(Y/N)'s POV

The next morning was not fun for me, that's one of the main problems about this ritual, I had to wake up super early, sunrise to be specific, which meant I was usually half dead by the time class came around.

I just hoped there was a storm sooner rather than later because this was killing me, and It was only the first day. We, being me and Hermione, spent the whole week trying to convince Harry to start this revolution thing.

While still setting up the whole thing, getting people interested and seeing who would join, until finally, we had a date and time of a meeting. "Look," she leaned toward Harry sternly as we were sat in the common room.

"You know the first weekend in October's a Hogsmeade weekend? How would it be if we tell anyone who's interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over?" "Why do we have to do it outside school?" said Ron.

"Because," said Hermione, "I don't think Umbridge would be very happy if she found out what we were up to." The morning of the Hogsmeade visit dawned bright but windy, we trudged down the street huddled together.

"Where are we going anyway?" Harry asked. "The Three Broomsticks?" "Oh — no," said Hermione, "no, it's always packed and really noisy. I've told the others to meet us in the Hog's Head, that other pub, you know the one, it's not on the main road."

"I think it's a bit . . . you know . . . dodgy . . . but students don't normally go in there, so I don't think we'll be overheard." "Plus we don't need Ron drooling over the staff" I added. "Well, come on," said Hermione slightly nervously as we made our way to the pub. I shrugged and stepped in; it can't be that scary.

The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. Harry stepped two paces into the room and his eyes darted around the room. "I don't know about this, Hermione," he muttered, as we crossed to the bar.

"I like it. It has an odd charm to it...y'know, under all the dirt...and the goats" I said, smiling at the very angry looking bartender who seemed very familiar for some reason. "Sup man, got any gigglewater?" he coughed "No..." I nodded. "Any recommendations?" "Leave..." I nodded awkwardly again, I whispered to Ron "I think he likes me."

Hermione ordered the drinks; I think he liked her more then he liked me "What?" he grunted. "Four butterbeers, please," said Hermione "Three, I'll have pumpkin juice" I said. They looked at me oddly.

"Winky can't have Butterbeer anymore, so I promised her I wouldn't either, that way we can try to kick it together" I explained, Ron scoffed, Harry shrugged, but Hermione beamed at me. "That's really nice of you" I shrugged "She's my friend."

The man reached beneath the counter and pulled up three very dusty, very dirty bottles, which he slammed on the bar, then he reached for an equally dirty glass and filled it with Pumpkin Juice. "Eight Sickles," he said. "I got it" I said, handing him the money, I hated having change in my pockets.

"You know what?" Ron murmured after we had sat down, looking over at the bar with enthusiasm. "We could order anything we liked in here, I bet that bloke would sell us anything, he wouldn't care. I've always wanted to try firewhisky —"

"You — are — a — prefect," snapped Hermione. "Oh," "Yeah . . ." said Ron, the smile fading from his face. "I'm not." I smiled, sliding my chair out, Hermione gave me a very scary glare that reminded me of Mum a bit.

"SIT" she snarled, I nodded and sat down out of fear. "You never let me do anything fun" I grumbled. Trying to convince myself she wasn't the boss of me, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

"So who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his butterbeer and taking a swig. "Just a couple of people," Hermione repeated, she lied.

First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho Chang and one of her usually giggling girlfriends who seemed familiar, then Luna; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, and Susan Bones, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot; Ginny, followed by a tall skinny blond bloke and bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan. I smirked "And so, the revolution begins" I said, Hermione tutted at me.

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

"Hi," said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly. "Could we have . . . twenty-five butterbeers, please?" "And another Pumpkin Juice please" I said, holding up my empty glass, Fred smirked "He's paying" he said with a thumb in my direction.

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag and started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar. "Cheers," said Fred, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, I haven't got enough for all of these. . . ." I pleaded.

Harry turned to me "What have you been telling people?" he said in a low voice. "What are they expecting?" "Butterbeer" I said, he frowned "I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say," said Hermione soothingly "You don't have to do anything yet, I'll speak to them first."

"Hi, Harry," said Neville, beaming and taking a seat opposite Harry. Luna sat down beside me and I waved, she smiled brightly at me "You all right Luna?" she nodded "Yes, the weather is lovely today isn't it"

I nodded "Yeah, do you know if it's going to rain soon?" she put a finger to her chin "I don't know...why?" I shrugged "No reason" but I internally groaned. Before we could continue, Hermione started.

"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. "Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well, Harry 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 Defence Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us" her eyes flashed nervously to me and I winked at her, she seemed to get a bit more confidence.

"Because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark 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 went on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells —" "You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?" said Michael Corner.

"Oh no I was thinking of dropping out and working here" I said, rolling my eyes, Michael tutted at me "Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defence 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 then blushed and glared at me as I laughed at her, 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.

"Well . . . that's the plan anyway," "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 in a rather aggressive voice.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it —" Hermione began. "You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy rudely, nodding at Harry. "Who brought along this prat?" I said. "Yeah, who are you?" said Ron. "Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes them say You-Know-Who's back."

