The first week of term passed with out much of note, Snape’s vindictive behaviour continued but that was only to be expected. At the beginning of their Transfiguration lesson on the second Friday of term Professor McGonagall asked to speak to Ron and Harry after the lesson. They wondered what it was that they had done, they’d only been back a week and hadn’t had the chance to do anything detention-worthy. Hermione had wanted to wait behind for them but she had to go to Ancient Runes and had hurried off promising to see them at lunch and reminding them to keep their tempers in check. Harry and Ron lingered around their desk waiting for the professor to summon them,
“Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley stop dawdling back there and come up here,” she said stern as always.
“Now you may or may not be aware that Ms. Johnson left Hogwarts this past June which leaves the position of Quidditch Captain free. Now I have considered the merits of both of you and it became very apparent that making a choice between the two of you was not going to be easy. That is why I have decided to ask you to Co-captain the team this year. What do you think?” she fixed them with her icy glare.
“Brilliant,” muttered Harry.
“Cool,” gasped Ron.
“Very well, here are your badges,” she said tipping a scarlet and gold badge into each of their hands. “I must impress upon you both how accustomed I have become to seeing the Quidditch Cup in my office and my desire to see it remain there,” her smile was hidden behind her stern words.
“Yes Professor,” they roared with regimental precision.
“Good. Mr. Potter before you go the Headmaster wishes to see you on Wednesday during your free period, which immediately follows my lesson with you so if you would wait behind then I shall take you to see him,” she then sat back down at her desk, “You are free to leave.”
“Thank you Professor,” they both beamed as they left the classroom and headed up to the tower.
“What do you reckon Dumbledore wants to see you for?” Ron was playing with his badge as he spoke.
“Who knows?” Harry realised he was performing an eerily similar action.
When they got down to the hall for lunch, Hermione was waiting for them patiently, they both sat down, Ron next to her and Harry opposite her. Neither said anything instead they just pulled food towards them and began to eat.
“Well?” Hermione finally lost her patience with them.
“Well what?” Ron shrugged his shoulders as he picked up a ham sandwich from his plate.
“What did Professor McGonagall want the two of you for?” the frustration was heavily evident in her voice.
“Oh!” Ron exclaimed knowingly, “Um… what was it she wanted again Harry?”
“Erm…” Harry mocked thought, “Sorry, can’t remember for the life of me,” Harry grinned at him.
“Hold on, wasn’t it something to do with the Quidditch captaincy?” Ron threw back.
“Oh yeah, that was it,” Harry nodded at him.
“Which one of you got it?” Hermione was jumping up and down in her seat in anticipation.
“Well that’s the thing, McGonagall couldn’t decide,” Ron paused to take a sip of his pumpkin juice.
“She couldn’t decide?” Hermione’s voice fell slightly.
“She just couldn’t choose,” Harry shook his head solemnly.
“So she chose us both,” Ron finally finished. Hermione was torn between her fury at them winding her up like that and her delight at them both getting the position.
“How could you do that to me! Oh congratulations!” she kissed Ron on the cheek and grinned madly at Harry.
“What are the congratulations for?” Ginny had appeared in the seat next to Harry.
“Ron and Harry are the new Gryffindor Quidditch captains,” Hermione informed her.
“That’s fantastic! I take it that means I’m a shoe in for a free chaser position?”
“Now, now Ginevra you wouldn’t want the captains to act in a biased way would you?” Harry teased.
“Where do you get off calling me Ginevra?” she scolded even though she was grinning.
“It’s what your mother would call you if she could hear you asking for an unfair advantage,” he ribbed.
“The only problem with that being, you are not my mother.”
“Of course he’s not, if he thought he was mum he wouldn’t have snogged you the way he did!” Ron very nearly shouted for all and sundry to hear. Ginny and Harry blushed profusely. Hermione looked at them both with a contented smile, Ron always did have a way with words.
The weekend seemed to disappear, most of it was consumed by trying to plan some Quidditch tryouts and eventually they settled on the last Tuesday in September. Since the first match was scheduled for the last Saturday of October it would mean that they had about a month to train. Considering that there were only two spots available on the team, integrating the new people should be fairly easy as the rest were already gelled as a team. Before they had got round to any of their homework it was Monday and they were back to class. Then it was already Wednesday again and Harry was waiting behind after Transfiguration for Professor McGonagall to escort him to the Headmaster’s office.
