Hermione's Plan
Potter's Army
By Chem Prof
Chapter 20, Potter’s Army
For the remainder of August Harry and Hermione continued to lead double lives. As they had promised the DA, they were at the mansion twenty-four hours a day in order to be on hand to train any of them who came, whenever they could make it. When Hermione passed out the pendants that were an improved version of the original charmed Galleons, she explained that one of their functions was as a portkey that would bring them to the mansion any time they wished. The pendants also served additional communication purposes. As with the originals, Harry or Hermione could send them simple text messages, but they could also be used by individual DA members to call for help if they were in trouble. Finally, in these instances, they would serve as apparation targets for any potential rescuers.
On their alternate days, the couple spent most of their time in Cambridge, but also attended to any business that came up. They spend the weekends with the Grangers at the Brighton beach house. A good bit of their free time, in either timestream, was taken up with studying. While Harry had suspected it before, he discovered that it was indeed true that Hermione read all the way through every one of her course books the summer prior to each academic year. Needless to say, this meant that this summer he did likewise. Come fall, he would surprise himself at how well-prepared he was for his coursework, and how easily he was able to master the class material. He even agreed to let Hermione teach him some of the basics of Arithmency and Ancient Runes. This was all made considerably more palatable by the fact that studying with Hermione was quite a bit more enjoyable now that they were a couple than it was back when they were just friends. She had some very interesting ways of rewarding him for the successful completion of various assignments.
Of course, their classwork was the not the primary focus of their study, as they continued to put the majority of their time into training. They were both aware that during their year abroad they had become much more magically powerful than they had been, but it was not until the training sessions with Ron that they realized just how far they had come. They were now by far the most powerful witch and wizard of their generation, and they could tell that their magical ability had increased even more since they had returned. Hermione had long thought that Harry was destined to be a great wizard, going back all the way to their first year, although she had not expected to find herself similarly categorized. In Harry’s case, it was simply a matter of finally applying himself fully. Excelling at anything always required a combination of natural talent and hard work, she knew. In her case, the hard work had always been there, but she had finally accepted that, while not as strong as Harry’s, she must also have had a stronger than normal magical potential as well.
During the coming months, they would continue to hone their abilities, and test themselves against more, and more powerful, opponents. But there was ultimately only one final examination for this course of study, and it was not in the least bit academic. In the end, they would have to confront Voldemort. And that examination would have one of two outcomes. Pass or fail. Life or death.
-ooOoo-
The Potter mansion was indeed busy day and night as the members of the DA took advantage of Harry’s offer. Ron and Ginny generally came over every morning and stayed until mid-afternoon. They had discovered that Hannah and Susan lived not very far from the Black family house in Birmingham where the Weasleys were now staying. The four of them decided to come and go together, much to Hannah and Susan’s delight.
The six older members, who all had jobs in Diagon Alley during the day, came every evening. Although Fred, George, and Lee managed to keep everyone’s spirits up with the well-timed joke, they were all deadly serious about their training, and there was little clowning around when it came to learning the things Harry was teaching. The rest of the students came at varying times, although Hermione noticed that Padma was particularly diligent in her attendance. Neville and Luna were also among the most faithful participants, and it was quite a change to see Luna so alert and attentive as she was during these sessions.
They began the training by having the students dodge spells, generally using tickling hexes or the jelly legs jinx. Among the girls, Angelina and Ginny were best at this, followed closely by Katie and Alicia. Apparently the skill of dodging bludgers on a broomstick carried over to dueling. Little Dennis Creevey was the best among the boys at avoiding getting hit, followed by his brother Colin. Initially no one could hit Dennis except Harry or Hermione. It wasn’t entirely size based, as Dean Thomas was pretty agile also. There was quite a bit of grumbling from the other boys about this exercise, but Harry stood firm in his insistence that the best way to defend yourself from a spell was to make it miss you. He discovered that the best results were obtained by pairing up members of the opposite sex. Both genders tended to take the exercise more seriously that way, neither wanting to be shown up. As a result, both the spell casting accuracy and the agility of the members improved dramatically by the end of the month.
