The Defense Against the Dark Arts class was not mentioned for another two weeks, but as the Hogsmeade weekend drew up, Hermione bent carefully over her potion and whispered to Percy, "I've asked Harry more about the class."
"Yeah?" Percy asked reluctantly. Harry had been completely unhinged the other night, and he was not eager for a repeat of that.
"Well, he said —" Hermione cut off as Snape swept by with his normal scowl. "He said that he'd think about it... and we're having our first meeting at Hogsmeade, just to see who else is interested."
Percy nodded as he pounded his stones into green powder.
"But just in case... don't do anything to tick him off, okay?" Hermione asked as she stirred her potion.
Percy was taken aback. "Who, me?"
"Erm, yeah," said Hermione in a slightly embarrassed voice. "Well... he's a little jealous, you know?"
"No, I don't know," Percy said slowly, accidentally spilling his powder on the floor.
"Well, I don't know if jealous is the right word." Hermione thought for a bit. "More like... annoyed at you?"
"Really?"
Hermione sighed. "Boys. So oblivious." Frost rose in wisps from her cauldron. "I dunno if I would say annoyed, actually. More like somethings you do just tick him off."
Percy frowned. "What?"
"Not only you," said Hermione in a rushed tone. "Annabeth. And Nico. and Thalia. And Jason."
"This is demigod discrimination," Percy muttered.
"That word, too." Hermione focused intently on her potion, and Snape didn't give the pair a second glance as he preyed on Harry and Ron's. "Demigod," she explained. "I dunno. It just implies that you're special. That you're something else. And the 'god' component, it's like you're above us. You've noticed it, right?" she asked anxiously. "He has let it slip that he doesn't like it when you pretend to be in your own little separate group."
"We're not trying to," Percy defended. "It's just that..." he trailed off.
"Think about it?" Hermione asked as they scooped their potion into vials and brought it to the front desk.
>>>•O•<<<
Piper and Leo walked to Hogsmeade with Will.
"And this is a what, again?" Leo asked incredulously.
"Something that'll teach us some real defense magic," Piper muttered as they trudged down the path. "Who else is going?"
"A couple Hufflepuffs," said Will at the same time Leo said, "Some Ravenclaws."
They stopped in front of the Hog's Head for a millisecond before entering. There were only a few other sketchy looking witches and wizards, but at the side were several friendly faces. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, and Jason.
"Hey guys." They hurried over to the side table.
Jason just barely had time to say 'hey' back when the door flew open again, and in entered a much much larger group of students.
There was Neville, Dean, Lavender, Parvati and Padma, then Cho Chang, Luna, Katie, Alicia, Angelina, Colin and Dennis, Ernie, Justin, Hannah, Susan, Cedric Diggory, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Zechariah, then finally Fred and George Weasley with Lee Jordan.
"A few people," Harry echoed hoarsely. "Alright then."
The demigods squeezed in with the rest of the mob as Harry, Ron, and Hermione held the attention.
"Hullo," Hermione began nervously. Everyone looked to her. "Well, you know why you're here... erm... well, Harry here had the idea —" Hermione cut off as Harry shot her a sharp look. "Well, I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us —" Hermione's voice grew steadily stronger. "I mean no one can call that Defense Against the Dark Arts..."
There were murmurs of agreement.
"And, well," Hermione continued. "I thought it would be good if we took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning the real spells, not just the theory."
"But of course you still want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L too, though?" asked Michael Corner.
"Of course," Hermione said at once. "But I want more than that to be properly trained in Defense because... because..." she took a deep breath. "Because Lord Voldemort's back."
A ripple of alarm ran through students, and many precious drops of butterbeer were spilled.
"Well, the plan is to teach how to Defend properly anyways," said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to —"
"What's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" Zacharias Smith seemed to spit.
"Well, Dumbledore believes it," Hermione said, taken aback.
"You mean Dumbledore believes him," said Zacharias, cutting his gaze to Harry.
"And who are you?" Ron asked rudely.
"Zacharias Smith," he shot back. "And I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."
"Look," Hermione said swiftly. "That's not really what this meeting's supposed to be about —"
"Not only Harry's word." Nico spoke up roughly from the wall he was leaning against. "I saw it happen too. Moldy's back, and you can choose to believe it or not. All I'm saying is that if you choose to believe he's not back, you won't be trained and unlike Harry you won't be the Boy Who Lived."
There was a silence, then Hermione hastily broke it. "So like I was saying," she said, her voice very high pitched once more. "If you want to learn some defense, we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to —"
"Is it true?" Asked Susan, her eyes fixed on Harry. "Is it true you can produce a Patronus?"
There was a murmur of interest.
"A corporeal Patronus?" Cedric looked impressed as Harry nodded then hesitated.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Madam Bones was at your hearing," Susan said, smiling. "She's my auntie, told me all about it. So it's true, then; you can make a Stag Patronus?"
"Er, yeah."
"Blimey, Harry!" Lee Jordan looked deeply impressed. "I never knew that!"
"And you killed a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" Terry asked for confirmation. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year..."
"And in our first year," Neville interjected loudly. "He saved that Sorcerous Stone —"
"Sorcerer's stone," hissed Hermione.
"Yeah, that, from You-Know-Who."
Then Cho spoke up, and Harry's face, which was already pink from the praise, turned a very dark red indeed. "And not to mention all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year — getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas..."
There was a murmur if impressed agreement. According to Harry's twitching facial features, he was fighting a very strong internal battle, then he finally spoke up. "Look," he said, and everyone fell silent again. "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. I couldn't have done it without Ron or Hermione —"
"Not with the dragon," Hazel said. "That was all you."
"And the dementors this summer," said Susan.
