Fate's Request: A Harry Potter FanFiction

It was just after the evening meal in the Great Hall, and David was already in the Room of Requirement, going over his notes.

He'd already shown Padma the room last night during their patrol of Hogwarts, and she would be leading the Ravenclaws here in an hour so.

Hermione would be leading her fellow Gryffindors along with the small contingent of Hufflepuffs as well.

Their O.W.L.S would be basically covering the entirety of their five years at Hogwarts, but with a larger emphasis on the advanced spells, they were meant to be learning in the class with Umbridge.

This knowledge was given to David by a few studious Seventh Year Ravenclaws, who kept meticulous notes on all subjects they took part in.

His first lesson as going to be focused on the very bȧrė bones of combat, basically covering the Protego Charm, to block incoming spellfire, Stupefy, to stun their opponents and Expelliarmus to disarm them.

After giving his notes one final look over, David packed them away into his book bag and pulled out a sack of 'Galleons'.

These coins were fakes but transfigured and spelled to look like an ordinary Galleon to anyone but the owner.

It was an addition on top of the Protean Charm that David added, to alert members to lessons without the need of passing notes around.

Once a lesson was set, these coins would begin to warm up and display the date and time of the very next lesson for the owner and owner only.

Anyone one else would simply see a plain old Galleon, that had a tendency to become quite uninteresting if they either held it or saw it.

The extra security measures weren't strictly necessary, for nobody really left Galleons lying around, but it was good to practise and it was also better to be safe than sorry.

All one had to do become the 'owner' of their coin, was to drip a little bit of blood, just a drop, onto the coin, and from there a powerful charm would lock it to them forever.

It actually took David several days to figure out how to key the coins to an individual.

One method he mulled over was how Quidditch Smith's created Snitch's, wearing gloves throughout the entire process, allowing the Snitch to bind to the one who touched it first. For use in competition and such to determine who caught it first… which made no sense, since Seeker's constantly got fingertips to snitches without catching him.

Ignoring the part about how Quidditch made no sense, David still didn't go with it, for that was a whole area of magic David had no skills in. It was not only the process of charming an object but doing so while it was also being smelted and forged.

Instead, he found his answer in a much darker book from the Cross-Family Library. It was from a tome on how to basically curse someone to death or near-death via various methods.

Inspired by this, David learnt the spell needed, without all the cursing and death stuff and applied it to his coins.

Checking them over one last time, for he was pedantic like that, David started to lay them down one by one on a table near the blackboard he had set up for the coming lesson.

There was exactly enough for everyone in the class, with David strictly mentioning that you couldn't bring someone along that hadn't signed their name already. .

You would have to mention it during the lesson, and get a consensus from everyone present before bringing along said friend with you.

As David was finishing laying down the very last coin, Mel popped into existence right next to him.

He was so used to her sudden appearances now, that he didn't even flinch, but his wand arm did twitch slightly, ready to flick his Gergorovitch made wand into his palm.

"Master, we have a report from Dawlish that I thought you might like to read before your lesson begins," Mel said to David, looking around the room, making sure it was only the two of them.

"Oh… Sure, I'm about done anyway," David said in response, taking the envelope from Mel and cracking open the wax seal to read the contents.

It was much the same, Minster this, Minister that. Fudge was being his usual self and doing his best to push anyone who connections to Dumbledore out of the Ministry.

He couldn't find any information on her apart from the several heavily heated discussion she'd had with the Minister before resigning.

David suspected as much, but at least he had some sort of confirmation from his rat in the Ministry.

"Anything of note?" Mel asked as David slipped the parchment back into the envelope and handed it to her.

"Much the same. Just Dawlish admitting defeat in his digging into of Madam Bones," David explained.

"A great loss in the fight against the Dark Lord, if that is true…" Mel said worriedly.

"Not so much… she's likely in the Order of the Phoenix, doing what she can," David said, not really caring anymore, for she was out of his hands now that she was no longer inside the Ministry.

He hoped she would have been a steadying force once Voldemort was exposed, hopefully strengthening the resistance with her not being murdered in her home if he played his cards right.

But she was most likely in the Order now, Dumbledore not being one to allow a witch such as Bones to go to waste.

"Could you not ask Miss Hermione? The status of such a woman is quite important," Mel asked of David, trying to get him to use his relationship with Hermione for intel.

"We don't discuss the Order, Mel. Its… sort of an unspoken rule. She knows I know that there is some sort of secret society that she and her friends are involved in, but whoever leads it has decided I shouldn't be in the know," David answered, a wry smile on his face.

