A/N: Not mine, the Harry Potter Universe as always belongs to J.K. Rowling and all the other affiliates.

Chapter Thirty-Six – The Club

Hermione Granger sat by the door in the Room of Requirement watching as her friend shot curse after curse at a stationary dummy. She'd never seen Harry like this before and it worried her. They'd been in the room for hours now and Harry had not relented in his spell fire. He hadn't said a word the whole time and Hermione was wary to interrupt him. The fact of the matter was she was scared of him.

Hermione jumped slightly as a really powerful blasting curse tore apart the dummy. She was rather surprised that the wall behind it was still intact actually. She could feel the power of it from where she sat several yards away. Harry seemed to slump after that one and Hermione took the opportunity to interrupt before he started again.

"Harry," she said hesitantly. "Its way past curfew, we should go before we're caught out of bounds."

Harry looked over at his friend and then nodded. "Go ahead; I'm staying a while longer."

"But, Harry…" Hermione shook her head and sighed, "All right, just don't get caught."

"I won't, I've got the cloak," Harry said quietly and then he turned back to the dummy that had righted itself at Harry's request.

Hermione looked at her friend in concern for a few moments more, but then left the room. Harry slumped down to the floor as soon as she was gone and put his head in his hands. He'd been waiting for her to leave for quite some time now, but she was too worried about him to leave him alone.

He didn't blame her; he had barely said a word since he had found out about Remus. He was honestly surprised Severus and Sirius hadn't dragged him out of the room yet, or stopped him from storming out of the Hall at all.

After a few moments he got back to his feet and instead of aiming his wand he lifted his right hand and aimed it at the dummy. He thought about Voldemort and how much he wanted to hurt him at that very moment. A beam of crimson light erupted from his palm and the dummy exploded in a ball of fire.

Harry stared at the spot the dummy had been and then suddenly sway from exhaustion. He collapsed to the ground, unconscious before he could even require a soft surface to land on.

--

Hermione made to walked out of Defense class, hoping not to get called to stay. She was a bit sore at Harry's lack of appearance for the entire day. He wasn't at breakfast and she could only assume that he'd gone to his own classes. But he hadn't been at lunch either and by the look on Snape's face during class, he hadn't attended his Defense class, which was right before the fifth years'.

"Miss Granger," Snape said lightly and she stopped in her tracks, wincing slightly as she turned around.

"Yes, Professor?" asked Hermione somewhat nervously.

Snape stalked towards her menacingly. "Harry isn't sick, he's not injured," he stated as he stopped in front of her. "Professor McGonagall informed me that he wasn't in her class, nor was he in Charms. He wasn't at breakfast, or at lunch, and I suspect that he won't be at dinner. Where is he?"

"I…" Hermione began. "I have no idea. I left him in the Room of Requirement late last night and he's not there now and I haven't seen him since," she said in one breath.

"He's been missing the entire day, and you've said nothing?" Snape said dangerously and Hermione took a step back, now looking rather guilty, she knew she should have mentioned something earlier.

"He was really upset yesterday. He spent most of the night blowing up things in the Room of Requirement. I thought maybe he just needed space. I was going to say something if he wasn't at dinner," Hermione placated.

"Indeed, and we better hope that he is there," Snape said with a tired sigh and motioned for Hermione to go. Hermione practically ran out of the Defense classroom.

She bit her lip as she entered the Great Hall for dinner and noticed the lack of her friend. She debated for a moment sitting with Ron, but then decided just to sit at the end of the table in case Harry finally showed up. She really hoped he showed up.

--

Severus was on his way to Sirius office to inform him of Harry's disappearance, when he heard a scuffling noise through the ajar office door. Wand drawn he barged into Sirius' office only to be met with a sight he hadn't expected to see.

Remus was sitting shakily on Sirius' floor, obviously just having come through the fireplace and Sirius was kneeling down next to him, trying to get the bruised and bloody man to talk. Severus moved over to Remus' side right away.

"My God, Lupin, how did you get away?" Severus asked once it was apparent the man had relaxed enough to communicate.

