Heavy breathing…that was all that filled his ears as he stood strong alongside his friends. They could do this. They could win!
Right?
Attack after attack.
One fell to their combined might, an old friend…right? He couldn't see through the swirling mist in front of his eyes, forcing him to focus on one being as the heavy breathing grew louder, echoing hotly in his ears as he checked on his friends' stats and waited to call out a heal.
N…
Nothing was working. But they could find a weakness, they had trained, they had traveled through time. They were ready! Right…?
Ne…
Nothing was working. Why? What were they doing wrong? They had to win. They had to put this monster—no, victim out of it's misery before it's insanity took away everything it once considered dear and near to its heart. If it had a heart. He wasn't sure…it was an alien after all.
Nes…
Help. They needed help. P…wait…why couldn't he she her? Why couldn't he see his best friend? Why couldn't he see any of them?! What was going on? And the cry for help…it was answered by…cries?
Cries of pain? Cries of anguish? Cries of…fear? He turned around in the red, sickening moving vortex his stomach dropping as he saw the people who had been giving him nothing but trouble, nothing but pain looking at him in terror. All of them forced onto the ground as something stood behind them, moving back and forth like colorful vapors as they clearly stood guard.
Ness…
He turned back, his stomach violently twisting as he found the monster, the victim, the alien giving a twisted smile. One the being probably found genuine, joyful even without realizing how far gone and menacing it truly was.
Ness… happy. I'm…happy…no longer…alone…no longer…
The smile grew into a twisted mess as the words slammed into him, rattling his body until his teeth chattered from the implication. The implication that Giygas was happy that he was like him. And he was. He was like Giygas. Since…he was still influenced by him…Right?
Right?
R
I
G
H
T
?
Ness sat up, his body feeling like a crushed balloon as he tried to breath in some clean air, try and get rid of the slimy feeling lingering in his chest as he tried not to hurl onto his covers that greedily clung to his body.
Ignoring how the heat was eating him alive as he tried to focus. "Nightmare…" he finally wheezed, pulling himself into a hug as he counted to twenty.
"Just. A. Night. Mare."
But was it? This sadly wasn't the first time he had dreamed of Giygas in such a horrific manner. It was bad enough fighting him the first time knowing that all this happen was because his parental figures had been ripped away from him by life, driving him insane and full of grief was one thing. But to replay that moment of fear, knowing that everything he and his friends had were completely useless to defeat him? Horrifying.
But now…now that something was attacking the castle, seemingly answering to his wishes made it worse. So. So much worse.
Breath. He needed to breath. Everything would be fine. He'd get his letters back from his friends and family confirming that only they knew about Giygas and it would be alright. It would be because of something else that the castle had seemingly turned against its occupants.
But that wasn't true. He would never get those letters back. Because someone was in his way. Someone was purposely digging toxic spikes into his mind. Making his simple attempt of recovering from nearly dying so much worse.
The nightmares increased after the detention—(Don't think about it. Don't think about it. You're safe. Safe.) but the sickening though of Giygas's influence still lingering around the land. Around him made it worse.
It meant that the terrible future Buzz-Buzz came from still existed, it meant that Porky was still evil, it meant that Giygas was still around. But it also meant that he had no clue what to do since he couldn't be sure.
How could Giygas's reset be interrupted when they had traveled back in time to stop him? Nothing could have interfered. Nothing!
And yet here he was. Shivering in bed and trying to control his breathing before he wrote in the journal. He couldn't tell Ginny and the others. Not yet. He couldn't write home, not without the fear of never receiving the letter thanks to a certain toad who had attacked not just Kur, who had volunteered after Ness noticed that the owls he used never came back with mail.
But also, Hedwig who had apparently crash landed and interrupted a history class, alerting everyone that something was up and very, very wrong.
"I wish I could write home…without someone finding out."
"Wish…-"
"OUT."
He did not need that possibly made up voice in his head trying to comfort him. Not now. He needed to calm down. To heal. To repair himself before he could find anything else out.
But with the rising sun breaking through his tightly shut curtains. He doubted that would happen anytime soon.
"I really hate Hogwarts."
October came in like a cackling Jack-O-Lantern in Ness's opinion, the week was barely ending with the promise of the first Hogsmeade trip of the entire school year leaving everyone able to attend planning to leave the haunted castle in droves to gain some sense of peace.
Halloween pranks had started all around the castle. Candles suddenly went out, plunging entire hallways into darkness, the armored knights would be found in the most ridiculous of places, sometimes sitting in the Great Hall like a person getting a meal or the Greenhouse as disembodied garden gnomes.
A Ravenclaw found a knight's helmet resting in a bookshelf, hidden behind books until the inspecting girl stumbled upon it for a simple question about Force charms.
Eerie laughs floated through the castle, sometimes in the middle of the night, other times in the morning, some of the dishes were covered in living worms or insane amounts of ketchup to be seen as blood and guts, the Potions classrooms all had an eerie green glow that never went away and Umbridge began receiving ominous letters after he and Harry realized someone was reading their mail. Every morning a plate would implode, and a letter written in Halloween orange ink would appear. Refusing to be ignored as it simply blew up more plates until Umbridge read it.
That weird attack showing up every time as Ness focused on swallowing a piece of toast and getting ready for another day of torture. Trying to figure out how to get some help before he himself blew up the castle.
He tried to go to Kale with his fears about Giygas but the man had suddenly become a elusive and impossible to catch after and before class. He seemed to be spending more time with Professor Trelawney, who sadly hadn't had an epic boss moment against Umbridge like her best friend had and was fretting over possibly getting fired but no one was sure. Professor Kale was like Professor Bins, impossible see or hear unless it was a good day.
And once again, he didn't want to burden his friends, not without spilling his guts and accidentally releasing an attack out of fear from digging up old memories. Plus, the fact that Selvis pointed out that Umbridge had overheard them didn't help.
It made sense though, Ness rarely sent letters home since they took forever to get there and back. He tried to send monthly letters for quick updates but not that many people knew when he exactly sent it. It happened at random and depending on the weather. So, to have all of his letters timely intercepted meant that someone was watching for them and knew ahead of time that he was expecting mail.
He really wished he understood England's laws a bit better to sue Umbridge for reading his mail. Which was against the law in America. But for now, he would merely accept keeping his mouth shut and burning her alive with death glares. For fear of losing control and killing her. Something that was becoming a better idea as the year went on.
Perhaps he could use Selvis's advice to use his supportive students and housemates to blacklist Umbridge for reading his and Harry's mail and possibly doing the same to them.
Oh gods…His stomach dropped at the idea of everyone connected to him getting their mail read. All because the boy who shouldn't be here kept coming up with more and more troublesome problems that loved to pull everyone into his mess.
"If only everyone knew about the dangers without it being spread mouth to mouth…" Ness lamented as Ginny gently nudged him, singling that it was time for class.
"I'm going to find out you know." Ginny murmured, shooting him a scarily perfect impression of his Mother's look of 'we can do this the easy way or the hard way' as they headed to charms.
"You can try." Ness replied, mentally to tired to try and stop her from finding out. He needed someone to spill to, before his feelings of home sickness drove him mentally over the edge to lash out at someone.
"Challenge accepted."
As usual, school went by as normal. Something blew up, teachers pounded defense measures into their heads before Umbridge created a new rule to stop them, Umbridge's class was abruptly ended by something random and Ness ignored her homework prompt. Write an essay. Which meant using his right hand. Which was happily smiling up at him and trying to give him positive thoughts to weigh out the consequences of murdering Umbridge in her—
"Happy thoughts…HAPPY THOUGHTS."
