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Chapter 10 - The DA is dead; long live the DA!

Sunday

[A/N: Several dozen house points to whomever can spot the cobbled quote in this chapter, and tell whence it came.]

Harry stood with Dobby in a corner of the Room of Requirement, hidden from the view of anyone except each other. "Master Harry, do you think they will listen?"

Harry rubbed his chin. "Some of them will listen, my friend. Some of them will think it's all twaddle, and leave. But the biggest group is probably made up of those who don't know what to think, and have come to find out."

Dobby nodded. His language skills had improved by leaps and bounds under Harry's tutelage. But even though he sounded much more intelligent and mature, he still regarded Harry Potter as a mythical figure. Probably because Harry was the first wizard to actually free an elf in living memory.

"Is the food ready, Dobby?"

"Yes, Master Harry. It has preservation charms, and shall be ready when you say."

"Very well," Harry said. "Time to start the circus."

He slowly walked up to the raised dais at the front of the room, tapping the floor with his staff at every alternate step. Utterly invisible and undetectable by muggle or magical means, he had to alter his magic to allow the sound of his steps to reach the ears of the assembly. With each step, the room got more and more quiet, as people sensed that something was happening.

Shaping the acoustics of the room, he began to speak from what sounded (to the audience) to be all directions at once. "Good afternoon. My name is Harry Potter." Thunder clapped, lightning flashed, thunder struck, and suddenly he stood in his cloak and staff before them. Startled (but not for long), the group started some scattered applause.

"For those of you in a hurry, I won't take up too much of your time." He pulled the hood of his cloak off, and looked around the room. "Some of you were here last year when we held our secret meetings for the Defense Association -- the 'D.A.' for short. We got the most O-level OWLs of any class in recent times. I am going to replace it with something else."

He stood and let them murmur for a bit, knowing that their minds needed a few seconds to process what they'd heard. "That's right. The DA has served its purpose, and we're moving on to the next stage. We're not making 'Dumbledore's Army', or 'Binns' Brigade', or even 'Vector's Victors'. We're not going to march around, wear funny uniforms, spout motivational slogans, sign secret pacts, wear secret decoder rings, or any other kind of childish twaddle."

Harry could see some smiles out there among the student body. Many of them had grown up enough to think slogans and nicknames to be a bit silly.

"I'm not going to try to make Slytherin love Hufflepuff." A better laugh at that one. "I don't care if you love each other, or hate each other, or just plain don't give a damn. We won't be doing any dueling here." He raised his hand at the gasp that shot around. "We aren't going to bow to each other, we're going to fight. We're going to practice kicking arses up between shoulder blades!" A ragged cheer rose.

"When I meet up with a Death Eater, I'm not going to observe any traditions or any niceties like saluting. I'm not going to worry about a 'clean fight'. I'm going to do my damnedest to knock his dick in the dirt!"

The roar of many voices raised in unison was what Harry wanted to hear; what Hogwarts needed to hear. He could see smiles on the faces of students where only confusion had shown before.

"I don't want your promises, your allegiance, or your loyalty. I want one thing: to help the ones who want to fight the dark. Make no mistake, Voldemort's toadying little suck-ups want to kill everyone who opposes them. I will teach you how to stop them. Any questions so far?"

Now it comes,thought Harry. Come on, somebody get the guts to ask the question... ah, there it is! "Yes, Ernie?"

"Hi, Harry. I know everybody has questions..." there were laughs around him. "But I have only the one big one. Why can't we just learn this stuff from the teachers?"

Harry walked slowly down to Ernie MacMillan. Still speaking through his magic, he knew everyone could hear him. "Excellent question, Ernie. There are several answers to that one. One, who here thinks he or she has been trained to fight by a teacher since coming to Hogwarts?" Some scattered hands went up, including Ernie's. "Would you guys mind helping me with a little demonstration?"

He motioned them back to the dais, raised again so everyone could see. Lining them up at one end in a row, he found that he had fourteen students to volunteer. "It's important to understand that your Defense Against The Dark Arts classes haven't actually taught you how to fight against anything at all. Where I, on the other hand, have had Voldemort try to kill me six times." He waited for the gasp to die down. "I'm still here, and he's huddled down in the Lordy-Lair." This brought some giggles.

"Neville, could you give us a start? Everybody, when Neville gives the signal to go, I want you all to attack me." He watched their doubtful looks. "This is your chance, everyone," he said with a wry grin. "This is your chance to prove to the whole student body -- even the whole world, if Iknow the Lavender Brown Network -- that Harry Potter is a nuts-o glory-hound who's full of hot air." Many in the room laughed, but some others started to egg on the challengers.

"You may use any spells you wish except the Unforgivable -- I don't have permission from the Ministry for those. Otherwise, any spell, hex, curse... whatever you have. You fourteen against me. Neville, whenever you wish."

Neville had no idea what was going on, and looked quite worried. "Are you sure, Harry?" Seeing his friend nod, he said in a voice that was loud but by no means sure, "Go!" All fourteen students pointed their wands and started shouting at once.

