.⊹⁀➷ CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN!
↳ ❛dumbeldor's army❜

THE DAYS GREW grey and most of the time dark coulds were covering the sky, while snow fell down to onto the earth.

When the brunette exited her charms class, the corridor was bustling with students. That was not unusual but the crowd of students was abnormally large and everyone was chatting while they all hurried towards the courtyard.

The Gryffindor girl frowned while she exchanged a look with Harry, who then turned to Dean, "What's this all about?"

"It's Professor Trelawny", the boy just answered quickly before they all continued moving towards the courtyard.

Stepping out of the corridor and into the cold winter air hit Annabeth's face.

Professor Trelawney stood in the middle of the courtyard, whimpering while Filch placed her trunks onto the ground.

The crowd of students parted and after a moment Annabeth could see Umbridge, who made her way through the passage, a sweet smile plastered on her face.

Murmuring could be heard from all around and everyone watched how the High Inquisitor approached the Professor.

Professor Tree wanted to approached the woman and stumbled over her trunk before she came to a stand infront of her. "Six-sixteen years I've lived and taught here.- Hogwarts is my home!"

Professor Trelawney still whimpered, "You can't do this!"

Umbridge just looked at her, the smile still on her face as she held up a parchment, "Actually, I can."

Professor Trelawney started sobbing when she saw the parchment and only a second later Professor McGonagall made her way through the crowd.

She immediately pulled Professor Trelawney into a hug and the woman started sobbing into her chest, while she patted her back.

Umbridge gave Professor McGonagall the same smile, "Something you'd like to say dear?"

"Oh, there are several things I would like to say", McGonagall spat at her while she shot the woman a hateful glare.

In that moment the large door behind Umbridge swung open, revealing no other than Professor Dumbeldor, who made his way outside into the courtyard.

His gaze was on Professor McGonagall as he spoke, "Professor McGonagall, might I ask you to escort Sybil back inside?"

The Professor immediately did as he said and lead Professor Trelawney back inside while she whispered things in her ear that were supposed to calm the woman.

Umbridge gave Dumbeldor a arrogant look, "Dumbeldor, may I remind you, that under the terms of Educational Decree Number 23, as enacted by the minister-"

"You have the right to dismiss my teachers- you do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds", Professor Dumbeldor interrupted the woman, while staring her down. "That power remains with the headmaster."

Umbridge's smile widened and she nodded her head at him, "For now."

The headmaster's eyes started wandering around before he spun on his heel and shouted, "Don't you all have studying to do?"

The students all jumped at his raised voice and immediately dissolved as quickly as they could. The chattering was loud and everyone was agitated by what had just happened.

Annabeth turned to Harry, but the brunette boy was gone. Her and Hermione exchanged a look before the girl nodded at the large entrance, "He went after Professor Dumbeldor."

Annabeth gave her a slow nodd before her, Ron and Hermione made their way inside.

It wasn't until they were in their Common room that Hermione started her rampage about Umbridge.

"That foul, evil, old gargoyle! We're not learning how to defend ourselves. We're not learning how to pass our OWLs!" Her eyes found those of the other's, "She's taking over the entire school!"

Harry suddenly spun around and increased the volume of the radio.

"Furthermore, we have convincing evidence that these disappearances are the work of notorious mass murder Sirius Black!", the voice of the man came through the speaker, which unleashed a hatred inside of Annabeth that she couldn't begin to describe.

The fire behind them inside the fireplace made a loud noise and shortly after the familiar voices of Sirius Black could be heard, "Annabeth!- Harry!"

"Sirius!" The brunette immediately jumped up from her place on the couch and made her way over towards the fireplace. "What are you doing here?"

"Answering your letters", her godfather stated while he looked at her. "You said you were worried about Umbridge. What's she doing?" His eyebrows were raised, "Training you to kill half-breeds?"

"Sirius she's not letting us use magic at all", Harry quickly informed him and Sirius gave him a nodd. "Well, that's not surprising. The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat."

"Combat?" Ron seemed confused, his face showing his irritation. "What does he think? We're forming some sort of wizard army?"

"That's exactly what he thinks. That Dumbeldor is assembling his own forces to take in the Ministry- he's becoming more paranoid by the minute", Sirius stated and a moment od silence followed.

