Venus

52- The Hog's Head

The Hogs Head was full.

There were some strange characters there, including a woman with a long veil draped over her face.

There was quite a large amount of Hogwarts students all in the pub. They looked very out of place in the pub.

Ginny immediately went to sit beside Micheal Corner, a Ravenclaw student on the year above them that Ginny had started dating recently.

Mali and Venus took seats near them, but not too close. Neville sat beside Venus.

Fred was passing out butter beers to everyone.

Eventually the chatter died down and everyone looked at Hermione, Ron and Harry expectantly.

"Er- hi." Hermione said eventually, "you know why you're here. Erm Harry-" Harry shot her a look, "-I mean I had the idea that it might be good for people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts- I mean actually study it, not the rubbish we're doing with Umbridge, because no one can call that Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Hear, hear!" A few people said.

This seemed to give Hermione more confidence, "I thought it would be good if we took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves, not just the theory. Learning the real spells."

Hermione hesitated and glanced over at Harry, "because well, it's important we can defend ourselves, because- because, well Voldemort is back."

The reaction was almost comic. Cho Chang spilt her butter beer, Neville let out an odd yelp.

"Where's the proof Voldemort is back?" A Hufflepuff boy asked.

"What makes me say Voldemort is back?" Harry was looking the boy right in the face. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told everyone that last year. If you don't believe him, you won't believe me and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

"Is it true you can produce a corporal patronising?" A girl with a long plait down her back asked.

"Yeah." Harry answered. There was a murmer among the group at this.

"In the form of a stag?" The same girl asked. Harry nodded.

"Blimey Harry I didn't know you could do that." Lee Jordan, who was say in-between the Weasley twins, said.

"Mum told us not to spread it around." Venus piped up, "said he gets enough attention as it is."

"She's not wrong." Harry murmer. This got quite a few laughs from the crowd.

"And you did kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" Demanded one of Micheal Corner's friends who Venus did not know.

"Er- yeah I did," said Harry.

People were really impressed by this. A few whistles were let out and excited looks exchanged.

"And in our first year," Neville said excitedly, "he saved that stone from You Know Who."

"And that's not to mention all of the tasks he had to get through last year in the Triwizard Tournament." Cho Chang added.

"So," Hermione was almost beaming with pride, "are we all agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmer of agreement among the crowd.

"I don't think that there's any point in meeting less than once a week-" Hermione began.

"Hang on!" Angelina said, "we need to make sure it doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice!" The Gryffindor team had been training quite a lot since the beginning of the year.

"Not ours!" Said Cho Chang.

"Or ours," added the haughty Hufflepuff boy from earlier.

"I'm sure we can find a night that works for everyone." Hermione assured them.

"Well I think once a week sounds good." Lee Jordan said.

"The other thing to decide is where we're going to meet..." Hermione frowned.

No one said anything. This was a harder question.

"Right well- I'm sure we'll think of something," said Hermione. "We'll send a message around to everyone when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting." Hermione pulled out a quill and a piece of parchment, "I think everyone should write their name down so we know who was here, but I also think that we should also agree not to shout about this. So if you sign you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anyone else."

People formed a messy line to sign their names.

People began leaving after this. Venus headed outside with Neville.

"Ve!" Mali greeted her outside the pub, "me and Ginny are going to get a drink with Micheal, Anthony and Terry, want to join?"

Venus glanced at Neville who was standing off to the side slightly awkwardly.

"I'll find you guys later." She told Mali.

"Suit yourself." Mali shrugged and ran off to join Ginny and the others.

"So, what are we doing?" Mali turned to Neville.

Neville stared at her, "you're not going with Ginny and Mali? But they're your friends?"

"So are you." Venus pointed out, "ooo! Let's go to Honeydukes!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the Hog's Head.

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~Em xx