❛ chapter ten ⎜ Hogsmead ❜

 "It's cold!" Sylvia complained as we trudged through the windy lanes. Despite the mostly clear sky, it felt like the world was trying to turn us into ice cubes.

"It's not that bad," Kiera argued.

"For those of us who aren't polar bears, it is!"

I couldn't help but snort. Recently it seemed as if they had started bickering just to bicker. Honestly, what was the point?

"We're going to be late," I said mostly to myself, watching as Sylvia's face started turning pink.

I got no answer. Not that I expected one.

We wandered up the winding path, the bright lights of the various Hogsmead shops shining in the greyish light.

"Elise," Kiera said, storming up to me, "tell Sylvia that she's wrong."

"Elise," Sylvia said, popping up on my other side, "tell Kiera that she's wrong."

"What's either of you wrong about?" I asked, glimpsing the Hogs Head up ahead.

"Whether I'm good at Quidditch," Sylvia fumed. She shot Kiera a glare, her dark eyes reflecting the grey clouds. "I say I am."

"And I say she isn't as good as she thinks," Kiera jumped in, "otherwise she'd be on the team."

I laughed. "You two and your arguments."

"But who's right?" Sylvia asked.

To be honest, Sylvia was good at Quidditch. Very good in fact. But Kiera also had a point. If she really was as good as she thought she was (and she thought she was quite a bit better than she actually was) then we wouldn't be having this discussion.

"You're an amazing Quidditch player," I told Sylvia, who turned to Kiera with a huge, gloating smile on her face, "but you can always improve."

Kiera made a face back.

Thankfully their fight was cut short as we entered the Hog's Head. I'd never been to this bar before. Now I could see why it had such a bad reputation. The floor was covered in grime, the windows cloudy. It was a single stuffy room that smelled like goat fur and ale. Candle stubs burned low in their holders, giving off a faint light that only illuminated the shadows and dirt of the room.

"There's your boyfriend," Sylvia whispered, nudging me as we spotted Harry. I gave her my best I-hate-you glare, which, thanks to Monica and Charlie, I had plenty of practice with.

The bar was fairly full, mostly with Hogwarts students. Only a few shadowy figures sat around the room, encased in their own gloom. Everyone else was gathered around the bar, laughing and talking in groups.

"There's a lot of people," Kiera whispered to me as we joined the group. I nodded.

As far as I could see, there were quite a few. Dean and Neville were talking together, although they turned to us as we joined.

"No Seamus," Sylvia whispered, running a hand through her hair to smooth it down.

I shrugged. "You're the one with all the gossip. You know what's been going on with them."

"Yeah, I know." She shot a glance at the crowd, her eyes darting back and forth as if she was searching for someone.

Padma and Parvarti Patil were here, along with Lavender. Luna Lovegood was standing next to a very uncomfortable looking Terry Boot, her mouth moving very quickly. Ginny, Fred and George, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, two young, slightly dazed looking boys with mousy brown hair, Ernie Macmillian, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Zacharias Smith, Lee Jordan, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Riley Watson, Susan Bones, Katherine-Marie Brown, Samantha Murphy and Ashley Williams.

"Oh hide me," I hissed at Kiera, ducked behind her as I spotted a familiar head of orange curls surrounded by a familiar pod of boys.

"What's going on?" she asked, twisting her head to look at me.

"I'll tell you later," I mumbled, brushing her dark hair out of my face. Yup, I'm definitely going to tell you that I saw my ex writing a love note to one of my best friends - especially because you'll be so understanding about it. Kiera had many strengths, but compassion and love advice weren't some of them.

"Harry looks quite nervous," Sylvia remarked happily. "Either of you want a butterbeer?"

"Sure," I mumbled, looking back in forth in an attempt to find him. It only took a minute. "I'll be right back."

What are you doing? I scolded myself as I neared him. Why the hell do you want to talk to him? Just go back to Kiera and Sylvia. But it was too late. He had spotted me.

"Hi Elise," he said, twisting his hands back and forth. He looked slightly surprised. "I didn't know you were coming."

I let out a small chuckle. "Of course I came. We need to actually learn some Defense Against the Dark Arts."

He let out a sigh. "Do you really think I can teach all of them?" He pointed at the crowd halfheartedly.

No, I thought immediately. I think you're going to mess it all up like you always do. "No," I whispered. He looked. "I know you're going to try your best. Whether you actually succeed is up to you, but I know you'll do a much better job than Professor Umbridge. It's not like there's a very high bar to pass."

He laughed, an actual smile lighting up his face. I gave him a small smile. A real smile, I realized with a jolt. Not one of my fake smiles. My face quickly fell. Why did some random boy make me smile when my own family couldn't? What was wrong with me?