"The other's wouldn't want me telling you this, but things aren't going at all well in the Order. Fudge is blocking the truth at every turn- and these disappearances are just how it started before-", there was silence once more. "Voldemort is on the move."

Goosebumps ran down Annabeth's spin and she tried not to shiver when she thought about her encounter with Voldemort at the graveyard last year.

"Well, what cane we do?", Harry questioned but Sirius suddenly seemed to grow hectic. "Someone's coming- I'm sorry I can't be of more help! But for now, at least, it looks like you'd on your own."

Sirius face then vanished from the fireplace and the four friends exchanged a look before Hermione stood up and walked towards the window, where raindrops were running down the glass. "He's really out there, isn't he?"

There was silence before she continued, "We've got to be able to defend ourselves! And if Umbridge refuses to teach us how, we need someone who will."

The brunette spun around and met the gaze of Harry and Annabeth, while both gave her questioning looks. "If you're talking about Lupin-"

Hermione shook her head at him, "No, no, I'm not talking about Lupin- he's too busy with the Order and, anyway, the most we could see him is during Hogsmead weekends and that's not nearly often enough."

Annabeth frowned at her in irritation, "Who then?"

Hermione heaved a very heavy sighed before she raised her eyebrows at them, "Isn't it obvious? - I'm talking about you two!" She pointed at the Potters, who both exchanged stunned glances.

Ron slowly nodded from besides Annabeth, "Yeah, that's an idea."

"But-", Harry gave them a disbelieving look, "but- I'm not a teacher, I can't -"

Hermione grew slightly frustrated with them, "Harry, you and Annabeth are the best in the year at Defens Against the dark arts!"

Annabeth gave her a glare before she spoke, "Hermione, you've beaten us in every test-"

Hermione had a displeased expression on her face, "Actually, I haven't- you beat me in our third year- the only year we all sat the yeast and had a teacher who actually knew the subject. But I'm not taking about test results- I mean think about what you've done!"

Harry looked at her dumbfound, "How do you mean?"

Ron rolled with his eyes before he spoke, "Let's think- first year so saved the Philosopher stone from You-know-who- "

Harry immediately shook his head, "But that was luck!"

Ron raised his voice, just ignoring Harry, "Second year- you two killed the Basilisk and destroyed Riddle."

Annabeth nodded her head but still argued, "Yeah, but if Fawkes hadn't turned up, we-"

Ron continued while he still raised his voice more and more, "Third year- you fought off about a hundred dementors at once-'

Harry glanced at Hermione, "You know that was a fluke, if the Time-Turner hadn't -"

Ron now shouted from the top of his lung, "Last year- you fought off You-know-who again- "

Harry was now shouting as well, "Listen to me!- it sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck- "

Annabeth nodded slowly before she interrupted Harry, "He's right-most of the time we didn't even knew what we were doing. We didn't plan any of it- and most of the time we had help."

Hermione and Ron grinned at them which made Harry's blood boil before he started shouting once more, "You think it's just memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something?"

His eyes had narrowed at his friends, his voice filled with rage, "The whole time you're sure you know there's nothing between us out and dying except your own- your own brain, or guts or whatever - like you can think straight when you know you're about a nanosecond away from being murdered or tortured, or watching a friend die they've never taught us that in their classes, what's it like to deal with things like that-"

His eyes wandered towards the ground while he tired to contain the tears that whelmed up in his eyes, "- and you two sit here acting like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here, alive, like Diggory was stupid, like he messed up- you just don't get it, that could just as easily have been me, it would have been if Voldemort hadn't needed me-"

Ron looked aghast, "We weren't saying anything like that, mate. We weren't having a go at Diggory-" His eyes wandered towards Annabeth, "We didn't- you've got the wrong end of this-"

Hermione places a hand on his shoulder while she gave it a squeeze, "Think about it- alright?"

She then glanced at the other's and nodded shortly, "I'm off to bed- night."

With that the girl disappeared up into the dormitory, followed shortly by the two boys that also went into their dormitory, leaving Annabeth to herself and deeply captivated by her own thoughts.

