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

Chapter 22 – Withered Leaf

As soon as Harry stepped through the door of Twelve Grimmauld Place, he found himself assaulted by a screech, a terrible wave of sound.

"FILTH! Scum! How dare you return to-"

"Silencio Circumta." Ducking down and fighting his first instinct to shoot a Stunning Hex, Harry traced a circle overhead and leveled his wand at the ceiling-to-floor portrait of Walburga Black, wrapping it in silence. As the old woman continued to scream while silent, Sirius poked his head into the hallway, and gave a low and appreciative whistle.

"How'd you do it, Harry? Silencing Charms never worked on her."

"Cone of Silence around her." Harry shrugged. "If you stick your head into this area here-" he did so, and recoiled immediately. "Gah." Walking up to his Godfather, he embraced him in a tight hug. "I missed you, Sirius."

"Glad you're back, Harry." His godfather had a wide smile on his face. "Thank Merlin I thought to give you the mirror. If I hadn't-"

"You'd probably be stuck in this house and thought yourself to halfway to insanity." Harry said lightly. "Not to mention..." his voice dropped, "the Weasleys."

Sirius' face turned a shade more grave. "Let's get you settled in first, shall we."

Lunch was bacon and eggs, with baked beans and toast, cooked by Harry. Sirius apologised for the lack of food, but Harry had simply waved him off.

"I persuaded Molly to stay home for a while," Sirius opened the conversation. "Or rather, I told Dumbledore that this house probably wouldn't be good for a mental health, and he did the rest." He gestured around the dingy dining room.

"So she's not coming over for Christmas?" Harry munched on his toast. Cooking really wasn't that bad when you weren't being forced to do it.

"Oh no, she is." Sirius said. "It'll be easier to commute to St. Mungo's from here, after all. Of course, that means the rest of the family is likely to be staying over until Arthur's discharged, which should be sometime around New Year."

"Sirius…" Harry put a hand to his head. "If anything tries to stop me from coming and going when I've already promised my friends-"

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen." Sirius said patiently. For how surprisingly mature his godson had seemed to become the past few months, he still had some moments of childish stubbornness.

"I'll hold you to that." Harry was about to take another bite, before another thought hit him. "Wait, does everyone know where I'll be going?"

"Dumbledore knows you're visiting the Longbottoms and the Lovegoods." Sirius said.

So the old man's got his finger on me at all times, eh? He knew it was probably safer, but the thought still irked him. "And the rest of the Order?"

"On a need-to-know basis." Sirius shrugged. "But you're lower on the priority list now, especially because somehow, Amy Bones, or rather, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, got wind that Arthur's been attacked."

"Wonder how that happened." Harry continued chewing innocently.

"No need for the snark with me, Harry." Sirius leaned back in his chair. "That probably saved his life-well, you knowing it happened on that night probably already saved his life, but she responded much faster then we probably could have, though now questions are being asked. No free lunch, I guess."

Harry just nodded. Truth be told, he was quite surprised that Dumbledore hadn't sought him out for an interrogation. Not to mention the whole other thing… He looked back at Sirius, and decided to test the waters.

"Well, you can tell Dumbledore to stop putting a guard outside the Department of Mysteries." Harry said nonchalantly. "After all, the only people who can access a prophecy are those mentioned in it."

Sirius, who had a spoonful of scrambled eggs and was now taking a sip from his glass, broke into a coughing fit. "What...what?"

"You heard me, Sirius. I don't know the exact wording, but I know what the stupid 'weapon' is." Harry said seriously. "Why do you think I've been working my arse off for the past few months?"

"Harry…"

"I wonder," Harry placed a hand on his chin, the very gesture of thoughtful thinking. "Do the other Order members know?"

"Dumbledore's convinced all of us that you're the key." With a silent Scourgify, Sirius had cleaned up the mess of orange juice and egg that he had spewed. "Seeing as you're already the Boy-Who-Lived, it wasn't that difficult."

"Hmm." Harry mused. Old man plays his cards close to his chest.

I have two pieces of bad news. Or rather, one piece of bad news, and one piece of worse news.

Did Dumbledore also know about the fragment of Voldemort's soul within him? Did Dumbledore know he would likely have to die to make Voldemort's death final and true?

If you believe the future is set in stone, you'll sink into despair and fail to grasp the power to change it, if only the smallest of chances existed. Merry's words came back to him once again.

Ice seeped into his bones, and he fought it. I will find a way. Harry thought to himself. I'll destroy all of the other Horcruxes, keep Voldemort imprisoned as a shade if I have to, then find a way to extract the fragment without dying.