"I have no idea. It was pure luck, it had to be. He was standing over me with a wand pointed at my heart and the next thing I knew he was screaming and clutching his head. The Death Eaters moved to help their lord and I was able to slip away. It took me a while to get out of the manor though. I was nearly caught a couple of times," Remus said with a dazed look and then he focused on Severus. "I got snatches of conversation, something about Harry hurting Voldemort, but that's impossible, right?"

Severus looked between Remus and Sirius. "Harry's not been in any of his classes today, or at meals."

--

Harry slid silently into a seat next to Hermione and started to pull food towards him without saying anything or looking at her. "Harry, where have you been?" Hermione asked quietly. "Professor Snape asked where you were, why didn't you go to your classes today?"

Harry didn't answer, just stared at the table and would have continued if Hermione hadn't grabbed his arm. Harry hissed in pain and pulled his arm away. Hermione abruptly let go and stared at Harry with fear in her eyes.

"Harry, please tell me you haven't started again," Hermione whispered.

Harry stood up from the table and looked away from Hermione. "I haven't started again," he said and then walked out of the hall.

Hermione stared after him for a moment and then hurriedly followed after him. "Harry, Harry, please wait," she said as soon as she caught up with him. Harry slowed marginally but continued walking until they arrived at the Room of Requirement. "What happened? I mean I know you're upset about Remus, but…"

"I hurt Voldemort," Harry said quietly as soon as they were in the room.

Hermione stopped. "What?"

Harry turned around to face his friend. "After you left last night, all I could think about was how much I wanted to hurt him for taking Remus. I lifted my hand," Harry lifted his hand shakily as he said this. "And then a beam of magic shot at the dummy and it burst into flames. I collapsed after that, but when I woke up, I wasn't awake." Harry lowered his hand and leaned against the wall. "I was seeing through his eyes. He was standing over Remus, ready to kill him. I couldn't allow that, so I thought about how much I wanted to hurt him, how much I wanted to kill him and…"

"And what, Harry," Hermione asked shakily.

Harry looked up at her. "He sounded human as he screamed; I've never heard him sound human before, sound like a normal person…" Harry looked away from Hermione. "I should hate him. He's a monster; I know that, but…"

"He's human," Hermione whispered in understanding.

"I felt sick after I'd hurt him, there was an old piece of glass probably a piece of mirror, on the floor in the bathroom, I don't even remember picking it up," Harry said as he showed Hermione his bandaged wrist.

Hermione slowly unwrapped his arm to reveal several deep slash marks, just starting to clot. "Oh, Harry," Hermione whispered as she cringed lightly. "These are deep; we should get you to Madam Pomfrey, if not her, Professor Snape."

Harry shook his head and wrapped the bloodied bandage back around his wrist. "People are going to be arriving to the club soon; I'll go to Severus afterwards."

"Harry, we can reschedule the club meeting. Everyone will understand if you don't want to hold it tonight."

"No, the clubs important, it's not just about extra study and if I'm not here tonight, they're not going to get that," Harry said firmly.

Hermione sighed and relented. "All right, but directly after we're going to Professor Snape. And we should think about adding Healing to our curriculum."

Harry smiled slightly. "That's a good idea; see this is why I need your help."

Hermione smiled back. "Well, how big do you think we should require the room to be?" Hermione asked as she looked around the common room sized room that it was currently.

"At least the size of the Great Hall," Harry said seriously.

"Do you really think that many people will come?" Hermione asked with wide eyes.

"Maybe not tonight, but once word gets around, definitely," Harry said and then walked towards the door. "Come on, they'll be starting to arrive by now."

Harry wasn't wrong, as soon as they stepped out of the room; they saw the first few students arriving. Harry decided to wait outside until the last of the students arrived so they could all see how the room worked. Harry was surprised at the numbers. The Hall was quickly filling up with students from every house and year, word had spread fast it seemed.

As soon as it looked like that was all of them, Harry spoke up. "Thanks for coming. Give me a moment to open up the room and then we can all get out of the hallway," Harry said with a chuckle. Everyone but Hermione watched with curiosity as Harry walked past the spot in the wall that the door would appear, three times. Each time thinking about exactly what he would need the room to become. Finally after the third pass, a large door with a gold doorknob appeared before them.

