Life and Love

‘We need to learn defensive spells.’ Hermione said sitting down on your bed closing all the curtains and performing a silencing charm.
‘Lumos.’ You said making your wand light your newly concealed room. ‘I know, I haven’t done anything since last year. Things are changing, and we have no chance.’ You said.
‘We need, we need a way of learning them.’
‘We need a proper teacher who will teach us what we need to know.’
‘Wait!’ Hermione had an idea. ‘What if we start a club?’
‘What a defence club?’
‘Yes, that people can join if they want to actually learn these types of spells.’
‘And Harry could teach us…’ you added.
‘Yes! He knows these spells better than everyone else; he would give us what we need.’
‘He doesn’t need to do this alone anymore. Now this is about everyone.’

The next morning you were on your way to charms when you noticed a large crowd of students, being the nosey sort, you crammed in with everyone around the courtyard, coincidently being pushed straight into Hermione, Harry, Ron and some other Gryffindors.
‘Y-y-you can’t d-d-do this, Hogwarts is my home!’ you heard Professor Trawney sob.
‘Actually I can.’ Umbridge replied in a happy, yet creepy and evil way.
‘Evil little dwarf!’ You said to yourself, although a few around you let out a giggle.
You were pushed forward and you were in the courtyard as McGonagall appeared from behind you, you quickly took your previous place.
McGonagall ran over to Professor Trawney and pulled her into a hug. You and Hermione both agreed that she was completely mad and her lesson was a waste of time, yet you would never wish her gone.
‘Something you would like to say dear?’ Umbridge said watching McGonagall cradle Trawney.
‘Oh there are many things I would like to say.’ She replied in an aggressive tone.
‘Ooo I feel a cat fight coming on…’ you said out loud to yourself, although a large group of people around you laughed, suddenly being sent silent by the doors being swung open and Dumbledore appearing.
‘Minerva please take Professor Trawney back inside.’ Is all you could hear for the last part of the convocation be for he looked at all of you and shouted ‘don’t you all have studding to do!’ making most the students scatter, Harry take off running after him and you began to casually walk to charms, as if none of that had just happened, reflecting on your own thoughts of the situation.

That night the weather had taken an awful turn for the worst, you walked to quiddich practise with Fred and George, who were discussing ways to get out of it, before meeting Ron and Harry who also seemed to of been having the same convocation. A few minutes Angelina came out and practise began, kept you at it for at least an hour, before letting you stop, at which point every inch of you was soaked. You headed as quickly as possible to find Hermione and get dry, and continue your Friday night as normal.

The next day you walked down into Hogsmeade to meet with the people that you, Hermione, Ron and Harry had spoken to previously.
You opened the door to the Hog’s Head and looked in.
‘Lovely spot.’ Ron mumbled a look of disgust plastered on his face.
As you walked into the dull dusty dirty Pub, Arranging chairs for the meeting and chatting about what was going to happen, Hermione agreed that to begin with she would do the main speaking, Harry would say a bit, and Ron and you would fill in anywhere if and when necessary.

You, looking one of the oldest - followed closely by Ron, walked up to the bar, after all, the age limit was 16, you were 15 and 16 in February so it wasn’t exactly a big age gap.
‘Four butter beers please, just leave them in the bottles that will be fine.’ You said remembering numerous times that you had been advised about not drinking out of the glasses here. The old man grunted and walked into a back room, you gave Ron a look as he walked over to join you.
‘Lot of young’ns here aye?’ you said, Ron smiled and made a face.
The old man came back out, put the four bottles on the bar.
‘Eight sickles.’ He mumbled through a dirty grey beard. You gave him the money and picked up two of the bottles and Ron took the other two, you passing one to Harry whose expression was a mixture between nervousness and un-contentment for being there.
‘So who did you say would be meeting?’ Harry asked glancing at all three of you.
‘Just a few people and their friends.’ Hermione said looking out the window.
‘You didn’t invite Malfoy did you?’ he said looking at you. You took a seat in the corner in between Him and Ron.
‘No, no Slytherins.’ You told him, which made his expression slightly less solemn.
‘This might be some of them now?’ Hermione said.
Sure enough the pub began to fill, you were pretty sure that it was probably the most amount of people it would have ever had in it.
Over the course of 10 minutes the Hogs head was filled, and everyone sat facing the four of you, surprisingly the four of you seemed to find it quite intimidating, although you could tell you and Ron were not too bothered.

