Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. The members of the Secret Sealing Club are the creations of ZUN.

Marisa was going to teach DADA, but she failed her English test. So much for that, eh?

Chapter 07 – Gathering the Curious From All Around Hogwarts

"Professor Merry?"

It was the second Wednesday of September, and the morning Divination lesson had just concluded. Having told Neville to go on ahead first, Harry now approached his Divination Professor with some trepidation.

It's not every day you ask a Professor to essentially help you with what might soon be illegal activities.

"Yes, Mr Potter. I have foreseen your coming." The professor turned to Harry, and spoke in her distinct ethereal voice.

She did say she wasn't a Seer, but I'm never really sure.

"I can indeed teach you Occlumency, if you still so wish. Monday, at seven p.m., in my office. Before that, there is some preparatory work you need to do." She waved her wand, and a piece of parchment floated over to Harry, who caught it–

Hey, wait a second–

"That is a pass for the Restricted Section, from which I would like you to borrow Occlumency: The Hidden Arte. It is a short book, so I would like you to read, or at least skim, all of it before our lesson."

Harry's mouth opened and closed several times, before he came to his senses. "Professor, that's not what I wanted to ask."

"No?" The Divination professor gave a small cough, holding up her hand to her mouth. "Give that back here, then."

But I–

Harry wanted to say he did want Occlumency lessons after all, when he was saved by Professor Usami.

"Stop playing around with the student, Merry." Professor Usami admonished. "As for you, Mr Potter, go ahead.

Harry found his voice. "Yes, professor. I wanted to ask if I could borrow the Divination classroom during the evenings."

The assistant professor raised an eyebrow. "For what purpose?"

"Er, to practice magic, professor. Um, and it's not just going to be me, either. There'll be a small group," Harry eked out lamely.

The professors exchanged a look, in which, Harry guessed, a silent conversation was held.

It was Merry who spoke next. "And you all plan to meet on a regular basis, like a club or society?"

"Yes, professor," Harry said carefully.

The professors shared another look.

"Well, then, go ahead. You have our permission." Renko nodded. "The second classroom, the one next to this, will be free for you and your club to use."

Harry mildly wanted to protest that it wasn't a club, but he decided not to say anything.

"Just so you know, we'll be putting up Monitoring Charms of our own, to make sure that no funny business is occurring. We trust that you're not going to abuse this privilege, Mr Potter." Merry followed up.

"Thanks. I mean, thank you, professors." Harry nodded. Inwardly, his thoughts were set more in grim determination.

Good, the "where" is done.

"And if you're going to be teaching, Mr Potter, we would appreciate if you leave a note of which spells your club will be performing in the Charmed envelope behind the door."

What! I didn't even say I was teaching! Is she using Legilimency or something?

Merry tapped her forehead and gave a small smile. "I will see you on Monday evening in this classroom, Mr Potter. If you wish to be discreet about it, I find remedial Divination to be a good enough excuse."

Recognising the dismissal, Harry left.

~~[q]~~

"There goes a troubled young man," Merry mused.

"No less troubled than we were at that age," Renko shrugged back, still moving around to tidy the classroom. "Did you really have to tease him like that?"

"Yeah, yeah," Merry pouted back. "Don't be such a spoilsport, Renko."

Renko sighed. "No wonder Reimu says you and Yukari are more alike than–" She broke off as a distinct aura of foreboding instantly settled on her. "Right. Sorry."

When no reply was forthcoming, Renko turned around to spot a dark expression on her partner's face. "Merry? You still angry about the Yakumo?"

"You know I'm always unhappy about the Yakumo," Merry joked, but only half in jest. "Not about that. The border…the border around Harry Potter is different from other students."

"Different how?" After several long years together, Renko knew better than to make pointless statements like "are you sure you aren't just seeing things?"

"It's just different. I can't put my finger on it, but it reminds me of…something." Merry lifted a finger, and put it back down. "I just can't think of it at the moment."

~~[q]~~

Let's see… Orreries Sun: Advanced Astro…no, not you… Origins of Thelema: Crowley's Ma…nope.

Harry ran a hand down the row of books, savouring the way the spines bumped against his fingers.

Oriental Dark Fl…nope. Offerings of…An Ode to…Occlumency: The Hidden Arte…there it is.

