Hey all. Here I am again. I thank all those who took the time to review. I appreciate it. And here's the next chapter

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A Different Path

Chapter 4

"My hair? What's wrong with my hair?" Harry asked, running his hand through it.

"It's long..." Ron said, as if that explained everything. And perhaps for him it did.

Harry goggled a bit at his redheaded friend. Of course his hair was long; he hadn't cut it since the accident and had an unexpected hair growth-spurt as a side effect of some training.

"Yeah, it's long. I haven't cut it since the accident. And I like it long. Besides, it's intimidating as hell when it's loose and I'm making it fly all around."

That was something he'd discovered by accident. Not too long ago he'd finished taking a bath and his hair was still hanging loose on his back so it could dry, when the door of his apartment at that time was broken open and a pair of armed men, complete with ski masks, busted into his temporary home. Wearing only a towel at the time, he'd ran out of the bathroom to see what all the noise was about. Confronted with the two armed men, he'd been lucky that they hadn't opened fire right away, or he'd have been seriously wounded at the very least. Gathering his magic, he'd prepared to take them down when he saw them freeze. Wondering what was making the men stop, he'd looked around but made sure he never let them out of his sight. When he caught sight of his reflection in the tall mirror off his dresser, he was mightily surprised to see his loose hair angrily floating around in a non-existent breeze. The result seemed to give him an aura of dark power that was damn scary to behold, and it was his hair that was floating! Quickly he managed to subdue his would be attackers, before they had the chance to gather their wits about them. He removed the memory of what had happened from their minds and sent them to the nearest police station with a note taped to them. He briefly wondered what reaction the police would have when they stumbled in the office and didn't know how or why they were turning themselves in. After that, he'd spent some time trying to recreate the effect and enhance it. Who knows when he'd need to intimidate the pants off of someone?

"Really?" Ron asked. "Can you show us?" As always, Ron was keen on seeing something cool. Harry shrugged and grinned. It felt damn good to be back with his friends. Standing up he slipped off his jacket and tossed it on the seat he'd been sitting on previously. His friends either propped themselves up on the bed to get a better look, or moved to one of the extra seats the Room had provided. Reaching behind his head, he grabbed the leather cord and untied it. When finished his hair fell loose on his back. At the same time Luna gasped, and she looked at him with even wider eyes than normal. The gasp had been of a different kind of emotion than the looks of admiration that Ginny and Hermione sent his way, or the approving looks from the two young men. Feeling concerned, he knelt in front of the seat she'd taken.

"Luna, are you alright?" He gently asked. Luna kept looking at him as if she didn't recognise him. Harry frowned and thought back to what could have made her react like that. She had gasped the moment he'd finished untying the leather cord that held his hair together. A thought made it's way in his mind, but before he had time to contemplate it, Luna spoke.

"So strong..." She whispered. The previous thought of Harry came back to the front of his mind and he was forced to conclude that he was most likely correct in his assumption of what had caused his blond female friend to react the way she had.

"Luna, what did you see or feel?" At this, the rest of the group looked at Luna with confusion as they had noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Luna however, had.

"When you removed the band from your hair, it seemed as if your magical power... expanded I guess you could call it. Like waves rolling off you, only far stronger than a moment before." She was still looking at him with her wider-than-normal eyes, silently asking him to tell her she hadn't imagined it. Harry was almost entirely sure what had happened, but he needed to be absolutely certain before he could explain anything. Focusing his magic just over his raised right hand, he formed it into a pattern that was invisible to all those without his abilities.

"Luna, can you feel or see something over my hand?" Luna stared at his hand for a long moment, before looking back in his eyes.

"There's something there. It feels like... a cloud of magical energy. I can see something too, but it's very faint, almost like it's not even there." Here she looked back at his hand and squinted a bit, trying to get a clearer image of whatever it was that hovered there. When she couldn't, she turned back to Harry. "Harry, what's happening to me?" She asked with fear rising in her voice.

"Luna, I want you to take a deep breath...hold it...hold it...now let it go. Deep breath...hold it...hold it...let it go. Good, you're a bit calmer now. I've got a good idea what's happening, but I need to check to make sure, ok?" Luna nodded and Harry took her hands in his and closed his eyes. Reaching out with his magical senses, he touched Luna's magical core. Immediately, he had his answer. He sighed.

"I'm sure now. Luna, like me, you have the ability to sense, see, and even directly manipulate magic. You've always had that power, but it was wild, erratic. From what I can sense, my presence is stabilising your own power. Eventually, with time and training, you'll be able to do things with magic that relatively few of the people who can use magic are able to." Harry paused, giving Luna, and the rest of their friends, some time to process what he'd revealed. As expected, Hermione was the first to assimilate the data presented to her and to react accordingly.

