Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

by Fergus Flamacron

Six years after the attack by Acnologia, a catastrophic event leads the entire island of Tenroujima and everyone on it to be flung headfirst into another world. A world with different people, different magic and different threats. What happens when Dragon Slayers meet with the Boy Who Lived? Pairings mostly, but not entirely, the same as canon. DISCONTINUED

41. The Room of Requirement

Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 41:- The Room of Requirement

---

"And you're absolutely sure of it, Harry?" Sirius asked as he faced the mirror he was holding clenched tightly in his palm, his knuckles bone-white. He hadn't been expecting Harry to use the handy little device so soon except perhaps to test it out, but what his godson was saying now was… quite frankly terrifying. "You're absolutely certain that's the name you heard."

"Absolutely," Harry nodded. "Morgan Le Fay… Morgana Pendragon, that's the name. There's no way I could have mistaken it for anything else."

He was right about that. Dull as History of Magic with Professor Binns was there were some parts of it that went in, and in their very first year they'd been taught a good many of the legends surrounding Merlin and Morgana and their intense rivalry in the time of Camelot. Binns had always stressed in his usual soul-crushing monotone that most of what they knew couldn't be confirmed as one-hundred percent fact because many of the official records of what had happened in those days had been lost or put to the torch by Muggles during the height of their fear of witchcraft many centuries ago, but Morgana was one of the names that everyone remembered, even the Muggles themselves. She was supposedly the most powerful sorceress ever to live, and only Merlin stood above her at the top spot of the most powerful wielder of magic ever.

"I see…" Sirius murmured, sucking on his teeth. "Well… I'm sure it was nothing. Like you said it was probably just a dream."

"Yeah, maybe… but it felt so real Sirius. I didn't see the face of the woman who was talking, but it was if I could feel her eyes right on me… like she was peering down at me from the ceiling and watching me as I slept."

"Nobody was watching you sleep, Harry. That I can assure you of. Now get down to breakfast and try not to let this worry you too much. Morgana Pendragon is long dead, just like Merlin, King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and every other human from back then. There's simply no way that it could have been her."

"…Yeah, you're right. It was… stupid of me to worry," Harry sounded relieved, but not entirely convinced. "Thanks for listening to me anyway, Sirius."

"Hey, that's what I'm here for," Sirius grinned. "Bye for now."

When he put the mirror down he looked up across the attic room he was sat in. He'd taken the mirror with him when he'd gone to feed Buckbeak that morning, taking several of the new Fairy Tail mages up to meet the proud Hippogriff. Despite the fact Buckbeak was clearly itching to spread his wings properly he was calm before anyone from Fairy Tail he'd met so far. He seemed to realise their power and sometimes he was the first to bow to them in the usual Hippogriff ceremony, which was practically unheard of.

Currently up there with him was Erza and Mirajane, along with Gray and Juvia. Most of the other Order members had already gone, Dumbledore and Moody having assigned them various things to do across the country in a bid to find out where Voldemort might have gone scuttling to after his defeat. Erza was currently running her hand up the middle of Buckbeak's face, having had a particularly reverent effect upon him.

"Is there a way that it could have been her?" she asked pensively, letting Buckbeak tear into a piece of meat she was holding in her hand and not the least bit concerned at how sharp his beak was considering she was wearing armour. "This Le Fay you speak of?"

"…I don't know," Sirius shrugged. "There's a reason why the things that happened back then are referred to as Arthurian Legend. There are so many conflicting sources about who Morgana was, what she did and what happened to her. The only thing every source says is that she and Merlin were mortal enemies for most of their lives and that she wanted to become the most powerful person in the world, both in magic and in position. Some sources say that she died, killed by Merlin. Some say that she was responsible for the death of King Arthur but was overcome with remorse when he died and was never seen again after that. Still others say that she became a priestess of Avalon long before Arthur died and was forgiven by him, and that she helped Merlin lay him to rest when his time finally came. But one thing is for sure - I've never heard of her being sealed away inside a crystal cave outside time and space. That one is definitely new to me."

"So there's a strong likelihood that this really was just a dream," Gray observed.

"And yet he also gave perfect descriptions of Rustyrose and Bluenote," Mirajane pointed out gravely. "That boy has never seen them before in his life and I don't remember us mentioning what they looked like at the meeting yesterday."

"Besides," Erza said, her eyes heavy and fixing the others with her gaze. "We know from experience that it's possible for an ancient evil to be long thought dead when in fact they've simply been in hiding."

Nobody in the room could argue with that.

"I assume you're talking about this Zeref person you keep mentioning," Sirius noted.

"Yep," Gray nodded. "I saw him with my own eyes. Four-hundred years and he still looked about as young as I am."

"He wasn't at all what Juvia pictured," Juvia agreed. "Juvia had always pictured Zeref as this terrifying, hulking man with wild hair and a constant maniacal expression as he delighted in sending anyone and everyone he met to their grave. In reality he looked almost frail. But Juvia felt his magic… and how tainted it was. Juvia believes it really was Zeref."

"And you think its possible that Morgana could have truly survived the ages in our world too?" Sirius asked.

"I would simply caution you not to assume anything," Erza said. "And not to dismiss the evidence out of hand. I do not know why Harry has these dreams but from what I understand correctly he's been right in the past."

"Do you think he could be a seer, like Charla?" Mirajane asked.

"Nah, that doesn't sound right," Sirius shook his head. "Seers see the future. I think Harry only ever sees the present when he has these weird visions."

"Good point. But there's one more important thing to remember - he also gave us a potential explanation as to why the Grimoire Heart mages are here that seemed to fit perfectly with all the facts we've collected about their arrival, explaining everything from why Rustyrose was still wounded to why he appeared several days later than Bluenote. It would have been quite a feat for him to dream up such a theory. My dreams are usually quite a bit more random than that."

"That doesn't necessarily mean its true," Gray folded his arms. "But… it surely does look sound… and ties everything up in a neat little bow if its true. At least where Grimoire Heart are concerned."

"I'm going to talk to Levy," Erza said as she drew away from Buckbeak, tossing him the rest of the meat over her shoulder. "If there's a chance that this Morgana is real and that our being thrust into this world has given her an opportunity to break free from some unearthly prison then I want to know how we can combat her."

"Juvia hopes it was just a dream on Harry-san's part," Juvia whispered. "It would be awful to think that we're responsible for unleashing an ancient horror upon this world just like we could have done upon our own."

