CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY
[16]

song: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

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"Love, I'm home!" A voice called out to the house.

Lin recognized it immediately. "In the kitchen Fred!" she replied.

When he walked into the kitchen, rose petals were on the ground and his beautiful wife was smiling and holding a handmade cake with white buttercream and red frosting that spelt out 'Happy Birthday Fred!'

The light from the lit candles on the cake illuminated her face and her dark shiny hair. Her dark eyes that usually appeared black was lit by the candle and it looked a golden honey color. Fred thought- KNEW she was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes upon. He smiled at the thought.

"Oh love, you didn't have to do this..." Fred trails off while slowly walking to his wife. He blew out the candles and Lin set the cake on the kitchen counter.

He put one hand on her waist and one hand holding hers. She put a hand on his back and the other was already in his. They started to sway.

No music was needed. Just their love.

"What about the kids?" Fred asked his darling wife.

"I put them to bed. We have the whole night to ourselves." Lin replied. Fred winked at her suggestively. "Oh shut it." She put her head on his shoulder and they continued to sway.

The cake was long forgotten until the morning when their kids found it and ate it for breakfast.

"Get up you lazy arse!" George yelled into his twin's ear. Fred instantly got up.

"What was that for?" Fred rubbed his eyes. "I was having a very good dream!"

"Sure you were." George smiled at him. "'Lin! Oh Lin I love you so much!'" George mocked.

Fred didn't actually sleep-talk, but George just knew what he was dreaming about. It was fairly obvious Fred and Lin liked each other, except to them.

Fred threw a pillow at George and he dodged it. George just kept laughing at his twin.

"Oh shut it."

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Umbitch was reviewing all of the professors' methods and seeing if it was good enough for the ministry's eyes.

Professor Trelawney was in the courtyard with her suitcase, crying. Umbridge was firing her. McGonagall surprisingly comforted Trelawney.

Dumbledore entered with a replacement for her, a centaur named Firenze.

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"This is mad. Who'd wanna be taught by me?" Harry asks as the quartet is walking to the Hog's Head in Hogsmede. "I'm a nutter, remember?"

"Look on the bright side: you can't be any worse than old toad face." Ron tried to cheer Harry up.

"Thanks, Ron." Harry says sarcastically.

"I'm here for you, mate."

Harry sighed. "Who's supposed to be meeting us, then?"

"Just a couple of people." Hermione says.

"Lovely spot." He said sarcastically.

"Thought it would be safer off the beaten track." Lin explains.

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"Hi." Hermione awkwardly greets the gathering of students. It consisted of all our interhouse friends. None were from Slytherin though. "So you all know why we're here. We need a teacher."

"A proper teacher." Lin adds.

"One who's had experience defending themselves against the Dark Arts." Hermione further explains.

"Why?" sassed a boy named Zacharias Smith from Hufflepuff.

"Why? Because you-know-who is back you tosspot." Ron snarls at the boy. "I don't even know who the bloody hell you are."

"So he says." Smith argues back. "Where's the proof?"

"I'm not gonna talk about Cedric, so if that's why you're here, clear out now." Harry tells everyone.

"Then why are we even here?" Smith groans.

"You can get up and leave. No one is stopping you." Lin tells him in a monotone.

"But how do we even know Harry is a skilled teacher?" a person from the gathering asks.

Hermione tries to think of an answer.

"Is it true you can produce a patronus charm?" Luna asks Harry dreamily. Lin silently thanks Luna for saving the day.

"Yes." Lin replied. "I've seen it."

"So have I." Hermione agrees. There were murmurs of impress and whispers of doubt were gone.

"And he fought off a basilisk with a sword in his second year." Ginny adds.

"Along with about three thousand dementors in his third year." Ron tells everyone.

"Last year he really did fight you-know-who in the flesh." Lin tells them.

"Look..." Harry finally speaks up. "This sounds great and all... but it was mostly just luck and I almost nearly had help."

"Then why are we even here?" Smith taunted Harry.

"Because actually being out there isn't like school, Smith." Harry told him calmly. "In school, if you make a mistake, you can just try again tomorrow. But out there... when you're a second away from being murdered... or watching a friend die right before your eyes..." Harry trails off.

"You don't know what that's like." He finishes.

"You're right Harry. We don't. That's why we need your help." Hermione told Harry.

"So he's really back?" Dennis Creevey squeaked out. Harry doesn't even bother to try and reply, he just nods.

"So... is everyone still interested in joining?" Hermione asks the room.

This time everyone nodded without hesitation except for the bastard Zacharias Smith.

"Good. First we need to come up with a name. Any ideas?" Hermione asked.

"Defense Against Umbitch?" Ron suggested, making every snigger. Hermione gave him a glare.

"What about Defense Association?" Cho suggests. "DA for short—"

"DA is good. But I think it should stand for Dumbledore's Army." Ginny interrupts. "Because that's the ministry's worst fear, right?"

Lin smiles at her. "Yes. We should go with that." She pulls out a long piece of parchment.

"What's that for?" Ernie asked curiously. Lin exchanged a look with Hermione.

"We just thought it would be better for everyone to sign it." She wrote 'Dumbledore's Army' at the top of the sheet and then wrote her name. Then Lin passed it to Hermione, Ron and Harry.

Once they signed too, she set it in the middle of the table. Fred and George got up and walked over to sign it. Once they did, everyone else lined up.

After Fred finished signing, he gave her a small smile. Which she returned.

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Hermione and Lin started giving out coins to the DA members.

"You're giving out free money?!" Ron exclaimed.

"No Ronald. We are not." Lin told him.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said while holding one up. "On these fake coins, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting."

"The coins will grow hot when the date changes. Harry will be controlling the numerals from his coin." Lin explained further.

Everyone looked surprised and dumbfounded.

"You can do a Protean charm?" said Terry Boot suddenly.

"Well actually Lin did it." Hermione told him with a smile. Lin looked flustered at Hermione's praise.

"But that's N.E.W.T. level standard." Terry said weakly.

Lin shrugged as if it was nothing. "She's being modest." Hermione replied for her.

"How come you two aren't in Ravenclaw?" Cho asked them. "With brains like yours?"

Hermione and Lin exchanged a look. "Um.. I think we'd rather keep that to ourselves."

The gathered group looked rather disappointed.

The truth was, they chose to be in Gryffindor. The sorting hat was leaning to Hufflepuff for Hermione. And Lin was going to be in Slytherin.

"So we're using the galleons!" Hermione announced. The two gryffindors finished handing out the fake coins and people started going back to their common rooms.

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A/N: my first attempt at writing third person?