FicWad

Chapter Fifteen: Here and Again

The first week of Hogwarts felt extremely slow and monotonous, at least in Harry’s opinion. Of course, it didn’t help that nearly everywhere he turned, Harry heard sixth and seventh year students share horror stories about their O.W.L exams. Quite frankly, Harry took anything he heard with several grains of salt and there was the fact that Harry had more pressing matters to deal with right at this moment in time. The charms that Harry needed for the loyalty contracts were coming along quite nicely; even through he had to sacrifice at couple of good nights sleep in the last week to accomplish exactly what he wanted to. A few more alterations, and at tentative copy would be ready to go for Harry’s plan of assisting people at learning Defense Against the Dark Arts right under Umbridge’s nose.

Harry’s mind still was on the recent news that Oroku Saki was apparently funding the restoration of New York after it was left in ruins thanks to the Triceraton invasion over the summer. There was little doubt in Harry’s mind that Saki had some other motive in mind other than being charitable in using his fortune to restore the city of New York. After all, The Shredder left bloodshed everywhere he went in the universe throughout his centuries of destruction. Harry wondered exactly how much Triceraton technology was scattered around New York and how destructive it could be should this alien technology fall in the wrong hands. And there were few hands that were more wrong that The Shredder’s. There was a very likely chance that the Shredder could be using his proposed plans of rebuilding New York to go shopping for some leftover Triceraton technology.

Right now, Harry decided to put any thoughts regarding Voldemort, Shredder, the corruptness of the Ministry of Magic, and anything else that caused him the slightest amount of stress, as there was a more pleasant matter on Harry’s mind right now. As one of his duties as the brand new Slytherin Quidditch captain, Harry had to conduct the tryouts to fill the six spots vacated by the old team members either leaving Hogwarts or got booted from the team by Harry personally for not really being all that good outside of an obscene number of fouls.

Early on Saturday morning the week after the year at Hogwarts began, Harry and Ginny sat in the stands about a half an hour before the tryouts for the Slytherin Quidditch Team. Harry watched the field below over the top of the sunglasses that he was wearing this morning, with a clipboard tucked underneath his arm and a pen behind his ear. The sunglasses upon Harry’s face served another purpose other than being stylish. They had specialized charms on them that could see through invisibility cloaks. Of course, the chances of Harry getting attacked at the moment were rather slim, but after all he went through in the past, Harry was not going to take any chances whatsoever. He could see a few Slytherins carrying brooms slowly coming out towards the field.

“Not a bad turn out so far and we still have a bit of time before the tryouts begin,” said Harry before looking over at Ginny, who looked slightly pale. “Don’t worry Ginny, I’m sure you’re do just fine when you try out. Hailey was worried enough when she tried out for Hufflepuff Seeker; even through she didn’t admit it and she got the spot. I’m sure you can get on the Slytherin Quidditch Team too.”

“Just keep telling me that and it might come true,” said Ginny in a tense voice. It seemed as if there were more people trying out for the team then she could have ever imagined. With every person that came out, Ginny felt her chances of being put in the Slytherin team decreasing with each person walking out towards the field.

Harry looked down at the field, there did seem to be a lot of people coming out as the moments to the tryout time he had scheduled for this morning. The entire field was filled with Slytherin students chatting loudly, while carrying their brooms. As the time drew closer to when the tryouts were scheduled, Harry decided that he might as well find his way down to the field. He followed Ginny down the stands and into the Quidditch field, as the noise happened to be so loud that Harry could barely here himself think over it.

“Excuse me, if I may just have your attention please,” said Harry in a loud voice but it seemed as if many of the people were chatting too loudly to hear him. Sighing, Harry pulled out his wand and shot a jet of red light towards the crowd. The light ricocheted off the ground with a loud explosion that could have been heard for miles.

Needless to say, that caused everyone to be silent and grant Harry their full and undivided attention.

“Now, as you know, the Slytherin Quidditch Team needs six new players for this fifth year at Hogwarts,” said Harry. “Now, I have to warn those who are not taking this completely seriously to clear out right now, so you do not waste both your time and mine by trying out for the Slytherin House Quidditch Team if you are not being serious. So if any of you would like to leave the tryouts right now, feel free to, so we can begin. Also, any first years who have mistaken showed up for this tryout, I would suggest you keep practicing and you might get a spot on the team next year, but for right now, unfortunately you are not eligible.”