Gray looked at Juvia carefully and could see she was biting her lip, looking unexpectedly guilty. But then he remembered… she'd been the one pursuing that pink-haired girl who'd been taking an unconscious Zeref away, and of course Zeref had managed to evade capture and killed one of Grimoire Heart in the process. Was Juvia cut up about that? Was she blaming herself for Zeref's escape?

"Hey," he said, placing a hand upon her shoulder as she looked up at him in surprise. "There's nothing you could have done. If you'd succeeded in catching up with him, you'd probably be the one lying dead instead of that Zancrow guy. Instead you're alive, and that's something we're all glad for, you hear me?"

Juvia blushed a deep red and looked down, at the floor. "Th… thank you, Gray-sama…" she half-whispered, half-gushed. "Juvia… appreciates that."

"I should probably find a way to send word to Dumbledore," Sirius said as he got up as well. "I don't know if Harry was dreaming or not but if there's even the slightest chance that he's right… well… let's just say I hope he's not… or that Morgana's not nearly as strong as the legends made her out to be."

"She was really that powerful?" Mirajane asked.

"Let's just say that according to the stories she could have quite easily usurped the crown at any time if it weren't for Merlin protecting it. She was the Voldemort to his Dumbledore. And I'd really not have another Voldemort running around no matter how pretty she might end up being. Especially if she ends up being more powerful than him."

---

Erza found Levy in the Black House library and it was hardly surprising that the little bluenette was sitting with a book open on the table in front of her. What was quite surprising was how her eyes were unfocused, staring into the middle of the book as if she wasn't really seeing it. She certainly wasn't reading it.

"Levy?" Erza prompted, sitting down beside her and jerking her out of her reverie. "Are you okay?"

"Erza… yes… yeah, I'm fine," Levy coughed, readjusting her Gale-Force Reading Glasses and returning herself to the book more properly this time.

"Is there something on your mind?" Erza asked with no small amount of concern. Levy was usually a pretty focused individual and when you placed a book in her hands it usually took a lot to tear her away from the pages.

"…It's… not important…" Levy sighed.

"Important or not, its bothering you. You know you can confide in me, don't you, Levy? You know that you can confide in anyone from the guild about anything."

Levy looked up from the book, locking her gaze with Erza's own and finding a warm hearth in there, inviting her in as she always did whenever Erza wasn't in her stern, Titania mode. She sighed, and slowly closed the book with a heavy thud, ignoring the stream of dust that spilled out from the sides and said, "…It's about Gajeel."

The Iron Dragon Slayer in question had left late last night, heading back to the Hog's Head along with Wendy to take up their usual residence with Aberforth. Cana had very desperately wanted to go with them when she'd learned they were sleeping in a bar but her father had pointed out that Aberforth's help was coming more than a little grudgingly and it really wouldn't help if Cana was to drink him out of business the night she arrived. Which was a distinct possibility.

Yet despite what had happened at Azkaban, when Levy had used the memory of him protecting her as the happy memory to fuel her Solid Script Patronus, she'd still been relieved when he'd gone. She'd still avoided getting close to him at the meeting and had looked pointedly in another direction whenever he looked her way, her gut clenching with fear. Which was utterly ridiculous! Why was she still so afraid of him even after that!?

"Oh? What about him?" Erza asked.

"…Erza, you had a bad reaction to the Dementors, didn't you?"

"….I think that bad is a rather large understatement."

"Right… sorry. But still, when they were around you they invoked horrible memories for you didn't they?"

"Suffice to say they did," Erza said grimly, not keening on thinking about anything that had happened between the Dementors arriving and her blocking a dose of Fiendfyre at the prison.

"Did any of them… I dunno… have some sort of lingering effect on you?" Levy pressed. "Did any of them… change… the way you thought about something or… someone?"

She quickly outlined what had been happening ever since she'd emerged from the Fairy Sphere, grappling with a newfound fear of Gajeel that she knew was ridiculous and yet couldn't seem to shake. Erza listened in silence, drumming her fingers on the tabletop thoughtfully. She'd remembered some terrible stuff… things that she'd long wanted to forget but had replayed in her mind over and over and over again. The slavers of the Tower of Heaven capturing her and forcing her to work, Old Rob's death, Jellal turning on her and eventually killing Simon.

Levy wasn't as familiar with the details of Erza's past as some of the others, but she knew enough for what Erza said next to make sense.

"Because of the things I saw… I suppose nobody would blame me if I suddenly felt a deep surge of hatred for Jellal. Nobody would think anything of it if I was consumed with a desperate desire to plunge my sword through his death for all the things he's done to me and those I hold dear. Nobody would blame anyone for that desire in these circumstances."

"But you don't desire them, do you?"

"No," Erza shook her head. "I've already lived through all that a million times in my head without Dementors helping me to do it. I've never been able to forget. I view Jellal now in exactly the same way as I did before. He is a poor, lost soul who was manipulated into doing all the things that give me doing nightmares, possessed by dark magic and horrified as soon as he was free, even though he did not remember the friends I told him he'd hurt. He does not deserve to be hated and so I do not hate him. I never could. No matter how many times I am forced to remember the things he did while possessed."

Levy raised a brow. She suspected there was another reason… a very deep reason… why Erza could not hate Jellal. She'd heard exactly how devastated she'd been when Jellal had been taken away by the Magic Council. But she decided not to bring it up. Now wasn't the right time for teasing.

"Why can't I be like that?" she asked. "I know with absolute certainty that I have no need to be scared of Gajeel anymore so why? Why? Just why am I still afraid of him?"

"Perhaps you're not afraid of him in the way you think you are," Erza smiled, the edges of her lips twitching into an ever-so-slight smile.

"Huh?" Levy blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Fear often breeds fear. I have no doubt that you were indeed irrationally afraid of Gajeel for a short time after your Dementor encounter, fearing that he might beat you up again. But you're a smart person Levy - it wouldn't have taken long for that fear to fade. Indeed, you say yourself you know you don't need to be afraid of that. So the only explanation is that something else scares you when it comes to Gajeel now."

"…Really?"

"Perhaps you may not have realised it, but I would guess that is the case."

"But then… what?"

"You know your own mind best, Levy. But…" Erza's expression now changed into a completely undisguised smirk. "Is it fair to say that during the events of Tenroujima and Grimoire Heart's attack you became just a little… taken… with Gajeel?"

