Over the course of a month, Jamie had debriefed his grandfather about the entire Chamber incident, given instruction on how to open a channel for some of the more...restricted military supplies for his club, which could only be used sparingly, and had a visit from Sir Nicholas that still had Jamie cursing because he had shown up in the middle of his shower.
On the plus side, a ghost from Japan was more than willing to help train them in the true way of the sword.
The fact they would be trained by the spirit of Yagyu Jubei himself was an honor, in Jamie's opinion. Apparently he had garnered some standing among ghosts by avenging one of their own, even indirectly, and by helping Sir Nicholas.
Apparently telling off those dullahan who had been harassing Nicholas on his Death Day had been the tipping point.
Jamie made sure to order enough period correct outfits and bokken for the club. Once they were able to handle the swords correctly, he would see to getting katana made by the goblins.
Jamie was on yet another warship, this time an aircraft carrier. Charlie had recently gotten an influx of patients at the base, and he felt it was a bit too dangerous for his grandson to stick around.
So he had asked a few favors and gotten Jamie on one of Her Majesty's most exclusive aircraft carriers that had several magically inclined people, as well as numerous squibs. It's crew consisted solely of those who were aware of magic, whether by direct relation or because they were magic. Every man or woman on the ship had abandoned the magical world to serve in the navy, or those who had family that had died in the war who wanted to have a job that they could be proud of, but keep them very busy all year long.
"Enjoying your stay on the Hufflepuff?" asked the captain with a knowing grin. There were four ships on the sea with the names of each Hogwarts house. Three were air craft carriers, and one was a submarine...though that one belong to mostly Ravenclaws who used it to get rid of underwater mines and explore the bottom of the sea.
Word had it they were still trying to get it to survive a trip into the deepest trench in the sea. Even magic had trouble working that deep.
"Feels like home sir!" grinned Jamie. This was a very familiar pattern to him. Come home, get packed and live on sea for a few months.
"I hear the Ravenclaw has agreed to be your supplier of the more restricted items. Apparently the thought of one-upping that caging Headmaster and getting improved items was worth sending one of our only magically inclined crews back to the school."
"My club can have a dock for them prepared, if given schematics. Flitwick is one of our biggest supporters there," said Jamie.
Because of his heritage, Flitwick had been brought in early on when the club was still trying to become a legitimate one. Once he figured out their real purpose, and being tired of the 'no killing' rule Dumbledore insisted on, he had agreed to help them out.
The Otaku Club's contributions nearly ended the war in their favor, if Jamie hadn't ended it so abruptly.
As to why he was on the Hufflepuff...well it had little to do with his house affiliation (it helped though). Jamie chose this particular air craft carrier because it was one of the few that worked alongside the RAF.
Which was why he was working alongside the mechanics on the ship, since they had some of the newer models.
He wasn't a cabin boy anymore, which meant a lot fewer chores.
Then again, most cleaning was done by charms, unless the one doing it had annoyed the captain or one of the officers too much. Then they had to do it by hand. Because of the size of the ship and their backgrounds, only those with magical relatives (I/E muggleborn relatives) cleaned anything without magic. It wasn't because they were lazy, far from it. It simply wasn't practical with how few people were on the ship. They could spend weeks cleaning it by hand!
Plus there was the fact that Jamie wasn't the only school-aged kid on board.
Due to the influx of magicals, Charlie had all the usual children who visited sent to these ships in order to learn magic over the summer.
Fred, George, Neville, Luna, pretty much all the kids who knew where the base was or had contact with Jamie were on one of the ships. Neville, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbot were on the Hufflepuff with Jamie. Granger was on the submarine along with Luna learning more about marine life from a magical/muggle perspective (the Ravenclaw had windows so heavily charmed that it would take quite the blow to break them, especially underwater at the depths it usually went). The twins, Ron and surprisingly enough Dean Thomas (he had decided to hang around Jamie when he found out the boy followed the same football teams) had gone onto the Gryffindor.
"So what's your plan for the Halloween special?" asked Mike. He had been transferred to the Hufflepuff last month.
"I was thinking Nightmare Before Christmas. That should keep Dumbledore out of our meetings," said Jamie.
"Let me guess. Allow him to see your practice, while the others work in the Chamber?"
