Hippogriffs rise!
Time flew by. Harry was shocked when the end of November rolled around, and the first match of the season fell upon them with no warning whatsoever.
Well there were actually several warnings, but Harry was always in detention, so his teammates didn't tell him on purpose as revenge. Even Fred and George kept it quiet.
Fred and George had also had a very busy month. After Harry had given them his winnings, they had been gathering supplies and beginning the development of the first Weasley joke product series - Skiving Snack-boxes. Using Umbridge's classes as test runs, Fred and George created sweets that had you sick in one moment, fine the next. They sold out almost instantly after their release, and were consistently making more.
Harry delighted in using them every DADA lesson. In fact he used them so often, that eventually he just stopped going altogether. Umbridge didn't seem to care, so Harry used her lessons to visit Sirius and Remus (McGonagall let him use her floo so he was undetected) and practice the actual Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum, as Remus still knew it from his year as a teacher.
He'd also made a plan to make sure everyone could learn actual DADA, and had told Hermione so she could help him organise and come up with a way to keep it secret.
As Umbridge was High Inquisitor, she had been making changes to the school under Dumbledore's very nose. Decree after Decree were hung on the wall, bringing with them a sense of doom and despair.
Naturally, she had somehow caught wind of Harry's plan and banned teams, societies, clubs and the like, unless they had her express permission.
Quidditch, of course, had been banned as it counted under "teams". Slytherin got permission instantly, as did Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Umbridge delighted in refusing to give Gryffindor permission, until McGonagall and Dumbledore had stepped in. She was forced to relent, and so the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match was full steam ahead.
Ron proved himself worthy, and saved at least 60% of all goals. Fred and George were as ruthless as ever, and the chasers were at their peak.
Harry? Well he was the same as usual. Delighted to be going up against Draco for the first time in a year and a half, this time as friendly rivals, he spent half the time trying to wind him up by diving, rolling, speeding, and looping in random directions, not even looking for snitch until at least half an hour had passed.
"COME ON POTTER!" Angelina had shrieked at him, wet through. Oh, yeah, it was raining. Actually, was it snowing? Harry stuck his tongue out. Yep, it was snow. No wonder Angelina wanted a quick end to the game.
Harry started to search, the snow getting heavier, until finally he spotted the snitch.
He sped towards it with vigour, Draco close behind. He urged his broom on, stretching out a hand, but-
"He's going to crash!" Hermione shouted, grabbing Ron's sleeve.
Right at the last second, Draco stopped. Harry kept going, barrelling into Umbridge and snatching the snitch from right by her ear.
Hooch blew her whistle, and everyone landed in the fresh layer of snow. Harry, somewhat sheepishly, offered Umbridge his hand as he climbed to his feet. She slapped it away.
Harry quickly clambered back onto his broom and joined his teammates. The twins were grinning gleefully, both at their win and Harry's stunt. Angelina looked concerned, as did Katie and Alicia. Ron was smiling proudly.
"We won!" He said cheerfully. "That was a great catch mate!"
"Thanks Ron. You make a great keeper." Harry replied, dusting the snow off his robes.
"Mr Potter." Harry turned to face a very furious Professor Umbridge. "That was incredibly foolish and irresponsible of you! I'm afraid I'm going to have to ban you from quidditch due to the intentional harm of a teacher."
"It's not my fault the snitch was right by your head!" Harry argued.
"You can't do that!" The Weasley twins cried, leaping to Harry's defence.
"Actually, I can!" She smiled, tapping her High Inquisitor badge, looking far too satisfied. "Broomstick please, Mr Potter."
Harry scowled and handed over his firebolt. The twins glared at the pink toad. Angelina, Katie and Alicia looked crushed.
"Ron, don't." Harry said quickly, when his best friend opened his mouth. "She's not worth your energy."
The Weasley twins were next to be banned only two days later, after filling her classroom with the same glitter Harry had used on Sirius last year, that multiplied every time she tried to vanish it.
Harry, with no broomstick, no quidditch, and only one detention a week (Skiving Umbridge's lessons really opened up his schedule) had to find other ways to kill time. He dedicated most of his time, to well, multiple things actually.
Neville taught him piano; he spent weekends sneaking into Hogsmeade with Ron, Ginny, and Daphne; and he spent evenings with Hermione, deciding who to invite to their new secret club that would be starting a few weeks before Christmas. They were still coming up with a name. He spent free periods annoying Draco, afternoons with Luna hunting for whatever creature took their fancy, and for some reason spent every Tuesday night visiting random teachers.
He'd spent one Tuesday with Sprout helping her make new clothes for the Venomous Tentactula he'd accidentally tamed last year, and another with Flitwick asking for stories about his mother whilst he hung up Christmas decorations in the charms classroom. Flitwick had suggested early November was too early, but Harry disagreed - it was never too early for Christmas!
One very memorable Tuesday he'd spent with McGonagall. Or at least, he thought it was McGonagall. He may have kidnapped a random tabby cat and fed it tuna whilst he rambled on about goblin rights.
Snape had simply slammed the door in his face. So Harry spent the evening singing Celestina Warbeck loudly and using the office door as a drum. Every time Snape tried to cast a muffliato or put up a ward, Harry simply had Dobby remove it again.