‘Well – err – Hi.’ Hermione said standing up. The group seemed to focus their attention on her although scanning through the four of you at random times.
‘Well, errmmm… We all know why we’re here… Harry had the idea that,’ Harry gave her a very sharp look. ‘Ok Hannah and I had the idea that it might be good if we had a teacher.’ Some people’s eyes now resting on you more often. ‘A proper teacher… so that we can defend ourselves. So that we can actually do defensive spells.’
‘Why?’ shouted one of the boys in the far back.
‘Because You-Know-Who is back that’s why you bloody idiot.’ Ron snapped.
‘Says him.’ one of the boys said at the front.
‘If that’s what you think then why the fucking hell are you here?’ you snapped making him stare down at his feet. It was obvious that you and Ron were the two most threatening of the four.
‘If you could just tell us how Cedric Diggory died…’ One Ravenclaw boy started.
‘Look I’m not going to start talking about Cedric so if that’s why you’re here you might as well leave. Come on Hermione they all just are here because they think I’m a freak let’s go.’ Harry said turning into Hermione.
‘If you don’t actually have any interests in learning how to defend yourself then leave.’ You said standing up, glancing over all the faces, most which looked away quickly when you caught their eyes.
‘Is it true you can produce the Patronus Charm?’ Luna said when you caught her eyes. You both smiled at each other before she began to look at Harry.
‘Yes.’ Hermione replied proudly for him.
‘Blimey Harry, I never knew that.’ Dean said looking impressed.
‘And he killed a Basilisk, with the sword from Dumbledore’s office in second year.’ Neville chimed out.
‘And in third he fought off about a hundred dementors.’ Ron smiled.
‘And last year he really did fight off You-Know-Who in the flesh.’ Hermione beamed, seeing that they were getting across to people.
‘Guys!’ Harry called, as you expected he would not let this stand as amazing.
‘Look guys, it all sounds so amazing when you put it like that. I almost always had help, if not from Hannah or one of the others then from another and its not all as heroic as it sounds.’ He looked around. ‘It’s not like school, when your at school if something goes wrong you just say oh well and try again next time, but when your out there, fighting for your own life or your friends, or watching someone close to you die right before your eyes.’ As he said this he turned to you, before turning back to the group leaving a few people look at you questioningly, meanwhile you starred down at the floorboards not wanting to answer them. ‘Most of you don’t know what that’s like.’ You felt Harry look at you again, you looked up to see many people looking at you, and you smiled faintly at Luna. After all, there were only four people in that room that new what had happened to your mother. The obvious three, Harry, Ron and Hermione, and also Luna, who you had become good friends with, despite everyone disliking her for her dreaminess, that was one of the things that made you like her.

At the end almost everyone signed up, which to be honest was a surprise to you, as well as the other three. You walked back in between Fred and George, along with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna, as Harry asked you to try and find some places where you could all meet.

A few days later and you were still un-able to find a suitable place, besides; you had been busy with school, work, Fred, Draco and all the others, so you hadn’t had much time to go wandering around looking for a hidden place.
Somehow, you had gotten a free period when just about all your friends had a lesson, so you were walking the castle in boredom. To be honest, you would probably get in trouble for not studying or doing something productive, but you could not be bothered.
You had found an empty bottle a couple of corridors back and were still playing football (soccer) with it now.

‘Hey Hannah.’ You heard, taken aback that someone other than Draco or Fred was sneaking up on you, you stopped playing with the bottle and turned around.
‘Oh hey Neville, don’t you have class?’
‘Nope, I thought I was the only one, apart from Crabbe and Goyle that is.’ You giggled.
‘Damn, if I had known they had it too I would definitely have been hanging out with them.’ you smirked. Neville let out a nervous laugh, as if he didn’t know whether you were joking or not. ‘I guess more people are intimidated by me than I first thought, I don’t see why but the same reason they don’t mess with Ron I suppose, apart from I’m not 6 foot tall quite muscley guy.’ You thought to yourself.
‘Hannah I was wandering…’
‘Oh not another one.’ You thought.
‘If we could talk for a bit, about a sort-of sensitive subject…In the common room..?’
‘Err… yeah sure… Now?’
‘If you want… it doesn’t really matter.’
‘Well I haven’t got anything better to do.’

