It had been a couple of weeks since the meeting at Hog's Head, and Rosie couldn't help but feel impatient. Every day, she waited for some message from Harry or Hermione regarding the location of the meetings, but nothing ever came her way. When she saw the new educational decree put up by Professor Umbridge stating the banning of all student organizations, she knew it was a sign that Umbridge had some sort of idea what was going on. Rosie hoped Dumbledore's Army wasn't already finished before it even got the chance to start.

However, Rosie's disappointment faded when she finally heard from Hermione about a location and the first meeting, and she had a feeling that something good would come out of this organization. For once, she felt hopeful.

During her study session with her Slytherin friends at the library, not too long before she had to leave and head for the first Dumbledore's Army meeting, Rosie began to get nervous, trying to prepare the questions her friends would ask and what was going to happen at this meeting. She didn't think she'd be able to convince her friends with whatever lie she came up with, nor did she think any of the other students a part of Dumbledore's Army would take her seriously or even accept her. She couldn't think joining was a mistake, because deep down, it felt right, no matter what anyone else thought, including her friends.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if this'll really be on our exam for McGonagall's class next week," Gavin commented, reading over his Transfiguration textbook.

"Knowing that old bat, she'll put it on there," Greer said in a bitter tone.

"Don't call her that," Adam interjected. "She's a good teacher."

The blonde girl let out a scoff, rolling her eyes. "Hardly."

As much as the comment towards Professor McGonagall annoyed her, Rosie chose not to respond to it (as arguing with Greer just made things worse, anyway) and checked the clock above the entrance of the library, and when she saw the time of the meeting getting closer just by a few minutes, she began to pack up her books. "I've gotta go," she told the others.

"Where are you going?" Adam asked.

Rosie glanced at the three, her heart beating fast. "I, um...I just remembered that I told Neville earlier that I'd help him with his Potions project tonight."

"Can't he get someone else to help him?" Greer asked annoyingly.

"I already promised him," she stated, getting up from her chair. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." With that, she turned around and quickly strolled away before any of them could say anything else to her.

Rosie quickly made her way to the stairs, climbing to each level until she reached the seventh floor, where her pace quickened down the corridor. The stone wall ahead of her began to disappear and an iron door revealed itself, to which Rosie opened the door, closing it behind her as she entered the Room of Requirement, finding everyone else standing around as she walked across the room and placed her bag on the floor.

"Hey, Rosie," Harry greeted her. "You're just in time. We're about to start."

Smiling, she joined Neville nearby, who was gripping his wand tight in his hand, with a nervous expression on his face.

"You okay, Neville?" Rosie asked.

He nodded his head. "Yeah, just a bit nervous, that's all," he admitted.

Her smile turned sad. "It's going to be fine. Besides, it's the first meeting, so I think everyone's a bit nervous." She wasn't sure if that was the case, but if it made Neville feel less anxious about it, then that was all that mattered.

"All right, line up, everyone!" Harry called out, to which everyone obliged and got in a single file line. "Okay, so today we'll be practicing disarming. It's a simple charm but very useful during a duel. We'll just go through the line and let everyone have a chance." He pointed towards the wooden Death Eater dummy up front, his wand at the ready. "Expelliarmus!" The wand from the dummy flew out of its hand, falling onto the floor.

One by one, students went through the line to practice the spell, most of which successfully disarmed the Death Eater with no trouble. However, when it came to Neville, he was still as tense as ever, though he attempted to disarm the dummy, anyway, resulting in his own wand leaving his hand and spinning towards the back of the room, his face falling.

"I'm hopeless," he muttered.

"You're just flourishing your wand too much," Harry told him. "Try it like this. Expelliarmus!"

Rosie watched the way Harry flawlessly disarmed the dummy once again. She was starting to see why Hermione was so keen on having him lead Dumbledore's Army, as she could tell that while Harry being a leader was something he didn't think he could do, he was very good at stepping into the role.

When it was Rosie's turn to show Harry the spell, she took a deep breath waving her wand and shouting the incantation. She felt proud to see the charm worked, smiling a little as she stared at the fallen wand.

"Well done, Rosie," Harry exclaimed.

Once the rest of the students had a turn, Harry had everyone split into groups to continue practicing, with Rosie doing her best to help Neville out. The other student in their group, a Hufflepuff named Zacharias Smith, was growing rather impatient at Neville's lack of progress, scoffing whenever he failed to perform the spell correctly.

"Honestly, it's an easy spell," he commented. "Though, really, I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who."

"It's not just him we're going up against," Rosie pointed out. "And going over the basics isn't a bad thing. We could all use the refresher."

"Obviously," he mumbled, glancing over at Neville.

Rosie began to get irritated at Zacharias' snarky attitude, though she bit her tongue, knowing that helping out Neville was more important than picking a fight.

For the next hour, it was nothing but shouting and disarming echoing throughout the Room of Requirement. While Neville was still having trouble with the spell, Rosie assured him that he'd get there with some more practice. He didn't look so convinced, but he went along with it and nodded, anyway.

After Harry commented on a good first meeting, he let everyone know about the next day and time of the second meeting before dismissing the students for the night. Rosie was walking down the corridors, hearing the murmurs of other members as they walked by her. Of course, she expected it, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to let anyone ruin this for her.

For once, she felt good about her choice, and she just hoped it wouldn't be something she'd regret later on.

*******

The meetings with Dumbledore's Army became later and longer as the weeks went by. While Rosie was enjoying all that she was learning and improving on during the lessons (including seeing Neville do just the same), it only made Professor Umbridge more suspicious, as she made it her mission to question every student in order to get information about any organizations going on behind her back. Of course, this was discussed at one of the meetings, to which Harry and Hermione assured them that she wouldn't find out as long as everyone didn't give her a reason to look further into things.