“Yet, you were,” muttered a snide Seventh Year Slytherin a few dozen feet away from Harry but Harry pretended not to hear this Slytherin, but only made a mental note not to include this person on his team. A few first years walked off, looking rather disappointed that they could not

“Alright, now I would like all of the people who would wish to try out as Beaters to go to the right, all the people who want to be Keepers to go in the middle, and all of the Chasers to go over to the left, if you please,” said Harry and a few seconds later, he saw all of the prospective players for this year’s Slytherin Quidditch Team move over to the places in which Harry had designated before Harry proceeded with the beginning of the Quidditch tryouts.

For the next couple of hours, Harry got a good look at all of the perspective Quidditch team members, along with their strengths and weaknesses, not to mention how well they could take the pressure of being on the Slytherin Quidditch Team. It amazed Harry how many people thought they could get a spot on the Quidditch Team but they didn’t look as if they had been on a broomstick more then a few times, if that. A few prospective team members didn’t seem to be able to get their broomsticks too far off the ground, which made Harry’s decision to send them back inside after telling them that they were not quite good enough to compete on the Slytherin Quidditch Team. Harry received his share of dirty looks and a few tears, but it was an unfortunate evil of being a team captain. After all, there were only six spots to fill and eliminating the people who lacked talent made Harry’s job a little easier then it was to begin with. By the end, Harry managed to cut down the potential candidates to eight per position, cycling them in and out for several mini-games to get a better evaluation Those were the best of the best but even then, Harry had to think long and hard

Still, after much deliberating and much mental review over the performance of all that had tried out, Harry’s felt he managed to put together a team that would help the Slytherin House Quidditch Team maintain the decade plus hold that it had on the Quidditch Cup. Harry pulled out a sheet of paper before turning to address the remaining hopeful Quidditch players, who had managed to make the final cut.

“Now, before I reveal who will be on this year’s Slytherin House Team, I’m going to have to say it was a really tough decision for the most part, as I had to review every possible circumstance before I put together the team that I thought would work together the best,” said Harry calmly before taking a deep breath. “Now, if you don’t make the team, do not be discouraged, as there is a good chance that I might contact you to be a replacement should one of the players of the main team suffer an injury.”

Harry took a deep breath, as he could see several eyes from the field staring at him in anticipation.

“First, the Beaters for the Slytherin Quidditch Team are Jack Maff and Rob Turner,” said Harry as a bulky looking brown haired fourth year boy and a tall blond haired third year boy looked very pleased at their inclusion to the team. “And next, the player who earned a spot on the Slytherin Quidditch Team for this year will be Blaise Zabini.”

Harry drew one final deep breath, he just knew this was the part that everyone would accuse him of being incredibly biased about one of his selections, but quite frankly, Harry could care less about what other people thought as she was the best flier out on the field and scored the most goals out of all the Chasers that had tried out on this morning, so Harry felt he wasn’t being truthfully too biased at all.

“And last but certainly not least, the three Chasers who will be joining the Slytherin Quidditch Team this year are Isabelle Martinez, Victoria Knox, and Ginny Weasley,” said Harry in a nonchalant voice, as the people who had managed to survive the first round of tryouts but did not get on the team, gave a respectful round of applause to those who did. Harry waited a couple of moments for the noise to die down. “For those who have made the Slytherin Quidditch Team, the first practice is scheduled for this Monday, an hour after dinner. After then, I will let you know about future practices. Thank you and once again, congratulations for trying out for the Slytherin House Quidditch team.”

Harry turned, without uttering another word to anyone and walked up towards the school with Ginny following closely behind. It had been a long morning and he hadn’t eaten anything since the previous evening.

As Harry and Ginny walked into Hogwarts, they were greeted by a stressed out looking Hermione with Daphne and Theodore standing in the background looking extremely agitated.

“Harry, the Daily Prophet had a rather troubling bit of information this morning,” said Hermione who moved in to hand this morning’s Daily Prophet to Harry

“Troubling, that’s putting it really mildly,” said Daphne darkly. “It’s absolutely horrible.”

“It’s to do with our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a brand new position she’s receiving that could cause us a headache in the future,” said Theodore.

“Lovely,” said Harry in a dry, sarcastic voice before reaching for the paper. “I suppose I better have a look at this.”

