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

Chapter 11 – Kagome, Kagome

"Illusio Mantellum." Harry tapped his head smartly with his wand. Whereas Moody's charm months earlier had felt cold and clammy, like an egg fresh out of the fridge, his own spell felt more like he was standing under a pleasantly warm waterfall. In front of him, he saw Neville, Luna, and Susan do the same.

Maybe it feels different because it's my own? Or is it because I'm more attuned to magic now?

"Luna, try again–I can still see your legs. Neville, Susan, you're both good." Harry nodded approvingly. "Everyone ready? Okay, come a bit closer. Prasentia Litura. Right, let's get going."

~~[q]~~

"You mean to say," Susan said incredulously, "that Luna just came up and talked to you, in her usual cryptic self, and you just said everything?"

Harry sighed at what was probably going to be the theme of the meeting. "Yes."

~~[q]~~

Disillusionment and Notice-Me-Not. It wasn't a full substitute for an Invisibility Cloak, but it would have to do: four Fifth-Years wouldn't fit under it, not at the same time, and Harry himself was slightly reluctant to reveal the existence of it…so blatantly. Besides, it had been a valuable learning-slash-teaching opportunity for the Club.

And it's not good to rely on something that can be stolen or taken away from you.

The four teenagers crept out of the disused classroom, and made their way to Ravenclaw tower.

"Remember: two knocks if a student is coming, three knocks if somehow Filch if it's Filch. And four knocks if you're somehow spotted–run up here and get them out if you need to."

With that, Susan took her position at the foot of the spiral stairs, and Neville took his midway up.

"Good luck, Harry." Neville nodded to him as he went past.

~~[q]~~

"Not to argue against myself, but maybe Harry was just being considerate of Luna's feelings? So if we shouldn't have brought this up…" Hannah said reasonably.

As one, the group looked over at the person in question, who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, as usual.

Noticing the stares, Luna stared back. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm just glad we all get to make a plan now. A first adventure together!" She clapped her hands. "So, what's it going to be?"

Collectively deciding that the issue was as good as settled, Harry decided to move the conversation along. "Well, first things first, I'm just putting it out there that this is likely going to involve (a), furtiveness," Harry glanced over at Ernie, "and (b), some degree of, uh, rule-breaking. So if anyone's not comfortable–"

"Well, we are Prefects, after all." Ernie exchanged a glance with Hannah. "Officially, we can't endorse anything of the sort, and we most certainly risk getting caught in, say, an illicit expedition to Ravenclaw Tower."

"I also want to say that I'm not exactly the most…comfortable with all this, either. So count me out for any pranks or sneaking around," Hannah ventured hesitantly.

~~[q]~~

"Once it was the sun, now it belongs with the rain. Yet fire, heat, and light all remain. A single letter is what needs to be said, and you'll simply find it looking atop your head!"

Harry's mouth ran dry. Forget the Sphynx last year, they should have just brought the door to the maze instead. He turned from the eagle-headed knocker to Luna, who was already deep in thought.

"Hmm, I wonder if the door knows you're not a Ravenclaw? Its riddles aren't usually this long. Rhyming couplets, too," Luna mused.

"Not the time, Luna," Harry gritted out. He could already feel the Disillusionment wearing off, and while he could easily apply it again, he needed to conserve all his energy for the next stage of the plan.

Automatically, he found himself turning his head upwards to the ceiling. The extremely plain and slightly grimy ceiling. The ceiling which did not hold any letters of any kind of alphabet whatsoever.

Although the castle was relatively cool this time of the year, beads of sweat began to form on Harry's brow. He couldn't fail here. Not in front of Luna, nor Neville nor Susan. Not as a leader of the club, and not as the person who agreed to this plan.

~~[q]~~

"I think we can rule out direct magic on them. That'll definitely be noticed." Ernie brought up.

"No prank items, too," Susan said immediately. "They'll just think it's some joke, when it's supposed to be more serious."

"Agreed," Neville spoke. "We're not trying to be the Weasley Twins here. It needs to be something more…subtle? Is that the word?"

"Scare them, then," Hannah piped up. "What? Just put up a scary message on the Common Room wall or something. 'We know you're been stealing.' Maybe red paint, like blood?"

Several heads turned to look at her. "Blimey, Hannah…" Susan said. "Remind me to never piss you off."

"But that's a good idea, though." Harry interjected. "The only problem is that if we just scare them, it might not be enough. There needs to be direct action as well."

"Yeah, we need to get her things back too. I don't suppose we can just summon them?" Neville said.