THE SNOW WAS still falling down onto the grey landscape and everyone was excited because of today's Hogsmead visit, except for Annabeth. She had dreaded the town visit, because she knew that Hermione had planned to meet up with people that were interested on listening to her idea.

It was noon when the four friends made their way through Hogsmead, "We're are we going anyway? The three Broomsticks?", Annabeth questioned while she stuck her hands into her pockets, trying to warm them up

Hermione, who was walking at the front of the group shook her head, "Oh, no- it's always packed and really noisy. I've told the others to meet us in the Hog's Head, the other pub, you know the one, it's not on the main road. I think it's a bit- you know- dodgy- students don't normally go in there, so I don't think we'll be overheared."

The group of four walked down the main street, passed Zonko's wizard joke shop, were they unsurprisingly could see no other than Fred, George and Lee.

Harry sighed deeply as the Hog's Head came into view, "Who would want to be teached by me? I'm a nutter, remember?"

"Look on the bright side, you can't be any worse than old toad face", Ron joked as he give him a small smile. Annabeth and Harry both gave him sarcastic looks, "Thanks, Ron."

The ginger haired boy gave them a nodd, still smiling, "I'm here for you, mate."

"Who's supposed to meet us there?" Annabeth gave her friend a questioning look, but Hermione shrugged while she still led the way, "Just a couple of people."

When the door opened Ron let out a deep breath, "Cozy."

It seemed to be the complete opposite of the Three Broomsticks. There was no warmth and it wasn't clean like the other pub. The room seemed very small and there was a very strong smell, something that might have been goats.

It was also very poorly lit and the dust had settled in the tables and the bar. There was a man at the bar whose whole head was wrapped in dirty grey bandages and two figures shrouded in hods sat at the table in one of the windows.

Annabeth had a weird feeling when she sat down by one of the tables. As soon as the four had settled in, the door of the pub opened and Neville, Fwannans Lavender entered, followed by Parvati and her twin sister Padma Patil who was accompanied by Cho.

The next group who entered were Luna Lovegood, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnit and Angelina Johnson. They were followed by Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Mcmillan, Justin Finch-fletchley, Hannah Abbott.

Then there were some students Annabeth had never heard of but next came Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner and Terry Bott. Which were followed by no other than Ginny, who was accompanied by a Hufflepuff boy and at last came Fred, George's and Lee Jordan.

Harry gave Hermione a sceptical look, "A couple of people?"

Hermione shrugged while she gave him an innocent smile, "Well, the idea seemed quiet popular."

The first thing Fred did was approach the barman, "Hey- could we have twenty-five butterbeers', please?"

A couple of minutes later Fred returned with the butterbeers' and everyone took the thankfully from him.

"What have you told people? What do they expect?", Annabeth whispered to Hermione who gave her a reassuring look. "They just want to hear what you've got to say."

After a moment of silence Hermione slowly stood up, addressing the crowd of students, who all turned their attention towards her. "Uhm- hi- so you all know why we're here. -We need a teacher. A proper teacher. A teacher who's had real experience defending themselves against the Dark Arts."

There was silence in the room and Hermione's voice grew steady as she continued speaking, "Well, I thought it would be good if we took matters into our own hands- and by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells- "

"You want to pass your Defence against the Dark Arts OWLs too, tough, I bet?", a boy, Annabeth knew was named Michael Corner stated as he was watching Hermione.

The brunette Gryffindor girl nodded, her voice still calm, "Of course I do- but more than that, I want to be properly trained in defence because- because-"

Annabeth watched Hermione, and she seemed to struggle with herself before she finished her sentence, "- because Voldemort is back."

There were immediate reactions to that sentence. Many of them shuddered by the mentioning of his name and some let out a yelp that turned into coughing.

Michael Corner gave her a blank stare, "Where's the proof?"

"Well, Dumbeldor believes it-", Hermione wanted to answer, but the boy interrupted her. "You mean, Dumbeldor believes them-", he nodded over to the Potter twins.

Annabeth let out a heavy sighed, they should've seen it coming. They were here because of that night at the graveyard.

