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A few days after Sirius almost being caught by that horrible toad, Marilyn heard from Marvolo, who heard from Katie, who heard from Angelina, who heard from Harry that they were going to be having their very first meeting on the seventh floor across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. Marvolo had been giddy when he told her and both Gaunt twins had beat themselves up about not remembering about the room in the first place seeing as they had used it to become animagi in their third year.

At around seven o'clock, Marilyn was wandering the corridors of the castle on her own in the time before the meeting. Tom was walking quietly next to her, both of them lost in thought.

"Did you ever find the Room of Requirement when you were in school?" She asked as they rounded a corner on the fourth floor.

Tom frowned momentarily before nodding, "Yes, yes I did. There are quite a few useful things there." He said and she nodded quietly. "Do you truly think you'll learn anything from Potter?"

"Not really," she said, cocking her head, "But most of the other people will and it can't hurt to go. Maybe I'll end up helping Harry control everyone." 

Tom nodded, a smirk crossing his face. "Perhaps, they would definitely listen to you, you know."

She only shrugged. She knew most of the people in the school would listen to her, she just had that effect on people. Her presence alone demanded attention and respect and the other students gave it to her, not yet having a reason not to. She sincerely doubted they would respect her if they knew she was cousin to Lord Voldemort, the one they were all so against. 

Marvolo demanded a different sort of respect and presence when he entered a room. Everyone knew he was a pranking legend, and he drew attention to himself just acting in the ridiculous way he did. 

The Gaunt twins were quite different from each other in personality, but they were just the same if one were to look close enough. One thing about them that never changed as they got older was that neither one of them would hesitate to do serious harm to anyone who laid a hand on the other twin.

She made her way up to the Room of Requirement and immediately paced back and forth three times, thinking of what she wanted the room to take the form of. She stepped inside when the door appeared and nodded appreciatively to herself as she looked around.

The room was spacious and lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below. The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs, there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Marilyn had noticed hanging the previous year, in the fake Moody's office during the previous year. 

Her eyes trailed back to the bookshelves and she crossed the room in three paces to look at the titles.

A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions...The Dark Arts Outsmarted...Self-Defensive Spellwork...Jinxes for the Jinxed.

Yes, these would be the types of books that Harry could make use of in the lessons Marilyn was certain he had been subconsciously planning from the moment she and Hermione had brought up the idea.

Not too long after Marilyn had entered the room, the door opened again to reveal Harry, Ron, and Hermione who looked around the place in awe.

"Oh, hello Marilyn," Hermione said upon noticing the older girl.

"Hello." She replied.

"Have you been here before?" Harry asked interestedly, looking at her as well.

Marilyn nodded absently, "Yes, in my third year. Marvol's been here too, sorry, by the way, we both managed to forget about it." 

Harry nodded, growing only more curious about the private sixth-year.

"You knew it was the Room of Requirement?"

She sent him an amused look over her shoulder, pausing from looking through the bookshelves. 

"Yes, of course, I did." She replied simply.

Both James and Tom had mentioned it in passing and she had found it in her second year with their help. James had previously mentioned that the room was where he and the other Mauraders had become Animagi. Surprisingly, it was actually James to discover the room and not Remus, like most would have assumed.

"These will be good when we're practising Stunning," said Ronenthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot after a minute or so of silence. 

"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, joining Marilyn at the bookshelves as both girls looked through the books.

"A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions . . . The Dark Arts Outsmarted . . . Self-Defensive Spellwork...wow..." She looked around at Harry, her face glowing "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!" 

And without further ado, she slid Jinxes for the Jinxed from its shelf, sank onto the nearest cushion, and began to read. Marilyn joined her a moment after with a copy of Atrocious Acts. It basically was about all the evil witches and wizards and what they had done that was so bad. 

There was a gentle knock on the door. Harry looked around; Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean had arrived. 

"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?" 

Marvolo arrived with Katie sometime after that, making Marilyn smirk and quirk an eyebrow as he turned pink. By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him. Hermione and Marilyn carefully marked their pages of the books they were reading and set them aside.

"Well," said Harry, looking nervous. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay —"

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George, Marvol? But it was just a broom cupboard then..."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark Detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled..."

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and — er —" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

Marilyn pressed her lips together to contain her smirk at the annoyed look on his face.

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione, making Marilyn nod in agreement even if it was obvious who it would be.

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So—everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hands, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly.

"Er — right, thanks," said Harry, redfaced. "And — what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

This time, Marilyn put her head in her hands. That was a bit much, this wasn't exactly cheerleading. 

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this, even Marilyn hummed in agreement. She thought it was a bit stupid, considering someone who heard the name would get the completely wrong idea and likely get Dumbledore in trouble, but well...there was only so much she could do.