"Just summon…" Images of a Firebolt and several flying tables came to him.

"Well, Harry's quite good at the Summoning Charm, isn't he?" Luna said airily. "He can even perform it wandlessly." She said it as if it was perfectly normal.

"Of course he can." Ernie said dully. "This is ridiculous." Nods were coming from the rest of the club members.

"Wait, you all just believe Luna?" Harry said incredulously.

"Harry, the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing aside, you can't deny that you've done some pretty amazing things over the past few years. Can you really blame us?" Neville said, ever the voice of reason.

Harry sighed. "I guess not."

~~[q]~~

Harry looked away from the ceiling, which was providing no clues, and turned to scan everything above eye level. Finding no obvious clues whatsoever, he turned his thoughts inward. Looking atop your head…maybe not above my head right now, but something more general. The sky? The stars? The moon? What? What?

Beside him, Luna was, as always, her calm, serene self. Suddenly, she spoke. "Aha."

"You got it?"

"Harry, look here for a moment." He turned, and Luna brought her hands up to his face.

"Luna?"

"Just checking." Almost tenderly, she reached upwards and brushed away his fringe, and a short finger from a small hand laid traced the jagged shape of his scar.

A million volts of electricity seemed to run down Harry's spine.

"What…what are you–"

"The door's not really being fair to you, since you don't take Ancient Runes." She withdrew her hands, leaving Harry with a mild feeling of emptiness, and turned back to the door. "The answer is Sowilo of the Younger Futhark."

"Good luck." The door greeted, and swung open to admit them.

Deciding to leave the questions for later, Harry entered the Ravenclaw common room.

~~[q]~~

"And how do you plan on getting inside without being spotted?" Ernie questioned. "I say 'you', because I am sitting out–"

"Yes, Ernie, we get it." Harry said. "I'm not going to ask prefects to break the rules."

"But everyone else is fair game, huh." Neville pointed out.

"Stop being obtuse on purpose, Nev," Harry chided. "I won't force anyone to come along, and I won't think less of anyone if they don't. And to answer the original question, we use the Disillusionment Charm." Which I specially read about and learnt beforehand, because I already knew that we'd need to get around unnoticed, Harry thought to himself.

"That is a Sixth-Year spell, Harry," Susan said. "Unless you can cast it all of us, which will take a lot of magic, it's not going to happen."

"That's why I'm going to teach everyone here the spell," Harry raised a finger to forestall objections. "The Patronus was NEWT level, and it's possible for a Third Year. Professor Lupin even told me at the time it was harder for me to learn as compared to others, because Dementors would affect me more strongly."

"More strongly?" Hannah asked.

"My worst memory was…worser, I guess, than many other people's." Harry shrugged.

"And what might that be?" Ernie was still sceptical. Both Hannah and Neville shot him a look, which he ignored. "What? He brought it up."

"It was Voldemort killing my parents, Ernie." He did not miss the way the entire group recoiled at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. "Do you want to hear the last words of my Dad? He said 'Run, Lily! I'll–'"

Neville silently laid a firm hand on his arm, and Harry looked over at his friend and stopped short. "Huh?"

"I think we got the point, Harry." Indeed, Ernie's had turned pale, and Hannah's hands were at her mouth in shock. Susan, too, looked as if she was carefully controlling her emotions.

"Sorry, guys." Harry stood. "Didn't mean to scare you like that. But my point is that what Year you're in doesn't matter. You just need practice, and you can practice anything until you get good at it."

~~[q]~~

The Ravenclaw common room was wide and circular. The walls held arched windows, and was adorned with silks of blue and bronze. The ceiling was domed, painted with stars that were also reflected in the midnight-blue carpet. Small couches, tables and bookshelves occupied the rest of the space, and short steps lead to other sections of the room which held more tables.

In a niche opposite the door stood a statue that Harry assumed to be of Rowena Ravenclaw. The niche itself was flanked by two sets of stairs, which Harry assumed led up to the dormitories.

Harry walked up and looked into the statue's eyes. On her head, there was a strange circlet or tiara of some sort, and on it was etched the words: "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure." And that's not a tiara. It's a diadem, isn't it? Ravenclaw's Diadem, said to possess the ability to improve one's mental faculties.

…wait, 'diadem'?

"Harry? Can you help me stick the parchment?" Luna's voice snapped him out of his reverie.

When that was done, Harry faced the statue and the pair of doors, and took a deep breath.

