"Hello Dudley, how have you been since we last spoke?" Rowena asked from her normal chair overlooking the grounds.
"We did it. The Diadem has been found and we're ready to begin the purification and eradication of the soul shard."
"Very good, though I suspect you have more questions. Ask and I will answer."
"My brother Harry claims to have found and destroyed something that strongly resembled the Diadem; he found it in Slytherin's Chamber, specifically in his office down there. He constructed a sword using it."
"I always suspected Salazar had stolen it, but with how unstable the climate at the time was, I figured it better to start from scratch. You see my initial idea for the Diadem was for it to be used in combat, more specifically the strategical side of it. I do believe that if he managed to successfully reshape it, your brother must be one powerful wizard."
"So it's not the fabled Diadem?"
"No. The true Diadem is with you, the purification process won't be easy without the one who placed his soul within it voluntarily removing it. But as with almost all things magical, there exists a ritual to help you along."
/_-_^_^_-_/
A week before Halloween, Elias was in a Care of Magical Creatures lesson working alongside Derek. This would be their introduction to a creature known as a Fire Salamander, something he instantly had an affinity with.
While everyone around him was scared of being burned by the salamanders, Elias was acting as if he was dealing with something as mundane as a cat. One of his classmates, Lawrence Higgs, the younger brother of the Seeker before Harry joined the team, wasn't happy about just how calm Elias was in his handling of the creatures and so, as he was walking around, he pushed Elias once he had gotten behind him and the small lad tumbled over directly beside the salamander, which turned hostile at the sudden perceived attack.
Elias could see the fire coming for him, and as he opened his mouth to scream, he noticed that he was enveloped in the fire but wasn't getting burned. In a moment of astonishment he stood up, locking eyes with Lawrence, and everyone took a step back. So long did it take for people to return to their senses that the Salamanders were getting close to extinguishing and dying, so naturally sought out the closest source of fire. For an unknown amount of time the class just stared at him, some in awe and others in terror. It wasn't until he let the fire dissipate that the class returned to their senses, with Professor Hagrid awarding him twenty points for his courage and quick thinking.
All in all, when Elias told his friends and brothers about this they were in disbelief, with Derek having to back up his claims.
"So… are you an Elemental?" Hermione asked, curious about this new magical development.
"I don't know myself, I can feel the fire under my skin as if it's meant to be there."
"Elias, do any of your family hail from France?" Blaise asked.
"Yeah, all of it as far as I know, why?"
"I think you're descended from the Echani, Harpy-Human hybrids believed to be the natural inheritors of the power over fire. Hey, at least you won't have to be bound by the same oaths that Harry and I are bound by. If magic itself summons us, we must obey the call as we are the last line of defence against the unknown." Blaise added.
"That's not at all ominous is it?" Neville joked resulting in laughter from all of his friends.
"You can always swear the oath yourself, though that would require you to begin mastering one of the elements."
"I think I'll pass, I've seen how destructive Earth magic is, I don't think the greenhouses will ever recover fully."
"It doesn't have to be destructive," Blaise responded, closing his eyes and placing his hand on the ground. A few seconds later, Lilies, Petunias, and Hawthorn flowers began to rise from the ground around them, shocking Neville and the rest into silence.
"That's beautiful," Hermione whispered, a sentiment shared by the rest of the group.
"Let's get back to studying, we have a Hogsmeade visit soon and I don't intend to be kept back at the school due to incomplete homework," Daphne said to the group, stopping to peck Harry on the cheek as they began their work.
/_^_^_/
On the twenty-eighth of October, the third years and above were heading down to the Village of Hogwarts, this coming as a much-needed break from their O.W.L's for the fifth years. Everyone was there, everyone that is, except Harry Potter, who had managed to oversleep.
He got up and got dressed before running as fast as possible towards the Entrance Hall. It wasn't until he fell over on the stairs that he decided that flying would be a better idea and so he lifted himself into the air and zoomed up the stairs, only landing at the door so as to not crash into it. Standing by the door was the caretaker Argus Filch, checking for permission to visit the village.
"Good morning, Mr Filch, I hope you're doing alright," Harry greeted him cheerfully, startling the old man.
