The following morning, Nova woke up to muffled laughter around her. Groggily, she tried to stretch but realized a pair of strong arms were wrapped around her. 

"Shhh! You're gonna wake them up!" Ginny hissed. 

"Too late," Nova grumbled. 

"Did wittle Potter get some last night?" Fred teased. 

George, Fred, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Lee surrounded the duo. Harry, who was still asleep, had his arms wrapped around Nova's waist, pulling her into his chest. 

Fred and George began to make kissing noises. 

"Fred. George. If you don't shut the bloody hell up, I'll make sure neither of you 'get some'." Nova threatened, causing the twins to instantly become silent. 

"Just because you're Potter's personal teddy bear doesn't mean you can have an attitude, young lady," Lee fake scolded. 

Nova flipped him off. 

"You think I wanna be here?" Nova rose an eyebrow. 

"Yes, very much so," Ginny grinned cheekily. 

Nova, for the first time that day, blushed. 

"Aww! Look! Little Noxxy is blushing!" Ron teased. 

"Ew! No! And don't call me that! I sound like a stripper!" Nova groaned, hiding her face into Harry's chest, who miraculously hadn't woken up. 

"What a striper?" Ron, George, and Lee asked in unison. 

"It's a-" Fred began. 

"Fred, be quiet." Hermione shushed. "Why don't we let them figure it out?"

"Hey, Ron!" Ginny laughed. "You should ask mum or McGonagall what it is!"

Before Ron could shoot back, Nova spoke up, irritated. 

"That's nice and all, but I'm in a bit of a situation. So if we could I dunno . . .help me out of his death grip, that would be greatly appreciated." Nova sassed, rolling her eyes. "I need a new hoodie. Meaning I need to go shopping."

"Meaning you need to go shopping in Harry's trunk," Hermione scoffed. 

"So? He gets them back!" Nova justified. "Now, help me."

"You could just wake him up  . . ." Hermione reasoned. 

"There's no fun in that," Ginny stated. 

"We might need a crowbar to get you out . . ." Lee stated. 

Nova groaned in frustration. 

Everyone watched in amusement as Nova twisted and turned, evidently escaping Harry's arms. 

With a loud thump, Nova fell to the floor. Harry stirred slightly but remained asleep. 

"Here," Ginny said, handing Nova a pillow. 

"What the bloody hell is she supposed to do with that?" Ron asked. 

"Strangle him," Nova said sarcastically with a shrug. 

Ron looked panicked. 

"It's my replacement dumbass," Nova rolled her eyes. 

Slowly, she moved Harry's arms, placing the pillow within them. Her wicked grin faded once Harry's hand wrapped around her arm, pulling her back to the couch and into his chest. 

"I'm trying to decide if he's asleep or not," Hermione said with a smirk. 

"I'm going to marry Dudley," Nova stated. 

Harry shot up like a bullet. 

"He's awake now," Nova shrugged, jumping over the back of the couch, leaving Harry alone and cold. 

"It's alive!" Fred and George chanted happily in unison. 

"That's nice, I'm going shopping," Nova chirped, before marching towards the boys' dorm. 

"Cool." Harry shrugged. "Why is she going- Wait a damn minute!"

At the sound of Harry's voice, Nova instantly ran. 

"Don't you dare take my Quidditch jumper!" Harry called, chasing her. 

Within seconds they both disappeared. In the end, Harry lost the argument, melting at the sight of her puppy-dog eyes. 

"Is no one gonna talk about how taken with each other they are, or are we supposed to ignore it?" Ron asked. 

"Is no one gonna talk about how scared Harold looked when Nova said she was marrying Duddikins?" Ginny smirked. 

"That'll be a story for their kids." Fred joked. 

***

Nova's bored face turned into a wicked grin as she caught sight of a pink lump in the back of the Transfiguration classroom. 

A week had passed. Ron has been made Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Nova, who has seen Ron play, knows he is an excellent keeper. However, he's a nervous wreck, and the taunts from Malfoy don't help. 

Nova hasn't attended a single one of Umbridge's classes, earning her more detentions. Nova didn't mind. 

