Hermione’s note: What follows is a transcript of the Dumbledore’s Army meeting of January 20th, 1995. I have produced this transcript because this is one of the most important meetings Dumbledore’s Army ever had. This is the meeting where the true resistance was born, where transformations began. I created this from my memories, as well as Harry Potter’s and Ginny Weasley’s using a pensieve to observe the details. And we begin...
January 20th, 1995 The Room of Requirement
Hermione: Let’s bring this to order please. We have a lot to discuss tonight and I’m sure Harry has a lot to teach us. <<She smiled expectantly at Harry, who stood up>>
Harry: Alright, I want to begin work on Patronuses. That many prisoners escaping Azkaban probably means the Dementors have revolted. We need all the defense against them we can get. In order to carry off this charm, you need to have your happiest memory in mind and focus on it as hard as you can. All of you, right now. Happiest memory, GO! A different teacher might tell you to take your time finding it, but don’t bother. I took my time, and didn’t come up with the right memory for a few weeks. Pick one, and run with it. If it doesn’t work, pick a different one. If you’re still struggling by the end of the lesson, you can talk to me privately about the memory you’re using and I can give you suggestions, but for now, practice, practice, practice.
Got it. Ok. The incantation is Expecto Patronum. Each of you take a training dummy and put it about 5 paces in front of you. Aim center of mass and fill your mind with your happiest memory. Do not see the dummy, just the memory. When you are focused on nothing but the memory, say the incantation. If you do it right, a silver figure will come forth from your wand. Do not feel bad if you don’t get it the first time. It took me several tries to just get an indistinct Patronus.
<<Seamus raised his hand>> But Harry, there are now 15 more Death Eaters to fight. I am beginning to think you might be right, Voldemort might really be back.
<<Harry responds somewhat sarcastically>> Really, I hadn’t considered that possibility at all, Seamus. May wonders never cease.
<<Seamus goes on>> No, Potter, I mean, the patronus is good for fighting dementors, but what if we’re fighting fellows in masks?
<<Harry mutters>> Or a fellow with no nose!
<<Seamus continues>> We’ve got to help whoever’s running defence. Professor Dumbledore’s got to have something, right? What can we do to help?
<<Neville pipes up>> We’ve got a right to fight too. Or even if it’s just gathering information, there has to be some way we can help out.
<<Numerous DA members nod>>
<<Ernie MacMillan pipes up>> Why don’t you approach the Professor now, Potter? We can practice our patronuses, and you can see how we can help.
<<Hermione speaks up>> Excellent idea, Ernie. Many thanks. Why don’t you go now, Harry? We’ve got a few hours til curfew, Ron and I can run things while you’re gone, and there will be time to regroup and go over what you find out after.
<<Harry moves toward the door>>Ok, I will go see if he is in. Meanwhile, Hermione please keep them practicing the Patronus charm until I get back.
<<At this point Harry leaves the Room of Requirement for Dumbledore’s office.
Hermione’s note: Now we will enter Harry’s memory for a brief interlude so we can see his conversation with Professor Dumbledore.
<<Harry knocks on the griffin knocker>>
Dumbledore: Enter. <<he sounds quite weary>>
<<Harry walks in and addresses the headmaster>>Professor, I come to you with an offer. There is a hard knot of students dedicated to the defense of this school and to proper magical learning. We wish to help the Order in the war effort.
Dumbledore: <<Shakes his head sadly, all too familiar with the bravado of youth and the tragedy that happens when youth overstretches itself>> Harry, in the last war, seven well-intentioned young students much like you approached me to ask how they could help with the war. Two of them, the best witch and wizard of their generation, are dead, two of them you saw last month in the long term spell damage ward in St. Mungo’s, one joined the death eaters, and the other two are now stuck holed up in Grimmauld place in the aftermath of the war. They were competent and brave, but I should never have allowed them to fight a war meant for their elders. I know better now, Harry.
Harry: <<at first mildly irritated, but quickly cottoning on to who Dumbledore is talking about>> But sir, aren’t we better informed this time. Do we not have a better position relative to the Death Eaters this time. He is not yet in the open.
Dumbledore: Harry, Harry. I do appreciate the offer and the courage you and your fellows are showing. But it is in your best interesting to stay within the safety of the school and continue your learning as long as possible. You must be as prepared as possible when you face the Death Eaters, which you will eventually have to. I will not sacrifice young, promising lives before I have to.
Harry: <<frustrated but resigned realizes despite his best efforts, the conversation can progress no further.>> Understood, professor.
Hermione’s Note: What follows is my recollection of the meeting from Harry’s leaving until the meeting’s end. I would also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention particularly to this section of the transcript. This is where we tie our fates together, where our lives all change. This is the moment where some of us, unfortunately, signed our death warrants. Looking back on it feels like looking at Moody’s picture of the order. Young eager faces, some of which would never even gain their first wrinkle, their first smile line. Others of which would lose their youth before the end.
Hermione: Ok Harry, no problem. Good luck with Professor Dumbledore.
<<Hermione addresses the group>> Alright, you are all doing really well with this. Remember, your happiest thought. If you are still struggling, try to think of a happier memory or thought, if you have one.
<<She walks among the students, watching them and correcting their motions and pronunciations. She offers encouraging words where needed and congratulates those who are successful>>
<<Neville manages to carry off a successful, if indistinct, patronus. It has no particular shape, but it is more than anybody else has managed thus far>> Whoa. Did you all see that. It was something.
<<Hermione smiles>>Good, Neville. What memory did you use?
<<Neville looks faintly embarrassed>> I thought about this group and how you have all accepted me and helped me learn.
<<Hermione hugs Neville and others slap him on the back and ruffle his hair, many voices speak at the same time>> You got this Neville. We are all in this together.
Ron fiercely says, You’re one of us, mate. You took on Crabbe and Goyle so I could slug Malfoy. And you won us the house cup in first year.
<<Neville smiles, embarrassed>>Welllll yeah, but I got knocked out.
<<Ron responds, grinning>>Not the point mate, you took those brutes on single handed and kept em off me!
<<Hermione looks around glowing>> Neville, you’ve always been more than good enough.
<<Seamus has so far only produced silvery vapors>>Gah this is frustrating. I wonder how Harry is getting along with Dumbledore.
<<Anthony Goldstein is red in the face and only managing silvery whisps>> Hope he gets back soon so we can get on with this.
<<Seamus, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Padma Patil, Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley have thus far produced the strongest patroni, though indistinct>>
<<Anthony, Lavender Brown, Parvati, Cho, Angelina Johnson and Fred and George have only managed silvery whisps so far>>
<<At this point Harry returns, not in the best of moods>> Well, he turned us down.
<<Collective outrage>> WHAT?. Does he not think we are serious?!
Hermione’s Note: Semi-detailed discussion of death, grief, and genocide, as well as mentions of self harm and eating disorders follow.
<<Hermione speaks up>>It’s not exactly surprising. Plenty of young people died in the last war. Dumbledore must want to avoid that happening again.
<<Neville stands up and looks at the group, a steely glint in his eye>> We all knew how this could end when we signed up. I don’t know about you, but I am not going to let my parents’ sacrifice be in vain.
<<Cho now stands up, and holds out her left wrist, wiping tears from her cheeks>>I made these scars myself this summer. But you know what really caused them? Cedric was murdered. I was fifteen and I didn’t have anywhere to go here at school. A month into the summer, I had about half the marks you see here now. I wasn’t eating or sleeping, and when I did it didn’t stay down and I had nightmares. I didn’t see Cedric die but I could tell you at least 100 ways I imagined it. Vividly. My mother found the marks one day when my sleeve came up. She sent me to a therapist, the benefit of whose help I only had for a month. I guess we don’t have therapists here in the magical world, so I had to lie to my doctor about how my boyfriend died and where I went to school. And I could not tell her most of my fears. Still, with her help and with extensive work here at school, I have gained the strength to fight back.
Cedric was kind and brave. But his death was not, nor were those who killed him. He died simply because he was there. As students of Hogwarts and citizens of Britain, unless we join Voldemort. we are his targets no matter what other choices we make. Some of us more than others. I don’t know about you, but I choose to fight on in Cedric’s memory.
<<Cho raises her wrist and points to one of the marks>> The newest of these scars is three months old. When the story about the breakout was printed Monday, I lost my breakfast. This is only one of my battles, but it is a daily struggle. I choose to empower myself against the Death Eaters and make my victimhood my strength. Many of you will suffer losses like I have, and some greater. I hope at least some of you will find the strength to seek help sooner than I did. We will lose friends regardless of whether we fight, but live in shame if we do not. I would prefer to die standing on my feet and giving my last breath for a better world. How about you?
<<Anthony rises, muttering something about tikkun olam>>My grandfather lost his entire family in one day. He survived because he could work, his sisters were too weak to work, and their parents too old. My aunt on my mother’s side was in Paris when the Nazis took over. She worked with the nuns and other partisans there to smuggle Jewish babies out of the country. I will fight for them, and for my children, as they fought for me.