True to what Professor Merry said, it was not a thick tome of any kind. Rather, the unassuming book, had the title letters not been printed in gold (now fading), looked more like somebody's personal diary than anything, albeit a fancy black leather-bound one.

Harry was about to pull it out when a pale hand reached forward and rested on it. Following the hand up the arm, his eyes now rested on a pale-looking girl with messy dark-brown hair.

Green trim…a Slytherin?

"I found this first, so you're going to have to wait," Harry said evenly. Inasmuch as he hadn't dealt with many other Slytherins other than Draco Malfoy and the Quidditch team, all of those cases still hadn't given him a good impression of the house.

Then again, neither did everyone else when I was outed as a Parselmouth. Or when I became a Triwizard Tournament champion.

He did not miss the way the girl's eyes flashed upwards at his scar, and he swore inwardly as he realized he forgot to apply his usual charms.

Her grip tightened on the book, and she stared defiantly up at Harry.

Merlin's ballsack, I can't believe I have to deal with this so early in the day.

"I said," Harry continued, now with barely concealed irritation, "you're going to have to wait." At the final word, he pushed a bit of magic into his action, and yanked the book forcefully to his side.

With a twitch, the girl's hand withdrew, as if the book had suddenly been burning hot.

"Occlumency and wandless magic." The girl spat the words at him, albeit quietly. "Someone's preparing."

Enough of this.

Drawing his wand, Harry traced a circle over his head, then stared down the angry Slytherin girl. "Silencio Circumta. Of course I'm preparing. I'm going to come after your master and pay back him back for everything he's made me suffer." He stepped forward and planted himself eye to eye with the girl.

Visualizing Slytherin's basilisk in his head (for it was a good a snake as any at the moment), he hissed at the girl. "She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

The girl involuntarily took a few steps back, although her eyes were still burning with anger.

"The rumors from the upper years were true, huh? But you're not the only one who's suffered because of him, Potter! And some of us will lose no matter which side wins anyway!"

She drew her wand, and seemed to be on the verge of firing off a curse before she seemingly remembered that they were in a library. With a final snarl, she turned tail and ran.

Tch, she better not blab to the Slytherins. Or worse, Umbridge.

Worse still, he had another lesson soon, so he didn't even have the freedom to head to the Room and blast conjured furniture to pieces.

"Harry? Are you alright?"

And then this girl always seems to have impeccable timing.

"Luna Lovegood." Harry turned around and greeted.

"Harry Potter." Luna nodded back. "You look like you were trying to set the books on fire with your mind. Which is not very nice, because the books never did anything to you."

"They screamed at me back in First Year," Harry shrugged back. "Hey, since you're here…hmm, wait a sec." With his wand already out, Harry added the now-very- familiar Notice-me-not Charm to himself, while Luna watched impassively, then opened his mouth to speak.

Unfortunately, he did that before his brain had the chance to supply the appropriate words.

"I notice you didn't actually say yes or no when I asked if you were all right." Luna remarked, when Harry failed to form coherent words.

"I uh," Harry mumbled.

Keep it together, Harry.

"Right. Sorry." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm forming a club where we can all practice Defence, since Umbridge is being, er, useless. Do you want to come?"

"Harry Potter forms a club," Luna hummed to herself. "Why invite me, though?"

Why invite you, indeed. What did you say the last time? About being a person that convinced me that I was still sane?

"It's going to be an adventure." Harry said, with a faint smile. He ran a hand through his messy hair. "Since I'm not going to have any idea what I'm doing."

Wait a moment, that's not what I wanted to say!

"That's very honest of you, Harry." Luna smiled at him.

"Well, I did say that I was going to invite you to any more adventures. Figured this'll be one of them."

Now that is what I should have said in the first place.

"You did say that," Luna nodded back. "I'm happy, Harry. When's the first meeting?"

And now Luna's being direct for once. I think I'm a few cards short of a deck here.

"Friday, eight o'clock. The second Divination classroom." As Harry raised a hand to rub his head again, he caught sight of his watch, which told him he was going to be late for Transfiguration if he didn't hurryup and leave now. "Right, I need to go!" He swore silently further as he realized he still hadn't checked out The Hidden Arte.