Without another word, Harry took the paper,

New Position Introduced at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dolores Umbridge to be the First Holder of New Position.

Harry looked up for the paper for a brief second. He had an extremely bad feeling that this was heading someplace that would put a few kinks in his plans for this year and beyond.

In an unprecedented turn of events, the Wizengamot, in conjunction with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Board of Governors, has introduced a new staff position that will be taken effective immediately on Monday morning at Hogwarts. Due to recent questionable teacher appointments by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore(see Page Eleven for details on some of Dumbledore’s questionable appointments over the years), the new position of High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has been established, with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Madam Dolores Umbridge being appointed as the first Higher Inquisitor. Umbridge, who has been extremely popular among the students of Hogwarts…

Harry dropped the paper in complete shock; he could not read past that point. The Daily Prophet had printed some rather ludicrous pieces of news over the years, but that latest sentence may have just blown past everything they had written before.

“Umbridge, extremely popular?” asked Ginny in a skeptical voice. “I truthfully had no idea that the Daily Prophet had a humor section and on the first page at that.”

“As much I wish this was a joke, I’m afraid Umbridge managed to give herself more power,” said Harry grimly as he bent down to pick up the paper. “Still, Higher Inquisitor what does that mean?”

“Keep reading, trust me, it gets worse,” said Daphne.

“Not unlike the story of my life then,” muttered Harry moodily as he turned to the paper to continue reading.

And thus is with no doubt the right choice to assume this new position, which will give Umbridge the privilege to evaluate teachers and make recommendations on whether or not they need to improve their teaching habits to assure an approvable education for all of the young students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

When hearing of the news, many respected members of the British Magical Community were overjoyed by hearing the news of this new staff position at Hogwarts.

“Quite frankly, I, and I’m sure many other parents who have students in Hogwarts would agree, am quite relieved that Madam Umbridge will be overseeing the evaluation of the teachers at Hogwarts,” remarked well respected pureblood, Lucius Malfoy. “The frighteningly staggering number of potentially unstable part humans who have been appointed to crucial positions at Hogwarts are quite staggering and I shudder to think what Albus Dumbledore must have been thinking when he exposed the students at Hogwarts to such danger. But now, Madam Umbridge will be able to ferret out all of the sub-standard and ill-equipped teachers. I feel confident now that every student will no longer be exposed to danger.”

“Well, I guess teaching your son the Cruciatus Curse so he can attack people with it and then get his little actions nicely swept under the rug, is perfectly safe, isn’t it Lucius?” asked Harry sarcastically, referring to the little incident last year where Draco Malfoy attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse because Harry embarrassed Malfoy in a duel and as a result, Draco was expelled from Hogwarts, without so much of a word to the paper. “Or slipping an extremely dangerous and rare magical object it someone’s cauldron makes us sleep so much better. Such inspiring safety Lucius, I must commend you for your concern.”

Ginny, Hermione, Daphne, and Theodore all nodded grimly before Harry straightened up and turned to the others with a one hundred percent serious look on his face.

“Highly political piece of tripe,” spat Harry. “Fitting for the recent agenda of the Ministry and if anyone thinks that woman can be good for this school when giving that kind of power, then they are completely out of their bloody minds.”

“Power to evaluate the teachers,” said Hermione with a frown on her face. “In other words, Umbridge now has the ability to sack anyone who might not agree with her views on how Hogwarts should be run.”

“That isn’t even the worst part, Hermione,” said Ginny. “I have a feeling she’s only going to get more and more influence passed by the Ministry and the Board of Governors, until no one can overrule her, not even Dumbledore.”

“Normally, I’d be all for having Dumbledore’s influence being diluted but I’m not quite sure exactly how this will help me,” said Harry in a slow voice. “Honestly, I’d like to take my chances with the master manipulator that I know all too well then someone that may operate in a different way then I used to attempting to neutralize.”

“Point well taken,” said Daphne nodding her head. “And I’m not sure how good it will be for Dumbledore to be forced behind the scenes. If his back is against the wall, there is a pretty good chance that he’ll do something rash.”

Harry nodded, as this new problem with not only Umbridge being the professor in what Harry believed to be the most crucial class in Hogwarts, but also being appointed in this brand new post of Higher Inquisitor was giving Umbridge entirely too much power for the good of anyone decent.

Still, Harry was not going to let that horrible abomination of a woman or the Ministry of Magic for that matter get the better of him. Not if he could help it anyway.