"Is that why you told the headmaster you weren't a student of Hogwarts anymore?"

"Partly. No teacher here has anything they can teach me about magic that I don't already know or can't find out myself with a minimum of effort. The other part of it is that I simply don't trust anyone who blindly obeys the old man." Harry responded. Hermione frowned at the obvious disrespect he was showing for the headmaster, but after what he'd told them earlier, she didn't say anything about it. "He can't stand not knowing where I've been or what I've been doing, so he'll do anything in his power to find out, even try to take it from your minds if you won't tell him. I'm working on something that will make you impervious to mind-reading attempts, although until then I've got something else. But it'll have to wait just a bit longer."

Harry turned back to Luna, who looked a lot calmer than before. "Luna, you'll need training, and at the moment I'm the only one that I know of who can teach you. Will you allow me to teach you?" He gently asked the blond girl. She needed no time to think about this, and nodded immediately. She trusted him to help her with this. Harry nodded back to show he'd accepted her decision. He wouldn't have pressed had she chosen to remain untrained. The ability itself wasn't dangerous if left untrained. After all, most of those who had the gift for it never found out and lived their lives as normal wizards or even muggles, if the ministry didn't detect their magical ability. Given the crappy management of the ministry these days, he was sure that at least a fifth of newblood wizards, or muggleborns as the wizards called them, were never found. He snorted when that led him to think of something else.

"What?" Ginny asked, who'd been mostly quiet until now.

"It's ironic to think that the 'power the dark lord knows not' is merely an ability like any other. If he'd do a little research, he could find out all about it." Harry answered her.

"You mean that this ability you and Luna have is that unknown power?" Neville this time.

"Yes. And Luna and I aren't the only ones with this ability. I've been to America, Australia and even checked in Africa. I asked around a bit, and you know what? They've got people there with the same ability. Collectively, we're called Toa. Don't ask me why, I don't know. It's as much a designation as it is a title. You know what else I found out when I was searching if there were other people with my ability?" All his friends shook their head.

"British wizards and witches are the laughing stock of the entire magical world." His friends looked pretty shocked to hear this. "Do you want to know why the rest of the world thinks so, and rightly so in my opinion?" Even more shocked that Harry agreed with the opinion, they all nodded.

"First of all, the so called 'Ministry of Magic'. A big name for something with little to no value. Whereas the rest of the world evolved and adapted, the ministry in Great Britan, and by extension the entire population, kept on its medieval thinking. I mean, for Gods sake, we still write with quills and on parchment! The rest of the world long stepped over to ballpoints and normal paper. Second, the belief that Albus Dumbledore is the strongest wizard alive. There are dozens at least as strong as or stronger than him. Hell, that 'belief' doesn't even hold true in Britan itself, seeing as Voldemort himself is stronger than him." Noticeable here was the lack of gasps or shivers on any of his friends when he said Voldemort's name.

"Lastly, and I fully agree with this one, is that British wizards and witches are complete and utter cowards." Now this, this got a response. Outraged shouts came from all his friends, bar Ron, surprisingly, and Luna, who was most likely still thinking about the revelations earlier. "Ron, I don't see you yelling that it's not true. Why not?" The redhead shifted in his seat as the accusing looks of his sister and his other female friend rested on him.

"Because it is true. Sure, some people stand up when they simply can't do anything else, but the general populace is too afraid to do anything. The fact that the non-Dark population outnumbers the Death Eaters at least 4 to 1 doesn't seem to register." He explained. Harry nodded.

"That's correct. Did you know that the last time America had trouble from a Dark wizard was over a century ago? His reign of terror, if it can be called that, lasted a little less than two weeks. When he first began, he was offered the chance to return to the light and to redeem himself. When he refused, everyone old enough became his enemy and actively searched for him. The few followers he had were taken care of in minutes when they found him. The Dark wizard himself was stripped of his powers and was sent to a maximum security psychiatric facility, for he was obviously insane to believe that he was a wizard and could do magic." Harry looked at his friends to see their reactions. They varied from disbelief to thoughtful.

"The kicker here is the American and Australian ruling bodies offered help to take care of Voldemort when he rose for the first time. Our dear ministry declined, stating that they were more than capable to deal with their own problems. Result, nearly two decades of Voldemort's reign in his first rise, only to be stopped be a child protected by a prophecy. Thirteen years later, he's reborn and begins his second rise while the ministry ignores it. As you can see, the rest of the magical world has a lot to laugh at."

Hermione had to say something in defense of all the people Harry was calling cowards. "Harry, what about the Order? The people there aren't cowards, they stand up to Voldemort and the Death Eaters." Harry shrugged.