Harry watched beneath their spells, and the magical fabric being used by all. Most of them were going for a plain old stunner, but not all. Ernie was using abone breaking hex that they had practiced in DA last year. Zabini used a bowel-loosening curse that would have made quite a smelly mess.

Harry took no action. He raised no visible shield, uttered no protection, drew no wand, and did not dodge. He stood in the path of fourteen spells, which reached him within seconds of each other. Fourteen spells that had no effect.

After that first volley, they all thought he was tricking them somehow. Now the fourteen got down to business. So many voices were calling out now that the mood was like that surrounding a muggle boxing ring. He could see they were getting frustrated; he let it go on for about thirty seconds.

Then, when he was sure everyone was watching the demonstration closely, he shouted quite loud, "Hot!" Fourteen hands dropped a wand, and fourteen mouths yelped in imagined pain. The match was over.

Most of them were rubbing their uninjured hands, and Zabini was eying him closely. "Nice trick, Potter. What'd you do, charm the stage?"

The murmur rolled 'round the room as the attackers picked up their wands. After just a few seconds, Harry asked them,"Why didn't I cast a shield spell while I was up there?"

They looked at each other, confused, before Ginny brightened: "Because you had already shielded yourself!"

"Yes!" he roared with a huge smile, raising his staff and waving it about. "And why was I already shielded? Come on, everybody!" Dozens of answers came back, but the gist of them all was correct. "Right! Because I knew I was going into afight. Not a duel, a fight!"

"Was it fair?"

"No!" said most of them.

"Neither is being attacked by fourteen against one, but I'm still standing." This got very quiet. "I won't mention names, but I should be unconscious, bleeding, with broken bones, and soiling myself on the floor. I should be in the hospital wing by now, shouldn't I?"

Harry continued, walking through the crowd, gesturing with his stick. "Blaise! I've seen your spell-casting; you're no slouch. Lavender, you're quite fast on your feet... Terry, Ernie, Daphne... you all did very well in Lockhart's little dueling club. Some of you folks got Outstanding on your OWLs last year for Defense. So are you lot ready to go fight Death Eaters? No?" He looked around. "Why the hell not?"

He stumped and limped around, knocking his staff on the floor and generally intimidating everyone within sight. "I'll tell you why: because you haven't learned Defense in your Defense class!" he shouted. "I'll tell you another reason why: because Death Eaters don't duel. They fight!" This last with a shout that rattled the floor and shook the glazing in the windows, making sure he had the attention of every soul in the room. The next thing out of his mouth was quiet, ominous: "And, they fight dirty. Here, let me show you. Colin!" Harry spoke, turning quickly and putting the end of his walking stick to Colin's nose, backing him against apillar. "Bang! Colin's dead. Because he wasn't ready for an attack, everybody. He didn't expect there to be unfair behavior here. Obviously, that was amistake. Colin, where is your wand?"

Colin blushed and mumbled something very quiet. "What's that, Colin? It's hard to hear you when you're dead."

"It's in my pocket," replied Creevey. He was embarrassed, but saw Harry's smile and joined in the laughter.

"How many of you have your wand in your hand right now? What kind of defense lessons are you going to partake in without a wand?" There was general laughter. He could see that the group was beginning to relax.

"Okay, let's make a half-circle around the dais again. Smaller folks up front, taller in the back, so everybody can see. I'm going to show you something in a few moments that will change your life -- something real that you can do, and not just read about."

There was quite a bit of shuffling and good-natured elbowing and shoving until everyone was satisfied that they could see him as well as possible.

"Good. Who can tell me where magic is?" He looked around, feigning inquisitiveness. Harry could see on their faces that most of the students thought they knew, so he didn't wait for an answer. "I can see that most of you think you know. I'm not going to call anyone out; this isn't about humiliating people, it's about helping my friends to learn."

He held up his wand, and cast, "Lumos", making it light.. "Is magic in the words? No." He silently caused the light to go out, and then return. "Is it in the wand? No." Harry put his wand away and, silently, lit his right index finger. Nothing too crazy so far, he thought. They had all seen -- or at least heard of -- wandless and silent magic. Now, to shake 'em up a little.

"Is magic in my hand? Still no, I'm afraid," he said. He placed his lit hand back by his side; but the light stayed in mid-air where he left it. Then he let it blink a few times. Now the group was looking very interested. "In the brain? In a special kind of hat or shoe? Contained by a building? No, of course not. We've all seen people do magic without a hat, and outdoors, and even seen dumb people do it. So where is it?"

He continued, "It is not in your blood, nor anything worn by you. This is why muggle science hasn't been able to isolate the gene for any detectable physical difference between muggles and wizards. Wizards can tell the difference between someone who has magic and one who doesn't, but he can't tell you why one does when the other doesn't. Until now, right here, right now, and I will teach you.

"It is everywhere! Everything is magic, everything contains magic, everything is surrounded by magic. No, Dean, I'm not talking about 'The Force'." The muggle-born students laughed at that one. "If it's not in the words, then the words don't matter. Learning the words assigned to spells will help you get a passing grade here at school; it will not help you in a fight with a Death Eater."

