Future Nostalgia / Harry Potter Fanfic

The First Meeting of Dumbledore's Army

After a shower, Estella found herself, Harry, Ron, and Hermione alone in the common room, awaiting Sirius's appearance in the fireplace. Harry couldn't stop finding some way to touch Estella, which wasn't going unnoticed by Hermione, who kept smiling, and Ron, who looked at them with confusion. As Estella finished her last Arithmancy homework question, Ron, who was dozing lightly in the armchair, gave a muffled grunt, awoke, looked blankly into the fire, and said, "Sirius!"

The group whipped around; Sirius's untidy dark head was sitting in the fire again.

"Hi," he said, grinning.

"Hi," chorused Harry, Ron, Estella, and Hermione, all kneeling down upon the hearthrug. Crookshanks purred loudly and approached the fire, trying, despite the heat, to put his face close to Sirius's.

"How're things?" said Sirius.

"Not that good," said Harry, as Hermione pulled Crookshanks back to stop him singeing his whiskers. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams-"

"-or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius.

There was a short pause.

"How'd you know about that?" Harry demanded.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," said Sirius, grinning still more broadly. "The Hog's Head, I ask you..."

"Well, it was better than the Three broomsticks!" said Hermione defensively. "That's always packed with people-"

"-which means you'd have been harder to overhear," said Sirius. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"Who overheard us?" asked Estella.

"Mundungus, of course," said Sirius, and when they all looked puzzled, he laughed. "He was the witch under the veil."

"That was Mundungus?" Harry said, stunned. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"What do you think he was doing?" said Sirus impatiently. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."

"I'm still being followed?" asked Harry angrily.

"Yeah, you are," said Sirius, "and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organizing an illegal defensive group."

But he looked neither angry nor worried; on the contrary, he was looking at Harry with distinct pride.

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron, sounding disappointed. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago," said Sirius, "and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately...Anyway...First of all, Ron-I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" said Ron, sounding apprehensive.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also-" Sirius's eye turned to the other two - "advises Harry, Estella, and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over any of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interest at heart. On the other hand, Aspen fully supports your actions but advises you to proceed with caution. Molly would have written all this to you, but if that owl had been intercepted, you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."