“Have you and Mr. Weasley arranged try-outs for the vacant positions?” she asked him on the way there.
“Yes, we’re holding them on the last Tuesday evening of the month,” he replied.
“I’m very glad to hear it. Are you both still on top of your homework?”
“Yes,” he lied.
“Good. I would hate to give you a Saturday detention and deprive our team of some much needed training,” she threw him a noteworthy look over her shoulder.
“Canary Creams,” she said.
“Excuse me?” Harry was caught entirely off guard.
“It’s the new password Mr. Potter,” she looked at him as if he was rather mad.
“Oh,” the stone gargoyles leapt aside to reveal the moving spiral staircase which lead to the headmaster’s office, both himself and Professor McGonagall stepped on and allowed themselves to ascend. They alighted at the top with McGonagall leading the way, she knocked and they were immediately granted entry. Professor Dumbledore was sat at his desk and Elizabeth was stood beside him they appeared to have been deep in conversation.
“Good afternoon Professor Dumbledore and Professor Dumbledore,” he addressed his headmaster first and then his Defence teacher.
“You don’t need to call me Professor while we’re in here Harry, it’ll only get confusing,” she smiled warmly at him.
“You are most probably wondering why it is that I asked you here?” Professor Dumbledore fixed him with those twinkling blue eyes.
“Well yes I was,” he was also remembering with a great deal of shame the last time that he had been in this office. That night he had destroyed many of the things in here but they appeared to have repaired themselves since his last visit.
“It is about my army.”
“Your Army?” Harry replied baffled.
“Yes. That Defence club of yours I believe it’s name was Dumbledore’s Army?”
“It was. What about it though?”
“Would you be interested in starting it up again? This time however Elizabeth will supervise and the meetings will no longer take place in secret in the room of requirement. I would be happy to provide to with an appropriate classroom,” Dumbledore waited patiently for his answer.
“I just didn’t think that it would be necessary this year, we’ve got a much better teacher,” Ellie blushed at his compliment.
“I agree,” Dumbledore flicked his eyes appreciatively towards his granddaughter. “However, you are of course aware of the danger that wizard kind is in do you not
think that people should be prepared?”
“Of course I do…”
“Harry were you listening to the sorting hat?” Ellie interrupted his train of thought.
“Yes.”
“All that one of us will lead and the rest must learn to follow stuff. The answer lies within us just look amongst the hordes. Don’t you think that maybe it was telling you that it’s time to step DA training up a gear?” she prompted him.
“How did you know we called it the DA?”
“Harry when one of my fifth year students manages to conjure a patronus of any sort I immediately ask where they learned to do it. That’s when this DA thing came up, when I saw Ginny after class I asked what the DA was and she told me it was your defence club and it sounds to me like you were quite the teacher yourself,” it was Harry’s turn to blush.
“This year Harry our OWL and NEWT pass rate for Defence Against the Dark Arts was the highest that it has ever been. I am certain that it was not down to our dear departed Professor Umbridge,” the headmaster smiled at Harry.
“Well I’ll have to fit it in around Quidditch…” Harry shot a quick glance at McGonagall who nodded approvingly.
“That can be arranged. You can arrange which nights you would like to have for Quidditch and which nights you would like to have free. I would also like to recommence your Occlumency training,” a look of horror came across Harry’s face as he said it.
“At this time Professor Snape has too many other commitments so I would be teaching you. Would you find that agreeable?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Well I think it would be best to keep Occulumency to a Sunday that way you have time to recover before classes on Monday morning. If you could make a decision about the Quidditch training and let Elizabeth know then you and she can set about making some kind of action plan,” he finished.
“I will do sir.”
“Very well, you may return to Gryffindor tower and continue with your free afternoon,” Dumbledore then began to talk to Professor McGonagall. Elizabeth moved with Harry towards the door they stepped on to the stone staircase as it slid its way back down. Ellie walked with him all the way back to the fat lady’s portrait talking about some ideas she had for the DA, all of which were quite good. She eventually said goodbye to him and set off in the direction of her office.
“So what did Dumbledore say?” Ron asked of him the second that he stepped through the portrait hole.
“He wants the DA to reform.”
“And are we?”
“Yeah, I suppose we are,” ideas were racing around Harry’s head for the rest of the night. In the end he grabbed his pensieve and pulled all his thoughts out into it. He felt much more relaxed afterwards and settled down to a game of wizard’s chess with Ron.