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"Hem hem," Harry said in a fake imitation of Professor Umbridge as he and Hermione walked up to the chalk board with their names on it.

"Good afternoon, and welcome to the first class of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm Professor Potter and this is Professor Granger." Harry saw a few people smile at his imitation and thought he heard a laugh or two, but besides that everyone still seemed to be looking at him a bit awkward.

"Now that won't do at all. Let's try this again shall we. Good afternoon, class!"

There were more laughs this time as they chanted, "Good Afternoon, Professor Potter."

"Much Better!" Harry said as he switched back to his normal voice. "As I'm sure you all noticed this room is not normal. Each of the fourteen doors leads to a different section of the castle. In order to keep from being noticed, you'll each be put into a small group and assigned a specific door to use. We'll also be splitting the class into two separate groups to make it easier to schedule around the different school activities, so be sure to talk to either Hermione or myself within the next couple days so we can get everything finalized."

"Now," continued Harry. "Thanks to Umbridge and her ridiculous decree, this meeting is against school rules. We hope that in calling it Defense Against the Dark Arts anyone who overhears you talking about it won't automatically connect to an illegal club. Still, it'd be best if you didn't really talk about these meetings too much."

"One other thing," Hermione added, "If everyone started using this room as a shortcut for classes it wouldn't remain a secret for long, so the doors will only open if Harry is already inside."

There were a few grumbles and a couple dirty looks shot Hermione's way so Harry quickly spoke up, hoping to take some of the unwanted attention away from her. "We're going to start with each group having two classes per week. There will be a one or two hour meeting during the week, and then a two or three hour weekend meeting."

"Right," he said, more to himself than the group. "I think that's about it for announcements. Any questions before we start?"

"Yeah. What are you going to teach us?" asked Zacharias Smith.

"First we're going to review some basics like aiming and dodging. Then we’ll move on to stunning, disarming and summoning charms, before hitting shielding spells. Once we’ve all got the basics down, we’ll move on to the more advanced tactics and spells."

They expected the grumbling and complaining that followed his announcement. Surprisingly though, it was Ginny who seemed to be the angriest about it, or at least the most vocal.

"Any first year could cast those!" she yelled. "What good are weak spells like those going to do?!"

Harry could tell Hermione was as shocked by her outburst as he. Still, a plan was a plan and when she sent a questioning glance his way, he nodded.

Less than a second later all hell broke loose as Harry pulled his wand and quickly sent a series of stunners into the crowd, hitting Ginny first before moving on to those around her. Hermione sent her own volley of stunners into the crowd and before anyone had time to react they'd already taken down five of the 26 students.

Easily dodging the few spells coming his way, which wasn't hard considering few would've come close to hitting him if he’d been standing still, Harry sent a few quick summoning charms on the students towards the back of the crowd. He never kept the charm active for more than a few moments, just long enough to knock over anyone in front of them and cause a bit of mayhem for the group.

Hearing Hermione start to cast the Lumos Solaris spell, Harry turned head and covered his eyes the best he could. It was a risk he knew, as it left him open to any last second attacks, but it'd be worth it if he could keep his sight. A moment later the room became so bright he could see the light coming through his own hands. Blinded, the rest of the students were easy pickings for the pair.

A few students tried to make their way out of the mass of people but more often than not only ended up running into someone else and falling to the floor. Several of the students began getting their sight back before he and Hermione could stun everyone. As they launched an offensive against their two teachers, Harry had to start concentrating on dodging curses more often and attacking less.

Hermione was finally stunned, and by Ron no less. Harry was surprised to see that it'd been him at first, but quickly realized he probably shouldn't be. Ron may not have practiced with them over the last week, but probably picked up a few things when they practiced for the tournament last year. After quickly stunning him, Harry jumped out of the way of two more incoming spells before launching an attack of his own. He didn't bother with accuracy this time, merely sending a quick succession of spells toward them so he could take a stock of the situation. It wasn't good.