As of yesterday, Umbridge has been made High Inquisitor, basically making her have almost complete authority over Hogwarts. All the pink toad had to do was make an 'Educational Decree', and a new rule was being heavily enforced. 

As required, Umbridge must observe each teacher teach their class. Today .  . .Minnie's class. 

Umbitch won't know what hit her. 

Nova was thrilled. 

What Nova wasn't thrilled about, was Harry getting himself more detentions. 

"Excellent," whispered Ron, as they sat down in their usual seats."Let's see Umbridge get what she deserves."

Professor McGonagall marched into the room without giving the slightest indication that she knew Professor Umbridge was there. 

"That will do," she said and silence fell immediately. "Mr. Finnigan, kindly come here and hand back the homework — Miss Brown, please take this box of mice — don't be silly, girl, they won't hurt you — and hand one to each student —" 

"Hem, hem," said Professor Umbridge, employing the same silly little cough she had used to interrupt Dumbledore on the first night of term. 

Minnie, like the bad bish she is, ignored the toad. 

"Right then, everyone, listen closely — Dean Thomas, if you do that to the mouse again I shall put you in detention — most of you have now successfully vanished your snails and even those who were left with a certain amount of shell have the gist of the spell. Today we shall be —" 

"Hem, hem," interrupted Umbridge. 

"Yes?" said Professor McGonagall, turning round, her eyebrows so close together they seemed to form one long, severe line. 

"I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspec —" 

"Obviously I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my classroom," said Professor McGonagall, turning her back firmly on the toad. Every student exchanged looks of happiness. "As I was saying, today we shall be practicing the altogether more difficult vanishment of mice. Now, the Vanishing Spell —" 

"Hem, hem." 

"I wonder," said Professor McGonagall in cold fury, turning Professor Umbridge, "how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk while I am talking."

Umbridge looked as if she had been slapped. This only made everyone happier. 

"Go off, Minnie!" Nova yelled with glee. 

"Miss Lupin-Black, refrain from using improper names for your professors," McGonagall warned. "That is your first and final warning."

Everyone in the classroom (besides Umbridge) knows Minerva McGonagall gave up on correcting Nova in third year. There was an underlying warning; behave and don't anger the pink bitch.

"Right-er-sorry, Professor McGonagall," Nova stated sincerely, winking at the older woman. 

Umbridge's quill scratched furiously against her parchment. 

Minnie actually winked back. 

"As I was saying, the Vanishing Spell becomes more difficult with the complexity of the animal to be vanished. The snail, as an invertebrate, does not present much of a challenge; the mouse, as a mammal, offers a much greater one. This is not, therefore, magic you can accomplish with your mind on your dinner. So — you know the incantation, let me see what you can do. . . ." 

"How she can lecture me about not losing my temper with Umbridge!" Harry said to Ron and Nova under his voice, but he was grinning; his anger with Professor McGonagall had quite evaporated.

"Because she's Min-Min!" Nova whispered happily back, grinning wickedly. 

***

That night, Harry and Nova returned from detention with Umbridge past midnight. When they arrived in the red and gold common room, they found Hermione and Ron waiting for them. 

"I still reckon you should complain about this," said Ron in a low voice as he watched Nova add essences of murtlap to Harry's hand. 

"No," said Harry flatly as Nova delicately directed his hand towards a bucket of strained murtlap tentacle for his hand to soak in. 

"McGonagall would go nuts if she knew —" 

"Yeah, she probably would," Nova interjected. "And how long d'you reckon it'd take Umbridge to pass another Decree saying anyone who complains about the High Inquisitor gets sacked immediately?" 

Ron opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out and after a moment he closed it again in a defeated sort of way. 

"She's an awful woman," said Hermione in a small voice. "Awful. You know, I was just saying to Ron when you came in . . . we've got to do something about her." 

"I suggested poison," said Ron grimly. 

"We can kill her and bury her body off the grounds," Harry suggested. 

"That won't work. We'd have to bury a dog over her so when people scan the ground, they'll only find the dog. Or-" Nova began. 

"We could start a resistance and refrain from committing homicide," Hermione suggested. 

"I like my idea better," Nova huffed. 

