Year 5 (pt.2)
After that, each day that passed turned into Harry doing less and less to help with the preparations and more Hermione and Michael planning and asking around. It was clear to them that Harry wouldn’t be much of a teacher and they knew far more spells that would be useful in defenses than he did.
After a few weeks of asking around, all the people they gathered met up at an empty classroom where Michael and Hermione would tell them their idea and why they should learn proper defense spells. Around 20 students showed up and then they started their speech.
“Defense against the dark arts is far more important than just learning from a book. You need to do the spells to protect yourselves. With Voldemort apparently back, there will probably be an uprise in dark magic being used. We need to know how to protect ourselves from that” Hermione lectured to the room of people.
Most of them nodded in agreement but there were some people who looked skeptical. A few addressed their concerns about consequences if Umbridge found out about this group and that seemed to shift most of the people to not wanting to participate. Hermione was beginning to become increasingly frustrated but kept trying to put on a good convincing face to show everything will be fine.
All of a sudden, the classroom door slammed open. Umbridge walked in, in her usual bright pink uniform. With a sickly sweet smile she asked Hermione and Michael who were at the front of the room, “What is going on here?”
Before Hermione could say anything Michael said, “I was teaching these people self defense. My dad said it was important to learn how to protect yourself if you don't have magic and I wanted others to know as well.”
Umbridge nodded and said, “Well, there is no need for that. Everyone here has magic so why would they need to know this?” Michael just shrugged. “That is enough. Everyone should go back to your dorms now.”
With that, everyone got up and left in a hurry. Michael and Hermione left in a rage. Not only did the plan to get others to learn defense spells not work, but they were also caught that easily. If they ever get this to work out they will need to find an extra secret place that nobody knows about.
~
Michael, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna were all sitting down by the lake. It was a warm fall day so everybody was sitting down by the lake. Luna was near the edge grazing her fingertips over the smooth water and Ginny was asking her questions about the giant squid that was swimming not too far away. Michael and Hermione were listening to the two of them, finding Luna’s giant squid knowledge to be quite impressive.
Every once in a while, someone on a broom would zip by or you'd hear someone yell something. After a bit, Michael heard someone yell his name.
“Michael!” He looked up to see Draco standing by the water smirking. “I don't have time for you Draco,” Michael said and he tried to get past him to leave before anything gets out of hand but Draco put his arm up stopping him. “I've been training in Karate Michael, so I'm not scared of you anymore,” Draco said, staring up at him. Michael started laughing hysterically “Tell you what Draco, 'cause I'm in a good mood, I'll let you get the first punch for free.”
Draco smiled and punched Michael as hard as he could in the face which Michael barely reacted to. So Draco tried to punch Michael again but this time he blocked his fist and punched Draco in the mouth with his metal arm. Draco didn't have time to react as Michael threw punch after punch at him. Each one hurt Draco even more than then the one before it. Michael stopped for a second to take a breath and Draco tried to land a punch in that small break but Michael grabbed his arm and snapped it. With that, Michael started punching Draco in the face again.
Michael stopped hitting him after a minute or two to look at Draco. Michael scoffed, spat on him, and started to walk away. As he did so, Draco stood back up and ran at Michael in an attempt to land a surprise attack but Michael turned around and grabbed Draco's unbroken arm, “We're done fighting Draco. You lost, accept that or I have every right to hurt you even more.” Michael said, looking around to see the growing crowd that was watching them. “I will never back down from a fight.” Draco spat in his face while trying to pull his fist away from Michael. Michael sighed and kicked Draco in the knee making it give out and as Draco fell, Michael landed one last punch with his metal arm which knocked Draco out cold.
~
A lot more people saw Michael and Draco’s fight than was first thought. The day after, Hermione and Michael were approached by quite a few people who came to their meeting about defense spells and said if they could also learn how Michael did that, they would join. The more and more they heard people say this the more Hermione started considering it a possibility. Maybe they could add self-defense to the defense magic lessons. That's when they came up with the plan to have a second meeting in Hogsmeade so Umbridge couldn’t walk in on them again.
“Thank you for coming all the way here to have a meeting. As we said, defense spells are important to learn but it seems like you are all interested in self-defense as well. We have thought a lot about this and agreed that we will teach both magic and physical defenses if you’d like.” Hermione announced to the group who were not gathered in a local pub, The Hog’s Head.
This time around, there were far more people interested and many agreed to join the group as long as they wouldn’t get caught. While Michael and Hermione said nobody wouldn't get in trouble, the fact they still didn’t have a safe place to practice this was looming over their heads. The first thing they could do to protect themselves was have everyone who wanted to join sign a piece of parchment. They needed to know who was going to be a part of this. At the top of the parchment was the words ‘Dumbledore’s Army’. Michael explained that this was to be the name of the group because with the defense skills they are to Dumbledore, Hogwarts, and all people who are against Voldemort.
One by one, people signed the parchment and made their way out of the pub. Hermione assured them that they will be informed of when and where the first gathering of Dumblefore’s Army would take place. All that were left in the pub were Ginny, Luna, Hermione, and Michael.