Like Hogsmeade. He was actually…sort of excited to be out of the castle which had probably reduced his mental and PSI control almost next to none. Although he was finding odd little corners that just left him feeling…weirdly relaxed and at ease. Especially this one spot in the left corridor of the seventh floor. It was a bit unnerving know that he thought about, there wasn't anything there to entertain him or study just…empty space with basic castle decor.
Maybe he should try looking around it a bit more thoroughly next time he wandered up to the random corners…
But for now he had to focus on surviving lunch, afternoon classes then dinner…with Harry shooting him nervous glances. Odd, he and Harry still hadn't apologized for the argument and they've barely talked to one another during the rare moments they bumped into each other, Harry out of fearing that he might trigger another panic attack and Ness not trusting his mouth around Die hard lover of Hogwarts—
He really needed to focus on what was in front of him. Which was a smiley face on a meat pie. "…Ginny?" Ness tried, surprised to see Ginny stabbing her smiley meat pie in frustration, "Haunted Castle."
"Oh…Well, at least it's being nice today-," Umbridge's plate exploded for no reason, ending a couple conversations before everyone resumed their nervous chatter.
Everyone alert and prepared to bolt from another fire or worse, another explosion of the giant glass ceiling that put one third of every house into the medical wing at the very end of September.
"I'm surprised no one's blaming Umbridge for all this chaos." Selvis grumbled, the group attempting to work on their homework in their club room, "Everything started the moment she showed up."
Ginny gave a small nod before she glanced at Ness, still hellbent on wheedling the truth out of him. So far, she was failing since she had grown up in a family where tact wasn't needed. Just brute determination.
"Well, maybe some of your Slytherin buddies will get tired of joining the groups of people tip toeing around and complain." Ginny offered, earning a snort from Luna who was doodling on a piece of empty parchment, "Doubt it, the Ministry will just tune them out and force Umbridge to step up her game. Making it worse for us."
"We need a petition or something to get her removed." Ness stated, slowly writing down Ginny's notes for a Charms essay. Doing his best to ignore the stabbing pain that was—No, he was safe. His hand was merely throbbing, he could keep going.
But maybe practicing he should switch over to good old lefty. It rarely got a chance to do something other than pick up and hold things after all.
"So, anyone got plans for Hogsmeade?" Selvis asked, "I'm planning on buying some prank items from Zonko's."
"I was thinking of searching around the area for some Fog frogs." Luna mused, "They migrate over here for Halloween." Selvis shot her his normal look of 'you're not right in the head'. As Ginny shrugged, "I'll probably just pester Ness."
"Gee. Thanks little sister I never asked for." Ness retorted, a small smile forming as Selvis bluntly said, "Wouldn't she be the little brother since she's so violent?" and received a punch to the shoulder from said little 'brother'.
"What! It's not my fault your surrounded by barbarians!" Selvis retorted, "Tell her Luna!"
"I'll send your parents your remains Selvis."
"LUNA!"
Ness buried his face in his hat, laughing as Ginny and Selvis began squabbling over having many siblings over none before Selvis wormed his way out of the argument to try and do his homework. "Ness! Let me borrow your-," he stopped when he saw the messy scribbles of English opened his mouth to retort something then stopped when he saw where the quill was.
"Thanks for nothing Toad." Selvis grumbled, moving to steal Ginny's notes and start up another argument. It was…sort of nice having a bit of familiarity in the rapidly changing castle and atmosphere, it reminded him that even though he was possibly screwing up big time that there was still hope for a casual evening before dinner.
"Ness, have you been sleeping alright?" he glanced up from his thoughts, cringing to see Luna intently studying him as she offered, "I have some sleep remedies if your homesick again."
"It's so weird to know that you suffer from childish homesickness—Will you stop that Weasly?!" Selvis angrily swatted her hand away as Ness nervously laughed, "It's just some nightmares." Wait, he didn't mean to say that. Darn his carefree personality!
"Nightmares?" Ginny echoed her voice teetering on being worried or flat out parental as Selvis looked up, opened his mouth, thought better of it and hid behind a book. Deciding that giving him a small amount of privacy was better than nothing.
Ness rubbed the back of his head, his hand feeling cold and clammy against his hair as he tried to avoid thinking about him.
"Y-yea, just some bad ones…"
"About Giy-,"
"Don't." Ness started, cringing at how loud his voice sounded before he weakly finished, "Just, avoid mentioning that name. For now."
Ginny and Selvis exchanged looks as Luna hummed and glanced toward the door, as if searching for eavesdroppers. "I have some dream pillows if you want to borrow them. There old fashion pillows stuffed with herbs to relieve stress."
"Old fashion?" Selvis echoed.
"Muggles usually use it, my Dad started doing it after my mom died." Luna gave a casual shrug and tapped her book a little, "She blew up experimenting with magic, I was really little when it happened so nightmares happened often since I didn't really understand what happened."
Ginny gave her a sympathetic smile as Ness nodded, "May she rest in pieces—peace."
"…I was convinced you were just born from a tree since your so loopy." Selvis admitted, blushing a little as Luna gave him an almost surprised look then started to giggle as Ness tacked on, "I was sort of thinking she was a cloud person. There so floaty!"
"Really you guys." Ginny deadpanned, facepalming as Luna's giggles turned into muffled laughter.
"What! She's far to loopy to be human!" Selvis protested as Ness mused, "Maybe her mom's from Onett, we have some pretty strange people there. Like jerk cops!"
"Wait, why do you have jerk cops?" Selvis asked, looking in him in slight horror as Ness explained the thankfully not PSI influenced police force he had to beat up in order to leave Onett after breaking a small rule.
"What is WRONG with your town." Selvis demanded as Luna and Ginny shared looks, seemingly uneasy as Ness just shrugged, "It was a stressful time, he just wanted to see if I could defend myself to survive heading to Twoson. I was just 12 at the time."
"America is insane."
"And proud of it."
"You shouldn't agree with it!"
Ness shrugged again as Selvis threw his hands up and resumed reading, completely done with the conversation at hand. As Ginny changed topics, talking about Ron joining the Qudditch team then scolding Ness for his insistent that Ron was suicidal for joining a team that played during Hurricane weather before asking Luna what she thought. Luna smartly stayed neutral as Ness joked some more about seeing Dorthey's house from the Wizard of Oz.
"He was real by the way." Selvis supplied, rolling his eyes as Ness looked at him in surprise then exclaimed, "That means the cannibal tree was real to!"
"No. Not it wasn't Earthbound."
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
"That's a terrible answer Selvis."
"It makes you shut up though."
"Not really-,"
"Oh hey! What are we going to do about our mail being read by the toad?" Selvis quickly asked, shooting him a look of triumphant when someone knocked on the door, startling everyone into standing up and looking at it, wands raised in case it was another Halloween prank or, just Umbridge.
Ness was about to suggest teleporting them all to the seventh-floor corridor when the door opened and revealed the Golden Trio. Harry looking nervous, Hermione looking certain of something and Ron just…looking like Ron. Perhaps he was neutral on the entire matter. Whatever the matter was for coming up to their club room was.
"Hello," Luna greeted, relaxing a little as Selvis glanced down at his wand, then back at the trio before haughtily huffing, "You had better be glad we didn't hex you to next Wednesday."
