Harry and Ron dragged their heavy feet up the marble steps towards the castle, muddy from their recent training, their hair blown around by the wind, and Harry vainly tried to smooth the messy hair.
“Angelina is a second Wood, I should have expected this.” Ron grumbled under his breath, but his mind had already begun to look forward to his first game, “I wish I could play against Slytherin right away, so I can teach Malfoy a lesson, he’s not going to score a single goal at my hand!”
“He’s a Seeker, not a Chaser.” Ginny reminded him.
“Of course, I know that,” Ron changed his tune at light speed, “Let Harry stop him from getting the Golden Snitch, and I’ll guard the goal, we’ll both work together perfectly, and it’ll be an absolutely flawless combination.”
Ginny rolled her eyes.
Harry perked up a little as he said to Ginny, “You’re a good flyer, there’s hope you’ll join the team this year, why not stick around?”
“It’s not too late to join the team next year,” Ginny said as she smoothed her hair, “I want to wait for Fred and George to graduate.”
“They pissed you off?” Ron asked perceptively, “I can help you teach them a lesson.”
“That doesn’t sound very convincing.” Ginny said dryly.
“Er, I mean -” Ron said vaguely, “you could write to Mum and tell her off.” A strange look appeared on his face, “Mum hasn’t sent a howler in ages, I really miss …”
“Don’t bother,” Ginny said, “I don’t want others to gossip, you know if you add me to the mix there would be four Weasleys on the team.”
Harry noticed a more subtle side to her, and to be fair, it was rather a nonchalant statement, as if it is a sure thing that she will join the team.
Ron froze for a moment in response, he seemed to have just realized that as he counted it up on his fingers, “Fred, George, I … yeah, if you are added to that, more than half of the players will have Weasley as their last name, ha, that’s not bad when you think about it!” He said cheerfully, neither Harry nor Ginny paying any attention to him.
“Which position are you going to play?” Harry asked.
“Seeker.” Ginny said.
Harry cocked his head and squinted at her and Ginny pursed her lips, “Well I was joking, I think the Beater position would be good, I just love the idea of slamming a Bludger into someone’s face.”
Harry suddenly felt a chill run through his body, probably from too much wind … he should better go to Madam Pomfrey’s and pick up some potions for his cold.
“You’re going to help me, aren’t you?” Ginny asked, staring at his face.
“What?” Harry looked stunned.
“Help me train.”
“Oh, uh, sure.” Harry said, trying his best not to let his confusion show.
He had a strange feeling lately that Quidditch didn’t seem to be as appealing to him as it had been before, something he had felt vaguely since the beginning of the school year when Angelina had asked him about it, and now that it had been over a month since school had started, he couldn’t pretend it as a misconception anymore.
Exactly what is the reason?
Harry thought seriously, for one thing, if it was an occasional Quidditch game he would never turn it down – it is one of the few things that relaxes him, after all – but if it involves spending a lot of time on it, he doesn’t think it’s quite worth it, and he might as well spare that time to hold a dueling study group.
Susan Bones’ last suggestion about registering the Dueling Study Group as an official club made perfect sense because the Dueling Study Group wasn’t just for Gryffindors now – it had started with Luna, and later Susan Bones, Ernie, Justine and other students from other houses had joined in. Of course, Harry wasn’t sure how long they would stick around, and anyway, it seemed to him that these people are more interested in his, Ron’s, and Hermione’s amazing experiences – whether it’s being the youngest winner of the Order of Merlin, or what happened on the graveyard after the third task of the tournament.
Although Ron had already told his story several times, with several revisions in between, “Weasley laughing as he faced Cruciatus Curse” and “Ron defeating Death Eaters”, and in his stories, the other three characters were pretty much sidelined.
“You were the one who came up with the idea of using the Ring of Ouroboros to inform Professor Hap?”
“Er, it was Harry.”
“So you had the ring with you?”
“Not really, it was Hermione.”
“You fought the You-Know-Who?”
“Well …”
“So you just got hit by the Cruciatus Curse?”
“Of course not! Mate, I took down at least four Death Eaters! We might as well talk about that… Hey, don’t leave.”
