𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗢𝗬

ACT ONE, CHAPTER TEN
dumbledore's army.

VENUS COULDN'T SLEEP.

She had gone up to the dormitory early with Hermione. Hermione fell asleep rather quickly, but not Venus. She tossed and turned in her bed for maybe half an hour before deciding to back down to the common room. Nobody would probably be there, anyways — it was almost midnight. Most Gryffindors were definitely trying to get some rest in before classes the next day.

Being as quiet as possible, Venus grabbed her book and exited her dormitory. She padded down the steps to the common room, but once she entered, she saw that the common room wasn't empty after all. Harry was sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire, a piece of parchment and his Potions book beside him. Crookshanks was in the seat next to it while an assortment of knobby, knitted Elf hats from Hermione were laying by the fire.

"Oh," Venus began. "Hi."

Harry looked over at her, a small smile appearing on his face. "Hey, Star."

"I, um, I didn't know anyone else would be down here," Venus admitted, walking up to him.

He shrugged. "Quidditch practice ended a little while ago. I have to finish my Potions essay, and Ron went to the kitchens, so . . . what are you doing down here?"

"Couldn't sleep." She held up his book for him to see. "Thought I would come read instead of sitting in the dark. Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all."

She grinned softly at him before taking her usual spot on the ground. Venus leaned her back against the chair and tucked her knees into her chest. Harry suddenly let out a small chuckle behind her. Venus looked up at him to see an amused expression on his face.

"You got something to say?" Venus asked.

"I will never understand you," Harry voiced. "There's literally an open chair behind you, and you're still sitting on the floor?"

"That's Crookshanks' seat," Venus insisted. "And I told you, I like the floor."

He shook his head. "You really are quite the character, Venus Black."

"I could say the same to you, Harry Potter." The two stared at each other for a second, seemingly getting lost in each other's eyes — until Venus snapped herself out of it. "Get back to your homework. I want you to at least get some sleep."

Venus looked back and opened her book, completely unaware to the way Harry was still staring at her. The dying fire was casting a very orangey glow onto her skin, making her look almost golden. He had been thinking about the girl named after a planet a lot lately. Her bright smile and sparkling eyes always just seemed to pop into his mind. She was just so . . . Venus. There was nobody else quite like her. And that's when Harry Potter knew — he fancied Venus Black and her American smile.

Shaking his head, he averted her gaze from her — although it was hard to do — and went back to his Potions essay. Meanwhile, Venus' eyes scanned across her pages, drinking in all the words. As the night got later, the candles in the common room began to extinguish and the the fire started to die more rapidly. Venus cast a quick Lumos with her wand and held it up to her book so she could continue to read.

Suddenly, she felt something fall next to her with a soft thud. Venus looked down and moved her wand to see what it was. It was Harry's Potions book. She lifted her wand to see that his head was resting against his arm, which was leaning on the arm of the chair, and he was asleep. Venus smiled gently. She had never seen him look so relaxed.

Venus stood up, deeming that she should probably get back to the dormitory and leave Harry alone. She grabbed a blanket off of one of the chairs and went to go drape it over it. However, something decided to scare her.

"Harry Potter, sir!" a squeaky voice suddenly exclaimed.

Venus let out a gasp of surprise and pointed her lit wand towards the source of the noise. Her chest heaved up and down and her eyes were wide as she stared at the creature. It was a House-Elf — she knew that much. This particular one had large green eyes the size of tennis balls, a pencil-shaped nose, a pair of batlike ears, and extremely long fingers and feet. He was wearing multiple knitted hats of Hermione's, each one on top of the other. The House-Elf was also wearing several scarves and an innumerable amount of socks. Along with the House-Elf was Hedwig, who was sitting at the very top of the mountain of hats while hooting serenely, obviously cured now.

Harry shot up upright in his chair, blinking blearily at his surroundings. "Whozair?"

"A House-Elf," Venus told him, still a little shocked. "And Hedwig."

"Dobby has your owl, sir!" the House-Elf replied.

"Dobby?" Harry repeated.

Venus blinked. "Dobby?"

"Long story, tell you later." Harry cleared his throat. "Uh, Dobby, this is my . . . um, friend, Venus Black."

"Nice to meet you," Venus said, trying to shake the shock off of her.