"Or sent you crumpling to the ground like rag dolls." Ness muttered, trying to tune out the danger bells ringing in his head at their appearance. The trio flinched but managed to recover as Hermione closed the door behind her and announced, "We're organizing a Defense Against the Dark Arts class!"
"Good for you guys." Ness drawled as Selvis looked skeptical, "And how do you plan on doing that?" Selvis asked.
"Who's teaching?" Luna asked, elbowing Selvis a bit as the boy scowled and looked them over, trying to find a secret hint toward their plans.
"Harry is!" Hermione explained, ignoring Harry's nervous, "No I'm not!" as Ron mumbled back to him, "You're sort of the only one with enough experience at defensive magic after all."
Ness frowned a little, trying to feel sympathy toward Harry's plight but the headache drowned out any ounce of pity. "So, you're setting up a secret class. Great. Why are you telling us when we're most likely being tailed by Umbridge?"
The trio paled a little, but Hermione trucked on, "Simple, Harry's convinced that he wouldn't be a good teacher-,"
"I wouldn't." Harry insisted, "Ness would be a better choice!"
"Oh yea, let the boy suffering from nightmares, panic attacks and is convinced that magic is the devil teach a class of frightened young wizards." Ness deadpanned, "That will just go great."
"Not to mention Ness doesn't have any magic." Selvis huffed, "All he'll do is teach people how to murder each other with a bat."
"Hey, it works. If you can't finish a spell then you can't kill someone, now can you?" Ness waved the collapsible bat in the air as Selvis shot him a glare.
"Anyway, just be the teacher Harry." Ginny said, "Sure, you may be terrible now, but you at least have your battle against Voldemort to back you up and experience. You'll learn how to get better at it later."
Harry cringed and muttered, "I didn't exactly do anything during that fight." trying not to glance at Ness who focused on his shoes, counting to twenty to block out the unpleasant memory.
"Plus, all Ness has going for him is the power of friendship." Selvis added, probably rolling his eyes, "And half the school is uneasy about him since he's a raving basket case."
"Wow. THANKS."
"Oh, you're welcome."
Ness made sure to kick Selvis's seat before he looked up at the ceiling, trying to think of something encouraging to say before gluing his mouth shut. He couldn't and moved onto the next best thing.
"So, where are you hosting the class? You can't use an actual classroom since Umbridge is a toad."
"Oh er…" Hermione flushed a little as Selvis crowed in half belief and half smugness at the genius Gryffindor's unusual lack of planning, "You didn't think about that?!" in delight and disbelief.
"Do you have a system to ensure that no one snitches to Umbridge? Club dues? An outline of what you want to teach?" Luna asked, looking a little excited as Hermione's blush got even brighter.
"A meeting place for all the hopeful students? Or were you just planning on announcing it at Dinner?" Selvis questioned.
"We're meeting at the—mphh!" Hermione retorted, or tried to when Ginny and Ness tackled her, hands firmly over her mouth as they looked around. "What on ear-," Ron started when Selvis rolled his eyes, "Did we not say we were most likely being tailed by Umbridge?"
"How would you-,"
"Even know?" Ness finished, anger overriding his control for a moment, "Because the only way Kur and the other owls were attacked was because someone knew ahead of time I was sending mail back to America during a freaking private conversation."
Ron frowned then paled as he realized the problem.
"Yea. Hooray for us." Ness deadpanned as Harry muttered, "This is worse than I thought…"
"Not as bad as you three not having a club room." Selvis hissed, shooting Hermione a pointed look as she huffed, "We're getting to that part."
"Maybe Fred and George will know." Ginny offered, "They know pretty much everything about this castle."
"We'll see…" Harry muttered before he glanced at Ness with an unsure frown.
"Harry. Spit it out or face the wrath of my barely contained temper."
He flinched but did as told, "Would you er…come with us for the meeting?"
"Will it make you stop tip toeing around me like glass?" Ness retorted, closing his eyes as the warning bells got louder. Why were his PSI abilities freaking out over Harry? Or…was it about something else?
"Pretty hard not to do that when you have a panic attack for no-," Ron started when Ness flashed him a glare, cringing as his headache began to pulse and the room shook, "Go on. Finish that sentence." He threatened, hating how out of control he was as Ron took a wary step back then yelped as Ginny forcibly shoved them out, "See you at Hogsmeade this weekend!" she stated, her voice a little strained before she turned to Ness.
Who was preparing to apologize for threatening her older brother when Luna gently grabbed his hand and hummed, "Let's go for a walk."
"Ah-,"
"Walk before I hex you." Selvis stated, shooting him a look as Luna dragged him away, somehow knowing were all of his calming spots were as she rambled on about horned worms and beetles which weren't actual beetles.
When it was time for dinner Luna looked at him and asked, "Better?"
"…Yea."
"Good."
"How did you-,"
"I've seen you just zoning out around here, so I figured you felt safe here since no other wizards were around." That didn't sound right but…the area was oddly empty if he found himself wandering around without Ginny for a rare moment. Why was that?
"…Thanks."
"No problem, I did a bit of reading on PTSD to try and help." Luna paused then shot him a look, "That er…person you fought…he was really bad. Wasn't he."
"…He wasn't bad. He was powerful sure but…he was insane. Everything around him…"
"Alright, alright…breath." He blinked and found Luna embracing him in a tight hug, "Whatever happened. He's gone now."
"…No he's not. At least, I don't-,"
"By the decree of Cloud people. He's dead." he blinked then gave a small laugh at how serious Luna was. "Alright…but I think he…might…" he gestured around the castle as his throat tightened, a little relived to see that Luna understood and nodded before forcing him onto a different topic.
"You can gladly spill out all your worries once you've healed."
"Which will be never."
"No, it'll probably happen over Christmas break."
"Christmas—" He blinked then felt something inside of him grow warm. Perhaps with hope.
"Luna, you're a genius."
"I'm starting to believe it." Luna hummed as they walked into the dining room, ignoring the somewhat startled looks from Luna's housemates as they separated and headed to their own table. He could hold out. He could last until break. Then he could freely fret over his worries with people who understood his problem with ease and experience.
For most people, getting out of Hogwarts and into a safer, less haunted town with the promise of sweets, friendly outing and the chance to spend their burning gold or whatever currency wizards used was a Godsend.
For Ness, it was quickly turning into a nightmare as he left the castle and approached Hogsmeade. Everything just felt wrong, warning bells rang nonstop, his head felt like imploding while also exploding and his homesickness was horrendous.
Leaving him blanking out to count the days, hours, minutes and seconds until Christmas Break. If it wasn't for Luna and Ginny who quickly sensed he was seriously off he probably would have wandered off the path and gotten himself lost in the woods.
"What. Did the bogeyman come for you in the middle of the night?" Selvis taunted, looking a little worried as Ness rubbed his forehead for the 50th time.
"No…Just, feeling awful." Ness grumbled.
"Ever since we left the castle?" Ginny asked, gently pushing him around a corner as they sound of excited chatter rose up into the air, singling that they were close to Hogsmeade.
"Yea…Professor Kale mentioned that the castle felt different, and it does. It feels… peaceful." Selvis swallowed a snort of disbelief as Luna glanced back at the castle, the giant building a mere silhouette against the afternoon sky as it faded from view.
"I know, it's silly and sort of dumb given all the chaos that's been happening but…yea." Ness shrugged and shoved his hands into his rainbow pockets, "I feel sort of safe there."