You and Neville walked up to the common room, you saying the password as it looked as though he had forgotten it. Again. You said down on your favourite arm chair and got comfortable. By this point, although you weren’t sure why, Neville had gone rather red and looked rather uncomfortable.
‘Err… now you don’t have to tell me… but I will share my side too…’
This made you a bit confused ‘Right ok… go on.’
‘Ok… well I just wanted someone to talk about it to really, but err, I think I should share my part first, but if your not the same you have got to promise to keep it a secret…’
‘Yes ok.’
‘Ok, well, as you know, I live with my grandmother. As you may also know, my parents were in the Order, I don’t know how much you know about all that but anyway… err, my parents were tortured to insanity by a death eater called Bellatrix Lestrange, and I just wandered, as I heard that your mother was also in the Order, how she died, I’m sorry if it’s really nosey.’ As soon as he finished he quickly looked down at his lap.
Now, you hated to tell anyone anything, and it wasn’t long ago that Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna found out how she was killed, so you weren’t sure about telling Neville. But, then again he clearly wanted someone to talk to this about, and he seemed to know so much already. You did think it was a bit nosey of him, but you could understand him.
‘Yes Neville, my mother was killed by a death eater, I don’t know who it was, and I don’t think anyone does, but if I ever find out… and if you tell anyone about this expect to go the same way.’ You didn’t want to be so harsh, but you didn’t want to be treated any differently. That is one reason why you did not tell him that you had been there.
‘No no no, of course I won’t tell anyone.’ He replied quickly. ‘But Hannah, can you promise me something?’
‘Probably.’
‘If it takes forever, we are both going to avenge our parents, along with Harry too.’ You gave him a large smile, that was just about the bravest thing to come out of his mouth, maybe one of the only things you have heard to prove him a Gryffindor.
‘I promise.’

The next day, you had another free period, and so once again you were walking around, this time exploring one of the top floors. You turned a corner and walking towards you smirking at each other were Crabbe and Goyle, they both moved out of the way for you (Draco had obviously talked to them). Turning another corner you saw Neville, who was stood staring at something on the wall. You walked up to him, ‘Hey I was looking for you- Neville, Where did that door come from?’
‘Err… well as I walked past the wall, it sort-of just appeared.’
You quickly walked up to it and opened the door, inside, was a big room, enough for the whole of Gryffindor.
‘Neville, I think we need to tell Harry about this.’

At lunch you had told Harry about the room, and had shown it to him along with a few others, he said it was perfect, and Hermione told you that it was the Room of Requirement. It changed to what ever you wanted it to be, in this case, a room to have your defence club in, which Harry had named Dumbledore’s Army.

After dinner, you were heading out for a jog around the lake when someone stopped you.
‘Haven’t seen you in a while.’
You giggled. ‘Draco you saw me for ages yesterday.’
‘Oh yeah.’ He smirked, pretending not to remember. ‘So where are you off to?’
‘Just for a jog, do you fancy joining me?’
‘Yeah if you come with me and let me get changed.’ He said waving one side of his robe.
‘Come on then.’ You said rolling your eyes and walking down to the dungeons with him.
45 minutes later you had stopped running and were now just walking.
‘So you excited for the ball then?’ He asked.
‘Yeah, it’s only next weekend; time has gone so fast, you know we have only properly known each other for two months?’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, seems longer doesn’t it?’
‘Yeah a lot longer.’
‘You talked to Serina about it much?’
‘Yeah a bit.’
‘Well that sounds enthusiastic.’ You laughed.
‘No honestly I am happy to be going with her, I just don’t know her all that well yet, and it takes time to get to know someone.’
‘That’s hypocritical.’
‘Why?’
‘Because look at us, you and me are pretty close and we have only known each other two months.’
‘Yeah but… you’ve got more to you. She’s… more simple.’
‘Nice.’ You giggled. ‘But shouldn’t that make it easier?’
‘Oh stop it.’ He laughed giving you a push.