Unity & Perseverance

First Meeting of the DA

A/N: Next Chapter: Junior DA starts up, and Umbridge starts her purge.

Harry felt somewhat drained when he woke up on Friday morning, his hand still stinging. He realised that the bleeding had long stopped, and so concluded that hopefully, the Burn Paste would still work, if he kept layering it up.  He had almost finished the whole tube before the carved writing could no longer be seen. "It will have to do," he said quietly, as he decided to get dressed.

He was quite early going down to breakfast, but he was soon joined by Ron and Hermione. Ron still had the Quidditch book in hand, and was reading it whilst he ate his pork sausages (to the disgust of Hermione). Sirius soon came down via the door behind the staff table, and sat down near Professor Babbling. Harry still couldn't get over how Sirius was now a teacher - sure, his godfather was very good at it, but why had he not mentioned it? And since when did he have an interest in Astronomy?

He was brought out of his thoughts when Amelia and Dorea came down and sat next to them. The Great Hall was now getting a bit busier. "Do you think we should tell Hermione about your detentions?" Ron whispered from next to him.

Harry shook his head. "No. Not here anyway, she'll make a scene." Knowing Hermione, she would probably storm right up to the staff table and challenge Umbridge herself.

Ron sighed a little. "You can't keep it from her forever. I'm sure she already knows something is up."

"I'll tell her when I'm ready," Harry whispered, as they got up to go to first period, which was double Care of Magical Creatures. Once again, they had Professor Grubbly-Plank, who still had the Bowtruckles, but it would be their last period studying them. They focussed on feeding the Bowtruckles and covering other aspects of their diet.

After morning interval was History of Magic, however Amelia, Dorea and Hermione had Arithmancy - as did a good chunk of the class, due to the fact that they'd already had their double period for History earlier in the week. Besides, they didn't miss that much, as Binns was again droning on about Giant Wars. Harry tried his best to focus as he jotted down notes from the textbook, but even as he ignored the ghosts sleep-inducing voice, he found himself slowly losing concentration. However, he managed to get through a section with plenty of time remaining. Their Astronomy Theory lesson was again quite fun, as Sirius kept on poking fun at Dorea. Half the female members of the class were trying their hardest to mask their fancy for his godfather, but Harry secretly found it hilarious.

Lunch was a quick affair, and after it they had Herbology. Every once in a while he noticed that two boys in Slytherin were looking over at him - Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, who he'd never really spoken to before. He knew that Theo's dad was a Death Eater, but the boy was weirdly staying a bit silent whenever Draco whispered something to Crabbe and Goyle that were definitely aimed at him. He was half-tempted to ask Daphne who all had signed up from Slytherin, as he wondered if the two boys had...

They unfortunately had Defence after Herbology, and Harry was reminded that tonight was their last detention with Umbridge. He vowed to himself that he would definitely try and hold his tongue, else he would risk getting in more, and as of next week he really couldn't afford to get more detentions, what with Quidditch practise starting up, the Junior Defence Association group also starting on Monday, homework... He was struggling enough as it is.

They were once again reading through the textbook that Umbridge had assigned, which was almost as boring as a lesson with Cuthbert Binns and as interesting as a Flobberworm. He was almost falling asleep, and could no longer focus on a single sentence, so elected to stare down at the desk. Every once in a while he could feel Professor Umbridge's eyes stare in their vicinity, but he kept his cool. As they were leaving for the last period of the week - which was thankfully Ancient Runes, Umbridge said to them as they were leaving, "I'll see you three at five."