Dark Defense

Educational Decree.

When Harry awoke that morning, several hours before he had any reason to do so, it was to find himself tucked into his bed, dressed in his pajamas and with his sword and notes from last night resting on his trunk.

He'd stared at them at first, wondering how on earth he'd gotten here, only for his face to settle into a determined frown as he pulled himself out of his bed, grabbed his notes, and made for the common room, quill and parchment in hand.

He would be found later by the first early risers, still writing furiously at a table covered with his notes, only pausing once to take a shower and change into his robes for the morning, before returning once again to his assignment, earning looks of awe from the onlookers at the dedication and concentration on his face, quite a few of them making up rumors about him planning to overthrow Fudge as the next Minster for Magic by the time the rest of the tower was awake.

"Bloody Hell Harry." Ron muttered, the stunned redhead prefect coming down the steps from their dorm to find his nest friend writing away like a man possessed "What got in your bonnet?"

"Finally got some notes on Sparda." Harry replied, his eyes never leaving his parchment as he jotted down line after line from the notes he'd obtained the previous night. True he'd only managed to read a few chapters of the Dark Knight's tale, but that was more than enough to cover the two-foot roll of parchment required, and then some.

"Blimey." Ron whistled, running his eyes over the collection of notes, his eyes widening as he read over some of the Dark Knight's accomplishments "Get a load of this! Apparently he fought off an assassin that tried to behead Merlin!"

"Well he WAS around over two thousand years ago." Hermione reasoned, looking over Harry's almost four-foot roll of parchment with approval, "It stands to reason he bumped into a few historical figures during the course of his life."

"More than a few by the looks of it…" Ron muttered, flipping through Harry's notes with wide eyes "Blimey, this fellow got around! He's shown up in Europe, Asia, hell he even sealed up a hell mouth in some town in America!"

"Well at least I've gotten the report finished for now." Harry muttered, finishing off his essay with a relieved sigh, as it was due later today, and tucking it away into his book bag, strapping his sword over his shoulder with a grunt "You want to get some breakfast?"

"Before that, I think you'd better take a look at this Harry." Hermione muttered, the grim expression on her face setting the teen's guard up as he followed her over to the notice board, which had been covered, as if overnight, by a giant sign that obscured all the other posts, Harry's eyes narrowing as he read over Umbridge's latest attempt at wrestling control over Hogwarts for herself.

"She just doesn't give up, does she?" Harry muttered, the boy who lived shaking his head in disgust as the rest of the common room started nattering away about their respective clubs being shut down "I mean bloody hell, what do student clubs have to do with the ministry?"

"Well they CAN provide a distraction from exams…" Hermione reasoned, only to wave her hands defensively at Harry and Ron's deadpan expressions "I'm speaking from a teacher's point of view! McGonagall told us we'd have to cut down on club activities for the OWL exams, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Ron recalled, shaking his head at the memory, though the frown remained on his face "But McGonagall didn't mind us attending clubs so long as we kept up our studies, Umbridge just had them disbanded because she's a bi-!"

"RON!" Hermione hissed, cutting him off mid-swear as a group of first years walked past, looking up at him innocently, the redhead turning pink about the ears as he snapped his mouth shut "Anyway, we'd best keep on our toes around Umbridge for now-!"