Mel just huffed in annoyance, cursing the headmaster for not the first time.

She'd tried to argue that David should get more information about the Order, for it was no secret to her he was preparing for war. With buying dozens, upon dozens of tents to fill the vast sways of land at Cross Manor.

Seeing Mel being upset, David sighed and said, "Alright… I'll have a look inside Harry and Ron's mind to see whether or not she's part of the Order. Keep in mind, they don't know everything, and they also have a tendency to not realise the existence of people outside of their house… Inside and out of Hogwarts."

"Very well… Do you need anything before you begin your lessons, Professor Cross?" Mel asked teasingly.

"No, that will be all Mel…" David said while hiding his smile.

---

"Take a coin everyone, a single coin," David said as they all made their way over the 'classroom' he had set up.

There were some sighs of annoyance as they saw that David planned on theory before any wand waving, but he didn't care.

Everyone's level of learning was different, and with Umbridge about, months behind what they should have been at. So he wanted everyone on the same page as to the theory of the spells they would be using.

One everyone took their seats and after receiving a few waves and smiles his way, David drew his wand and conjured pins on everyone's desk.

"Those coins I had you all pick up will be how we communicate the date and time of the next lessons. The main enchantment I placed was the Protean Charm, but there are some extras," David explained.

"Protean Charm? That's N.E.W.T. level, that is…" someone called out, but David ignored them and barrelled on.

"They'll heat up in your pockets once I've ȧssigned a date and time of the next lesson. Apart from that, you'll all see a pin on your desks. These are to draw a drop of blood, which is to be placed on to your coin and your coin only. Once you've done that, they'll be tied to you, only allowing you to feel as they heat up or even see the date and time being displayed. Everyone else will simply see a Galleon that is charmed to be unassuming," David explained grabbing a pin and pricking his finger for everyone to see.

There was a slight pinch of pain, but nothing teenagers couldn't handle.

He placed the single drop onto the charmed coin, which promptly ate it up and tied the enchantments to David.

"You sure you managed to place all those enchantments there, mate?" Lee Jordan asked, looking sceptically along with Fred and George.

Everyone just turned to look at Lee inquisitively, "What?" he said in return.

"Those are some pretty advanced spells he's claiming he's used," Lee added further, but before he could pick up momentum, David just continued.

"Yes. I did enchant them. Now, onto the lesson," David said, tapping the blackboard once, which caused it to become filled with writing and an image of a neutral looking wizard, standing with his wand out.

"It'll be the basics today, which I might add, will show up in our O.W.L.S," David said before complaints could be muttered.

"First we have the Protego Charm or the Shield Charm. It has two main uses, reflecting spells and blocking physical objects… Since we're all from different year levels, I thought it would be prudent to go through some quick dot points on how to actually cast it correctly," David explained.

He pointed out the correct movements necessary to conjure the shield, and also mentioned its lessening effectiveness the longer it was left out and allowed them to watch the animation of the wizard on the blackboard perfectly execute the spell.

Following the Shield Charm, he moved onto the Stunning Spell, Stupefy. He gave a quick rundown of the wand movement, which happened to be the same as the Shield Charm, along with a quick animation of the spell being used on the blackboard again.

And finally, he finished with the Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus.

As they finished their quick ten-minute theory lesson, David got the Room of Requirement to de-summon all the tables and chairs so they could finally get started on using the spells they just learnt about.

He decided to see how everyone managed the Stunning Charm against a single dummy, so everyone could see the other fail and learn what not to do.

David knew only a handful of students here could actually cast the charm correctly, with the required strength behind it.

First up was the Lee Jordan, which David denied was because he had questioned his spellcasting ability earlier.

He cast the spell, but it was nothing impressive, only making the target wobble slightly.

Fred, George, Hermione and Harry were the standouts, but there were some others mixed in who could also manage a decent stunner.

Once everyone had gone, David had a go himself.

With a quick downwards motion of his wand, David said, "Stupefy," clearly and loudly, causing the dummy to go break from its stand and barrel into the stone wall of the Room of Requirement.

"Wow…" was the muttered response from many as they saw David release the most powerful stunner they'd yet to see.

"Okay. Now, I'm going to have everyone come up one at a time and attempt to use the Shield Charm on my stunners," David explained, getting the room to summon padded flooring.

"Well? Who wants to volunteer?" David asked, looking around.

"Definitely not me," Lee muttered under his breath.