Ginny looked like she was about to ask something—probably why he felt safe in the very place he despised—but changed her mind, instead saying, "Well, I want to head to Honey-dukes for some sweets before we have to meet up with Harry."
"Did he figure out a club location yet?" Sevlis asked, eyeing the Hog's Head bar with distain. Luna shook her head no before glancing at the Herbology shop—Dogweed and Deathcap- which was a little odd since Luna wasn't a very good potions student nor did she enjoy taking care of plants.
According to Luna, the only things that didn't die under her care were animals and people. Although that was probably because she watered the few plants she owned with potions and once, orange juice. Ness didn't understand why she had done it and Selvis had merely buried his face in a book, refusing to ask why.
"Oh wait!" Ness cringed at the sudden yell and swallowed a glower as he looked at Ginny, judging by her flinch and sudden apologetic smile he had failed to hide his abnormal irritation. "Sorry, I just remembered that Hogsmeade has a quill store."
Selvis snorted and teased, "What's wrong Weasly? Ran out of decent quills to use?" he was swiftly rewarded with a knuckle sandwich as Luna's eyes widened a bit, "Hold on, are you going to ask if…"
"Yes." Ginny simply answered, "And you're coming with me Selvis."
"What? Why!? I'm not buying you a new quill! Ask someone else!"
"You're coming." Ginny repeated, flashing him a murderous glare and raising her wand a bit, daring him to try and weasel out of going. Selvis spluttered a bit before he scoffed and muttered, "Bloody hell." Before nodding in agreement.
"I'll be at the post office then." Ness glanced at the building with owls flying in and out of its open windows, "Maybe I can warn them to stop for a bit…"
"Do you have a letter already written up?" Ginny asked, a giant grin appearing when he shook his head no. He didn't trust that toad as far as he could throw her, what was stopping her from creating an absurd rule to do daily checks if he started to hint that he was writing letters to send using the post owls? Nothing. That's what.
"Good! I have something I want to mail to that Mystic Eye newsletter!"
"Mystic Informer, and should I be worried?"
"No."
Ness, Luna and Selvis exchanged looks before silently agreeing they should be worried before moving forward with their plans for the day. Selvis and Ginny to head into Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop while Luna and Ness walked to Tomes and Scrolls to look up any ways to legally combat Umbridge.
Or, find some magical creature to hex her with if they were roadblocked by the public opinion and the Ministry's attempt to shut them up. Or at least try to shut them up. He hadn't fought a police station's best men and influence adults warped by G…Giygas's influence for nothing after all.
"Find anything?" Ness asked, combing the rows of dusty and forgotten books the best he could as Luna studied a fairy-tale book for kids about a blood thirsty Unicorn. "Not really, although a lot of these books are seriously dated."
"Great, so we don't have any new laws to use to our advantage."
"Maybe. After all, the Ministry is quite old and changing old laws could come with dire consequences."
Ness nodded in agreement as he picked up a book called 'The American Way of Wizardry' and studied it, a bit surprised to see a somewhat recent book about American wizards.
Wizards which no one seemed to mention or really know about for some reason. Perhaps he should look at it later, when he wasn't trying to find legal ways to get someone arrested.
"They have books for how to charm a broomstick to like you." Luna deadpanned, looking actually annoyed as she studied her row of books, "But not on how the Ministry works."
"Wait, I found one. But it's just about the army of departments they have." Ness flipped through the book in solid disbelief, "They have groups for all the departments and that's still not enough to keep it all organized!"
"Britain supposedly has the largest ministry out of all of them…" Luna mused as Ness's shaky focus landed on a department simply known as the Department of Mysteries. "Hey Luna, know anything about the Department of Mysteries?"
"Only that they deal with cases the public shouldn't know about, magical enigmas and apparently have some sort of demon under lock and key."
"…Uh."
"I look for the answers no one looks for."
"Noted. Don't get yourself killed."
"Hmm…"
"Luna."
"No promises."
Ness face palmed but added the book to his shopping list before they resumed searching some more for law books before giving up for the day, paying for their things and heading to the post office where Ginny and Selvis were waiting.
"Well?" Selvis asked, looking a little flustered about something as Ginny drummed three letters against her side, "Find anything interesting?"
"Just that Luna loves to break the law." Ness deadpanned, "Also a book about American Wizards."
"I found a book about a Crimacorn." Luna offered, ignoring Selvis's look of sheer disbelief as Ness went to write his letter then tried to haggle with the post master for a cheaper price to send his letter to Onett. When that didn't work he asked to send it to Daalam in Chommo after editing his letter a bit.
"Who's in Daalam?" Ginny asked as the Post Master agreed and showed them to the owl selection. "Poo, he's a good friend of mine. Who hopefully remembers where my address is to tell my mom—wait, he has a phone." Ness scowled in slight bitterness, "Luckyyy…"
"It's a phone Earthbound. Get over it." Selvis deadpanned as he admired a pretty Great Grey Owl who seemed rather bored with their presence. "Phones save lives Selvis." Ness retorted, glancing at a Barn Owl who seemed to be daring him to try and use him. It was tempting to ask the bird what was wrong but…he didn't trust his powers not to go haywire and making funny faces at the bird to see its offended reaction was hilarious.
"Don't tease the owls Ness." Ginny scolded, attaching her letters to a dozing barn owl who quickly perked up and gave a small flap of their wings, eager to be helpful. "Fine Mom."
"Does that make Selvis the dad?" Luna asked, grinning as Selvis spluttered in disbelief and offense, "Lovegood!"
"You act like a dad."
"Shut it birdbrain!"
"Careful Selvis, you might offend Willow over here." Ness teased, snickering as 'Willow' the offended owl he had been 'talking to', tried to bite his finger before huffily stealing his letter as if to say 'Forget you! I have a job to do!" and flying after its friend.
"I like that owl." Ness admitted as they headed for the Boar's Head Inn, slightly dreading the large crowd of students that were going to be waiting for them.
"Huh…I thought the turnabout would be…"
"Bigger?" Ginny offered as Ness nodded in agreement and lead his friends around the grimy men and woman eyeing the large group of school kids inside the dimly lit and frankly quiet smelly bar.
"I wonder how many Slytherins are here…" Luna mused, blinking in surprise as Selvis coolly answered, "Ten," then explained, "We agreed that the other houses would surely flock to Potter's little club and that the best choice to gain information and confirmation that we can be taught to teach ourselves defense spells would be to send representatives to scout out the area."
"Impressive." Was all Ginny could manage as Ness studied Selvis a little, wondering if the part of the reason behind such a small number of Slytherins was to avoid tarnishing their reputation or worse, getting kicked out before they could join.
Even though everyone was facing the same enemy, it wasn't going to be easy for them to overlook the things Slytherin had done to them. "Oh! There starting!" Ginny shushed, grimacing as Harry spotted Ness and shot him a pleading look, earning a mental groan from Ness who shook his head no. Sure, this was a good idea. But this wasn't his idea, which meant he could simply watch and let the chaos unfold without having to play damage control.
Harry's hopefully expression fell a little before Ginny shot him a look and mouthed, "Bad day." Before looking at Hermione who looked at Harry, clearly waiting for him to start.
"Wasn't this her idea?" Selvis asked, looking a little grumpy before relaxing as Hermione started to explain herself. In a terrible manner.
"Er, hello everyone." Everyone pulled their attention away from Harry who almost fainted with relief, "Harry-," He, Ness, Selvis and Ginny threw her a sharp glare, prompting her to jump tracks, "I had the idea to—er—start a Defense Against Dark Arts club to—ah—properly defend ourselves against this new threat."
