It was finally the Monday that the trio and Albert had been waiting for. They secretly, at five in the evening, crept up to the seventh floor, which was where the Room of Requirement was. They knocked on the door and a few seconds later, Hermione opened and gestured to them to come in. Harry, Ron, and a few other people were already there. The room had two restrooms in a corner of the wide room, one for boys and the other for girls. There were bookshelves placed at the opposing corner. In the middle were about five dummies inside a drawn white oval. In front of Harry were many cushions for each student.

‘So, Umbridge sent that educational decree number one billion or whatever and if she does find us we will be tortured to death,’ Isabell said casually. 

‘We know… so we have to take extra care of our hiding place. We don’t want someone to “accidentally” tumble in here and tell Umbridge. What if I get ex-why do I even care if I’m getting expelled? We are here to defend ourselves!’ Hermione commented, shaking her head. 

‘That Hermione is a new Hermione,’ Ron said. 

Hermione rolled her eyes and then saw that everyone else was in the room. Hermione nudged Harry and he stood up, not an ounce of confidence on his pale face. 

‘So… the first incantation that we will take is Expelliarmus. I think it’s pretty simple and we should start easy.’ 

Some of the students excitedly got out their wands. 

‘Make sure you hold the wand correctly, please- No, Neville, hold it like this. Yep, that’s better, Neville. Alright… so, before we actually start with doing the spell, can everyone just say the spell out loud so I can make sure you’re all pronouncing it right?’

Immediately, voices started yelling the incantation out loud:

‘Expelliarmus!’

‘Expellramus?’ 

‘Expelliarmas-’ 

‘Expel… expel-’

‘Alright, enough, please!’ 

Everyone’s mouth closed shut, but their ears were listening to Harry. 

‘A small number of people need to be able to pronounce the spell correctly. It’s Ex-peli-ar-mus. Now, make sure your wand is held correctly like I showed you at first… Yeah, Neville, just like that- Exactly, Amelia. So… you can see that there are dummies with wands. Five people will stand in front of a dummy each and try to remove their wand by saying Expelliarmus. I’ll tell you guys what we will do after everybody has their turn. Go on, please.’ 

People hurriedly formed five rows, the first person in each row beginning. In the third row, Albert was the first. He waited for the other two people next to him to begin. The first one, a girl with curly red hair and blue eyes from Ravenclaw, hesitantly pointed her wand at the dummy and squeaked: 

‘Expelliarmas!’ 

The girl, whose name was Marietta, had pronounced it incorrectly, so that she fell back a few feet from her spot, but Hermione used a spell which made her float, Marietta’s round-button nose a few millimetres from the floor. 

‘Nice try… work on the pronunciation…’ Harry said nervously as Marietta went to the back of the line, her body shaking. 

The first student on the second row, who was Zacharias Smith, pointed his wand at the dummy and spoke out loud:

‘Expellramus!’ 

Zacharias was confident that he had achieved the goal, but he didn’t. The dummy was alive, its limbs moving and approaching Zach, who shrieked like a girl. Hermione, for the second time, used her wand and the dummy went back to its spot, its limbs dangling and not moving. 

‘Not quite right…’ Harry said, though there was a grin on his face, along with Ron. 

It was finally Albert’s turn. He took his wand, pointed it at the dummy, and uttered the spell:

‘Expelliarmus!’ 

Albert had achieved it, so the wand in the dummy’s hand flew towards him and he easily caught it. 

‘First one who does it correctly,’ Harry said, nodding at Albert, who went back to the back of the line. 

It took about ten minutes to get everybody to do the spell. The trio, of course, had done the spell correctly. 

‘Expelliarmus!’ Isabell had called out, so that the dummy’s wand flew from its hands and landed right in front of Isabell on the floor.

‘Expelliarmus!’ Amelia had said, so that the wand of the dummy she was facing flew a few feet in the air and she caught it. 

‘Expelliarmus!’ Olivia had yelled, and so the dummy’s wand also fell a few feet in the air and landed in front of her. 

