The next morning Harry was "waking up" to head to Hogwarts, the Horcrux within him finally returned to Tom, who looked even younger now, and Harry could finally keep his mind free of all outside influences. He stepped out of Professor Dumbledore's fireplace and began to head to the Slytherin common room, only to be stopped by the Headmaster.
"Harry my boy, promise me that you won't do something like this again. Voldemort could have gotten to you while you were away and there would have been nothing I could have done."
"Yes, I left because I was emotional; but I have come back with a clear view of the path ahead. I will do what you asked of me at the start of the year, I've had some preoccupations before now; but I am ready to find out his plan."
"I'm happy to hear you are well. Professor McGonagall is demanding I banish Professor Gaunt from the school grounds, but you know I cannot do that."
"If you were to do that, it could very well send him over the line; we must be patient. Dawn will break on the day of days and the morning will come for a new world."
"That is a lovely sentiment, Harry. A man much wiser than I once said that hope is something we give ourselves in the darkest times," Dumbledore replied, his grandfatherly smile and eye twinkle in full effect.
"I'm going to head back to my room, Professor. My friends will be waiting for me."
"Of course, my boy," he answered as Harry went over and gave Fawkes some attention, giving him a nice scratch under his chin.
As Harry made his way through Hogwarts, it felt even more like home, as if he could finally appreciate it properly for the first time.
He bid good morning to all of the friendlier portraits on the way, he even helped a pair of second years who had ended up getting magically stuck to a wall, a prank they explained before they rushed off to get revenge with a prank of their own. When he finally made it to the common room, it was in a very jubilant mood, greeting people he normally wouldn't on his way to his friends.
He searched the common room, as well as his dormitory, before finally looking in the Vipers' Arena and finding Elias, Dudley, and Theo all training. So focused were they on their practicing that Harry was able to approach the duelling stage and take the three of them out with a Levicorpus each.
"All this training and you can't notice when someone is approaching you? Shameful," Harry joked before cancelling the charm and casting a cushioning spell beneath each of them.
"Harry! We're so sorry for what-" Elias began, only to be silenced by a look from Harry.
"Don't apologise, I have decided I want to teach. You helped me to see that it was going to be useful. Do any of you know where Blaise is? We have to begin the ritual in twelve hours."
"He is finalising the preparations and has asked not to be disturbed before then," Theo answered cheerfully.
"We have half a day till Halloween, how about a game of Quidditch?" Harry suggested, surprising his friends as he had dropped out of the Quidditch team.
"Sounds good, I'll use my ring to see if we can get anyone else to join us," Dudley suggested as they left to head down to the Quidditch pitch.
/^-^-_-^_^/
"Once the two of you finish this ritual you agree to give up the choice to answer the call of Magic, if you are summoned you will show up or risk losing your magic and element."
"I agree," Harry and Elias both responded at the same time, stepping into the ritual circle.
"Today marks the dawn of All Hallows' Eve, the anniversary of the fall of the Elementals, and on this day we accept the addition of two more of our kind. Earth stands to welcome Fire and Air into our ranks, may you stand tall and proud in your service to Magic," Blaise intoned, his voice powerful and focused.
"Air stands to join, to serve Magic without question," Harry replied before Elias gave his own oath.
"Fire stands to join, to serve Magic without question."
The three boys placed a hand in the middle of the group, Blaise floating some rocks above his hand, Harry with a small tornado, and Elias with a hand engulfed in flame. The three elements mixed, with water appearing out of nowhere to meet its brothers, before vanishing and leaving a powerful glow in its place, which lowered until it had fallen into each of their hands, strengthening their connections to their element.
"Welcome, Harry and Elias, to the Order of the Elementals."
/_-^_^_-/
Now that the ritual had been performed, Harry knew he could focus on the future as a whole. He had already told the Vipers about his meeting with Fate and her cryptic words, with Blaise initially protesting Harry's claim of needing to teach the world, but upon receiving a letter from his mother, his tune had changed.