<<Quite a few people have tears in their eyes at this point, most notably Luna, Neville, and Susan>>
<<Harry quietly clears his throat>>Some of us have lost family. Others have lost friends. All of us are likely to lose more. We owe it to those whom we have lost, and those we have not, to fight. To fight, and never surrender. We are their last line of defense, and. We. Will. Hold. I don’t think this is just an education group anymore. We are the resistance. One day we will be Hogwarts’ last line of defense, and we will be ready. All who wish to stay and be a part of the resistance, say aye.
<<Harry was nearly deafened by the single-voiced response of the group in front of him. To a person, they said>>AYE!
<<Fred quipped to George, sarcastically>>Well this sounds like a lark.
<<George cracks a small smile and mutters back>>Indeed it does, dear brother.
<<Hermione clears her throat>> So now that’s decided, shall we keep the name or change it. Any proposals?
<<Dean raises his hand>>How about the Light Collective?
<<Response is tepid at best, and Ginny raises her hand>>How about the Order of the Hippogriff?
<<This is met with slightly more enthusiasm, but George sarcastically says>>Might as well call it the League of Extraordinary Children.
<<Fred adds>> Or the We Don’t Know Who.
<<There is an awkward silence>>
<<Neville, looking at Anthony, raises his hand>>How about, the Partisans. For Anthony’s aunt and the people she worked with.
<<Anthony smiled back tremulously, and murmurs of approval ripple through the group>>
<<Hermione, quite moved by this, addressed the group again>> Ok, all in favor of the Partisans, say Aye.
<<Again, the response is overwhelming and unanimous>> AYE!
<<George looks as if he is ready with a quip, but Fred puts a hand on his shoulder, and he stops>>
<<Hermione taps the parchment membership list with her wand, and the name at the top changes to the Partisans, formerly Dumbledore’s Army. George grabs it from her hand and taps the list of names with his wand. They vanish, replaced by WE DON’T KNOW WHO. He looks up triumphantly>>Now, if you want to see the names you say, I know who!. and they appear!
<<Ginny looks at Hermione>>Should we take some sort of oath or something. Harry’s parents died because there was a traitor in their midst. So did my uncles Fabian and Gideon. We shouldn’t take the same risks they did. We needn’t.
<<Ron speaks up>>What about the Unbreakable Vow?
<<Fred unconsciously scratches his left buttock, George breaks into a silent fit of the giggles and gives it a nice pat. Ron glares at them>>
<<Ginny glances between her brothers and addresses Ron>>No, I think that one has too serious of consequences. Even if we don’t purposely break it, the oathbreaker dies. Now, I don’t mind if someone who betrays us to join the death eaters dies, and perhaps, we can have members take the unbreakable vow not to join up with them (although I hear it takes rather advanced magic, and it would take a lot of research), but we need something that also covers the sharing of information about our group and who’s in it and what we do. We need an oath flexible enough to let us talk to each other, and preferably one that warns us if we’re in danger of breaking it. The unbreakable vow doesn’t do any of that. The fidelius charm can be used to protect knowledge of the existence of this group, but we’ll need to protect our knowledge of what goes on in here. We can’t perform the fidelius charm on every event or meeting, and we’d probably miss something with that. Does anyone know of an oath that fits our other needs?
<<Neville speaks, hesitantly>> Gran says there’s a spell she taught my dad to hide his and my mum’s relationship from Death Eaters at Hogwarts as students. It’s Coniuncta, a lesser-known relative of the fidelius, and instead of protecting a single secret within a keeper, two or more wizards perform a spell that keeps their interactions regarding something of a private nature private. As you might guess from its name, it was developed for husbands and wives to keep information from their children not appropriate for their ears. Luckily, the spell isn’t restricted to two people, and it should keep us safe. One of the benefits of the spell is that while it garbles information that might be presented to an outsider so that the outsider sees something different, the spell also alerts its casters when this is in danger of happening, so that they can reduce the garbled output, since the spell can often result in outsiders hearing things that may confuse them or lead them to believe unfortunate things. For example, it started a rumor at Hogwarts that my mother was related to a muggle celebrity, which was untrue and caused her unforeseen issues with some Slytherins.
<<Hermione thought to herself for a moment, and then spoke slowly>> I think I’ve read about that spell somewhere, although I don’t know nearly as much about it as you. From what you’re saying, though, it seems to cover what we need, though, and prevent us from accidentally spilling the beans. So, to recap: an unbreakable vow to not join the death eaters, a fidelius on the existence of the Partisans, and coniuncta to cover the rest.