She hadn't treated her hand like she had Harry's. She didn't want them knowing what it said. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to transfigure the words into something more likable, meaning she would have the scar for the rest of her life. 

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. 

"I mean she's a dreadful teacher . . ." Hermione began. 

"Well, what can we do about that?" said Ron, yawning. " 'S too late, isn't it? She got the job, she's here to stay, Fudge'll make sure of that."

 "Well," said Hermione tentatively. "You know, I was thinking today. . . ." She shot a slightly nervous look at Harry and then plunged on, "I was thinking that — maybe the time's come when we should just —just do it ourselves." 

"Do what ourselves?" said Harry suspiciously, still floating his hand in the essence of murtlap tentacles. 

"You can't mean-" Nova began excitedly. 

"I do! We can-" Hermione persisted. 

"Teach ourselves defense!" Nova's honey eyes were wide with excitement. 

"Come off it," groaned Ron. "You want us to do extra work? D'yourealize Harry and I are behind on homework again and it's only the second week?" 

"But this is much more important than homework!" said Hermione. Harry and Ron goggled at her. 

"I didn't think there was anything in the universe more important than homework," said Ron. 

"Don't be silly, of course, there is!" said Hermione. "It's about preparing ourselves, like Harry and Nova said in Umbridge's first lesson, for what's waiting out there. It's about making sure we really can defend ourselves. If we don't learn anything for a whole year —" 

"We can't do much by ourselves," said Ron in a defeated voice. "I mean, all right, we can go and look jinxes up in the library and try and practice them, I suppose —" 

"No, I agree, we've gone past the stage where we can just learn things out of books," said Hermione. "We need a teacher, a proper one, who can show us how to use the spells and correct us if we're going wrong." 

"If you're talking about Remus . . ." Harry began. 

"Nah. Pa is too busy with the Order to help," Nova interjected. 

"Who, then?" said Harry, frowning at her. 

Hermione heaved a very deep sigh. 

"Isn't it obvious?" she said. "I'm talking about you, Harry. You and Nova."

***

It took a lot to convince Harry to teach a group of students defense. Nova, almost instantly, agreed. 

This brings us to the Hogs Head, where Hermione decided the group should meet. Nova thought it would've been best if they went to the Three Broomsticks, but let Hermione do her thing. 

As people started to trickle in, Nova tilted her chair back, making it stand on only two legs. She, for once, did not wear her leather jacket. Instead, she wore a grey hoodie (which she got shopping in Harry's wardrobe), ripped skinny jeans, black combat boots, and a red flannel over the dark grey hoodie. Her hair rested on her right should, braided into a perfect side fishtail. 

"Hi, Cho!" Nova greeted with a grin as the Ravenclaw entered. 

"Hiya, Nox!" Cho grinned. "How are you?"

"With all things considered . . ." Nova said calmly. "Decent."

"A couple of people?" said Harry hoarsely to Hermione as more than twenty more people entered. "A couple of people?" 

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily."Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?" 

Once everyone was seated, Fred spoke loudly to the group. 

"Hi," said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly. "Could we have . . . twenty-five butterbeers, please?" 

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar. 

"Cheers," said Fred, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough gold for all of these. . . ."

Nova sniggered. 

As Hermione began to speak, two more people came in. Two people Nova was desperately hoping would come. 

"What are the snakes doing here?" A Hufflepuff a year below Nova hissed hotly. 

"Zip it, Cauliflower!" Nova snapped, glaring at him. 

"That's not my name!"

"Does it look like I care?" Nova sassed. 

"No . . ."

"Exactly," Nova said stonily. She turned to Theo and Blaise as they stood awkwardly to the side, as if wondering if they were welcomed. "Wassup, bitches!"

"I don't trust them," A Gryffindor whispered to their Ravenclaw friend. 

Nova jumped onto the table, much to the displeasure of the barman. 

"Keep your hatred for Slytherins on the down-low. Not all are terrible." Nova stated strongly. "Besides, it shouldn't matter if they are here or not. It shouldn't matter that they're Slytherins. We all hate the bitch."

Everyone stared at her. 

"Thank you. Please continue you, 'Mione," Nova said, sitting back down. 

