Astra

XCV - The Defense Club

HERMIONE CLEARED HER throat and began speaking.

"Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well, Harry here had the idea--I mean,"  Harry had thrown her a sharp look, "I had the idea--that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts--and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us-- "Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident, "-- because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts--" ('Hear, hear,' said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione looked heartened) "--Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on, "And by that, I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells--"

"You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL too, though, I bet?" said Michael Corner, who was watching her closely.

"Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because . . . because . . . " she took a great breath and finished, "because Lord Voldemort is back."

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shrieked and slopped Butterbeer down herself; Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch; Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.

"Well . . . that's the plan, anyway," said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to--"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it--" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.

"Who are you?" said Ron, rather rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Well, Smith," said Astra sharply, "Have you ever read the Quibbler?"

"Well, yeah -"

"Then you should have read a five-page article discussing in complete detail the return of Voldemort," people flinched, "as well as everything the Ministry is not doing against it."

"But, you wrote it -" Astra raised an eyebrow, "- and how are we supposed to be able to trust you -"

"With my dad being who he is?" Astra said in a quiet but venomous tone, "Let's see. If you're not going to trust me with my family background then you should probably leave. Either way- Smith, right? I had the pleasure of meeting your father at the ministry this summer, and he was a spineless coward -"

"OI -" 

"- I'd like to think that you're not the same as him, since genetics don't define a person. But, hey, maybe they do in your case." 

Smith was red in the face, and Astra only crossed her legs, folding her arms over her chest. "But that's not the point about this, is it?" she said firmly, grabbing the attention of the rest of the room, "My family being filled with murderers and psychopaths has nothing to do with the fact that Umbitch isn't teaching us anything, we all suck at defense, and a war's gonna break out eventually. So, are you going to listen or not?"

No one answered.

"So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So . . . like I was saying . . . if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet and where we're going to--"