"And how exactly did you find this?" Harry asked, looking around the room he was in with a wide grin.
The room he was in was currently filled with plenty of training dummies, mats and other various pieces of equipment that could be used to help train people. This room is located on the seventh floor in the left corridor of the Hogwarts castle and has a hidden entrance opposite the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. Harry had walked past this corridor hundreds of times throughout his years at Hogwarts, but he had never found this room.
"It wasn't easy," Angela admitted. "eventually I called both of your house elves and asked for help, I asked if they knew any secret rooms. Dobby never worked in Hogwarts while Flipsy had only started a short while before meeting you so they didn't know the castle as well as they could have, but they did direct me to one of the more experienced elves. He told me that this room is the 'room of requirement', also known as the 'come and go' room. If we walk past the wall three times and think about what we need, the room will provide us with it. I wanted a training room, and here we go."
"Angela," A very happy Harry spoke. "if you can get this room to shift into a bedroom then I swear to Merlin, I will take you right here and now."
"Oh?" Angela smirked just before the room changed. "Huh, apparently it can change from the inside as well." She said before sitting down on the bed that had appeared behind her. "Go on then, Master, you did say you'd take me."
"And I'm a man of my word." Harry grinned.
"Are you sure about this, Harry?" Tracey asked as she and the rest of the fifth year Slytherin's stepped in to the Hogs Head Inn, a slightly disreputable inn and pub run by Aberforth Dumbledore, brother of none other than Hogwarts's own headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.
"She's right, there are plenty of better places to have this meeting." Blaise commented as he looked around the seedy bar.
"I meant actually having the meeting." Tracey said with a roll of her eyes.
"Tracey, I'm more than sure." Harry told her before moving over to the bartender who was none other than Aberforth. "Alright mate? Can we get a few butterbeers for all of us, please? Also, fair warning, we're going to be expecting a lot of company here."
"Hmm." Aberforth grunted and sent him a curious look but didn't do more than that before going off to get the butterbeers.
"Why this place?" Daphne asked as the group sat down together. "It's not exactly...sanitary." She said, looking around and frowning at how unclean everything was.
"Most people go somewhere else, that's why." Harry said before he took his wand out and lazily waved it, cleaning the entire room of dust. "That's better." Harry said just before Angela came in, she smiled at them and sat down just before other students started pouring in.
"So, is this more or less than what you expected?" Theo asked several minutes later when the bar had become filled with students from all years and houses.
"Honestly? Exactly what I expected." Harry told him before standing up, the second he had stood up the other students had quietened down. Harry looked around, he knew that Angela had done her best to exclude students that would cause more problems than anything, such as Ronald Weasley and those that were firmly and undeniably on the side of the ministry and death eaters. With that being said he was still going to be cautious around them until he could say for sure whose side they were on. "Hello everyone, for those who don't know who I am for some reason, I'm Harry Potter. And you all should know that I wanted to speak to you all, let's be blunt here, Dolores Umbridge is a complete idiot." He said, many students nodded at that. "And right now, she isn't teaching you all anything of value."
"That's not true," Roman protested. "I now know how to piss off people with the colour pink." He said, half-joking.
"It's also taught me that I most definitely don't want to work in the ministry if people like her are there." Ginny commented.
"Umbridge was actually useful for something?" Katie Bell from Gryffindor said, pretending to be shocked.
"Apparently so," Harry said, his lips curling up in amusement. "but that doesn't change the fact that what she has failed to teach is defence against the dark arts, all she does is make you all read from a stupid book in silence or while listening to her spout off her usual crap about the ministry."
"That book is really bad." Hermione Granger quietly admitted, looking incredibly disappointed and annoyed. Though she had said it quietly, everyone had heard and to many of them if Hermione Granger was willing to admit that a book was bad then it must be really bad. "I've learnt more magic from self-studying this year than I have from her."
"Seeing as she's taught us no magic at all, that's not surprising." Padma Patil from Ravenclaw commented.
