Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. The members of the Secret Sealing Club are the creations of ZUN.
Right. It's been a while. I'm sorry.
Chapter 21 – Crystallized Silver
Abaraxas Malfoy. Cantankerous Nott. The rest of the old, pompous, useless aristocrats. They, born into wealth and power, who never had to fight a day in their lives, would dare mock him? Would dare belittle him?
All because his father had been a Muggle. All because his mother was dead from childbirth.
"Hey, maybe she was a Squib after all, you Mudblood!"
But he alone could speak to serpents. He alone held the blood.
And he would show them all.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"
…
…
…
And yet…why did things turn out this way?
"Warren! No!"
And he sank into himself, and–
~~[q]~~
The issue with the horcrux in his head and his destiny occupied much of Harry's thoughts all throughout the final days of the term, a constant presence that jostled with other concerns.
It was Wednesday night, three days before the students went home for Christmas, and the last meeting of the club for the year had just concluded.
Off to the side, Harry raised his wand, performed the appropriate motions and intoned.
"Expecto Patronum."
Nothing happened. He tried again.
"Expecto Patronum." Even before the words came out of his mouth, he knew that the spell would fail.
Great. How am I supposed to teach the rest now?
A happy memory. He thought of a few, but somehow, they all didn't feel correct.
Guess I'm even more bothered than I know, huh?
Thankfully, it seemed that no one had noticed.
In the now-empty clubroom, he absentmindedly Summoned a chair, and sat. He looked around the room: at the mats which were now in neat stacks at the side, at the small corner where the two Ravens (and now also Ernie, apparently) were working on some project, to the teacher's table where several old books had piled up, to the blackboard where several colourful animals, both magical and not, had been drawn by Luna.
It was a warm feeling.
Harry got out of his seat, glanced at both doors, now closed, and tried again.
"Expecto Patronum!"
An indistinct four-legged animal erupted from the end of his wand, much less solid and radiant than Prongs had been. It gave him a look that seemed to say, really?, then disappeared.
Harry didn't know if he should be relieved that he hadn't completely lost his ability, or worried that it had became this…diminished? Weak?
~~[q]~~
Harry walked thrice past section of wall that led to the Room of Requirement, where his feet had taken him, and turned to it – but the door did not appear.
Fine then, Hogwarts. Give me the Room of Hidden Things instead, he thought, and drew his wand as he thought so.
The first thing he heard was the noise, and felt was the heat.
Two people were duelling, in an area of cleared space from the heaps, and one person was sitting primly in a chair, watching.
"Prasentio Litura. Illusio Mantellum." Harry crept around to the side to better watch the two combatants, but–
–his foot landed on a soft and springy mass, which immediately began snaking its way up his leg.
"Releashio!" The Revulsion Jinx sent sparks flying forth, and the plant retreated, but the damage was already done.
In an instant, the primly-seated girl was on her feet and striding over. "Stupefy." Precise flicks of a wand sent a jet of red light flying over.
Harry angled his body to dodge and retorted, "Silencio!" and the girl gaped like a fish only briefly before trying for a non-verbal countercharm.
But there was no reprieve.
"FIRAGA!" An almighty shout sounded up high, and there was Hestia, who had somehow climbed on a pile and was now leaping from above at him.
"Ventus!" Wind blasted her and the fire away, and she tumbled to the ground, executed a perfect roll, then sprang up, wand raised.
"Stop." A single voice, amplified by a Sonorus to the throat, said a word of reason, and all three combatants froze in their movements. When no further aggression appeared to be forthcoming, they all slowly lowered their wands.
"Hestia. And Flora. Carrow." Harry looked from one twin to the other, and he could see the resemblance: the same brown, choppy hair (albeit in different hairstyles), the same gaunt skin, the same sunken eyes. "And Neville." Harry looked towards his friend, who had been the voice of reason. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think, Harry?" Neville said evenly.
Somehow, even though it was completely undeserved, given how he himself had hidden away the existence of the Room, Harry felt a small twinge of betrayal.