"Dobby is grateful to meet a friend of Harry Potter!" Dobby stated, staring at Harry with a look of pure adoration. "Dobby also volunteered to return Harry Potter's owl! Professor Grubbly-Plank says she is all well now, sir!"

He bowed at them so deeply that his nose brushed against the surface of the carpet. Hedwig let out an indignant hoot and flew onto the arm of Harry's chair.

"Thanks, Dobby!" Harry responded. He still looked a little disoriented, which kind of told Venus that he had been dreaming about something. "Er . . . have you been taking all the clothes Hermione's been leaving out?"

"Oh no, sir," Dobby replied happily. "Dobby has been taking some for Winky too, sir."

Venus placed a hand on her forehead. "I need to do, like, Hogwarts background checks or something."

"Yeah, how is Winky?" Harry questioned after sending an amused look to Venus.

Dobby's ears drooped slightly. "Winky is still drinking lots, sir. She still does not care for clothes, Harry Potter. Nor do the other House-Elves. None of them will clean Gryffindor Tower anymore, not with the hats and socks hidden everywhere, they finds them insulting, sir. Dobby does it all himself, sir, but Dobby does not mind, sir, for he always hopes to meet Harry Potter and tonight, sir, he has got his wish!" Dobby bowed deeply again. "But Harry Potter does not seem happy. Dobby heard him muttering in his sleep. Was Harry Potter having bad dreams?"

"Wait, you heard muttering and I didn't?" Venus inquired. "How long have you been up here?" She then looked down at Harry in concern. "Were you having bad dreams?"

Harry yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Not really bad. I've had worse."

"That really wasn't reassuring."

"Dobby wishes he could help Harry Potter, for Harry Potter set Dobby free and Dobby is much, much happier now . . ." Dobby trailed off.

Harry smiled at him. "You can't help me, Dobby, but thanks for the offer . . ."

He bent down and picked up his fallen Potions book. Her face feeling very hot, Venus quickly set down the blanket she was going to put over Harry and kept her illuminated wand raised.

"Wait a moment — there is something you can do for me, Dobby," Harry slowly revealed. "And for Venus, too."

Venus looked at Harry curiously. "Oh?"

Dobby beamed at him. "Name it, Harry Potter, sir!"

"I need to find a place where thirty-two people can practice Defense Against the Dark Arts without being discovered by any of the teachers," Harry announced. "Especially Professor Umbridge."

Venus looked down. Her wand light was illuminating the thin white scars on the back of her hand reading blood traitor. Thank goodness she hadn't had another detention with Umbridge. The amount of bleeding her hand had done . . . it made her sick just thinking about it. She wanted to tell her parents, but she didn't want to ruin their jobs at the Ministry — that is why they moved to London, after all.

Dobby gave a little skip, his ears waggled happily, and he clapped his hands together. "Dobby knows the perfect place, sir! Dobby heard tell of it from the other House-Elves when he came to Hogwarts, sir. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, sir, or else as the Room of Requirement!"

"Why?" Harry asked curiously.

"Because it is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it," Dobby explained seriously. "Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, sir, when Winky has been very drunk. He has hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir . . . and Dobby knows Mr. Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and—"

"—and if you really needed a bathroom, would it fill itself with chamber pots?"

Dobby nodded earnestly. "Dobby expects so, sir. It is a most amazing room, sir."

"How many people know about this specific room?" Venus questioned, now very curious as well.

"Very few, ma'am," Dobby revealed.. "Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, ma'am, but often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, ma'am."

Venus and Harry shared a look. That would literally be perfect for this group.

"It sounds brilliant," Harry replied. "It sounds perfect, Dobby. When can you show me where it is?"

"Anytime, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby said, looking delighted at their enthusiasm. "We could go now, if you like!"

"We'd get caught," Venus whispered to Harry. "And I don't know about you, but another detention with Umbridge is not on my list of things I want to happen."

"Not if I get my Invisibility Cloak," Harry suggested.

Venus blinked in surprise. "Your what now?"

"Tell you later. But . . . you're probably right. We shouldn't." He then raised his voice again. "Not tonight, Dobby. This is really important . . . I don't want to blow it, it'll need proper planning . . . listen, can you just tell Venus and I exactly where this Room of Requirement is and how to get in there?"