The next couple of weeks leading up to the first Hogsmeade trip of the year seemed like a blur. The fifth year students worked extremely hard, as it was a common theory that the teachers were trying to kill them or at least drive them completely insane with the amount of homework that they had assigned. Harry just sighed at all of these petty little complaints about homework as he had other things on his mind. The brand new Slytherin Quidditch Team was coming along quite well, as all of the players worked hard on improving themselves before the match against Gryffindor in the first week of November.

Quidditch was the only thing that Harry focused on recently. He worked steadily on the alterations that he needed to complete for the loyalty contracts before Hogsmeade. And indeed, just a couple of days before the trip to Hogsmeade, Harry managed to complete two contracts to be used for the proposed idea for a study group to learn Defense properly and not with the Ministry mandated methods. One of them was charmed so that anyone who decided to talk about the group to those who were not in it would have their memories of group meetings and any knowledge acquired would be erased should they attempt to speak of the group to anyone else. The second one offered an out should they have reservations about going against Ministry decree after the informational meeting during Hogsmeade weekend. Any memories of anyone who had second guessed wanting to learn proper Defense Against the Dark Arts would be wiped and there would be no future problems on that end.

As Harry walked towards the village of Hogsmeade, with Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, and Ginny following closely behind, he felt pretty confident that all of the potential problems that may come up with people signing the loyalty contracts completely ironed out.

“Harry, honestly I still think we should be doing this meeting in the Hogshead,” said Hermione in a slow voice, trying to come off as if she was not criticizing Harry. “Talking about what you are trying to do in a very public place like the Three Broomsticks could be…”

“Hermione, talking about something like this defense group in a secluded place is obvious and there is more of a chance that someone undesirable might overhear you,” said Harry. “If we hold this meeting in the Three Broomsticks, there is very little chance that someone will catch onto what we are doing and report us to the wrong people as they won’t expect us to talk about something that we might not want overheard in a public place.”

“Exactly,” said Theodore. “There’s a certain Slytherin mindset that people expect you to be deceitful in an obvious method, that being behind the scenes and not in a crowded place. No one will expect to hear anything out of the ordinary that…”

“All right, I get it,” said Hermione in a moody voice. “I just thought that…”

“I know Hermione, and I briefly entertained the idea too, but too risky,” said Harry in a calm voice. “Plus that barman in the Hogshead looks a bit shifty for some reason that I can’t quite place my finger on.”

“You’ve been there?” asked Daphne in a curious voice. “I’ve always thought that students in most cases did not go to that particular place.”

“Only once, but strictly speaking that was when I technically didn’t have the right to go into Hogsmeade at all,” said Harry. “Of course now, Dumbledore has other things to worry about than depriving me of my Hogsmeade visiting rights and since the permission form was signed first by Master Splinter and then a second one was signed by my mother, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on unless I do anything wrong. And I haven’t, unless you count not allowing him to put me underneath his thumb and manipulate me to achieve whatever twisted plans he has concocted in his head.”

Harry put his hand on his forehead as they turned the corner before walking up the pathway towards the entrance of the Three Broomsticks. He looked around the area with his charmed sunglasses to make sure that there was no one in invisibility cloaks following him.

“Anyway, back to the subject of the Hogshead,” said Harry pushing the door of the Three Broomsticks open, before walking through the doorway. Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, and Ginny followed close behind as Harry continued to speak in a lowered voice. “I popped in there for a brief drink last year when I was doing my Christmas shopping. Of course, I was used my Metamorphmagus abilities to look like someone else because when people tend to see me, there is a good chance that they will either kill me or annoy me by staring at my scar. But seriously, I wasn’t the only one in there disguised, as there seemed to be quite a few people that might not have been on the up and up, definitely trying to hide something for whatever reason. And I wasn’t going to risk the possibility they would be murderous lunatics who randomly went on killing sprees, so I really didn’t stay in that pub for too long.”

“That bad, Harry?” asked Hermione.

“I’m probably exaggerating slightly, but knowing my luck, I’m not too far off,” said Harry as they made their way over to an area of the Three Broomsticks which had a dozen empty tables that were perfect for the planned meeting about Harry’s proposed Defense Against the Dark Arts group. Harry moved a chair over slightly so he would be sitting where everyone would see him “This looks like the perfect spot.”

