"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. " A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions . . . The Dark Arts Outsmarted . . . Self-Defencive Spellwork . . . wow . . ." She looked around at Harry, her face glowing, and he saw that the presence of hundreds of books had finally convinced Hermione that what they were doing was right. "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

Hermione, Ron, and Harry came into Erin's view as she with Daphne, Astoria, Luna, Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived.

"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"

"Room of Requirement," said Harry. "This can be discovered only by someone who is in need."

As Harry was explaining, more people had arrived.

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then. . . ."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark Detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled. . . . Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er - What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hands, even Zacharias Smith.

"Er - right, thanks," said Harry. "And - what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defence Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Oh! What about Dumbledore's army?" said Erin.

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

"All in favour of the D.A.?" said Hermione bossily, "That's a majority - motion passed!" She pinned the piece of paper with all of their names on it on the wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters.

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"

"Oh please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life last June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

"Hey, what if you just go? Nobody's forcing you to be here," said Erin through gritted teeth.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"Okay," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all those eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

The room was suddenly full of shouts of " Expelliarmus!": Wands flew in all directions, missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air.

Unsurprisingly, Erin was paired with Daphne.

"You're already a professional, Mckinnon," grinned Daphne as her wand flew into Erin's hand.

"Well, thank you, Greengrass."

The two of them took a small break and looked around themselves.

Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith; every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back. Daphne and Erin laughed at that, the twins heard it and grinned at them.

Harry appeared by Daphne's side. “Okay, stop!” he shouted. “Stop! STOP!”

"Whistle," said Erin.

He did, loudly, and Daphne groaned.

"You want me deaf, Potter?"

“That wasn’t bad,” said Harry, “but there’s definite room for improvement. Let’s try again. . . .” He moved off around the room again.

“Oh no,” said Cho rather wildly as Harry approached. “Expelliarmious! I mean, Expellimellius! I — oh, sorry, Marietta!”

Her curly-haired friend’s sleeve had caught fire; Marietta extinguished it with her own wand and glared at Harry as though it was his fault.

“You made me nervous, I was doing all right before then!” Cho told Harry ruefully.

“That was quite good,” Harry lied, but when she raised her eyebrows he said, “Well, no, it was lousy, but I know you can do it properly, I was watching from over there. . . .”

"Oh, Salazar, don't tell me they are going to snog, children are here!" Erin whispered to Daphne quietly. Well, not that quietly because Hermione, who was few steps away from them, turned around and pursed her lips into a thin line to stop herself from laughing.

“Hey, Harry,” Hermione called, “have you checked the time?”

Erin checked her own watch. It was already ten last nine, which meant that they needed to be in their common rooms immediately.

“Well, that was pretty good,” said Harry, “but we’ve overrun, we’d better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?”

“Sooner!” said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.

Angelina Johnson, however, said quickly, “The Quidditch season’s about to start, we need team practices too!”

“Let’s say next Wednesday night, then,” said Harry, “and we can decide on additional meetings then. . . . Come on, we’d better get going. . . .”

***

"Erin!" A familiar voice yelled in the corridor, just as she headed to Great Hall for dinner.

She turned around only to be met with Hermione, who stopped in front of her as she tried to catch her breath after running after Erin.

"Well, hello, Hermione," Erin looked at the Gryffindor girl in amusement.

Hermione's cheeks flushed. "Uhm, Hello."

Silence prevailed between them. Erin raised her eyebrow.

"Is there a particular reason you are here?"

"Oh, right! Well, I wanted to ask you if you maybe want to hang out sometime?"

Erin smirked. "Granger, are you asking me on a date?"

Hermione looked down at her feet. "No, not on a date."

"Ah, that's bad, because I would totally go on a date with you." Erin didn't know what came over her, she rarely flirted.

Hermione smiled. "I'm not into girls, Erin. . ."

"Me, when I lie," said the Slytherin, making the other girl laugh. "But, yes, I would like to hang out with you sometime. Is tomorrow after lunch good for you?"

"Yes, perfect time," Hermione nodded. "Where is Daphne, by the way? You two seem attached to hip all the time."

"All the time? No, not all the time. For example, I don't go with her when she goes to use the toilet. Have you watched someone piss? Must be disgusting, " Erin rambled, saying the most random things that came into her mind. "Well, anyway, that cow forgot her D.A.D.A homework in the common room so she now writes on a parchment with her own blood."

"Do you always insult your friends?" Hermione asked.

"Well, of course," said Erin as if it was obvious. "That's how I show them love!"

***

Hermione and Erin met the next day after lunch as they said. They didn't know really what to do so they decided to start working on their potion essay that Snape gave them that day because again, as honestly every day, he woke up on the bad side of the bed.

They stayed in the courtyard where a lot of students were in that moment.

After a few minutes, Erin said, "Fuck it" in her mind and put that essay away, while Hermione still worked on it.

Erin reached into her bag and pulled a book she was currently reading.

Little women.

It was her favourite book of all the books she ever read. Erin grew up without siblings, maybe that was why she liked reading about it. The bond Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth had was something she wanted. She often felt jealous of the relationship Daphne and Astoria had. The older girl may have said, "I hate Astoria," and the younger may have said many times; "Daphne is the most annoying person walking on the earth.". But at the end of the day, they would die for each other.

Erin opened the book. The first thing her eyes landed on was her bookmark she used for every book she read.

"Who is that?" Hermione asked curiously.

Erin smiled and pointed at a blonde woman, "That's my aunt Marlene," and then pointed at the dark-skinned one beside her, "That's my aunt Dorcas, Marls's girlfriend. And that's little me."

"You all look so happy here," Hermione couldn't help but smile brightly. "Are you and your aunts close?"

Erin shook her head, "No, they. . . they both died fourteen years ago. . . This photo was taken just two weeks before they died, by Harry's mum."

"Oh, Erin, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Erin looked at Hermione and noticed the look on her face. "You want to know what happened, don't you?" She looked back at the photo in her lap and said, "Voldemort killed them both at their house. The thing that always scares me is the fact that my parents picked me up from their house just thirty minutes before it happened. If I was there just a bit longer, I wouldn't be here today."

Hermione stayed quiet, not knowing what exactly to say and Erin was fine with that, so she continued.

"It's stupid but I sometimes feel insecure about being a Slytherin. But then I remember auntie Cas was also one and I feel a lot better because believe me when I say that woman was bloody cool!"

Hermione smiled. "She was so beautiful, both of them are."

Erin nodded. "They truly were. I miss them even though I don't remember them," she looked at Hermione. "Is that weird?"

The Gryffindor girl shook her head. "Not at all. Harry misses his parents and he doesn't remember them either."

"That's probably not something you should tell me," chuckled Erin.

"Oh, yeah," Hermione palmed her forehead. "Don't tell him I told you that."