Harry slowly opened the door and stepped into the new room. He was followed quickly afterwards by everyone else who gaped as they walked through the door and quickly got out of the way as not to hold up traffic. Harry himself was looking around in awe. This was more than he had expected. Hogwarts certainly knew what they needed.

There were tables off to one side with an entire area just for potion brewing, little alcoves to sit and study and do homework, bookshelves upon bookshelves of books with every book in the curriculum of Hogwarts and then some. There were places to duel, places to practice Defensive magic, areas to practice Charms and Transfigurations. It was a study hall from heaven. There was even a night sky over their heads for Astronomy.

"Harry, this is more than perfect," Hermione said from his side and Harry nodded his head in agreement and then noticing a large area with a podium in front of rows and rows of cushions, Harry figured that was where he was meant to speak from.

"Well," Harry said as he went to the podium. "I guess take a seat and I'll tell you all what I have in mind for this study club." Harry waited while everyone got comfortable and he was glad to see that even Ron had come. He still wished his friend would talk to him, but he wouldn't push him, he'd come around eventually.

"First off, thank you, Neville, for giving the fifth years the idea to come to me for extra help, which ultimately spurred this whole idea," Harry said with a chuckle while Neville blushed where he sat next to Dean and Lavender.

"Let me explain this room first, because I'm sure you're all rather curious where I came across a room the size of the Great Hall. This is the Room of Requirement or as the House Elves call it, The Come and Go Room. Many of you have probably heard rumors about it or even stumbled across it at some point. It can be, as far as I know, anything you want or need it to be. I think it may have out done itself this time," Harry laughed and others followed suite, still looking around the room with interest and awe.

"Now to The Club; I've decided instead of haggling over a name for it, to just call it that, and then if someone overhears you talking about it, mainly the Professors, it'll appear as if you're talking about any school club or organization. I think we should keep this a secret for now, not because we'd get in trouble for having The Club, as it is perfectly within the rules to have a student run study club. But because I know the professors pretty well and I want to be able to savor the looks on their faces when all of you start showing such improvement that even Severus Snape will be amazed. Because that is what this club is all about; learning and improving ourselves as Witches and Wizards."

A hand shot into the air, it was a male Ravenclaw seventh year that Harry had seen around, but didn't know. Harry nodded. "I get what you're saying, and it will certainly give us all better test results, but are we only going to be learning what the professors are already teaching us?"

Harry shook his head. "Actually what we learn is up to all of you. I expect we'll improve upon what we struggle with, but this club is also to give us a chance to learn what the school won't teach us, or is lacking in. Hermione Granger suggested just before you all arrived, for us to learn Healing, something that we don't have a class for until NEWT level. I personally think that with a bit of hard work, even a first year can learn how to fix cuts and bruises or even mend a broken nose."

"Will we be learning anything that you've been taught as Professor Snape's apprentice?" Justin Finch-Fletchley asked.

Harry nodded. "Some of the things I've learned, I will keep to myself, as its well into Mastery level and he's asked me to keep it to myself, and it is very difficult, believe me, I struggle with it. But some shortcuts to make brewing easier, defensive spells that are not normally taught, even in Professor Blacks Dueling class, and a few other things here and there, as I think about them, I'll teach anyone who thinks they can do it.

"That brings me to another matter, if you think you can teach a subject, something you are sure you know better than others, don't hesitated to teach it. My goal is to have first and second years doing third and fourth year spells and potions work before the end of the year, and to have everyone have a strong grasp with Defense Against the Dark Arts. I think that is one of the most important things about this club, especially now.

"We may be students, children, and the Professors may be trying to keep us as such, but there is a war in the Wizarding World and it's right on our doorstep. The better we are at defending ourselves and our families, the better off we're going to be. And even if by some miracle this war ends tomorrow, at least we'll all be prepared for what lies ahead of us in our uncertain futures and we'll be the brightest Witches and Wizards of our age."

