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"... and that brings us to now," finished Harry.
For the last hour, Harry (with the occasional comment from Castor and Ron) had been explaining the situation with the Jedi, the Dark Jedi, the Sith and all the other main problems the quintet had been facing to Ginny, who was standing there with an evermore astounded look on her face.
When Harry finished, she asked the question Harry had almost been expecting.
"Can I become a Jedi?"
Castor groaned, and put his head in his hands.
"Another out-of-temple Jedi, Harry?" asked Kara, ruefully, her voice making it plain that she disapproved. "Have we not got enough on two?"
"At the very least we should test her," said Harry, privately wishing his friends weren't such sticklers for the rules. "Anyway, Castor, you don't mind breaking the rules!" he continued, realising that Castor was one of the advocates of this new system he was making up.
"It's not that," protested Castor, adopting a 'hurt' tone. "It's just that we can't keep finding Force Sensitive's and training them – there's only three of us, and you're busy training Ron!"
"Don't worry," said Harry, suddenly smiling craftily. "I have an idea. First let's check whether Ginny is actually Force Sensitive."
He closed his eyes, and let himself feel Ginny's presence in the Force. To his astonishment, her light burnt bright as a star, brighter than many he had sensed, surpassed only by Yoda, Mace Windu, Dumbledore, and Dooku.
"Well?" Ron asked. "Will I have to deal with another Jedi in my family, or won't I?"
"Oh, I think you will," Harry smiled. Ginny beamed at him, and Ron crossed his arms.
"This is becoming a bad habit," Castor groaned.
"Harry," Kara said shrewdly, "what is this great idea you had?"
--
"So, just to understand you," said Dumbledore, hands clasped together in front of his face, after Harry had explained his idea, "you want to A: find out whether any of the students has Force potential, and B: set up a 'Jedi Academy,' of sorts to train these individuals that are, and you want to do both of these things under the nose of the Jedi Council, who will ahve our heads on spikes if they find out?"
"That's pretty much it," said Harry, nodding his head with an intense expression of seriousness on his features. They were standing in the office, alone, and he hoped that Dumbledore was willing to give it a go. Dumbledore stared at him for a moment longer, and then he broke out a grin.
"Well, that might be interesting. We'll give it a go."
--
"A new extra curricular club has been started by myself," Dumbledore said the next morning, his voice serious but his eyes twinkling. "Only a select number of students can take part, since it requires a certain form of magical energy to join these classes. The following people have been identified as capable of it, in order they were identified. Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Castor Troy, Kara Vincennes, Harry Potter, Percival Weasley..."
At the mention of Harry's' name, the whole hall erupted into chatter. What sort of magical energy was it? Why could only certain people use it?
Dumbledore finished the list, and sat down. He looked for Harry, found him, and winked.
--
Several days later, they entered the Great Hall, where the lessons would take place. Harry, Castor and Kara had to come to these new lessons, if only to maintain appearances.
Dumbledore stood up at the head of the Hall, where he had his traditional Jedi robes on.
"I trust you all have the uniforms I had owled?" asked Dumbledore.
They did – the Hufflepuffs (of which there were roughly twelve) had mainly yellow robes, the Slytherins (of which there were about five) green, the Gryffindors (twenty) red and the Ravenclaws (nine) wore blue. Castor and Kara were somewhat irritated that they had to do the lessons, but Dumbledore's explanation had mollified them somewhat.
"Still think it's a bit insulting, having to do these lessons when we're full Knights now," said Castor, annoyed at this a great deal.
"We have to train a bit more," said Harry. "He only made us Knights because we'd faced Dark Jedi and survived – we still have much to learn."
"Yeah well..." grumbled Castor. "I really hope it's worth it."
Dumbledore, it seemed, was a quite good mass teacher. Within the space of thirty minutes, he had taught the class the basics of how to contact the Force, and basics of sword combat, using training lightsabre's. Harry, Castor and Kara used their own lightsabre's, of course, though no one knew they were their own.
Castor and Kara had both built new lightsabres. Castors was blue, like his old one, which he had missed so he'd built an exact replica. Kara had built a new sabre - in yellow - because she felt that it would help her accommodate to the new life she was building. She had been... homesick, was the word most people would have used, though she had only ever told Castor and Harry, and she felt that she needed to build a weapon that reflected the new life she lived.
Finally, Dumbledore ended the lesson.
"You are to each take one of these," Dumbleodre said, holding out a small metal device. "They are called Holocrons. Your homework will be to study them intently, and no, I'm not telling you how to use them. That's the first test."
He smiled.
"Class dismissed."
--
Dumbledore took Harry aside at the end of the lesson.
"Have you found an apprentice for Castor yet?" Harry asked, hoping that Dumbledore had. A Padawan learner would definitely help Castor get back on track, they both agreed - something for him to keep his mind on.
"Well," said Dumbledore, "I have, but I will bet you anything he'll be unpleasantly surprised."
"What about Ginny?"
"Well," Dumbledore said, "I think it best if she goes through the same process as the other ones who came here today - at least until the end of the year. Then we'll send Kara home with her, and she can train Miss Weasley slightly more."
"Sounds fair to me," Harry said. "And maybe she can help Ron as well. Who did you assign to Castor?"
--
"Hello, you must be Castor Troy, I'm Luna, nice to meet you."
Castor stared at the girl wit a mixture of horror, shock, and mild thoughtfulness.
"Let me guess," he said at last. "Dumbledore assigned you as my Padawan learner."
"That was the term he used, yes," replied the blonde girl, whose face betrayed only a mild interest in the boy who was her Jedi Master.
"Right, well, let's start with the obvious," said Castor. "You are a Jedi Knight, so you've got to memorise the code -"
"Done that."
"And tap into the living Force -"
"Done that."
"And build a lightsabre -"
"Dumbledore leant me a spare."
Castor shook his head, and smiled – almost.
"And you've got to," he said, solemnly, "most definitely..."
"What?"
"Stop interrupting your Jedi Master."
"Oh."
Castor looked at Harry, hopelessness showing on his face. Harry only shrugged and laughed. Luna Lovegood would be perfect to keep Castor on the straight and narrow - he'd be too busy trying to make sense of her to do anything mad.
He sighed. This would be a nice, quiet year.
--
And it was. Apart from Lockhart, the DADA teacher, being sacked for gross incompetence (something to do with nearly getting them all killed by Cornish Pixies), nothing much happened. The end of the year saw Harry and co. pass their tests with flying colours. Harry waved to Ron as the train sped away, bearing his friends with it. Castor had gone to stay with the Lovegoods, to make sure that Luna got all the training he could give her, and Kara had gone to stay with the Weasleys to make sure that Ron was alright and Ginny got the training she needed.
Harry was alone on the platform. He sighed - he would miss his friends, but perhaps they could meet up over the summer...
--
Two men.
One in black robes, one in cream. One with a red lightsabre, one with a green. One a servant of darkness, one of light. So similar they are, and yet so different. Seperated by a gulf as wide as the space between stars, yet close as two grains of sand on a beach.
They clash, again and again, their sabres spinning, they are warriors, Gods of war, their duel ripping the battlements they fight on to ribbons as they fight.
One final clash and -
Dumbledore shot up with a start.
Force Visions were rare for him, but he did have them every so often, and this one was the most disturbing he had ever had.
He laid his head down again. In darkness and in doubt, he would always be here for the students of Hogwarts. That, at least, was certain. And if not him, his old apprentice still lived, to carry the torch...
--