"Er," said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. "Well — er — hi."

The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry and Nova. 

"Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well, Harry and Nova here had the idea — I mean" — Harry had thrown her a sharp look — "I had the idea — that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us" — (Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and more confident) — "because nobody could call that Defense Against theDark Arts" 

"Hear, hear," said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermione looked heartened. 

"Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."She paused, looked sideways at Harry and Nova, and went on, "And by that Imean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells —"

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" said Michael Corner. 

Nova, who had been examining her nails, spoke. 

"No shit, Sherlock," Nova sassed. "Failing O.W.L.s means no job. No job means no money. No money means no bling." 

Many started to laugh at Nova's joke. 

"There's also the fact many of us want to do something worth a damn in the world, and the only way to do that is to pass these bloody examines," Nova said as if it were no big deal, silencing everyone's laughter. 

"Of course I do," Hermione said, elaborating upon what Nova said. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because . . . because . . ."She took a great breath and finished, "Because Lord Voldemort's back." 

The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry and Nova. 

"Oh grow up!" Nova hissed. 

Theo and Blaise found it highly amusing. 

These pansies fear his name. Try walking down for a midnight cereal break and seeing him eating your Frosted Flakes. 

"Well . . . that's the plan anyway," Hermione continued. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to —" 

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice. 

"Well, Dumbledore believes it —" Hermione began. 

"You mean, Dumbledore believes them," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry and Nova. 

"Who are you?" said Ron rather rudely. 

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back." 

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about —" 

"It's okay, Hermione," said Harry. It had just dawned upon him why there were so many people there. He felt that Hermione should have seen this coming. Some of these people — maybe even most of them — had turned up in the hope of hearing Harry's story firsthand. 

Nova already knew this was a possibility. 

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he asked, lookingZacharias straight in the face. "I saw him, so did Nova. I fought him, so did Nova. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone." 

The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening in. He was wiping the same glass with the filthy rag; it was becoming steadily dirtier.

Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know —" 

"He was murdered by the damn killing curse, genius." Nova sassed. "I thought that would be obvious."

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemortmurders someone I can't help you," Harry said. His temper, always so close to the surface these days, was rising again. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that what you're here for, you might as well clear out." 

No one moved. 

Nova stood up to address the room. She looked every single person in the eye, a scare tactic she learned from Moody. 

She began to walk slowly around the group. Her steps were slow. Her steps were deliberate. For several paces, she'd be in front of the group. Then she'd be behind them. Either way, it scared them (another trick Nova learned for Moodster). 

"It shouldn't matter whether or not Voldemort is back. It shouldn't matter if he killed Ced or not." Nova spoke in a powerful voice. "It shouldn't matter if Harry and I are nothing but liars to the world. It shouldn't matter whether you believe Dumbledore or the Minister."

Nova stopped in front of Lilly. Her curly dirty blonde hair was pulled into a tight bun. 

"But why shouldn't these things matter?" Nova asked the group. 

No one spoke. 

"Because no matter if the no nosed bastard is back or not doesn't count for future Dark Wizards and Witches to rise. Years from now, another evil magic-doer could rise. Grindelwald's fall and Voldemort's original rise are roughly twenty years apart." Nova stopped in front of Marietta (Cho's friend). She looked down at the girl. "There is always going to be another evil to rise. There is always going to be something out there to get us. There will always be bad people that lurk in the dark. Why not be able to save ourselves?"

Nova's eyes scanned over the group. 

"Ladies, why not be our own savior? Our own knight in shining armor? Gentlemen, why wait around for an opportunity to do something great when you can do this?" Nova asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather learn how to defend myself. I'd rather break the bitch's rules so I can live another day."

"That's great and all," Zacharias began. "But what the bloody hell are you gonna teach us?"

A smirk formed on Nova's face. 

"Is it true," asked the girl with the long plait down her back, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

 There was a murmur of interest around the group at this. 

"Yeah," said Harry slightly defensively. 

"A corporeal Patronus?" 

"Er — you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" Harry asked. 

The girl smiled."She's my auntie," she said. "I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So — is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?" 

"Yes," said Harry. 