Initially there was quite a scramble for partners as both Hannah and Susan wanted to pair up with Ron, and had Lavender also been present at that time it might really have got out of hand. Harry defused that problem by declaring that Ron was one of the instructors, and that everyone’s progress would be tested by seeing how they fared against him. Both he and Ron therefore constantly roamed among the dueling pairs, with Ron stepping in as an opponent for each participant while Harry watched and offered advice. Since there were so many more boys than girls, Hermione rotated among the surplus males. That had the effect of keeping their egos in check. While she always held back initially, allowing them to hit her occasionally and missing them once in a while, whenever they got too cocky she blew them away.
Hermione carefully charted the progress of all of the members, noting when they had mastered specific skills, and attained a certain degree of fitness. Once they had reached a specific level of readiness, they would be formed into combat teams, but Harry was not willing to send anyone into combat until he felt that they were prepared. As more and more of them became proficient in basic fighting skills, he created response teams. These teams would be on call in case of Death Eater attacks, which were presumed to be a matter of when, not if.
-ooOoo-
“Thirty minutes. That’s pretty good for your first time, Luna. Ginny, I know you can do better than that.” Hermione made a notation in her journal as the pair of girls came to a stop in front of her.
“Right. I was just showing Luna the course,” Ginny shot back, catching her breath. Hermione nodded that she understood.
“It’s a lovely course,” Luna added enthusiastically. “I’m sure I’ll go faster in the future, but there were just too many fascinating things to see this time.” Hermione just smiled while moving on to the next runner coming into view.
“Good work, Padma, that’s two minutes better than last time,” she called out. “Where are Parvati and Lavender?” After a pause to get her wind back, Padma revealed that she had left the two behind, since they were spending too much time resting and talking at the different stops. Hermione nodded and tossed her a towel, and the petite dark skinned girl joined Ginny and Luna for some stretching. Both Ginny and Padma were pushing themselves to the limit on these exercises. While Hermione had expected it from the fiery Gryffindor, Padma’s dedication was a pleasant surprise.
There was still a great variety in the amount of enthusiasm the DA members had for physical conditioning. On the plus side, the girls had all fallen in love with the spandex exercise wear, and for that reason at least, they were all giving it a try. Of course, it had taken very little time for the males to discover that wonderful combination of spandex and the female figure, which meant that they all participated in the physical training wholeheartedly. In the case of the girls, they were further encouraged when Tonks showed up to add her endorsement to the exercise program. It didn’t hurt a bit, Hermione noted with an inner smile, that the metamorphmagus took a particularly shapely form during the times she spent promoting it. Even so, most of the girls, and many of the boys, were not overly enamored with the running track and the weight machines that had been installed at the manor.
At a suggestion from Dean Thomas, Harry and Hermione had therefore created this running/walking trail with fitness stations scattered along it at various intervals, which was much more popular. Both of them could complete the circuit while running the entire way and quickly snapping off the required number of repetitions of the designated exercises. Ron, being quite tall and rather gangly, was not nearly as fast as Harry, for whom being able to run away from Dudley had been a necessary survival skill while growing up. Even so, after his seven weeks of training, Ron was also reasonably good at the course, and his time of fifteen minutes for the circuit was set as the standard for the males to get a passing grade. Initially, Harry intended on setting a longer time as the standard for the females, but upon seeing first Angelina, then Ginny, beat Ron’s time after less than week of practice, he reconsidered. By the end of the summer, even Lavender and Parvati, who were the least fanatical about the physical training, had their time under twenty minutes, which he decided was adequate.
Of course it wasn’t all work. From their year of intense effort during the training in Mexico Harry and Hermione knew that fun breaks were also important. One of the diversions available was flying. There was a large open space for quidditch on the grounds, and Harry stocked the manor with a good selection of broomsticks. Initially the students who hadn’t been on their house teams sat back to watch the past and present Gryffindor quidditch players, but Harry encouraged everyone to give it a go. To everyone’s surprise (except Harry) Hermione was the first one to take him up on it. That broke the ice and soon everyone was in the air tossing the quaffle around. They always made sure to divide up the teams so that there was an even mixture of experienced and novice players on each team, and in time everyone was able to play at a passable level.
-ooOoo-
“How are the two of you holding up out here?”
Harry and Dan were out on the deck participating in the male bonding ritual of cooking meat over fire, commonly known as grilling steaks for dinner. Hermione and Emma were in the kitchen where Emma was making a salad and Hermione was getting some place settings together to take out to the patio table on the sundeck. Hermione had taken the opportunity to ask about how things were going and Emma paused before answering.