And yet, a voice within him whispered, Neville didn't even say anything about you keeping the Room secret from everyone. Don't be a prick.
"I think…"
"Stupefy."
A Summoned metal urn intercepted the interrupting spellbolt, and clattered away after emitting a loud hum. Not fool enough to stop a second time after being attacked, Harry went on the offensive, a wave of his hand sending the remains of a wrecked chest of drawers at the girl.
"Prismatis!" Neville's incantation manifested a curtain of rainbow-colored light between the two, and a calm but defiant look on him quelled remark from both sisters. "Enough!"
"Just a small test." Flora shrugged and returned her wand to her pocket, then turned to Neville, who was still on guard. "We're done for the day, Longbottom. Go and see Hestia if you have any more trouble."
Neville inclined his head. "Thank you, Carrow." The wall of light vanished.
"And you, Potter." Harry snapped to attention on instinct at Flora's voice. "If anything happens to Hestia, there will be a reckoning. Now, excuse me."
With a final gaze at her twin, and a small nod from Hestia, the more prim of the Carrow sisters left.
And then there were three.
Harry looked at Hestia.
Hestia looked back at Harry, making it clear that she was staying.
Harry sighed, and turned to Neville. "You could have just asked me for help if you wanted to practice, you know."
"That's my line, Harry." Neville said, neatly deflecting the topic. "I understand you had your reasons, but Luna's slap the other day was probably justified."
To that Harry had no response, and he simply shrugged. "Touche."
"Maybe, Potter, you should ask yourself why your best friend didn't come and ask you for help." Hestia interjected in an acid tone, and both Harry and Neville started in surprise.
"Because you're such an expert on friendship, eh, Miss drinks-their-sorrows-away-in-a-cupboard?" Harry immediately retorted, though he knew the Slytherin was right.
Instantly Hestia leapt to her feet from where she had sat on a mound of trash. "You shut your fucking mouth. You've already given both me and Sis enough problems with the whole-" she looked around the room "-you-know-what nonsense."
"A Hor-" Harry began dismissively, before he stopped himself. Does anyone even know? I don't think...yeah, best to not say that word aloud. "That tiara. What about it?"
"What about it?" Hestia parroted. "I'm not an idiot, Potter. I can put things together." She took a deep breath. "That thing that possessed you...that was Voldemort, wasn't it?"
Harry raised a hand, stopping Neville from interjecting. "I'm not going to confirm or deny that," he said. "Because, given your family background, I don't think you'd like the answer."
Well, I'm dead anyway." Hestia laughed. "The moment the Dark Lord reads any of your minds and sees me being disloyal, I'll be marked for death. If he reads my mind and sees me actively trying to destroy an object of his, I'll be tortured to death."
"Don't you know Occlumancy?" Harry said instantly, and a faint memory came back to him, of a girl snatching away a library book. "You do know Occlumancy, right?"
"Don't be so fucking blase about this, Potter!" Hestia shouted. "The Dark Lord's a master of Legilimency. Self-studied Occlumancy is like pissing in the wind."
"Right, now I have to ask," Harry said curiously. "Do you guys actually meet him in person, or-"
"Me and Sis turn seventeen soon. Next year we graduate, and then-" Hestia stopped talking, but Harry could easily piece together what came next.
And then they would be Marked. Branded like cattle, with little bit of soul magic of Voldemort's own devising.
Soul magic? How do I know-oh, of course.
"So if I defeat Voldemort before you graduate, there won't be a problem?" Harry said slowly. Neville tilted his head in surprise.
"The fuck are you talking about? You're a kid! A bloody toddler! How do you expect to defeat Lord fucking Voldemort, you absolute idiot?" Hestia returned to shouting, and even Neville was giving him an odd look.
"I escaped from him last year." Harry was beginning to grin. I have a tactical advantage. I know something I don't think he does. Ideas and possibilities were beginning to come to his mind, and he grinned further, his melancholy replaced with some mania.
And Voldemort makes mistakes. Mistakes like making sure I won the entire Triwizard Tournament instead of just having Fake Moody hand me a Portkey pretending to be on Dumbledore's orders or something. It's madness, plain and simple.
