Falling For a Friend || Ron Weasley

9 - hog's head

Y/N's POV

STAYING true to her word, Umbridge took immediate action. In the next month, a series of rules are set into place. Some of which are absolutely ridiculous. Well not some, most actually. Others have been rules at Hogwarts for centuries, though never heavily reinforced. During this time, Theo is constantly apologizing to me about not noticing my scars. I finally get tired of his constant apologies and tell him if he doesn't stop, I'll break up with him. It seems to do the trick. 

Now we're waiting in the Hog's Head for students from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor to arrive. After the first few weeks of school when it became quite clear that we weren't going to be learning anything of use in DADA, Hermione recruited Harry to form a secret society where he teaches us how to defend ourselves. Basically a supplementary DADA class so we actually know how to protect ourselves and don't die in the upcoming war. 

"This is mad. Who'd want to be taught by me? I'm a nutter, remember?" Harry says when a few minutes pass and nobody has arrived. 

"Look on the bright side. You can't be any worse than old toad face." Ron says. 

"Thanks, Ron." Harry says sarcastically. 

"I'm here for you, mate." Ron assures him, patting Harry on the back, to which I laugh.

As if somehow sensing Harry's unease, the door to the Hog's Head bursts open and I stream of students flow inside, buying butterbeers and then taking a seat in front of the four of us. Theo's in the front row, smiling at me. 

Once everyone's seated and it doesn't look like everyone's arrived, Hermione claps her hands together. "Um...Hi! You all know why we're here. We need a teacher. A proper teacher. One who's had real experience defending themselves against the Dark Arts."

"Why?" Theo asks. I do a double-take, wondering if I really just heard him ask that question. Where has he been for the past four months? And more importantly has he not been listening to anything I've said about the matter? I've talked to him multiple times about my thoughts on the upcoming war and that Voldemort is most definitely back. Harry would never lie about something that serious. 

"Why? Because You-Know-Who's back, you tosspot." Ron glares at him, clearly annoyed. Although Ron and Theo have gotten on slightly better with one another since Ron's outburst in the Entrance Hall, there's still an unmistakable tension between the two of them. 

"So he says." Zacharias Smith says this time, nodding his head in Harry's direction. 

"So Dumbledore says." I defend. 

"So Dumbledore says because he says! My point is, where's the proof?"

A boy I don't recognize takes this opportunity to speak up. "If Potter could tell us more about how Diggory got killed..." The boy trails off, and just looking at him gives me the chills. He has a slightly creepy vibe. 

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

Nobody moves. "Is it true you can produce a Patronus Charm?" Luna asks in her dream-like voice as she breaks the silence. 

"Yes. I've seen it." Hermione confirms with a smile, clearly happy that Luna inadvertently saved the whole meeting. 

"Blimey, Harry! I didn't know you could do that!" Dean Thomas yells from the back. I'm surprised to see him at first considering his boyfriend Seamus Finnigan is highly sceptical of Voldemort really being back, so much so that it caused an argument between him and Harry the first night back. 

"And he killed a Basilisk with the sword in Dumbledore's office." Neville tells everyone. 

"It's true." Ginny nods, knowing as well as anyone since she was there, having been lured to the Chamber during her first year. 

"And last year he really did fight off you-know-who in the flesh." Hermione says, bringing us all back to the most important topic of discussion. 

"Wait..." Harry intervenes. "look, it all sounds great when you say it like that. But the truth is most of it was just luck."

"He's just being modest." I tell people. 

"I've never had that much luck." Ron mutters.

The rest of the meeting is spent with Harry going over the differences between using magic in school compared to a life or death situation. And the meeting ends off with everyone signing up on the sheet Hermione lays out.  

The DA has been officially formed. 

*****

A/N: I will never stop putting deamus in my stories because that's literally the best ship that never happened