But on her seventeenth birthday, when Professor Umbridge put out another education decree regarding the Inquisitorial Squad for students, Rosie started to worry a little. Her anxiety of getting caught only got worse after finding out that both Greer and Gavin signed up for it. Every time they mentioned it in front of Rosie, she tried her best to deflect the conversation to something else, which resulted in getting side eyes from her friends. Nevertheless, they didn't ask about her odd behavior, and Rosie was relieved at that.

As the Christmas holidays were approaching, Rosie put her stress aside over packing to go home and gift-shopping for her parents in order to get through the Dumbledore's Army meeting one cold night in the middle of December. She only thought about the lesson Harry had planned, focusing her energy on the spells they were going over this lesson. So far, there were no injuries on her part, though Zacharias was about to get on her last nerve with his side comments on her skills. Still, she didn't say anything to him, not wanting any drama within the group, as that was the last thing Dumbledore's Army needed.

At the end of the lesson, Harry stood in front of everyone, with Ron and Hermione on each side of him. "So that's it for this lesson," he announced after the hour was up. "Now, we're not going to be meeting again until after the holidays."

A chorus of groans came from students, disappointed to hear his announcement.

"So just keep practicing on your own as best as you can. And...and well done, everyone. Great, great work."

All the students gave a round of applause, glancing at each other with big smiles on their faces. Even Rosie got a few grins.

As everyone bid each other goodbyes, Rosie waved goodbye to Neville before heading out. She was making her way down the corridor by herself for a moment until she heard footsteps catching up with her, to which it was Hermione.

"You're doing great at the meetings," she said. "Harry seems to think so, too."

"Thanks," Rosie replied, giving her a small smile. "I'm really happy to be a part of Dumbledore's Army."

Hermione nodded, clearing her throat before speaking again. "Why do you hang out with Adam and the Thomson twins?"

Rosie raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Well, it's just that...you're nothing like them," Hermione stated. "In fact, you're the complete opposite of them, actually. So why are you friends with them?"

Rosie paused for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, they kind of just took me in and I've been friends with them ever since." She briefly stopped talking before continuing on. "I know how you and the other Gryffndors feel about them, but they're not all bad." She huffed out a sigh. "At least, they weren't like that in the beginning."

Hermione scoffed at this. "Looks can be deceiving," she said. "You know, I didn't want to think that all Slytherins were bad. I just thought that maybe not all of them shared the same beliefs with their parents about Muggle-borns." She let out a shaky breath, then continued. "And then hearing Greer mutter that awful word whenever we cross paths reminds me that I was wrong to think any of them could be decent towards people like me."

Rosie looked at Hermione with sadness, her heart aching. It made her feel guilty for even associating herself with Greer. She wanted to knock some sense into the Slytherin girl, but with how stubborn she was and set into her ways, there was no chance that Greer would listen to Rosie. Nevertheless, she had to try and say something to her.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," Rosie said. "You don't deserve to be treated that way."

Hermione shot her a sad smile. "Look, I'm not telling you what to do regarding your friendship with them, but I wouldn't want to be friends with people that think they're better than everyone else just because of their blood status." The girl nodded again, picking up her pace. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Rosie."

"Goodnight, Hermione." She watched as the bushy-haired girl strolled ahead of her and eventually disappeared around the corner. When Rosie turned the same direction, she was surprised to see Greer leaning against the wall, though her usual smirk wasn't on her face.

"Evening, Rosie," she stated, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hi, Greer," she replied, her voice a bit shaky.

"What are you doing out so late?" the blonde asked, pushing herself off the wall. "If Filch catches you out here after hours--"

"I could be asking you the same question," Rosie cut her off.

"I was meeting Adam. Your turn."

Rosie was starting to get irritated. "I was just taking a walk."

"With Hermione Granger? Since when do you take walks with her?"

"Why does it matter?" Rosie retorted.

"Because last time I checked, neither of you have much to do with each other."

"Well, it's hard to do that when we're both in the same House."

Greer scoffed, shaking her head. "You know, Rosie, you've been acting weird these last few weeks. At first, I didn't think much of it, but now it's just gotten annoying."

Rosie had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at that comment. "I've been stressed," she lied.

The blonde raised her eyebrows, as if she could instantly see right through Rosie. "You don't look stressed to me."

"I hide it better than others."

"Or you're hiding something else."

Rosie took a deep breath in order to compose herself. "And what do you think that is, Greer?"

With sharp eyes, Greer's expression turned cold. "You tell me. Are you hiding something else, Rosie?"

The Gryffindor girl kept her stare on Greer, trying not to break. The tension became thick between the two, and all Rosie could feel was an annoyance for her friend. But finally, after a moment of silence, she let out a sigh, shaking her head.

"No, I'm not," she answered in a smooth tone.

Greer reluctantly accepted her response, even though it seemed like she didn't have a choice in the matter. "Well, in case you've forgotten, I'm here if you want to talk. You do know that you can talk to me about anything, right?"

Rosie opened her mouth, nodding. "Yeah, I know." Of course, she didn't believe her own words.

Greer nodded back. "Good. So, I'll see you tomorrow in class, then." She shot Rosie a smirk as she approached her. "Enjoy the rest of your walk." The blonde walked past Rosie, her footsteps becoming more faint with every step.

Rosie wished that she could feel relieved, but really, she was even more paranoid than ever, knowing that she just dug herself a grave that she would have a hard time getting out of.

A/N: OOP, things are getting intense now. What do we think?

Comment, vote, more to come soon!

-A