…
Their weekends at Brighton had fallen into a routine. On Saturdays, weather permitting, they would spend the day out on the beach in front of the cottage. While the location was not private enough for them to sunbathe nude, Emma and Hermione did go topless. On their second weekend there Hermione had worn the thong bikini Fleur had talked her into buying. Emma had agreed that it did look good on Hermione, but even though she was in very good shape for a woman nearing fifty, she did not think she could bring herself to wear one. Dan, of course, had other ideas, and thought a thong bikini would be a fine addition to her wardrobe. He had talked Hermione into helping him pick one out for his wife at the boutique where she and Fleur had bought theirs, and Emma was going to receive it for her next birthday.
On Sundays they would spend the morning at the church in town that Dan and Emma had begun attending, then spend the afternoon catching the sun out on the sundeck at the cottage, where Hermione and Emma would work the London Times crossword puzzle while Dan perused the latest football standings and commented to anyone who would listen about the relative merits of Arsenal and Manchester United. For his part, Harry stretched out in his lounge chair and alternated dozing off with watching Hermione. She could feel his eyes on her and would look up and smile at him on occasion. Although she had trouble believing it, he had told her several times how much he enjoyed watching her solve a puzzle, the way her eyes narrowed and her brow creased, and with a particularly difficult one the way she bit her lower lip and chewed on her pencil. He also made her blush when he informed her that it was even more enjoyable watching her do all of this in the nude. If the weather did not cooperate, they would retire into the house and play cards. In the evenings they would all watch a movie together. They also frequently made use of the hot tub that Dan had had installed on the sundeck.
Dan and Emma had settled easily into the community, and it was no problem pretending that they were there on a month long holiday, since that was true for many of the visitors to the popular beachside resort area. To be on the safe side they had adopted new names. When Emma had learned that Hermione had chosen a literary alias for her false identity (Jane Porter) she had picked out one for herself as well – Dorothy Gale. Both teens were delighted with the inside joke relating to the name’s origins. Dan, meanwhile, had chosen the name Keith. It wasn’t from any book or movie, he said, he just liked the name. So Keith and Dorothy they became, at least for the next month.
It was never questioned that they would go to church with her parents whenever they were visiting on a Sunday, and it was easy for Hermione to fall into the routine again. It was quite a bit different for Harry, who had never been to a church service in his life. His approach, like it was for anything else new, was to quietly observe, taking everything in and learning as much as he could before saying or doing anything to call attention to himself. So he listened attentively to the scripture readings and the homilies and the prayers, and followed along on the songs when Hermione showed him how to find them in the service book. There was one song that morning, though, that had particularly grabbed his attention. It was one of the many hymns based on the 23rd Psalm and it had a rather catchy refrain. ‘Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.’
Hermione had noticed that Harry had gone very quiet, and remained seated at the conclusion of the service, deep in thought. “What are you thinking about?” she had asked him quietly, while sitting back down next to him.
“Those words,” he responded softly. “That’s how I feel sometimes. Beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life. I want to be able to look ahead, past all the fear and death, and try to see my life in the future. But it’s so hard.” Dan and Emma had returned when they discovered that Harry and Hermione were not following them out of the church, and Emma sat back down on Harry’s other side and put her hand on his arm, while Hermione gave him a small hug.
“I know,” she said. “I feel that way a lot too.”
“So that song – it’s about asking for help in getting past those things.” This came out partly as a statement and partly as a question.
“It’s a prayer,” Hermione replied. “That’s what people do in prayers. They ask God for help with their burdens.”
“Do you ever pray?” Harry was curious about this concept. Hermione knew that he had grown up relying only on himself, and had trouble asking anyone for help.
“All the time,” Hermione responded as her eyes moistened. “I pray for you every day.”
“I do too,” Emma added. “Ever since I met you.” Harry was clearly overwhelmed by these revelations, and was silent for some time.
“Does it help?” he finally asked.
“It helps me,” Hermione replied while her father put his arm around her. Emma nodded in agreement. “I like to think it helps you too.”
Harry was silent again. “Thanks,” he said simply. Then he added. “I think I’d like it if you kept doing it.” First Hermione, then Emma, gave him hugs and Emma pulled him to his feet while Dan helped Hermione up. Together they all left the church in silence, each deep in thought over the exchange.
…
Hermione’s thoughts were brought back to the scene in the kitchen as Emma responded to her question. “Actually, that’s something your father and I wanted to talk to you about.” She joined her daughter in carrying the plates and salads out to the sundeck where Harry and her husband were just finishing up with the steaks.
