watched it melt back into stone behind them. "Did you see me disarm Hermione, Harry?"
"Only once," said Hermione, stung. "I got you loads more than you got me—"
"I did not only get you once, I got you at least three times—"
"Well, if you're counting the once where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of my hand—"
They argued all the way back to the common room, but Harry was not listening to them. He had one eye on the Marauders' Map, wondering what Cho was going to say before Luna interrupted.