"We're not learning any magic and we're most definitely not learning enough to pass our exams." Hermione said, looking quite worried.
"If this keeps up then exams will be the least of our problems." Harry spoke up. "If this keeps then you will all be very defenceless against Voldemort when he finally is ready to come out of the shadows." Many people flinched at the name and Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes at that.
"Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort." Jet chanted repeatedly. Daphne smirked at that and held back the urge to laugh.
"You really think he's back?" One young Gryffindor asked.
"I know that he is." Harry said in a firm voice.
"Well, how can we know for sure?" Zacharias Smith asked suddenly.
"Really?!" Susan Bones hissed at him. "You're really doing this now?!"
"What?!" He asked defensively. "All I'm saying is that we should have proof and..."
"You want proof?" Harry cut him off. "Alright, the first thing you do is go to Madam Pomfrey and ask her about the state I was in when I came back battered and bruised, you can ask her about the cuts I had, you can ask her about the piercing curse that had hit me, while you're there you can also ask her about my exposure to the cruciatus curse." Harry said, the room might as well have been hit with a silencing spell given the lack of noise coming from everyone else. He could see they all looked uncomfortable, especially Neville Longbottom who looked very disturbed. "You want to know what that felt like, Zach?"
"I...I don't..."
"Let me tell you what it felt like, it was scary." Harry admitted, surprising many people. For many people they had built up an image of Harry in their heads, he was the ruler of Slytherin and outclassed other students and defied impossible odds, so it was telling how bad something was if he had been scared of it. For Ginny, Roman, Flora and Hestia this was especially telling given that Harry had fought and killed a basilisk on his own. "There I was, in a graveyard at night, on the floor and screaming in pain. Surrounding me wasn't just tombstones, it was Voldemort himself and if that wasn't bad enough then add in the fact that he had several of his minions with him. The curse itself, it was the most painful experience of my life. It felt like every part of me was on fire, I wanted him to end me just to stop the pain. Ask Madam Pomfrey, Smith, I dare you. In fact, last time you doubted me, you nearly lost your entire trust vault. You want to bet, Smith? Huh? Want to bet that trust vault, huh?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. Smith's face turned red but he didn't say anything, he instead sat down and stayed quiet.
"Even if you don't believe Harry, you can all still understand the importance of learning how to properly defend yourselves." Daphne spoke up.
"Exactly, even without death eaters there are still hundreds of other threats that you need to know about." Tracey said. "Boggarts, magic traps, werewolves and cursed objects to name a few. Sure we have aurors but they won't be able to arrive instantly, plus if our generation doesn't learn then there will be less aurors in the future."
"So, what do you suggest?" One fourth year Ravenclaw asked.
"Well, we need a teacher, someone to teach us how to defend ourselves." Angela replied.
"Oh, so Harry is going to teach us? That makes sense." Luna Lovegood, fourth year Ravenclaw, said with a dreamy smile on her face.
"You think so?" A Gryffindor second year asked.
"Oh yes," Luna nodded. "he has plenty of experience fighting against the dangers of the wizarding world, not to mention that the whole school knows that he is consistently the best in his year, plus there's the fact that he is the youngest Tri-wizard champion ever. Also not to mention that the jumpy-pipinpakolocks love to gather around him." She said in an airy voice.
"Right," Blaise nodded, deciding to ignore that last part. "not to mention that the guy fought you-know-who and managed to live to tell the tale at the age of fourteen."
"Look, guys," Harry spoke up. "this is not a game. I won't just be teaching you how to pass your exams, I'll be teaching you how to survive. I'll be teaching you offensive spells like the fire whip, I'll teach you defensive spells like the patronus charm. If you let me teach you then I will make sure that you're all capable of defending yourselves and your family and friends if you're ever attacked. You'll at the very least be able to hold your own until aurors arrive to help you."
"How are you planning to do that?" Flora Carrow asked.