"You've changed, Harry." Sirius said, snapping Harry out of his reverie. The grim expression on his godson's face unnerved him for some reason. "I don't know how else to say it, but...you remind me of James."

"Really?" Harry's head snapped towards Sirius. "Gee, I wonder why-"

"Shut up, Harry," Sirius said, "and let me finish. You remind me of James, when Dumbledore told him that Voldemort was after his son. When Dumbledore told him that the Dark Lord would be after you, and specifically you. There's the same hard look on your face...and also the same fire that I saw in Lily's eyes." Sirius finished wistfully.

"Destiny changes a man," Harry said, mock-menacingly. "Honestly, now that I more or less know what's going on, I feel like I should be feeling more angry at, you know, literally nobody preparing me to fight Voldemort. But somehow, I just don't."

And the probability that Dumbledore was raising me as a lamb for slaughter just rose dramatically. Harry came to a sobering conclusion. On the table, the goblin-made silverware began to rattle, as he felt a rising anger.

"Harry?" A tone of worry crept into Sirius' voice.

Right, self-control. Harry closed his eyes and counted to ten. He felt his magic, circulating within his body, envisioning it, currents of water, rising and falling waves. He sent it out, sent out something that Merry had called a 'magical sense'. He felt the the touches of the various enchantments of the house, the pulsing life of his godfather like a guard dog on alert, the different pulse of another life, the house-elf Kreacher, a different texture to the magic of wizards.

Something ticked at the edge of his awareness, but he ignored it for now. Let it go. He told himself. Let it go.

Save it for later. Save it for who deserves it the most.

He opened his eyes and flicked a finger. "Tempus." The familiar spell, nothing more then a comforting gesture, was cast, and the numbers glowed blue: two in the afternoon. He then noticed Sirius was standing with his wand out, looking around cautiously.

"Sorry, Sirius. That was probably me."

"What?"

"But for academic purposes, can you tell me what it felt like?"

"Like a Homenum Revelio," Sirius answered. "But what-"

"Sorry," Harry apologised again. "It's my Occlumency."

"Occlumency doesn't cause...whatever it just did." Sirius said immediately, before a look of worry crossed onto his face.

"I'm not possessed by Voldemort, idiot." Harry said, and he saw his godfather's shoulders relax. "It's just..well, think of it as me using Occlumency to control my wandless magic." That had been the longest meditation he had ever performed, which was probably a sign of how deep his anger ran.

"Wait, you know Occlumency?" Sirius said. "I know I did mention it once or twice, but-"

"Before that." Harry raised a hand as a thought came to his mind, and began casting secrecy charms all around. Thankfully, there were no eavesdropping portraits in the room, but the house-elf could still be listening in.

Sirius saw what he was doing and stopped him. "Let me. The Charms hold better if the master of the house is the one casting them." When they had finished, the pair of them sat back down again.

"I know Occlumency." Harry said, if only to restart the conversation. "I beat back Snape, though I know Voldemort's probably tougher."

"You beat back Snape? Wait, Snape tried to-" Sirius made to rise again, but Harry cut him off.

"He's not important." Harry said immediately. No, he thought. There it was again, the little ping at the edge of his awareness. He's important, but...that's not related to right now. "I don't care about him. He's a worthless excuse of a man, who bullies people less powerful than him, and sucks up to people more powerful than him."

The harsh coldness of Harry's words stopped Sirius short. "That's...not what I expected you to say at all."

"Anyway, it's been useful for a lot of things, but it's not all that effective against the Voldemort stuff." Harry decided to keep the conversation moving, as well as gloss over the exact nature of the link quiet. He didn't know what his godfather would actually do if he found out a silver of Voldemort's soul-

Much as he hated it, there was a nonzero chance that Sirius would instantly try to kill him if he ever revealed the fact. He didn't really want to say it and be disappointed in his godfather, so he kept his mouth shut.

"You...fine." Sirius sat back down for the second time. "Yeah," he muttered, half to himself. "Definitely grown up, all right."

"You can test it, if you want." Harry offered. "It'll be good practice, after all."

"Really," a smirk began to show on Sirius' face. "You don't mind this old man knowing all your secrets?"

"You won't get there." Harry smirked back.

"Legilimens!" Sirius announced his attack.

The incoming attack was a lance. Its nature was curiosity. The Harry within his mind raised its wand and parried it, like a wild animal batting away a toy.

The incoming attack was several lances. Its nature was intrigue. The Harry within his mind moved faster than the Harry in the real world ever could, blocking, deflecting, batting away every single one except for the last, which he seized and threw back-

"That really is something." Sirius said, breaking the spell. "You're about as practiced as a, hmm, let's say a fresh Auror graduate."