He had ran through the meditation to attune to magic often enough now, what with all of his training sessions and Occlumency lessons. It felt familiar, the knowledge that he could simply affect the world with his thoughts alone feeling like a balm.

Listen to the call.

He raised his wand to the starting position for the Summoning Charm. If he could summon his Firebolt, all the way from his trunk, while at a stadium on the grounds…

Imagine what he could do now, now that he was in tune with himself.

All of Luna's stolen belongings. Every single one. I will see them returned. I will see them come to me. He held the image in his mind's eye, and cast.

"Accio items stolen from Luna Lovegood." It was not loud, but the certainty that reality would obey him remained all the same. With a series of loud bangs, numerous items immediately began to collect at his feet, at the base of Rowena Ravenclaw's statue.

Immediately, Harry was hit with a wave of noticeable fatigue, and he felt his knees bending, his arm resting on them to keep himself upright.

If I'm already here, I might as well make it more thorough, right? Might help hide the fact that it's only Luna's items, too.

"Accio items stolen by bullies." More items came zooming forward, and yet another wave of fatigue hit.

Well, I supposed I never had to use this much energy on a singlespell before.

He dearly wanted to take a nap in the comfortable-looking common room, but Luna seized him arm in a surprisingly tight grip. "Harry."

"Yeah, I know, I know." He swore; he had not accounted for the fact that his spell might wake up the entire house. "How're you going to get out of this? Come back later when they're all asleep again?"

"Don't you worry about me. You need to leave, now. Oh, and Disillusion me again. Quick." Harry mustered the energy to do so, feeling almost spent at this point, and Luna hurriedly shoved him towards the exit. "Now go. Don't worry, I'll take care of this."

"But what if–"

"Don't worry, Harry. You've done enough. More than enough." Luna looked as if she wanted to say more, but the sound of footsteps could now be heard. "Quick, quick!"

As Harry exited the room, the last thing he heard was Luna, quietly murmuring the words of the Notice-Me-Not Charm.

~~[q]~~

As always, the morning followed the night, and it was the middle of breakfast when Harry and Neville entered the Great Hall, as was routine by now. Thankfully, as he scanned the four House tables, he could see that Luna was quietly eating by herself, seemingly as per normal. Yet, he got the distinct feeling that the Ravenclaws were on edge.

"There's a few Ravenclaws who seem to be staring at you when you're not looking," Neville said quietly, as they made to eat their breakfast. Harry, with his back to the table, sighed.

"More than the usual?"

"More than the usual. You didn't tell any of them, right?"

"I don't know any Ravenclaws well enough to confide in. Except the obvious." Harry started heaping eggs and bacon on his plate, and pointedly ignored a certain Weasley, who was currently wolfing down his own food a few seats away. Yes, yes, I know, he absentmindedly though to himself. Soon.

"I think they're Fifth Years. One of them's…Terry Boot, I think his name was." Neville's brows were furrowed as he searched his memory.

Harry nearly choked on his egg as the name surfaced in his memory. Ridiculous, he chided himself internally. It was only a single conversation. Besides, there's no proof. At least, there wasn't after he had spent the morning casting enough household spells such that a simple Prior Incantato wouldn't catch him.

All throughout the rest of the week Harry remained in a distracted, jumpy state, constantly on a paranoid lookout. In Divination he barely paid attention as Professor Merry revised fire omens, the smoke making his head throb even as he strained to look for symbols in the flame and fumes; in Potions he took even more care to not meet Snape's eyes, remaining quiet and subdued all through his acidic comments, and clamping down what rudimentary Occlumency protections he had.

Harry's current state did not go unnoticed in the week's Occlumency lesson itself, with Merry again giving a frown. "The difference between your previous lesson and this is like night and day, Mr Potter. I know you have only recently managed to detect intrusion itself, but to be able to lock down your mind like this is an astonishing feat. Perhaps detection was indeed the barrier to entry after all, and it would just be smooth sailing from now on."

Harry said nothing, only giving a nod.

"And yet," Merry continued, "while your thoughts–well, most of your thoughts–are buried deep, the faint impressions that I do receive, along with your own tenser-than-usual body language, do indeed show that you are hiding something."

Harry's shoulders sagged. Was it really that obvious?

"After these lessons, I have become quite familiar with your mannerisms, perhaps more so than a usual professor might be," said Merry, seemingly reading his mind. "That was just a guess, by the way." She further responded to Harry's mild widening of his eyes. "This method of defending the mind, while effective against frontal attacks, has certain drawbacks."

