A/N: Hi all. Sorry this chapter is a little short. My wife is going into hospital tonight to have our baby, so I may be gone for a few days. I'll try and write when I can though. Hope you enjoy this.
Harry spent the rest of the day as per normal, as no one but Ron and Luna knew anything about him going to the trial. Harry told Ron as much as he could during the day and finished giving him all the details over dinner. Ron's eyes grew wider and wider as Harry described the scene surrounding the view of his memories. Finally, when Harry had finished with the image of Dolores Umbridge being arrested, Ron could only shake his head and gaze in wonder at his best friend.
"Wow, talk about a day in the life of Harry Potter. This is going to be all over the papers tomorrow. Everyone will know and then all the questions will start." He commented.
Harry just shrugged, knowing that sooner or later the whole school would have found out. He didn't really mind that much as it was his intention to bring the acts of Fudge's government to the attention of everyone. That way, he knew, they would be forced to a reckoning for all of the idiotic things they had done in the last two years.
Harry and Hermione spent an enjoyable evening with Luna and Ron. After completing their homework in the library, they all went to the common room and the girls sat about while Ron defeated Harry once more in chess. Harry never minded being beaten by Ron, as he knew it gave his friend something he could be proud of. He had, after all, beaten Professor McGonagall's chessmen in the first task way back in first year and no one had beaten him since.
The next day brought the first flood of news about the trial and subsequent revelations by Harry. Harry noticed there was a lot more talk in the great hall as he entered and he noticed as soon as people saw him the volume within the room doubled. He sat down at the Gryffindor table and saw the looks most of his fellow students were giving him. He chose to ignore them for now and concentrated on his breakfast. He did notice though that most of the staff up at the head table seemed to be preoccupied with the contents of their own newspapers. Eyeing Hermione from behind his toast, he winked and she smiled at him. They both decided to eat a quick breakfast and departed early from the table in order to avoid the inevitable questions until later in the day. Their lessons progressed as normal, although Harry got an extraordinary amount of points awarded to Gryffindore for seemingly insignificant things. Professor Flitwick seemed to award 20 points to Gryffindor just for being on time to his class. It continued on throughout the day, giving all of the students the obvious impression that the entire faculty greatly appreciated what Harry had done. Harry was quite amused by this behaviour and by the end of the day he had a large smile on his face. He decided that tonight was a good time to have a meeting for the DA and changed the coin in his pocket to reflect the day's date and seven thirty that night as the meeting time.
Everyone had arrived at least fifteen minutes early to the meeting and there was only one reason for this he could gather. When they were all there, rather than waiting for the appointed time, he began talking to them all, not being able to handle the looks he was given by both the old members and the new recruits that had been brought for the very first time.
"I guess you have all read the papers this morning and are wondering if it is all true. Let me tell you that it is and I said exactly what was said in the newspapers. I showed the Wizengammot my memories and they unanimously elected to place Umbridge under arrest and to investigate the Minister of Magic's conduct."
Everyone was stunned by this revelation. There was growing admiration in all of the faces that surrounded Harry. He felt quite uncomfortable with this new attention he was receiving for yet another thing he had done, so he quickly plunged into their lessons. He explained the principles of stealth and deception that Lupin had taught him and explained exactly what it all meant.
"I propose that on Saturday night, we all meet here again. I will be the hunter so to speak and it is your jobs to enter this room and remain free for twenty minutes. If you can do so, then you have passed the test. If not, then we concentrate further on methods of being able to conceal yourselves. Agreed?"
Everyone nodded, excited at the thought of this contest and Harry smiled at them, knowing he would enjoy this immensely. Everyone left after this and after seeing Luna off with Ron, Harry and Hermione retired to their own rooms.
The next morning saw more commotion in the great hall as the members of the Da told their respective houses of the factual content of the reports in the newspapers. Harry looked over the paper Hermione was reading and saw that there had been such a public uproar after yesterday's revelations that a full blown investigation was publiclly declared and the muggle Prime minister was getting involved as well. There were reports of many people accusing Fudge of being a corrupt fool who just wanted to keep his power rather than respond to a crisis developing under his nose. There was surprisingly a lack of response from Fudge, who had been unavailable from the moment Harry made his statement. Harry smiled as He and Hermione rose with the rest of Gryffindor to attend their lessons.
