Amie and the Army (Harry Potter fan-fic) Book 5 COMPLETED

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Two weeks flew by, during those was Amie's grandfather's funeral, on a Saturday. Dumbledore fixed it so Amie flooed home through his fireplace, and then during the evening she flooed back, using floo powder he sent with her. The funeral was hard, but it was closure that Amie needed. And it was good to be with her parents, grieving with people who shared her loss.
Meanwhile Amie and Hermione agreed not to bring up the defense group to Harry in a hurry, but they did start planning among themselves, who they could ask to join. Amie'd mentioned it to George, swearing him to secrecy, and he'd thought the idea was brilliant. Meanwhile Quidditch season progressed, and Ron had now had two practises in a row without being yelled at. Harry's detentions were finally over, and now they all had been able to vanish their mice in Transfiguration. Amie and Hermione had proceeded to vanishing kittens - which Amie found a little disturbing, they were kittens after all.

One evening at the end of September, the four of them were in the library, looking up potions ingredients for Snape, when Hermione brought the defense subject up again.

"I was wondering," she said, "whether you had thought any more about Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry."

" 'Course I have," said Harry grumpily. "Can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us -"

"I meant the idea Amie, Ron and I had" - Ron cast her an alarmed, threatening kind of look; she frowned at him - "oh, all right, the idea Amie and I had, then - about you teaching us."

Harry didn't answer immediately. He was reading over a page of Asiatic Anti-Venoms, but Amie could read him well enough to know he was just putting off answering.

"Well," said Harry, finally speaking up, "yeah, I - I've thought about it a bit."

"And?" said Amie, hoping he'd be a little bit optimistic this time.

"I dunno," said Harry. He looked up at Ron.

"I thought it was a good idea from the start," said Ron immediately, looking more confident to join the conversation now that Harry seemed less likely to shout at them. Harry shifted in his chair, looking awkward.

"You did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?"

"Yes, Harry," said Hermione gently, "but all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, because you are. You were the only person last year who could throw off the Imperius Curse completely, you can produce a Patronus, you can do all sorts of stuff that full-grown wizards can't, Viktor always said -"

Ron looked around at her so fast he appeared to crick his neck; rubbing it, he said, "Yeah? What did Vicky say?"

Amie snickered behind her hand.

"Ho ho," said Hermione in a bored voice. "He said Harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final year at Durmstrang."

Ron was looking at Hermione suspiciously.

"You're not still in contact with him, are you?"

"So what if I am?" said Hermione coolly, though her face was a little pink. "I can have a pen pal if I -"

"He didn't only want to be your pen pal," said Ron accusingly.

Hermione shook her head exasperatedly and, ignoring Ron, who was continuing to watch her, said to Harry, "Well, what do you think? Will you teach us?"

"Just you three, yeah?"

"Well," said Hermione, now looking a little anxious again. "Well . . . now, don't fly off the handle again, Harry, please. . . . But I really think you ought to teach anyone who wants to learn. I mean, we're talking about defending ourselves against V-Voldemort - oh, don't be pathetic, Ron - it doesn't seem fair if we don't offer the chance to other people."