Disclaimer: I don't own the material in this story, it belongs to J.K Rowling. I only own what I come up with.
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Chapter 5
I watched feeling astounded as my old teacher professor Trelawny stood crying in front of Umbridge. The old toad had just fired her and was now forcing Trelawny to leave.
" Poor, Trelawny.... not even she deserves this." Ron muttered to me from the side of his mouth.
I almost started to cry for her, she was sobbing hysterically, talking about how Hogwarts was her home. I felt so bad for her, Ron was right... she really didn't deserve this... even if she was a fraud.
" I know..." I said back to Ron as I scanned the huge crowd that stood watching her. Whew... not only was she fired, but she has to deal with the fact that she was fired in front of a hundred gawking students.
I spotted Draco staring at the scene in mild interest, but he still looked rather bored. He could feel someone staring at him for he quickly scanned the crowd and spotted me looking at him.
He smirked at me and winked. I smiled sadly back as the doors leading to the castle opened and Dumbledore came striding out.
" Minerva, will you please escort Sybil back inside." Dumbledore said politely yet still looking serious.
" Oh thank you! Thank you!" Trelawny said as she leaned heavily on McGonagall as they walked clumsily back into the castle.
" Headmaster, I have the authority..." Umbridge started holding up one of her decrees.
" You have the authority to dismiss my teachers, but you don't have the authority to banish them from the grounds... that power remains with the headmaster." Dumbledore said sternly.
" For now." Umbridge said in a sickly sweet tone.
Dumbledore looked around and began to walk back toward the castle. " Well... don't you all have some studying to do??" he said loudly to the gawking students.
When Dumbledore spoke, the crowd began to move and return to whatever they were doing before Trelawny was being fired.
" Professor! Professor Dumbledore!" Harry shouted as he ran after Dumbledore to get his attention.
I sighed and looked toward Ron.
" He won't answer Harry... just watch." I stated sadly as we watched Dumbledore ignore Harry.
Harry disappeared into the crowd. I could still hear his voice calling for Dumbledore... but Dumbledore didn't speak a word back to him.
" We should head back to the common room..." Hermione said staring sadly after Harry. " We have loads of homework."
I reluctantly nodded and walked with Hermione and Ron up to the common room. When we arrived, Harry was already sitting on the couch looking depressed. He held a piece of parchment and a quil, but he hadn't written a word. His eyes were glazed over as if his mind was elsewhere.
I walked cautiously up to Harry and sat next to him and put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
" Harry?" I asked questioningly as I saw his face nodd toward me slightly.
" Is it just me...or does it seem like Dumbledore is avoiding me." Harry said in a monotone voice.
I sent a nervous glance toward Hermione and Ron and they returned it.
" Yes...yes it does seem that way." I said eventually.
Harry nodded as if I just proved him right and went back to staring back at his parchment.
I realized that he needed to be alone, so I pulled out my Arithmancy homework to start on. We had to make very complex number charts... they were ten times harder than having to guess random things in Trelawny's class.
The rest of the evening went by slowly but eventually my friends and I were the last ones in the common room.
" Arg! Bloody..." Ron started as he jumped off the floor and away from the fire.
I looked up to see Sirius's head sitting in the flames, grinning at Ron.
"Hi." Sirius said happily.
" Hi." my friends and I chorused.
" How are things... I got your letter Harry...you said Umbridge was awful." Sirius said turning toward Harry with a look of concern.
" You didn't tell us that you wrote to him! Harry that's dangerous! Your letter could have been intercepted!" Hermione said disapprovingly.
Harry shrugged, looking indifferent as he stared at Sirius's floating head.
" Sirius, you shouldn't be here... Umbridge is watching the fireplaces and letters like a hawk....if she notices you're here....It will be really bad." I said nervously.
Sirius rolled his eyes and said " I've been popping up in this fireplace every hour to check if you were the last ones in the common room...if she hasn't realized that I'm here by now, she isn't very observant."
