The Savior and the Scourge

Chapter 13

On Sunday, five days after Lucius' appearance in the Defense classroom, Harry sat in one of eight communal common rooms set up by Dumbledore at the first of the year in the 'spirit of school solidarity' – an announcement the Gryffindor had apparently missed. The common rooms were just unused classrooms that the elves had cleaned up and furnished appropriately. Mostly they'd been left fairly nondescript and the students had been encouraged to decorate however they saw fit.

So far the idea had only been a mild success but it did allow Ron and Hermione to drag him and Draco to spend time with them, Luna and Neville. Draco, of course, had to be included or the blonde would throw the biggest hissy fit Harry had ever seen and unfortunately the Gryffindor had first hand experience with Slytherin hissys. Truthfully he didn't really mind. Malfoy could be, and often was a prick but he was family now and since that little bombshell Draco had been rather rabidly looking out for Harry.

Yeah, he didn't mind at all.

He was also amazed that Ron and Hermione were still willing to give him the time of day, much less spend any time with him. He'd barely seen them outside of classes since school started, what with his extra lessons and his prowling the corridors trying to 'accidentally' run into the Defense Professor, but here they were, the five founding members of the DA plus one.

And speaking of the DA...

"I think we should do a newsletter or something, especially since we're not an active group anymore," Hermione suggested, not even looking up from the book she was perusing.

"'bout what," Ron mumbled around a mouthful of chocolate frog.

"Oh honestly Ronald! What are we sitting here reading about?"

The redhead went pale, "You want to tell the whole school about demons," he squeaked.

"Well why not? It's obvious the Wizarding community knows absolutely nothing about them and the Ministry won't add the subject to the curriculum. If You-Know-Who is employing demons then I think it falls to the DA to inform the student body!"

"And a newsletter would allow you to reach non-DA members," Luna added as she flipped through this week's Quibbler.

"Exactly," Hermione exclaimed.

"But won't the school Governors still get upset? I mean, if they won't allow Dumbledore to teach us about it then won't they try to expel us or something like what happened last year?"

The group fell silent.

"Well it's not like there's anyone actually out to get us this time around, is there," Ron said, examining a new Frog card.

Harry snorted in disgust.

"So disguise it – make it look like somebody's notes," Draco suggested hesitantly, "it's not a Forbidden subject so they can't do anything if your private study notes get bandied about."

Hermione blinked... "That's brilliant Draco! We could do it on Muggle notebook paper..." She trailed off and began scribbling frantically on a piece of parchment muttering about color coding and copying spells.

Harry looked wide eyed at an equally gobsmacked Draco. After a moment he realized that Luna and Neville had similar looks on their faces, but not Ron. Ron was either very, very used to Hermione's antics or he was just blissfully unaware.

"Scary, Harry...really scary," Draco whispered.

Harry just nodded.

When it became obvious that Hermione was going to stay in 'scary mode' Draco stood. "C'mon Harry, we have an appointment this afternoon."