“We’re doing just fine,” Emma began. “There’s plenty to do here, and I’ve found a Jazzercise class that meets every day.” Hermione smiled at her mum and shared a grin with Dan. Emma was an aerobics fanatic, which explained why she had such a great figure. Every summer she nagged Hermione to join her classes, and only now that Hermione was herself in such good condition from her year of hard exercise did she realize the value of her mother’s workout habit.
“We’ve contacted three other dental practices and managed to reschedule our patients with them, and have Amanda sending out letters to everyone apologizing for the inconvenience,” she went on. “Of course, since the bombing was on the news everyone knew the reason and was very understanding. Two of the practices have hired on Mary and Stephanie to help with the increased load. And we’re making steady progress with the insurance. It helped that we told them it wasn’t an emergency situation so that we didn’t need the money right away.”
“But we’d like to do more to help you two out,” Dan continued, picking up the conversation from his wife. “From the way you’ve described your training sessions for your classmates, we think we have something to offer. Emma could help out with your workout sessions, especially with the girls, and I could help you teach accuracy in shooting your spells.” Hermione nodded thoughtfully. Dan was a long time member of a local hunt club, and regularly did target shooting. One of the things Harry had been trying to stress was marksmanship.
“We could come over a couple of days a week, or however much you needed us,” Emma added hopefully. Hermione looked over to Harry and he smiled at her and nodded.
“It sounds like a good idea to me. The mansion is at least as safe as this beach house, and you’ve told me several times we can use all the help we can get.” Turning to Dan he continued. “We can work out the details later, but right now let’s see how these steaks turned out. Maybe these two beautiful ladies want to just stick with their salads to keep their nice slim figures, but I’m hungry.”
He winced as Hermione’s fist connected with his arm, and turned to her to see her stick her tongue out at him while she grabbed the plate with the steaks and took one for herself before passing it to her mother. Everyone laughed as Harry pouted while he had to wait for the tantalizing beef to make its way around the table back to him, but eventually his hunger was satisfied.
-ooOoo-
The next week Harry decided to have the DA start practicing more dangerous offensive spells. His concern was that they also needed to learn the corresponding blocks and shields, which meant that they would have potentially lethal hexes and curses cast at them. Fortunately, most of the students had taken his advice and obtained dragonhide armor. Bill and Fleur had bought a set for Ginny before they left, and Fred and George, of course, were able to afford their own. They also loaned the money to Lee, Katie, Angelina, and Alicia.
Susan Bones’s mother and father were as supportive of her training as any of the parents, having lost so many of their family members to Death Eater attacks, and they bought a set for both her and Hannah. Neville’s gran and Luna’s father did likewise, Mr. Lovegood going so far as to take a loan out with the Quibbler as collateral to purchase a top of the line set for both Luna and himself. The Patil’s parents were quite well off, so Parvati and Padma were also well equipped. Hermione later learned that it was Padma who had pushed for the garments most strenuously. Parvati, of course, had no objection to the skintight protective clothing, as it hugged her slim figure quite nicely. The Patils also provided a set for Lavender.
Among the males, Ernie’s family could easily afford a set of the expensive armor, and Justin’s family was very wealthy in the muggle world. They offered to provide extra sets for other needy students, which led to Colin and Dennis being equipped as well. Harry quietly arranged for Seamus and Dean to get some also, and they both pledged to pay him back when they graduated and began their careers. Harry confided to Hermione that all that mattered to him was that they survive long enough to actually graduate and have careers.
Hermione scowled as the students came back out of the rooms that had been set aside as dressing rooms. All of the boys (except Harry, thank goodness) were gawking at Susan and Lavender. Honestly, she huffed to herself, there ought to be more about a girl to attract a guy’s attention than just large breasts. She personally thought that Ginny looked very good in the snug fitting outfit, as did Parvati and Padma. She decided that she would ask Harry later for his opinion. That made her smile. For most couples, asking the male which other girls he thought looked best was a question that said male should avoid at all costs. But she figured that she and Harry were secure enough in their relationship that it wouldn’t bother her if he answered honestly.
After talking it over with Ron, Harry and Hermione had decided that Reducto, the explosion hex, would be the DA’s primary offensive spell. If they kept the spells low powered enough, the dragonhide armor would be able to absorb most of the blast while they worked on perfecting their shields. They also needed to work on Diffindo, the cutting curse, and the protective coating would be very important there as well while the students learned to control it.