"I wonder how long until Agatha gets annoyed." Selvis muttered, glancing around for the girl in question as Hermione went on, "A-and I don't mean that rubbish Umbridge is teaching us, real defense magic."
"What about offensive magic?" someone asked—a girl with a pair of glasses and a stern expression on her face. Hermione looked a little startled as Selvis cringed in pity, "Ah, there she is."
"Who is she?" Luna asked studying the girl closely with a small frown. "Agatha Collenway—fifth year, house appointed potions master and a pretty good business woman thanks to the Collenway's countless generations of being a pristine potion ingredient suppler."
"And hearing Hermione stumble on is a waste of her important time." Ness grumbled, "This isn't good."
"Ah…her family's a rival with someone in Ravenclaw." Luna murmured as Agatha went on, "Defense is nice and all, but considering the fact that we have no clue what or who our opponents are and may have no way to properly disarm them if they jump us we'll need more than simple shields and hexes."
"Y-yes, that's true but-,"
"But?" Agatha pressed, looking a little irritated as a couple people recognized she was from Slytherin. She looked like she wanted to say more but was holding her tongue, something Selvis nodded in approval with. "She's usually ferocious when it comes to getting answers." He mumbled, "Has to be since she's going to inherit the business and make deals to receive certain ingredients."
"Looks like she's merely worried for Slytherin's well being then." Luna surmised as Hermione squared her shoulders and pressed on, "I was getting to that part Ms.?"
"Agatha Collenway." Agatha answered.
"Yes, offensive is going to be a key point but for now we're focusing on defense until we can find a rhythm and a safe way to practice it without alerting the teachers."
Placated, Agatha nodded in agreement and verbally stepped down, her job done for the moment. "Alerting the teachers?" someone asked—a Hufflepuff who Selvis quickly informed him was a Quidditch player who kept to themselves most of the time.
"Are you hinting that this is more than a way to get a good grade on the Defense Against Dark Arts O.W.L.S?" someone asked—Michael Corner a Ravenclaw according to Luna.
"Yes," Hermione braced herself before finishing, "Because we're not just learning for s-silly grades. We're learning because V-Voldemort is back."
Voldemort? Oh right, he was alive. Ness had completely forgotten the pale snake man in favor of piecing himself back to together mentally. Everyone but the Golden Trio and his friends reacted in fear, cups filled with Butterbeer dropping onto tables and sometimes the floor, people flinching at the name, some sucking in huge breaths of air through their teeth and others glancing at Selvis as if for confirmation.
Although that made sense given how obviously close he was to Ness. His housemates' faces dropped with dread as he gave a solemn nod and subtly gestured toward Ness's glaring rainbow hoodie. As if to remind them that someone was behind Ness's sudden change in personality.
"H-hold on!" Someone protested—a Hufflepuff boy—"Where's your proof?" his protest strengthen some of the other students who quickly relaxed in the realization that Hermione had no proof. Only, it was clear to the Slytherins and Ravenclaws—the most logical and cunning houses that this was the truth.
"Isn't it obvious?" someone spoke up, "Why else would Barty Crouch Jr. and that rat-tailed guy start playing for favorites for the Dark Lord?"
A low murmur of agreement—from said logical and cunning houses rose up in the air— "They wouldn't be lifting a finger if they knew Vo—You know who wasn't coming back for good." A Ravenclaw added, looking sick as the boy adjusted his glasses-as if to calm himself before he pressed on "It's the only reason, the only reason that makes sense behind Earthbound and Potter's disheveled appearance at the end of the Triwizard cup and the Ministry's sudden military attempt to control our studies."
"We know too much." Luna added, "We've uncovered to much. It'll only be a matter of time before we'll be attacked by not only Voldemort but also the Ministry."
"With wands instead of underhanded tricks since two students claimed to have seen him in the flesh." Ness finished, allowing his probably unsettling gaze sweep across the group as they looked at him. Tensing as they realized he was right—they were right. Hogwarts wasn't safe, and they had two major enemies to prepare for.
With this heavy thought looming on their minds Hermione took control of the room, "So, while the plan for meetings is still in development, yes we don't have room figured out yet—" she and Selvis traded glares "—But we have a plan to ensure that this is only between the people who want to learn how to defend themselves, who want to be prepared for the future."
Which was pretty much everyone at this point. But who could blame them? The crowd reluctantly listened to Hermione's shoddy but somewhat hopeful plan of having Harry teach them since he was the best in Defense Against Dark Arts (Well, the only one in their year who had PASSED DADA with flying colors under an actually good teacher thus far) and since he had been in battle combat unlike the other students.
Harry stiffened a bit and tried his hardest not to look at Ness who was wondering if it was safe for him to leave. "Hold on, why can't Earthbound teach us?" Ah, it wasn't safe. He looked up to find a collection of eyes studying him intently, "Didn't he save America or wherever he lived from a powerful wizard?" the person—a Ravenclaw girl who looked Asian asked.
"Yea, but that was before I found out I was a wizard." Ness replied, struggling to keep his patience, "And I had friends who were headstrong and ready to duke it out with our fists if our weapons didn't work."
"Plus, Ness is terrible with a wand." Ginny added, "There's a reason why he used a bat in the Tri-Wizard Tournament."
A couple murmurs of, "I thought it was just an act." And "So…it wasn't just him showing off his rubbish sport." Floated into the air as Ness shoved his hands into his pockets, glaring away and landing on a sturdy wall by a wizard with glasses—wait a second…did…did he know that wizard? He seemed familiar.
Before he could take a closer look, the man got up, dropped some wizard money on the table and walked away, content with…whatever he had heard or seen. Forcing Ness to focus on Hermione who was having a discussion with Agatha and a Ravenclaw about how everything would work, the meetings, the dates, the means of commutation, possible interruptions thanks to after school activities. The works.
And it was becoming quite clear that Hermione's first and main focus had been ensuring that people believed them and showed interest in her idea.
"She's getting ripped apart." Ness grumbled as Selvis huffed, "Serves her right in a way." Earning a sharp jab from Ginny as Ness decided to leave before his headache exploded into a migraine. "I'm heading back." He mumbled, nudging Ginny as Luna began offering suggestions, "I can't take this headache anymore."
"Alright…but I better find you in your bed when we get back." Ginny replied, giving him a motherly glare as he nodded and left the bar. Closing his eyes as the colors around him began to shift and warp into shades of sliver and neon pink, like he was entering a battle and his focus was just on the opponent, blocking everything out to ensue he didn't get distracted by random background objects or events in the middle of the fight.
"Why. Me?" Ness demanded as he stumbled across the bridge, wishing for an answer to relieve the headache—the stress—to stop the pain.
"Ehehe…" his eyes flew open, his heart skipping a beat as he spotted something small and tiny slip past the giant castle doors leading into the Hellsworth—Hogswart .
"…Am I drunk?" Ness wondered, his legs already moving into a slow jog then a sprint as he pushed the doors open, surprised at his sudden ability of stealth when they doors didn't slam into the wall. "Eheheh…" the being—the toy turned a corner that lead up to the stairwell, unfazed by Ness chasing after it or the possibility of teachers lurking around the oddly quiet castle.
Had something happened to spook everyone into their dorms? If so, what? Although perhaps he should be asking what hadn't scared everyone into hiding given how the walls had been bleeding dye colored water the day before.
