Finally Me ~

Chapter 61

**Alex’s POV**

          

We arrive late to the DA meeting, breathless and find that everyone is already pairing up, getting ready to start practicing. Everyone jumps and looks around at us as we burst in.

“Just us!” Fred pants, “not the Toad. Go about your business.”

Harry waits until our breathing has returned to normal, then explains the stunning spell to us. I let Fred stun me first. We stand facing each other, him listening to Harry’s instructions, me trying to dry my sweaty palms on my robes. Harry finishes talking to Fred and steps back. Fred brandishes his wand, yelling a word that I barely catch before the spell hits me in the chest. My head swoops and all of a sudden I’m blinking up at Fred, feeling dizzy.

“Are you alright?” he asks, helping me to sit up.

“I think you’ve got the hang of that spell,” I say, touching the back of my head, “ow.”

“Sorry, we forgot to put down cushions,” Fred says, “it’s not bleeding, but you’ll have a lump.”

He helps me to my feet and we face each other again. Harry appears at my side.

“Alright, hold your wand like this,” he says, showing me, “and it’s sort of a slashing movement… Yes, that’s it.”

I look at Fred and give him a small smile as I raise my wand.

“Stupefy!”

He falls straight back, sprawling on the ground. I rush to his side, followed by Harry.

“Enervate,” Harry says. Fred’s eyes blink open.

“Ouch.”

I laugh and help him up. He shakes himself out, swaying slightly.

“That was unpleasant,” he says cheerfully, “right, let’s do this again.”

Two weeks later after during DA, Hermione takes charge of the meeting.

“I know we’ve had some trouble arranging times and telling everyone,” she says, handing out galleons, so I thought we could use these.”

I look at mine. It looks just like any other galleon would.

“What do we do with them?” I ask.

“You see the numerals around the edge of the coins? On real galleons they’re the serial number of the goblin who cast them, but on these galleons they will change to show the time and date of the next meeting. They heat up when they change, so  you’ll feel it if it’s in your pocket. When Harry sets the date of the meeting he’ll change the numbers on his coin and since I’ve put  Protean Charm on them, they’ll all change to mimic his.”

I stare at Hermione, processing this. Everyone else appears to be doing the same thing. She looks rather discouraged.

“Well, I thought it was a good idea,” she says hesitantly, “I mean, if Umbridge orders us to turn out our pockets, there’s nothing fishy about carrying a galleon, is there? But… Well, if you don’t want to use them…”
“You can do a Protean Charm?” A boy asks.

“Yes.”
“But we’ve only just learnt that,” Angelina says weakly. Hermione blushes.

“So, does that mean we’re using the coins?” she asks. Everyone nods and begins to leave in small groups.

“Brilliant idea, this is,” I comment, “as long as we don’t spend them.”

“Not likely,” Fred and George say at the same time.