Harry Potter and the Unlikely Alliances

Chapter 16: Growing Powers

Chapter 16: Growing Powers

Harry decided that it was time to have the first DA meeting. He had Hermione spread the word that they would be meeting in the DADA classroom at 6:30 pm on Monday night. He had planned to review most of what they learned last year as a refresher. Remus had told him he could use the classroom for the first meeting until they decided how often to meet and where to hold it at.

Harry was surprised by the turnout. The group had doubled in size since last year. The only ones not there were those who graduated and Cho's friend Marietta who had ratted on them to Umbridge. "Today we are going to review everything we learned last year. Those of you who are new to the DA need to sign the sheet Hermione is passing around. We are still going to try and maintain secrecy with this club, even though we have the support of the school this year. You can bring others who you believe to be trustworthy and willing to work hard." Harry told them all. He was surprised he was commanding that much attention with such a large group. He set them into pairs and he worked with Neville, who no one else wanted to work with.

"We will start with disarming and protecting. I want you to take turns trying to disarm each other, once you can both do it successfully I want the other one of you to try and cast 'protego' and block the spell." The ones who were in DA had no problem with the disarming spell, even Neville summoned Harry's wand on the first try. Most could cast the protego charm as well. "Remember that the more powerful the spell the easier it is to break through your defenses. Watch Neville and me."

Harry told Neville to cast protego and he aimed a low powered disarming spell at him, Neville could keep his wand. "Now watch as I increase the power to the spell." Harry sent a medium powered spell at him and Neville had to struggle to hang onto his wand. "Now I'll give it more power." Harry said the spell again and Neville's wand came soaring to him. "When you fight dark wizards they will not be taking it easy on you, they will come at you with everything they have got. Just because they can do all kinds of complex spells, don't think you can't win by protecting yourself and using your simple spells. Now you all try it again and see if you can break through each other's protection."

Harry sent Neville to work with Ron and Hermione and he wandered around the room giving advice to the rest of the club. They covered the rest of what they had learned last year and Harry told those who were behind to try and practice. He told them he had been planning out lessons and was excited about some spells he found over the summer. They decided to meet on Wednesdays after dinner, that way they could have Quidditch practice before dinner and still get to DA meetings. Hermione handed out the fake gallons to the new members and told them how to work them.

Harry held Neville, Luna, Ginny, the Creevy's, Justin and Hannah from Hufflepuff, Ron and Hermione back after the rest of the club left. "I want to start a smaller club to learn even more complex spells; I was thinking we could meet on Mondays or Thursdays. I might even ask Lupin and Tonks to help us. Would you guys be interested?" Harry asked them. "I want this to be a group of people we all trust would never betray the things we learn and would stand and fight instead of run scared incase the death eaters attack."

They all agreed to join and decided that Monday was a good night to meet in the Room of Requirement. He told them they would be perfecting their Patronus and moving on to even more difficult protective magic before learning the complex offensive spells. It was only 8pm and they decided to practice for another hour, they worked on their Patronus' again, they were all very strong, even Neville's. Harry showed them a few of the spells that he had read about over the summer. One was an even stronger protection charm and another was a spell that protected those around you as well. He cast the charm while standing near to the group and had Ron shoot disarming spells at them, the shield held. He then showed them the charm to mute a person and the one to tie the person up in bonds they could not apparate through or change forms, just in case they were Animagi.