"Interesting." Harry mused to himself.

"Voldemort would still shred you, though." Sirius added.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy." Harry sighed. "Speaking of secrets, though, reminds me. There's a Black Library, isn't there?"

"Yeah." Sirius said. "There's also apparently a Black Duelling Room in the Black Hidden Basement. Honestly, I feel like an idiot for not exploring this house sooner; there's a lot of things the Order could have used."

"Didn't you run away from home?"

~~[q]~~

"This is the Black Library." Sirius said unenthusiastically. "It's where I've been trying to dig up old spells for you."

"I remember." Harry said. "Though I also remember that you didn't really find much but really nasty dark magic and life-threatening rituals. Honestly, the Auror manuals were better."

It was a dark, dingy room, illuminated only by candles that hung on brackets set in the walls. The ceiling was not especially high, nor especially low. What stood out the most, probably, was the fact that the shelves were all made out of a dark wood that almost resembled charcoal, and that the walls were also painted black.

"If you make a name joke, I'm revoking your privileges to this place." Sirius muttered. He had stopped at a desk, which was right in the room's center, and appeared to be looking around for something. "Found it. Now let's get out of here."

"What, exactly, did you bring me in there for, then?"

"Oh, just to show you. In case." Sirius said. "But more importantly, I found something." He showed Harry: it was a scrap of parchment.

"That is...a scrap of parchment, Padfoot."

"For Merlin's sake, Harry."

Harry took it and read.

Nursery magic circle. Use lingering regret.

"This doesn't mean anything to me, Sirius." Harry looked back up.

"Damn." Sirius sharply exhaled in frustration. "I thought...well, it's in Lily's handwriting."

My mother?

"The thing is...I can't remember which book it came out of." Sirius said, scratching his head. "Which is strange, because I definitely remember holding a particular book when this fell out."

An ominous silence descended upon the two. Even in the refurbished dining room, much brighter than the study, the atmosphere suddenly felt oppressive.

Harry thought. Mom...what were you thinking? Is this a clue? Were we meant to find this? Is this… An idea came upon him, but the moment Harry tried to reach for it, it slipped away, a invisible figure in a sea of fog.

A possibility then occurred to him, along with its frightening implications, and he fought to control himself as he opened his mouth. "I don't think you should think too hard about this." Harry spoke.

"But...it's your mother, Harry." Sirius said. "I thought it might be useful. Plus, I don't remember ever allowing Lily, not James, even, into the study."

"You know how when people say 'don't think about pink elephants'?" Harry asked.

"Then the first thing that comes to mind is a pink elephant," Sirius responded. "But what has this got to do with-"

"It's something similar." Harry said. That wasn't exactly Occlumency, but thanks for that lesson anyway, Merry, Renko. "Put this back in the drawer in the damn study and let's get ready for Tonks to come over."

"Okay, Harry. I trust you on this." Sirius said. "But I still don't-"

"I'm trying very hard not to think about it. Actually, the fact that you forgot probably means its best to leave it alone."

Sirius was beginning to look very disturbed. "If you say so." He strode off back towards the study.

"You didn't tell anyone else about this, did you?"

"Nope!" Sirius shouted from the room's interior.

"Good, don't!" Harry shouted back. Morgana's soggy socks. He swore to himself. This mind-this soul link thing to your greatest enemy really is too dangerous. I don't even want the slightest chance of...the slightest hint or inkling to come to...him.

It was probably a Fidelius. Harry continued thinking. And the secret...well, if I don't know, I can't give it away.

He straightened and stretched, arms reaching to the ceiling. As someone who had already committed to not thinking about a particular thing, he instead focused his thoughts somewhere else: namely, how he was going to beat a Junior Auror without killing her, or accidentally severing her limbs, for that matter.

~~[q]~~

"Impedimenta!" Tonks' spell was fast, and it hit true, binding Harry's arms to his side with thick ropes. They had been at this for a few minutes, each poking and prodding, testing what each other could do.

And now it began.

With a hop to the side, Harry dodged an incoming Expelliarmus, then sent an old table at her, which gave him time to contort his wrist and shoot a Diffindo up his side, freeing him.

"Concussus!" He vocalized loudly. "Stupefy stupefy stupefy!" Another wave, another object sent flying, and he advanced.

But despite, or perhaps even due to her clumsiness, every single spell seemed to miss the Auror, even as she was blinded and deafened.

Harry thought in his mind. From behind him there was a loud crash, as the old chandelier hanging from the ceiling impacted the ground. Tendrils of iron began slowly curling around him from behind, and he turned around and Banished it away-

Animation?