" You've been popping into the fire every hour??" Harry said half laughing.
" But what if you were seen??" Hermione said anxiously.
"Well, I think a girl.... first year by the looks of her.... might've got a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry," Sirius said hastily, as Hermione and I clapped a hand over our mouths in worry. " I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she jsut thought I was an oddly shaped log or something."
" But, Sirius, this is taking an awful risk..." Hermione began.
" You sound like Molly," Sirius said " This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code, and codes are breakable.... Anyway... we'd better be quick just in case we're disturbed....your scar....Well I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?"
" Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion." Harry said ingoring as Ron and Hermione winced. " So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention."
" Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often," said Sirus.
" So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked.
" No, No... I doubt it. I'm sure she is no death eater." Sirius said soothingly.
" She's foul enough to be one." I said darkly and my friends nodded vigorously in agreement.
" Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters." Said Sirius with a wry smile " I know she's probably a nasty piece of work though... you should hear Remus talk about her."
" Lupin knows her? Poor bloke." Ron said.
"No," Sirus said " But she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job."
I remembered looking at Lupin last summer, he did look shabbier. My loathing for Umbridge deepened even further.
"What's she got against werewolves?" I said angrily.
"Scared of them, I expect." Sirus said smiling at my indignation. " Apparently she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose..."
My friends and I laughed... well except for Hermione who looked upset. Her and her S.P.E.W.
" Sirus!" Hermione said reproachfully." Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher I'm sure he'd respond, after all, you are the only member of his family he's got left, and Professor Dumbledore said..."
" So what are Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interupted " Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?"
" No." I said, ignoring Hermione's affronted look at being cut off in her defense of Kreacher. " She's not letting us use magic at all!" I said unhappily.
"All we do is read the stupid textbook." Ron said .
" Ah, well, that figures," said Sirus " Our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."
" Trained in combat???" I repeated incredulously. " What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army??"
" Thats exactly what he thinks you're doing," Said Sirus " Or rather that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing...forming his own private army, which he will be able to take on the Minsistry of Magic."
There was a pause at this as my friends and I gaped at Sirius.
" That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with."
I nodded in agreement. " That loon has lost his marbles." I muttered.
" So we're being prevented from learing Defense Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells agaisnt the Minsitry??" Harry said furiously.
" Yep." Sirus said simply " Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge."
" So that's why Umbridge keeps coming out with these ridiculous decrees." Hermione said rolling her eyes.
" Decrees?" Sirius asked.
" Yeah, the nutcase keeps making decrees.... she is on what number is it...ah 25.... It states that students won't have secret organizations in the school unless approved by her." I said rolling my eyes.
" And there is plenty more where that came from... she is so strict and snotty about every little thing." Ron said scrunching up his nose with distaste.
" Yeah, that means that we aren't allowed to have..." Harry began.
" .....secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?"
" How did you know about that." Harry demanded
Sirus grinned. " You want to choose your meeting places more carefully, The hog's head, I ask you..."
" Well it was better than the three broomsticks!" Hermione said defensively " That's always packed with people."
".... which means you'd have been harder to overhear." said Sirius " You've got alot to learn, Hermione."
" Who over heard us?" I asked
" Mundungus of course." Sirius said.
My friends and I gave him puzzled looks. I didn't see anyone in there that resembled Mundungus...of course.... most of those people had stuff covering their faces.
" He was the witch under the veil." Sirius laughed as he saw our faces.
"That was Mundungus?" Harry said stunned " What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"
" What do you think he was doing?" Sirius said somewhat impatiently " Keeping an eye on you, of course."
" I'm still being followed??" Harry said furiously.
" Yeah, you are." Sirius said looking unfazed by Harry's anger. " and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group."
Sirius though looked neither angry or worried, on the contrary, he was looking at Harry and I with Pride. He was proud of us.
" Anyway...Ron, your mother wants me to pass you a message."
" Oh, yeah??" Ron said apprehensively.