The others nodded in agreement as Daphne and Theodore walked over to tell the students interested in learning proper defense where they were meeting. Ginny and Hermione sat down on chairs on either side of Harry.

“So, I did the spell work while you four and Hailey managed to discreetly tell people who you thought might be interested in learning but what I don’t know is exactly how many people I’m should be expecting,” said Harry.

“A few did seem rather interested, yes,” said Hermione in a slightly nervous voice.

“If by a few, you mean a few dozen, then you would be correct Hermione,” said a new voice which caused Ginny, Harry, and Hermione to turn just in time to see Hailey pull off Harry’s Invisibility Cloak. “Sorry, it takes a bit longer to get to Hogsmeade when technically I’m only a second year and not eligible to get permission, so my only recourse is to sneak out.”

Hailey sat down in one of the available chairs with a smirk on her face.

“But then again, I had to use a bit of deceitfulness to sneak out illegally, because I’m not going to miss the thing that I did about less than ten percent of the recruiting for,” said Hailey. “Still, you’ll have your work cut out for you Harry, until you figure out what poor souls er I mean lucky people that you have to take over the majority of the work in making sure everyone learns Defense.”

“Exactly how many people am I expecting?” repeated Harry but his question was answered by what seemed to be over half of the students for third to fifth year with a handful of scattered sixth and seventh year students walking into the Three Broomsticks being pointed by Daphne and Theodore to where Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Hailey were sitting. “Well, this is a bit more than I expected.”

Harry watched as the tables around him filled up one by one for the next few minutes. At the most, he was suspecting a couple dozen people but it seemed at least fifty or sixty students had showed up. Slipping behind the crowd while pulling out his wand, Harry silently cast a few privacy charms and a couple of illusion charms, to eliminate any suspicions that someone might have had for the larger than usual amount of students speaking to Harry and his friends. Without another word, Harry sat down, getting a look at the insane amount of people who seemed to be interested.

Harry put a hand to his forehead and sighed in exasperation. It was a bit too late to back out but it seemed as if Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, Hailey, and Ginny had went a bit overboard in telling people who might be interested in learning proper Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“Next time I decide to form an illegal study group, I’m giving you a quota,” muttered Harry before straightening up and looking serious, pulling out his wand and shooting a few sparks in the air to get the attention of the chattering students around him. “Good afternoon everyone, I’m sure you all want to get on with your Hogsmeade visit, so I’ll be brief and discreet as humanly possible.”

Harry took a deep breath, looking at the curious expressions upon the face of all of his guests.

“As you know, Professor Umbridge…” said Harry with a slightly sour expression on his face as he said the woman’s name. “Has her own unique way of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts to us. A way that is not applicable in the real world. She seems to be operating with the mistaken principle that all we need to know is theory, without any practical application. I know first hand that any type of magic takes strict application. If I had attempted to use a spell on someone in a duel with just studying the theory and using it blindly, I would be torn to shreds.”

“But surely, the Ministry of Magic wouldn’t really hurt us in such a matter,” said a third year Ravenclaw girl, even through she seemed rather unsure in her voice.

“The Ministry likes to keep us naïve, or to be more accurate, the office of Minister Fudge himself likes to keep us naive” said Harry in an even voice. “They don’t want the truth to be revealed. I’m going to reveal the one thing that the Ministry doesn’t want you to know because it would disrupt the completely political way they run their government. And whether or you want to believe this it or not, this is the unfortunate truth. The Ministry is endangering you all because of their ignorance of the back that Lord Voldemort has returned.”

Harry could see the majority of the people attending his meeting cringe at the sound of Voldemort’s name. He made a mental note that the first thing he needed to do was to make sure everyone got over the fear of hearing Voldemort’s name. They couldn’t very well stand up to the man if they were paralyzed by the mere sound of his name.

“He can’t be back, there is no way he can be back,” said Lisa Turpin in a slightly scared voice with a lack of conviction

“The Ministry did seem rather keen to hush up those nasty rumors about one of You-Know-Who’s servants posing as Mad-Eye Moody last year. Not to mention those attacks at the Quidditch World Cup,” said Padma Patil in a logical voice. “Still, they must have had some kind of evidence to declare You-Know-Who dead.”