"Sure, they oppose him. But that's all they do. Tell me Hermione, exactly what have they accomplished? The single largest amount of his followers that was captured was during the DoM affair, and that was because of us, not them. All the Order does, Hermione, is defense and cleanup. You don't win a war that way; it's a sure way to defeat. And, surprise surprise, it's all because of the old man and his belief that everyone deserves a second chance. He doesn't understand that most of Voldemort's followers enjoy what they do. That they enjoy hurting people and killing defenseless muggles. He's convinced that once Voldemort is gone all his followers will see the error of their ways and rejoin the side of light and everyone will live happily ever after." The last was said with such contempt for Dumbledore that it made Hermione flinch and lower her eyes.

"You trust too much in authority, Hermione. You need to start thinking for yourself, and deciding what's right and worth fighting for instead of taking somebody else's word for it. I can think of 3 people inside the Order that do that. Mad-Eye, and the twins. Maybe Bill and Charlie too, but I don't know them well enough to be sure. All the others will ask where, when and how high to jump when the old man tells them to jump. No one except those 3 will think to as 'why'..."

Silence descended on the occupants of the Room. Hermione looked really disturbed by what Harry had said, Ginny looked thoughtful and somewhat repulsed, and Neville looked to be deep in thought. Ron had come to the same conclusion about the Order as Harry had some time ago, so he was the least affected by what he'd said about it. But the news of Luna's abilities and what the rest of the magical world thought of them still had him thinking.

"I really do want you to think about what I've been saying to you, but I also really wanna know if any of you know where Hedwig is. I sent her ahead when we left the train station, and I have no idea where she is at this point." Harry interrupted their musings.

"She came to me after the accident." Hermione said. "I'd just seen the news that told about the accident and about the fact that no-one survived, and she arrived at my home, looking lost and miserable. I took her in and cared for her as you would have. She was, and still is, very sad that you were gone."

"Thanks Hermione. That's a big relief. She really means a lot to me."

Hermione blushed slightly at the genuine emotion his voice carried. "How come you haven't seen her yet, if you've been back a couple days now?" She asked.

"Simple. Hedwig believes me dead, so there is no reason for her to 'feel' if I need her. She simply doesn't know yet that I didn't die." Hermione nodded at that, it made sense. There had always been a close connection between Harry and Hedwig.

"Harry, where will you stay?" Luna, as it appeared, had come out of her thoughts and voiced an important question.

"Good question. I don't know yet. I'm hoping I can ask the castle if there are any unused rooms around that I could use. Other than that, I'll see about renting a flat or something."

Before anyone else could say something else, a map appeared on the closest wall. It showed the floor where the Room was located and began mapping out a way to an empty room, like Harry just mentioned. A figure appeared near the door of the room and in a textballoon over it's head, the password was given. Then the map faded away again. Harry chuckled.

"Well, that's taken care of, it seems. Thank you." He aimed his thanks upwards. A tingle ran down all of their spines in respons to the thanks.

"What was that?" Neville asked, looking around to try and find the source of the wierd, but not unpleasant feeling. Murmers of agreement and question sounded from the rest of the assembled group.

"I'd have to say, the castle. It is, after all, sentient to a point." Harry voiced his opinion.

"Sentient?"

"Yes. But I'll tell you about it later, ok Hermione? Right now, I want to go see what my new quarters look like. Care to join me?"

Everyone extracted themselves from the way too comfy seats or rolled off the very enjoyable bed and followed Harry out and to his new living space. After a relatively short trip, they came to a pretty normal looking pillar. After giving the password, 'Horntail', the pillar rolled aside and Harry entered with the rest of his friends following closely behind. What they found, was a simple but cosy living room with a desk, chair and a couple of couches. A window looked out on the lake. A door led to a single bedroom, with shower and toilet separated by another door.

"Looks very nice. More than enough for what I need." He was going to say more, but a yawn from Ginny stopped him. As she began to blush in embarrasement, Harry grinned at her. "This might be a good time to wrap thing up for now. Come on, I'll put up some temporary wards and key you all into them so you can enter this room whenever you like."

Doing so, he erected some wards that would make anyone not keyed into them forget what they were going to do. He was biding his friends goodnight when Ron commented it seemed pretty empty and silent in the halls. Cursing, Harry hastly wove his hand in the air and disspelled his still active sleeping spell he'd cast in the Great Hall. Warning his friends that they had about 5 minutes before the rest of the castle would begin waking up, he urged them to quickly go to their dorms. In the Great Hall, people were beginning to stir, wondering why they were sleeping at their house table. After taking a quick shower, Harry got in his bed and went to bed, happy to have been reunited with his friends.

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Ok, done with this one. Took me a while, but here it is. Reviews welcome, flames too if thought out.