<<George mutters>> And our fine rears.
<<Fred whispers>> My rear is still suffering, thank you. It is definitely not fine.
<<George grins>> Well, don’t do the rest of our rears the discourtesy of making them endure the pain yours has. There’s a good lad.
<<Harry looks around at the group and stands up to speak>>Rears aside, <<glancing mildly at Fred and George who are convulsing with laughter>>this is quite serious. Life or death, especially the Unbreakable Vow. You all need to be absolutely certain you know what you are getting into. We have no permission slips. This isn’t Hogsmeade, where you can go sometimes and stay home if you choose. This is real life, not to be taken lightly. Even though we are all fighting in the name of family and friends, they might not, and cannot, choose this for us. We alone choose this. And we stand together, until the very end. Nobody will be blamed or judged for backing out now.
<<He pauses, and Hermione fills the silence>> If you choose to leave now, your memories of your time in this group will be sealed to protect the rest of us and we will not bother you again. <<Ron interjects>> Blimey Hermione, do you really know how to do that?. Are you sure you can do it safely. We don’t want Lockhart all over again, do we? <<Hermione glances at him, slightly annoyed>>Hush Ronald. Of course I do. And my wand is perfectly operational. And I am perfectly capable of not bothering people, thank you <<She glares at Fred and George who are rolling around laughing>>Stand now if you wish to leave and I will seal your memory before sending you on your way so we can perform the coniuncta spell.
<<Seamus adds that his dad fought in the IRA, he knows what he’s getting into>>
<<Neville takes over at this point, given his knowledge of the spell>> Alright everyone, the spell coniuncta is performed in unison by all of its casters. The wand motion is the oldest symbol of marriage, <<Fred and George look around, their expressions ones of mock alarm. George quips>> We’re not ready for this kind of commitment. <<Fred adds, looking at Harry>> And some of you are the wrong gender. <<George grins>> You only speak for some of us, brother dear. I swing in all directions. <<Ginny clears her throat loudly and in a near perfect imitation of Mrs. Weasley>> FRED! GEORGE. <Both twins start and look around at her>> Blimey Gin, since when could you do that?. <<She looks distinctly pleased but says in a dangerous tone>>It’s Ginny, not Gin.
<<Hermione opens her mouth to speak, but Neville clears his throat and goes on, with a mild glance at the Weasleys>> If the spell was reserved for romantic entanglements, I wouldn’t have recommended it for a group of children, no less one that contained siblings. The spell is free of those connotations, and, despite its origins, has been used in entirely different contexts and is completely appropriate. There are downsides to the spell, such as the potential for its garbled output to have bad consequences, like I mentioned, but this is not one of them. Nonetheless, like marriage, the spell does take energy and because we will be performing a strong one with so many people, you will need to replenish your energy. Be sure to eat something before bed, and don’t stay up late tonight. If you can avoid it, don’t exhaust yourself for a day or two at least.
The wand motion, as I was saying, is related to marriage, and moves in the shape of two rings connected by a thin line, much like our friend Harry’s glasses, if you’d be more comfortable removing it from its original context.
<<He looks at the group, which has quieted and which is paying close attention>> First, practice the wand motion, holding a quill rather than a wand. Here I will display the motion for you.
<<He conjures a stick and waves it like a wand, making a small clockwise circle that runs into a sharp line and going into another clockwise circle of the same size>> Now you all try it and say the spell, but for the love of Merlin, don’t use your wands.
<<The other Partisans dig in their bags and borrow from friends, waving quills, conjured sticks, and hands in the air. Neville walks around the room, correcting motions and pronunciation where necessary, and within a few minutes, everyone has mastered the wand motion>>
I will count down from ten to one, and as soon as I have said one, raise your wands to perform the spell. Remember that magic has intent, and that the stronger your feelings towards the maintenance of this spell, the stronger the spell will be. It is already improved by the inclusion of so many of us, but we need all the strength we can get for it to hold as long as necessary. We can perform it again, but all of us will need to be here for that, and this is a chance we know we have now. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, THREE, TWO, ONE, Coniuncta!
<<A few of the younger Partisans look noticeably tired, but most of them are smiling. Once they have had a moment to recuperate, Hermione brings the meeting to order, beaming warmly and proudly at the group>> The spell seems to have taken. Since you all are no doubt tired, I will test the spell later this week and at the next meeting, I’ll update you on the results of the test and we’ll discuss where to go from here. Don’t forget to eat something before bed; if you haven’t got any snacks, come see me. I’ve got a stash of protein bars and some crisps. Well done, all of you, and I’ll see you in a week.