Ron looked up, screwing together his Gryffindor courage and spoke: "Harry, mate... We're not all as powerful as you are."

"Power has nothing to do with it, everybody. Everyone standing in this room can cast a lumos spell. And everyone standing in this room can cast it without a wand, without words, and without gestures."

"Then why did they tell us we need a wand?" somebody yelled from the back.

Harry replied, "Good question." Some laughed. "Because the rules were made by pointless little gobshites who wanted you to admire them, so they made up garbage and spewed it by the truckload to make you think they're knowledgeable. But where's the proof?"

There was a rumbling murmur at that. Harry could see Hermione fuming, and in the back, Dumbledore and McGonagall looking troubled.

"You know something because somebody told you. How do they know? Somebody told them. If you read it in a book, that's just somebody telling you on paper. How do they know? How can you trust it?" He looked around the room. The look on everyone's faces showed that they knew he could explain it. Boy were they in for a shock. "Easy: you can't!" Hermione was fit to be tied; he had just yanked the rug out from under her entire existence. But she didn't dare speak a word; the crowd would eat her alive the mood they were in right then.

"You can't trust any of it! Something is either true or it isn't. Baseless assertions are neither true nor false until they are supported; either by fact, or reason, or visible proof. Proof! There are people in this very building, right this minute, who think that blood purity makes you a better witch or wizard. Even after last year, when five teenage muggle-borns like Hermione Granger and half-bloods like Harry Potter beat twelve full-grown, experienced, pure-blooded, paramilitary terrorist Death Eaters in the basement of the Ministry of Magic! In full view of the minister himself."

Cho elbowed her way up to the front, gaining her a few curious glances and a few angry ones. "Ha... Harry?" She tentatively raised her hand. Seeing him nod, she said,"Then why do they make us spend all this time memorizing Latin words for every spell?"

"Did everyone hear that at the back? Cho asked, 'why do they make us spend all this time memorizing Latin words for everything?'. And an excellent question, too; worthy of aRavenclaw." Cho looked down with agrin, and would have blushed, if her olive skin had allowed it.

Harry spoke louder. "There are two reasons. One, because it's a lot easier to grade somebody for effort if you can count their Latin words; and Latin has been the accepted language of learning in the world for many centuries." Everybody nodded, looking at each other, knowing that even some muggle universities required Latin vocab. That was when Harry's voice got cold. "Two, because there are some who enjoy pretending to teach you, while making sure you don't spend any time at all on what's important."

It was Hermione's turn to butt in; this time in outrage. "How can you say that we're not learning anything important? Hogwarts is the most prestigious and respected magical school in the world, and it's normal for some to be able to get..." She stopped when she realized not all the faces looking at her were wearing friendly expressions.

"Able to get what, Hermione?" Harry asked, gently. Not because she was right, but because she was only voicing what many of them thought. "Normal for some to be able to get more out of an expensive education like this than others?" He raised his voice again, and raised his hand. "How many of you think Hogwarts is the best school there is?" Almost every hand went up with his. "Good, thank you. Now, if you have been a student in another magical school, keep your hand up; otherwise, put it down." All but two hands went down; Harry's own, and that of McGonagall, who he noticed was still standing in the back.

"Then why do you think we're the best? What is the yardstick?" Harry asked.

Colin Creevey's enthusiasm and school spirit would not be held back. "But, Harry, everybody knows that Hogwarts is number one, then Beauxbatons, and then Durmstrang. Right?"

Harry used this. "Beauxbatons is better than Durmstrang?"

"Yes!" came a disgruntled group reply, as if any First Year student should know this.

"And you're all absolutely sure?"

"Yes!" The reply was much stronger.

"Well, then... let me make sure I have this right... I should take the word of any one of you on this subject... because any one of you will tell me that... something you have never seen... is... slightly less good than something else... you have never seen."

Talk about a deafening silence,thought Harry. It was palpable, and would rapidly grow to embarrassment and then to anger if not stopped.

"Don't worry, my friends. This is an example of what I was talking about. You are just taking the word of somebody who told you this, I'm sure. But I have a pretty strong hunch that no Hogwarts staff members are spreading nasty rumors about other schools." There was relieved laughter, because now everybody could blame some imaginary 'kids' who 'told them' stuff.

"Listen up, everybody," he called, clapping his hands. "The stuff I was just showing you? Wandless, wordless, and no hands? I'm going to show you how to do it. You're going to learn how to do things that will drive your teachers crazy-eight bonkers, because they don't know how to do it -- and we're going to start by learning that spiffing thunder-and-lightning you saw when Ishowed up. We'll meet Tuesday and Thursday evenings after dinner, and Sunday afternoons. I will be here for four hours each time -- longer, if somebody needs me. Feel free to come as long or as short as you need. I will teach anyone who shows up willing to learn, and will eject anyone being disruptive.

"There's a great big pile of food over there in the back; help yourselves. Talk about what you have seen this afternoon; I hope to hear some very good questions from some of you. Good day."