"We've found a secret room in Hogwarts where we can practise," Harry answered. "I would like to do this out in the open but then Umbridge would probably try and find some way to stop us." Harry said, rolling his eyes.
"If you-know-who is really back then why are the ministry so dead set against admitting it?" Colin Creevey asked.
"I would have thought that would be rather obvious." Draco drawled, looking unimpressed with the Gryffindor.
"If Fudge admits that you-know-who is back then he will eventually lose his job," Angela told the crowd. "he is not a good leader, and he is especially not good enough during a time of war."
"He's doing all this to keep his job?!" A Hufflepuff girl blurted out with disbelief.
"Partly," Harry nodded. "the little coward is also scared. The last war was a nightmare for everyone, he doesn't want to believe that a second one will come along. Unfortunately for him, I don't give a shit what he wants, he'll doom us all with his 'stick his head in the sand' tactic. As for Umbridge, she's just a stupid cunt willing to please Fudge. I don't think she's on Voldemort's side but I doubt she'd complain too much if he took over the ministry, given that she pretty much hates all who aren't pureblood." Harry said, earning nods from all the muggleborn and half-bloods in the crowd. "This isn't just something I want, this is something we need." Harry said before he pulled out a piece of parchment and placed it on the table. "If any of you want to join then sign your name here to let me know, this is so I know who is with me and so I can try to include as many people as possible during these sessions, if you're name's not on it then don't expect me to contact you for training." Harry said before he placed the parchment down on a table in front of him. "If you don't want to join then I direct you all to Angela." Harry said, gesturing Angela who stood up and pulled out another piece of parchment before moving over to the door.
"If you don't want to join then simply sign your name here," Angela said, placing her parchment down on a table next to her. "this will cause you to forget about this meeting."
"You'll erase our memories?!" One of Cho Chang's friends shrieked.
"Only of this meeting," Angela replied. "surely you can understand that? If you don't wish to join then you need to sign this or the rest of us are at risk of you telling Umbridge."
"Sign my parchment and join us, or sign the other parchment and lose nothing beyond a couple of minutes of your life." Harry said. "If you leave then we won't do anything to you, unlike Voldemort I respect free choice." Harry said before stepping back and crossing his arms.
Harry's group of Slytherin's went first and signed the contract, shortly after the rest of the students signed their names on it as well with the exception of seven students that signed Angela's contract and left.
"Good," Harry said once everyone had signed. "now, go off and enjoy your Hogsmead trip, I'll be in contact with you all soon." Harry smiled before letting them all leave.
"Well, that went well." Blaise commented before turning to Harry. "So what's up with that?" He asked, gesturing to the parchment that the majority of the students had signed.
"Why, Blaise, I have no idea what you mean." Harry said in an innocent voice as he picked up the parchment and tucked it away into his clothes.
"Oh come on," Blaise scoffed. "what is it?"
"Fine, spoil my fun," Harry said with a small shake of his head. "what this is, is a magical contract that will prevent you from telling on me to Umbridge, if you do try...well…let's say you won't like the results." Harry said with a grin. "Now, Umbridge will undoubtedly know about this little meeting, I find it hard to believe she wouldn't find out about so many people gathering here. So be prepared for that."
"What do we do now?" Theo asked.
"Well," Harry said as he picked up Jet and placed him around one arm while Thor was perched on his shoulder. "I'm going to go and enjoy a day out in Hogsmead with my girlfriend, the rest of you can do whatever you want." Harry said before he held out a hand to Daphne who smiled and placed her own in his before the two walked away from the group.
"Great, he just starts getting an army and then decides to go out on a date." Harry and Daphne heard Draco comment just before they left the pub.
"All in all, I think things went rather well." Daphne said as the two walked together, hand in hand.
"Yes, indeed it did." Jet agreed. "Oh, we should buy some mice, would you like some?" He asked Daphne. "They're quite filling."
"I appreciate the offer, but no, thank you." Daphne amicably replied.
"Oh well, your loss."