Harry didn't seem like he wanted to talk about that night nay time soon, so Annabeth let out a heavy sighed before she stood up, "What makes us say You-know-who is back?-"

Her eyes met Michael's before she continued, "We saw him. But Dumbeldor told the whole school what happened last year, and if you don't believe him, you won't believe me or Harry-"

Suddenly Harry's harsh voice came from behind her, "- and we're certainly not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

Now a boy named Zacharias spoke up, "All Dumbeldor told us last year was that Cedric 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-"

Annabeth gave the boy a cold look before she interrupted him, "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

Harry now stood up and turned towards Hermione, "Come on, Hermione- They're here because they think I'm some sort of freak."

"Wait-"

"Is it true- that you both can produce a Patronus?", a girl with long plait down her back while she eyed them curiously.

"Yes." Harry said defensively.

"A corporeal Patronus?"

Harry's posture besides Annabeth suddenly changed, and he questioned a curious look on his face, "Er- you don't know Madam Bones, do you?"

"She's my auntie- I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So- so it's really true? You make a stag Patronus?", she questioned Harry, her eyes were now wide.

Harry nodded sharply, "Yes."

Dean's eyes widened while he exclaimed, "Blimey, Harry! I never knew that!"

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around", Fred suddenly spoke up while grinning at Harry. "She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong." Harry shrugged with his shoulders and a couple of people laughed.

"And Annabeth did you kill a Basilisk with that sword in Dumbeldor's office?", Terry Bott suddenly questioned her quickly. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year-"

The brunette shifted uncomfortably from one foot into the other, "Er- yes, actually we both did."

Someone let out an impressed whistle while everyone exchanged awestruck looks.

"And in our first year- they saved the Philosopher stone from You-know-who!", Neville exclaimed loudly, making everyone's eyes widen even more.

"And that's not to mention- all the talks Harry had to go through on the Triwizard Tournament last year- getting past the dragons and merpeople and things-", Cho added while she looked at Harry with hearteyes.

Hermione inhaled deeply, "And last year they both did fight off You-know-who in the flesh."

Harry sighed deeply before he interrupted them, making everyone look from Hermione to himself, "Wait- look, it sounds great when you say it like that- but the trust is most of that was just luck. And we always had help-"

"He's just being modest!", Hermione immediately told the other's before Annabeth jumped onto her feet, a deep frown on her face.

"No, he's not Hermione!" Her eyes slowly wandered from Hermione to the crowd of students.

"Facing this stuff in real life is not like school -", she began after a moment of silence. "In school, if you make a mistake, you can just try again tomorrow. But out there- when you're a second away from being murdered-"

Her eyes whelmed up with tears, the memories of the graveyard flashing before her inner eye.

But she still continued to stare them down, "- or watching someone you love die right before your eyes- you don't know what that's like-" She slowly sat down onto the chair behind her, her eyes now fixated on the floor.

Hermione slowly sat down beside her, "You're right- we don't. But that's why we need your help. Because if we're going to have any chance at beating- Voldemort-"

Dennis Creevey's quiet voice caught their attention, the color had drained form his face and his worry was visible, "He's really back."

Harry just nodded in silence before Ginny suddenly questioned, "Where are we going to meet?"

"Not yet- but we'll try to find somewhere- we'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place", Hermione quickly answered her, while nodding shortly.

"I think everybody should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think-", she took a deep breath. "That we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to."

Fred immediately reached for the quill and the parchment and seemed cheerful when he wrote his signature on the parchment.

But some of the other's didn't seem as eager to write their name onto the parchment. But in the end every single one of the people that took part of the meeting, also signed the parchment.

After everyone had signed, a silence took over the room once more. But luckily Fred soon caught everyone's attention, "Well, time's ticking on- George, Lee and I got items of a sensitive nature to purchase."

He smirked at the other's while they went towards the door, "We'll be seeing you all later."

After that the rest of the group slowly dissolved, leaving only Ron, Harry, Hermione and Annabeth.

Annabeth let out a shaky breath while she patted her own thighs' to calm herself down, when suddenly her attention was caught by Hermione, who smirked mischievous at Harry. "Well, there was one good thing today -"

Harry gave her a questioning look, "What?"

Hermione still smiled at him, "Cho couldn't take her eyes off of you."