Dan and Emma watched the training session in amazement. While they had seen Harry and Hermione do simple magic at home, they had never witnessed an actual duel where the two of them shot spells at each other. They were standing back away from the training session along with Madame Pomfrey, whom Harry had asked to be present for this initial exercise involving ‘live fire’. Since all three were health professionals, they had immediately hit it off together, and soon Poppy was telling them about some of the incidents that had landed Harry in the hospital wing. They had, of course, read Hermione’s version of most of these in her letters home, but it was interesting to hear a more unbiased account. The school nurse also confided to them her suspicions that Harry had been malnourished as a child, and how pleased she was to see him looking so healthy now. The Grangers were surprised how freely she was sharing this information, being used to strict patient confidentiality laws, but decided that either the practice was much different in the wizarding world or the school nurse considered them to be family members of Harry, given their daughter’s betrothal to him.
“What are you lot up to over here?” Hermione and Harry had called a break and come over to join her parents on the sidelines.
“Oh, just swapping trade secrets,” teased Dan. “Your nurse here was just telling us what you look like as a cat.” In fact, that subject had not come up but the reminder of her mishap with the polyjuice potion during her second year had the desired effect of turning his daughter’s face bright red. One of a father’s primary duties, after all, is to embarrass his children at any opportunity. Dan’s grin was abruptly terminated when Emma slapped him on the back of the head.
“Madame Pomfrey was just telling us about healing potions,” Emma offered. “I was thinking that was something we might be able to help make. Both of us had to take two years of chemistry at university, and your father was actually quite good at it. Potion making sounds pretty much like chemistry lab.”
Hermione had never thought about it that way, but decided her mum was right. Harry looked more dubious. “I don’t know, potion making didn’t seem very scientific to me,” he objected. “Just throwing random ingredients into a cauldron and hoping it turned out all right.”
Dan laughed at the glare Hermione shot Harry’s way. “Actually, there are an awful lot of pre-med students who think the same thing about organic chemistry,” he joked. Emma rolled her eyes at this comment but had to agree that he was right about that. Meanwhile Hermione was not about to let Harry’s statement go unchallenged.
“You know Harry, if you had actually studied the theory of potion making you might have understood the underlying principles and properties involved,” she declared, beginning to go into lecture mode. “Just because you hated the professor was no excuse for shortchanging your education.” Harry just stood there with his head down and took it, knowing she was absolutely right in her assessment of his learning priorities in past years. Seeing this, Hermione caught herself and stopped her scolding. That was in the past, and Harry had completely reformed his attitude toward studying since then. Her face softened and she reached out to give his hand a squeeze to reassure him that she wasn’t still angry about it.
Dan, not aware that Hermione was finished chastising Harry, tried to bail out his future son-in-law. “Well, it does make a difference in how well you learn if you have a good professor. Take, for example, the chem prof we had first year. That guy loved doing demonstrations in class and made it as much fun to learn as he could. He especially liked blowing things up. I remember this one time he mixed hydrogen and oxygen in a balloon and lit it with a candle. The resulting explosion was so loud people came running in from other classrooms to see what was going on.”
At this comment Harry and Hermione shared a look, and Harry spoke up. “You know, that reminds me of something we were talking about the other day. Do you think muggle explosives might be useful to us? And how easy would it be to get hold of some?”
This elicited a groan from Emma. “Oh no, don’t get him started on that.” Hermione tried to hide a smile. She knew that her father’s interest in chemistry had developed into a fascination with explosives. But Dan suddenly turned serious.
“Unfortunately, even though the government tries to control stuff like that in this country, it’s all too available. I’m pretty sure the explosives that those terrorists used to blow up our office were a type that could be put together from fertilizer and fuel oil by anyone who knows enough chemistry. Let me think about it a bit. Maybe talk to those two inventor friends of yours. What were their names?”
This time it was Hermione’s turn to groan, while Harry smirked. “I think I should introduce you to Fred and George.”