‘Alright, now that we are all done with the dummies- thank you, Hermione, (Hermione, with her wand, had vanished the dummies and the white oval) we’ll work in pairs. So, everyone should get a partner- great. You’ll take turns trying to use the spell on your partner. Off you go, guys.’ 

Amelia and Isabell decided to group up, and Olivia and Albert formed a group as well. There were many shouts and yells quickly filling the room. Harry was walking around, seeing how each pair was progressing. Harry had walked towards Cho, who was teamed up with the red-haired girl Marietta. Cho looked at him from the corner of her eyes. 

‘E-Expelliarmus!’ Cho said, so that Marietta’s wand flew from her pale hands. 

Harry gave Cho a quick, nervous smile and walked towards Amelia and Isabell. 

‘Expelliarmus!’ Isabell yelled first. 

Amelia’s wand escaped her grip and rolled on the floor, then went towards Isabell’s direction. Harry nodded at them and gave them an encouraging smile. Harry walked towards Olivia and Albert, who were a few feet away from Amelia and Isabell. 

‘Expelliarmus!’ Olivia yelled, pointing her wand at Albert. 

His wand zoomed out of his hand and almost fell on Olivia’s head, but Harry caught it just on time. 

‘Thanks!’ Olivia said nervously.

Harry gave them the same encouraging smile and threw Albert’s wand in his direction. Harry walked to other pairs. 

‘If we will take any of those spells that could hurt, I will go easy on you,’ Albert said.

‘Thanks…’ Olivia replied, her eyebrows slightly raised. 

The shouts and yells continued, until Harry clapped his hands. The clap echoed around the room, making everyone pause, as though they were statues. 

‘Great work, everyone. I think if we continue like this, we would actually make some progress.’

The students beamed proudly. 

‘Before anyone leaves, we will give you something that will help you with knowing when the next meeting is,’ Hermione yelled as she and Olivia got a wooden box. 

They placed it in front of everyone. In the box, there were…

‘Coins? Real coins?’ Ron said, looking at the golden coins in the wooden box. ‘You’re actually handing out money?’

‘No, Ron. This is how you will know when the next meeting is!’ Hermione snapped. 

‘You will see some words and numbers on the coin if you look at it. That would be the day and time for the next meeting. Harry has the original one, if he changes the date, the rest of the coins will change too,’ Olivia explained. 

People eagerly took one coin and tucked it inside their pocket. 

‘We made them look like coins so that it doesn’t seem like you’re carrying something suspicious with you in your pockets,’ Hermione said. 

Hermione then looked at Harry as if to say that he should say something. 

‘So, today was brilliant. I think some of you have gotten the hang of it already. I will make sure that Hermione, Ron and I decide on the date of the next meeting. And, yes, we will make sure that the date won’t interfere with any Quidditch practice or matches.’ 

There were several murmurs of happiness and pleasure amongst the students as they filed out of the Room of Requirement, though were cautious when they headed out. Amelia, Olivia, Isabell and Albert went out of the room after they bade Harry, Ron and Hermione goodnight. They made sure that nobody was behind them and they sprinted to the Ravenclaw tower, where they had almost encountered Umbridge. Before Umbridge had time to look behind her, the trio and Albert had already climbed the stairs as quickly as they could. They hurriedly answered the eagle-headed knocker’s riddle and entered the Common Room. Albert bade the girls goodnight and rushed to his dormitory, careful not to make a sound and cause havoc. Isabell, Amelia and Olivia went up the stairs to their dormitory and hurriedly changed into their pyjamas, and each one collapsed on her bed. 

‘That meeting was very effective,’ Olivia said, scooching to the edge of her bed to see Amelia and Isabell better. 

‘Yep. I wish it could be daily, but with the frog lurking around and Quidditch, I don’t think that’s possible,’ Amelia said, sighing at the end of her sentence. 

Isabell had already fallen asleep, not even listening to their conversation. Amelia and Olivia silently giggled and soon dozed off.