"Drawbacks, professor?" Harry asked.

"Have you not noticed, Mr Potter? You have been trying to maintain a state of constant mental awareness for a few days now. Did you not feel yourself tiring more quickly, and feeling more dull as time passes?"

Harry nodded. For his last practice in the Room of Requirement he had felt himself rely more on instinct and reaction alone, and he hadn't even dared to practice the Ribbon Cutter for fear that he might accidentally cut off his own arm.

"Like I said, it is effective against frontal attacks, and it is useful to deploy in the face of an obvious attempt at intrusion. But for more subtle probes, or even for other applications of magic to the mind, this is ineffective. You will need to relax, then guard."

Harry only underwent a few more tries before there was a knock on the door, and Professor Usami entered.

"Renko?" Merry raised an eyebrow, while Harry sank back down onto his chair.

"Uh, whoops, sorry about that." She quickly closed the door behind her.

"It's fine, we were just about to end in either case." Merry waved it off.

"In that case, perhaps it's good that Mr Potter is still present." At the sound of his name, Harry turned. "The professors were discussing some rumors. Usually, I wouldn't share this with a student, but…" At Merry's impatient expression, she got to the point. "It's very likely that our esteemed High Inquisitor," she made a face, which Harry smiled weakly at, "would be implementing an Educational Decree requiring all student organizations to have her approval. Flitwick thinks it'll be within the next few weeks."

"The Club." Harry saw her point immediately. Absolutely ridiculous. It's like I try to solve one problem, and then the universe throws two more in my face to spite me.

"The Club," Merry nodded. "What a disappointing end to today's lesson, though you have made steady progress." She took a sip of tea, as was customary by now. "Before you leave, Mr Potter, is there anything else you would like to talk about? How goes the situation with your friends?"

With a small shock Harry thought that Merry had somehow read his mind about Luna and his nighttime escapade, even though he was sure that that was one of the memories he had kept secure. Then, he realized who she was talking about.

"Oh, I haven't actually apologised to, uh, Ron and Hermione yet," he said, putting an arm behind his head awkwardly. "But I think I'm going to do it soon."

"That's good, Mr Potter. And your nightmares? Are you keeping well? I should have asked sooner, but now is a time as good as any, especially with your improved Occlumency."

"They don't trouble me as much anymore…I think." Now that Harry thought about it, he hadn't really woken up screaming his lungs out in the past few weeks. "They're not fully gone, but it seems like the worst of it isn't that bad anymore." He said nothing about the weirdness of the rest of it.

"Good, good. If you are experiencing anything abnormal, please do let me know immediately. We've been careful, but as I said, mind magic is inherently dangerous."

Harry simply nodded. He didn't want to trouble the nicest professors that he knew more than he already had.

"Oh, and one final thing. Whatever happens, that classroom will still continue to be open for you, alright? Keep up the good work." Merry winked at him.

~~[q]~~

"It was a good distraction," Luna had shrugged.

"And your stuff hasn't been stolen since? And people calling you names?" Harry demanded. A stray Impedimenta soared over to where he leant against the classroom wall, and he deflected it. "Watch it!"

"They still do call me 'Loony', I suppose. It's a small matter, as compared to having my items stolen."

Harry bristled at the fact, but controlled himself. It's too bad I can't just put a Taboo on the word or something. Hmm, on second thought…but no, I'll probably need to get access to the castle's ward scheme itself. But maybe it doesn't need to be on the entire castle?

"Wrackspurt got you, Harry?" Luna said. There was a quirk in her eyebrows.

"Nope, just thinking." Getting to his feet, he called over to the group at large. "Alright, I think we can call it for today."

"About time, Harry," Neville said. "Any more and Hannah would have become a statue." Susan swatted him on the arm, and Harry gave a chuckle.

~~[q]~~

Harry decided to tackle the harder target first.

"Ron."

"Harry." The youngest Weasley son said neutrally. "I got your note. What do you want?"

"To apologise." Harry said simply. Ron said nothing, so Harry continued. "I shouldn't have just blown you off like that for things that happened during the summer. It was rude, and I'm sorry."

Ron nodded. "It's fine, mate. I've been a bit of a prat in the past, too. I reckon I should have, I don't know, tried something, I guess, even if Dumbledore said not to. Hermione probably would have known what to do."

"Hermione." Harry exhaled. "I'm going to apologise to her next."

"Right you should. She's been overworking herself." Ron shook his head. "She's been intolerable, going on and on about OWLs. I can't get her to relax."

