Chapter 36 final preperations

Much as Ron wanted to go to the clubhouse, he decided that they had too much homework, too much planning to go at the moment. That comment earned a nod of approval from Hermione and a glowing smile as she went to fetch some more light for the darkening table.

Ron jerked a quill at her gave an eye roll to Harry. "You would have thought I said she looked pretty or something."

"Face it Ron, she's made of homework. You might as well have said asignments were worth doing." Harry told him under his breath.

As soon as they had time to do it, they began to work out just how to get to the tomb and of course how to get in it when they got there. This was made difficult due to the country it was in. Their laws were far more strict on being seen doing magic.

Hermione found a book called worldly travels, traveler's peril that told of laws allowing wizards to put anti hovering enchantments for miles around their homes; effectively stopping any broom use.

Without the use of brooms, they had to go on foot which meant they would be running the four miles to the location. "I think it's a good idea if you four join Harry and I in our endurance training" Ron told them with complete seriousness.

That comment was met with less than happy replies. "I'll do what it takes," Neville told them as he stood, "I just wish we could hurry this up."

Ron went into detail on this, giving Hermione a chance to slip a quick word to Harry without Neville overhearing. "Harry, people died while this author experimented on how to make this formula work."

Harry looked at Neville out of the corner of his eye and motioned for her to continue. If death was involved it would explain why the book required a permit and Harry wanted to know all the good and bad of this endever they were taking on,

"I thought it was suspicious that the book was so unheard of, so taboo, so I looked into it and found a score of books that mentioned his questionable methods." Even with him clearly keeping watch, she looked over her should before finishing. "I'm not sure about how ethical this will be, so I am having a lot of doubts. Think about this and we will get together on it when we have more time."

Harry did do a lot of thinking on the morality of using this book; mostly on his own feelings of how he was involved in the use of the book. It was not just a question of how the book was used and whether or not he could be implicated if the law was involved; it was clear that Neville was going to use it and if he knew about the potion, then he knew about how the man who created it had worked.

The more Harry thought about it, the more he wanted to know just how the people died and how sinisterly the trials for his cure, doubtlessly for someone the author cared about, were.

After a week of wondering, Harry asked for the books from Hermione and spent a few hours each night reviewing the subject and trying to decide what to do; none of which he was going to tell Neville until he had the question of his morality answered.

None of the group complained too much about the training, they did not Run at the same time as Ron and Harry due to the different sceduals they had, but ran with Ginny, who took control while the boys were away.

On class free days they worked together and it was during one of these runs that they went to see the hidden clubhouse.

They arrived in the early morning, the sun barely up and dew thick in the grass causing their shoes and pants to be damp as they puffed clouds of vapor in the long shadows of the trees. The tree from the map was wide and tall, but no more so than the surrounding trees; defiantly not wide enough to have room for a clubhouse inside.

Ron unfolded the map and drew his reed wand from a pocket on his backpack. "Give me a second here guys."

Every one stepped back out from under the canapy; this was Ron's quest so they left him to it, but Ginny was itching to point to the door and could not wipe the smile off her face.

Ron made a slow movement with the wand like it was a bow on a violin and swung it in a wide circle, wand pointed down. Twigs and cast off leaves stirred and twisted about each other in the spot where Ron's wand was pointing and soon they gathered to form a small stickman with a cane and a top hat made of a leaf.

Ron bowed slightly to the little man and asked it a question as he held the bow. "Will you show me the closest forest secret? In return I will let the enchantment linger and moisten the roots of your birth tree."

The stickman returned the bow and walked between a pair of roots, stuck his cane into the earth and hung his hat on it. That done, the little man walked towards a different tree and never looked back.

Ron stowed the wand back in its pocket and stepped up to the spot where the cane and hat were still stuck in the ground and reached towards a knot on one of the roots.

"What about your promise to that twig fellow?" Hermione had crept forward after the creation walked off.

Ron rolled his eyes with his hand still on the knot that looked like a warped door knob. "It's a bunch of charmed twigs Hermione, I won't hurt its feelings."

Her foot landed squarely on what must be a hatch into the clubhouse. Hermione gave Ron a look that clearly said water those roots and crossed her arms.

Ron gave her a losing my patience smile, pulled his wand back out and formed a little rain cloud over the roots.

Ginny looked to where the stickman had disappeared. "Was he one of Bills?"

"Percy actually." He pulled the door up and saw a fireman's pole that was climbing out of the hole. "I have wanted to see this for seven years." He looked around at the gathered friends and family and smiled; he thought this was going to be bitter sweet, but it just felt good. Freddie. "Let's go take a look."

There was only one room, strewn with pictures and fliers from long ago quidich matches. All the tables folded up into the walls, which were made of thick solid oak and the benches folded down into the floor to make a sort of one couple dance floor. The roof sloped up to a central hole that had to run all the way up to the top of the tree this room was stationed under. The room was small; so much so that they would be bunched together if they all stood.

Ginny pointed towards the roofs center hole. "I climbed up there in third year; took me half an hour just to reach the lowest rung.

Ron pulled a book from a cubby hole and opened it to the middle as he read the title to the others. "Join the club." After a few turns he found three of his brothers names and Ginny's; they were the last names in the book aside from one Curtis Peagill.

There were stamps beside some of the names: a duck, a star, an eye, and many more, but next to a few was a phoenix. No one doubted what that meant. Fred's name held an ornate H next to his which they turned to the directory to see its meaning: highest honor a student can earn.

At the end of the directory was a statement from the author: I was not the first to find this place. The names of the creator and first finders of this most excilent establishment are carved into the wall of the lookout tunnel above you. I believe there will be many visitors and it would be a shame to decorate these fine walls with scratched out names. Albus Dumbledor.

Harry grinned at that; Dumbledor used his crafty brain to find a spot to goof off. Not exactly headmaster material. Perhaps it was this very thing that allowed him to relate to all the witches and wizards that passed thru Hogwarts.

Luna's voice drifted down from the tree. "You can see right into the girls shower from here. Just kidding Ronald."

Ron gave a sheepish grin to Hermione from the spot he had moved to directly below the lowest rung.