"EEEHHH!?" Levy squealed, almost falling out of her chair and gaping at Erza as if she'd just told her she was her mother! "What…! What are you…? You can't be serious… there's… there's no way I… we just… I wasn't… he…" she spluttered, trying to pull her brain into order but her extensive vocabulary seemed to have quit on her unexpectedly.

"I think that answered my question pretty well," Erza chuckled, pushing herself to her feet. "I won't pry into your personal affairs there Levy but if I might make my diagnosis. I don't think you're scared of getting close to Gajeel because you're afraid of being hurt by him anymore… physically. I think you might be afraid of being hurt by him emotionally. You know Gajeel's changed from the way he used to be, for the better… but you don't know how much. Gajeel from Phantom Lord wouldn't have been interested in relationships, would he? Gajeel from Fairy Tail though… would he?"

"Ungh… jrrsh… ffmmf…" Levy gurgled incoherently, her mind reeling. Erza was talking nonsense! There was nothing between her and Gajeel and there never had been! It was an absolutely preposterous suggestion to make! No way, nuh-uh, could never happen.

Although… the thought of never being able to get over her fear of Gajeel was almost more terrifying in its own right to her. Maybe if it had been someone else she would have waved it off, confident that she'd get over the irrational fear soon enough. But with Gajeel… she couldn't get it off her mind.

But she couldn't have feelings for him! He was Gajeel! The man who'd beaten her half to death!

…And the man who had been there for her every time she really needed someone ever since.

Levy found herself staring down at the pages again, stunned. Seriously, was it possible? Could she really think of Gajeel as anything more than a friend? And what would he think? If she, or anyone, went to him and asked him if he'd like a girlfriend… what would he say? She imagined what his response might be and heard him say the words, "Girlfriends are a waste of bloody time."

Her heart clenched with a lot more trepidation at the thought he might say that than she expected! Oh gods… was… was Erza right? Her… and Gajeel? Could she really want that?

"I hate to interrupt your thoughts," Erza said as she scanned the books on the nearest shelves. "But we need to do some researching. We need to find out as much as we can about a woman from ancient times called Morgana Pendragon."

"Um…" Levy blinked, trying hard to snap herself out of her ridiculous… probably… thoughts. "O-okay… why?"

"Let's just say she might not be as dead as everyone from this world believes her to be."

---

Cana sat in the living space just off the kitchen - a part of the house that was surprisingly unused considering how many people came and went through it. But then again, the kitchen and its long table did make for easier congregating. She had an ornate coffee table spread out before her, and on top of that was a large assortment of her own cards. She looked like she was trying to read the tarot, but that was really the last thing on her mind.

"How are you proceeding?" Evergreen asked as she strode into the room, fanning herself lightly. "Made any progress?"

"None whatsoever," Cana sighed, collapsing back against the soft back of the sofa and running a hand over her face in exasperation. "There's really not much that I can do right now as far as I can see. If we were back in Earthland then maybe I'd be able to do a little reading or something to at least see if there are any stronger kinds of card magic out there. Or maybe consult with some elder who knows things I don't about magic to see if it would be possible to forge a new kind."

"What about Mavis? Can't she help you?"

"I've already asked her but she doesn't know enough about Card Magic. It's actually quite new as magic goes so no wonder it hasn't been built up to the same kind of power level as a lot of other magical kinds. Apparently I'm already using the most powerful kind of Card Magic there is. There's a few tricks I haven't learned but… if I want to use the potential Mavis says I have I can't just keep using this magic. Maybe I should just throw the cards in the bin and try and work on an entirely new magic."

"There's got to be some way you can do it," said a voice from the doorway and they both looked up to see Lisanna standing there, still looking tired from the previous day but her usual smile in place. "Some way you can use your existing magical skill to create a new one."

"What do you mean?" Cana asked.

"Well, look at me," Lisanna said. "I got Dragon Soul yesterday, but I never would have been able to achieve such a new power without my pre-existing Animal Soul, and even then it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't used it on one of this universe's bestial dragons. At the end of the day though my new power is still a Take-Over - just a different kind to the one I used to use. Maybe you can develop a new kind of Card Magic in the same way."

"She's right," Evergreen nodded. "And if you can then you'd have your power boosted much quicker than you would trying to learn a brand new magic entirely from scratch. Speaking of which, I think I'm going to try expanding my own magical repertoire."

"You are?" Cana asked. "Why?"

Evergreen pushed her glasses further up her nose ruefully. "My Stone Eyes has served me well. There's almost no human that it can't beat if I just catch their eye long enough. But, much as I am… loathe to admit it… I've become a little too reliant on it. I've been screwed over a number of times when it hasn't worked - on Erza's artificial eye, Rustyrose with his summoned creatures and glasses, those Erkling things. My Fairy Magic is strong but I haven't bothered learning all the spells I could with it. And I'm a Fairy Queen now," she puffed out her chest and smirked behind her fan. "I should really maximise the magic that helped win my that status, shouldn't I?"

"Probably," chuckled Lisanna. "I need to train as well - I need to make sure I can use my own new magic to its fullest… and learn everything it has to offer."

"That's all well and good, but how are we supposed to do all that anyway?" Cana asked. "You had a teacher to help you learn Dragon Soul, Lisanna. Now we're all rather sadly lacking in people to help us out."

"We'll find a way," Evergreen said confidently. "We always do find a way after all. And when those other two idiots from the Raijinshuu show up, along with Laxus and the Master, I sure as heck intend to make them proud of me. Somehow."

"Speaking of which," suddenly Lucy walked into the room, evidently having heard the latter part of that conversation from outside. "Do you think you could use your card magic to predict where we'll find any remaining Fairy Spheres, Cana?"

"I can try," Cana nodded. "Not sure how successful I'll be. Predicting where things isn't as easy here I've found. Maybe its because there's much less Ethernano in the air so our kind of magic doesn't flow so well over long distances in this world. But I'll have a crack at it, see what I find."

Lucy nodded, looking up and out through grimy window into the street beyond. "I know what you mean," she said. "Has anyone else noticed it takes longer for us to regain our magic here after we use it up? I felt tired for hours yesterday after opening so many Spirit Gates. I still don't think I've completely recovered."

"Celestial Spirit Magic is a pretty draining kind of magic," Lisanna noted. "More so than a lot of others."

"I know. And that's why I'm going to get stronger too in any way I can," Lucy said. "My greatest weakness is my lack of magic power - I've run out more than once at inconvenient times. If magic takes longer to recharge here then I really can't afford to let that happen here."