Applause rocketed the room and Hermione gave Harry a bright smile. Harry blushed, he hadn't intended to make a speech, but there it was. The applause died down and Harry continued onto the more practical aspects of the club, times to meet.

"I know we are all, as individuals, busy with our own projects and clubs and such. I know I and several of you have Quidditch to worry about coming up as well, so I was going to leave it up to you to decide when we should meet during the week. I think that if we're serious about this, it should be more than just once a week."

Cho Chang raised her hand. "I have an idea." Harry nodded for her to go on and smiled at the Witch he had once, a long time ago had a crush on, but was happy that she was still with Cedric Diggory. "I think if we leave the room open for whenever we want to come to it, then we can meet whenever anyone has time. We can have those who want to teach, set up times for that on a signup sheet and that way we can make sure the groups don't get too big or overwhelming. We can treat this room as a general common room, but specifically for learning and study. That way we can leave our own common rooms for fun and relaxation."

"That's a wonderful idea," Hermione exclaimed. "I don't know why the professors haven't thought of making a place like this before. I can't tell you all how many times I've wanted to perfect making a potion, or casting a spell, but have always had to go to the professor to ask to use the space to do so. And of course that in itself can be a pretty daunting task," Hermione said and then blushed at her rant, but many others were nodding in strong agreement.

"So it's settled then? We open the room for any time, schedule small classes, and work around our own schedules while working together for everything else. I can't believe how well this is going to work out," Harry said to himself and everyone chuckled.

Harry looked down at his watch. "Wow, the time certainly has flown, it's nearly curfew. To keep this as low key as possible, from the professors at any rate, may I suggest that we adhere to the school rules and not be caught out of bounds? We should also make sure we're not seen entering or leaving the room, and area in large groups. Professor Snape, Professor Black and, and… and Professor Lupin," Harry said heavily. "All know about the Room of Requirement, so it won't be hard for them to figure out what's going on. I'd like, for my own amusement to keep them in the dark as long possible. And believe me, I need some amusement in my life," Harry said with a sad chuckle. The others laughed half-heartedly as well, many of them looking at Harry with sympathy.

"Well, I'll post a signup sheet for those of you who have something you'd like to teach and I'll hang it up tomorrow here in the room. Oh and lets call this the Study Hall, so you'll all be able to get back in once the door vanishes. All you have to do is walk across the stretch of wall where the door is now, three times, and think about the Study Hall and the door will appear. The room seems to have a great memory once it's been created so it should always appear, that is unless you suddenly really have the need for a bathroom or a broom closet." Harry laughed. "I'll see you all around."

Harry stepped down from the podium as everyone started to leave in pares or individually. Harry was glad they were all taking the secrecy of the club seriously. Finally it was just Hermione and Harry left. Hermione looked around the hall and then turned back to Harry.

"This is going to be the best thing that has ever happened for Hogwarts and I hope it lasts even after we graduate. How did you come up with all of this anyways, Neville's study session couldn't have given you the idea for all of it?" she asked.

"Actually, you gave me the idea," Harry said and Hermione looked at him odd. Harry threw an arm around her shoulders as they left the room. "You're always trying to learn something new and trying to perfect what you've learned. I thought, wouldn't it be nice if we all helped each other to do the same. And did you see, no one mentioned house rivalries or anything. I think I even saw a couple Gryffindors and Slytherins sitting next to each other, that's unprecedented," Harry chuckled.

Hermione suddenly sighed and her shoulders drooped a bit. "What is it, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"I hate to say this, but I think it's true. I think your death is what really brought us together as a school," Hermione said sadly. "You died in front of all of us and suddenly it no longer mattered what house we were in. We were all kids, helpless to do anything but watch and…"

Harry hugged his friend closer as she suddenly broke down. He'd been expecting this sooner. He was frankly amazed she'd lasted this long, he wouldn't have had he been given the chance to let it really sink in after he'd seen her and Ron die. "It's all right, Hermione, I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere, I promise and I keep my promises," Harry said resolutely, kissing the top of Hermione's head as he held her in his arms tightly.

--

A/N: Sorry it's taken so long. I have no excuses.