Act II: Chapter 4

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'Two days until classes start.'

I browsed my curriculum list the day after we arrived at Hogwarts for our fifth year. September 1st, 1995 fell on a Friday. Not sure if it was the same in my original world, I was only about four months old at the time.

Breakfast was a simple affair this morning, I was literally the only student up and about at seven thirty in the morning. Everyone else was too tired from the train ride home and the activities of last night, so they must have slept in.

'Or they're just teenagers.' My mind supplied as the most obvious answer.

McGonagall must be used to my normal early morning routines from last year because she had my classes ready for me when I got here this morning.

'How will it work after I take my OWLs early? Will I continue to stay in fifth year classes?' I couldn't help but think as I looked at the schedule. It seemed like I take all of my classes in the day back to back with hardly any breaks, but when there are breaks, they're definitely longer than they used to be. Some days it favored the morning and others it favored the afternoon. 'Probably to help us out. Long uninterrupted breaks are best.'

I decided that my questions needed to be answered so I finished up my breakfast and headed back towards the professors table. McGonagall was there, creating neat stacks of curriculum by year.

"Professor." I started to get her attention.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" She answered, looking up from the table.

"How will it work after I take my OWLs? Will I just Hop into the sixth year classes, or….?" I asked.

She stopped what she was doing and her face twisted into confusion. Before she could open her mouth and answer I decided to clear things up a bit, clearly she didn't know that I am taking my OWLs early.

"You do know that I am taking my OWLs during yule this year, right?" I asked her already knowing the answer but pushing the conversation the way that I wanted it to go.

She didn't actually react to that statement like I thought she would. She answered with a stare and a flat.

"No, I did not know that." She answered.

I just nodded to her then and turned around to walk out. 'Why wouldn't Dumbledore tell her? Wonder what she would say to me taking the Arithmancy OWL?'

"Mr. Weasley." She called to get my attention. I obeyed and turned around, meeting her eyes. "I am not done with you." She wagged a finger and pointed to the floor before her. "Explain."

"Well, I had a talk with Dumbledore this summer about it and he approved. So we submitted the paperwork, everything went smoothly and I even signed the legal stuff last night after the feast." I finished with a look on my face that must have shown my worries, because she noticed.

"Don't worry, it's fine, it just would have been nice to know, as your head of house." She told me rubbing her eyes. "Assuming everything goes smoothly, meaning you pass and do well in all of the subjects, then technically you wouldn't have to attend any classes the second half of the school year. Now, one thing I think the headmaster and I would agree on is that you should be pushed a little. So, yes, you'll be 'dumped' into the sixth year class in January. No you don't have a choice." When she finished, her attention focused on finishing the sorting of the curriculums.

"Thank you professor." I said turning around and heading towards the entrance of the great hall.

I was once again interrupted by a fluttering of wings and the sight of Pidwidgeon flapping his way towards me with a letter in his clutches. I held out my arm for him to land on and moved to swipe some bacon from the table.

He landed softly because of his small stature and accepted the treat with a hoot and an extended leg. I grabbed it swiftly and he took off as I continued my journey to the Room of Requirement.

My feet walked the familiar path without me even thinking about it as I opened the letter and began to read.

'Ron,

Still want to learn a little about warding? Next Saturday, eight a.m., meet at Gringotts. Ask for me when you arrive.

Your most handsome brother Bill.'

I laughed a bit at the end of the letter and mentally planned on being there. I didn't have a way to send him confirmation, since Pidwidgeon already flew off.

'I could use Hedwig, I guess. Oh wait.' I thought as I remembered the journal hidden away in my robes.

I paced three times in front of the Room of Requirement and pulled out the trusty journal. I opened it to the front page and couldn't help but smile at the words that graced my eyes.

'I miss you.'

I read in the neat perfect handwriting of Fleur. The time stamp told me it was two a.m., which is weird because she normally has no trouble going to sleep around eleven every night.

I walked into the room and once again a smile blossomed across my face as I took in my normal studying room with the great windows on one side, providing one of the best views I've ever seen. I couldn't help but notice that on the table there stood a new picture frame that I wasn't familiar with.

I walked around to see what graced the inside of it and there she was. A picture of Fleur the day of the yule ball, in her silver dress and smiling at me. This room is too perceptive. I thought to myself.