“Voldemort was once human enough to die, but due to certain circumstances, he can’t be killed until certain things are undone,” said Harry in a cool voice before proceeding to answer the question many people no doubt had on their minds. “No, I’m not going to tell you what exactly Voldemort did to become more or less immortal until these rituals are reversed. It’s information that you won’t want the strain of knowing when I told you.”

Surprisingly, Harry did not get any outbursts at his refusal to divulge why exactly Voldemort could not die straight away.

“I’ve seen Voldemort and had the misfortune of being backed in a corner far enough where I had to duel him,” said Harry, once again ignoring the shudders of terror that went with Voldemort’s name. “He won’t let up any once he’s got you in a vunerable position but this isn’t quite the point of this meeting, even through if you have the misfortune of coming against Voldemort or any of his minions, you might have a fighting chance to get away before you get yourselves killed.”

Harry drew in a deep breath.

“Now, I’m sure you’d all like to learn proper Defense Against the Dark Arts and not this utter reprehensible….” Started Harry before stopping himself from saying precisely what he felt about Umbridge’s teaching style. “Listen, most of you are going to either taking your O.W.Ls this year or will be taking your O.W.Ls within the next couple of years. Trust me, preparation is key and with Umbridge purely subscribing to the theory makes it completely boring.”

“So what are you saying is that you can prepare us for the O.W.L exams and maybe a possible encounter with You-Know-Who,” said Zacharias Smith in a skeptical voice. “There isn’t any proof other than the fact you say he is that You-Know-Who is back…”

“Wait a minute, who invited him,” said Hailey in an agitated voice, pointing at Smith. At this point, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.

“Well, he sort of overheard you talking to us about joining and he’d insist he would come,” said Susan apologetically.

“I have to put up with his rubbish enough on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team,” said Hailey in an agitated voice. “I am not interesting in hearing his snide little theories right now.”

“I asked why do you think we need to be prepared for You-Know-Who when there isn’t any proof that he is….” Said Smith but he didn’t finish as Hailey raised her wand in anger. Ginny, Hermione, Daphne, and Theodore did as well, but Hailey beat them to the punch in hexing Smith.

“Silencio,” muttered Hailey. “If you aren’t going to take my brother, who I might add does not have a reason to lie about something as serious as Voldemort being back, at his word, then you have been drinking Fudge’s Kool-Aid.”

“Yeah, Smith, I doubted Harry for years and that was the biggest mistake I have made,” supplied Ron.

“I’m going to remove the Silencing Charm and if you say one more word, I’m going to show you some of the more interesting spells that I’ve learned that are a bit more painful them a simple silencing spell,” said Hailey before waving her wand and undoing the spell. Smith glared at her angrily.

“And to answer your question about what proof I have about Voldemort, sorry I have none other than what I saw with my own two eyes,” said Harry darkly. “And trust me, if I had the capabilities to give you a glance of the night that Voldemort came back to power, you would be begging me to wipe your mind clean of any traces of ever seeing that horror in the flesh. I’m not going to sugar coat anything like the Minister or his staff. His mere mention paralyzes people with fear, seeing Voldemort in person would cause your average person to drop dead from a fear induced heart attack.”

Harry pulled down his sunglasses, looking over at everyone with narrowed eyes which caused a handful of people to gulp in intimidating.

“I refuse to force the fact that Voldemort has returned down anyone else’s throats,” said Harry. “If you don’t believe me, then I suppose you will have to learn, the hard way.”

“Just knowing about some of the things he did, not to mention some of his followers his followers are bad enough,” said Neville nodding his head while thinking darkly about his parents who were driven insane by perhaps the most sadistic of all of You-Know-Who’s followers, Bellatrix Lestrange. “I can hardly imagine what it’s like to meet his person.”

“Precisely and it’s not something I think that Harry likes to relieve,” said Ginny, attempting to discourage anyone from asking any more questions about Voldemort.

“Never mind that, the first and most foremost, I’m sure you came here for the chance to learn proper Defense and no more diversions,” said Harry. “I am willing to teach you a few of the spells that may someday be useful and if you are willing to learn enough, I might teach you a few things that the Ministry does not want you to know. Nothing too dark or life altering I assure you, but enough to manipulate the odds in your favor.”

“Sounds interesting Harry, as I believe that the Ministry will be doing quite a fair bit of manipulating of their own,” said Luna nodding her head. “Fudge is breeding his own army of Heliopaths, so he can set them on anyone who disagrees with him.”