As she watched Harry leave in a hurry, Luna shook her head, a small smile on her face.

~~[q]~~

Arriving in a huff to the Transfiguration classroom, Harry looked around wildly for a seat before spotting the friendly face of Neville, who patted the chair next to his. Wincing at Professor McGonagall's stern expression at his near-lateness, he slid into his seat.

In between bouts of intoning "Evanesco" at his mouse, Harry told Neville about the Club.

"Good," Neville nodded, looking eager. "What're we going to learn first?"

"Forget about spells, the first thing is teach everyone how to keep a secret," Harry grumbled. "The Hufflepuffs need to learn how to not spread stuff around." Harry glanced around. "Also, McGonagall's looking this way, cast something."

"Evanesco," Neville said forcefully. His grey mouse became mildly paler, but did not vanish.

Harry frowned. From vague memories, he knew that Neville's family had been on the verge of believing that Neville was a Squib before he had finally showed signs of magic.

But he aces the class in Herbology. Hell, he could probably do well in Potions if Snape wasn't such an nasty git.

Putting aside the beginnings to an as-yet-unformed train of thought, Harry focused on his own mouse, which was brown.

Listen to the call. Connect to your magic. Gently shape the universe to your liking.

Everything is the same, except this mouse, which is now gone.

"Evanesco." Harry intoned.

The mouse disappeared completely.

"Woah, since when did you get this good?" Neville said, surprised at Harry's results.

"Since…I don't know?" Harry hesitantly replied. It was at this moment where Professor McGonagall swept over and noted the distinct lack of rodents in the tray in front of Harry.

"Five points to Gryffindor for being the first to completely Vanish your mouse, Mr Potter." The Professor said, approval loud and clear in her voice. In slightly lower tones, she directed her next words at Harry. "It is good to see you finally applying yourself for once." She swept away.

Unnoticed by Harry, but quietly noted by Neville, Hermione was now shooting him looks bordering between curiosity and jealousy.

"So, how did you do it?" Neville asked, trying to sound casual.

"Professor Merry, I mean Hearn's, meditation." Harry said slowly. "It's about…finding your magic, then using it to change the world. I think."

Neville still looked doubtful, but he still settled into the distant look of someone trying to peer within themselves.

By the lesson's end, Harry, who had enjoyed good progress with mice, found that kittens were much more persistent, while Neville had only a tail and a pair of tiny whiskers left to deal with.

"Lunch? I'm starving."

"Lunch." Neville nodded.

"Just a minute though, I'm going to put this on. Prasentia L– "

Unfortunately, Harry's casting of the one Charm that would have allowed them to make a clean getaway was interrupted by none other than Hermione Granger, who was now striding over with a stony expression on her face.

"Harry! Get back here!"

Notice-me-not doesn't bloody work if somebody's already paying attention to you. Damn it.

"Hello, Hermione." Despite his irritation, Harry tried his best to keep his voice level.

"Harry, what's going on with you? You've been avoiding us for two whole weeks already, and you're suddenly an ace at Transfiguration? If I find out you've been doing something illegal–"

"It's called practicing and studying, Hermione." Harry wearily said. "I think you already know what those words mean."

"Stop trying to be funny!" Hermione's eyes were now beginning to shine with tears, and she lowered her voice somewhat. "Is this like with the Diary? Have you been–"

Really, the moment I become better than you at something, you immediately think I'm possessed?

"Don't you dare finish that sentence." Harry held up a warning finger, his voice now cold as the winter wind. "I don't understand why you keep bothering me when I've already told you to leave me alone."

"But–"

Harry tuned out the rest of her words as he pushed his mind to figure out a way to disengage from the situation. He was on the verge of simply Stunning her, damn the consequences, when he heard Neville's low, quiet murmur.

"The moment she's distracted, do your thing on the both of us and we can get out of here."

Neville?

But Harry's friend had quietly taken out his wand, and a single incantation, fresh from recent memory, was on his lips.

"Evanesco."

Harry's mouth dropped open in sheer shock.

Mid-rant, Hermione's blouse vanished, to reveal what lay beneath. Naturally, pandemonium instantly ensued.

Pausing for only the briefest of moments to savour the view, Harry quickly drew his wand, focusing with laser precision on the expression of his once-close friend.