"That's the idea. So long as we keep explosions at a minimum, he shouldn't suspect a thing."
"Should be interesting to see how you kids pull this one off."
All around England and some in Scotland, Jamie outlined his plan to keep Dumbledore out of the loop using the Halloween play. Almost everyone agreed to the idea.
Naturally there was some argument over who would play what. Nearly the entire club voted Jamie as Jack the Pumpkin King, though that sparked a loud debate over who would play the rag doll who became his girlfriend.
Eventually the most unlikely candidate was elected.
One of the junior members of the club, Luna Lovegood, managed to snag the part as Sally.
It was rather simple how she pulled that off.
She was the only pure blood who had actually seen the movie, and most of the other girls would be in the Chamber during rehearsal.
Well, that and she came up with the best idea Jamie had ever heard for the part of the 'Mayor' in the movie.
The one chosen to play the mayor was going to dress up as Minister Fudge as a joke. No doubt the other muggleborns, who had seen the movie would get a laugh.
Charlie had been goaded into this by the other veterans, who felt he needed a life outside the base. Even his grandson had activities beyond military life.
Which was why they had blackmailed him into taking Augusta out on a date. Frank and Alice were in on it too, saying she needed to get out and about more often.
Now Charlie had a friendly night out planned, as he really didn't feel like dating Augusta Longbottom.
When he picked her up at the mansion, she apparently had the same idea.
The two spent an evening of wining, dining, and just relaxing in each other's company. They weren't looking for love, at least not at the moment. Both had lost spouses in the war, and had lost their children. Augusta at least had Frank and Alice back, and Alice was showing signs again.
This time the child would be raised by it's parents instead of Augusta. Raising Neville had been hard enough, because he looked so much like his father.
"So Nev, I heard you're going to be a big brother soon," said Jamie at port.
"Yeah. According to Dr. Grace, I'm going to have a little sister soon," said Neville.
"Cool! So wanna play catch or something?" asked Jamie.
"What's catch?"
"Toss a ball around? It's not like we have anything better to do since the internet is down and they're reworking the electricity," said Jamie.
Well, that and they were told not to do anything that counted as work, as today was their day off.
They had one more day before the school year started, and Charlie had already picked up their school things for the year. They just had to play the waiting game.
So Jamie went into the shed and brought out a few balls and mitts. Neville quickly got the gist of the game and the two were having fun playing like normal kids.
Afterwords they had to stay in the wreck room because one of the new re-enactors got loose. So Jamie brought out the manga collection.
"Pick a pic, any pic!" he grinned.
"Hmm...I think I'll try...this one!" said Neville. The pictures were of characters from the manga which Jamie had printed out to decorate his room with. Much more fun than boring wallpaper.
"Let's see...that's Stolas and he's from... Here it is! Necromancer! A tale about a teen who resurrects the dead for a price with the aid of a demon! It's really good!" said Jamie.
Neville immediately dove into the story, though halfway into the second book he asked "Why doesn't Faust just ask one of his clients to deal with the policewoman? I mean that has to be irritating, being told what you're doing is evil," said Neville.
Jamie looked up from his new Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) to reply "You learn who she really is near the end. There's a reason why he tolerates her interruptions."
"Still...this is actually quite fascinating. You can see both sides of the story and how the action of resurrecting the dead always have a second price to pay, whether it is emotionally or physically."
"You mean like the kid who wanted to be a necromancer because he thought it made people happy? The main reason I even got that series was because of that chapter, as it deals with several issues of humanity," said Jamie. He had liked that series quite a bit.
"Too bad we can't do this for a play," said Neville.
"Maybe next year. Personally I think The Ice Cold Demon's Tale would be a better fit," said Jamie.
"And that is?"
"Finish that series and I'll give you the link to it," said Jamie.
The wireless and power had been restored by dinner.
Neville was blushing up a storm.
"Jamie... Why do you keep introducing me to series that had boy/boy pairings?" Neville whined. Yet again, Jamie had tricked him into reading a yaoi story.
"You're still reading it, aren't you? I could care less about the pairings themselves, but the story lines are excellent," said Jamie, not looking up.
Though Neville could hear him trying not to laugh at his embarrassment. He threw a pillow at the boy because of it.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he complained.
