The Order of the Hippogriff

-My legs feel like they're on fire! -complained Silvia as she took a seat in the Hogwarts express carriage, waiting for it to get underway to return home. Hermione nodded, silently voicing the same complaint.

After Nico Ravenheart's unexpected concert, everyone expended the energy for the whole day at once and were exhausted. Although they were carried by the Thestrals' carriages to the station, the short stretch they had to walk proved torturous for their legs.

Soisen was rubbing his legs as well, but it was pure theater as his situation was more akin to magical exhaustion than physical. If it weren't for the energy drink he had asked the house elves to prepare for him, he thought he might fall asleep for the entire journey back.

-At least you don't look as bad as Professor Lupin," Hermione commented.

-I know! -Did you see how pale he looked when he came out of the Great Hall?

-Maybe the music was too loud for his ears," said Soisen, "What with being a werewolf and all.

-Professor Lupin was a werewolf?! -shouted Silvia with horror in her voice.

-Didn't you notice the coincidences after Snape made us study werewolves? -Soisen raised an eyebrow somewhat surprised at how no one seemed to connect the dots conveniently -Hermione, tell me that's not your case too.

-Actually, I noticed that too," Hermione said as she nodded doubtfully, "It's just that he seemed to have control over himself and I didn't see the need to say so. After all, if he was kicked out too soon, we'd be without a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the rest of the term.

-How desperate must the headmaster be to find a teacher for this position that he was forced to hire a werewolf? -It would have been enough if he forgot to take his potion just once and a disgrace could have happened in the school. He put us all in danger! -At the end Silvia was clearly angry.

-I agree with you," said Soisen, making it clear that he did not like this year's choice of teacher. It's just that in her case, it was more of a personal grudge.

-Werewolves are victims and we shouldn't judge them by their condition! -Hermione protested, not believing what she was hearing from her two best friends.

-It's not about your condition, Hermione. It's about the risk of exposing children to a person who could easily infect them. Not only that, with the discrimination in the magical world, do you really think a werewolf received the education and training to become a teacher at Hogwarts? -Soisen pointed out, taking the conversation to a more moral point of view and forcing Hermione to remember the obvious flaws in his teaching methods during classes, "In my opinion, it's impossible that Dumbledore couldn't have found more qualified teachers than Lupin. I think he was only hired as a favor on a personal level!

-That! In fact, it's a possibility..." Hermione frowned as she realized that the teacher they had this year might have been chosen because of connections and not because he was properly qualified for the position.

-Hey, Soisen. I've been thinking..." Silvia spoke about something that had been rattling around in her head for the past few months, "Your studies are quite a bit further along and during your time at Beauxbatons, you received proper Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, right? So, do you think you could bring us up to speed? Honestly, I think our training in this subject has been abysmal these past three years and if we then get bad grades, we'll get blamed on top of it.

-That's a great idea! -Hermione clapped her hands at the idea of spending the summer learning Defense Against the Dark Arts properly, "We could invite Ginny, Luna, Neville and the others to form a study group. I think we could all help each other out.

-I'm fine with teaching Neville and the same year. But don't you think Ginny and the others are younger and would rather be on vacation during the summer? -Soisen asked, "Not everyone likes to learn and practice constantly like we do.

He didn't mind doing a study group to solidify his knowledge and teach, but he didn't want too many people because it would be too much work and he wouldn't have time for his research. This summer he wanted to work on finding multiple substitutes for the potion that could solve his mothers' squib condition and keep multiplying the number of den den mushi in his possession.

-I didn't think of that -Hermione's mood cooled a little -But we could send them some letters by owl to ask their opinion.

-Or we could leave the carriage and look for them now to avoid having to exchange letters for days to synchronize with each other," said Soisen, "How about this? You two go find who you think would be worth joining and I'll figure out what we could do while we're at it. Just keep the curious and nosy people from coming.

Silvia and Hermione exchanged glances and agreed. They weren't too many people either and if they squeezed a bit in the carriage, they could discuss the matter without any problems.

...Twenty minutes later...

Silvia, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Cedric and an additional girl sat in the same carriage as Soisen.

-And you are? -Soisen asked as he isolated the carriage from the outside.

-I'm Cho Chang from Ravenclaw," the girl introduced herself with a nervous smile, "I saw you perform against the Dementors in the Quidditch match and it was impressive.

-After we told Cedric about the idea, he thought she might be interested - introduced Silvia to ease the tension -I also know her a bit and I think there shouldn't be any problem, she's quite intelligent and sensible.

-Too bad we don't have anyone from Slytherin or we could have people in every house," thought Soisen without saying anything out loud.

-Well, I think you should all have a rough idea of why we're here. My friends suggested that given the VERY lousy curriculum for the last three years of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, I could put together a study group to address this knowledge gap. As some of you may know, I went to Beauxbatons for a period of time and received real and more advanced lessons. People from younger years like Ginny and Luna could take advantage to get a head start on their peers while others older than us, like Cedric, could help us catch up," he explained and seeing that everyone was paying attention, he continued, "So while Silvia and Hermione went to look for you, I thought a bit and I think we could set up a sort of secret Order to support each other.

-Like a club? -Luna asked.

-No, nothing like a club. An Order," Soisen remarked, "A club is a group that anyone can join, there is little commitment and it can grow so big that it will be difficult to manage. What I thought of is an Order where the entry of each member is strictly controlled, needing the unanimous approval of all by an anonymous vote to accept new members. Something we can be a part of even after we graduate from Hogwarts and perhaps an additional reason to hold meetings to catch up.

Everyone exchanged opinions and it seemed like a very interesting idea. Elitist enough to be mysterious, but not so rigid as to divide it into ranks. They discussed some details and at the end, Soisen gave the summary.

-Since we are all in agreement, then it shall be so: We will call ourselves the Order of the Hippogriff and the few rules are as follows... -he went over the few rules that should be enough to keep the Order running- ...lastly, we will make the magical pact. All agreed?

And by the time the Hogwarts express arrived at King's Cross station, the Order of the Hippogriff had been officially founded.