From his vision's edge a red bolt came, and he parried it away with the tip of his wand. Ideally he would have hit it right back, but right now-

"Incarcerous!" A Summoned stool took the spell and was wrapped in ropes, but-

"Depulso!"

She Banished it back at me! "Conseco Arctus!" A bright blue ribbon tore through the air, and cleaved the stool into neat halves, which flew past Harry's side harmlessly.

A Disarming Jinx, cast in silence, shot through the void, hitting Harry dead centre, blasting his wand into the air, but a wandless Summon brought it back to his hand, even as more hexes filled the air.

Need a way to blind her. "Aguamenti! Firaga!" The envisioned sphere of water was hit by the fire, turning it to steam-

...which was what Harry thought would have happened, but instead there was only a splash on the ground, followed by a blast of fire.

"Protego Maxima!" A shield expanded in front of Tonks, taking the brunt of the attack, but Harry had already changed his course of attack.

What was that spell again? "Glacialis! Aguamenti!"

It's not the ice, Luna had said on the train back. It's the bit of water on the ice that makes you slip.

Got you now. "Flipendo! Incarcerous!"

"Stupefy Incarcerous Expelliarmus!" The chain of spells came with sudden speed out of the fading flames, and Harry-

Can't dodge. Can't reach to parry. The world seemed to slow as he took in the seemingly unsalvageable situation. Oh, I'm being dumb.

The Stunning Spell brushed dangerously close to his torso, which he had twisted to dodge, and a Shield Charm expanded in front of him, blocking the other two. In a flash Harry focused, and tore Tonks' wand away from where she had nimbly rolled over to it.

"Stupefy!" The final Stunner brought the fight to a close, and Harry looked to where Sirius was watching.

"Merlin's pants, Harry." Sirius scratched his head, where had been watching from safely (or not that safely, depending on any deflected spells) on the side. "I know you've been training, but Tonks has been through the Auror Academy."

Neville did mention that the standards to become an Auror dropped after Voldemort's fall. Harry thought to himself. I'm also sure Tonks wasn't going all out, either. Out loud, he said nothing, and simply shrugged. "Rennervate." He revived Tonks, and the young Auror's eyes snapped wide open in horror. "Oh no."

"Chin up, cousin." Sirius said cheerfully. "You only got beaten by a Fifth-Year."

Dinner was takeout from Diagon Alley, courtesy of Tonks' Apparation. Harry of course took the chance to pester her about her Auror training.

"I was Mad-Eye's last batch of trainees before he retired." Tonks said. "If you survive, you become one of the best in your year." Her hair, which had been back to her usual bubblegum pink, began to pale in horrified realization. "Oh no. Oh no. He's going to rake me over the coals, isn't he?"

Sirius chuckled. "Just tell him you were going easy on Harry to test his skills." He looked at her pointedly. "You were going easy, right?"

"Duh." Tonks said, then chewed for a bit. "Thing is...I'm not sure if I would have won if I went all out."

Sirius' eyes opened a bit wider. "Really?"

"Just a feeling." Tonks looked pointedly at Harry. "You were holding back as well, right?"

"Yes," Harry admitted. "There's stuff I stopped myself from using because it would be too dangerous."

"Figures." Tonks returned to eating. "You were right scary there at the end." It seemed to Harry that Tonks had become a bit more distant, and a bit more respectful.

~~[q]~~

The day before Christmas Eve brought the arrival of the Weasley brood, which Harry was not especially happy about. With enough shameless pestering of his godfather, he had been moved up to the old room of Regulus Black "though you probably won't like the colors," Sirius said.

"Are you sure that's fine?" He remembered how Sirius had told him about Regulus joining the Death Eaters and then dying. He did not particularly want to stay in a dead man's room, and suddenly felt slightly guilty.

"I'm sure Reggie wouldn't mind." Sirius clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Besides, you need the space."

Green and silver were everywhere, reminding him of the time when he had snuck into the Slytherin Common Room. It was not dusty; Kreacher must have had been instructed to clean up before Harry had been allowed to enter.

"Seeker, huh?" Harry said to himself, looking at an old photograph. Same dark hair, same haughty look, though smaller in size and maybe a bit less handsome. Turning away, he found a collage of yellowed newspaper clippings, detailing incidents from Voldemort's rise to power.

Something ticked in the back of his mind, as if he he forgotten something, but he ignored it for now. I'll probably remember it in time.

The journey to St Mungo's that afternoon was frosty. Ron had made a few attempts at conversation, but after a few polite exchanges, the conversation had died. Ginny had looked from afar uncertainly, but didn't try to talk to him.