'I miss you too.' I wrote back to her and sat down at the desk I was so familiar with.

I pulled out another book from my robes, A Beginners Guide to Casting For the Learned, and set it on the table. It disappeared as I made my desire for it to be put back where I got it from known.

Then I thought about the specific book I wanted to look at now that I was back in the castle. The book dropped onto the table, and I was slightly surprised. I half expected for Dumbledore to hide it off of Hogwarts so I couldn't get a hold of it.

'The Mind Palace.' I thought to myself taking a look at the book.

A vibration ran across the desk breaking my concentration from the book and bringing it to the journal.

'MMMMMhmmmm :(.' She wrote and I couldn't help but laugh because I knew that meant that it was too early, and now she was rolling over leaving the journal open with the pen in it, completely forgetting about it as she tried to go back to sleep.

'Wake up and give me attention.' I wrote to her knowing her reaction.

'Sorry, too busy sleeping.' Came her cheeky reply that made literally zero sense.

'We have a date next Saturday.' I told her not even bother disputing the validity of her claims of sleep.

'What if I have plans?' She wrote back and I frowned in response. 'Jk, what're we doing?' She asked and I laughed again for what felt like the fiftieth time during this conversation before I replied.

'We're gonna go learn about wards and ward breaking with Bill. Sound fun? 'I asked knowing she'd be happy with learning more about magic.

'I doubt there is much your brother could teach me about warding, but ward breaking? Very fun!' She replied.

I knew that she might already know more about ward breaking than I do but she would come with me just to spend the day with me, regardless of what we did. That thought made me giddy inside.

'Good, now you can go back to sleep. Oh and can you tell Bill that we're coming when you see him Monday?' I finally finished taking pity on her.

'Yes. Goodnight, I'll ttyl.' She replied and I couldn't help but think that teaching her about all of the SMS language was my best idea since entering this world.

I sat the book down and picked up 'The Mind Palace' in a burst of bravery. I flipped through the familiar pages until I got to the end.

'Nothing. I'm still not ready.' I thought to myself confused.

I had been practicing nearly everyday for a while now, I know for a fact that I could detect and ward off even the most skilled legilimens of the world.

'What am I missing?'

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Monday came soon enough and with it the start of the school year. I had History of Magic to start the day off and I was so happy that I skipped it, with plans to skip every class from now on. Potions came after that until lunch, and then Divination until a double DADA to end the day. I didn't attend Divination either. So it left me with a break before DADA.

That left me with more time to study and plan every Monday morning, since I wouldn't be attending History of Magic, a little against the terror of this year, Umbridge.

I made a post that would go up in all of the popular hallways and would sit on each table in the great hall for dinner Monday night. The post would detail the new group that welcomed everyone of all houses and years, to practice magic and help each other throughout the year.

Then I made little notes that were small, easy to slide into the students robes without anyone noticing. The note would detail the true reasoning behind the group, to help everyone with DADA this year, since we would have an incompetant teacher. I didn't put anything in it about my motivations of creating unity and developing friendships between houses, more specifically Slytherin, to try and cut out Voldemort's influence in the school. Nor did I mention that it was because a war is coming and they need to be able to protect themselves.

I had a lot of fun looking up and mastering a particular spell that allowed me to stick the posting to surfaces, and make it fairly durable. No one would be able to take it down by hand, it would require magic and some knowhow to remove them. The spell was designed with this exact purpose in mind.

I also have a lot of ideas of how to use it to combat bigotry and all of the nonsense of the Daily Prophet. Some type of media of my own to spread the truth.

'I'll need someone to write counter articles though, I don't have the time.' I thought as I finished up my Potions essay that was assigned earlier in the morning.

I gathered up my materials and headed in the direction of the DADA classroom, I wanted to catch Harry before he could enter.

I waited patiently for him, even as most of the other students entered the classroom. He was towards the back, as usual and I grabbed him as he walked by.

"Wondered where you were mate." Harry said as noticed me. "Skipping two classes on the first day? Bold."

"You won't see me in either of those classes a lot this year." I told him honestly but didn't let him respond because we didn't have long.

"I need you to get detention for at least one night, Harry." I requested.