"We've all got motive to get stronger. I think practically everyone else agrees, even Erza," Evergreen conceded. "But we're not exactly going to be able to train our magic very much in here. We'd risk destroying the Order's safehouse. And we'd be noticed if we tried to train outside and the Ministry would be on us instantly."

The four girls lapsed into silence, contemplating their various situations until Cana ran a hand through her hair and said, "Ungh, I need a drink."

---

Morning breakfast at Hogwarts went pretty much as Harry expected it to. He was tense - how could he not be given what he'd dreamed last night. I had seemed so horribly real and yet it surely couldn't have been. He should take it easy, just like Sirius suggested.

Although his dreams had been right before and given everything he'd heard and seen recently with regards to Fairy Tail and their world, was it really so implausible? Was anything implausible when it came to magic?

He decided not to tell Ron and Hermione about Morgana for now. Talking to Sirius about it was enough for the moment. He knew he'd have to tell them eventually but for the moment he wanted them to focus on their first upcoming DA meeting. Harry had so many butterflies in his stomach he was certain he was going to need their help on this one and it would be better if they had clearer heads than that. Telling them about Morgana wouldn't help. They both certainly knew a lot more about her than he did - Ron grew up being told stories about her and Hermione had probably read every word of every book she could get her hands on about Merlin and Morgana. But he wouldn't keep it from them for long, just until after the first 'lesson.'

There was one thing that nicely broke the sense of doom and gloom surrounding him though.

"WWWHAAAATTT!?" screamed a voice from the Slytherin table, and Draco Malfoy surged to his feet as he stared at the the third page of the Daily Prophet, and his eyes bugging out of his head. Harry and Ron struggled not to burst out laughing - they knew full well what story he was reading so rapidly at this moment.

"He likes to rub his riches in people's faces so much and now he's homeless," Harry whispered loudly. "What goes around comes around I guess."

"I think he's mad that the destruction of his house only made the third page," Ron snickered. "I guess the destruction of Azkaban and the escape of Sirius Black beat his precious house to the punch."

Harry guffawed and was about to reply when Hermione nudged him in the shoulder and pointed down their own table. Not far away, Neville Longbottom was staring at the paper, looking positively thunderstruck… no, more than that. He looked furious!

"Whoa, what's up with him?" Ron whispered.

"I don't know," Hermione said back quietly. "I've never seen him look like that before. Not ever."

Harry swallowed. He knew exactly what Neville was thinking. After all, Bellatrix Lestrange and her posse, the very same people who had apparently tortured his parents into insanity with the exception of Barty Crouch Junior, had just broken free. Harry imagined the Neville was probably thinking much the same thing he had when Voldemort had returned, though with a little less immediate fear for his life.

He quickly tried to divert the conversation back to Malfoy. It wasn't his place to say what had happened to Neville's family after all.

But just as he was finished breakfast and about to head back to the dormitory to get ready for class…

"Hem, hem…"

Harry's back went as stiff as an oak tree - he was really growing to loathe that noise. He turned about with all the grace of a rusty hinge to see Umbridge standing behind him. She looked like she was trying maintain her usual calm, faux-sweet mannerism but she looked considerably rattled. No doubt she'd only just received word of what happened yesterday as well and she did not look best pleased.

"Remind me again, Mister Potter," she said with just the faintest of growls behind her honey-coated voice. "Just why were you not in my class yesterday?"

"Because I went to see Sirius Black receiving the Dementor's Kiss… Professor," Harry replied stiffly.

"…But he didn't… did he?"

"No, Professor… someone interfered. Friends of Fairy Tail or… something."

"Yes, remarkable really that someone managed to get into the Ministry even after all the heightened security to break Black out, isn't it?" Umbridge's eyes seemed to be trying to bore a hole through Harry's glasses. "Especially after you were there… as arranged by Dumbledore so you could have - how did he call it - peace of mind, at last?"

"It's too bad it didn't work out," Harry snarled. He hated that he was having to talk about Sirius as if he was some criminal, especially to this woman, but he managed to channel his loathing of her into his words and make it look like Sirius was the one he hated. "I… I'd give anything to see that… son of a bitch… brought to justice."

"Language, Mister Potter," Umbridge said instantly, her tone slightly clipped, then she added, "I seem to recall a similar incident two years ago where Black somehow managed to escape the Dementors when you weren't so far away."

"The guy's good at escaping I guess. He was the first out of Azkaban after all. And he didn't have help."

"Perhaps… and now he seems to have sided with Fairy Tail. I assume I don't have to tell you how much of a threat these… mages… are to our very existence. If you knew anything about them… you would tell me, wouldn't you?" she cocked her head, that sweet smile very much back in place.

"Of course," Harry said, pointedly fixing his gaze on Umbridge's own. "But I'm just glad to be safe here behind the Hogwarts wards where they won't be able to get to me."

"…Hmm… get to class, Mister Potter," Umbridge said, turning around and half-strutting, half-waddling her way back up to the teacher's table. Ron and Hermione, who had been watching the whole thing nervously, quickly got up to usher Harry out of the hall.

"She knows something," Ron whispered. "She knows you're tight with Sirius, Harry."

"She can't possibly know that unless one of the Order members told her, and none of them would ever do that," Hermione shook her head. "She only suspects. But it does look suspicious - she knows it was Sirius in the Gryffindor Fire but she has no idea who it was he was talking to and she can't accuse you without proof."

"Yeah well, we've got the mirror now to make sure that doesn't happen again," Harry said. "She won't catch us out a second time. We just need to focus on the DA meeting tonight. Tell everyone where and when and make them spread the word."

"Let's hope Dobby's information was accurate," Ron murmured.

"In my experience, Dobby knows what he's talking about. It's coming up with plans that he's not so good at."

As they left the hall, Pantherlily watched them go. He was sitting on the Ravenclaw table next to Luna - who he was allowing to stroke his ears for the sake of keeping up appearances beneath Mavis' illusion. He'd watched the whole exchange. That Umbridge truly was a nasty piece of work… and she would definitely need to be dealt with.

His mouth tweaked into a small smile, and he resolved to see if Mavis was back when breakfast ended. It seemed Umbridge could do with another haunting from her imaginary werewolf.

---

Lessons passed with a crawl and with every half hour that went by Harry's nerves grew. A part of him thought it was ridiculous that he was nervous - he'd been the focus of an audience every time he played an official Quidditch game, as well as during the three Triwizard Tasks. Surely he could take a simple class… but then again he'd never actually been looking his audience in the face before. And they weren't supposed to be learning anything from him before.