“Fudge is breeding an army of what?” asked Daphne, raising her eyebrows.

“Heliopaths, nasty little things too,” said Luna. “They spawn from the hottest places, their natural habitat is the Sahara Desert but they can be magically engineered with the right spell work.”

“I don’t think that Heliopaths do…” started Hermione but Harry raised his hand to cut her off.

“Whether or not these things exist or not is not the point. I’ve basically told you all more or less what you need to know and now I want you all to think long and hard about the decision that I’m going to ask you to make,” said Harry, making a mental note to find out for sure whether or not Heliopaths were real or just a figment of Luna’s overactive imagination. “Now I would like to sign this form if you agree that you want to learn proper Defense Against the Dark Arts for whatever reason whether it be to excel in your O.W.Ls or defend yourself or any other reason that you might have.”

Harry pulled out a quill and the inch while laying the piece of parchment down in on the table.

“However, for whatever reason you don’t think you can handle being part of a secret club that will be teaching something that is in direct rebellion of our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, then sign this form and you will forget you ever heard of my plans for a convert Defense Against the Dark Arts group. However, before you sign either form, I must warn you of one thing. If anyone has any ideas, not that I’m accusing anyone, of revealing this group to Umbridge or anyone outside of this group for that matter, there will be consequences.”

Harry gave everyone a look that indicated without a doubt that he was not bluffing them. Without another word, the members of the group got up one by one, signing their name to the parchment, agreeing to be part of the group and not breathe a word to it to anyone outside the group. Surprisingly, not one person signed the parchment indicated that they wanted no part of what Harry was doing.

“Okay, now that you’ve all signed the paper and trust me, I would know whether or not you didn’t,” said Harry.

“And how would you know that, oh grand wizard of coolness,” said George

“Yes, do spare us lowly mortals a hint of your mystic ways,” said Fred.

“Another creation of mine that I’m not quite willing to reveal but now the matter of our first meeting,” said Harry. “I believe that next Saturday at two in the afternoon would be good and come up to the seventh floor corridor at this time, right by the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and I will show you exactly where we are meeting. I can’t tell you right here, because our meeting location is not always there.”

Everyone nodded, muttering in agreement.

“I’m going to remove the privacy charms so you can get on with your Hogsmeade trip. Not a further word about our group until the meeting,” said Harry before waving his wand, removing the anti-Eavesdropping barrier and one by one, the students filed out the door. Hailey slowly put on Harry’s Invisibility Cloak before making her way back up to Hogwarts.

The last five at the meeting to leave were Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry walked down the path that they arrived to the Three Broomsticks on.

“That went better then expected,” said Hermione.

“Considering that I was expecting more awkward questions about Voldemort, that did go pretty well,” said Harry before stopping. He could have sworn someone was following him for a second but then when he turned around, checking for any invisibility cloaks with his charmed sunglasses, Harry didn’t see anyone.

“What is it Harry?” asked Ginny in a concerned voice.

“Must have been my mind playing tricks on me, because for a second, I thought someone was following me” said Harry. “I checked through, nothing to worry about right now.”

As Harry, Ginny, Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione walked up to the school, a pair of shadowed figures off to the side of the Three Broomsticks watched as the young Mr. Potter

“I better report to our superior,” muttered the first of the mysterious figures, while pulling out a two way mirror and tapping his wand to it, silently contacting his superior.

“Report,” said the voice of the superior.

“We just witnessed Harry Potter and his friends come back from the Three Broomsticks, forming the Defense Against the Dark Arts study group to oppose Umbridge that we heard rumors about,” said one of the shadowed figures.

“That wasn’t the most interesting thing, he knows something about why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can’t be killed,” said the second of the shadowed figures. “We think he might know more than he is letting on even.”

“Interesting, and I have a pretty shrewd idea about what Mr. Potter may know,” said the voice from the other end of the two way mirror. “The Dark Lord thought he could silence certain information about his circumstances by ordering his subordinates to kill me years ago. However, he underestimated that our organization’s ability to cover up certain matters.”

“But, why are you asking us to follow Harry Potter,” said the first shadowed figure. “Of course, we don’t know exactly who you are either, other than you are one of the most senior memories of this organization.”

“That is none of your concern at this moment,” said the superior “Our organization is extremely interested at the talents of Harry Potter and for your own good, that is all you need to know right now.”