Harry had seen multiple parts of the man's soul, now. He suspected that not a single other person alive would understand, or would come to understand Tom Riddle more than he did.
"That doesn't matter!" Hestia shouted at him. "You're can't win against someone who's been terrorizing the country for longer than you've been born! He's a Dark Lord, Harry!"
Harry's fingers shifted on his wand, which he had not let go of. The memory from the other night, where he had worn the Horcrux and gained a single moment of crystal clarity-it was already fading, and some of the details he had no doubt already forgotten.
But there had been enough to place together a plan. Enough to plant the seeds of suspicion within him, suspicion about Voldemort's weaknesses.
"You're right." Harry said. "There's absolutely no hope. You should just practice your Occlumency and wait for things to pass." He stared right into her eyes, a dark brown that matched her hair, hoping she got the hidden message that was too dangerous to be spoken aloud.
Harry Potter doing some training may not be enough to make Voldemort wary, but Harry Potter showing that he might have some secret plan would definitely put him on alert.
"Yeah, okay." Hestia backed down. "That was stupid. Everything is stupid. I'm stupid, for expecting an untrained teenager to beat the Dark Lord. To hell with all this."
She turned and left the room, and Harry looked back at Neville. "Sorry for all this. For hiding the damn Room and everything. For not trusting you enough. And for not noticing you had your own troubles with magic."
Neville chuckled. "Apology accepted, though it wasn't really needed in the first place. Besides, I indirectly got a new wand out of it, so I really should be thanking you instead-"
"Oh shut up, Neville." Harry immediately responded. "Wait, new wand?"
"Cherry and unicorn hair." Neville wiggled said wand. "Professor Usami came with me, too. Said I was lucky and stuff." He began to leave, and Harry followed.
"Lucky, huh?"
"Yeah. Apparently the Japanese love cherry blossoms, or something. And I was looking up cherry trees as well. There's a lot of magical cherry trees in Japan. It's a symbol of spring and life over there." Neville's face relaxed as he got into familiar territory. "Sakusaku!" He flicked his wand, and pink petals burst into the air.
"Neat trick." Harry said appreciatively. It reminded him of how Ollivander had conjured a bouquet of flowers last year. "Merry taught you?" He remembered one of his first meetings with the Divination Professor, where he had seen her curse Umbridge out of anger.
Out of anger on his behalf. Maybe that's why he had been so willing to open up to her, now that he thought about it.
They continued talking all the way back to Gryffindor Tower.
~~[q]~~
It appeared, however, that Fate did not so easily grant him a break.
Fire. His scar was on fire. And he was a bloody snake-Nagini, that was the name-that had just attacked Mr Weasley. It was a mark of how far his Occlumency had progressed that he did not cry out or thrash in his bed, but only woke up with an unnatural stillness, albeit while sweating rivers as if he had just run a marathon.
"Neville." He walked over to the Longbottom's bed, putting up a Cone of Silence before trying to shake him awake. "Help."
"What?" Neville took a while to rouse, but when he woke his eyes immediately snapped open. "Merlin's pants, Harry. Another one?"
"Never mind me for now." Harry said quickly. "Do you have a way to contact Susan? She's probably not checking her Sickle at this time of night."
At this, Neville's expression became more guarded. "She doesn't like that, Harry. Being treated as a line to her Aunt." However, even as he said that, he was already getting up.
"Mr Weasley's life is at stake." Harry outlined the problem quickly. "He got bitten by Voldemort's snake at the Department of Mysteries. What are you doing?"
Neville extracted a small mirror from his bedside drawers, which he tapped with his wand once, before taking a hesitant glance around.
"I Silenced us." Harry prompted.
"Good." Neville inhaled. "WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD!"
There was a pause, after which there was a rustle, and Susan's displeased face appeared. "This better be serious, Longbottom."