"Good Morning, Mr Potter. My day would be a lot better with a chair. Honestly, they expect me to stand here all day," the grumpy caretaker complained, though he did smile faintly at Harry, who waved his hand and a chair materialised out of nowhere, or more accurately from Chair Mountain.
"You shouldn't be made to stand on your feet all day, that's just awful."
Filch was shocked at the act of kindness, and also slightly resentful.
"Thank you, I can finally rest my legs."
"Do you want to see something cool?" Harry asked him, earning a bemused look.
"Okay?" Filch responded, not used to actually talking to a student.
Once Harry had gotten his affirmation he resumed his flying and flew towards Hogsmeade, amazing the caretaker who picked up Mrs Norris and talked to her about how strange Harry was.
Activating his ring, Harry told his friends to look up for him as he neared them. Suddenly he was met by Dudley in his Thunderbird form as he guided Harry to their friends.
"Sleeping Beauty finally graces us with his presence," Daphne joked as he landed next to her, flashing her a mischievous smile.
"So.. what's the plan?" Harry asked the group, with Hermione being the one to answer.
"We're starting off at the Hog's Head."
"Why would we go there? That place is a dump."
"We might have floated around the idea of a defence club led by you and there may be a group of people waiting to discuss it with us."
"What! Why on earth would you do that?" Harry shouted back.
"You said you would think about it, and so we decided to ask around to see if there would be any interest," Draco jumped in to explain.
"How many people will be there?"
"I can't imagine it being more than thirty people," Hermione answered unconvincingly.
When they reached the dinghy pub, there was a very large crowd waiting for them, something that left Harry unimpressed.
"Only fifty people you say?"
/_^_^_-/
"Right, so you have all been led here with the idea that I would instruct you all in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, I wasn't informed of this and I don't think I'm even suited to begin such a thing," Harry greeted the large assembly of students, trying to manage their expectations.
"Your performance in the Tri-Wizard Tournament disproves your point," one student protested.
"Yeah, you entered the maze completely blind and still managed to fight your way through it," another added.
"You've been able to cast a Patronus since your first year," Dudley tacked on, earning a glare from Harry.
"I didn't know you could do that," Seamus Finnegan interjected.
"Elias is also able to conjure a Patronus. Why don't you ask him to teach you," Harry rebuked.
"Can he also fly?"
"Well no, but-"
"That's something you could teach us then," a Gryffindor named Cormac shouted out.
"No, I can't do that. Look, it's all fine and well meeting up and treating this like an extracurricular activity, but the real world is nothing like that. When you make a mistake out there it can get you killed; marching into a war without planning will get your side wiped out. This isn't a game, and if you're all going to treat it like one, then you can leave this room."
"Does that mean you'll teach us?"
"Most of us will take this seriously. Unfortunately, some of us won't have that level of maturity," A fourth-year Ravenclaw spoke up, pointedly staring at Cormac.
"Maybe we can get you all to write your names down and go from there," Harry conceded, the earnest faces of his audience breaking through his arguments.
"I have a piece of parchment right here," Hermione interjected before pulling said parchment out. It took quite some time, but everyone who was still interested wrote their names down and departed the pub.
"We have nearly eighty people who are interested in joining the club," Daphne called out after counting the names. "Clearly not everyone is interested in joining the group."
"I can't believe you all went behind my back to peer pressure me into doing something that I don't want to do." Harry turned and left, not saying anything else to them. He walked away and made for the castle, ignoring the shops and his friends calling his name.
"Harry, mate, we just thought-" Ron began, having caught up to Harry, but he was in no mood to listen to the redhead. He rose into the air and flew off as fast as he could, away from Hogwarts. The last voices he heard were all shouting for him.
/_^_^_-/
"Don't worry, Petunia, I'll get the door." Sirius rose after hearing the doorbell going off. The second he opened the door he was grabbed into a hug and could hear the sound of crying.
"Harry, what's wrong? Who hurt you, I'll get them," Sirius asked him, only getting a shake of Harry's head saying no. Sirius closed the door and guided Harry over to the living room, leading him over to his favourite seat. Twenty minutes of calming the boy down later they had finally stopped him crying for the first time in the hour since he left his friends.
"Will you tell us what's wrong now?" Petunia asked him, scared of how distraught her son was when he showed up.
Now that he had calmed down fully Harry began to feel silly.
"I'm sorry, it's nothing. I'll just go," Harry rose to leave, but Sirius was faster.
