BLOOD OF THE MOTHERBy BertaSFeb 2006

Disclaimer: None of this is mine. I just like playing in the HP verse

Chapter 40 – The D.A.

As the members of the DA entered the room of requirement on Friday evening they greeted each other warmly. Once they were all in and seated Harry started speaking about what he was hoping the group would be doing this year.

"Hey everyone, I hope you all had as good a summer as I did." every one laughed nothing any of them has done had been anywhere near, what Harry's summer was like.

"With a real DADA Teacher this year I am hoping that the Defense Association can be a bit more of a Dueling Club, since the threat of dark wizards has lessened." there were several shocked looks of disbelief and some grumbling. "Don't get me wrong it's not gone completely but with out the Death Eaters it is less likely you will have to defend yourselves against a truly dark wizard."

"I am hoping that we can add some members. Ideally we will open it up to anyone third year and over. Since we are an officially sanctioned study group now and several members of the faculty and alumni have volunteered to be advisors. Some of which will be at the next meeting, which, by the way, will take place Saturday next weekend and will be open to all students in the great hall directly after lunch. There will be a demonstration of what an actual regulation duel is supposed to be like." He chuckled, "Not that seeing Professor Snape dump Lockhart on his rear wasn't cool. It really wasn't much of a duel."

Amid the chuckles someone asked, "Which teachers will be here, Harry?"

"Ah, a very good question, that I am not going to answer. I want it to be a surprise. I also have it on good authority that Professor Lupin has arranged for quite a few of these advisors to be guest speakers and to teach throughout the year on the days around the full moon."

Amid the murmurs of surprise and speculation someone said, "So we aren't going to be Dumbledore's Army any more?"

"Under no circumstances do I want to hear this group referred to as Dumbledore's Army." Harry stated firmly. "We are the Defense Association or perhaps the Dueling Association, not Dumbledore's Army."

"What really happened with Dumbledore, Harry? I only believe about half of what I read in the Prophet." said Justin.

"Yes, but which half?" Susan Bones piped up, giggling.

"Surprisingly they got most of the stuff about Dumbledore right. He was tampering with people's minds to get them to do what he wanted. This included my best friends, who he had unconsciously spying on me. Each year he sent me to do his dirty work, endangering any who went with me. Just before he escaped custody he tried to kill Professor Lupin, Severus and I with a wandless bludgeoning hex that blew a hole in the wall of courtroom ten."

"Blimey, Harry." Seamus said, "Is that why you were covered in bruises? I thought those were from those damned people you stay with." The boisterous Irish boy looked as shocked as he was.

Harry smirked, "Actually my relatives where considerably better than normal this year. In trying to push me out of the way of Dumbledork's hex, both Professor Lupin and Professor Snape landed on top of me." He chuckled, "Neither of them was pleased and believe me they were using almost as much Bruise Ease Ointment as I was."

There were quite a few laughs, "What's the deal with Snape?" some one called out.

"Professor Snape is one of the people Dumbledork was seriously mind fu…"

"HARRY!" Hermione screeching his name interrupted him

He looked around sheepishly at the stunned faces of his friends, "Sorry, umm, I, umm, uh, Severus is one of the people that had his mind, um, tampered with, big time, some of the other teachers did too.

"What about the other stuff? They seemed to think at one point you were going dark. Not that I would ever believe it." said Colin Creevey with a cheeky grin.

"And they had you and the Professor as… well… umm… you know." Dennis Creevey was blushing his face a mask of disgust and embarrassment.

Harry laughed, "Yeah, the Dark Pouf. Ha, ha…"

He had to wait several minutes for everyone to calm down, as they all laughed almost as hysterically as he and Sev had when he had first thought of the name. He received several legimency flashes, a group of people in robes similar to death eaters but in a rainbow of pastels with flowery trim and feathered masks. There were several other images that he knew were from movies but that made no sense because he didn't know what movies they were.

The rest of the meeting went smoothly with only minor interruptions. It did take several days for certain people to be able to look at Harry with out giggling.

The Duel or rather mini tournament, turned out to be a roaring success. There had been four initial duels

Professor Snape vs. Emmeline Vance in which Snape won after only about a dozen spells being cast.