Seeing most people were apprehensive to getting demolished by David's spell, Luna, surprisingly stepped up first.

With a happy smile on her face, she said, "I'll go first, David!"

"Thanks, Luna," David said as she got into position several meters away opposite him, "Ready?"

She nodded with a small smile, wand gripped tightly in her hand.

"Stupefy," David said quietly, lazily flicking his wand downwards.

"Protego!" Luna shouted vigorously, much more enthused than David.

Her wand movement was slightly diagonal, rather than coming straight down, but that was probably nerves rather than bad wand bearing form from Luna.

But she still managed to cast the spell successfully, with it being deflected high up into the ceiling.

David clapped first, followed by the Ravenclaws and soon the rest at her excellent display of the Shield Charm.

"Great work Luna! Okay, next!" David shouted in increased vigour.

Hermione came up enthusiastically, grinning with excitement.

Knowing Hermione could cast this spell with ease, David made sure to really test her by going for a near full-strength stunner.

She timed her shield impeccably, and with a slight twist of her wand, she got the two spells to fizzle out against one another, rather than simply deflecting David's spell.

"That was an example of how you can adjust the strength of your Shield Charm with certain wand movements to overcome the 'deflecting' side effect of the spell… But that's a more advanced lesson, just focus on stopping my stunner however you like," David explained as the Gryffindors cheered Hermione on as she returned to the cluster of students.

Following her, people came forward less hesitantly, but the results weren't very impressive.

His spell broke through more than half the Shield Charms cast. Some people complained, but David knew any decent Death Eater would be firing spells with the same strength like his, if not more.

Once everyone had a go, David let everyone pair up and practice both spells against one another.

Most people knew the Counter Charm to revive stunned students, but he ȧssisted when they didn't or simply failed in casting it.

He made sure to give pointers to almost everyone, and by the end of their two hours, everyone knew how to cast a proper Shield Charm and Stunner.

He'd slightly underestimated how much time would be spent practising spells, so they didn't have any time to perform the Disarming Charm this lesson.

But David felt it was probably a good thing, as he could focus more on disarming witches and wizards, while also stressing the importance of how rather than blocking a spell, it was a hundred times more efficient to just sidestep it.

Disarming and sidestepping were far more practical and useful methods of combat than duking it out with various charms and hexes.

He actually wanted to drill that lesson into people first thing, but he also knew everyone here was starved for some actual magic practicals, so he decided to shelve it for another lesson.

He had so much more planned, from countering curses, slowing down curses you didn't know the nature of, the Patronus Charm, which he had Mel currently on the market looking for a boggart he could force into becoming a Dementor through some pretty nasty magic.

He wanted to train people in how to effectively counter the Unforgivables, for while no 'magical' shield could stop the killing curse, one could easily banish or conjure an object into the path of the deadly spell.

But that was hopefully for the future, right now, they were almost out of time and they needed to vote on a name of their Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons.

"Alright everyone, by my watch, we have something like twenty minutes until curfew, so we need to stop here and decide on a name if you plan on coming to the next lesson," David said loudly, getting their attention with a loud bang that was produced from his wand.

Everyone converged on him, excited about the lesson and not a single person was saying they weren't going to come to the next one. Some even mumbling about friends who would certainly be interested in attending.

Various names were given and dismissed but as David suspected, Cho Chang eventually asked 'what about Defence Association?'.

It was honestly an unimaginative name, but David would have preferred it to the 'Dumbledore's Army', alas, Ginny opened her mouth and gave her genius input of having the D.A. stand for Dumbledore's Army.

Everyone loved it of course, but Hermione did manage to catch David rolling his eyes at the name, curious why he thought it so terrible, with it mocking the Ministry's fear the headmaster was raising an army to overthrow them.

"Well, that's that then!" Hermione said as she penned the name of their order on top of her cursed parchment with all their names on it.

"Remember all, keep those coins with you so you know when the next lesson is! And I can't stress this enough, DO. NOT. TALK. ABOUT. THESE. LESSONS. UMBRIDGE HAS HER MOLES EVERYWHERE!" David stressed, but so many had simply ignored it, talking amongst themselves as they left in duo's and trios as to not draw attention to a large group of students walking about Hogwarts.

There had been no Educational Decree banning groups and such, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

He knew they would eventually have to get 'caught' but he wanted as much time as possible to prepare everyone for the next two years.

---

AN: This update to the website sucks ȧss.

....Anyway. My new One Piece fiction is up, check it out!