With Ron out of the way, it left four people for him to deal with; Katie, Susan, Luna and Padma. Unfortunately, without Hermione drawing half the fire all four girls now concentrated on him. After dodging some of their spells, Harry decided there was a very good reason why these four were the last standing. Only a minute later it was clear he had to end this, and soon. While not actually working together, the girls picked up a natural rhythm for their casting which allowed them to keep a constant barrage going against him. The constant dodging and blocking of spells left him no chance to plan an actual attack. If things continued like this, he knew it'd only be a matter of time before one of the girls hit him.

Without a moment’s pause he changed directions and charged directly at the closest girl, Katie. She easily dodged out of the way, but the distraction was all he needed to send a stunning spell directly into her chest. The remaining three girls were a lot more cautious and kept their distance after that.

Unfortunately, his charge left him near the front of the room. The girls used this to their advantage and began backing him up against the front wall, which severely limited his ability to dodge spells. It was only as Padma stepped over Hermione that an idea came to him. Casting the Siren charm to create such a loud wail that it’d effectively deafened everyone in the room, Harry pointed his wand toward Hermione and enervated her before quickly dodging another volley of spells from the girls.

Hermione glanced around for a mere second before coming to her senses and stunning Padma in the back. Susan was surprised to see her Ravenclaw friend fall and turned towards the unconscious girl, giving Harry the perfect opportunity to stun her as Hermione took care of Luna.

"Well, that was fun," Harry commented breathlessly, though he was quite serious. The fight really had been exhilarating. Perhaps not on par with a good Quidditch match, but a close second.

When Hermione didn't say anything he looked up to find her deep in thought with a frown prevalent on her face. She must be furious with herself for getting stunned, especially by Ron. He could only imagine the amount of bickering this would lead too.

"We should start waking them all up," Harry told her, hoping to take her mind off it.

"That," exclaimed Harry to the grumbling crowd. "Is why we're going to start with reflexes and aiming first before we go on to other spells. The hardest spell Hermione or I used was the summoning charm, which you fourth years should be learning soon, if you haven't already. Besides that, all the spells could easily be taught to a second year. The trick is being able to use them effectively in a fight. Once you get that down, we'll work our way to more powerful spells, but not until then."

"But that wasn't a fair fight!" exclaimed Michael. "You just started stunning people with no warning."

"What does fair have to do with anything?" asked Ginny with a surprising amount of venom in her voice. "Do you think Death Eaters are just going to politely knock on your door late at night and ask if it's okay to torture and murder you and your family? Or wait for patiently for you to prepare yourself and then bow like a proper duel?"

"Hey you're the one that was against it in the beginning!"

"You're right," Ginny admitted. "I was against reviewing, but in case you didn't notice they just proved me wrong. The pair of them took down all of us. 26 against two. And. We. Lost. Don't you see, if they'd been Death Eaters every one of us would be tortured, raped, or killed!"

An uneasy silence filled the air after that and Harry decided it was a good enough time to end it for the day. "All right everyone, that seems to be enough for today. We'll start the first meetings sometime toward the beginning of next week. Make sure to get in touch with Hermione or myself in the next few days so we can get an exact schedule for everyone."

"Katie, Padma, Susan, Luna,” he added a moment later. “You four did incredibly well during the fight and were the last ones standing. I have a reward if you want to stay after a few minutes."

Over the next hour the six of them actually had a nice time talking and joking back and forth. Even Hermione seemed to have forgotten her earlier anger and enjoyed the warm taste of Butterbeer and chocolate. When Harry brought up how well they did, he was surprised to learn just why each of them could fight better than their piers. It also brought home to Harry how Voldemort affected a lot more people than just himself.

Katie's mother was a muggleborn witch and her father a pureblood. He’d been murdered for 'polluting' his bloodline shortly after it was found out her mom was pregnant. When Harry and Dumbledore claimed that You-Know-Who was back last year, they both took it very seriously. Her mom even considered taking her out of Hogwarts and moving away from Brittan, but decided against it as last time around no-where in the world was safe from him. They did end up moving over the summer though. She wasn't allowed to have any visitors anymore, or tell any of her friends where they moved to.

It turned out that Padma and Parvati spent nearly all summer with extended family in India where the government announced You-Know-Who's return only two weeks after their arrival. India was taking the threat very seriously since they were one of the worse hit countries last time around. Apparently they still taught and believed in the old ways, before the International Confederation gave so much power to the so called pure-bloods. Neither knew anything about the Ministry of Magic denying Harry's claim, or slandering him until they returned home two days before school started.