" She says on no account whatsoever ar eyou to take part in a illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you;ll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also..." Sirius's eyes went from Ron's to Harry, and Hermione's eyes advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simly begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, byt if the owl had been intercepted you;d all have been in real touble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."
" On duty doing what?" Ron said quickly./
" Never you mind, just stuff for the Order. " Sirius said
" Oh and Ava, you mother said to not join the group also and that she'll come down here and whip your bottom if she hears you have joined it." Sirius said stuggling not to laugh." She says that you already know more magic than the average wizard and that you shouldn't risk your future by joining a pointless organization....oh and she says she loves you."
" I love her too... you tell her that." I sighed as I shook my head smiling." So how do you feel about the group Sirius?... Do you want me to say I'm not taking part in the defense group?"
" Me? Certainly not!" Sirius said looking surprised " I think it's an excellent idea!"
" You do?" Harry said happily.
" Of course I do!" said Sirius turning toward Harry " Do you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"
" But last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks..." Harry said.
" Last year all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!" Sirius said impatiently " This year we know that there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"
" And if we do get expelled?" Hermione asked with a quizzical look on her face.
" Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" Harry said staring at her.
" I know it was...I just wondered what Sirius thought." She said shrugging.
" Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," said Sirius.
" Valid point!" Ron said enthusiastically.
Sirius looked at all of us once and then looked behind him as if someone called his name.
" Well your mom wants me... I should go..." Sirius said looking sadly at me and Harry.
" I love you, Sirius." I said sadly. I wasn't ready for him to leave yet.
" I love you too Ava, be safe... and please learn as much as you can....not that you don't already know more than me...but...all of you...learn as much as you can... there is tough times ahead of us, and we need you to be prepared....because Voldemort is now on the move..."
He broke off and his face was suddenly tense and alarmed. He turned sideways apparently looking into the solid brick wall of the fireplace.
" Sirius?" Harry and I said anxiously at the same time.
But he had vanished. I gaped at the flames for a moment, then turned to my friends.
" Why did he..." Ron started.
Hermione gave a horrified gasp and leapt to her feet, still staring at the fire.
I looked to where she was looking... a hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings.... Umbridge.
The four of us made a run for it up to our dormitories. When I reached the door to the girls dormitory I looked back. Umbridge's hand was still making snatching movements amongst the flames, as though she knew exactly where Sirius's hair had been moments before and was determined to seize it.
I quickly followed Hermione into the dorm, and changed quickly before laying in bed.
~~~~
Our robes billowed and swirled around us as we splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology, where we could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof.
The afternoon's Care of Magical Creatures lesson was to be relocated from the storm swept grounds to a free classroom on the fround floor and , to our intense relief, Angelina sought out her team at lunch to us that Quidditch practice was canceled.
"Good." Harry said quietly to her when she told him " because we are having our first defense meeting tonight. It's tonight, 8 oclock, 7th floor opposite that tapestry of Barnebas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?"
She looked slightly taken aback but promised to tell the others.
With Ron, while we were on Prefect duty that afternoon, we spent most of our time seeking out the pople who had signed their names to the list in the Hog's Head and telling them where to meet that evening for the meeting. I was certain that by the time my friends and I made our way to the meeting that everyone had recieved the messsage.
We stood in front of the blank wall and my friends looked confusedly at it.
"Now what?" Ron said nervously.
" Well... concentrate...concentrate hard on a meeting place to study magic." I said sounding confident.
I thought hard on needing a place to learn to fight and suddenly a highly polished door had appeared on the wall. Ron stared at it looking slightly wary.
I reached out and seized the brass handle, pilled open the door, and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.
The walls were lines 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.
Hermione gasped when she saw the books and ran to them and picked one out and instantly sat down and started to read it.
" These will be good when we're practicing stunning!" Ron said enthusiastically while he prodded one of the silk cushions.
