Merely Misunderstood

Chapter Thirty-One

After that trip to Hogsmeade, Harry, Ron, and I went straight back to ignoring one another.

It was fairly easy, at least until I found myself sitting on one of the cushions in the Room of Requirement facing them.

"Well," Harry began, sounding nervous. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay —"

"It's fantastic!" said a pretty Asian girl from Ravenclaw, whom I'd overheard someone call "Cho."

I murmured my agreement with what she'd said along with several others.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning as he looked around the room. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then...."

I stifled my giggle in reply, and Ginny, who was sitting closest to me, rolled her eyes.

I looked around the room as a black boy from Gryffindor pointed to an array of Dark Detectors, asking what they were. The Room of Requirement was very large and spacious, and it was lit by multiple flickering torches. The walls were lined with bookcases, and I could imagine what Hermione's reaction had been when she'd laid her eyes on all the books she had yet to read.

I snapped back to attention as Hermione said, "I think we ought to elect a leader."

"Harry's leader," Cho said at once, and I noticed Harry turn slightly pink.

I nudged Ginny, and we both snickered — so Harry had a crush, eh?

Hermione mentioned something about voting properly on a leader, but I was only half-listening. When were we going to start actually learning the spells? That was why we were here, wasn't it?

Everyone voted on Harry to be our leader, and I reluctantly raised my hand to vote, too. He may get on my nerves, but he was still the Boy Who Lived. Who would know more about fighting You-Know-Who than Harry Potter?

"Er — right, thanks," said Harry, whose face went even pinker. "And — what Hermione?"

Hermione had raised her hand again, interrupting Harry. "I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly as if she didn't notice Harry's rising annoyance. I vaguely wondered how many times she was going to say the word "ought."

Johnson asked if we can be the Anti-Umbridge League, and Fred suggested "the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group," but Hermione frowned at Fred, saying, "I was thinking more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"What do you mean?" I muttered to Ginny. "The 'Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group' would give nothing away."

Ginny smirked, turning to face forward as Cho said, "The Defense Association? The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," Ginny piped up. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a lot of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this, and I held out my hand for a high-five from Ginny, who gladly obliged.

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione called out bossily, counting all the hands that flew into the air. It turned out to be the majority that voted, so she wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY on the top of the parchment holding all our signatures and pinned it on the wall.

Harry thought we should practice the Disarming Charm first, and when there was slight retaliation, he told us it had saved his life last June, and there wasn't another word against it.