Harry and Ron peered over the shoulders of some anxious second years to read yet another 'Educational Decree' that had been pinned up, number twenty-four to be exact:

It was some nonsense about all clubs, groups and meetings having to ask permission to reform, and until they got Umbridge's approval wouldn't be allowed to meet. It was a huge red flag that Umbridge suspected, or even knew, about the DA.

"Do you think she knows?" Ron whispered.

"She must have an idea that's something's going on," Harry murmured, shaking his head as he tried to think who could have told her.

"There were people listening in that pub. And let's face it, we don't know how many of the people who turned up we can trust... Any of them could have run off and told Umbridge..." He said angrily.

"Do you think Hermione and Phoebe have seen it?" Ron asked.

"Let's go and tell her," Ron said, running towards towards the spiral staircase leading up to the girl's dormitory. He reached the sixth step then came tumbling back down with a loud crash. The stairs had turned into a slide.

Two forth year girls came whizzing down the stairs, giggling as they landed in a pile at the bottom, "Who tried to come up?" One of them laughed.

"Me," a rather dishevelled looking Ron said, "I didn't realise that would happen! That's not fair, the girl's are allowed in our room!" He exclaimed to Harry.

"This is so cool!" A familiar voice shouted, and then Phoebe had landed ungracefully at the boy's feet, a huge grin on her face. They helped her up and then Hermione landed neatly beside them.

She stood up and dusted herself off, then said, "It's an old-fashioned rule, apparently the founders thought that girls are more trustworthy than boys."

"Why were you trying to get up, anyway?" Phoebe asked.

"To see you - look at this!" Ron grabbed one of their arms each and dragged them to the notice board

"Did someone snitch on us?" Phoebe hissed.

"If they did tell Umbridge, we'll know." Hermione said, sounding slightly sinister.

"How the bloody hell we would we know, Hermione?" Asked Ron incredulously, "They're not likely to confess."

"No, we'd know, because I put a jinx on that piece of parchment we all signed." Hermione sighed.

Phoebe raised her eyebrows, looking appraisingly at Hermione.

"Believe me, if anyone's run off and told Umbridge, we'll know exactly who they are and they will really regret it," she finished.

"What'll happen to them?" Ron asked a little too eagerly.

"It's kind of worrying how excited you are by that, Ron," Phoebe said.

Ron shrugged it off and turned his full attention to Hermione

"Well, put it this way, it'll make Eloise Midgen's acne look like a couple of cute freckles. Come on let's go down to breakfast and see what the others think... I wonder whether this has been put up in all the houses?"

As soon as they entered the Great Hall, it was clear that Umbridge's notice had not only appeared in Gryffindor. Talk was louder than usual and people were scurrying up and down the tables discussing what they'd read.

They took a seat next to the twins, Ginny, Neville and Dean.

"Did you see it?"

"D'you reckon she knows?"

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to do it anyway of course," Harry replied, checking there were no teachers around.

"Knew you'd say that!" George grinned.

"The Prefects as well?" Fred asked teasingly at Ron and Hermione.

"Of course," said Hermione stiffly.

"Here comes Ernie and Hannah Abbott," pointed out Ron, "And those Ravenclaw blokes and Smith, and no one looks very spotty."

"Gods, does no one in this school know what being subtle is?" Phoebe asked quizzically.

"It's the beauty of Hogwarts, Miss America," Fred grinned, patting her on the back.

"Never mind spots, the idiots can't come over here now, it'll look really suspicious - sit down!" she mouthed frantically to Ernie and Hannah. "Later! We'll - talk - to - you - later!"

Phoebe chuckled, shaking her head, and spooning a mouthful of cornflakes into her mouth, "British cereal is so plain," she commented off-handedly.

The others glanced at her incredulously, "What?" She asked when she'd swallowed her mouthful.

No one answered her, instead Ginny got up and said, "I'll tell Michael, the fool honestly," she muttered hurrying over to the Ravenclaw table.

They were just about to leave the hall when Angelina's voice called them back, "Harry! Ron!"

Harry turned, she looked extremely harassed and kind of like she was going to burst into tears.

"It's okay," Harry started, "We're still going to-"

"You realise she's including quidditch in this?" Angelina cut him off. "We have to go and ask permission to re-form the Gryffindor team!"

Oh. That was bad, Harry had been so caught up in the Defence meetings he'd forgotten all about quidditch.

"What?"

"No way!" Ron exclaimed.

"You read the sign, it mentions teams too! So, listen... Harry I am saying this for the last time... Pease, please don't lose your temper with Umbridge again, or she might not let us play anymore!"

"Okay, okay. Don't worry, I'll behave myself," Harry said, and he genuinely meant it.

ϟ

"So where are we going again?" Phoebe asked for the third time since leaving the common room.

Harry sighed, fed up of explaining it to everyone.

"The room of requirement," he said shortly.

"And you're saying Dobby showed up in the middle of the night to tell you this?" Ron double checked.

"Well, not specifically to tell me this, but that was part of the conversation, yeah," said Harry.