' And just look at these books!!" I said energetically as I ran to a shelf and picked up a few books. " A compendium of Commn Curses and Their Counter-Actions... The Dark Arts Outsmarted... Self Defensive Spellwork...wow.... this is heaven!!!" I said as I took the book The Dark Arts Outsmarted off its spot and went down to sit by Hermione who was reading Jinxes for the Jinxed.
After about 5 minutes there was a gentle knock on the door. I looked around; Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvarti, and Dean had arrived.
" Whoa..." Dean said staring around looking thoroughly impressed. " What is this place?"
Before anyone could explain more people had arrived. By 8 oclock the room was full of the people who had signed their names at the Hog's Head.
I heard Harry walk up to the door and turn the key protruding fromt he lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everyone fell silent. I looked up to see the door disappear to be replaced by a mirror wall. I carefully marked my page of The Dark Arts Outsmarted and set the book aside.
" Well, this is the place we've found for practices, and you've...er... obviously found it ok..." Harry said slightly nervously.
" It's fantastic!" Cho said over enthusiastically as she stared dreamily at Harry.
I witheld a glare at her and listened as people murmured in agreement.
" It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. " We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was only a broom cupboard then."
" Hey... What is this stuff." Zacharius asked from the corner of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.
" Dark Detectors." I spoke up as I walked closer to him. " 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..."
" Wicked.." Zacharius said smiling at me.
" Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and... er..." Harry said as he saw Hermione's hand was raised. I almost laughed.
" What Hermione." Harry said with a smirk.
" I think that we should elect a leader." she said.
" Harry's leader." Cho said at once, looking at Hermione as if she were mad.
" I don't know, I think Ava is amazing at spells and such... she's always the first one to get the spell right in class... she reads advanced spell books all the time... man, she probably knows more spells than Dumbledore. I think she would be a good teacher." Dean said looking shyly up at Harry and I, as if he was afraid to offend us.
I heard a few murmurs of agreement and I smiled. I was glad that they wanted me to help teach.
" Lets vote." Hermione said nodding. "It's only fair."
" Everyone who thinks Harry should be leader..." Hermione said as half of the room raised their hands, including Cho, who was beaming wildly at Harry like a little girl.
" Ava?" Hermione said and the other half of the class raised their hands, including Dean Thomas and Ginny.
" Hmmm." Hermione mused " It's a tie."
" They can both be teachers, how's that?" Ginny said smiling at her.
I heard murmurs of agreement and smiled at Ginny.
"I also think we should have a name..." Hermione said before Harry could say anything, for he had just opened his mouth." I think it would promote a feeling of ream spirit and unity, don't you think?"
" Can we be the Anti-Umbridge league?" Amgelina asked hopefully.
" Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" Suggested George smirking
" I was thinking," said Hermione laughing at George " more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."
" The Defense Association?" Luna said dreamily.
" Yeah... the D.A.'s good." I said smiling at Luna. " Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's 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 favor of the D.A.?" Hermione said bossily kneeling up on her cushion to count. " That's a majority...motion passed!"
SHe pinned the peice of paper with allof our names on it on a mirror and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters.
I went up to stand beside Harry and he smiled in relief at me. I knew he was relieved that I would be teaching with him, he didn't really want to do it alone.
"Right..." said Harry sounding more confident " shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first think we should do is Expeliarmus... you know, the disarming charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful...."
" Oh please." Zacharias Smith said while 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." Harry said quietly "It saved my life last year."
Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was quiet.
" but if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said. Smith did not move, nor did anyone else.
"Ok..." I said trying to pry the eyes off of a nervous Harry. " I suppose we should divide into pairs and practice."
It felt very odd to be issuing instructions, but not nearly as odd as seeing them followed. Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Predictably, Neville was left partnerless.
" You can practice with me..." Harry said to Neville.
Harry nodded his head at me in encouragment and went to stand by Neville looking happy that people weren't staring at him anymore.
" Right...on the count of three I want you all to try to disarm you partner, alright? 1...2...3..." I said so everyone could hear.