"It's an emergency. Harry has the details." He looked back up at Harry. "I'm sorry, but this only works when I hold it. You're going to have to-"
"Repeat after me." Harry interrupted. "Arthur Weasley has been attacked-"
"Auntie will rake me over the coals for this," Susan muttered after the brief explanation finished. "What was he doing there? You didn't say."
"Keeping a lookout. Details later, he's bleeding to death right now." Harry put all the urgency he could muster into his voice without sounding panicky.
"You owe me one for this." Susan said. "You and Harry both." With that, the mirror winked out of existence.
Now that I think about it, the Order would probably not be very happy about all this. Too late for that now. Oh, wait. I'm being an idiot too, aren't I?
Diving into his own trunk, Harry searched for the link to his Godfather, which he had very nearly forgotten in a state of distress.
~~[q]~~
The upside to the way things had been handled was how, on the surface, nothing appeared to have happened. There was no awakening of the entire Weasley family at midnight, no secret Portkey back to Twelve Grimmauld Place, no need for Umbridge to have to be distracted, for she had no suspicion whatsoever that anything had happened at all.
Through some more mirror communication, Harry had arranged his travel back to Sirius' house from King's Cross station: a Portkey which had been delivered by Dobby, to be used by him while he was under his Cloak. Technically, he could have used it from Hogsmeade directly, or even as soon as he was out of the gates of Hogwarts, but he wanted to ride the Express back with everyone else.
Particularly, of course, now that Luna was back on talking terms with him.
With a few simple Charms to check for eavesdropping and one more to ensure that people looking in wouldn't simply be able to see them, Harry reclined back into his seat. It would just be the three of them, Neville and Luna and himself, with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs choosing to sit with their own Houses for this trip.
Feels oddly nostalgic for some reason. Harry reflected as he stared out of the window. Neville was tending to his plant, the name of which Harry had forgotten, and Luna was doing a crossword on the Quibbler. "Hey," he suddenly spoke, as an idea came to mind. "Can I visit both of you for Christmas?"
Neville looked at him oddly. "Of course you're coming over to Longbottom Hall. Didn't we already agree on this?"
"Must have forgotten," Harry scratched his head. There had been, after all, several events that were definitely greater in severity.
"Boxing Day lunch." Neville said. "Gran wants to get to know you. There's going to be an event on Christmas Day itself, but…"
Harry waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. It's probably not exactly safe for me as well."
"You're mine for Christmas Eve." Luna suddenly spoke up. She had been quite frosty with him ever since the incident with the tiara (Harry tried to avoid calling it a diadem, even within his own head, both because he didn't know what a diadem actually was, but more because using Voldemort's words felt wrong to him). "There's a show during the evening, and Daddy managed to get three tickets."
"A show?" Harry said curiously.
"You'll see," Luna said mysteriously, and disappeared back behind her magazine. Clearly, she didn't feel like talking much.
"During the evening…" Harry trailed off. "Right, so it's fine then." The mention of Christmas Eve brought another of his commitments to mind. "Luna, how are the Diggorys? You live near them, right?"
The issue of the Quibbler descended again. "Close enough. Daddy's on good terms with Mr Diggory, and Mrs Diggory's always been nice. They looked after a few times when I was young." She looked at him curiously. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I'm visiting them for lunch on Christmas Eve." Harry said. At the curious looks he got, he elaborated. "It was a while ago. I wrote them a letter...because I missed Cedric's funeral." The words hung heavy in the air.
"It's not your fault, Harry." Luna said, in a softer tone than before. "Nobody told you about it. And if Voldemort...no, since Voldemort is back, it's probably for the best that you don't go out too much, either."
"Like I haven't heard that one before." Trust Luna to say what all of them were thinking. "Wait, but you still want me to-" -attend an event somewhere outside where it might be unsafe, with you?
"Yes." Luna said firmly. "I do."
To his side, Neville was chuckling softly, laughing at some inside joke only he could understand.
"Neville?"
"Nothing." Neville schooled his expression, but a faint smile still showed on his face.
Next chapter: lunch with the Diggorys, and maybe a little more foreshadowing from Sirius.
Another Touhou character is set to appear soon. Place your bets.
Review please!