"I've read about it in Hogwarts: a History," Hermione input, "It's also known as the Come and Go room, very few people have found it before," she rattled off the facts like they were engraved in her mind. They probably were with how much she read that book.

"I'm not sure what to expect, but Dobby said it would be ideal," Harry said, "It should be here," he said, gesturing to the empty wall.

"I hate to break it to you Harry, but that's a wall," Phoebe pointed out slowly.

"Maybe it's like Platform 9¾," Ron suggested.

"No," Harry shook his head, "Watch." He paced quickly three times in front of the wall, thinking about what it was he needed.

A door appeared as he pivoted on his heel at the end of the third pace, and he heard gasps behind him, he felt a bit like gasping as well - he hadn't really expected it to work.

"Well, lets go in then," Ron said impatiently, moving towards the grand door.

The four of them entered cautiously. Harry was shocked by the inside of the room - it couldn't have been more perfect. It was huge, most of the room was empty, so they had room to duel and practice spells, but the edges of the room were lined with books and things like Sneakoscopes.

"I don't know what any of that stuff is, but it looks cool," Phoebe said, she was staring at the shelves of Sneakoscopes and Foe Glasses.

"They're dark detectors," Harry explained.

He thought Phoebe muttered something under her breath then, but whatever she said was much too quiet for anyone other than herself to hear.

Harry shrugged it off, turning his attention back to the amazing room.

"This is brilliant!" Hermione exclaimed, rushing to pick up one of the books.

"We just need to find a way to get everyone here," Harry thought out loud.

"And how are we going to tell everyone when meetings are? We can't just go up to each individual member every time there's a meeting, Umbridge would definitely notice something's up," Phoebe pointed out.

"I have an idea for that," Hermione said, looking up from her book to talk to them.

"Sounds like this could actually work," Phoebe said in a tone of surprise.

"Did you ever doubt it?" Hermione asked.

"Well, yeah, it sounds kind of far fetched, but you pulled it off."

Harry didn't know if he should be offended so he ignored it.

"Lets get the word out," he said.

ϟ

"Hey guys," Phoebe said as she walked up to the twins and their friends.

"Hey!" George exclaimed, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

"It's our favourite American!" Fred joined, resting an arm on her head.

She shook them both off, scrunching up her nose in distaste.

"I'm the only American you've ever met," she pointed out.

"That makes you exotic, love," Fred stated.

Phoebe ignored the way her heart fluttered when he called her 'love'. It was just a natural thing, something to do with British accents she was sure.

She squinted her eyes at him, choosing not to waste words telling him not to call her that. She knew he wouldn't listen.

"Anyway, I came to tell you that we've found a place for the Defence meetings," she said in a hushed voice, the five students around her had to lean in to hear.

"Really? Where" Angelina whispered.

"The Room of Requirement, it's on the seventh floor opposite the portrait of dancing trolls or something," Phoebe explained.

"Oh, Barnabas the Barmy?" Katie Bell quietly exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's the one," Phoebe nodded.

She pulled back and the other's all did too, "Tell anyone you see, we need everyone from the meeting to know," she instructed, before turning around.

She immediately made eye contact with Draco from across the corridor, he was looking at her suspiciously, and when he saw that she had noticed him, he started walking towards her. She greeted him with a smile, which he returned with a frown.

"What are you doing?" He asked, looking down at her.

"Nothing," she smiled innocently.

He stared her down for a few more moments, while she looked for an escape, before he said, "Please don't get in trouble, Phoebes."

"I won't," she assured him, spotting Jake a few yards away.

"Becau-" she ran after Jake before Draco could finish his sentence.

"Phoebe!" She heard him yell.

"Sorry!" She called back, "I have to speak to Jake!"

The little boy turned at the sound of his name, grinning when he saw her barrelling towards him.

She halted next to him, swinging an arm over his shoulders and panting exaggeratedly, "That was tiring," she said dramatically, knowing her antics would make him laugh.

"Why are you running?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"I'm hiding from my friend, he's trying to get me to be responsible, can you imagine that?" Phoebe replied with a disgusted tone of voice.

"No," he giggled, shaking his blonde head, it had grown a lot since the start of the year and flopped in his eyes.

"So, you never finished telling me that story," Phoebe said, thinking back to when they'd last spoken, a few days before, "Where did you get to again?"

"Oh, yeah!" Jake exclaimed, his eyes lighting up, "I had just gotten to the bit where Daisy accidentally summoned a fish into the common room!"

"Tell me what happened next," Phoebe encouraged, guiding him through the hallway to the Great Hall.

"So, this great big pink fish flies through the window and hits Zacharius Smith-" Phoebe snorted "-on it's way, and then it flopped right in front of us on the table and we don't know what to do with it! It was GIANT!" Jake exclaimed, flinging his arms out to indicate the size. Phoebe grinned the whole time he spoke, his joy was infectious - she hoped he never changed.

word count: 1887

I'm so sorry, this took ages! I had a bout of writers block, but I think I'm over it now (touch wood)

If you could check out dumbIedores that would be great, it's a really cool account with all the Harry Potter stuff you could want!