"I thought you told me to lay low this year?" He asked bringing up what we talked about in the summer. It seemed like a good plan at the time but we couldn't take a passive approach with the types of enemies we have.

'Fortune favors the bold.' I thought.

"Change of plans, we're going to make a splash this year." I told him which was a complete one-eighty of our previous plan. "I got approval from Dumbledore." I added at the end so he wouldn't question it too much.

I told him to lay low in the summer, build his power in secret, but I told him that because I couldn't mention anything about my future knowledge, his occlumency is just not where it needs to be. So I couldn't tell him about Umbridge either, nor about her teaching methods. He has no idea about the defense group yet, nor does he know how bad this class is about to go.

He didn't respond immediately, thinking about what I asked before he responded. "Ok, I'll do it."

I nodded and we walked into the room and took our seats that Hermione saved us, just as the last bell rang. There was obviously some awkward silences before we sat down but with the bell, Umbridge decided to speak.

"Well, good afternoon!" She started. Mumbles was all she got in response, I stayed quiet.

"Tut, Tut, That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

My mouth moved but no sound came out. It's just as bad as the books, no worse. I thought as she continued and I did my best to tune it out. I did notice everyone put up their wands and bring out quills though. I continued to tune her out, instead I started to notice everyone else's expressions.

'Confusion, anger, a smile? Oh Malfoy understands.' I thought taking in the faces around the room.

The board then changed as her same message in the books appeared on the blackboard. Then everyone started writing and I just stared at the board for a moment before pretending to write everything down. In reality I wrote 'Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.' over and over.

"Yes, Professor Umbridge." The class rang out and she started speaking again.

Everyone's head dropped as they began to read and Hermione's hand shot up, determination written all over her face. I laughed internally about the spectacle that was about to happen.

Everyone looked back at Hermione now and I realized that I had already missed part of the conversation.

"Using defensive spells?" Umbridge parroted Hermione and I tuned into the convo. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class."

In the books, it was I that spoke next but Harry beat me to it. "So you don't want us to actually use magic?" He said without a hand raised.

"Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr. Potter." Umbridge spoke.

I grabbed Hermione's hand to stop it from shooting up knowing Harry was making his move. She gave me a look and I shook my head in response. No one noticed, everyone was too focused on Harry's hand rising, dropping the sleeve a little and showing off his wand holster.

'That's perfect.' I thought to myself.' People will notice, and it will spread. It will add to his credibility.'

He made no move to drop his hand or hide his holster, although he did make a face realizing he just showed it off. Umbridge stared at it long and hard.

In the books this is when everyone else started talking out of turn but it was different now. A different boy-who-lived had his hand up now, and no one interrupted their stare off.

Harry got tired of waiting. "Why won't we be using any defensive spells, Professor."

Oddly enough, she didn't correct him for speaking out of turn. But she did respond in much the same manner as the books again. "Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Potter?" She asked without the use of Mr.

"No." He answered and was about to respond before Umbridge cut him off.

"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to question the ministries teaching methods. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way-"

"Sounds useless." Harry interrupted then and finally she trilled like the books.

"Hand, Mr. Potter!"

Then everyone had their hands in the air, and the discussion continued like the books. People would put their hands up and ask a question. Umbridge would interrupt and give an answer. Someone would speak out of turn and then a student would talk without their hands up and she would trill something like 'your hand is not up!'.

I once again tuned the conversation out until Harry spoke again. "And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" Harry said with his hand in the air.

"This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world." She answered.

"So we can't be prepared for what's coming?" Harry asked and I knew he was about to do what I asked and 'make a splash'.

"There is nothing coming, Mr. Potter." Umbridge told him.

"War is coming." I interrupted without my hand in the air and she did not correct me.

We made eye contact and her eyes just narrowed at me.

"And Voldemort." Harry spoke before she could.

The whole class gasped and Neville fell out of his chair. I cackled inside at the reactions.

"Ten points from Gryffindor." Umbridge spoke but no one seemed to care, everyone just stared at Harry, who still had his hand up.

"Now let me make a few things quite plain." She started before standing up from behind her desk. "You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead…"

"Wasn't dead but yea, he's back." Harry spoke interrupting her. Harry is getting angry but he isn't nearly as angry as described in the books. He's calculated.

