It took a great deal of self-restraint to keep himself from muttering "with pleasure." Michael knew he had been the one to first propose that a small number of them - and how those numbers were growing, he noted with faint surprise - had been plotting outside of the rest of the DA's knowledge; he was still uncomfortable with the thought that Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown, among others, seemed to think he was leading a suicidal counter-attack. But facts were fact. The DA had been disbanded, as far as he was concerned. He was relieved that they were back on track, but it wasn't as if he and Ginny, or even Neville for that matter, had decided to start swapping ideas the moment Harry had made his announcement the day before.
Clearing his throat, he opted to stay sitting. "I hate to point out the obvious, but Hogwarts isn't safe anymore. Hasn't been since Dumbledore was killed, actually. For the most part, I believe it took quite a bit of courage for any of us to even come back, especially those here tonight." He cleared his throat again. It had suddenly gone dry. He couldn't remember ever having a whole room of people listening to him...
"Ginny and I don't see any reason to pretend that the DA doesn't exist. We certainly didn't make a huge effort to hide it when it was first formed, although today things are much different. If anything, we need all the help we can now, and increasing our presence would help the moral within Hogwarts. Right now students are terrified; others probably want to find a way to fight back. Are we really just going to sit back and waste more time?"
Michael glanced sidelong at Ginny, and then looked to Padma and Anthony for reassurance. His breath was coming fast and he was nervous as hell, his words tumbling out at a rapid-fire pace. "At the moment, we're thinking of a bit of... harmless graffiti, where it counts, where everyone can see it - on the castle walls. No one would go out on a limb and not one member would be targeted specifically. A few of us volunteer; we plot the best routes leading out of the castle, and sneak out at night. Anthony offered to provide schedules of the other prefects on duty, and we work around that to avoid the nights Slytherins are on duty."
"Of course, it's still in the works, but definitely worth bringing to the table, don't you think?"