Harry thought about St. Mungo's, for lack of anything to do. Both Terry and Hannah had spoken about the wizarding hospital before, and Harry had asked a bit out of curiosity. It was located out in the middle of London, where sick wizards could come and go without attracting too much attention.

Already, Harry wished he was back with the Club. He missed the way the conversations flowed around him, things like how the Ravenclaws would always be up to some wacky project, or Susan needling Hannah about her love life, or Luna generally teasing everyone but especially Ernie simply by being inscrutable.

"Knut for your thoughts, Harry?" Tonks was one of the day's escorts, along with Mad-Eye, and she had sidled up to his side.

"Just thinking," Harry said non-committedly, before something came to mind. "Hey, about that duel. The combination at the end, where you seemed to cast faster. The Stunning, then-"

"Oh, that's just a spell chain." Tonks said immediately, knowing what Harry was referring to. "It's the most basic one for capturing fleeing criminals." She struck a pose, and Harry snorted. "But seriously. The idea is that the end of each wand movement flows into the next movement. Of course, for that particular chain they don't match up exactly, but there's still a most efficient way to move from one spell to the next."

"Hmm." Harry mused. Something to ask the rest about later. "Are there any others? Can you teach me?"

"Erm." Tonks said. "I don't know if I'm the right person to do that."

Harry looked around. The crowd was somewhat thin, and everyone seemed to be minding their own business. "You know who I'm trying to beat, right?" he muttered quietly.

"When you put it that way, it's a bit hard to say no," she frowned. "How about a trade? I'm curious about some stuff, so if you can answer my questions, I'll agree."

"I'm not revealing all my secrets, but okay."

"What's up with that dream of yours?" she immediately asked. It was clear that it was something she had been quite curious about. "You said you saw-"

It was also something Harry didn't want to talk about, for multiple reasons. "I don't exactly know myself." It was close to an outright lie; he had several extremely good guesses. "But I'm the Boy-Who-Lived, so it's probably something to do with that."

"So no Seer blood, then." Tonks mused.

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… "Probably not." Harry said.

"Though it's not really prophecy you're doing, isn't it?" Tonks continued, and Harry jumped a little at the p-word. "More like seeing the present. Still useful, maybe."

Rather, it is seeing clearly the present, knowing what is in front of you at this very moment, that will be more important. Merry's words from her first Divination class came back to him. "Yeah," he said vaguely, before snapping back to attention. "Okay, enough about this. Next question."

"How did you get so good?" Tonks demanded immediately. "Within a few months?"

"Practice," Harry said absently. On further reflection, Divination did help in a roundabout way as well. When you thought about it, even Trelawney's 'Inner Eye' could be seen as one big metaphor. It's all so stupid.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Harry." Tonks said. "Not while smiling to yourself like that."

"Learn Divination." Harry continued smiling. "That's my tip."

The actual visit to Mr Weasley had also been slightly awkward, with Harry not really knowing what to say. "How are you, Mr Weasley?" he managed to get out.

"To be honest, I feel quite fine." He seemed quite cheerful for someone who had been injured. "Like I told Molly, if I could just stop bleeding when the bandages come off, I would be basically free to go."

"Probably something in the venom." Harry mused. He thought about Nagini, about what magical enhancements Voldemort might have given his snake, and gave up when nothing came to mind. "If the wound doesn't heal, why not try stitching it back together?"

"Stiching?"

"It's what Muggles do." Harry grasped at his incomplete knowledge. "Sew the wound shut or something."

Mr Weasley's face seemed to brighten. "That's an interesting idea! I'll suggest it to Healer Pye-he's the Trainee Healer for this ward, and apparently he's interested in Muggle medicine as well…"

"You will not use untested Muggle medicine on yourself, Arthur." Mrs Weasley interrupted firmly.

Harry sat back as the conversation turned to something Mr Weasley read about in the Daily Prophet. For once, he felt at ease, knowing the full details about what exactly had happened, instead of struggling around in the darkness like he had at the beginning of the year.

A sense of agency. He could hear Merry's voice, precise and melodic, as well as the sound of flowing liquid, of tea being prepared and poured. Knowledge of one's circumstances...and feeling that you have the ability to do something about it. That, too, prevents one from falling into despair.

And that was before anything about fate or prophecies had ever came up, when it had just been Occlumency and advice.

I should probably get her a Christmas present or something. Yeah, that would be good.

Sirius returns as a real person, and Tonks makes her first appearance in this fic. This chapter's probably the closest to the corresponding events from OOTP in a long while.

Next chapter: Harry visits the Diggorys. Can't say more than that, really.

Review please!