Here we go, one late update placed conveniently after a reading checkpoint. Enjoy!

The Disarming Charm, Harry thought, wasn't a difficult spell to master. Yet as he watched, he quickly realized just how lacking their D.A.D.A professors have been, with the exception of Remus.

He walked around trying to help correct those who were doing the spell wrong, sometimes having to duck when a book came flying toward him.

Fred and George were successful, but they kept disarming an unsuspecting Zacharias Smith instead of each other.

"Guys!" he hissed, shaking his head.

"Sorry, Harry," they said, but that didn't stop them from doing it one more time.

Time seemed to fly by; it was ten minutes past nine when Harry wrapped up the meeting. He checked the Marauder's Map to ensure the coast was clear, and everyone had gone except for Fred and George.

"You make a good leader, Harrykins," George said, ruffling Harry's hair.

"Thanks. It felt weird, though. In a good way. I think."

"You know," Fred said in a conspiratorial tone, "this could be a great place to come and just... hang out."

Harry looked upward, blinking confusedly. "Hang out?"

"Just you and me," Fred murmured in Harry's ear. "No one will be able to take points away."

George coughed meaningfully. "Still here."

Fred feigned surprise. "Oh, George, I thought you had left."

Harry gently shoved Fred away, chuckling. "Come on, we need to get back to our dorms."

Over the next few weeks, they continued to hold D.A. meetings— why Harry had agreed to calling it Dumbledore's Army he did not know.

Sirius had given Harry a two-way mirror when he realized he couldn't risk the fireplace again, and nearly every week Harry would tell him about how much they were learning: Neville disarming Hermione, Colin Creevey mastering the Impediment Jinx, Parvati Patil reducing a table to dust with the Reductor Curse...

Maybe Harry also ended up gushing about Fred casting a very strong Stunner more than once— or just Fred in general— but Sirius didn't interrupt. He just smiled fondly at his son, thinking about James when he had finally gotten Lily to go out with him.

"I'm rambling again, aren't I?" Harry said, realizing belatedly Sirius had hardly said a word in edgewise.

"Yes, but it's all right. I get it, I could talk about Remus for hours."

Harry felt his face heat up. "Well, you probably do that already anyway," he said.

"At least I do it to his face."

"Oh, please! If Fred heard half the things I've said to you, I bet he'd be a little more than freaked out!"

"Right," Sirius said slowly, not believing a word of it. "Well, you better get some rest, pup. Don't want to be too tired."

"Good night."

Lucius Malfoy may not be as unpleasant as Umbridge, but he certainly wasn't holding back from showing favoritism toward Slytherin, especially with the upcoming Quidditch match between them and Gryffindor. Fred complained to Harry that his class had been given more homework than normal and turned a blind eye to the Slytherins hexing the Gryffindor players in the hallways.

On Saturday, Harry went out to the common room to see Luna was wearing a hat shaped like a life-sized lion's head.

"So that's what you've been working on," Harry said in lieu of a greeting.

"It's good, isn't it?" she said happily. "I wanted to have it chewing a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but there wasn't time."

They walked to the Great Hall together. All the Gryffindors were wearing red and gold, but Ron seemed to be lost in his own world. Luna drifted over to them, causing them to gawk at the lion hat.

"I'm supporting Gryffindor," she explained unnecessarily. "Look what it does."

She tapped it with her wand. The lion opened its mouth and gave an extremely realistic roar.

"It's just too bad I didn't have time to make the serpent. Anyway, good luck, Ronald!"

Even this did not cheer Ron up, unfortunately. And when the game began, the Slytherins sang a song that Harry grudgingly admitted had a good tune.

Weasley cannot save a thing,

He cannot block a single ring,

That's why Slytherins all sing:

Weasley is our King.

If Harry knew wandless magic, he would have hexed them from across the stands. Not that it would have mattered; after the game, the Slytherins continued to jeer at the Weasleys until George and Fred leapt at them and began pummeling them.

"Fred! George! No!" Harry yelled. He grabbed a hold of Fred and hauled him away, grunting with the effort to keep him back, then George.

"I don't know why you'd date a hooligan like him, Potter," Parkinson said. "Unless he reminds you of your parents. I bet they were just the sort of people who'd approve of weasels like him."

Now it was Fred and George who were struggling to contain Harry.

"You shut up," Harry was snarling. "You just shut your mouth or else!"

"Pansy," Draco warned, but Parkinson wasn't finished.

"But you're friends with werewolves and loony witches. I shouldn't be surprised."

"Miss Parkinson." Snape had appeared along with Flitwick, McGonagall, and Malfoy. "Inside now."

Parkinson looked like she wanted to argue, but under the stern gazes of the other professors she stayed silent and left.

"And as for Mr. Weasley," Professor Malfoy said, turning to face Fred and George, both of whom were still holding Harry, "I think detention for fighting should suffice and twenty points apiece."

McGonagall didn't look happy, but she didn't try to counter him.

The twins merely stared back at Malfoy with undisguised contempt.

"I hate them," George said as they trudged back inside.

"Don't we all?" Fred muttered.

Harry said nothing, still fuming over Parkinson's words.

"We better get cleaned up. Who knows what Malfoy will have us do?"

"Right you are, George. Er, Harry?"

Harry jumped. "Hm?"

"Will you be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine." But he wasn't.

Fred squeezed his shoulder before leaving with George to the changing rooms.

I hate the "Weasley is our King" song