Blood Magic - Golden Trio Era

70. Defence Alliance

Herpo had been given a room in their pocket realm. Amy agreed with Vlad that he would teach him vampiric magic, so Herpo spent a lot of time living at The Court. There was some surprise when he knew some of the members of the court. They had remembered the powerful wizard quite fondly. She was content that he would settle in well. She was worried that she'd have to teach him, continue teaching Winky and now teach DADA classes.

It turns out there was a lot of interest in their class. Nearly everyone in their year agreed and, the more people signed up, the more their friends also wanted to. Soon enough, it felt as though most of the school had signed up. It was too much. There was no way Amy could effectively teach them all.

Her friends offered a solution. They would rotate teaching. They would take groups individually. Several groups would use the space at once and they rotate the groups between them after a few sessions. The groups would remain together so they can bond and form a 'unit'. The members of each unit were expected to help each other out, even outside of lessons.

The groups would be made up of people from all years and houses. They didn't want anything that could divide groups against each other. Amy also hoped that exposure to other points of view, along with her teaching, would help them break from their old ideologies and loyalties and eventually join her.

Hermione came up with a genius solution to planning. A coin that worked with a similar magic to their marks. From their master copies, they could send a message out to the others. They would offer a time and place to meet. They would heat up noticably when a message was sent so people wouldn't miss it. It was also easy to hide from Umbridge.

Helena reminded them of the Room of Requirement when they were thinking of a location. It was perfect. It was secret enough and, by its nature, was exactly what they needed.

Amy had the Bloody Baron keep an eye on Umbridge on the day of their first meeting. They were all attending the first meeting. Amy thought it was rediculous simply because people would notice most of the school disappearing for a while. Pansy, however, convinced her it'd be hilarious. Helena also thought it'd be the fairest and easiest way to spilt the groups up evenly.

When they arrived, the Room of Requirement was a huge hall. A stage at the front and buffet tables at the sides with all sorts of finger foods and drinks spread out. Along the walls were banners with a rose emblazoned proudly.

Helena and Dean stayed by the door and greeted people as they entered, directing them to take a drink and mingle for now. They were also scanning for any signs that someone was acting dishonestly. Amy stood on the stage with Hermione on her right and Pansy on her left. Luna stood beside Hermione and Helena would eventually take a place beside Pansy. The others stood to either side.

Once they were certain no one else would arrive, they sealed off the door so it wouldn't be present outside.

Helena and Dean joined them on the stage and the crowd started to quieten.

"Good evening!" Amy called loudly, causing the hall to fall into silence completely.

"When it was first proposed to me that I teach, I decided to extend the invitation, expecting very few to be interested. Now, I see almost the entire school gathered here."

A small laugh spread through the crowd.

"I know we have many differences. Maybe you hate me. Maybe you hate the person standing beside to you. That's fine. We are here because we all know a war is coming. All of us need to learn to defend ourselves and the Ministry clearly doesn't want us to.

"This idea was first presented to me by a mixture of Slytherins and Gryffindors. Students who hate each other, approached me as one. I hope that, while we are here, we set our differences aside. While we are here, we aren't Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, we aren't pureblood or muggleborn, we aren't first or seventh years. We are simply part of this Defence Alliance."