"Mr. Potter, don't make matters worse for yourself. As I was saying, you been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie." Umbridge told us and expected Harry to begin shouting but he didn't.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "I can prove it, you know."

"Nonsense, Mr. Potter. No need to lie to impress your classmates. If you continue you will earn yourself a detention." She responded after a moment of hesitation.

'How could he prove it?' I thought before I realized. 'He can't, but he doesn't have to, people will think he can regardless. He's starting to understand, he's starting to play the game his enemies play. The ritual has done a lot for him.'

"I crossed wands with him after he killed Cedric Diggory, Professor. He is back." Harry almost whispered the end and that was finally enough for Umbridge.

"Detention, Mr. Potter! Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fis about rebord dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help I am ..." Umbridge screamed but was interrupted again.

"Yes! If you are worried, go to the professor who teaches you nothing. Ask her to save you as his Death Eaters walk over the corpses of your friends!" Harry shouted as he stood up. "Wake up, the Ministry sends us this toad to teach us to protect ourselves?!"

Then he did something that I would have never expected. He drew his wand fast, almost as fast as I, and pointed it towards the teacher. "Stupefy." He spoke and made the wand motions.

I expected a red light to come out of his wand and hit her but nothing came out.

'It's a demonstration, he's making a point.' I thought realizing what he was doing. I looked at Umbridge and she was terrified, she hadn't even drawn her wand, and everyone noticed.

Silence.

Then Harry spoke again before Umbridge reacted and kicked him out. "She didn't even have time to draw her wand, and this is who they send to teach us Defense? Does the Ministry want us dead?" He said pointing to her shocked face but talking to the classroom.

She snapped out of her dazed state then screaming. "Everyone Out! Class dismissed, I want a page on the first chapter of the book by Friday! Mr. Potter, come with me." She started around her desk to him and he sheathed his wand with a smile on his face.

"Of course, Professor." Harry said cheekily.

I got up to follow but I did it discreetly. Hermione looked at me with her jaw literally on the floor, as did the rest of the class. "Ron, what just happened." She asked me.

"That, Hermione, is Harry making a splash." I said with a laugh.

*********************************************************************************************************I strode through the hallways with purpose towards the common room, looking for a certain duo of red heads.

I got there quickly and spoke the password to let me inside. Luckily they were both sitting at a table doing homework or something. I crossed over to them quickly before I sat down opposite them, a grin on my face.

"Ronnikins has this weird look on his face, Gred." George told his twin when he noticed me.

"Is it …" Fred said before they both simultaneously said. "Mischief?" They echoed.

"Definitely my favorite brothers, and I need your help."

"Favorite?" George started.

"Brothers?" Fred finished. "That is too kind, truly. What is it you have in mind?"

I smiled before I slammed down a stack full of papers. They took one look at the cover of it before smiling widely.

"Oh you have to tell us the story behind this Ronnikins."

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Later that night, everyone would leave the great hall after dinner and head towards their dorms for the night.

Every ten feet on the way to each common room they would see a piece of paper stuck to the wall.

The piece of paper had a few words, but the main attraction is a wizarding picture that would replay the same scene over and over again.

Harry with his wand pointed at Umbridge, and her helpless with her face a perfect picture of a horrified victim. At the bottom of the photo the words 'Stupefy' would appear as he flicked his wand. Underneath it all, there was a simple question.

'IS THIS WHO THE MINISTRY SENDS TO TEACH US DEFENSE?'

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A/N: Making a splash Harry, don't cause a tsunami, jeez.

Finally got everyone a small Fleur scene. Obviously she'll play a bigger role next chapter.

I personally don't like including a lot of scenes that J.K. Rowling did herself, seems cheap to me. That's why I jump around the scene before changing it completely.

Ron understands the importance media plays with influencing the media, so he's trying to counter that the best he can.

GUYS I NEED IDEAS FOR THE NAME OF THE DEFENSE GROUP. NOT SURE IF I'M GONNA USE DA OR NOT SO I NEED OPTIONS. Put your suggestions in the reviews and if I like it, I'll give you a shout out! Harry is not the same guys? What did we think about it?

Let's talk in the reviews!