╞════════ ༺ ༻ ════════╡

THE NEXT DAY, Venus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were basically running around, trying to tell all of the members of their Defense group on where to meet, which was the seventh floor opposite of a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. Charlotte and Elijah were the first people Venus told. Ron had relayed the message onto Penelope, and Elijah said he would tell the Ravenclaws. By the end of dinner, all of them were pretty much confident that the news had circled around to the people who had shown up at the Hog's Head.

At around seven-thirty, Venus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the common room. Harry was clutching a piece of aged parchment in his hand — he had explained to Venus it was called the Marauder's Map, which showed everyone's whereabouts in the castle. She found it pretty cool. Despite that fifth years were allowed to be in the corridors until nine, all three of them kept looking around nervously.

"Hold it," Harry instructed at the top of the last staircase. He unfolded the parchment and tapped it with his hand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Venus nodded. "Nice quote."

"Thanks, Star." Harry studied the parchment, which Venus saw had tiny black moving dots that were labeled with names. "Filch is on the second floor, and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth."

"And Umbridge?" Hermione added anxiously.

"In her office. Okay, let's go."

They hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had described to Harry and Venus the previous night. Sure enough, there was a stretch of blank wall opposite of an enormous tapestry showing Barnabas the Barmy attempting to train trolls in ballet. One of the trolls paused in his relentless clubbing to watch them.

"Okay," Harry began quietly. "Dobby said to walk past this bit of wall three times, concentrating hard on what we need."

They did exactly that, turning around sharply at the window beyond the blank stretch of wall and then at the large vase on the other side. Venus thought over and over to herself that she wanted a place where she could learn to defend herself with her friends without anybody finding them. Suddenly, when she looked up as they wheeled around after their third walk past, a highly polished door had appeared in the wall.

"Uh, guys," Venus announced. "Look."

They all stopped. Ron was staring at it while looking slightly wary. None of them moved for a moment. Harry was the first on to react. He reached out, seized the brass handle, and pulled open the door. Harry walked into the room. Venus shrugged at Ron and Hermione before following him in.

The room was very spacious. It was illuminated by flickering torches like the ones that were in the dungeons eight floors below. Wooden bookcases lined the walls and large silk cushions were on the floor in place of chairs. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments used to defend against the Dark arts.

Ron prodded one of the cushions with his foot. "These will be good when we're practicing Stunning."

"And just look at these books!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the books. "A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions . . . The Dark Arts Outsmarted . . . Self-Defensive Spellwork . . . wow . . ." She looked at Harry, her face glowing. It kind of told Venus that the presence of hundreds of book had finally convinced Hermione they were doing the right thing. "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

At once, she grabbed Jinxes for the Jinxed from the shelf, sank onto the nearest cushion, and began to read.

"This place is so cool," Venus admitted. "Ilvermorny definitely didn't have anything like this — at least, not that I knew of."

Harry slightly frowned at her. "You still miss Ilvermorny?"

Venus shrugged. "A little. It was my home for the past four years . . ." She then turned to Harry with a smile. "But I think I've found a new one."

There was then a gentle knock on the door. It opened, and Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean walked in.

"Woah," Dean commented, staring around the room in impressment. "What is this place?"

Harry started to explain, but before he had finished more people arrived (including Penelope, who instantly went to go talk to Ron, and Charlotte and Elijah, who gravitated to Venus' side), so he had to start all over again. By the time eight o'clock had arrived, every cushion in the room was occupied. Harry moved to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock. It clicked in a satisfyingly loud way, making everyone fall silent and look at him. Hermione carefully marked her page in Jinxes for the Jinxed and set the book aside.

"Well," Harry began, a little nervous. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay—"

"It's fantastic!" Cho voiced, and several people murmured in agreement.

Fred frowned around at it. "It's bizarre. We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then . . ."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" Dean inquired from the rear end of the room by the shelf of instruments.

"Dark Detectors," Harry explained, stepping in between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled . . ." He turned back around to face everyone. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and — er — what, Hermione?"

Hermione's hand was raised. "I think we ought to elect a leader."

"Harry," Venus said at once, apparently beating Cho at it. "Obviously."

She looked over at Harry. He offered her a bright smile, and she looked back down at her lap, her face feeling very hot.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," Hermione stated. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So — everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everyone put their hands up, even Zacharias Smith, although he did it very halfheartedly.

"Er — right, thanks," Harry responded. "And — what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," Hermione said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity,don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina suggested hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" Fred added.