Ron and Hermione constantly assured him he'd be fine, which he was grateful for, but their words didn't really help.

Eventually though the time came and they headed off the the seventh floor after classes ended. They were accompanied by Ginny, Happy and Charla, the two Exceed having insisted they come along at least for the first lesson to see how it went. And sure enough, there was the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy with his trolls, just waiting for them. It was a good thing tapestries couldn't talk as portraits could, and that there were no portraits in this hallway, otherwise the secret of their meeting place could potentially be ruined. Maybe that had been what whoever put the tapestry up way back when had in mind.

Harry carried out Dobby's instructions while the others watched with bated breath, walking down the corridor once… twice… thrice… and sure enough… there was the door, blipping into existence before them. None of them really noticed it appear. It was more like it had been there the whole time but none of them had noticed it until just then.

"Soooo… just to double check," Ron said as they stared at the door. "We're absolutely sure there isn't a giant three-headed dog behind here or something are we?"

"If what Dobby said is true, this would have been a pretty good place to hide the Philosopher's Stone," Hermione noted.

"…Are we going in or not?" Charla asked impatiently. "We don't want to be caught out here gawking, do we?"

Harry quickly jumped into action and grabbed the doorhandle, swinging it open. The little group filed their way inside, looking around with great interest at the room which splayed out before them. It was large - much larger than it ought to be given the structure of this part of the castle at about half the size of the Great Hall, with a floor covered in cushions, a desk full of various Dark Detectors and an entire wall of various books about the countering Dark Arts or interesting spells.

"Oooh, this looks great!" Hermione made a beeline for said books. "Maybe Dobby was right about this place after all."

"It does look like a perfect room to practice in," Ginny agreed. "But are we absolutely sure that Umbridge or Filch or whoever won't be able to find it?"

"I did ask it specifically if we could hide the room from her or anyone who would tell her if they found out about this so… let's hope so," Harry said. "It's odd though - I was expecting something a bit more… I dunno… hands on. Like maybe targets to practice on or…"

"Uh, Harry," Ron pointed. "Were they there before?" Harry followed his gaze and blinked when he saw a row of targets up against the far wall, just like those used for archery practice. Okay, he was certain they had not been there when he came in.

"Then could we use this room for anything we want?" Happy cried, instantly beginning to drool and raising his paws into the air. "I wish that there was a huge pile of fish in the middle of the floor!"

…Nothing happened.

"It's not a wishing well, you dope!" Charla chided him. "And besides you'd stink the whole place up with that!"

"…Aye… sorry," Happy drooped slightly. "But why didn't it work?"

"It can't conjure up food out of nothing," Hermione said. "Nothing can - food is one of the Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

"…It's what now?" Ron asked, his blank expression mirrored by everyone else in the room. Hermione sighed, but didn't repeat herself.

"There's magic on our world that can conjure food out of thin air," Happy muttered. "Vegetable Magic and everything."

"Yeah, but conjured food doesn't taste good even there," Charla pointed out. "It's remarkably inedible."

"I suppose," Happy conceded, and then his stomach growled. "All this talk of food's making me hungry though."

"Well, who's fault is that?" Ginny chuckled. "I'm sure we can head down to the kitchens later and…" she paused, blinked and said, "Okay I know that door wasn't there before."

Everyone looked around and indeed, there was another door set in the wall between the targets which had suddenly phased into existence out of nowhere. And those who knew the castle well enough knew that there shouldn't be anything outside a door at that position but a drop into space down to the courtyard below. Yet when Ginny hurried over and opened it, there appeared to be a dark passageway inside. One that led out in a straight line directly ahead and was lit by flaming torches held within evenly spaced brackets to either side.

"Oooookaaaaayyy…" Ginny said slowly, reaching out with one foot just to test that the floor was real and not some illusion. "Is anyone else feeling pretty creeped out right now?"

"Where do you think it leads?" Harry asked suspiciously.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't know but I doubt it leads anywhere bad. This is the Room of Requirement after all so that door must have appeared here for a reason. Maybe it leads to the kitchens because Happy asked for food. The Room can't conjure food but it could make a passageway to a place that already has it."

"Well since this might be your door, Happy," Charla turned to her fellow Exceed. "You should see where it goes. I'll come with you."

"Aye sir!" Happy raised a paw, the two cats lifting off the floor and spreading their wings.

"Need any help?" Ron asked.

"You lot focus on your upcoming lesson," Charla shook her head. "That's more important than finding out where some door goes."

"If we run into trouble we can look out for ourselves. We been in quite a few tight spots before," Happy agreed. "You should close the door behind us too. See you later!"

They swept past Ginny through the door, and the redhead girl watched them disappear into darkness for a moment before swinging the door shut just before a knock came at the other one and the first members of the group began to arrive.

Despite the reassurances that there shouldn't be anything suspicious about the corridor-slash-tunnel that they were flying through, Happy and Charla kept their guard up. They were certain now that they should be flying right over the castle grounds considering the corridor didn't bend even once in any direction. It was just a straight line and there were no stairs or slopes leading up and down so considering they'd started on the second floor did that mean there was just some giant invisible bridge sticking out of the castle now. Hopefully the owls wouldn't fly into it.

"This place is kinda spooky," Happy observed, his voice echoing across the stonework eerily and the dim lights making it difficult for either of them to see ahead - Exceed weren't as good at seeing in darkness as a regular cat. "Do you think there could be ghosts in here?"

"We've already seen ghosts in the castle itself, remember?" Charla rolled her eyes. "And our own First Master is a ghost. If there's one thing I've learned while I'm here it's that ghosts aren't dangerous."

"What about ghouls then? Ron told me that he had one living in his attic…"

"Let's just focus, shall we?" Charla rolled her eyes, and the two of them picked up speed until all of a sudden they reached a complete dead end. They almost flew straight into it, yelping slightly as it rushed up towards them through the darkness but quickly able to arrest their flight and settle back down upon the ground.

"Wow… that's a bit anticlimactic," Happy said.

"It's got to lead somewhere," Charla shook her head. "But… where?"

And then quite abruptly something warped into existence on the wall in front of them, causing both the cats to step back in surprise. For what appeared there was… a painting. A portrait. And it was a portrait of a young girl in a slightly ragged dress. One that looked extremely familiar!

"Is… that who I think it is?" Charla blinked.