“Why did you want us all to sign the parchment?” Luna questioned Hermione who smiled. “Well, I have hexed the paper so if anyone betrays the trust of the army, they will instantly break out in painful, ugly spots that spell out ‘SNEAK’ on their face.”
Michael looked at her in shock. But before he could say anything Ginny groaned. “Why would you invite Ernie to the army?” The three of them cringed because they realized how awkward this must be. Michael forgot he was the one who took her to the Yule Ball last year. He wasn’t very nice to her either. He made a mental note to make Ernie's time at the army not all that fun.
The four of them sat and talked for a while enjoying a couple butterbeers each before they decided to stop at a few shops before going back to the castle. As they were about to exit Michael took note of how the man behind the bar looked vaguely like Dumbledore but his attention was quickly brought back to the girls as they told him what stores they wanted to stop at.
~
After a while of thinking about where they could train and Hermione freaking out a few times about the fact this plan is going down the drain before it could properly start, Michael took it upon himself to find a spot. He decided to ask the only person at Hogwarts that could give him a good answer. So he went to Dumbledore's office and asked.
“Dumbledore, I was wondering if you knew a place where I could privately practice spells and work out without certain people or teachers interrupting. I have been looking all year for somewhere private and I can’t seem to find one.”
After a little bit of thinking Dumbledore gave Michael a grin and said, “There is this room that I know about that might be useful for you.” he went on to explain where to find this room that would apparently be useful for him.
~
“Wait. There isn’t even a door to this place?” Ginny said.
Michael, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna were all going to check out the room Dumbledore told them about before they actually brought the rest of the army with them.
“It’s called the room of requirements, but no, apparently there isn't. Once of us needs to walk past the area across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy on the seventh floor three times while thinking of what we want to appear. Then a door will appear with just what we want.” Michael said.
They climbed to the seventh floor, found the tapestry and after some debate decided Hermione would be the one to walk three times past the section of the wall. She thought, ‘A place to secretly train and teach’, ‘A place to secretly train and teach’, ‘A place to secretly train and teach’. Once she passed the spot the third time a door started coming out of the wall. They looked at it in awe for a moment before going into the room. It opened up into a large room with a few desks against the walls and other training things that would probably be useful. As Michael looked around the room he could picture all the people in his training. Some working on spells while others follow his intense workout routines.
“Will we just exit the same way we came then? What if people start to catch on if we enter and exit from the same area? Someone is bound to notice something is happening.” Luna said as she continued to look around the room.
Michael and Hermione looked at eachother. This isn't something they had thought about before but it was a valid point to make. If someone starts to catch on with their group they will probably find out the meeting spot. So, the four of them sat in the middle of the room trying to come up with different ideas of what they could do to get around this problem. After a while they come up with a few ideas and tested them out. One in particular seemed to work.
They would exit in groups of three or four. When they go to exit, they have to think of a random place they want to end up. From there they were to find a random route back to their dorm. This would make it so that everyone would end up somewhere completely different when they exit and nobody will question just a few people walking around compared to a large group coming from one place.
~
The first meeting came together smoothly. Everyone was split into three groups which would each go to the room at different times so as to not cause suspicions. Hermione took the first group. Then Ginny took a group. Then Michael and Luna took a group. After they all got to the room, they told everyone how it works so they can come on their own there next time.
Then they discussed the first lesson they would be doing. Hermione and Michael decided they would start with a workout and then move on to the spells. Michael decided to go easy on everyone this time and made them do various pushups, lunges, and situps. He knew they weren’t fit enough to keep up for much longer so they quickly moved on to the spell that he and Hermione decided would be important to learn. This was expecto patronum.
Hermione and Michael had everyone stand around as they instructed how the spell works and when best to use it. After explaining they moved on to the questions portion of the lesson and one person asked what their patronus’ were. Hermione demonstrated hers first and an otter strang from the tip of her wand and floated around the crowd of people. A few people jumped back in surprise while most people were in awe of the silvery animal playfully moving around them. When it disappeared they all turned to Michael expecting him to show them his patronus. He was a little reluctant but eventually told everyone to stand towards the walls of the room.
Michael closed his eyes trying to focus on his happiest memory. He saw Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Viktor sitting by the lake laughing about who knows what. Michael held his wand out and shouted, “Expecto patronum!” and from his wand strang a large silvery dragon. A few people yelled and started moving as far away from it as they could. Michael looked around and saw fear in most people's eyes.
“No reason to worry. It is completely harmless to all of you.” Michael called out to the crowd. After a moment the dragon evaporated into thin air.
With that, everyone became super excited to try the spell out themselves and find out what their patronus would take the form of. A few people didn’t find out but Hermione told them to keep practicing and it will happen. Ginny was able to conjure up a horse while Luna had a hare.
Eventually it was time to go back to the dorms and they used the method that they came up with when Luna brought up some concerns. It went as smoothly as they hoped it would and the next day it was if nothing even happened the day before.