-ooOoo-
Dan and Emma turned out to be excellent potions brewers, and were soon supplying a wide variety of healing potions that Madame Pomfrey taught them how to make, which became very useful as the dueling practice grew more intense. They had found a complete potions lab in the basement of the manor house, which was not surprising given that Lily had been Slughorn’s prize potions student. While checking it out, Hermione had come across Lily’s copy of Advanced Potion Making and found that it had lots of shortcuts and tips written in the margins just like Snape’s had. When she showed it to Harry she conceded somewhat sheepishly that she supposed that these shortcuts were probably all right to use. Harry managed to refrain from any snide retorts about her disdain for the similar useful tips written by the Half Blood Prince, and Hermione was so pleased with him for his forbearance that she gave him a hug and a nice kiss in appreciation.
Dan had also brought in a device that he said gun clubs used for target practice. When you pulled a rope it launched a circular disk into the air that Dan called a clay pigeon. He spent quite a bit of time using it to teach the students to shoot spells at moving objects. Of course, Harry picked it up the fastest but soon explosive hexes were raining bits of clay all over the grounds of the Potter estate. For her part, Emma soon had all of the girls doing aerobics with her, as well as some of the more insightful boys. While most of the guys shied away from anything that resembled dancing, a few realized that exercising with a large group of spandex clad, sensuously writhing young witches was not exactly an unpleasant experience.
Dan also started talking with Minnie about putting in a swimming pool. He was undecided about whether to make it an indoor pool or an outdoor pool when Hermione suggested that they make it a combination, with part of the pool in a greenhouse like enclosure. They decided to keep it a secret from Harry for a surprise, and Minnie was delighted with that idea. Hermione thought it best if they waited until after this summer, when all of the DA members were no longer on the grounds every day. She was concerned with how the non-muggleborn witches and wizards would react to the concept of the string bikini. She figured that Lavender would love it, and that Ginny would be initially shocked but come around once she realized the advantages. She suspected that Parvati and Padma would be quite uncomfortable and didn’t really know what Hannah or Susan would make of being so highly exposed. She had long since given up trying to guess how Luna would react to anything. Based on her experience with Ron and Bill, she was fairly certain of how the wizard-raised boys would react to the sight of the revealing swimwear.
-ooOoo-
Shortly after beginning their offensive spell practice they received an owl from Professor Flitwick with an offer to help them with dueling. Hermione recalled reading that the diminutive professor had been a dueling champion when he was younger, and the pair accepted his offer immediately and sent a portkey back with the owl. When the Ravenclaw head of house arrived he told them that he had been impressed with what he saw at the castle during Ron’s training. While helping Hermione make targets for Ron and Harry to practice on, he had been inspired to make dueling dummies for them. When they saw what he had created they were delighted.
The dueling dummies were simple statues that he had charmed to be animated. Some of them were very agile and were intended to give the students practice hitting their targets. Some of them were equipped with shields. The more advanced models shot back stunners in the direction that the spells that were shot at them came from, in order to teach duelers not to stand still while fighting.
Harry first had the DA members practice on individual dummies, and again Hermione recorded their progress with each type and who needed more work in a certain area. Then the students were matched up against a randomly selected dummy without knowing which type they were facing. Later they went against a mixed group of target dummies, both individually and then in pairs and groups. By the end of the summer there were full-scale melees taking place in the fields and woods of the Potter estate. The most impressive one matched a team of Fred, George, Lee, Katie, Angelina, and Alicia against a mixed force of twenty-four dueling dummies. In the dark. The sky was lit up with spellfire for nearly an hour before the Gryffindor sextet emerged victorious.
Gradually some teams began to develop as the students grouped themselves during the training. The six graduates who worked in Diagon Alley were the obvious response team for any attacks there. As a group, they were also the furthest along in their training. Among the students, Padma, Ginny, and Neville were the most dedicated. Padma had taken over the leadership of the Ravenclaw contingent, which included her and the three boys – Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, and Michael Corner. The rest of them weren’t quite ready, in Harry’s opinion, to be designated as a response team.
Ginny, Neville, and Luna all trained together, and they made a pretty good grouping. Neville also came over every day, not so coincidentally arriving at about the same time as Ginny did, and stayed even longer. He was training with a zeal that bordered on fanaticism, and had become one of the most powerful wizards in his year. He had also undergone some physical changes that were quite possibly even more startling than the changes Harry had undergone. He was easily the most dedicated of any of the males with the weight machines, and the once chubby boy was turning into a stocky six foot tall well-muscled young man. While Dean and Ron were still taller, and Dean also made good use of the weights, Neville was probably stronger than either of them. Ginny was so serious about her training that it sometimes scared Hermione. Her personality seemed to have changed dramatically since the attack on the Burrow, and she rarely laughed and joked anymore. When Hermione asked Ron about it, he confided that Molly was still giving Ginny a hard time about Harry. As far as that situation was concerned, the summer couldn’t end soon enough. The sooner they got away from their unfortunate home circumstances and back to Hogwarts the better. Luna was serious about her training, but she was still – well – Luna. Even as she mastered everything that they threw at her she always had some off the wall comment to make that had everyone scratching their heads.