"That's Hermione for you." Harry shook his head.

"So, let's get back to the common room. You can say what you need to say, then we can get a game of wizard chess going. And we can both shake her out of her funk." Ron said amiably. "Or maybe get her to sleep. She probably needs it."

"No kidding."

The pair left the empty classroom.

"Say, Harry, now that you're back, when're you gonna rejoin the Quidditch Team? Ginny's good, but I think it'll be better if you're back. Especially now that I'm Keeper."

Harry froze in his tracks. "I'm…not going to do that, Ron."

"Eh? Why not?"

"Because I have more important things to do with my time," Harry said patiently.

"B-but it's Quidditch, Harry! And I finally made it to the team! Seriously, mate, first Hermione goes off into the deep end, now you–"

Control yourself, Mr Potter. Harry could almost hear the calm, chiming tones of the Divination Professor in his head. He counted to five, and cast a quick Tempus with a flick of his wand, feeling his magic pulse reassuringly as always.

"Ron. I already said no."

"Ginny would resign if she knows you're coming back–"

"No, Ron." He involuntarily lashed out with his magic, and a weak wandless banisher shoved his former best friend to the wall. "It's OWL year. Voldemort is back. I need to study and prepare."

"Mate, you've gone mental," Ron shook his head. "Do you need me to take you to Pomfrey or something? The stress must be worse than I thought."

"I–am–not–mental." Harry ground out. He really, really wanted to reach out and strangle Ron with his bare hands, but he resisted the urge. "I'll say this once. If you can't accept that my priorities have changed, then, well–"

Enough is enough.

"Harry," Ron said pleadingly.

"See you around, Ron."

~~[q]~~

He met Hermione by the lake, a Saturday morning after breakfast.

"Ron told me you apologised to him too, then blew him off again." Hermione said simply. Dark circles were noticeable around her eyes, and it was clear she hadn't been sleeping well.

"I said I didn't want to rejoin the Quidditch team is all," shrugged Harry. "He can't seem to accept that it's the OWL year and we need to be focusing on our studies."

"He's just passionate about the sport, Harry. But enough about him; I'm worried about you."

"Me?"

"Yes, Harry," she spoke wearily. "Where have you been? I hardly ever see you around in the common room any more. It's not good to be alone all the time, you know."

Why do you assume that I'll be alone if I'm not with you two?

"I've been studying with Neville and some Hufflepuffs." Harry stated simply.

"Oh." Hermione's voice was flat. "Hey, you know something? I've been wanting to ask you if you were willing to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts."

The universe is definitely screwing around with me now.

"I've been thinking about it," Hermione pressed on. "You have the most practical experience. And with the way Umbridge is now, nobody is being prepared for what's…for what's out there."

"Alright," Harry sighed. "Hypothetically, if I agreed to do it, then who's going to be taught?"

Hermione visibly perked up. "Well, it'll be anybody who wants to practice, of course. I've been going around and gauging interest, and it seems there's quite a lot of people."

"Quite a lot of people." Harry said evenly. "Like, more than ten?"

"More than twenty," Hermione corrected. "It'll be good, don't you think?"

"No." Harry was to the point. "First, it'll be hard to coordinate that many people. Second, if so many people want to learn, there's nothing stopping you from forming study groups and practicing among yourselves. Third, I don't want to bring Umbridge down on our heads, especially not mine."

Fourth, I barely have enough time to improve myself, let alone teach an entire class. And zeroth, I'm already teaching DADA, in a manner of speaking.

"Harry…"

I'm not going to be paraded like a freak in front of a crowd, Hermione. If my suspicions are right, you just want me to teach so that more people will show up, right?

"No, Hermione." He stood up to leave. "I've apologized for everything else, but I'm certain on this."

Boy, she's going to be mad when she finds out about the Club, isn't she? But until then, just count yourself unlucky that you got on my bad side at the wrong time, Hermione.

With that, Harry made his way back to the castle, his heart feeling significantly lighter. He had said what he thought was needed to be said, and that was enough for him for now.

Thus, the "Harry is kind of a dick to two people who've supported him for the past four years" mini-arc finally ends. I would be glad if I never had to bloody type out the word "Quidditch" in this fic ever again. With that said, people grow and change, and sometimes you grow out of friendships too. I hope my first attempts at illustrating such a situation wasn't too bad.

Umbridge suspends clubs later here than in canon, because there is no DA meeting in the Hog's Head to overhear.

Next time: we see the consequences of what Harry did to the Ravenclaws.

Review please!