Chapter Two: A Council of War

take a seat saying, “Come on, Harry, you can either take your rightful seat as our leader or leave, your decision.

After another moment, Harry, reluctantly decided to sit down, and the meeting began. Unbeknownst to them, the decisions they made here would lead to a violent confrontation with the Dark Lord, and change the nature of this conflict forever.

The first problem facing them was personnel. Ginny, Neville, and Luna proposed raising an entirely new force, with no one who was a member of the DA previously. Harry, Ron, and Hermione disagreed, claiming they would have a far better working relationship with people who had been members previously. In the end, after about half-an-hour pf useless arguing, they settled on a compromise. They would, for the time being, accept only people who had been members previously, and next school year, if there was a next school year, they would recruit and train new members while keeping on the old ones. Neville had an addendum he wanted to add to the agreement.

“I personally believe we should keep out anyone above me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s year,” Neville said. “And anyone below Ginny and Luna’s year.”

“Why?” Hermione asked, perplexed.

“Think about it logically, Hermione.” Neville said. “Bell, Chang, that traitor Edgecombe,”Neville said disdainfully. “Johnson, Jordan, and Spinnet have moved on or made plans for their lives. Abbott hasn’t been seen since her father pulled her out after her mother’s murder. Fred and George have definitely moved on,” he said emphatically, referring to the hugely successful joke shop the Weasley twins had created. “And as for Dennis Creevey,” Neville said, an anxious tone in his voice, “he is just too young to really get involved in this war. I mean, God, he’s only fourteen.”

“How old were Ginny and I when we first saw combat, Neville?” Luna asked pointedly. She had a point, Harry thought. Ginny and Luna had first engaged the enemy when they were fourteen. But maybe realized, as Harry realized, that they had all been too young to see combat against Voldemort’s armies of death, but they had, and now they had seen it twice. Perhaps it was right to keep Dennis out of battle. But how would Colin, Dennis’s brother, react? Well, Harry thought, we’ll deal with that when the time comes.

“I agree,” Harry said. “We should keep them out of the fight.”

“But Harry, that cuts at least two-fifths of our numbers,” Hermione remarked. “Numbers we need if we’re going to have a hope of surviving.”

“We’ll have the Order of the Phoenix at our backs,” Ron said. They should be enough to offset our now depleted manpower.” It was settled, then. They were going to cut nearly two-fifths of their numbers. The first significant reorganization the D.A. ever had.

The next issue facing them was whether or not to have a uniform. Harry, Ron, and Ginny wanted gold and red uniform robes, trousers, coats, and black Oxford boots. Hermione objected, claiming that it flaunted the fact that Gryffindors for the most part, started and controlled this organization. Hermione proposed a dark blue coat, trousers, and Oxford boots. “After all,” Hermione said. “We shouldn’t try to find a balance between all the House colours, that would take to long and I want to get this over with as quickly as possible.”

“That makes sense,” Harry said, who had found himself as determined to get this right as everyone else in the room, despite his earlier misgivings.

After that, Harry laid another proposal on the table. “We need to convince Fred and George to part with as much of their new Defense against the Dark Arts supplies as possible,” Harry said.

“They sell Defense supplies?” Luna asked quizzically.

Ron groaned, annoyed because he had to explain what every other student in the school seemed to know. When he was done, Luna nodded, saying, “I understand.”

“Do you, really?” Ron said snippily.

“Ron, don’t be mean!” Hermione said by way of chastising him.

“That’s enough!” Harry shouted, putting a stop to this before it got out of hand.

“I have a question?” Neville asked. “Who’s paying for all of this?” Everyone spun around to look at Harry. It was at this point he was going to be covering the D.A.’s operating costs. Makes sense, Harry thought. I do have the most money of anyone here.

Then Neville suggested they work out who’s in charge. “We need to work out who’s in charge and in what order,” Neville said. “I know Muggles have a term for this. It’s um, what was it?”

Harry and Hermione both said simultaneously, “Chain of command.”

“Right,” Neville said awkwardly, “we need to work that out.”

They agreed from the start of that discussion that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be at the top of the senior command hierarchy in that order. The question was who would get the fourth link in the initial chain, immediately following Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Ginny, Neville, and Luna all wanted it. The trouble was that no one could reach a consensus on which one it was going to be. Ignoring Ron’s suggestion of an arm-wrestling contest, they put it to a vote. At that, Ginny won unanimously, with even Neville and Luna conceding to her. It’s for the best, Harry thought. I don’t think Luna is as aggressive as she could be. Neville probably is, but Ginny is more aggressive than him by half. It was then that Luna suggested a minor protocol change; a change that, from the start, altered how D.A members respected each other.

“I believe it would be best if subordinates were required to address their superiors as ‘Sir,’ regardless of their gender. At least while on duty, anyway.” They all looked at her, surprised but it was Hermione who voiced it.

“What,” Hermione asked, surprised. “Why?”

“Look at it this way,” Luna said nonchalantly. “This organization is going to be made up entirely of teenagers. Teenagers however have a tendency to lose control. With the number of girls, including you, me, and Ginny, the boys below us could get…fresh,” she said with a grimace. “If their required to address their superiors as ‘sir’ regardless of gender, I think they’ll respect us more. Besides it will serve to distinguish us from other organizations.”

Caught off guard by Luna’s atypically logical argument, it was agreed to without opposition.

“Hermione,” Ron said, sounding concerned, “While you were thinking up this plan, did you ever stop to think how we were going to get these people into the fight?”

“Well,” she said slyly. “I was thinking of having them stand guard over Bill and Fleur’s wedding. After that, we’ll see.”

“It’s close to 4:00,” Harry said. “If we’re going to do this, we have a list of work to do. So let’s get to it.”

“Yes, Sir,” Luna said.

“Don’t start that yet,” Harry said. “We don’t even know if we’ll have an organization yet.” With that they left and got to work attempting to create the D.A.”

A/N: Okay, I'll level with you. The concept of referring to female superiors as sir is a concept I borrowed from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica:2003. But I did this one as an homage to my favorite series' and two, I truely believe it would provide female and male officers alike more real respect for them and their abilities. I had Luna say it because I think it would be exactly the thing for Luna to say.

A/N: Unless otherwise stated all quotes come from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations.