"woah," maddy breathed out as her and phoebe walked into hog's head.
The building was full of students from everyone house, except slytherin, of course.
"a couple of people?" harry was heard.
"yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular. ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?"
"seems like you've stunned the barman," phoebe chuckled, hugging each of the golden trio.
"how was training?" harry whispered.
"tiring," maddy scoffed. "sev has me doing extra work."
"i'm sorry, doll," hermione mumbled, rubbing maddy's arm.
"what have you been telling people? what are they expecting?" harry spoke as he glanced over to where a crowd was forming around the bar.
"i've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say. you don't have to do anything yet, i'll speak to them first."
"hi, harry," neville said, taking a seat next to the potter boy.
harry smiled in response, too busy looking at cho to answer.
"you're drooling," maddy teased.
within a couple moments, everyone had sat down, glancing at harry.
"er," hermione began, but maddy instantly noticed how nervous her girlfriend was so she intertwined their fingers. "well, hi. you know why you're here. harry, here, had the idea-i mean-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-because no one could call that defense against the dark arts."
"hear hear," a boy called out.
"we thought it'd be good if we took matters into our own hands. and by that, i mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells-"
"you want to pass your defense against the dark arts o.w.l. too though, i bet?" michael corner raised an eyebrow.
"of course i do, but i want more than that, i want to be properly trained in defense because-because," hermione paused to take a deep breath. "because lord voldemort's back."
the reactions they had received were predictable.
"well, that's the plan anyways. if you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to-"
"where's the proof you-know-who's back?"
"up your arse," maddy scoffed, instantly getting glared at by her friends.
"why is she here?" a gryffindor spoke up.
before the taylor girl could respond, hermione covered her mouth and replied to the hufflepuff girl who asked a question.
"well, dumbledore believes it-"
"you mean, dumbledore believes him," the boy nodded at harry.
"i'm sorry, who are you?" maddy and ron said in unison.
"zacharias smith, and i think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say you-know-who's back."
"look-"
"that's not what this meeting's about, you bloody idiot."
"maddy," harry spoke softly, realizing why so many people had showed up. "what makes me say you-know-who's back? i saw him, but dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and i'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."
"what about your parents?" a ravenclaw joined in on the conversation, switching her glance between the taylor twins.
"what about them?"
"well, you mentioned something about them being alive. it's been going around."
"there's not much to say, except that they faked their death-"
"but why would they do that?" some random boy raised his hand.
"i don't know yet," the brunette pair mumbled.
the room was silent for a couple seconds before zacharias went back to arguing.
"all dumbledore told us last year is that cedric diggory got killed by you-know-who and that you brought diggory's body back to hogwarts. he didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how diggory was murdered, i think we'd all like to know-"
"if you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when voldemort murders someone i can't help you. i don't want to talk about cedric diggory, alright? so if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."
harry casted an angry look at hermione, causing maddy to get up, but the granger girl quickly stopped her girlfriend.
to their surprise, no one moved, not even zacharias.
"so, like i was saying, if you want to learn some defense, then 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, that you can cast a patronus?" a girl interrupted the bright witch, looking right at harry. maddy and phoebe both snorted in amusement.
there was a murmur of interest around the group at this.
"yeah."
"a corporeal patronus?"
"er-you don't know madam bones, do you?"
"she's my auntie," the girl smiled. "i'm susan bones. she told me about your hearing, so-is it really true? you make a stag patronus?"
"yes, but so can-"
"blimey, harry! i never knew that!" lee seemed impressed.
"mum told ron not to spread it around. she said you get enough attention as it was," fred grinned at the blind wizard.
"wait who else-"
"she's not wrong."
"and did you kill a basilisk with that sword in dumbledore's office? that's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when i was in there last year-"
"er-yeah, i did, yeah."
"and in our first year,he saved that sorcerous stone-"
"sorcerer's," hermione hissed."
"yes, that, from you-know-who," neville finished.
"and that's not to mention," harry's eyes snapped to cho, who was smiling at him. "all the tasks he had to get through in the triwizard tournament last year-getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas and things," the raven haired girl trailed off.
"look-i don't want to sound like i'm trying to be modest or anything but-i had a lot of help with that stuff."
"not with the dragon, you didn't. that was seriously a cool bit of flying."
"yeah well-"
"and nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer."
"no, no, okay, i know i did bits of it without help but the point i'm trying to make is-"
"are you trying to weasel your way out of showing us this stuff?"
"like we'd let him," maddy lowly chuckled.
"here's an idea," ron spoke rather loudly. "why don't you shut your mouth?"
perhaps 'weasel' wasn't the best choice of words.
"well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it."
"we still have the taylor twins, though."
"harry is more powerful though."
"oh, that's where you're wrong, darling," maddy mumbled, winking at harry.
before anyone could process what she said, fred responded to what zacharias said.
"that's not what he said."
"would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" george inquired, pulling something out of one of the zonko's bags.
"or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this."
"yes well," hermione began hastily. "moving on-the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from harry, phoebe and maddy?"
there was murmurs of why the taylor twins were capable of helping harry and then those who were agreeing to having the three of them as teachers.
"right. well, then, the next question is how often we do it. i really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week-"
"hang on, we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our quidditch practice," angelina butted in.
"no, nor ours."
"nor ours."
"what about maddy's detention?"
"professor snape found out about what umbridge has been doing so he stopped her from giving me any."
"did he tell mcgonagall?" harry whispered, so she shook her head.
"what has-"
"i'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone, but, you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against v-voldemort's death eaters-"
"i have to go," maddy interrupted, catching everyone's attention. "f-fill me in later," she mumbled, kissing hermione's cheek and walking off.
not that long after, footsteps could be heard chasing after her.
"hey!"
"what, phoebe?"
"what happened back there? why'd you leave?" the younger twin asked.
"i-they want to protect themselves from what we're supposed to become. i-they can't know that! they'll find out! i can't take that risk."
"idiot! i'm taking it, too. we'll do it together, just-take a breather and come back."
"look, it's stupid, i know, but i need to focus on other things other than my fate. this whole plan isn't helping. of course i'll help, mione practically begged me to and you know i would bloody do anything for that girl."
"promise?"
"promise what?"
"that you'll help. i know you well enough that you often think about just running away from your problems."
"i won't this time. it means the world to hermione."
"i'm trusting you," phoebe sighed, hugging her sister before running back into the building.
"anything for her," maddy held her breath, facing hog's head. "anything to keep her safe."
word count- 1528
date written- october 27, 2020