In the instant where Hermione's eyes darted downward, Harry casted, bringing all of his intention to bear. He had never casted the Charm on anyone else before, let alone two people at once, but he desperately needed this to work.

Right, I want nothing more than to NOT BE SEEN right now. Me and Neville. Not be seen. NOT BE SEEN!

"Praesentia Litura." With an expenditure of will and magic, the Boy-Who-Lived erased two presences from the corridor, and they made their escape down to the Great Hall where lunch awaited.

~~[q]~~

The two boys were silent as they ate, before Harry spoke the first thoughts that came to his mind.

"Merlin, Nev, you really must have wanted to see under Hermione's shirt."

He turned and looked at Neville's reddening face, before the both of them burst out into laughter.

"My gran's going to crucify me. I'm probably going to get detention." Neville's head drooped slightly, even though his shoulders were still shaking slightly. "I don't even know why I did that."

Harry gave a lopsided grin. "You know, if you had a crush on Hermione, I could have–"

"Shut up, Harry." Neville spoke. His forehead was now to the table, his hair dangerously close to receiving a treatment of mashed potato.

"All the same, I appreciate what you did back there."

"It was nothing." Neville's voice was still muffled, on account of him still speaking to his knees.

"Nothing, eh?" A new voice spoke up.

"I would say, brother of mine, that took some serious bollocks–"

"Big brass ones, maybe."

Harry nodded at the arrival of the Weasley twins, who had each given Neville a clap on the back.

"So, does Hogwarts need to be on the lookout now–"

"–for this newly awakened beast?"

Harry looked over at Neville, who had not moved from his facedown position. "I highly doubt it, but you might want to keep an eye out or two."

There was a round of chuckles.

"Jolly good, Harry."

"It looks like the legacy of pranking is in safe hands."

"With that said, ickle Harrikins–" The twin's voices became a notch more serious.

"Our younger brother, Ron, wishes to enquire if you're still rightly poshed at him."

Harry looked from Fred to George's (or George's to Fred's) face. Recalling the words he had seen on a toy a while back, he gave his response deadpan. "Outlook not so good."

The twins glanced at each other. "Right-o."

"Understood."

"Also, we thought it might behoove you to know–"

"–that our sister dearest has made Seeker–"

"–and an absolute git nearly beat out our brother for Keeper."

"Duly noted with thanks." Harry said dully. It wasn't as if he cared much about Quidditch at this point, but it still wouldn't be polite to say that to the face of others.

"Anyway, we got to run, but–"

"–don't be a stranger, Harry."

Snapping off simultaneous mock salutes, which Harry returned, the twins departed, only to be replaced with a swish of tartan distinctive of Gryffindor's Head of House.

Oh, great.

~~[q]~~

The rest of the week passed without incident, except for Neville's detention with McGonagall, in which he was forced to clean up the droppings of all the animals used during the lessons.

Now, as eight o'clock drew closer, Harry made his way to the second Divination classroom, and found it unlocked. Immediately, he set to shifting and stacking furniture off to the sides, aided by some wandless, wordless magic.

Or at least, a bit of it. It didn't come as easily as it did the first time, or even during the times he had practiced in the Room of Requirement, but it came nonetheless, with plenty of banging and scraping as he forced the desks and chairs into a sort-of neat stack.

Off to the side lay a small stack of cushioned mats, and affixed was a note.

Thought this might be useful for your club meetings. The Combat Magic teachers back at Suzunone High always laid them out when they were teaching Stuns or rolls.

Remember, no funny business.

– Your club sponsors

Harry shoved the note in his pocket.

Suzunone High? Must be where the Professors used to teach or something.

He filed the tidbit away as the club members began to arrive: Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbott.

One by one, they arrived, and sat on the chairs that Harry laid out beforehand in a small circle. Yes, it was a small group, but the classroom was not especially big, which meant that they would not feel dwarfed, which was good.

When all of them were present, Harry began to speak.

"Well, thanks for coming down here," he started. All five of them were staring at him intently, now.

No going back now, I suppose. Time to get myself together.

"We all know that Umbridge has been crap at teaching Defence." This got a nod from Ernie, and a chuckle from Luna and Susan. "Which is why we're taking matters into our own hands."

