THE BUILDING smelled awful, Jade had to admit. However, there was a significant amount of people from Hogwarts there, including Michael, Terry, Anthony, and Mandy. The man running the bar seemed upset at the amount of teenagers taking over his bar, turning his disgruntled face away and focusing on a mysterious witch sitting at the bar. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley sat at the head of the group, watching the crowd anxiously. Hermione glanced over at Luna and Jade, nodding in the direction of the group, indicating that they should sit.

Jade pulled over two chairs, setting them in front of Mandy and Anthony. Luna sat in the one closest to a ginger Gryffindor named Ginny Weasley, who Jade had seen her hanging around with at times. She knew Michael was interested in her, they could be dating for all she knew, and he made that very evident by wrapping his arm tightly around her. Michael was never one to be lovesick, unlike Anthony, but he had clearly wanted to prove a point here.

A couple people coughed and, after a few minutes of silence, when it was clear no one else was coming, Hermione spoke.

"Er," she spoke in a higher voice, which Jade assumed was due to her nerves. "Well- er- hi."

Slowly, every eye and head looked towards Hermione rather than Harry, and Jade could see her face grow a bit red. She was definitely a bit anxious to be discussing this with her fellow students.

Hermione stumbled over her words, trying to get to the point, but failing. Luna had snapped out of a dreamy gaze and had her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Neither of them had ever seen her this nervous before, she was Hermione, she was confident and brilliant.

Suddenly, Hermione began to grow more confident.

"-and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us."

"Hear, hear." Anthony said, shaking his head.

"Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

Jade took in a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. She believed Harry, all of her friends did, but she didn't expect this to be what the meeting was about. She thought maybe it was going to be pranking Umbridge, or trying to get her removed from High Inquisitor, not a meeting to learn how to defend herself, since Voldemort had returned.

"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. too though, I bet?" Michael interrupted, removing his arm from around Ginny's waist and shrugging.

"Of course I do," Hermione replied instantly, her voice growing even more confident. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because..." As if Luna knew what was coming, she instinctively reached over and grabbed Jade's hand, gripping it tightly. She looked down, as it felt like her hand was breaking, and saw that Luna's pale skin was somehow even paler and whiter around the knuckles. "Because Lord Voldemort's back."

Chaos erupted, with Marietta Edgecombe shrieking and spilling butterbeer down her front. Terry pulled out his wand and walked over to her, trying to use a spell to get the drink off her light blue sweater. Padma and Neville shuddered, with Neville letting out an odd yelp to go with it. Jade did nothing, just sat and took another deep breath. Luna's grip had lessened, but she still held on tightly, as if Jade would disappear if she let go.

Jade rubbed her thumb across Luna's hand, trying to comfort her and keep her from breaking both of their hands. She began to relax a bit more, until a blond boy from Hufflepuff began to argue with Hermione. Jade glanced over at Terry, whose eyes stared over at him, with no joyful twinkle, no happiness, he was fixated on the boy.

The boy, Zacharias, as he so politely introduced himself, was interrupted by Harry, who began to rant at him.

"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who," Jade saw Terry tense up, his wand moving away from Marietta towards Zacharias. Anthony began to reach out to him, trying to pull him back in his seat. "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."

If steam could come out of someone's ears, it would be flying out of Harry's at that point. Luna resumed her death grip, and Jade could barely feel her hand. On one side, she was excited to be holding hands with the girl she had been following for months, but on the other side, she really did not want a trip to the Hospital Wing. However, she kept holding on.

Anthony had managed to get Terry back in his seat, and Zacharias looked over his shoulder at them. He rolled his brown eyes, huffing snobbishly, and Terry almost flew out of his seat. His ears and face were a bright red, and almost everyone had seemed to notice. However, Susan Bones directed the attention back to Harry by asking about his corporeal Patronus.

Suddenly, there was praise from every corner of the room, talking about Harry killing Basilisks and fleeing from Dementors, and Luna smiled.

"He really is a great person." She whispered to no one in particular.

"He really is." Jade agreed, nodding.

More chatter broke out, until Hermione drew everyone back in.

"She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."

Jade felt her eyes grow wide, but Luna seemed rather calm about the situation.

"Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army."

Jade whipped her head around, staring at Luna was shocked, wide eyes. She shrugged, her gray eyes alight and pulled her lips into a firm line.

"What?" Harry sounded confused.

"Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths."

Jade had heard about these creatures before, they were large spirits of fire, Luna had shown her the many articles her father had written about them and the many pictures they had taken of them.

Soon enough, however, a small argument had broken out.

Luna had explained the creatures to Neville, who was confused about the existence of them, and Hermione had snapped at her.

"They don't exist, Neville."

"Oh yes they do!" Luna's eyes had lit up like a fire, and Jade could hear the anger in her voice. Though she was small, and not even the slightest bit intimidating, her voice grew a bit higher and squeakier as she argued.

"I'm sorry, but where's the proof of that?"

"There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, Jade here has seen plenty of photos, just because you're so narrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nose before you-"

Jade put her free hand out in front of Luna, trying to keep her from rising out of her seat and arguing with Hermione over the existence of heliopaths.

Eventually, Hermione began to close the meeting, leaving a piece of parchment for everyone to sign. Luna and Jade had signed gleefully, though Jade was still feeling a bit nervous. Terry and Michael had been a bit more reluctant, though Ginny finally convinced Michael to go through with it. Terry only signed when Anthony and Mandy did, finally deciding that he should accompany his friends with their decisions.

Luna and Jade led the group outside, walking back up towards the castle. Michael seemed thoroughly unconvinced about the group, but Ginny was still determined to convince him to do it. Jade knew it was because he was scared, not of Voldemort or getting in trouble, necessarily, but that he was scared of the future. It had become even more apparent to the group that Voldemort was back, and the thought hung over their heads like an ominous cloud as they walked to Hogwarts.

No one spoke, but Luna had grabbed Jade's hand again, this time holding it a bit looser, not with the death grip she had at first. Mandy glanced over and smiled, nudging Anthony to look.

"Hey," Jade said, shaking her head. "don't make fun of me."

"Oh, we're not, you're just in love." Mandy drew out the last word, much like Jade had when she teased her over her crush on Anthony.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jade swore Luna had turned a bit more red, and it went well with her bright orange and yellow outfit. Then again, everything went well with Luna.