I shot a glance at Harry. His eyes were settled on someone in the crowd. "What do you know about Cho?" he asked abruptly.

My eyebrows raised. "Cho Chang?"

"Yeah."

"She's a Ravenclaw. She went out with Cedric Diggory before... well, you know. She's very smart, and she loves the Tornadoes. If you want to know more, you should ask Sylvia. She knows everything about everyone."

"Thanks," he said quietly. His green eyes flickered to mine. "For everything."

I gave him a smile. A fake one this time. The feeling of happiness that had filled me had deflated.

His face twisted, his eyebrows creasing. But before he could say anything else, I walked by to where Sylvia and Kiera were sitting with their butterbeers.

I nodded to Lilliana, who had joined us.

Sylvia elbowed me as I sat down. I glared at her.

"Well, er, hi," said Hermione as I took a sip of my butterbeer.

Harry's eyes found mine and I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. It probably looked more pained than hopeful.

"Well, erm, well you know why you're here. Er... well, Harry her had the idea - I mean I had the idea - that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts - and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts." Her voice, which had been high with nerves, grew stronger.

"Hear, Hear," Anthony Goldstien and Kiera said at the same time. They glanced at each other, and then quickly looked away.

"Well I thought it could be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but the real spells - "

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark O.W.L. too though, I bet?" said Michael Corner, from, ironically, the corner.

"Of course I do," Hermione said quickly.

"I'm sure anyone in their right mind wants to," Kiera added. A few people shifted in their seats.

Hermione shot Kiera an appreciative look. "Yes. But, I also want, more than that, in fact, to be properly trained in Defense because.... because..." she seemed to be trailing off. My eyes flickered to Harry, who was watching her intently. "B-because Lord Voldemort's back."

I jumped, nearly sloshing butterbeer all over myself. Kiera's jumping arm didn't help matters. Sylvia just shuddered, her round face squeezing into a frown. The pub was so quiet I could hear Lilliana's rapid breathing behind me.

"Well that's the anyway," Hermione continued, a bit nervously once again."If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to - "

"What's the proof You-Know-Who is back?" asked Zacharias Smith. Sylvia nodded. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. After a few months of this already, I was getting very tired of this story being doubted. No doubt Harry was too. I never thought I'd bond with the Boy Who Lived over losing someone, I thought with a twisted grimace.

"Dumbledore believes it - " Hermione started.

Zacharias scoffed, pointing to Harry. "You mean Dumbledore believes him."

"Who are you?" Ron asked, not very nicely.

I mouthed the words along with him. "Zacharias Smith." One of my least favorite people at Hogwarts. "And I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say that You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," Hermione said quickly, sighing, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about - "

"It's okay Hermione," Harry said quietly. Instantly, all eyes were on him. He shifted rather uncomfortably. But then his eyes turned to Zacharias Smith and he straightened up. "What makes me say You-Know-Who is back? I saw him." Go get him Harry, I thought, then immediately scolded myself. "But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince everyone."

"All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. 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 " - I jumped - " murders someone, I can't help you. I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out." He turned away, his face red.

No one moved.

"So," Hermione said, nervous once again. "So.... like I was saying ... if you want to learn some defense, 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 patronus?" interrupted Susan Bones.

Kiera's eyes widened and she sat up straighter.

"Yeah," Harry muttered, slightly angrily. Now my eyebrows went up. A patronus?

"A corporeal patronus?"

Harry looked at her, slightly confused. "Um, you don't know Madam Bones, do you?"

Susan smiled toothily. "She's my auntie. I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So - is it really true? You can make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes."

"Blimey Harry! I never knew that!" Lee Jordan exclaimed.

Fred grinned. "Mum told Ron not to spread it around. She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong," Harry mumbled. Sylvia let out a laugh, one her of strange, high-pitched giggles. I felt my lips twitch.

"And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" Terry Boot demanded. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year..."

"Yeah - yeah I did, um," Harry said, slightly awkwardly. There were noises of amazement. I looked at him again as if seeing him for the first time. I'd heard a bit about his adventures..... but a basilisk?

"And in our first year," said Neville to the group at large, "he saved that Sorcerous Stone - "

"Sorcerer's," Hermione corrected.

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

"And that's not to mention, " said Cho Chang, batting her eyes at Harry, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year – getting past dragons and more people and acromantulas and things... " More noises in amazement. My stomach seemed to turn as I looked at her, although it could have been the butterbeer, because all of a sudden I was so, so nervous.

"Look," Harry said and all of the sudden the noise stopped, "I... 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 at once. "That was a seriously cool bit of flying..."