"That's Ariana… Aberforth-san's younger sister," Happy breathed. "What's she doing here?"

The portrait of Ariana just smiled enigmatically, raised a hand to wave to the Exceed… and then the entire wall opened before them like a giant door, the portrait included, to reveal a room beyond. A simple dining room where most everything was made of wood and one which the cats also knew well.

"This is…" Happy said, but before he got any further there was a loud crash and a yell of, "FUCKING GOAT! GET BACK HERE AND LET ME MILK YOU OR I SWEAR I'LL EAT YOUR HORNS! EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT METAL!"

"Gajeel?" Happy cried in surprise, hurrying into the room. "We're in the Hog's Head!? But… how does that work?"

"Wendy!? Are you here?" Charla called, and moments later the blue-haired Dragon Slayer appeared in the room from where she'd been helping Aberforth at the bar as per usual.

"Charla?" Wendy blinked. "What are you doing here? And how did you get here?" she said, looking up at the displaced section of wall with alarm.

"I haven't the foggiest idea," Charla looked around back at the tunnel they'd just headed through. They'd somehow gone in a complete straight line with no visible ascent of descent from the seventh floor of Hogwarts Castle to a pub in Hogsmeade, entering through a wall that didn't even face the castle. There must have been some incredible magic at work to warp reality to such a degree cos there was definitely no corporeal tunnel between the two places, and yet here they were.

But why had it brought them here? Because Happy had wanted to go to a place with food? Or was it more than that? Had the room given them something they required without even asking for it - a passageway to their friends. Of course the Exceed had no problem getting to the Hog's Head from the castle… but now…

Charla gasped when she realised the implications of what had just happened.

They now had a route that could potentially get Fairy Tail in!

At this point, both Gajeel and Aberforth appeared in the room at the same time. "The hell!? What are you two doing here?" Gajeel asked.

"What in blazes did you do to my wall?" Aberforth cried, immediately checking to make sure that Ariana's portrait was okay.

"I think that your sister just helped us out big time," Happy said, bouncing up and down enthusiastically. "That room's amazing, Charla. If it can provide us with a tunnel straight here then just imagine what else if could provide us with!"

"What room? What's going on?" Wendy blinked.

"Have you got another important message?" Gajeel asked.

"…Possibly," Charla said, smiling brightly. "Not an urgent one but it could be pretty big. Can someone call in the rest of Fairy Tail, and the Order too come to that? We might have just struck metaphorical gold."

---

Harry looked out at the packed Room of Requirement, side-stepping as Dennis Creevey almost fell over in surprise when his wand went flying out of his hand, courtesy of his older brother. Things actually hadn't been so bad when the ball had gotten rolling. Granted when he'd first stood up before these people, many of which were in their final year and about to take their NEWTs and yet still expected him to do the teaching, his throat felt tight and he'd wanted nothing more than to grab a Butterbeer and drain it. Or maybe crawl into a pit somewhere.

But as soon as Hermione had helped smooth the way by having Harry officially elected as leader, he was given just that little bit of confidence that he needed.

"Well…" he said. "You all saw the newspapers this morning, didn't you? If any of you in here still don't believe me when I say that Voldemort's back then you've just been given ten more very good reasons to learn how to defend yourselves."

"Ten maximum security Death Eaters broken out of prison," Ernie Macmillan shook his head. "And yet still Umbridge was having us read through those useless texts of hers this morning. Even if the Ministry's not willing to admit You-Know-Who is back that should be enough of a reason to let us actually do something."

"Yeah but they weren't broken out by You-Know-Who, were they?" Zacharias Smith grunted, clearly still quite sceptical of Harry's story even though he too had raised his hand to elect Harry as leader. "They were broken out by that Fairy Tail lot."

"How do you know that?" Ginny glowered at him. "Just because the paper said so? You may recall that the paper's been claiming that Harry and Dumbledore are liars for months and that's bollocks too."

Harry was surprised at how vehemently Ginny spoke up for Fairy Tail considering she hadn't actually met any of them besides the Exceed. But then again she was 'harbouring' Charla in her dormitory and had presumably spent quite a bit of time talking to her about her various friends so was probably speaking up mostly in the white cat's defence.

"What, you're saying that Fairy Tail aren't destructive maniacs now? Give me a break," Smith rolled his eyes.

"He's got a point," Terry Boot said nervously, drumming his fingers together in clear agitation. "How are we supposed to defend ourselves from those people? From what I've heard not even top Aurors have been able to best them."

"I heard that some of them might be even more powerful than Dumbledore himself," Anthony Goldstein whispered.

"And they completely destroyed Azkaban yesterday," Hannah Abbott swallowed. "Who's to say they won't come after Hogwarts next?"

Harry hesitated, looking to the others for a decision as a hubbub broke out through the room, panicked whispers about the kind of terror Fairy Tail could rain down on their heads. Should they mention what they knew about Fairy Tail… that would be like telling everyone here that Sirius Black was innocent. They'd all proven they could keep this meeting a secret so far but how much more information could they entrust them with?

He could see real fear in the eyes of his fellow students when they discussed Fairy Tail. And they were relatively safe within the walls of a heavily fortified magical castle… how much worse was it for people outside? And could they tell what they knew about Fairy Tail without any real proof anyway?

Ron and Hermione both looked quite lost but then suddenly Luna's voice raised above the din. "I don't think we should be too quick to judge Fairy Tail," she said, drawing everyone's attention to them. "We only know what we've been told of them by other people and none of the people who've been writing really know anything about them anyway. None of the papers have gotten an exclusive interview with a Fairy Tail mage yet, to tell their side of the story. My father's really hoping it will be him that gets to do that. But I will not fear them until I am given a reason to fear them."

"Destroying Azkaban wasn't reason enough for you?" Padma Patil asked incredulously.

"As I recall there were two Fairy Tail mages being held prisoner there," Luna shrugged. "That wasn't mentioned in this morning's paper, but it sounds to me that what they were doing was a rescue mission that got out of hand. I also don't recall them saying anybody died. If there had been any casualties I think it would have said."

Harry stared at Luna in amazement. Luna knew as well as he did that Fairy Tail weren't enemies but instead of saying that outright she was making so very intuitive and perspective points to make the others think for themselves. Getting them to engage their brains instead of throwing the truth at them, which might in turn make things easier when the truth really was thrown at them.

