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Chapter Four: Joining an Army

I slammed the book down on the library table which gained me a few looks from surrounding students. Alright, so I was rather paranoid about my O.W.L.s next year. I know most students in my year weren't even thinking about them yet, but I sure was. Hermione was taking them this year and she promised to give me tips, but I was a perfectionist. I wanted it all to go perfectly and I wanted to be well prepared. But thanks to damn Umbridge, I did not feel that way. I could only imagine how Hermione is feeling about her exam. Today was one of the days Hermione asked me to study with her, she looked up at me at the sound of the slam. "Sorry," I said, hoping I didn't distract her. "It's just...how are we going to perform these spells? If it's our first time doing them in front of the examiner then it's going to be a weak attempt."

"I know," Hermione agreed annoyed. She was shaking her head. At least I had next year, and hopefully a new professor if the trend continued.

"I just wish there was somewhere we could practice them without Umbridge finding out," I muttered while looking back down in my book. I considered practicing them in my secret spot, but I didn't want to risk anyone discovering it, especially Umbridge.

"Caoimhe, that's brilliant!" she whispered. I looked up and could tell she was forming an idea. I don't remember suggesting anything, and besides there was no where in the castle we could practice in without the risk of a teacher finding us. "I'm going to go talk to Harry!" she said while getting her books together and taking off.

"Am I missing something?" I said to myself rather confused as she rushed off.

I managed to last another week of potions with Draco. Finally there was snow on the ground, which meant Christmas break was nearing and Draco would no longer be my partner. All he wanted to do was argue with me. It was beyond annoying, we fought over instructions and ingredients. It began getting so bad that he was bringing it outside the classroom. Honestly, I was getting more attention this year than I did in my first...but not in the good way.

As I was walking back from Divinations, I had to pass by the Great Hall in order to get to my next class. Unfortunately I spotted Draco and his friends all gathered around sitting on the stairs being their usual immature selves. Of course Maeve was seated near them. It was no secret she followed the older boys around. When she spotted me she glared but didn't say anything. Draco though, just had to say something of course. "Look who it is," he said standing up and walking closer to me. "Hogwart's own nerd, Riley." I rolled my eyes and kept walking.

If I ignored him, maybe he would stop? Sadly no, that was not how Draco worked. "Where are you rushing off to? Afternoon date with Potter?" he added. Everyone behind him snickered. Harry and I of course were definitely not dating, but it wasn't like he was a bad person. So why did Draco think that would bother me?

"Why, would you like to join us?" I replied smartly. Draco gave me that annoyed look. He hated when I went with his jokes, it was like he wanted to see me freak out at him or something. I learned to go with it because in the end it was he who got annoyed. 

"So you admit you're dating Potter, I knew it!" he replied smartly with a smirk.

"No but if you really want us to be dating, I can go ask him?" I replied with a proud smirk. His face fell into annoyance and he turned around. I laughed to myself as I walked away. It was really funny messing with Draco Malfoy.

I was sitting in the Great Hall for dinner across from Luna. My plate was nearly cleared. As dinner was ending I noticed Hermione was approaching our table. "Are you two going to Hogsmeade this weekend?" she asked in a quiet tone.

"Yes I was planning on it," I said and Luna looked up at her with a nod.

"Perfect," she said and then really lowered her tone. "Meet at the Hogs Head around noon." Luna and I shared a look with each other as Hermione walked away. I wondered what was up. That wasn't a typical hangout for Hogwart's students. 

When the weekend rolled around, Luna and I were sitting in the Hogs Head wondering what was going on. We made sure to get there a little early to make sure we weren't missing anything. It was a strange gathering of people. But why was everyone here? Usually the Three Broomstick's was the place that was crowded. I completely forgot this place even existed. I recognized Neville Longbottom and a few other Gryffindors. Cho Chang was surprisingly here with one of her friends. There were a few older Hufflepuffs I didn't recognize. Ginny was stepping into the pub. "Ginny, what is going on?" I asked her as she came over.

"I'm honestly not sure myself," Ginny said. "Hermione is going to explain apparently." She took a seat next to me. The last three people to arrive were Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry looked just as confused as the rest of us when he walked in and saw the amount of students in the room. Hermione didn't seemed surprised, she actually seemed pleased as she walked to the front of the room.