"You'll do no such thing, if someone has hurt you, then please tell us."
"It doesn't mat-"
"It does matter to me. Please, Harry, you showed up here in a right state."
"My friends want me to start a defence club, and I didn't want to do so. In response to my reluctance, they gathered over a hundred students to peer pressure me into agreeing with them and now I feel betrayed. As I said, it's nothing really."
"It's not nothing, Harry. Nobody wants to be forced into doing something," Petunia told Harry after pulling him into a hug.
"Your friends should respect your decisions and not try to coerce you into something."
"I'm sorry, it all got too much. I've never run away from my problems before… I'm pathetic."
"You are Harry Potter and you're my son. No son of mine is pathetic. I'm serious."
"I don't need an introduction," Harry joked quietly, which took Sirius a moment to get.
"Even more proof that you're now my son, you're stealing my jokes."
"We all get overwhelmed sometimes, you can stay here for the night. Sirius and I will talk it over with the school so you don't get in trouble."
"Okay, thanks. Flying here was rather exhausting." Harry smiled and walked to his room to get changed into his pyjamas and go to sleep. When he finally entered the land of sleep he met a strange woman with red hair and brown eyes, who greeted him as an old friend.
/_-_^_^_-_/
"What have we done?" Hermione questioned as they watched Harry fly away.
"I think he finally had enough of the pressure of being The Harry Potter," Blaise answered, getting nods from the rest of them.
"You should go after him, try to get him to come back so we can apologise," Elias suggested to Dudley who looked back at him sadly.
"He wouldn't want that, I think we need to let him do what he needs to do," he answered with a sad look on his face.
"He will be back on Monday, it is Halloween after all," Luna added, surprising most of the Vipers who hadn't noticed her arrival.
"The ritual," Blaise whispered. "How do you know about that?"
"Ritual? Is that what he calls his chats with Helena?" Luna inquired, her expression paradoxically knowing.
"Forget about it."
"I already have. Does anyone want to go foraging with me? There are a lot of potion ingredients waiting to be picked," she added at the blank look on Draco's face.
"I'll help you," Elias offered, always up for getting muddy.
"I've never foraged before, I prefer to cultivate my own plants."
"Come on Nev' it'll be fun," Elias whined, wanting more people to go with them.
"I'll go," Daphne said, shocking all of those present.
"Count me out, I have no intention of ruining my clothes," Draco responded bluntly, to which Elias blew a raspberry at him and said that he was no fun.
After some further debating, Elias, Luna, Daphne, Neville, and Theo all agreed to go searching for interesting fungus and herbs, entering a wooded area, the opposite side of the village from Hogwarts.
Elias summoned his Patronus to help illuminate their environment, as well as casting Lumos with the rest of the group.
"You're Harry's friends right?" A male voice was heard from the darkness, stepping forward to reveal a man who looked like an older version of Professor Gaunt.
"So what if we are? If you want to hurt him we won't let you," Daphne threatened the new arrival, her wand already aimed at him.
"I'm not here to hurt you, or him, we're friends of a sort."
"What do you want to talk to him about?"
"The Horcrux inside his head, it's growing and taking a greater hold over him. I've scanned his mind and it is beginning to resemble the evil original version of myself. It's remaining dormant, but could soon flip the scales and leave his mind functionally the same as Voldemort's.
"If this is true, why haven't you told him about this sooner?" Dudley shot back, his wand also aimed at Tom.
"I was a fool, I thought we would have until next summer. We don't even have until Halloween," he finished.
"What can we do? Is Professor Gaunt responsible for it?"
"Professor Gaunt! Please tell me that the twisted mid-point between me and the truly reprehensible side of myself isn't teaching here?"
"Yeah… he's the defence teacher."
"There's only one thing left to do, I need one of you to retrieve Harry while I send a challenge to the Professor," he said that last word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Neville questioned, finding his voice for the first time since the man had shown up.
"He's not lying," Luna told them dreamily, her inflection the same as if she had found an interesting fungus.
"Somehow I can feel it as well," Dudley added, seemingly unsure. "I'm contacting Harry."
He tapped the ring that had sat on his hand since first year and for the first time ever, Harry wasn't just not answering, he simply wasn't contactable.
"Looks like I'm flying after him after all."