Trelawney had been more than willing to have a cup of tea whilst they discussed the origins of his scar. Actually, that had been in one of their lessons. But it was on a Tuesday, so it counted.
After a session on planetary alignment, Trelawney had asked him if he was born in midwinter.
"No, I was born in summer. My scar was born in winter though!" Harry said, flicking through a copy of Shakespeare's Macbeth.
"Harry, your scar was made in October. That's Autumn, not winter." Neville pointed out hesitantly, as if he already knew Harry was going to have an answer back.
"If you say so." Harry said with a shrug. Oh? "Voldypants was born in midwinter, so I'm still technically right." Aha, there it was.
Ginny replaced Harry as seeker, and the beaters were more irrelevant side-characters Harry couldn't remember the names of.
"So," Hermione paced up and down the Hog's head, where many, many students were gathered in a large huddle. "We've got a meeting place, we have a method of communication." She pulled out a bag of galleons, and passed them to Draco to give out. "Harry will be giving most of the input, along with Cedric, who has done his OWLs already."
"What about studying at NEWT Level?" A Seventh year Slytherin asked. Because Harry was insane and had bonded with random students all over the school, the group of students wanting in on the secret DADA club was huge. Deciding it would be too big for every year group, Harry and Hermione decided to restrict the entrants to fourth year and above only. They advertised the meeting in the Quabbler and Harry, taking inspiration from his first year, made it so only those who wanted to learn DADA outside from Umbridge for good reasons would be able to see the advertisement. Anyone with ill intention or no interest would remain clueless.
"I mean, a lot of NEWT stuff is revision, with a focus on nonverbal casting and speed, and a bit of wandless casting too. So practice makes perfect I guess. Remus gave me his copy of the NEWT curriculum from when he was teaching for you guys to use." Harry tossed Cedric a rather large book and he caught it deftly with one hand.
"Show off." Harry muttered. Cedric grinned.
"So, how are you going to keep it secret?"
"Easy." Hermione whipped out a piece of parchment. "This is a contract. You sign, and if you break the secrecy, everyone will know exactly who you are. All of our galleons will also go icy cold, so that we know to dispose of evidence and take any necessary action."
"And if we don't want to sign?" A blonde, irritating looking fourth year called Zacharias Smith said obstinately. Harry didn't really know why he was there if he was just going to whinge incessantly.
"You leave." Harry pointed at the door. "It's that easy. You go, before we give you the information that would get us caught if you were to tell."
No one moved. Hermione handed Harry the parchment and quill and he signed it quickly, passing it to Neville, who followed suit.
"HA?" Cho asked incredulously, staring at the document. "There's no way you're calling this Harry's army."
"He most likely is." Blaise smiled lazily, scribbling his signature with a flourish. "That's exactly the sort of thing Potter would do."
"It's not Harry's army, sillies!" Harry exclaimed. "It's the Hippogriff Alliance, duh!"
"Yeah, duh, that was, like, really obvious!"
"One day, Astoria, you'll be so sarcastic your tongue will fall out." Harry warned her, looking very serious. "It will be the best day of my life."
"No, you'll miss it when I can no longer give you awesome ideas."
"You can write them down!"
"What if I don't want to to?"
"Well then you wouldn't be telling me anyway!" Harry smiled, satisfied that he had won that one. "Now, can you all please hurry up and sign or leave? I want to show you the secret meeting place."
Harry had been keeping a secret. Well, Harry had lots of secrets, but not intentionally. It was more just that no one ever asked him, so he never told. It really was that simple. After several Hogsmeade trips last year with Luna to meet with Rita Skeeter in the Hog's head, a pub that many avoided due to the crabby owner, Harry had, in typical Harry style, befriended the man.
For some reason, disliked people often loved Harry.
"Don't ever let him meet Bella." Sirius had warned Draco one evening during the summer, looking the most solemn Draco had ever seen him. "It would be a very tragic day for us all."
"They'd either take over the world together or destroy it in a fight." Draco had responded, watching Harry try to turn himself into a flamingo using a pink highlighter and a death eater mask. How he got hold of a death eater mask no one knew. If anyone had bothered to ask him, though, he would have told them. Maybe.
Anyway, once Harry had befriended Aberforth by complaining very loudly about Dumbledore (Luna had been correct once again), he admitted he knew a secret passageway into the castle. He introduced them to his sister, Ariana, and Harry saw the room of requirement for the first time in his life.
"It's a room full of bubbles!" Harry clapped and jumped up and down in delight. Luna hummed happily and the room changed.
"It turns into whatever you want or need it to be most." She explained to Harry, who looked dumbfounded.
"It's perfect!" He gushed, looking at the practice dummies with a keen gaze.
Once Hermione had received the document with several signatures, she cast another spell and the contract was sealed. Everyone present fell silent, and Harry leapt to his feet.
"Come on, let's go!" He dragged Hermione to the portrait of Ariana and she smiled, swinging open to let them all pass.
"Who was that?" Hermione asked, struggling to keep up with Harry and panting slightly.
"Bumblebee's dead sister! Isn't she sweet?"