"Why did you ask us all to meet here?" someone asked. So we were all asked to meet here by Hermione? The room became silent.

"I know you're probably all wondering why you're here," she said and almost everyone nodded at once. "We've all been frustrated with Umbridge's teaching." There was mutter of agreement through out the small crowd, and I heard some very choice words about her. "We need a teacher, someone who knows how to deal with the Dark Arts straight on." She turned to face Harry.

"W-what?" Harry said caught off guard. "Are you saying you want me to run a, a class?" 

"No one here knows it better than you Harry," Hermione said. "If we found a spot where we could meet and train a few times a week, this could really work." Harry shook his head, not really liking the idea. It was a nice idea, but how would we manage to pull it off with all these people? One boy from Hufflepuff didn't think it was a nice idea, he almost left until Hermione said, "Harry can produce a patronus charm. I've seen it." Really, He could do that? It was very advanced for our age...something I really wanted to learn.

"Well, I suppose but," Harry said and Hermione cut him off.

"You'd be excellent Harry," she said. "I know you would." Harry tried to pass it all off as luck, but we all knew you couldn't produce a patronus with luck. Harry was very skilled with defensive spells. I wouldn't be against having him as a teacher. Finally, he seemed somewhat convinced and agreed to help us. "Perfect!" Hermione said smiling and looking around the room. "We will have to meet in secret though, so I have made a few coins. Keep them on you at all times, when they heat up it means we're having a meeting."

"Where will these meetings be held?" Cho Chang asked confused.

"That part we haven't figured out just yet, but once we find a place large enough we will let you all know," Hermione answered. "But first, you all need to sign this piece of parchment. Once you sign, you are bound to secrecy. If you tell anyone outside the list...well there will be consequences." Who would purposely tell someone and get all of these people in trouble? I wasn't worried about it, of course I would sign. 

Ginny thought we needed a name for ourselves and she came up with Dumbledore's Army in spite of the Ministry. It was actually very clever and the perfect name for us all. Everyone in the room signed it and walked out of there with a coin in their pocket. Once we left the Hogs Head, we had to split up to make it less obvious that we just had a meeting. I was supposed to go with Luna but she went chasing after some 'Spricket' foot prints she happened to spot. I was left alone, but I noticed Harry was trailing behind so I decided to walk with him. "That was interesting," I said while walking up next to him. He turned and smiled.

"Yeah it was," Harry said. "I wasn't really expecting that, but hopefully it will all go well."

"I'm sure you'll be a great teacher," I added with a laugh. "I can't believe you can produce a patronus. I've always wanted to learn how to do that."

"You just to need to really focus on the happiest memory you have, or perhaps the strongest memory you have." Well that was going to be hard, considering I don't have too many 'strong happy' memories. That was going to take a lot of work. 

"Potter and Riley," came a cold, unfortunately familiar, voice. Harry and I turned around to see Draco standing there with his crowd. "What did I say?" he said turning around to all of his friends with a proud smirk. Harry looked utterly confused. Draco was about to add another comment but I quickly cut him off.

"All thanks to you Malfoy," I replied with a smile. "I ended up taking your advice after all, so thank you." Draco's mouth fell as if he looked at me. He was actually believing my lie. I would consider this one of my proudest moments. "Well come on Harry, we don't want to be late." I said putting my hand on Harry's shoulder and turning around.

Quickly Harry and I walked off, leaving Draco standing there speechless. Again Harry was looking very confused. "Sorry," I whispered with a small laugh. "Draco's been making annoying comments about us hanging out together in class," I whispered. "So I just had to piss him off." Harry's face actually brightened with a laugh.

"Well whatever pisses Malfoy off, count me in," Harry replied with a laugh and shrug. 

A week passed and we still weren't able to locate a spot. Umbridge seemed to have the whole castle under her security at this point. We couldn't take any risks by practicing somewhere she could possibly find us. As I was walking out of the Great Hall I spotted Ron coming my way. "Caoimhe," he said brightly. "We have a spot to practice in," he said lowering his voice. "The seventh floor, left corridor of the castle." 

"What's there?" I asked him confused. I had been to the seventh floor many times, but couldn't think of any safe location there for us to practice.

"You'll see," Ron said with a wide smile. "I'll see you later though!" Ron said taking off again. All I knew was that I couldn't wait to feel the heat of the coin and start our first lesson.