"Get back here!" Ness hissed as he turned onto the seventh-floor corridor, feeling his paranoia of the toy being a PSI powered monster fading away as a soothing aura surrounded him.
Pulling the headache away from his eyes as he slumped against a wall, his vision spinning from the sudden change in mood and atmosphere.
"Can someone PLEASE explain what's going on?" Ness grumbled, bitterly remembering that no one could explain. Not until Christmas break. He was stuck here, dealing with this mess on his own with no chance to relax and fix his dangerously low PSI levels—
"Hey!" Ness clumsily landed on his hands, hissing in pain as his right hand throbbed in protest as he found himself looking up at a doorway that had not been behind him a few moments ago and certainly left unlocked.
"Great! Now the castle's trying to mess with me-," Ness started, grumpily getting up and preparing to beat the door with his bat when he found himself looking into a cozy room covered with butterfly themed pillows, stuffed animals, baseball decorations and snacks. Honest to god American snacks.
"…Uh…Are you trying to win me over castle? If so, then uh…it's sort of working." Closing the door behind him Ness sat down on a couch, surprised to feel how cozy and soft it felt as he sank into the plush cushions.
"Even though I'm STILL mad at you—wait, are those comic books?" Oh my god they were! They had comic books about Superman, Batman, The Adventures of One Time man—A popular comic book series in Onett of course—and Sonic the Hedgehog!
"Okay. You win this round." Ness conceded, grabbing a blanket to create a personal nest of comfort as he got lost in goofy and seriously awesome adventures as he snacked on small Skip Sandwiches and leaned against a giant teddy bear.
He might have forgotten to keep an eye on the clock but that wasn't too important, Doctor Marie had recommended he tried to create a small personal space for himself to decompress in peace and he was happily following that advice.
Not even realizing that-A. He had spent the night in the cozy room before remembering he had school, B. The door had magically appeared and then disappeared as he stepped outside to make a mental note of where the room was before he teleported onto his bed to change clothes and C. He never caught that odd toy who had led him to the seventh floor.
All he could think about was going back to that room during break as his headache slowly returned and avoiding Ginny's wraith when she caught him.
"Ness." Which was now. "I can explain!" he managed as Ginny shot him a murderous glare, "I can though." He squeaked, managing a nervous grin as Ginny merely raised an eyebrow, prompting him to sheepishly mumble, "It's a bit better if I show you it."
"You better." Ginny hissed, her eyes darting to Umbridge who looked quite smug about something, "She somehow overheard our conversation at the bar and outlawed the idea."
"No duh, we were pretty-," oh wait. She hadn't been there. "She has spies everyone." Ness murmured, his headache moving up in levels of pain as he remembered that familiar wizard and—and allowed his eyes to wander on Professor Kale who was eating breakfast in a stoic manner, his glasses slipping down his face a bit before he pushed them back up his nose.
His heart sank at the very thought—the very idea that Kale had snitched them out. "Ginny. I think he-," he trailed off as Ginny followed his gaze and stiffened, "Ness, no. He wouldn't—you said he was like—you know!" Ginny insisted as Ness mumbled, "He could do it. If he was being blackmailed."
"Black-,"
"Ginny, he has a subscription to Mystic Informer. What if…" he pushed passed the lump in his throat and mental mantra of, "I'll never be safe, I'll never be safe." And whispered, "What if she threatened to reveal him as a national threat since he's a Muggleborn Squib from America?"
The color drained from Ginny's face as it sank in. Umbridge could do that. What couldn't she do? She could do anything without the fear of legal repercussions since she was going to be the savior of the wizarding world.
"I'll never be safe." Echoed in his mind as he walked passed the teacher's table, his hand burning with phantom pain and hate as Umbridge shot him and Harry a bright, smug grin.
"I'll never be safe." T…true but… he glanced at the Slytherins walking behind them, mumbling and whispering to one another as they headed to potions, his heart twisting with dread and revolution. Was Umbridge that determent to crush his and Harry's spirits to silence the truth? Would she really go so far to prevent her own housemates, her possible teammates from being able to protect themselves?
The answer was a big, fat. "Yes." She would do that. She would use her own housemates from past and present just to further her own ideals, not even caring about the dangers from throwing them aside or not believing they were caught up in the whirlwind of fear gripping the castle with a bloodied claw.
She would. And he hated that. Umbridge was just a Porky 2.0. Only with connections and a sickeningly sweet smile to hide her ideals and schemes.
He had to stop this. They had to stop this. Mark his words. Professor Kale's prediction was going to come true. With an explosion of rebellious rock and roll blasted from all sides.
"So…this is where you disappeared to?" Luna asked, looking around Ness's new hide away as the boy in question sat on the couch, carefully writing down a message with his left hand—the phantom pains too much to bear trying to write it down with his right—
"Yup. This place is awesome."
"And horrific." Selvis stated, shuddering as he poked a doll with a faded smile and dirty dress with his wand, "Why does this place even exist?"
"Who knows? I'm just glad I can relax and think for once." Ness replied, scowling when he messed up the r in his message and moved to grab a pen. The cool metal pushing away the bad memories of using a quill as he relunctly switched back to his right hand.
"How did you even find this place?" Ginny asked, studying an issue of Superman with slight curiosity.
"I followed a living toy—," he trailed off before muttering, "I'll find it later." And resuming his explanation, "Stopped in front of the hallway to get used to the sudden feeling of safety and fell into the room."
"Which just magically appeared to grant you a safe haven." Selvis deadpanned, "Unbelievable-," a knock suddenly cut him off as they looked at the door in surprise.
"Ness. Did you…" Ginny started when Ness shook his head no, "No one knows were we are, well, no one we trust and know-,"
The door opened, revealing a surprised Harry, "How did you-," he started when Selvis pulled him into the room, "Ness found it first. Deal with it." He answered folding his arms as Harry blinked and looked at him. "How do you know about the Room of Requirement?"
Ness frowned, not understanding the odd name. "Room of what now? I just fell in here."
"You what?"
Ness shrugged and resumed writing, "Fell in, I was chasing something, got overwhelmed and—boom! Magical room of calmness!" Harry looked at him in disbelief before he shook his head, "Er, right. Do you think we could use this room for the DA club?"
"Sure. Just give me a heads up to I can lurk in the corner."
"You-,"'
"Harry. I have very few places which make me feel human. Let me have those places." Harry closed his mouth and looked to Ginny for help, she could only shrug her shoulders as Ness resumed his writing.
"So er, what are you writing?" Harry asked, gingerly stepping into the room and studying the army of cozy items around him.
"A warning." Ness replied gingerly showing off the one poster he felt proud of. "Oh my god." Selvis breathed before he tackled Ness in a hug, "Look at you! You're turning into a proper snake!"
"Wha—Selvis!"
"Look Ginny! He's plotting politics!" Selvis squealed, laughing as Harry took the poster and read it aloud.
"As you may know, Umbridge seems to have a habit of knowing every personal plan and attempt to defend ourselves that Harry and sometimes Ness who really just wants peace and quiet that I—Ness who is really sick and tired of this—felt that the attack on Harry's and Selvis's owls that had been used to send personal information might expand to attacking those who are in constant contact with us or worse. Attacking those she believes untrustworthy to her cause of snuffing out the truth.
"The truth that Hogwarts is no longer safe and that our faith in the Ministry is a lie given how many times they have failed us thanks to trying to stay ignorant to the real problem. Be careful with your mail, warn parents and close friends from outside of school that your letters are being read. From, Ness Earthbound who seriously wishes that we can just protest the toad out of school."