"Okay, I know I did bits of it without help," said Harry. "But the point I'm trying to make is —"
"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" demanded Zacharias.
"Here's an idea," Ron snapped loudly. "Why don't you shut up?"
Zacharias flushed. "We've all come 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 Weasley.
"Okay, well, moving on," Hermione interrupted. "The point is, are we all agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"
Everyone nodded, even Zacharias, though he was too busy making sure that George didn't stab him with his wand.
"Right," Hermione looked very relieved. "Well, then, the next question is how often do we meet? I don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week —"
"Hang on," Angelina interrupted. "We need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."
"Or ours," Cho agreed.
"Or ours," added Cedric.
"Ours either," Piper added from the back, and eyes turned to her.
"Hold on," Terry Boot interrupted. "What's a Slytherin doing here?"
As if waiting for confirmation that yes, Piper's black robes with the Slytherin Crest, her green and silver tie, and the fact that she wasn't in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff indicated that she was indeed a Slytherin, several other people frowned and began to mutter as well.
Piper's cheeks were flushed a deep, angry pink. "Look," she said loudly. "Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I'm on Umbridge's side, okay? And not to mention not all Slytherins are evil. Might I remind you that the Slytherin House represents cunning, not evil? And besides, even if most of them are, I'm not cruel and manipulating like them!"
Their eyes glazed over and several students began to nod.
"Hear hear," Leo called.
"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," Hermione interjected 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 than anything else we'll do this year, even the O.W.L.s."
No one disagreed.
"What I'd like to know," Justin said suddenly. "Is that why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon 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 Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione, "is that she's got some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."
Nearly everyone looked stunned at this news, spare the demigods, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luna Lovegood, who piped up, "Well, that makes sense. After All, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army."
"What?" Harry blurted.
"Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths," Luna said solemnly.
"No, he hasn't," Hermione snapped, and Ginny looked at her sharply.
"Yes, he has," insisted Luna.
"What are heliopaths?" Neville asked, looking blank.
"They're spirits of fire," Luna said. "Great tall flaming creatures that gallop across the ground, burning everything in front of —"
"I believe that's Leo," Jason interrupted. "Except without the tall part."
"Ha, ha," Leo laughed sarcastically.
"They don't exist," Hermione said waspishly.
"Oh yes they do!" Luna said angrily.
"I'm sorry, but where's the proof of that?" Hermione snapped.
"There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, just because you're so narrow-minded that you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you--"
"It is possible," Annabeth said quietly.
"Excuse me," Ginny interrupted tartly. "The meetings?"
"Right," Hermione said at once. "Yes, I was ab — you're right..."
"Once a week sounds cool," said Lee Jordan.
"As long as —" Angelina began again.
"Yes we know about the Quidditch," Hermione said in a strained voice. "Well, the other thing is to decide where we're going to meet."
Everyone fell silent.
"Library?" suggested Katie.
"Can't see Madam Pince being too keen on us doing jinxes in the library," Thalia said with a laugh.
"Maybe an unused classroom?" Dean suggested.
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "McGonagall let us have hers when Harry was practicing for the Tournament."
"This is different," Nico said. "With Umbridge hovering over everything, it's too risky."
Ron frowned.
"How about the forest?" Percy suggested.
A sharp chorus of 'No's met his suggestion.
"We'll find somewhere," Hermione said, looking quite exhausted. "We'll send a message round to everyone when we've got a place and time for the first meeting." She hesitated, then pulled a parchment and quill from her bag.
"I think everyone 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 anyone else — what we're up to."
Fred reached out and signed quite merrily immediately, passing it to George and Lee. Several other people, however, looked less enthusiastic about putting their names down on the list.
"Er..." Zacharias said slowly, not taking the quill George was shoving under his nose. "Well... I'm sure Frank will tell me when the meeting is."
Frank shrugged, not looking for an argument, and waited for Zacharias to sign, which he eventually did.
Finally, after Will jotted down his name, Hermione plucked the paper up and placed it carefully in her bag.
"Well, time's ticking on," said George briskly, breaking the silence that followed. "Fred, Lee, and I have items to purchase, we'll be seeing you all later."
As they passed by the door, Fred and George exchanged quick words with Leo, who waved to Piper and followed closely.
"Well, that went quite well, don't you think?" Jason asked as he squeezed through to catch up with Piper.
Piper sighed. "Yeah, I guess."
"Hey, don't take Terry too harshly," Jason said gently. "We're all a little cautious around Slytherins these days."
Piper nodded, still unhappy. "Why'd that stupid hat have to put me in Slytherin anyways?" She blurted suddenly. "I'm lonely and miserable and the other houses don't even like us. Pansy's not around much anymore, and —" she cut off with a sigh.
Jason planted a kiss on her forehead. "Well, only three more years until we're out of Hogwarts," he said encouragingly.
"Three long years," Piper muttered.
Behind them, Percy and Annabeth walked, hands laced together. Frank and Hazel, Will and Nico, and Thalia walked next to them.
"What's up with that Zacharias kid?" Percy asked Frank suddenly, frowning.
Frank shrugged again. "I dunno," he said. "I don't like him much either," he admitted. "But I mean, he hasn't got many friends, really, just hangs out with Ernie a little. Bit testy, don't you think?"
"Just ignore him," Hazel said.
Thalia frowned. "But what if he lets something slip?" She asked
"We'll know," Annabeth said. "Hermione put a charm on that paper."
"How'd'you know?" asked Percy in amazement.
"She told me," Annabeth said quietly. "Just make sure you don't say anything, or you'll end up with a face like Travis and Conner's when they replaced Drew's shampoo with permanent lime dye."