"Well, I've got a fancy new hand if you want to see it, maybe I'll jam it up your-" I started. "-Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about —"

"It's okay guys" said Harry. I looked at him cautiously, he nodded, telling me it was fine for him to tell. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he asked, looking Zacharias straight in the face. "I saw him. If 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. They hung off his every word as he explained his story with the graveyard, I chipped in every so often, Lavender asked me while I was even in the graveyard.

I shrugged "Yeah well, I punched him in the face in second year so he must have held a grudge" I explained, not wanting to say he just wanted to show off, there were some laughs as we continued.

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 —"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Harry said angrily, they all seemed to understand. "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."

We spent the next half an hour trying to convince people that the idea was solid and that Harry could teach us, which basically devolved into him telling them his life story, the philosophers stone, the basilisk, the tri-wizard tournament. And Harry did the normal Harry thing to do and tried to deny he did it without help and that it was all luck.

"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?" "Yeah mate, you might want to quiet down before I make you" Zacharias flushed. "Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said.

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred Weasley. "Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, "Yeah, want to take me up on my offer?" I added. "Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, "moving on"

". . . the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?" There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded his arms and said nothing, though perhaps this was because he was too busy keeping an eye on George and I.

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

"Well said!" barked Ernie Macmillan. "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, "See, Ernie, this is why you're my favourite" I gave him a thumbs up.

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione, "is that she's got some . . . some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilise us against the Ministry."

Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news "Wonder where she gets that idea" I muttered. Hermione frowned at me and I shut up quickly. "Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," said Hermione.

"We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting." She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill, then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to say something.

"I-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."

There was something off about her tone, I glanced over at her, she averted her eyes, "What did you do?" I placed in her head, she gasped and then glared at me, she hated when I did that, but promised she'd tell me later.

When the last person had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag. There was an odd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signed some kind of contract. "Well, time's ticking on," said Fred briskly, getting to his feet. In twos and threes, the rest of the group took their leave too

"Well, I think that went quite well," said Hermione happily, we walked out of the Hog's Head into the bright sunlight a few moments later. We had turned into the High Street and she paused outside Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.

There was a handsome display of pheasant-feather quills in the window. "Hmm . . . I could do with a new quill." She said in a strange tone of voice, her eyes darting to me for a second as she turned into the shop.

I caught on after a second "Errr, hey Ron, did you know about the new stock in Zonko's, you and Harry should go look" I said sharply. He looked confused "You not coming?" I shook my head, thinking of an excuse

"Nah, I'm skint, might beg Hermione to buy me a butterbeer" Ron looked confused "But you said..." I panicked "I know what I said!" He seemed perplexed but was satisfied with that, Harry gave an odd look but shrugged and they both trudged off. Leaving me to shuffle into the shop while they were out of sight.

I followed Hermione into Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, she looked back at me with a cheeky smile "Took you long enough" I shrugged "Ron can't take a hint" I pulled her into a quick hug, "I missed this"

I kissed the top of her forehead and her nose. She seemed to get a little frustrated and stood on her toes to kiss my lips, I raised an eyebrow "So you did too then..." I paused as I looked up. I realised the owner of the quill shop was awkwardly watching all of this.

"Uhhh, that one please" I pointed to the quill Hermione was eyeing. After a quick purchase he said goodbye and we walked out hand in hand. Her eyes kept scanning in front of us, searching for the others.

"Don't worry, they'll be in Zonko's for ages, Fred and George will stall them with the snackbox things" she got an odd look on her face, like a small part of her wanted to go and reprimand them.

"We should tell them soon, I mean, Ron's oblivious as always, but Harry might get suspicious" I argued, she tutted and hit my arm, "Why are you so mean to him?" It took mme a moment to realise she was referring to Ron, "it's our thing."

I laughed as we snuck past the Zonko's window. I giggled as I looked in the window and saw Harry and Ron ogling some new prank items. "I take it back, sneaking around is too fun" she nodded "Yeah, it's oddly exciting"

It cheered me up to see this side of her as we walked down the high-street. We made our way into Madam Padifoots Tea shop. After we ordered our tea and sat down, I took a quick look around and absentmindedly commented.

"I forgot how nice this place is, the last time I came here I was with-" I paused as I saw a very subtle twitch in Hermione's eyebrow. "-She who must not me named" I smiled. "Sorry" I apologised, she smiled "its fine" she said while sipping her tea like a supervillain.

After a while of chatting and just enjoying each other's company I sighed at how simple this was, she was my best friend, not including Bones, talking to her like this was easy. "This is nice, how come we've never just gone out together before?" I interlaced our fingers.

"Well, you definitely took your time" She smiled "Honestly, I expected you to ask me sooner. Ever since your attempt at a date in third year" I was shocked, "Was it that obvious?" she laughed.

I love it when she laughs "well, you're not the most subtle of people" She did a pretty accurate imitation of me "We can make a thing of it" she said with very exaggerated movements as she spoke. "I don't sound like that..." I pouted as we walked out of the shop.