Susan explained that her auntie gave her a couple advanced books on defense to study over the summer and taught her a few tricks to help escape any trouble. Amelia wasn't positive if You-Know-Who really was back, since she didn't know the details of what happened, but had not been willing to take any chances with family. Susan also told him she hadn't believed the Prophet either, having learned second year to be skeptical of the rumors about him.

Luna's reasoning was actually quite a bit different. Apparently she needed quick reactions and good aim in order to stun the ever-elusive Wandering Wisp; a glowing, translucent, non-corporeal being that could fly right through solid walls. As humorous as Harry found her explanation, no one, not even Hermione, could question her effectiveness.

"Well, that went well," Hermione said once the other girls left.

"I'm sure a few aren't too happy with us, but our plan worked better than I expected. Ginny was a surprise though. I can't believe she was the one to argue against us!"

"That caught me by surprise as well," she admitted, "though it makes sense if you think about it."

"How does arguing with us make sense? I may not be great friends with her, but I've never been anything but kind to her. And I thought you two were best friends."

"Hardly," replied Hermione. "We get along well enough during the summers because we're the only girls around, but aside from that we're not really close. As for it not making sense... Take a minute and really think about it. What Ginny went through her first year affected her in ways we'll never understand. It took her nearly two years just to be able to act like herself again. Now, not only is her tormentor back from the dead; but the Ministry, the government she was brought up to trust and believe in, isn't doing a thing about it. She probably feels powerless and wants to prove herself anyway she can. I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes one of your most dedicated members."

"We should keep an eye on her though," Hermione added a moment later. "I may not be her best friend, but if there's any way we can help her deal with her demons..."

Harry grinned to himself as thoughts of watching her in bed last week flashed through his mind. He had no problems with the idea of keeping his eyes on her.

Unfortunately though, he didn't get a chance to keep an eye on her that night as his duties as best friend kept him busy. They weren't in the common room for more than a few moments before Ron came over and, after the initially questions, hoarded his stunning Hermione over her. It was only Harry's reminder that it was secret club which prevented him from announcing it to the entire common-room. Still, throughout the rest of the night he managed to find ways to bring it into the conversation.

Stunning Hermione was no small feat and Ron was right to feel proud of it. Harry didn't like the bragging he was doing though, nor that he was putting Hermione down so he could feel better about himself. He may not have been doing it intentionally, but still... It was something that Dudley or Malfoy would do, not something Harry would do. And certainly not something he wanted done to one of his best friends.

He always hated his friend’s bickering and arguments, but never considered how it affected either of them before. What Harry was seeing tonight though, made him stop and truly think about it. Hermione was pulling away from them, concentrating more and more on her books and less on either of them. This wasn't the fist time it'd happen. It was quite common actually, and he always just assumed Hermione became engrossed in whatever book was in front of her. He never questioned that assumption, not until tonight at least.

She hid it well, but with as closely as Harry was watching her, or more specifically, her body, he could tell the effect each one of Ron's crass comments had. Was it always like this? Slowly throughout the night he watched as Hermione's smile and enthusiasm from their meeting faded. By the time they were ready for bed he knew something had to be done and slipped her a note before heading up with Ron.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered as she felt something touch her arm a half-hour later.

"Get under the cloak."

"Where are we going?"

"To meeting room to practice some more," he whispered back, enjoying the feel of her body pressing slightly against his more than he probably should have.

"When Ron doesn't get close to even touching you next time, you should make a few comments of your own. Maybe then he'll understand what it feels like."

Hermione stilled for a moment, surprised and startled that Harry saw how much it affected her.

"I know you'd never say it to him though, you're not like that. Like them."

"Thank you," replied Hermione. Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but he could almost hear the smile in it.

The elation he felt from their successful first meeting, and from knowing that not everyone counted him a lunatic, carried over to the next few days. That the conspiracy was still in place and most the female members were coming up to give him their schedules. Several of the male members stopped by to talk as well, but it was all the attention from the different girls that helped make his overall mood the best it'd been since the third task.