"All in favour of the D.A.?" said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority — motion passed!"

She pinned the piece of paper with all of their names on it on the wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters.

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful —"

"Oh please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

Marilyn quirked an eyebrow. She knew for a fact it could be very useful. James was in tears when he told her that he got to talk to his son, if only for a moment. He was blubbering about how proud he was for hours and had mentioned that the charm Harry used was the disarming one.

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life last June." Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet. "But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said. Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"Okay," said Harry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Marilyn slid to her feet and immediately grabbed her brother. He grinned, realizing they would be using the spell against each other. They both knew they would end up duelling, it happened every time they had to use magic against each other. From the corner of her eye, Marilyn noticed that some of their fellow sixth years were grimacing at the sight of the twins together. They evidently remembered how they had nearly destroyed a classroom the year before when 'Moody' had let them have free reign to duel.

For a fair few minutes, Marilyn and Marvolo just lingered off to the side so they could allow the others to get some practice in before they inevitably ended up duelling. After a bit, Harry came up to them, looking between the twins in confusion. Marilyn was biting her lip as she glanced around the room and Marvolo had his hands shoved in his pockets as his eyes darted between his sister and Katie Bell.

"You two know how to do it, right?" He asked and they both nodded.

"Well yes, but we always end up duelling when we use magic against each other," Marilyn explained, making Harry's eyebrows furrow before his face lit up.

"Why don't the two of you have a demonstration duel? You're both decent at it, right?" He suggested and they nodded hesitantly.

"Oh, what the hell, come on Mary, let's show them what we've got!" Marvolo decided after a moment, his eyes sparkling.

Marilyn rolled her eyes, but she couldn't suppress the small smirk tugging at her lips as her eyes gleamed as well. Harry visibly gulped as he noticed the look in both of their eyes before he turned around to the group, blowing a whistle he had made appear.

"Alright, everyone! Marilyn and Marvol have agreed to a demonstration duel, so it would be appreciated if you could all move to the sidelines." He announced.

Katie, Cho, and Alicia instinctively covered their heads at the mention of Marilyn and Marvolo duelling, making Harry eye them in confusion. 

Soon, everyone was on the edges of the room, cheering on either Marilyn or Marvolo. Most of Marilyn's fellow Ravenclaws were rooting for her and she was somewhat surprised, considering she was about the opposite of social.

Marilyn and Marvolo moved to the centre of the room and bowed to each other before moving several paces back and taking their stances. Before any of the spectators even realized, they were off and had spells flying at each other left and right. Harry's eyes widened as he realized that this was what a real duel looked like. Many of the other students were looking between the twins in awe, never having seen a duel anything like theirs. 

Marilyn practically danced out of the way of the spells Marvolo continued to shoot at her, and none of them landed on her at all, not that any of hers landed on Marvolo either. They were both much too good and much too used to duelling each other. Plus, neither of them were actually trying their hardest, considering if they did, they would be using wandless and nonverbal magic, Marilyn's death magic, or at the very least, their parselmagic. Neither of them was fond of the idea of revealing just how much they were capable of. At least, not yet. 

After several minutes of their duelling, the spectating students began to realize that if they allowed the siblings to just continue to duel, they likely wouldn't be done for several days, let alone minutes. It was clear they were very well matched.

Harry finally decided they had seen enough as a collective and blew his whistle again, despite wanting to continue watching them. Marilyn and Marvolo ended their duel in an instant and turned to look at Harry. 

"That was bloody brilliant!" Ron exclaimed after a moment of stunned silence.

"Yeah, Marvol! I didn't know you could duel like that," Fred added from near Lee and George.

Marvolo only sent them a cocky grin in response while Marilyn smirked, eyes glittering in a way that only really happened when she was in a particularly good mood. So when she was teasing her brother, duelling, or using the magic that only she possessed. 

Even Hermione was looking between the pair of them, impressed.

"Where did you two learn to duel like that?" Harry asked curiously.

Marilyn and Marvolo glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes and shrugged simultaneously. 

"Here and there," they replied vaguely, in sync.

Harry seemed to accept this reluctantly, but he did and turned to the rest of the members of the DA.

"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, to the group as a collective"but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?" 

"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement. 

Angelina, however, said quickly, "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!" 

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "and we can decide on additional meetings then...Come on, we'd better get going..."

Marilyn hugged her brother goodnight before leaving the room with a glance at the map Harry was holding. Marvolo had been the one to figure out how to open it years ago when he, Fred, and George had found it in Filch's office and they had immediately removed their last name from above each of their dots before giving it to the Weasleys. She knew that if Harry bothered to look closely enough, he would be confused by it, but there was no way they were about to tell him their last name. 

That night as Marilyn sketched in her dormitory, she couldn't help but decide that the first official meeting of Dumbledore's Army had gone quite well.

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