Nevertheless they weren't there to discuss Fairy Tail - they were there to learn how to defend themselves. "Forget mages from another world for now. Let's concentrate on what we know we can fight, and that's the Death Eaters that escaped. So… let's start with the Disarming Charm and work our way up from there. It might sound basic but I know from experience just how useful it can be."

And that was why they had been doing for the last half an hour. Harry had found himself paired with Neville… or at least that's who he thought he was paired with. The Neville standing before him looked like a completely different person. Not in terms of looks but in terms of attitude - he was focused, intense, clearly using every ounce of concentration at his disposal as he tried to disarm Harry. And even though Harry still managed to beat him to the punch and disarm him nine times out of ten, Neville really was managing to catch him off guard on occasion.

But he didn't look happy when he did. He just look momentarily satisfied before tossing the wand back to Harry and resuming his stance.

"Neville… are you alright?" Harry asked, knowing very well that Neville was not alright but hoping that poking would get him to open up so they could talk about what was bothering him.

"I'm fine, Harry," he said, his glare of concentration never leaving his face. "Let's just keep going."

"Are you sure? You don't… really seem like yourself…"

"I said I'm fine!" Neville snapped, glaring at him. Harry was taken aback, but he didn't show it. Instead he just raised an eyebrow and stared Neville down.

"You know, getting angry in a fight really isn't going to help much unless you know how to channel it. If you get angry you could end up making totally the wrong call when it comes to what spell you should use. Or do something stupid that'll leave you exposed to a Killing Curse or something."

Neville's jawline softened slightly, but his grip tightened around his wand. "I just… want to be ready when the time comes," he said.

"…I know," Harry said. "I know exactly how you feel. Voldemort killed my parents… and he's out there. And I'm determined to do everything I can to stop him… to avenge my parents. And I just… get so pissed off all the freaking time that there's nothing I can do to help stop him while I'm cooped up in here. But it really doesn't help, Neville. I know I can't really talk, but it doesn't. Be determined… but don't get angry."

Neville's glare gradually lessened and he sighed and looked down at his feet. "I know…" he whispered. "I know… you're right. You're a great teacher, Harry. Thanks."

Harry coughed in embarrassment, but he was glad to have found away to empathise with Neville without him strictly learning that he was aware of his parents' condition. But when it became clear he wasn't going to say any more, Harry raised his wand again. "Come on then, let's do this."

Even though Harry was clearly the better duellist of the two, Neville didn't let that stop him even for a second, and indeed he did manage to successfully disarm Harry one more time before Harry asked him to join with Ron and Hermione so that he could move around the room and see how everyone else was getting along. Fred and George were doing pretty well although half the time they were aiming for other people from behind as a joke. The Creevey brothers were being a little overenthusiastic and getting in other people's way, leading Harry to have to grab Colin before he ran straight into Justin Finch-Fletchley. And for the first time that he'd seen her, Luna had a serious expression as she and Ginny went back and forth at disarming one another.

He deliberately put off going over to where Cho Chang was practicing for a while but as soon as he did, he found himself having to dodge a badly aimed spell from her partner, Marietta Edgecombe, a girl that Harry hadn't said a single word to throughout their time at Hogwarts as far as Harry could remember, at least one on one. And from the evil eye she was giving him now, it was quite clear that she didn't want to be here now.

"Her mother works as a Floo Network Regulator," Cho explained in hushed tones when Marietta refused to look at Harry. "They magically monitor fireplaces suspected of being used for illegal activity."

"…Really?" Harry said slowly, his throat going a little dry and wondering if anyone in that office was monitoring what was going on in either Grimmauld Place or the Hog's Head. He suspected not, otherwise Ministry officials would have turned up at both places by now even they couldn't actually get in to Grimmauld Place. But it was something to be wary of in the future.

"Yeah, and her parents have forbidden her from doing anything to get on Umbridge's bad side… to be honest I kinda dragged her here. And to the Hog's Head the other week. Because… because we need to… to learn how so we don't…"

Cho looked down at the floor, biting her lip and Harry's stomach dropped when he realised she must be thinking about Cedric. Of course he would be a massive motivation for her to believe Voldemort was back and want to learn to defend herself. After all, if she didn't believe Voldemort had returned then she'd have no real explanation as to what happened to her old boyfriend.

Clenching his fist slightly, Harry looked up to Marietta and said, "Look… I get that you don't really want to be here, but surely you've got to see how important this all is. If Umbridge isn't going to let us learn to defend ourselves then we have to do this, even if it is behind her back."

"And if we're discovered, what then?" Marietta snapped at him. "You realise my mother could lose her place in the Ministry if I get caught here? So not only will I be expelled but my family would be pretty much ruined. But that's not something you'd get is it? I heard you don't like your family."

Harry scowled at her and Cho gasped. "Marietta!" she chided. "That was uncalled for!"

"I'm just calling it like I see it," Marietta muttered.

"She's got a point though," Harry conceded. "I don't like my family. My aunt and uncle are horrible people. But I do like Ron's family. The Weasleys are very good to me, and if they were found here they could be ruined too. But I'd much rather see them expelled from this school or fired from the Ministry than dead. And they know that too, which is why all of them are here learning what Umbridge refuses to teach us."

Marietta frowned, looking at him as if she was trying to see into his brain. "You're really sticking with your story that You-Know-Who is back then? My mother says you're just doing it for the attention."

"So does most of the Wizarding World, but I'm not. I don't want attention - I've never wanted it. And let me ask you this. Do you really think I'd be stupid enough to make false claims about something like this? If it wasn't true then even if everyone believed me, which they don't, then I'd eventually be found out and ridiculed as a liar for it. But it is true and I started being ridicules as a liar right from the start. But I'm still saying it, even after Umbridge did this to me!" he walked over and brandished the back of his fist in Marietta's startled face, showing her the faint scars that read 'I must not tell lies.'

"Because it's not a lie. It needs to be said," he finished.

"…That evil bitch…" Cho gasped, for she had hurried over to stare at the scars herself while Marietta suddenly looked physically sick.

"She… she did that to you?" she whispered. "And that still didn't stop you?"

"Indeed it didn't," a voice behind her made all three of them jump. "Harry's no liar, Miss Edgecombe. Not unless he needs to be."

"P…P… Professor Lupin?!" squeaked Marietta, while Harry and Cho's jaws dropped. Somehow the commotion of the room had entirely prevented anyone from noticing none other than Remus Lupin walking in and watching their progress. Harry in particular was stunned before he whirled around to face the door the Exceed had gone through. It was now wide open and Happy and Charla were both standing in it with wide smirks on their faces. They waved to him cheerfully, leaving Harry more confused than ever.

