Chapter 9
The next day at breakfast, Professor McGonogal came by and handed out course schedules.
Ron beamed as he picked his up.
"Today we've got McGonogal, Flitwick, and Lupin, then Hagrid and Sprout tomorrow, Lupin and McGonogall again on Wednesday, Flitwick and Sprout on Thursday, and then Lupin, Hagrid, and McGonogall on Friday."
He whooped very loudly. "This is the greatest schedule ever! And no Snape! We don't have to put up with that hook nosed git anymore!"
"I too, am glad that I do not have to suffer with students such as yourselves any longer." came the ice cold voice of Snape behind Ron, making him jump. "Ten points from Gryffindor Mr. Weasley."
With that he strode off to the front table, leaving a very embarrassed Ron in his wake. Harry and Hermione laughed.
"Don't worry Ron," Hermione said. "At least we can't lose any points in his class this year, so that should put us up a hundred or so points." Ron grinned at this and went back to his breakfast.
After breakfast was over they all made their way to McGonogall's NEWT Transfiguration class. Harry was pleased to see that Malfoy was no where in sight. Harry and Hermione found a desk together and Ron sat next to them with Neville.
Harry looked around and was surprised to see that the room was full of all DA members.
There was he, Ron, Hermione, Neville. Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Padma and Parvati, Terry Boot, Ernie McMillian, and to Harry's distaste, Cho and her friend Marietta, whose face no longer spelled out sneak. Realizing that it would be safe to ask, Harry rose his hand.
"Yes, Mr. Potter?" McGonogall asked him.
"Er, professor, I was wondering if maybe we could, er, keep doing the DA this year?" All eyes snapped to McGonogall, who smiled sweetly.
"That is not my decision, Mr. Potter. You will have to ask Mr. Lupin for that answer."
Harry returned her smile and looked around, noticing nearly everyone else was smiling to, excluding Cho and Marietta, whom Harry really didn't care if they came back or not. Then the notes started, and everyone forgot about over the next hour and a half long class.
After class, McGonogall asked Harry and Ron to stay behind. Assuring Hermione they would meet her in Charms.
"Yes, Professor." Harry asked politely. "I have decided to make Ronald this year's Gryffindor Captain. I believe that Harry, for one has too much on his mind with Voldemort and the DA, and Second, because Mr. Weasley has proven himself many times to be a great strategist." She smiled at them sweetly and they took that as their leave to go.
They quickly told Hermione what Mcgonogall had said when they reached Flitwick's class. Most unfortunately, Seamus overheard this little exchange.
"Did you hear that everyone," he said smirking. "Harry gets the girl but Ron gets the badge!" The classroom erupted in laughter, even Flitwick joining in.
Hermione blushed brightly, and Harry tried to laugh with the rest, making a mental note to slip Seamus a Dudleydum the first chance he got. The rest of the class passed without incident, Hermione of course being the only person who was able to do the charm by the end of class, leaving everyone else with lots of homework.
Finally, they reached Defense against the Dark Arts, and Harry wasted no time asking Lupin if he could reform the DA. "Of course you can Harry," Lupin replied smiling. "You can even use my classroom if you like, but I have one request Harry," Lupin said this in a low tone, as to not be overheard. "I want your cousin to be in the DA as well harry. Being your cousin means that the death eaters will certainly go after him."
Harry nodded and then slapped himself on the head. "Oh! I completely forgot to tell you about Mark! Wait. How did you find out." Lupin's eyes twinkled in a mysterious way, making Harry think he may have known about Mark far longer than Harry had.
Harry smiled and went back to his seat, but the smile was swept off his face when he saw Malfoy waltz into the room. He and his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, were the only Slytherins in the class and the only non-DA members at that. He sneered at Neville as he walked by.
"Been to visit your parents lately fatbottom? Or do they still not recognize you?" Neville, to everyone's surprise, smiled sweetly in return.
"Better in St. Mungo's than Azkaban." The DA roared with laughter at this, and Malfoy turned beat red and found a seat on the opposite side of the room, face still burning.
"Quiet down everyone." Remus commanded. "We are going to start off with the shield charm this year, how many people here can do it?" Harry beamed as every hand in the room flew into the air, with the exception of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. "Okay then, pair up and let's get started..."
