Ethereal

♦ 046 ♦

The Order of The Phoenix

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by the incoming rush of a crowd of people.

First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with (Harry's stomach did a back-flip) Cho and one of her usually-giggling girlfriends, then (on her own and looking so dreamy she might have walked in by accident) Luna Lovegood; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff girl with a long plait clown her back; three Ravenclaw boys he was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Boot, Ginny, closely followed by a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom Sadie recognised vaguely as being a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and, bringing up the rear, Fred and George with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko's merchandise.

"A couple of people?" said Harry hoarsely to Sadie. "A couple of people?"

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," said Sadie happily. "Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?"

The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly, he had never seen his pub so full.

"Hi," said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly, "could we have, twenty-five Butterbeers, please?"

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty Butterbeers from under the bar.

"Cheers," said Fred, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these. . . ."

Sadie watched with a smile as the large chattering group took their beers from Fred and rummaged in their robes to find coins.

"What have you been telling people?" he said in a low voice. "What are they expecting?"

"I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say," said Sadie soothingly; but Harry continued to look at her so furiously that she added quickly, "you don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first."

"Hi, Harry," said Neville, beaming and taking a seat opposite him.

Harry tried to smile back, but did not speak. Cho had just smiled at him and sat down on Ron's right. Her friend, who had curly reddish-blonde hair, did not smile, but gave Harry a thoroughly mistrustful look which plainly told him that, given her way, she would not be here at all.

In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around Harry, Ron, Sadie and Hermione, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna Lovegood gazing dreamily into space. When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry.

"Well, hi," Sadie said smiling. 

The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry.

"Well, you know why you're here," Sadie said, "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 shit that Umbridge is doing with us because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Hear, hear," said Anthony Goldstein, and Sadie looked amused. 

"Well, I thought it would be good if we took matters into our own hands," Sadie said, "and by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells. . . ."