"My mom said to listen to you, that apparently she was visited by a redhead who knew more than any mortal could hope to know. She confirmed that the Elementals are on the rise"
"So, now we move onto the topic of the defence group. Where will we hold the meetings?" Hermione questioned, keeping notes on the conversation.
"The Room of Requirement on the seventh floor has a lot of space, but it is rather far from most of the common rooms," Dudley answered. "There is the duelling classroom, but it's actively in use and so we would have to arrange with Professor Lupin." At this point Harry stepped in to add his thoughts.
"We could train on the grounds, the terrain will be uneven and everything is subject to change. That's a more realistic battle scenario than a flat indoor area."
"You'll find the number of attendees will plummet if we meet outside," Draco commented.
"Good. That means we will only have people who want to learn and those who are there to mess around with their friends will be asked to sort themselves out or leave," Harry retorted, seeming the most serious about this that any of them had ever seen him.
"Outside it is," Hermione wrote down, as they discussed their plans for the first few lessons.
/_-_^_^_-_/
The fifth of November signalled the start of the first meeting of the "Defence Club" and at 7:30 pm Harry walked out to see that every single person on the list had shown up.
"Urm, hello everyone, thanks for being here for the first meeting. Unfortunately, the plan has changed a little bit, instead of a mixture of defence and duelling I hope to begin some of you down the path to becoming an Elemental-" Harry was cut off by the sound of nearly two hundred people talking over him, some seemed excited at the idea, while others scoffed at the idea of attempting to follow some old ideology from centuries ago.
"The Elementals are not a thing," one person shouted out.
"This was supposed to be about defence," another vocalised.
"Not real you say? Blaise, would you like to demonstrate?" Harry gestured to the Earth Elemental, who in response created a giant pillar of earth beneath himself, elevating him fifty feet into the air, before returning to ground level as if nothing had happened. The assembled students politely clapped at the display, although some of the students remained unconvinced.
"Elias, if you would be so kind as to give another demonstration? Just in case there remain some doubts in the minds of the people here," Harry added, nodding to his brother who was on the opposite end of the crowd.
"Of course," Elias said as he walked away from the group to avoid burning anyone. Once he settled on an area roughly eighty feet away, Elias took a deep breath and began to pour fire out of his hands, which crept up his arms before it spread to his torso and he was fully engulfed. He waited a moment to allow everyone some time to take in the image of him standing unburnt in a roaring fire, before he then sent a massive torrent of fire into the sky, reaching a greater height than Blaise's spire. The fire then switched from orange to blue, then to white, before flashing green for a moment and vanishing. This earned a much larger round of applause from the students, with Elias taking a moment to bow before walking back over to the group.
"If you still can't believe it, then allow me one final demonstration," Harry said excitedly, summoning a ball of air beneath him and riding around on it, which earned a laugh from some people, until they noticed him speeding up, faster and faster until he eventually rose into the air, the ball dissipating as he simply began to fly, reaching an even greater height than either of the previous displays. Then he fell. Faster and faster, before cushioning his landing with a pocket of air.
"If anyone still wants to leave, then now is your chance," Harry announced, with a few of the more traditional students leaving. "Now that that is dealt with, I want to be upfront and tell you that this will take you quite some time to pick up, and even more to achieve even any results at all. If that displeases you, now is your chance to leave as well."
This inspired a much larger group to leave, some of them complaining about a waste of their time, leaving the group at under ninety people. Harry expected the number to drop before the end, but was overall pleased with the turn-out.
"Okay, so this is where the slow start begins. We can't actually begin instructing any of you until you know which element calls to you. That will require meditation and running through a few basic movements, each pattern representing one of the four elements."
They began to run through the movements, with Blaise and Elias moving through the crowd to correct people as they observed Harry's repetitions.
By the end, there was no change in the group's collective knowledge as to what elements they could control, but they all left happy, with Harry realising that he was excited to teach.