The crowd scattered in disinterest. So after a while, Ron got wise and started lamenting that the History of Magic textbook is too old-fashioned (even though he never personally read it fully), thinking that there are a lot of important events left out of it, and when he was pressed about it, he would talk about how he set a Death Eater on fire with the Bright Fire-making spell. In his words, “That was the first time it [the Bright Fire-making spell] was used in actual combat, and it just doesn’t make sense that such an important scene isn’t included in a History of Magic textbook …”
Harry pondered what exactly the name of the club would be if he is going to officially start one. He recalled the names of the clubs he knew of, some of which had been founded by professors at the school and had very straightforward names, the Charms Club, also known jokingly as the Charm (glamour) Club, the Transfiguration Club, the Magic Rune Club …
They are not exactly that high-end names. Harry also knows that Mr. Slughorn, when he was teaching at Hogwarts, named his Club, the Slug Club, based on his name.
Other than that, there are a few clubs that were created by the students themselves, and that’s what he needs, Harry thought.
The first one that came to his mind is the Gobstone Club, but again, it had a little reference point, and the next one that popped into his head – Harry reluctantly remembered – is the ‘Harry Potter Fan Club’ founded by the Creevey brothers’. He had prayed that it was just an unfunny joke, but it seemed to be true, he had even seen a recruitment flyer in a hidden corner of the common room …
The Anti-Voldemort Club? Harry was tempted to name the dueling study group that way, but it would probably scare off a large group of people.
Ron’s suggestion “The Order of the Phoenix Branch” was also rejected, Hermione suggested to simply call it the Defence Association, D.A. for short, which could also be considered as Dumbledore’s Army, which would be a good name, but Sirius warned them, “Don’t get Headmaster Dumbledore in trouble, we’re on good terms with the Ministry now. Do you want the Ministry to get the wrong idea about us?”
So the name was scrapped.
Finally, Ginny made a suggestion to change the name to “Potter’s Lookout” when Fred and George had jokingly suggested “Frontline Lookout”, which everyone liked, and if nothing unexpected happened, the name was decided.
When the name was decided, the purpose of the club was outlined – to provide help to students who are preparing to become Aurors, or who are opposed to Voldemort’s dark reign, and Harry also intended to share regular updates on the war outside the school – Sirius was well-informed in this regard. The members of the frontline lookout would cheer when Harry informed them that “all was well” during the assembly; they would applaud when Harry announced the name of a captured dark wizard; they would raise their wands in silence when Harry said that an Auror or Hit Wizard had died.
…
“Where’s Luna?”
“She’s wandering around the Forbidden Forest again, saying she’s trying to find the King of Thestral.” Ginny said helplessly.
Ron muttered something that sounded like “Loony.”
They crossed the foyer and found Hermione hiding behind a suit of armour, waving at them covertly.
Harry looked curiously in the direction she is hiding, a strand of red hair flickering in his vision. But when they walked past, Hermione is all alone, “Huh? Where’s everyone? Never mind, you guys come with me.” She ran with them to an abandoned classroom.
“Just in case.” Hermione said.
More intrigued, Harry followed Ron and Ginny as they looked into the abandoned classroom, where a small girl stood, not very tall, half a head shorter than Ginny, but she had reddish-brown hair and when she turned around – Harry was surprised to find that the girl looked unexpectedly similar to Ginny.
“Who is she?” Ginny asked and sensing a threat she stepped in front of Harry.
Hermione took a step to the side with an odd look on her face, “I thought you guys knew her? Then let her explain it to you personally.” The young girl stepped in front of them and looked them up and down nonchalantly, “Youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin?” She completely ignored Ginny.
“So what if we are?” Ron said casually, “You’re a freshman in Slytherin House?”
The young girl tore her fiery gaze away from Harry’s forehead and scrutinized Ron, “Ronald Weasley?”
A headstrong girl, Harry thought.
The young girl’s gaze lingered on Ron’s face for a few seconds as she held out her hand, “Mafalda, Mafalda Prewett.”
Ron’s mouth dropped open in surprise, “Ma, Mom?”
The little girl’s face tensed and Hermione couldn’t help but cover her face to stop looking.
Ginny slapped Ron on the back of the head, “What a silly thing to say.” She looked at Mafalda with a critical eye, “What is your relationship with my mum?”
It dawned on Harry, he vaguely remembered that Mrs. Weasley’s maiden name is Prewett.
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