Bonded

Twenty-Two

"Well... em... well," Hermione stuttered as she drew the attention of the group of around thirty students who had gathered at the Hogshead, "you know why you're here. Erm... well, Harry here had the idea- I mean-" Hermione corrected herself after a sharp look from Harry, "I had the idea- that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts- and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because no one can call that Defence Against the Dark Arts-"

"Hear, hear!" someone in the group said.

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

"You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" asked a Ravenclaw fifth year who was sat beside Ginny.

"Of course I do," said Hermione, "but more than that I want to be properly trained in defence because... because..." she took a deep breath, "because Voldemort is back."

There was a collective shiver through the room. The colour drained from many people's faces. Fred, Calliope and Harry were the only ones who seemed unaffected by this statement, perhaps this was because they had seen it first hand.

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said a shrewd Hufflepuff boy who Calliope knew as Zacharias Smith. He was on the Hufflepuff quidditch team and spent his evenings annoying the occupants of the Hufflepuff common room with his loud voice an obnoxious personality.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it-" Hermione began.

"Dumbledore believes him," Zacharias responded, pointing at Harry.

"Dumbledore believes us actually," Fred glared at the boy, "Callie and I were there too, we saw Voldemort come back!"

"Who are you?" Ron asked the boy, rather rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," Smith replied, "and I think we have the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who is back."

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" Harry repeated, looking Zacharias straight in the eye, "I saw him, so did Fred and Calliope. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, if you don't believe him you won't believe us, I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

"All Dumbledore told us," continued Smith, "was that Calliope Doge and Fred Weasley were held captive, that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you bought his body back. He didn't give us any details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got killed, or why You-Know-Who took Doge and Weasley, I think we'd all like to know-"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it's like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Harry's temper visibly rose, "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's why you're here, you might as well clear out."

Not a single person moved.

"What has happened isn't important," Calliope said, "the only thing that matters is that Voldemort is back, we need to know how to take care of ourselves in the wider world and the ministry isn't letting us learn to defend ourselves. OWLs and NEWTs won't mean anything if we're all dead."

There was a stunned silence at Calliope's statement, and she found herself uncomfortable with all of the eyes of the students on her. She was relieved when Hermione spoke, drawing attention away from her.

"So... like I was saying... if you want to learn some defence, 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 corporeal Patronus?" A girl with a long plait down her back interrupted.

"Yeah," Harry replied, in a slightly defensive way.

"Blimey Harry!" said Lee, "I didn't know that you could do that!"

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," George grinned at Harry as he spoke, "she said that you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong," mumbled Harry, making a few people laugh.

"And did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" another boy asked.

"Er- yeah I did," Harry was looking more awkward by the second at all of the people marvelling over the things that he had achieved.

"And in our first year," Neville interjected excitedly, "he saved that Philological stone-"

"Philosopher's," hissed Hermione.

"Yes, that- from You-Know-Who," finished Neville.

"And that's not to mention," said a smiling Cho Chang, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year- getting past dragons and merpeople and Acromantula and all sorts!"

People began to mutter to their friends in an impressed manner. Most people knew all of the things that Harry had done during his time at Hogwarts, but when they listed it all in this way somehow it seemed even more impressive.

"Look," Harry spoke up, "I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but I had a lot of help with all that stuff..."

"Not with the dragon you didn't," said Michael Corner, "that was a seriously cool bit of flying."

"Yeah, well..."

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer," the girl who had asked about Harry's Patronus earlier said.

"But..."

"You duelled Voldemort by yourself in that graveyard," said Fred.

"No, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is-"

"You're trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith.

"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, "why don't you shut your mouth?"

Calliope could've laughed as Ron glared at Smith with an expression that displayed that he would like to punch the Hufflepuff and Smith's face flushed.

"The point is, are we all agreed that we want to take lessons from Harry?" said Hermione. There was a murmur of general agreement as people nodded their heads, "right, well then, the next question is how often do we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting any less than once a week-"

"Hang on," said Angelina Johnson, "we need to make sure that this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice."

"Or ours!" said Cho Chang.

"And ours!" said Smith.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," Hermione sounded impatient, "but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves from V-Voldemort's Death Eaters."

"Once a week sounds good," said Ginny, "but where would we meet?"

This was a more difficult question, and the group fell silent as they tried to think of a location that would fit their needs.

"The Libary?" suggested Katie Bell.

"I can't see Madam Pince being too chuffed about us doing jinxes in the library," frowned Harry.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" said Dean Thomas

"We'll try to find somewhere," said Hermione, lost in thought, "we'll get a message round to everyone once we've got a time and a place for the first meeting." Hermione rummaged in her bag, pulling out a quill and parchment, "I think everyone should write their names down, just so we know who was here. By signing you're agreeing not to shout about what we're doing, don't tell Umbridge or anyone else what we're up to."

Fred grabbed the parchment from Hermione and cheerfully signed his name, he passed it along to Calliope, who signed her name right under Fred's.