"Ingenious." Selvis fake sobbed as Ness laughed and tried to push him away, "I just wanted to warn the others Selvis!"
"By being a scheming snake!"
"Dude!"
"W…what gave you this idea?" Harry asked, turning the poster over in amazement.
"Umbridge." Ness deadpanned, "If she isn't afraid to remove any chance of teaching ourselves self defense for everyone. Then what's stopping her from screwing everyone over to ensure that the truth doesn't get out. She seems like the type of person to go against her own house."
"She's gladly burn it down." Selvis darkly muttered his mood whip lashing as Luna picked up a finished poster and rolled it up, "I'll hang it up on the common board."
"Same." Selvis offered.
"I'll bribe Cedric. Or break into Hufflepuff-,"
"Ness. Bribe Cedric." Ness huffed but nodded under Ginny's stern glare, "Fine mom."
"Is Selvis the-,"
"Lovegood!" Selvis snapped, flushing an angry red as Luna merely smile and hummed, "It's an honest question."
Harry just watched as Selvis grabbed a pillow and threw it a Luna who ducked with a sharp giggle as it hit Ness in the face, prompting him to tackle Selvis with a pillow as the boy screamed and tried to defend himself. "So er…. I'm just going to tell Hermione about this room and-," Harry flinched as a unruly pillow smacked him in the face, earning a brief mutter of, "Right then." Before he left the four to dissolve into a war of pillow fight.
Which turned into a magical pillow fight then a PSI pillow fight as Ness used Paralysis Alpha on Ginny to score a free hit, "Really?!" she demanded, glowering at him as Selvis yelled, "Yes! I'm finally not the only one stunned!" and got paralyzed just because.
They may have ganged up on Ness to beat him into a pulp before they headed for bed. And to break into the Hufflepuff common room before turning in for the night. (Thanks, Selvis for knowing so many secrets about the school!)
This was a terrible idea. Well no. This was a good idea. Harry just wished that he wasn't the teacher who was going to be teaching everyone defense spells. That was their first lesson, a simple Protago and Flipendo practice to see where everyone stood in the room now decorated to teach large groups of students with magic.
Of course, he, Hermione and Ron could safely say they did not expect the class to be evenly split between all four houses. Harry had suspected a couple Slytherins would show up thanks to Ness and his friends speaking up but enough to have an even sized class of almost forty students?
He hadn't been expecting that. He also didn't expect Selvis, Luna, another Slytherin girl and Cedric to step up in helping him organize everything after he shakily announced his plan of splitting up into pairs, one person to practice Protego and the other to practice Flippendo before switching off after a bit.
"Is this a dream?" Hermione mumbled as Selvis organized the Slythrins in his year group as the older Slytherin—Corrinway he believed dealt with the ones who didn't completely trust his status as a teacher, occasionally shooting them looks to behave as Cedric handled his house who were upset at the large amount of Slytherins in the class.
Luna just dreamily provoked her house into behaving and being 'better' than their common enemy while Ginny just shot Harry imploring looks, silently ordering him to mingle with the other houses to encourage and give them pointers.
"Try and hold your wand firm when you cast Protego." Harry advised, easing into his role as a teacher as he adjusted a 3rd year Ravenclaw wand hand, "You want to ensure that nothing gets through your shield, and you can only ensure that if you have a firm grip on your wand when you cast the spell."
"R-right." The girl adjusted her grip on her wand as Selvis studied her opponent, a second year Slytherin who seemed to be trying to mimic the older Slytherins almost lazy and confident cries of, "Protego!" or, "Flipendo!" as they flicked or stabbed the air with their wand.
Performing the spell with near perfection. It was a bit annoying to see them excel much faster than the other houses, but Harry could begrudgingly admit it was a good thing so the few who were having trouble could observe their motions and wand gestures and mimic it, giving him, Hermione and Ron a bit of a breather since there were so many students to work with when their self-appointed house teachers couldn't help them at the moment.
Harry was torn between being relieved and disappointed when it was time for class to end. Once the class was over people would have an opportunity to speak to Harry one-on-one. Harry warned them to be careful when leaving and to try and practice Flippendo and Protego if possible.
"We'll be working on that for a bit before moving onto anti jinxes and counter spells before Christmas Break. Any questions?" he announced, a lump of dread forming at the question obviously brewing on everyone's mind as he tried hard not to look at the small space the Slytherins' had carved out for themselves in the crowd of students.
A couple hands rose up, eager and ready to ask something as Harry picked the one closest to him—Trudy Galston a fifth year Hufflepuff. She seemed a little nervous as she glanced to the group of Slytherins before stating her questions, "What's stopping anyone from ratting us—The Deterrence Aegis out? I wasn't here for the first meeting."
"We have our ways." Hermione assured her. She was going around, collecting names and handing them bewitched coins to people who would be taking this club—no, course seriously in the future and coming back daily.
"What kind of ways?" a Ravenclaw asked, his gaze landing on Selvis and Corrinway who were the ringleader for the Slytherins, "Will they be enough to protect us all from backstabbers?"
And that was the question he had been dreading. Even if he had been wondering the same thing as well, Slytherins didn't have a track record for being on the same side for very long. At least not when they didn't have something in it for them.
"How cute, the birdie's showings its talons." A Slytherin snickered as a boy with a messy tie but sharp eyes stepped forward. "Look around birdbrain, do you honestly think we're in a position to waste such a valuable and free resource of protection?"
"Hasn't stopped you lot before." A Gryffindor—Carl Hopkins pointed out with a bitter scowl.
"And being threatened with evicted from the school hasn't stopped you lot from running head first into trouble and screwing everyone over," someone else retorted.
A couple eyes landed on Harry who snapped out of his daze to try and calm the situation. "Now hold on, t-there right, they're in no position to betray us since we have no idea-," he got steamrolled by a Gryffindor snapping, "Well maybe if you lot would stop pulling underhanded tricks to win we wouldn't need to doubt you!"
"Oh, that's rich coming from the house with two champions in the Tri-Wizard tournament." A Hufflepuff bitterly mocked.
"Actually, the number of underhanded tricks played by the Slytherins only increased when Harry joined. Before it was pure skill and taking advantage of your emotional states." A sixth year Ravenclaw calmly pointed out.
"Emotional states!?" That was the Hufflepuffs,
"Not our fault that Potter and crew feels the need to be the hero every dam-," That was the Slytherins before they were cut off,
"The facts don't lie." From of course, the Ravenclaws.
It spiraled out of control from there, everyone being swept up in the argument as each house bared their mascots fangs and claws, or lack of claws given the Slytherins' snake symbol. Luna and Cedric tried to smack some sense into their house as Selvis sided with his house.
Ginny went all around trying to point out that they all needed help in this situation as Ron and Harry shared dumbfounded looks, not sure what to do or where to stand in this messy argument.
Hermione was just…muttering, glancing at her wand every now and then as if she wanted to create a loud distraction but didn't want to give the Slytherins a reason to claim assault and defend themselves.
Which wouldn't be good since Slytherins seemed to prefer jinxes and hexes and the Ravenclaws would just pull out some experimental spell to screw everyone over.
Harry moved to yell at everyone to shut up, to try and take order back as he realized how everyone was leaning toward blast first talk later when something slammed open. Startling everyone into fearfully looking toward the door before blinking in surprise since it was still closed.
