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First-Founded

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Synopsis: Dumbledore's Army was first founded by three Gryffindor students, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, in 1995. The reasoning for initiating this organization was by the refusal of Dolores Umbridge (the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor during the 1995-1996 school year) to teach any spells, incantation, or any other source of magical education beyond textbook theory. Students in her class were not even able to use their wands. 

Shortly after their fifth Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Umbridge during their fifth year, Harry, Ron, and Hermione realized that practical defensive magic would not be taught in the class. The Minister of Magic at the time, Cornelius Fudge, was afraid that Albus Dumbledore would use what Hogwarts students learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons to train an army of wizards and witches to oppose him and throw over the Ministry, since he refused the possibility of Lord Voldemort returning. So instead of the regular curriculum over the years of teaching students how to magically defend themselves against Dark Creatures, Dark Arts, and other Charms through physically practicing spells, Dolores Umbridge taught a Ministry-approved course of theory. 

"It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your [OWL] examinations, which after all, is what school is about"

—Dolores Umbridge, Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson

Hermione proposed forming a practical study groups taught by Harry since the three of them were greatly concerned that they needed defensive magical skills to combat the thriving Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters that were after them. She rightfully believed that Harry should be the teacher because he had the most experience with actually using defensive and offensive spells throughout his multiple encounters with Lord Voldemort, Death Eaters, and Dementors over any of the other students combined. Harry was wary initially to being the teacher but after about two more weeks of dealing with Umbridge and her evil arrogance, he agreed. 

Set for the first Hogwarts Hogsmeade visit of the school year, Hermione arranged for a meeting in the Hog's Head to any student who was curious of the organization and wanted to learn just as the three of them did. Harry doubted that anyone would show since a majority of the students saw him to either be a liar or be completely mental, but was surprised with a large turnout. Although the students came to the meeting, many were skeptical as to whether Voldemort really had return and whether Harry actually had encountered him on multiple occasions. As Ron and Hermione began listing off Harry's many achievements, the students started warming up and becoming more interested and confident in the organization.

Each student in the meeting signed a special piece of parchment to show their commitment to Dumbledore's Army. If Umbridge found out about the organization, they would be shut down and severely punished, so the need for secrecy would be vital. Although none of the students knew this, Hermione had put a jinx on the parchment so that if any student who signed betrayed Dumbledore's Army, the word "SNEAK" would appear on their face in spots. 

After recruitment and finalizations, the organization had approximately 28 members. Only students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw houses were a part of this club because, at the time, students from the Slytherin house were seen as enemies. 

Of these original 28 members...
Gryffindor members included Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger, Ron Weasley, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Cormac McLaggen, Dean Thomas, Colin Creevey, Dennis Creevey, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Katie Bell, Lee Jordan, Lavender Brown, Neville Longbottom, Nigel Wolpert, Parvati Patil, Rionach O'Neal, Romilda Vane, and Seamus Finnigan. 
Members of Ravenclaw included Anthony Goldstein, Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood, Marietta Edgecombe, Michael Corner, Padma Patil, and Terry Boot.
Members of Hufflepuff included Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Leanne, Susan Bones, and Zacharias Smith.
Members whose Hogwarts houses were unspecified included Luca Caruso and Alice Tolipan. 

Unfortunately, although unbeknown to members of Dumbledore's Army, they were being watched. Mundungus Fletcher, a wizard who was undoubtably associated in illegal activities but also wholeheartedly devoted to Albus Dumbledore, disguised as a witch with a thick black veil to keep eye on Harry Potter for the Order of the Phoenix. Willy Widdershins, a wizard who repeatedly engaged in Muggle-baiting pranks, informed Umbridge of the meeting to avoid punishment from the Ministry for a series of regurgitating toilet incidents. With this information, Umbridge implemented Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four, which banned all student organizations that weren't approved by the High Inquisitor. 

Disregarding the ban, Harry assured the members that they would commence meetings once they found an ideal, safe, and discrete location for their organization. Shortly after, Dobby the house-elf told Harry Potter about the Room of Requirement, stating that he personally used it to store his drunken house-elf friend Winky on occasion. 

"It is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs"

—Dobby explaining to Harry Potter the abilities of the Room of Requirement

Above is a portion of the original members of Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement.

Clearly, arranging and passing the word about meeting times and dates verbally was not a secure and safe method of communication, so Hermione bewitched several Galleons with a Protean Charm. This charm links several objects together through a common purpose, so these fake Galleons were used in order to communicate between members of Dumbledore's Army. A change in the master coin would be magically reflected in the others so that when Harry transfigured his coin to show a new date for a meeting, the transfigurative change would be carried to all of the other coins which would also emit heat to signal the members of the meeting.

The meetings continued and progressed during the early months of 1996. In each meeting the members would learn various charms, spells, hexes, and jinxes (go to Chapter 3, Spells Formerly Taught, to learn more). The mass breakout of imprisoned Death Eaters from Azkaban spurred them on to greater efforts and they began to master even more advanced spells and jinxes.

Shortly before Easter rolled around, one D.A. member, Marietta Edgecombe, betrayed them to Umbridge. She had first been brought to the meetings by her friend, Cho Chang, and was a reluctant member of Dumbledore's Army. Her mother worked in the Floo Network Office, who was helping Umbridge monitor Hogwarts' network. Edgecombe apparently became afraid that her mother's job was in jeopardy and revealed the location of the organization's meetings to Umbridge. Immediately, the jinx that Hermione had secretly placed on the parchment that each member signed activated and the word "SNEAK" spread across Marietta's face in boils. 

Dobby rushed to the Room of Requirement to warn Harry and the rest of Dumbledore's Army of this turn of events. A majority of the members were able to escape, but Harry was unfortunately caught by Umbridge and several Slytherin students who were part of the Inquisitorial Squad. While searching the room, they found the parchment entitled "Dumbledore's Army" that each of the members had signed. Finally believing that they had "proof" that Dumbledore truly was building an army against the Ministry, Umbridge contacted Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic at the time.

Albus Dumbledore took full responsibility for the creation of Dumbledore's Army when confronted by Fudge and Umbridge to protect Harry and the rest of the members from being punished by the Ministry. Kingsley Shacklebolt, an Auror and member of the Order of the Phoenix, used a False Memory Charm on Marietta to make her version of events parallel with Dumbledore's. Dumbledore's confession led to Fudge's attempt at arresting him. Dumbledore being the great wizard he was, escaped with help from his phoenix, Fawkes. With the Headmaster of Hogwarts fleeing, Umbridge became the new Headmistress of Hogwarts.

With Umbridge gaining even more power than before, members of Dumbledore's Army took their rebellion to a whole new level. Fred and George Weasley took many acts of defiance, with releasing enchanted fireworks throughout the school, turning a corridor into a swamp, and ended by mocking Umbridge's authority and striking members of the Inquisitorial Squad with various jinxes. Many students followed in the their footsteps by releasing dung bombs, using Skiving Snackboxes, and releasing Nifflers into Umbridge's office, and following their request to "give her hell from them". 

"We were all in the DA together. It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real — or was that just words for you?"
"No — of course it wasn't —"
"Then we should come too. We want to help."

— Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter before heading off to the Department of Mysteries

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Re-Founded

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Re-RE-Founded (Current State)

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