The End's Intent

Chapter 9

Saturday evening, Hermione waited anxiously on top of the astronomy tower. Neville, Luna, and Ginny stood with her, talking quietly about what they were expecting for the DA and hoping the wards they'd cast would be enough to deter teachers. When the first two students shyly arrived, Hermione grinned and began talking with the immediately.

It took almost an hour for everyone to arrive and when they did, the astronomy tower was feeling very crowded. Hermione had expected as much, but she hadn't wanted to give away the secret of the Room of Requirement away right at first. Besides, there was still a part of her that was worried someone would try and tell a professor or spread the news to the wrong person.

Once Hermione was sure everyone had arrived, she conjured a stool and stood on it so she could see everyone better. She didn't use a voice magnifier as she didn't want people outside of the astronomy tower to hear her, but standing on the stool seemed to catch everyone's attention enough that they stopped talking.

"Hi, everyone," she said. It felt a bit awkward and she almost wanted to start over, but she continued. "I know some of you are familiar with what the DA is, but lots of you are new here so I wanted to explain. First, the parchment you signed to get here was enchanted and will prevent all of you from spreading the word. I know it's strange, but it's a safety thing. We don't want professors or Death Eaters hearing about this."

A few whispers broke out, but they quieted as Hermione explained what would happen should they try to inform someone else about the DA or attempt to reveal the group. Next, Hermione explained what the DA was. She told everyone how Harry had actually been the one to form the group when the Ministry sent Umbridge to teach and how she had decided to take over while he was gone. Several hands went up in the air at that.

"Yes?" Hermione asked, pointing to a nearby student.

"Where is Harry Potter?" the girl asked. Most of the other hands went down and everyone started to whisper.

"Harry is busy on a mission from Dumbledore," Hermione answered. A few more hands went up and she sighed. "I can't tell you what it is, but it does have to do with defeating You Know Who. Now, if you're ready to officially join, line up here so we can distribute the communication coins we use to contact you."

* * * * *

The DA was thriving. Hermione wanted to say it was because she, Neville, Luna, and Ginny had grown and were able to teach more defense spells with better methods, but she knew it was because everyone was much more motivated with the Carrows around than they'd been with Umbridge. As much as Hermione hated the reason, she was glad the DA was progressing so fast and getting better and better at defense magic with each meeting.

Of course, they only met on Saturdays, but the practices usually went from breakfast until dinner as the Room of Requirement provided lunch and everyone was too excited to quit. They'd had one meeting on a Wednesday afternoon when Hermione found out the Carrows had been called away for another mission, but other than that, they'd only met three other times.

Overall, things seemed to be going strangely smooth. The Carrows had been less cruel when assigning homework and even Montague had stepped back a bit, something Hermione found incredibly suspicious. She made sure to pay a little extra attention to professors and Slytherin students with the way things were and found herself growing frustrated when two weeks in, nothing horrible had happened yet.

Not that she wanted something bad to happen; she just expected it seeing as this seemed to be the calm before the storm.

"Are you ready?" Draco asked, tapping her shoulder and startling her from her thoughts. She twisted around to see Draco holding her cloak and already wearing his and she frowned.