Quidditch practice was going well. The girls’ idea of putting on a show of playing better than they were to build Ron's confidence worked fairly well. Between it, the extensive practices and keeping Malfoy and the Slytherins away, the team could see his confidence grow. He would never be to Oliver's level, at least not without a great deal more discipline and practice, but at least they could now realistically hope for victory.

With the increased preparation for the Gryffindor Quidditch match Hermione's only choice for the weekday Defense meetings were after the evening’s practices Wednesday and Friday. The meetings actually worked out quite well. The smaller size gave Harry the chance to really see what each person needed help with. Unfortunately, his prediction came true and it was clear that his fellow students would require a great deal of practice hitting moving targets before they'd be really effective. The class went decently at first, with everyone walking around and casting spells at life like stationary targets Hermione transfigured from the stone floor.

It was the second half of the class though, that showed the real problems. Harry conjured up a few head sized rubber balls and tossed them around the room. It took everyone three tries before the first student, Luna, was even able to hit one. Hand eye co-ordination really came into play and by the end of class some of the more athletic students were able to hit one or two of them. Luna, Cho, Ginny, Michael and Dean were the first group’s winners; with Katie, Alicia, Angelina and Fred and George, Harry counted the twins as one person since they both took turns at the same time, the second group’s.

Thankfully that Friday night Harry didn't have to worry much about homework and was able to sneak out for a visit to the Room of Requirement again.

He found Tonks reading through a few files while sitting on a couch in Grimmauld Place, for the Order or Ministry he didn't know. Using the trick he learned last time, Harry was instantly standing in the same room with her and walked behind the sofa to read one of the files over her shoulder. It seemed to be about the movements of a Greek man he'd never heard of, Gabric Valhauskus. Shrugging, he stepped back and enjoyed watching her for a few minutes before switching the room to Fleur.

The room changed to a rather girly, but very impressive bedroom where Fleur stood wearing a white silk blouse and little else. Merlin was she beautiful! Fleur's long fingernails slid easily underneath the elastic of her panties, and she pulled the black silk material out from between her magnificent pert arse and down her long legs. She took off her blouse next and once again Harry was amazed at how perfect her body was. Walking around the bed to the full-length mirror, she placed her hands near her toned stomach and stood there looking at herself. Her hands slowly traced her body as she turned slightly to her left and then to the right, examining for any traces of imperfection. There were none.

One hand slid down her legs and then back up between her thighs where she slowly traced down the small strip of blond hair. Just as she reached her center she turned and walked back towards the closet. Taking a short dark dress from the closet she put it on over her head, which caused a moan of disappointment from Harry.

It was only after she left her flat that he realized she never put on any underwear. The thought of her walking around in nothing more than that small dress was just too much for him to wrap his mind around. Had she done similar things while she was at Hogwarts last year? Did other girls do that too?

He was still reeling from that revelation when his next target appeared before him. Ginny was standing in a corridor, her shirt un-tucked and partially open, making out with Michael Corner! He watched them for a few minutes and was rather amused, though a little shocked to find that she was the aggressor, not Michael. Michael was pinned to the wall as she rather forcefully kissed him, one hand in his hair and the other roaming over his chest.

A few minutes later he apparently pushed things a bit further than she wanted. Once he finally finished unbuttoning her shirt, his hands began to inch there way upwards. Ginny stopped the exploring she was doing and grabbed the offending hand to prevent it from going any further. Harry couldn't hear what they were saying, but after a few words and a couple more quick kisses, Michael left.

Harry watched amazed as Ginny slowly tucked in and buttoned her shirt before calmly walking back toward Gryffindor Tower. This definitely wasn't the little girl he first met five years ago. But then again, he wasn't the same boy he'd been back then either, so why not her?

In a way that thought startled him. Not about Ginny, but about himself. He changed a great deal over the last several years and knew it. For some reason though, he still thought of himself as the small freak who lived in the cupboard under the stairs. That was something he'd have to change. There's no way he was going to let the Dursley's win like that.
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I hope you enjoy the update! I'm always interested in what you think of the story, so feel free to review and let me know if you have any comments, questions or critiques.
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