One and only ; George Weasley

57

"Hermione, what's going on?" Harry asked as the two of them plus Ron entered the pub. A lot of us were sitting in here, hoping that Harry would teach us defense against the dark arts after Umbridge didn't want to teach us the defense part of it all.

Apart from George, Fred, Kathleen and I, Dean Thomas, Neville, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Colin Creevey, Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchely, Hannah Abbott, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Ginny, Lee, Zacharias Smith and Susan Bones were also here so we were a lot of people in one room.

"These are some people I mentioned my Defense Against the Dark Arts idea with." Hermione said, gesturing towards the crowd.

"You mean about us teaching ourselves?" Harry questioned.

"Hey Harry." Neville said as the three of them sat down.

"Hey Neville." He replied before Luna spoke.

"It's good to see that the hornet snorkle-stacks haven't gotten you yet, Harry."

"Uh... same to you, Luna." Harry replied and I wanted to laugh at how awkward it was. The crowd was all talking to each other and so was my friends but I just sat here and waited for the "meeting" to start.

Suddenly Hermione hit the table and stood up, the crowd going quiet.

"Hi, everyone." She spoke. "I thought it would be good if we met and talked over how we wanted to teach ourselves Defense Against the Dark Arts because we need to learn it properly, not the rubbish Umbridge is doing."

"Hear, hear!" Fred exclaimed, raising two fingers, making me laugh.

Hermione looked at him for a moment before she continued. "Obviously, this will help us pass our O.W.L.s, but more importantly, it gives us the ability to protect ourselves from...Lord Voldemort."

Certain people in the crowd flinched or jumped a little at the mention of his name while my eyes just dropped to the ground. George grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze, making me look at him to see a comforting smile on his lips.

"That's the first time you've said his name." Harry commented and Hermione took a deep breath in response.

"How do we know you-know-who is back?" Zacharias asked.

"Dumbledore believes he is." George spoke, his jaw tense as he looked at Zacharias.

"You mean Dumbledore believes him." Justin spoke and nodded in Harry's direction.

"That's true." Hermione said. "But I think we're drifting from the purpose—"

"It's okay Hermione." Harry said and looked at the crowd. "I believe Voldemort's back because I fought him last year. Dumbledore's already told the school that. If you didn't believe him, you won't believe anyone."

"Well—" Hermione spoke. "Anyway...uh, I think that in order to learn properly we'll need a teacher."

"But we're all students." Neville said. "None of us has the experience—"

"Someone here does." Ginny said. Everyone looked at her to see her staring at Harry.

"Me?" He questioned.

"I for one would like to know why Potter's qualified and the rest of us aren't." Michael said.

"Well, he's only confronted you-know-who himself four times and lived to talk about it." Ginny said in defense.

"One of the portraits said you'd killed a Basilisk in the chamber of secrets with that sword in Dumbledore's office." Susan said.

"Uh...well yeah, I did." Harry replied as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Blimey, Harry." Lee said as everyone looked at Harry in shock.

"Wow..." Lavender mumbled.

"Can't forget that he saved the sorcerer's stone from you-know-who in his first year." Fred told everyone.

"And last year he got through the Triwizard tournament." Cho said.

"Not to mention you dueled with you-know-who all alone and he still couldn't kill you." Ron then said.

"And—" Ginny continued. "You fought off those dementors that attacked you this summer."

"So all in favor of taking lessons from Harry?" Hermione asked, raising her hand and everyone slowly followed her action, me included. "Where're we going to meet?"

"What about an unused classroom?" Neville suggested.

"That might work." Harry said. "I'll look into that."

"Ok, good." Hermione nodded and pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag along with a quill. "I think we should put our names down so we know who was here."

"I don't know—" Ernie said. "If it were found... I mean, Umbridge wouldn't like what we're doing."

"Honestly, Ernie." Hermione sighed. "Do you think I'd just leave it lying around? Besides, it's enchanted."

George and Fred were the first to write their names, followed by me, then Kathleen and then slowly the rest of the group followed lead.

"Also, what should we call ourselves?" Hermione asked.

"What about the anti-umbridge league?" Angelina suggested.

"We need something that doesn't give away what we're doing." Hermione told her.

"I think it should be Dumbledore's army." Ginny then said and Harry smiled at her, nodding.

"Dumbledore's army it is." Hermione said after noticing the excitement about the name around the room. "The D.A. for short. We'll let you know when we're going to meet."