As Harry spoke, he began to sound more confident.

"But I think there's a more important reason than passing OWLs, which I think all of you got a glimpse of last year, at the–" Harry found his voice about to crack, but he took a deep breath and steadied himself, "at the end of the Triwizard Tournament."

Graveyard. Green light. Cruciatus Curse.

"There no other way to say it: Voldemort is back."

He saw Neville and Hannah flinch at the name; Susan's and Ernie's expressions tightened.

"He's back, and that's why we should learn to fight." Harry took another breath, and spoke the truth from the depths of his heart. "I'll be serious with all of you: to face him, or even to face Death Eaters, all of whom want nothing but to kill, capture, or torture you – at that time, in the place where I saw Voldemort build himself a new body? I was scared out of my mind, and nothing, really nothing, could have prepared me for that."

"But that's why I'm volunteering to teach." Harry continued. "Not just to give the finger to Umbridge, even though it's a nice reason by itself. It's to try and prepare others, so that when the time comes, even if you're scared, you can fight it, and become a little braver, a little faster, and a little stronger. That's all."

Silence reigned over the room, before Luna began clapping. Before long, all five of them were applauding.

Harry held up a hand, and they stopped. "Alright, let's make it official. I know Hannah was the one that initially suggested I teach, but for formality's sake–"

"Yes, Harry, you're the leader of this whole thing." Susan spoke up, to more chuckles again. "I suppose everyone agrees?" When no objections were forthcoming, Ernie shrugged. "I guess that settles it."

"Right, since I'm officially the leader, the first order of business, as I said, is for everyone to sign this." Harry brandished the scroll that he had been working on in the Room.

"You want everyone to write down their names?" Ernie narrowed his eyes. "If this list was found–"

"I've been working on this the entire week. It's a magical contract of sorts; whoever signs it won't be allowed to even accidentally blab about this, which means it'll keep you safe, as well. It even extends to things like Legilimency, which Snape and Dumbledore know–"

"Wait, a magical contract?" Susan spoke in alarm. "And Snape is a Legilimens?"

Harry nodded savagely. "Yeah. Professor Merry told me."

The Hufflepuffs exchanged a glance. "Well, this complicates matters. Anyway, give it here; I've seen a bit of contract law from my Father's books, I can figure this out." Ernie gestured for the scroll, which Harry handed over.

He found himself looking into Neville's steady gaze. "You do know that magical contracts are serious business, right?"

"Yeah." Harry met Neville's look with equal measure.

"My Gran always said…well…but I trust you." To the Hufflepuffs, Neville gestured. "Give it here. I'm signing it. Anyone have a quill?"

There was a patting of pockets before Luna retrieved what looked like a parrot-feather quill from her bag. "Huh," Neville remarked. In any case, he signed his same steadily, then passed it to his left to Luna, who also signed without protest.

"Ernie–"

"I'll sign it." Susan spoke. "If Harry's going to be teaching us, it's fair to respect his wishes. The words of the contract are also reasonable." She looked up at him. "I hope I'm not making a mistake trusting you, Harry."

Harry gave a single nod. "All it does is to prevent you from accidentally or deliberately revealing the existence of the club, which includes hiding it in your mind now that I know mind reading is possible with magic."

After Susan signed, the other two Hufflepuffs followed suit, and the lesson began.

"The first spell we're going over is the Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus."

"Really? Something that elementary?" Ernie piped up.

Harry smirked. With a quick flick of his wand, Ernie's wand was sent flying, and Harry snatched it out of the air, bringing two wands down to point squarely at Ernie's chest. "Sometimes the basics are the best."

"I'm starting to regret my decision to come," Ernie grumbled, good-naturedly.

Vanishing clothes to make a distraction is one of those things that just seem like the logical conclusion of what happens when you need a distraction and the Vanishing Spell is fresh in your mind.

Jealous Hermione, while generally exaggerated in fanfics, is not baseless; see the end of chapter nine in Half-Blood Prince for the canon example. With that said, she really didn't deserve what was done to her here.

Harry is being kind of a dick to someone who was once one of his best friends. Then again, he's not a perfect human being.

Not all mysterious Slytherins are Daphne Greengrass.

Review please!