"Aww, I'm sorry, how can I make it up to you?" she said coyly, "I can think of a few things" I winked and kissed her again, I sighed happily after that, "Why haven't we been doing this for years?"

She leaned into me "We were kids" "I know, but Hermione we're perfect, we should have seen it sooner" she raised an eyebrow "I mean, the beautiful and bookish prefect and the roguishly handsome delinquent" I smiled, "We're a cliché and I love it"

After she stopped laughing, she poked my nose "I still can't believe it took you that long to kiss me in the first place" I scowled "Blame Vicky." She scoffed "Of course" rolling her eyes "Still don't like him then?"

I shrugged "we've exchanged letters, he's not all bad" she seemed genuinely shocked "what do you two have to talk about?" I smugly smiled "Not much, just declaring my victory" she raised an eyebrow "oh...so I'm a prize now?" she said with a scary tone.

"Check your privilege Granger, I was talking about the tournament" The look intensified, I paused to think of the right words "No, you're not just a prize. But I wanted him to know that you were off limits" she shook her head "You just wanted to show off."

I nodded "Of course, I'm with the smartest and most beautiful witch in Hogwarts, I want to shout it to the heavens." I tried to butter her up. "I suppose I can forgive you then, but you're honestly telling me Viktor was the only reason you didn't ask me sooner?"

I thought about it for a second. "Well that and I thought you liked Ron, and after the problems last year, I didn't think you were interested" I said quietly, trying to defend why I didn't do it sooner.

"Well I thought the same, I thought you and Luna were together for most of last year...I may have been a been a little...jealous" She muttered the last word with a blush, I nodded "Yeah, I noticed. You did sort of explode when I told you who I was going to the Yule Ball with."

"So did you!" she defended. "True, but to be fair you were harassing my cat, so I was in a bad mood, and you had broken my heart by rejecting me and crushing my soul earlier that week" I said jokingly.

"But it still took all that for you to realise you liked me. So I sort of needed to shout at you for you to finally realise I felt the same way didn't I?" she smirked triumphantly. "Yep, I'm definitely rubbing off on her" I thought proudly.

"Don't be silly, I've liked you since I met you Hermione, I just wasn't sure you liked me back" she looked at me very shocked "Really?" I nodded "Even in first year, it's why I teased you so much" I smiled.

She hummed in agreement "I did like you in first year, but I suppose it may have taken a while for you to grow on me" I laughed "I can see that, I grow on everyone" I chuckled, then she said something that shocked me "It was second year that I knew that I liked you like that."

"Since when?" I said now even more shocked. "Christmas holiday, when I drank the Polyjuice and you stayed with me." She giggled at my face, which must have been halfway between shocked and amazed

"Was it the sleeping draught sob story?" she shook her head, "It was you telling Myrtle to sod off and asking if I was ok." she beamed at me. "What about you?" she said expectantly, "Third year" I said, feeling a bit awkward.

"I mean I always liked you, but it was third year when I realised properly." "When was it? When I hit Malfoy?" she enquired curiously "Nah, when you were talking about the time turner in the forest, I don't know why it was then, but it was."

"That was why you were being so weird!" she said in understanding, I just blushed and nodded. "Why did you wait this long?" I asked. "I didn't, remember Valentine's day?" I nodded, "God I'm such a moron, you getting petrified made me forget" I face-palmed. "It was a busy year, murder mystery's and stuff."

"Well we're always busy, why did you wait?" She sked, arching an eyebrow teasingly. "I just wanted to do it right I guess. You were all sad and mopey at the Yule Ball and I wanted to help, and then I couldn't handle it and then you kissed me" I smirked.

"Excuse me! I was not sad and mopey, and you were the one that leaned in first" she interjected "You misunderstand Hermione, I leaned in so I could admire your eyeliner, the rest was all you" I said shortly, she half frowned.

I pressed on. "And then after the graveyard, I promised myself I would tell you whenever I got the chance" she nodded, I gripped her hand, "And here we are." "And it only took you half a year" I paused. "Stop being mean, it's harder than it looks"

"Well, it took a while, but I'm glad we finally did, now Ginny can't pester me about it" she sighed, leaning into me. We walked down to the Shrieking Shack "Well, few years late, but we finally got here, did you know it's the most haunted place in Britain?" I smiled.

"No, how interesting" she teased, "well, the view is exquisite" I said, pulling her into a kiss. As we walked, I asked her an important question. "So, can I call you 'Mione now? Or do you prefer Hermi-own-ninny?"

She frowned at me "You call me that anyway" I nodded "Yeah, but if I remember right, 'it's Hermione, actually' " I said, mimicking her voice. She frowned at me. "Do you ever just let things go?"

"Depends. am I allowed to call you by a nickname now?" she sighed "Sure" I smiled "Thanks Hermi-own-ninny" She laughed heartily before settling down and looking up at me. "You're such a prat."

As she sighed, I smugly smiled, "Yeah. But now I'm your prat" "I suppose, but you've always been my prat" she leant closer to me "You're stuck with me now, no takebacks" I chirped, she sighed happily as we kissed.