Mad-Eye Moody took Headmistress McGonagall almost as fast as Severus had Emmeline.

Tonks soundly beat Professor Vector, after just thirty minutes. He was distracted by Tonks taking on his shape, well his face anyway.

Filius Flitwick defeated Kingsley Shacklebolt after almost an hour, due to the fact that the Professor presented such a small target; he was barely a foot and a half high when he would crouch, and Kingsley had very strong shields.

The next round had been Snape vs. Tonks and Flitwick vs. Moody.

Snape took out Tonks in under ten minutes with a vast quantity of spells, which he cast in such a rapid-fire manner, that it took everyone by surprise.

Flitwick and Moody battled it out for almost two hours before a lucky shot actually managed to hit the tiny Professor.

The final duel was between Moody and Snape and lasted nearly ninety minutes with a huge number of high-level spells being cast by both of them. Snape finally accioed Moody's leg, the spells on the fake leg kept it from being susceptible to this, but having his real leg pulled from under him caused the old Auror to loose his balance and fall off the platform thus giving Snape the win.

Severus would find the children treating him with a new respect after this show of skill and strength.

Harry had spoken with Severus the next Sunday about the new prophesy and they had decided that they should check with the Department of Mysteries to see if there were any other recorded prophesies in their possession.

This had prompted Harry to write a letter. He did have to do some research to find out who to address it to, but this also served to familiarize him with the workings of the Ministry. Not that he really wanted or needed all that information right now, but later he would find it useful to know who was supposed to be doing what.

A letter came back that there were indeed several that were assumed to be associated with him and should he wish to see them he would only need to make an appointment with the head archivist. He and Sev had talked and they had decided that they would go during the Christmas Holidays.

The days settled into what passed for normal in a school where the abnormal was expected. Classes were going well. Harry was having an easier time concentrating when studying, which he was doing with out Hermione pestering him. She had her hands full trying to get Ron to study this early in the year.

Sev of course was another matter. He was always asking what Harry was learning in all his classes and helping on points where he didn't fully understand something. Sev excelled in Runes, Arithmancy and DADA although he was a little shaky in charms and transfiguration, this improved though as he started working on them to be able to helped Harry should he need it.

Quidditch was on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ron, having been elected Captain by Harry and Katie Bell, was a brutal taskmaster. And they all felt good about their prospects for another Gryffindor Quidditch Cup.

DA was on Friday evenings. Usually one or more of the advisors would attend. They would make themselves available at other times. They would eventually divide the students into smaller groups of about eight to ten for additional team training. Similar to what was done during Auror training.

Saturday morning he had tea with Hagrid or Remus. And with the Headmistress one Saturday afternoon a month, she wanted to avoid the mistakes of her predecessor, by keeping Harry informed of what was going on in the pursuit of Albus and other matters.

Sundays were reserved for sleeping in and spending time with Severus, doing mostly fun things, or some times just talking or helping Sev grade essays or tests for the lower years, which Harry found was a great way to review the basics.

Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Luna would eventually start to come to Severus' rooms with Harry to study or play games that required more than two people. They learned early on not to challenge either Hermione or Severus at Scrabble and that no one could beat Luna at twister. Ron was surprised to find a new way to humiliate them all the first time they played Risk and Neville became their resident card shark.

Ginny preferred to avoid them all most of the time in favor of hanging around with her boyfriend Dean Thomas, who upon being given the standard 'if you hurt her speech' by Ron and Harry, had simply nodded and continued on as though he had not just been threatened. They realized eventually that this was because he had no intention of allowing Gin to be hurt.

Time sped by and Christmas was fast approaching but Harry still didn't have any prospects in the girlfriend department but then he wasn't worried yet, after all he had till graduation to sort that all out.

A/N I think this is the end of this portion of this story. I know that there are several loose ends. I am tentatively planning a sequel although it may be a while before that gets written.

I also plan to do some revisions to this story. Adding all those notes I wrote in the margins when I printed it out (grin) and condensing the chapters so they are longer but fewer of them.

Thanks for all your wonderful reviews and thank you for reading.

BertaS