Friday night quickly neared and both Harry and Hermione were quite nervous about the prospect of taking on Moody and Remus at the same time. They both walked quickly down to Hagrid's hut at seven thirty and waited for their teachers to appear. They did after a few minutes and motioning, the two wizards led them off through the forest until they reached a clearing some fifteen minutes later. The two wizards walked around the edge of the clearing and made gestures with their wands and mumbled incantations. Harry could see a fine thread of silver enveloping the clearing all around them. When it connected together, it vanished. Satisfied the two wizards turned to the couple and said
"We're safe now. Nothing can penetrate the shield we have woven and no sound can be heard outside."
Harry and Hermione nodded and Remus began lecturing again.
He explained to the two of them that movement in the forest was very difficult to conceal as there was always debris that littered the ground.
"Twigs can give you away by snapping under your weight. Branches can come out of the darkness to either hit you or snag you in them, creating more noise. Now it is completely impossible to make no noise, but there are ways to fool other people and creatures as to what exactly you are. Being able to imitate other creature's movements within the forest is very important, as there are some creatures no human or animal would go near if they had sense. Other animals are considered completely inconspicuous, such as small creatures."
Harry saw where this line of reasoning was going and, raising his hand asked
"So, if we learn to imitate certain characteristics of animals, then we can travel through the forest, not only relatively unscathed and unchallenged, but also can sneak up on opponents who may think we are just some creature that normally belongs wherever we are?"
Remus smiled and nodded, saying
"Exactly Harry. You have your father's grasp of stealth."
Harry smiled at this compliment. Moody and Remus then disillusioned them and cast silencing spells on them and they went trekking through the forest, hearing the different sounds around them and tracking animals that they came across. They followed a sound of hooves for a while and Harry noticed that while the sound remained constant, there was a particular rhythm involved in the steps and he also noticed how little sound apart from the hooves beating on the ground the horse made. After half an hour they returned to the circle and once they had erected the force field charm, they took the disillusionment charm off of themselves and Remus then began showing them how walking in certain ways could mimic the animals they had heard. Harry was amazed that Lupin was so good at this until Hermione seeing the shock on his face, leaned over and whispered
"Harry, remember that Remus has some of the senses of the werewolf, even though he is not transformed."
Harry nodded, realising that this would give Remus a distinct advantage over other teachers and once more appreciated Moody's choice for assistant.
Harry and Hermione spent the rest of their lesson practising the movements that Remus had showed them and being corrected by him and Moody. They were exhausted after so much concentration and walked back to the castle, their shoulders slumped and their feet dragging. They arrived back at Griselda's portrait hole and, after she let them inside, they both went to their bathroom and drew a hot, steaming bath. The bath was big enough for the two of them to fit in at the same time, so Harry got in first once the bath was full and Hermione followed, sitting between his legs, with her back pressed back against his chest. Harry held her to him as they luxuriated in the bath, enjoying the hot water and the restorative effects it had upon their sore, tired muscles. They both dried off and slid into the warm bed and fell asleep in each other's arms pretty much straight away.
Harry awoke the next morning early and took a hot shower to rid his muscles of the kinks and knots they had developed while he slept. Apparently the training session had been far more rigorous than he realised. He was just ready to get out as the shower slid open and Hermione, with a coy smile on her face, entered. He smiled at her and leaned forward, kissing her softly, saying
"Good morning. How are you feeling?"
Hermione smiled at his question and leaning up and pressing her body against his, she said
"Actually, I'm feeling unloved at the moment. Perhaps you should demonstrate how much you appreciate me?"