"Did you see his face?" Ron said, beaming at Neville across the table. "He was speechless, put her there Neville." Ron said, sticking out his hand, which Neville took, beaming.
"You think you're funny do you Neville?" came Malfoy's sneering voice from behind them.
"Aunt Bella says she was about to torture you like your dear parents when your friends showed up." He sneered at them again. Harry stood up so quickly that even Malfoy was taken aback.
"I guess she left out the part where she couldn't beat me in a duel and had to resort to crying at her master's feet did she?" Everyone looked around at him in surprise. He had never told them this before.
"That's right Malfoy, I knocked her off her feet with the Cruciatus Curse," Ron's mouth fell open, Hermione gasped, Neville looked sick to his stomach, Malfoy looked scared.
"Yeah Malfoy, if I was an evil wizard like yourself your dear aunt would be laying in Azkaban right now." He paused, to let this sink in. "I was just to pure of heart to really hurt her, as she told me just before she broke into tears over losing the prophecy."
Hermione had had enough. "That's it!" she screamed, so that the entire hall looked at her. "Harry, not another word! Malfoy, get out of here before we all jinx you, now that you don't have a father to run home to."
Immediately, Malfoy dove for his robes, appalled at the insult to his father, but stopped when he realized somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty wands were pointed at him, daring him to make a move. Without another word he strode off and out the door of the great hall, Crabbe and Goyle following. There momentary happiness over getting the better of Malfoy didn't last long as Snape came storming down the table.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor! And detention at 7 tonight for the two of you in my dungeon!" He yelled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. Harry couldn't stop himself.
"What about Malfoy?!" Snape turned on him. "Another ten points Mr. Potter. I will take care of Mr. Malfoy." Harry sat down, at least relieved that Malfoy would get into trouble for what he did.
He and Hermione looked at each other, and then realized that the entire hall was staring at them, and then caught Ron's eye and they left together, Ron sadly leaving his pie behind. They did not talk the whole way there, Harry and Hermione were to heated to utter another word.
They all worked on homework until 7, except for Harry, whom remembered that he was going to write his Aunt Petunia, so he did that and then Ron bid them farewell as Harry and Hermione stalked off towards Snape's dungeon.
Before they got there, they ran into McGonogall, and she agreed to send Harry's letter by muggle post for him, and then they were off to the dungeon.
"You two will be cleaning out all of these cauldrons tonight," Snape motioned towards at least four or five dozen dirty cauldron's.
"And NO magic!" he added, throwing each of them a towel and cleaning solution.
"There will also be no talking and no signs of affection for each other or you will be cleaning cauldron's for a month, do you understand?"
They both nodded and went to work. It took them nearly four hours, where it would have been done in about five minutes with magic, and when they were done Snape told them he needed to talk to them.
"Potter, you cannot allow Malfoy to get the better of you this year." Harry and Hermione stared at each other. Was Snape being nice?"
"the Order cannot keep you from being expelled, Mr. Potter. And we cannot allow that to happen do you understand?" Harry nodded, and then he and Hermione left.
As soon as they were out of Snape's sight, they grabbed each other's hands. "That wasn't so bad was it?" Hermione asked him.
"NO, it wasn't really," Harry replied. "I just never thought I'd live to see the day where Snape gave me advice."
They had a good laugh at this that lasted all the way to the common room, where everyone had gone to bed. As they entered, Crookshanks immediately jumped off his perching and ran up Hermione's leg.
"Well, goodnight then." she said sweetly, petting a purring Crookshanks. Harry leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." They smiled at each other and walked to their respective dormitories. Harry was surprised to see that all of the other sixth years were awake, arguing about something.
"How can it possibly fun to play a sport with only one ball where nobody can fly?" Ron demanded, staring at Dean.
"All the muggles love it! I like it even more than quidditch. What do you care anyway if I teach your sister to play football?"
Harry rolled his eyes and told them to drop it and go to sleep, Ron glanced evilly at Dean's poster of the West Ham football team, and then sunk into his bed, grumbling to himself. Dean just looked kind of surprised.
"I didn't think it'd be that big a deal." He shrugged and went to sleep. Harry got the distinct feeling that he was missing something in this argument, but he rolled over in his bed and went to sleep.
***
A/N:
Just thought I'd leave a quick not thanking everyone for the reviews and to say that this fic is 36 chapters, just to let you know.
Sora