So, what had made such a loud, wooden bang-? "Ness. Have you been hiding in the closet this entire time?" everyone turned their gaze to Luna who was looking at a closet, one that had been pushed against the wall to make room for the large class and forgotten until they needed to put away pillows and padded rugs for those who performed the knock back jinx with a bit more force than necessary.
Indeed, Ness was in the closet, his dull eyes glowing with an eerie calm glint of annoyance as he closed a Gameboy that had probably appeared out of nowhere since if Harry recalled correctly the barrier had destroyed the wiring on the train ride to Hogwarts.
"Well, no one said I had to leave when class started." Ness replied, giving a small shrug as Selvis muttered something then laughed in disbelief.
"He has a point." Ginny offered, glancing at Hermione who looked ready to say something as the boy climbed out of the closet and stretched. "You guys. Are all idiots."
A couple people—Ravenclaws mostly—bristled and moved to say something when Ness held up a finger, "Here we are, stuck facing not one, not two, but three powerful, untouchable enemies and you guys are all squabbling over what house did what."
"Well the Slytherins-," A Hufflepuff started when Ness cut him off, "Have a lot more access to resources than everyone else in this entire room and yet here they are. A whole group of them learning how to defend themselves from a person they all either hate or find annoying." A fog of silence enveloped them all as they took that in, sheepishly remembering that almost all Slytherins were rich kids with a lot of politic, cunning power on their side.
"You guys are all here because you can't learn how to defend yourselves without help or want someone to instruct you, so you don't blow something up. But the Slytherins? There here because they want to be and understand that they'll need allies in the future."
Harry flinched as Ness quickly added, "And don't start fussing over them using you guys to protect themselves, we all need allies inside this school. Something they don't have given their track record and even bias of everyone hating them for growing up into villains and them hating Muggleborns."
Satisfied that everyone had gotten the main message, Ness smiled, saying, "Besides, think of this as a learning experience. You guys could swap potion recipes to create defensive gear or figure out ways to kick Umbridge off her high horse."
"Better idea, we kick her off a cliff." Selvis offered, a maniacal grin on his face as everyone gave small, unsure nods of agreement then tried to muffle surprised snorts of laughter as Selvis darkly added, "She must pay for injuring Kur."
A couple, "Here-heres!" Rose up into the air, courtesy of the Hufflepuff students as Hermione resumed handing out coins and collecting signatures before allowing everyone to leave.
"The next meeting date will show up on the back of the coin, so keep it with you at all times if possible!" Hermione yelled, looking quite pleased with herself as a couple 3rd year Ravenclaws looked at the coin in surprise then put their heads together to form a plan to improve it.
"Well! I'd say that went pretty well," Hermione stated, looking pleased with herself as the stragglers—Ginny, Selvis, Luna, sort of Ness, Ron, Harry and herself cleaned up the room before turning in for the night.
"Define well." Ron grumbled, working with Luna to neatly cram the pillows back into the closet.
"No one died." Ness offered, happily nudging a pile of dirt with his foot as he played his logic defying Gameboy.
"Yea, but a fist fight nearly broke out." Harry pointed out while rolling up a rug. A small part of himself was blaming himself for letting that happen, for getting swept up in the obvious questions of Slytherin's trust and prejudice but a larger part was blaming himself for not being a better leader and messing up his chance by stammering himself into silence.
"Barely." Selvis snorted, "What self-respecting Slytherin would resort to muggle-,"
"Selvis." Ginny warned, shooting the Slytherin a look as Selvis huffily corrected himself, "Peasant fighting styles? That would be the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs."
Ron opened his mouth to retort when Luna quickly hummed, "He has a point, Ravenclaws would be whipping out spells and counter jinxes if it came to fight."
"So, would Gryffindor." Harry tried to point out when Ginny wearily deadpanned, "Right, so that's why we lions have a track record of resorting to fists first if we're close enough to the person who ticked us off, right?"
"Can we just say that everyone was ready to physically hurt someone?" Ness asked, not bothering to look up from his screen as he nudged the dirt into a corner, "Tensions are high, people are scared, and we don't need pointless squabbling about who's house did what."
"Ness has a point." Hermione pointed out, glancing up from her self-appointed task of reviewing every name on her list, "Everyone was out for blood, that Slytherin boy tried to rightfully defend himself-," Ron and Harry suppressed an automatic eye roll or a snort, "Ravenclaw went to undermine it and the Slytherins got defensive and went on the attack."
"Ah, so you are smart—Ow! Ginny!" Selvis rubbed his bruised arm as Ness closed his Gameboy and moved to usher the Slytherin boy outside, mumbling something about taking a quick walk around the school before heading to bed.
They watched as the door closed before resuming their conversation, a small seed of guilt forming at the relief of not having Selvis in the room. "I still say the meeting went well though." Hermione muttered once they finished cleaning up the room and were preparing to leave once Harry gave the clear that Filch or Umbridge weren't lurking in the shadows.
"Of course, you do." Ron grumbled, "Even though we nearly had a blood bath on our hands."
"You are so pessimist, Ron." Ginny huffed, giving her older brother a quick jab and shooting him a look, "The only reason why the fight even happened was because of everyone's prejudice and beliefs being forced to work in the same room."
"It's the first meeting." Luna added, seeming a bit serious as she tapped her rainbow-colored nails against one another in an idly fashion, "Once everyone feels safe enough to look past the houses everyone's in they'll stop being arguments."
Harry forced a small nod before changing the subject, "We can leave, although you should be careful Luna, Filch is lurking around Ravenclaw tower."
"No problem." Luna hummed, stepping outside as the Gryffindors headed up to the dorm in silence. Harry deeply feeling worried about the arguments not breaking out. It had been proven many times before that putting a Lion and a Snake in the same room was a terrible idea, and even with this grand wide threat looming over them. What was stopping the Slytherins from defending themselves and taking a chance with Umbridge's protection? Nothing. That's what.
Even though the sight of every house warily studying Umbridge at breakfast was welcoming, it just added more doubt to Harry's growing thoughts.
All hail Ness's logic defying Gameboy! Even though I sort of forgot how I made that work... oops.
Anyway, since Chuggaconroy's been doing an Earthbound let's play I've been learning a bunch of things about Earthbound that I didn't know about. Like the fact that healing PP is super hard in the middle of battle since there's barely any PP heal items but made a bit easier if your walking around dungeons thanks to magical butterflies, that Jeff is actually shy and timid (I thought he was unintentionally aloof given how smart he was and his connections to a famous scientist.), how people could use PSI if they were influenced by Giygas and just how serious it all is.
having played traditional themed rpgs' having monsters wander around stirring up trouble in a modern world with people having no clue how to handle it makes the mission of stopping Giygas feel a lot more scary and important since it's now implied that the hero is the ONLY capable person with the skills needed to save the day. Which is the complete opposite in most rpgs since it's usually, everyone CAN try and stop the bad guy since they have skills and powers, but they all lack the correct information to do it.
That aside, thanks for the reviews! :D
M1nhTre37- Sadly, until he can head home for break he's going to have to settle with the magical room of no magic allowed. Which has comic books.
HelenTheMoon- He was actually threatening to put them on if his awesome glasses effect didn't work. But yea, Umbridge was in for a world of hurt if she went on. Preferably in the form of her backing up into a wall after Kale faked a punch to her face. :)
Ed the guest- Yay! Selvis isn't annoying! I was sort of worried about that since I originally created him to be the exposition guy to handle how Ness could learn about Harry's problems and story plot without needing to stick like glue to him until I got comfortable with writing Ness and Harry.