On the other hand, Ron was constantly surrounded by what Harry referred to jokingly as his harem – Susan, Hannah, Lavender, and Parvati, although Parvati was only there because Lavender was. Unfortunately the other three girls were spending more time flirting with Ron than mastering the spells. While Hermione couldn’t really blame Ron for basking in all the attention he had always yearned for, she did wish that he could get the girls to take it more seriously. In any case, Harry put Ron on a response team with Ginny, Neville, and Luna.
The other Gryffindor boys – Dean, Seamus, Colin, and Dennis – also worked well together. Ernie and Justin usually joined them. While they weren’t quite ready for combat yet, the six of them would make a solid team eventually.
-ooOoo-
As the training went on and they all began to coalesce as a tight knit fighting force, Ernie, Padma, Neville and Lee, representing each of the houses, and the graduates, came to Harry and Hermione with a proposition. Several other students waited eagerly in the background.
“We think that we need a new name,” Lee suggested. “All of us agree that the name Dumbledore’s Army isn’t accurate anymore.” Harry frowned and Hermione knew he wouldn’t be too happy about where this was going. She moved closer and clasped his arm in a show of support.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked when Harry remained silent.
The four representatives glanced nervously at each other before Neville gathered his courage and stepped forward. “Potter’s Army,” he stated in a firm voice. The others nodded quickly, and beyond them Hermione could see the onlookers following suit. She also felt Harry beginning to tense up. He was very aware that the proposed name was accurate, but he also had a deeply seated reluctance to being the center of attention in such an obvious way.
“Well,” she broke in. “I was thinking of something along the same lines, but different.” Everyone turned their attention to her, and she felt Harry’s unspoken hope that she could get him out of this dilemma. “I mean, this is going to be an official organization when we get back to school and I don’t think either of the names ‘Dumbledore’s Army’ or ‘Potter’s Army’ will sit well with certain people at the Ministry.” This generated a round of chuckles and managed to dissipate the tension as she continued. “I know with the DA we also sometimes called it the Defense Association, so I was thinking we should rename it the Practical Defense Association, or PDA for short, since that’s essentially what we’re studying now.” While Harry looked relieved, the others were clearly not happy that she had derailed their efforts to acknowledge his leadership of the group. She raised her hand to forestall their objections and went on. “But that doesn’t mean that among ourselves we can’t have a different meaning for that acronym.”
Looks of understanding began lighting up the faces of her listeners, as the significance of her proposed abbreviation began to dawn on them. Padma was the first to catch on. “Like Potter’s Defense Association?” she suggested with a grin.
“Possibly,” Hermione replied with a matching grin. Then she heard Harry’s groan beside her, and turned to him with an apologetic smile. He hesitated, then returned a reluctant smile of his own, acknowledging that she had done the best she could. Soon other members of the newly christened PDA were coming up with additional variations, all of which began with ‘Potter’.
“Potter’s Defense Army?” “Maybe Potter’s Dedicated Army.” “How about the Potter/Dumbledore Army?” “No, Potter’s Demented Army.” “Nah, sounds too much like dementors.” “I’ve got it, Potter’s Delusional Associates.” That got a round of laughter. Seamus brought the house down with his suggestion – “Potter’s Death Eater Annihilators”.
Eventually the laughing crowd began to disperse, leaving Harry and Hermione standing together and she looked over at him to see a look of pride mixed with some apprehension on his face, but also some amusement as well. When he noticed her watching him he turned to her and smiled.
“You know, I can think of another common muggle phrase that is often associated with those three letters,” he commented with a gleam in his eye.
“Oh?” she teased, knowing full well what he was getting at. “And what might that be?”
“Public Display of Affection.”
“Hmm,” she replied, affecting a thoughtful expression while putting her arms around his neck. “I think that would also do nicely.”
“It works for me, too.” He concluded by lowering his head to hers and offering a very thorough demonstration of that particular phrase.
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