Magic? || Years 5-7

Zacharias Smith: Year 5

"Er. Well -- er -- hi," Hermione flinched, her voice a few octaves higher than usual. "Well... erm... well, you know why you're here. Erm... well, 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 nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts -- "

"Here, here," Anthony Goldstein piped up.

Hermione looked more confident, "Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, 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. to though, I bet?" Michael Corner asked.

"Of course I do. But I want more than that. I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because..." Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath, squeezing her fingers, "because Lord Voldemort's back."

The girl Cho came in with gave a shocked shriek, Terry twitched and accidentally kicked the table, Padma shivered, and Neville coughed suspiciously.

"Well... that's the plan anyway," Hermione went on as every gaze went to Harry. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to -- "

"What's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" The blond boy with the turned up nose demanded.

Hermione blinked, looking faintly annoyed, "Well, Dumbledore believes it -- "

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," He cut her off, giving a nod to where Harry was sitting.

"Who are you?" Ron asked sharply, bristling.

"Zacharias Smith,"

Amisty's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"And I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Speak of the devil..." Amisty murmured to herself, completely and utterly surprised. She didn't think she'd see Zacharias Smith again.

"What?" Eli whispered.

"In a bit..."

"Look, that's really not what this meeting is supposed to be about -- " Hermione began.

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry cut in, his face set. "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."

Zacharias rolled his eyes, "All Dumbledore told us last year was 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 got 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," Harry retorted, his eyes flashing. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

No one moved, not even Zacharias.

"So," Hermione's voice was high yet again. "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 produce a Patronus?" The new Hufflepuff girl asked, watching him curiously.

"Yeah."