The room was suddenly full of shouts of "Expelliarmus!": wands felw in all directions, missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. Glancing around I thought that Harry had been right to suggest that they practice the basics; there was alot of shoddy spellwork going on; Many people weren't 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. Harry who 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.
" Accio." I said firmly to the wand on the shelf and Nevilles wand soared toward me and I caught it and handed it to a blushing Neville.
" Thanks." Neville said quietly.
I nodded at him before turning to the class. " Ok! Stop!" I shouted " Stop! Stop!"
The room quieted and I said " Ok, that wasn't bad...but there's definite room for improvement." Cho glared at me and I ignored her.
I turned toHarry as our classmates began to practice again. We both shared a look. We needed to help this class. They were terrible.
" Hermione, Ron... practice with Neville will you?" Harry said to them.
Hermione and Ron nodded as Harry came to me and said " We should go correct them."
I nodded before walking around the room to help correct those who were doing the spell wrong.
Dean Thomas seemed to be doing his spell wrong on purpose just so I'd come up to him and help him.
" You're flicking your wand to much, it's more like a jab... like this.." I said to him as I demonstrated to him and his partner, though half of the classing was looking over at me to see how I was moving my wand.
I watched as the class tried disarming their partners and was pleased when more people were getting it right.
I looked over at Harry after correcting Dean for the fourth time and saw him and Cho flirting. I rolled my eyes and walked closer to them as Luna said proudly " Well, my father is very supposrtive of any anti-ministry action! 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 there's his Umgubular Slashkilter..."
" Don't ask." Harry muttered to Cho as she opened her mouth looking puzzled.
" I hate to interupt you lovebirds." I said bluntly and they blushed "But have you checked the time?"
Harry looked down at his watch and looked surprised. It was already 10 passed 9. meaning that it was past curfew, and that we needed to get back to our common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out-of-bounds.
Harry shouted for people to be quiet and people turned to us expectantly as 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 as he stared at me.
Alot of people nodded in agreement and smiled up at Harry and I.
Angelina, however, said quickly " The Quidditch season's about to start, we need to team practices too!"
" Oh! Wait! I got something for everybody!" I said as I made a dash for my bag and pulled out a sack. I was aware of the curious eyes on me as I opened it and pulled out a galleon.
" I made these last night...you see... it would look so suspicious if people from dfferent Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often..."
I started to pass out the galleons to everybody and they analyzed the coins in intrest. When everyone had a coin I continued " You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" I asked holding one up for examination. It gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. " On reall gallwons that's just a serial number referring, to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting... The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry or I set's the date of the next meeting, we'll change the numbers on our coins, and becasue I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic ours."
A blank silence greeted me and I looked around disconcerted.
" Well... I thought it was a good idea..." I said uncertainly " I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a galleon, is there? But... well... if you don't want to use them..."
" You can do a Protean Charm??" Terry Boot said looking extremely impressed.
" yes." I said.
" But that's... that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is." Michael said weakly.
" Oh..." I said trying to look modest " Oh, well... yes, I suppose it is..."
" How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" Terry demanded staring at me with wonder. " With brains like yours?"
" I don't know..." I shrugged " Ask the hat. So does that mean we are using the galleons?"
There was a murmur of assent and excitement as they pocketed their galleons.
" You know what these remind me of?" Harry said holding up his coin as we left the room of requirement hastily.
" what..." I said already knowing what he was going to say.
" The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches on of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they've got ot join him." Harry said.
" Well... yes." I said quietly " That is where I got the idea...but you'll notice I decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our member's skin..."
" Yeah...I prefer your way." Harry said grinning as he slipped his galleon into his pocket. " I suppose the only danger with these is that we might accidentally spend them."
" Fat chance." Ron siad who was examining his own fake galleon with a slightly mournful air. " I haven't got any real galleons to confuse it with.'
There was an awkward silence as we went up to the common room quickly and went up to the dormitories to get a good night's sleep.