Harry smiled at this invitation and quickly took her into his arms and kissed her deeply, running his hands down over her back to squeeze her backside. Hermione moaned softly and ground herself against him as they continued to kiss, their tongues intertwining. Harry pressed her back against the wall and she gasped as the cold tiles came into contact with her warm skin. He smiled and kissed down her body, stopping to suckle on her nipples, eliciting moans from her and then moving down to his intended target. Spreading her lips, he plunged his tongue into her and with his fingers, began to rub at her clit. Hermione's legs began to shake at the intense reaction her body was having to this stimulation and she cradled his heading her hands, running her fingers through his hair as he ministered to her needs. He then withdrew his tongue from her and taking her clit in between his lips began to suck on it while tonguing it mercilessly. Hermione sobbed as she clung onto his head. She shrieked as her orgasm came over her and it was so intense that if she had not been holding onto Harry, she would have slid to the floor as her legs buckled. Harry held her up though and rose to his own feet and kissed her deeply once more. She began to stroke him, but he stopped her and turned her around. She was puzzled for a moment, then realised with a shiver of delight what Harry was going to do. She bent over more fully; allowing Harry better access and Harry entered her from behind and began thrusting into her, driving himself deep within her. Hermione found that she liked this position very much as Harry reached very deep inside of her with each stroke. She knew that he would not last long due to the fact that she gripped him so hard from this angle, but didn't care as the difference the feelings this position was creating were bringing her to climax once more. Harry began thrusting in more quickly as he felt his orgasm coming. They made smacking sounds as Harry's pelvis made contact with Hermione's butt, which jiggled deliciously in Harry's eyes every time he thrust into her. Harry groaned as he filled her with his cum and she shrieked as her own orgasm overwhelmed her. She straightened up and turned, wrapping her hands about Harry's neck, kissing him deeply. After a few minutes, she broke the kiss and laying her head on his shoulder, said
"That was amazing. I could never get enough of you."
Harry smiled at this and kissed her lightly on the forehead. They finished their shower and dressed, ready for breakfast.
There was a great deal of excitement around the great hall this morning, as today was the first quidditch match of the season. Harry was as excited as the others, but was also thinking of the test he was planning for the DA after the match. He ate a large breakfast and chatted eagerly with Ron about the prospects of the two teams. Harry agreed with Ron's assumption that Slytherin was going to be beaten badly, especially because they did not have an adequately trained seeker available. They were using their reserve seeker, a boy who had never played in an actual match, due to the fact that Malfoy would never miss a match where he could show off his supposed prowess with a broom. The two girls, Luna and Hermione, rolled their eyes at each other and giggling, talked amongst themselves, their heads bent close together. Luna had one of her patented hats on. It had a giant raven on it which cawed loudly every time she pulled the string attached to the hat. Ron didn't seem to mind that his girlfriend looked so strange though, he just grinned at Harry's questioning look and said
"Well, at least she's going for the right team!"
Harry couldn't help but smile at this comment and, finishing their breakfast they all rose and headed towards the quidditch pitch.
The match was a debarkle from the beginning. The Slytherins, knowing that they would not win the match, resorted from the beginning to foul as many times as possible, perhaps hoping they could force the Ravenclaws to withdraw due to injury. There were roars of protest from the crowd as foul after foul was perpetrated on Ravenclaw. They didn't really even need to race towards their goals in Harry's opinion, as they scored nearly 100 points just from the penalties. The four of them were situated about half way along the pitch, to see both ends just as well. Harry saw the snitch appear, just as Cho Chang did. She raced towards it and just managed to close her hand around it as she was hit full force by the two Slytherin beaters. She crumpled to the ground, luckily not too far away, but she had won the game anyhow. The final score was Ravenclaw 360 points to Slytherin's 50 points. The four of them cheered as the Ravenclaws did a victory lap and then descended to see if their seeker was ok. The two couples made their way back up towards the castle, chatting animatedly about the match and Ron, elbowing Harry, said
"You better watch out mate. If they acted that way towards Ravenclaw, you can imagine how they'll act when we play them."
Harry nodded, his stomach sinking slightly. Hermione, overhearing their conversation, frowned as well, worried for Harry. They went inside the castle, their thoughts once more turned towards Harry's well being.