Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

154

Hermione tossed and turned all night, having horrible dreams. It was of her, looking in a mirror almost like a looking glass where she could see the strange woman Harry saw. She was angry. She was furious about something. She kept repeating and repeating the same phrase over and over. 

I got to have it... I got to have it... I got to have it... 

Then slowly the woman turned to face Hermione, almost like the woman was aware of her presence, before she came rushing towards her with her arms outstretch like she was wanting to grab Hermione and pull her through the mirror. 

When she woke up, Hermione wasn't in the mood for talking as she made her way down the stairs to the common room where she found Harry and Ron sitting on the couch.

"Hey! Hermione, we think we have a room for our secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group." Harry cheered as she made her way over to them. She perked up a little, but not much. 

"Where?" she asked.

"Dobby says there's this room known as the Come and Go Room or the Room of Requirement and explained to us how to get around to it and where it's located!" Harry explained to Hermione. 

"That's great... we'll probably have to do it later in the day right after classes. We might what to bring the cloak and the map to help us know where everyone is and avoid anyone's eyes." Hermione advised them. 

The three of them travelled around the school the same way Dobby had informed them to go through. Hermione had to roll her eyes when they were looking at the map and Ron wished he could take a photo of the section where they saw Umbridge's name in the hospital wing. It took them awhile till finally arrived at the seventh floor opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. Then they really had to focus on the type of room they needed. It took about three times around till a door began to form on the wall. 

When they entered, they were amazed. It was exactly what they needed. The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and a shelf full of instruments used to detect dark magic as silk cushions lined the floor. It didn't take long before people began to show up and looked at it with amazement. 

"Okay everyone line up please," Hermione called out, "Before we begin, I thought we should have a name for our club." 

"Can it be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina asked, earning a lot of people's nods and laughter. 

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" Fred suggested. 

"I was thinking of a name that doesn't exactly tell everyone what we're up to." 

"The Defense Assciation?" Cho spoke up, "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?" 

"Yeah! The D.A.'s good... only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army?" Ginny suggested, "Because that's the Ministry's worst fear." 

It earn a lot of people's approval. After they took their vote, people began to practice the Disarming Charm. They first got a bit of talk back from Zacharias Smith about that being their first lesson until he was hushed up real quick. It appeared very well. There were times they had to help people, then there were times they had to get after the twins, who were having fun messing with Zacharias by disarming him from behind. Hermione also listen in on conversations. Like with Harry and Cho, who discussed how Cho's friend Marietta didn't really wanted to be there and how both their parents didn't want them to be on the wrong side of Umbridge. Jordan and Luna were talking about Fudge and their wild tales of a Department of Mysteries where he was developing poisons that he forced down people's, who disagree with him, throats. 

Soon they found themselves had gone hours to the point it was ten after nine, which meant they were going to need to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch. Quickly they discussed when they would meet at the next meetings before everyone was able to clear away and return to their common rooms. 

A couple of weeks went by and Hermione noticed Harry's mood was changing dramatically. He was smiling from ear to ear and was handling Umbridge's classes better. It was getting harder, though to fix a regular day for the week when Quidditch came rolling up. They were thankful Jordan wasn't on the Slytherin Team because they were finding it difficult for them to accommodate three separate Quidditch teams' practices alone. 

Hermione soon came up with a clever method of communicating the time and date of their next meetings to help avoid looking suspicious if people from other houses were cross the Great Hall to talk to each other, especially when they had to cross over to the Slytherin table to inform Jordan. 

One day on their D.A. meeting, Hermione carried a basket of fake Galleons, which poor Ron thought they were actually real. 

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins," Hermione said holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting, "on real Galleons that's just a serial number referring to the goblins who cast the coin, but on these fake coins, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his." 

For a moment no one spoke and looked almost confused, which made Hermione feel a bit upset. 

"Well-- I thought it was a good idea, but if you don't--" 

"You can do a Protean Charm?" Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw, asked. 

"Yes." 

"But that's... that's N.E.W.T. standard." 

"Oh... well... I suppose..." 

"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" he asked, sounding a bit jealous, "I mean... with your brains and such, you would've been perfect for Ravenclaw." 

"Well... the Sorting Hat did consider it, because half my bloodline were in Ravenclaw, but it decided to put me in Gryffindor." Hermione explained, "So are we using the Galleons?" 

As everyone proceeded to grab hold of one of the galleons then proceeded to leave the room, it soon was only Harry, Ron and her that stood in the midst of the room. Harry held up one of the coins and almost unsettled. 

"You know what these remind me of?" Harry asked. 

"What?" she said. 

"The Death Eater's tattoos. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn and they know they've got to join him." Harry stated to her. 

"Well... it is kind of where I got the idea, but I put it on a coin instead of our members' skin..." Hermione pointed out. 

"Yeah, I prefer it this way." Harry stated to her while putting his coin in his pocket. 

"Guess it a family thing," Ron mumbled under his breath while he was flipping his coin around. Hermione stiffened as she glared at Ron. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked him. 

"Nothing. I'm just saying that your family tend to go for the complex charms to do your bidding." Ron stated to her. Hermione slammed the basket against Ron's chest then stormed out of the room, not even glancing back.