"Considering how backwards the magical communities are? Yes."
"Same genders aren't hated like they are in certain parts of the world, so long as one is willing to become the opposite long enough for a child to be conceived. I think that's what started the gender-switching trade..." said Neville.
It was true. Same gender couples weren't frowned on like they were in the mundane world, so long as one of the couple didn't mind switching genders long enough to continue their line. 'Blood purity above all' and all that rot.
"But seriously, why do you keep introducing me to these boy on boy series?" asked Neville.
"Why do you keep reading them, despite knowing they have yaoi pairings?" countered Jamie with a snicker.
"Yaoi?"
"Boy on boy pairings are yaoi, while girl on girl is yuri. There is also anthro (think cat girls), lolicons (underage) and hetero, which is straight boy and girl."
"How do you know this stuff? You're only thirteen!" asked Neville.
Jamie lowered his book and looked at him.
"Neville, I spent four years on naval ships with boys older than me as a cabin boy. I was introduced to anime and manga by a fifteen year old who thought it was funny to show me a book more suited to fifteen year olds at age eight. I learned this stuff solely so I would understand what the hell half the terms actually meant so I could properly enjoy it," said Jamie flatly.
"So what are you guys really going to be doing in the Chamber of Secrets?" asked Neville, changing the topic.
"Do you want the real answer or are you just changing the subject?"
"I'm serious!"
"Neville, we have everyone who passes the initial test in our club swear an unbreakable vow of silence on club members. In order to learn what we would really be doing down there, you would have to become a full fledged member of the club, not just one of our lesser members."
Neville, unlike Jamie, was a part of the smaller offshoot of the Otaku club called the Fantasy club. Most of the people in that did the same thing as the Otaku club, only they dressed as literary characters like Macbeth or from popular fantasy series. They accepted students who weren't able to commit to graphic novels and Japanese cartoons the way the Otaku club had, but were more light otaku than serious ones.
Generally the Otaku rejects either went into the Drama club or the Fantasy club.
"Can I think about it?" asked Neville. To have such a thing for a simple club meant they did something serious in it.
In the entire school, only five of the clubs in it used an unbreakable vow for all members. The Charms Club (their vow was to never use the charms created against other students until after they graduated and only in times of war), the lone Defense club (they swore never to cast any harmful spells that were used in the club outside the club room unless the circumstances called for it, like a fight to the death), the Magical Animals club (they swore never to harm an animal unless it needed to be put down), the Law club (their vow was to never use their powers for evil, like say helping Fudge or a woman they affectionately called Umbitch) and the Otaku club, who had a vow of silence about their true goals.
They even had a special password to insure that no one could trick their way in through polyjuice or being a metamorph. They had caught quite a few people that way, mostly Slytherins who should have known better than to cross the Otaku.
"Tell you what, how about I give you another series, one that I personally guarantee doesn't have any yaoi in it?"
"Deal," said Neville.
Jamie handed him a book called Saint Dragon Girl. One volume in and Neville was hooked.
"Jamie! Am I glad to see you. We've got the new passphrase for the club, and I need our president's approval for it to go through."
Jamie had, after last years play, been elected the new Otaku Club President because of how well he played Roy. Well that and the fact he had secured a new area they could experiment in without having to deal with the teachers had done a lot to secure his new position.
Considering how quickly he had organized the club's less known activities, they were able to accept him despite his age.
"What's the passcode for this year?"
Paul grinned.
"Team Rocket's speech. Every time a group comes in, you have to repeat the entire thing, including Meowth's part, without stopping. You also have to name the series and what their original team was in the first appearance. Every time you go, you have to mention another member from the organization in place of Jesse and James," said Paul.
"Perfect. Only a true Otaku would remember any of those, and be able to repeat that speech word for word without being embarrassed by it."
"Not to mention they would have to wear one of Jesse or James' costumes without looking like an idiot," said Paul with a snicker.
Only a true Otaku would know that Jesse and James had a thing for Crossplay, or wearing the clothing of the opposite gender. It wouldn't be bad for the girls, but for the guys it would expose the real otaku from the fakers trying to break in.
Jamie couldn't wait to test out the new applicants. This would be fun.