"Blimey, Harry!" said Lee, looking deeply impressed. "I never knew that!" 

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," said Fred, grinning atHarry. "She said you got enough attention as it was." 

"She's not wrong," mumbled Harry and a couple of people laughed. The veiled witch sitting alone shifted very slightly in her seat. 

"And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" demanded Terry Boot. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year. . . ."

"Oh come on!" Nova groaned quietly to herself. "Why must it always be the man that slew the beast'?"

"Actually . . ." Harry began. "Nova's the one that pulled the Sword of Godric Gryffindor and slain the basilisk."

Nova grinned. 

"And in our first year," said Neville to the group at large, "he saved that Sorcerous Stone —" 

"Sorcerer's," hissed Hermione. 

"Yes, that, from You-Know-Who," finished Neville. 

Hannah Abbott's eyes were as round as Galleons. 

"And that's not to mention," said Cho "all the tasks they had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year — getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas and things. . . ."

"Look," he said and everyone fell silent at once, "I . . . I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but . . . I had a lot of help with all that stuff. . . ." 

Harry's glance shifted to Nova, Hermione, and Ron. 

"Not with the dragon, you didn't," said Michael Corner at once."That was a seriously cool bit of flying. . . ." 

"Yeah, well —" said Harry. 

"And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer," said Susan Bones. 

"No," said Harry, "no, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is —" 

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith. 

"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, before Harry could speak, "why don't you shut your mouth?"

"It's called being modest, arsehat." Nova sassed, jumping to Harry's defense. "You should try it sometime."

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," Zacharias said. 

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred Weasley. 

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags. 

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred. 

"Smith, it's called modesty, a word you clearly need to learn the definition for," Nova called out. 

"Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, "moving on . . . the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?" 

There was a general murmur of agreement. 

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week —" 

"Hang on," said Angelina, "we need to make sure this doesn't clash with our Quidditch practice." 

"No," said Cho, "nor with ours." 

"Nor ours," added Zacharias Smith. Nova kept finding herself annoyed with the boy. 

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione, slightly impatiently, "but you know, this is rather important, we're talking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort'sDeath Eaters —" 

"Well said!" barked Ernie Macmillan, whom Nova had been expecting to speak long before this. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our O.W.L.s coming up!" 

He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry,"Surely not!" When nobody spoke, he went on, "I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon us at this critical period. Obviously, they are in denial about the return ofYou-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells —" 

"Umbitch doesn't want us learning spells," Nova stated bluntly. "She's got it in her twisted mind that Dumbledore is trying us for some student army. Or at least . . .that's what we think."

"Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army." Luna said in a dreamy voice.

"What?" said Harry, completely thrown by this unexpected piece of information. 

"Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths," said Luna solemnly. 

"No, he hasn't," snapped Hermione. 

"Yes, he has," said Luna. 

"What are heliopaths?" asked Neville, looking blank.

"They're spirits of fire," said Luna. "Great tall flaming creatures that gallop across the ground burning everything in front of —" 

"They don't exist, Neville," said Hermione tartly. 

"Oh yes they do!" said Luna angrily. 

"Hem, hem," said Ginny in such a good imitation of Professor Umbridge that several people looked around in alarm and then laughed."Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and get Defense lessons?" 

"No fighting right now. Hermione, you believe in what you wish to believe in and leave what Luna believes in alone." Nova scolded. "We all have our own beliefs. If you start trashing Luna's, you're just as bad as the Ministry right now."

Hermione turned a violent shade of red. Harry wasn't sure if it was from anger or embarrassment, but he decided that he was falling more in love with Nova every second. 

The next half hour was spent discussing how to conduct these meetings. 

***

When Nova returned to her dorm that night, she noticed she had a message in her box. 

How was the secret and illegal defense group meetings? -Moony

Did ya have fun? -Dadfoot

"Fuck . . ." Nova groaned.

"BUSTED!" Regulus shouted. 

"Reg, we already knew this," Lily reasoned. "We saw Dung message the Order."

"Fucking snitch!" James shouted, flipping the screen off. This was a pointless action seeing as Mundugnus Fletcher wasn't even on the screen.