Penelope pointed at him. "Good one."

"Thanks, Lestrange."

Hermione frowned at them. "I was thinking more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" Cho offered. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," Ginny agreed. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione asked bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority — motion passed!"

She reached into her bag and pulled out the piece of parchment with all their names on it. Hermione pinned it onto the wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top of it in large letters.

"Right, shall we get practicing then?" Harry voiced once Hermione had sat down again. "I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful—"

"Oh please," Zacharias cut in, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms across his chest. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

Penelope made a snarky comment, making Ron laugh from his place next to her. The Slytherin grinned at it.

"I've used it against him," Harry revealed quietly. "It saved my life last June." Smith opened his mouth stupidly, while the rest of the room was very quiet. "But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave." Nobody moved. "Okay. I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Everyone got to their feet at once and divided up. Charlotte was instantly swept away by Neville. Elijah looked a little disheartened that Ginny was paired up with Michael Corner, but he went to go join Hermione. Ron and Penelope were also partnered up together — surprise, surprise. Venus looked around, but all of her friends now had partners. She suddenly felt very awkward just standing there.

Harry nudged Venus' side. "You wanna practice with me?"

Venus nodded. "Sure."

"Right — on the count of three, then — one, two, three—"

Shouts of Expelliarmus rang throughout the room. Wands flew in all directions, and missed spells hit the books on the shelves and sent them flying into the air. Harry and Venus said the spell at the same time, but ultimately, Harry was faster than her (show off.) Venus' wand went spinning out of her hand. She watched as it landed on top of a bookshelf.

"Nice one," Venus commented.

"Thanks, Star," Harry responded. He retrieved it with a Summoning Charm and handed it to her. "Hey, can you go with either Charlie and Neville, Penelope and Ron, or Hermione and Eli to take turns for a couple of minutes so I can see how the rest are doing?"

"Oh, yeah, no problem." Venus walked over to Charlotte and Neville. "Hey, guys."

"Hey, V," Charlotte replied. "You're doing great, Nevs. Why don't you take a break and let Venus practice on me, okay?"

Neville nodded. Venus walked a few feet away from Charlotte and faced her again. The two of them pointed their wands at each other. This time, Venus was faster. She shouted the spell, and Charlotte's wand instantly flew into her hand.

Venus stared at Charlotte's wand in her hand. "Wicked."

"Nice job, Venus," Harry's voice suddenly said from behind her.

She glanced to him, butterflies rushing throughout her stomach as his shoulder brushed hers. "Thanks, Harry." He walked away, and she noticed Charlotte staring at her knowingly. "Oh, do not give me that look."

Charlotte raised her hands in surrender. "Whatever you say. Just give me my wand back."

Venus, Charlotte, and Neville took turns of being in pairs to practice on each other. Along with them, the general performance of everyone else improved. Venus was in very high spirits. She couldn't wait to learn more magic.

"Hey, Harry, have you checked the time?" Hermione suddenly called from the other side of the room.

Harry looked down at his watch before blowing the whistle he had found, making everyone stop saying the spell and some wands clatter to the floor. "Well, that was pretty good, but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" Dean urged eagerly, many people nodding in agreement.

Angelina was quick to jump in. "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then, and we can decide on additional meetings then . . ." Harry suggested. "Come on, we'd better get going . . ."

He pulled out the Marauder's Map again. Harry let them leave in threes and fours — the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor, the Ravenclaws to a tower on the west side of the castle, the only two Slytherins (Charlotte and Penelope) down to the dungeons, and the Gryffindors to along the corridor to the seventh floor and the Fat Lady's portrait. Finally, it was just Venus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left in the room.

"That was really, really good, Harry," Hermione admitted.

"Yeah, it was!" Ron agreed enthusiastically. "Did you see me disarm Penelope, Harry?"

"Only once," Hermione argued. "Elijah and I saw her get you loads more than you got her—"

"I did not only get her once, I got her at least three times—"

"Well, if you're counting the one where you tripped over your own feet and knocked the wand out of her hand—"

They continued to bicker all the way back to the common room. Venus, however, was just very happy about the lesson she had just received, and also the way that Harry had complimented her . . .

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I'm having a two day harry potter movie marathon with my friends before we visit the new store in new york city WISH US LUCK