"Yeah, well – " started Harry

"And nobody helps you get rid of those Dementors this summer," said Susan Bones, her eyes wide. I nodded along.

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

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of the stuff?" sneered Zacharias Smith.

"He's not," I said loudly, clamping my mouth shut as soon as I had. Kiera gave me a strange look. I avoided looking at Harry, but I could feel his eyes on me.

Thankfully someone else was already talking. "Here's an idea, why don't you shut your mouth?" said Ron loudly, looking quite furious. Zacharias's face turned just as red.

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it!"

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred Weasley.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" George added.

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred, looking as if there's nothing more he wanted to do and that.

"Yes, well," said Hermione very quickly, "moving on... The point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a general murmur of agreement. Well, from everyone but Zacharias, although he didn't say anything, keeping his eyes on whatever George had in his hand that he and Fred had threatened him with. I held back a chuckle. If only they knew exactly how annoying he was...

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved. "Well, then the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week –"

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

There were murmurs of agreement from Zacharias, Cho, the Weasleys, and quite a few others.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione, little bit impatiently, "but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort's " - I winced - "Death Eater's–"

"Well said!" barked Ernie McMillian. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else will do this year even with our O.W.L's coming up!" He looked around for a second, as if he was expecting someone to argue. I shook my head. Ernie and his obsession with O.W.L.'s. He and Hermione would get along great. "I, personally, I'm at a loss to see why the ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon us at this critical period. Obviously they're in denial about the return of You-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who's trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells -"

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts is that she's got some... some mad idea that Dumbledore would use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the ministry." Hermione shook her head incredulously.

"Is that true?" Sylvia whispered to me. "Is that why the Ministry is being so bloody stupid?"

I gave a quick nod of agreement. "Yeah. Dad says that he's having a hard time keeping his cool at the office. The types of things they say... you wouldn't want to hear them."

Sylvia gave me a troubled look, returning her attention to Harry and Hermione. But I didn't. I sat there quietly, thinking about exactly what I was doing here.

All of the fire that had filled me before was gone, leaving me with doubt and worry. What if we get caught? What would happen to us if Umbridge found out. As my gaze drifted to Harry, something else bubbled up. Can he actually teach us enough to defend ourselves against the Death Eaters? Because of all the things I was afraid of, facing one of them, unarmed or unable to fight, was one of the worst.

When I fazed back in, Hermione was pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill.

"What's going on?" I muttered to Kiera.

She sighed. "Zoning out again?"

I scowled. "What did I miss?"

"We're meeting once a week as long as it doesn't conflict with Quidditch, we don't know where we're going to meet, or when, but a message will be passed along."

I nodded, standing up to join the line of people, barely listening to anything that was being said. My questions filled my ears like the pounding of a waterfall.

When I got to the front of the line, my eyes caught Harry's. He gave me a small smile. I gave him a fake one in return. Then I grabbed the quill and, with a deep breath, signed my name.

Elise Devereaux

It looked so small next to the huge list of others. But it was on there.

I waited by the entrance for Kiera and Sylvia, who soon came bounding up.

"That was informative," Kiera said after a minute of silence as we strolled through Hogsmead.

Sylvia snorted. "'Informative'? Seriously?"

"I can't believe we're doing this," I mumbled under my breath.

Kiera straightened up. "We have to. It's about time we took our education into our own hands. I'm glad Harry's doing this."

"Speaking of Harry," Sylvia said, dragging the words out with a mischievous grin, "did you see how Cho Chang waited to talk to him at the end? I think someone has a crush."

"He asked about her," I said quietly, surprised that I didn't feel a thing when Sylvia mentioned him. After all, almost all my strange mood swings had been with him or with a mention of him.

Sylvia's dark eyes twinkled. "They'd be so cute together!"

"They would," Kiera agreed half-heartedly.

"You should get to know Harry, Elise," Sylvia continued. I almost tripped over myself, pulling to a screeching halt.

"What?" I demanded, drawing a few stares.

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "You two would get along great!"

"He's a boy!"

"I'm not asking you to bloody marry him," Sylvia snorted. "But I think you two would get along."

"I agree," Kiera said. I gaped at her.

"You two are agreeing on something?"

Kiera rolled her eyes. "I'm serious Elise." Her voice grew quieter. "You two would help each other. You both know what it's like to lose."

That pulled the tangle of fake and real emotion off my face really quick. I looked at the ground, kicking at the dirt.

Maybe, I thought grimly, but I don't think I'm quite ready to think about it.

So we walked through Hogsmead, Kiera and Sylvia bickering as usual. And me trying to push swirls of red, green, brown, and silver out of my head.