"But… but… how are you here?" Cho asked.

"Quite a room this is," Lupin said as he looked around. "Providing you with a secret base for your little Defence group and providing a tunnel to allow people you know through straight from Hogsmeade. It bypasses the Hogwarts wards entirely. And I have to say I actually feel slightly put out that your father and I never discovered this room back when we were at Hogwarts, Harry. And we thought we'd uncovered every one of its secrets."

"How… how do you know about this Defence group?" Marietta asked, slightly panicked and clearly wondering if word had somehow already spread.

"Don't worry, I have no plans to tell Umbridge," Lupin patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"Ooh, this room's cool," said another voice and Harry looked back to see Tonks entering the room from the doorway, followed shortly by Moody, who was looking better after the altercation at Azkaban yesterday. "We should totally get one of these at the Ministry."

"You let us sneak up on you, did you, Potter?" Moody growled. "What if we'd been enemies? What am I always telling you - constant vigilance, boy! You should keep an eye on all your exits at all times!"

By this point other people were starting to notice the new arrivals.

"Tonks!" Ginny cried, running across the room and attracting everyone's attention when she threw her arms around the young Auror and almost knocked her over. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"We received a special invite," Tonks laughed. "Of sorts anyway. That tunnel leads all the way back to the Hog's Head and it definitely wasn't there before today."

A chorus of questions erupted round the room. Some of the older students recognised Tonks from when she'd been at school but all of them knew Lupin and Moody on sight. Many of them quickly flocked over to Lupin who was still their favourite Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher by far in spite of him being a werewolf. But once the clamour had died away Moody was the one who take centre stage.

"So, you're all here to learn how to defend yourselves are you?" he growled.

"How do you know about that?" Angelina Johnson asked.

"Known about it since you all met up at the pub," Tonks winked. "We've got some pretty handy sources after all. But don't worry, your secret is safe with the Order of the Phoenix."

"The what?" Justin Finch-Fletchley asked, perplexed.

"Simply put we're a secret order," Lupin explained. "Fighting in the shadows to try and prevent Voldemort from getting more power and thwarting his plans wherever we can while the Ministry continues to sit back in denial. We're a little like you in that way, though we're all trained in how to defend ourselves already of course."

"So you believe Potter?" Zacharias Smith asked with lowered brows.

"I do, Mr. Smith. I haven't seen him myself, but I've already seen first-hand how his forces are mustering."

"And quite frankly if you don't believe him then you're an idiot and you don't deserve to be here," Moody said shortly, leading to quite a few grins from around the room as Zacharias went red. "But if you really want to learn how to defend yourselves then I suppose the Order could… chip in every now and then when we have the time to help teach you a few things."

"Are you serious? You'll help out?" Harry asked, feeling suddenly elated.

"When we can," Lupin repeated. "This is your Defence group, Harry. You're still the primary teacher and quite frankly you are more qualified to teach it than most given what you've been forced to endure."

"There's Aurors that don't have as much experience as you," Tonks agreed.

"But yeah, we'll help out when we can," Moody grunted. "You haven't learned everything after all, Potter. For instance I know for a fact that you haven't even touched on how to deal with Inferi and when You-Know-Who makes himself known you can bet there will be quite a few of those roaming around." He ignored the panic that flashed across the room from those who knew what Inferi were. "This technically isn't part of the Order's duties, but we can always try and teach young civilians a thing or two in our spare time."

"It'll be mostly up to you though, Harry," Lupin pointed out. "Though I'd rather like it if you could wait for me to be here when its time to teach them Patronuses. Maybe I can rustle up an extra Boggart for them somewhere."

"Thank you, Professors. And you too, Tonks," Harry beamed. "Thank you so much." He felt a lot better now that he had the official backing of the Order. Not only might they be able to help him on occasion but the fact that they, of all people, believed he would make a good teacher… well, no offence to Ron and Hermione but somehow their word counted for more in that regard given they were adults, Aurors or teachers themselves.

"So like I said, Miss Edgecombe," Lupin turned to Marietta. "I won't tell Umbridge. And you're doing the right thin by being here. There's never been a more important time to learn how to defend yourselves."

Marietta didn't say anything, but she did look down at the floor, clearly very deep in thought.

And then came the question that Harry had been expecting.

"What about Fairy Tail?" asked Michael Corner. "Is this Order doing anything to stop them too?"

A pall of silence settled over the room. Those who weren't in the know were left on tenterhooks waiting for an answer. Those who did know were not quite sure what to say. Harry looked to Lupin, to Tonks, to Moody… but they were all looking at him now. Moody even gave him a little shrug, which made their meaning quite clear.

'It's your call, Harry.'

Harry grimaced. He was not completely sure whether he could trust all of the people in this room. Marietta Edgecombe had already proven her parents were in Umbridge's pocket, Zacharias Smith was not giving a good impression of himself and he barely knew people like Michael Corner and Terry Boot so he had no way of accurately judging their characters. If any one of them were to blab about Dumbledore's Army he'd be expelled. But if any of them blabbed about Fairy Tail he could be arrested and any Order member they knew about could become a target of the Ministry.

Did he dare?

"What's going on?" Lee Jordan prompted the room. "Why's everyone gone so quiet?"

"Harry," Ron said under his breath, slipping over to his best friend's side and whispering to him. "I think we should tell them, mate."

"But how can you be sure they'll all keep it to themselves?" Harry whispered back.

"I can't. But we've got to be honest with this lot. If you're insisting You-Know-Who is back but also claim that you think Fairy Tail's an enemy when you know they're not, they could end up not trusting you. What if they find out you're in league with Fairy Tail before You-Know-Who reveals himself? They might think you were lying about him too. It's a risk to tell them, but its a calculated one."

Harry knew Ron was right. He had to be completely open with them. It stung a little that Ron was calling for complete honesty when Harry hadn't told him about the dream he'd had last night with the voice of Morgana, but he'd get to that eventually.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, guys… listen… I know I've asked you all to keep what we're doing here a secret but now I need to ask you to keep another one. At least for the time being."

"You sure about this, Harry?" Tonks asked.

"I'm sure," Harry nodded. "I can't lie to my friends. I'll lie to Umbridge but I sure as heck won't lie to them."

"Lie about what?" Lavender Brown asked with furrowed brows.

"Remember what Luna said earlier? About how the papers are only printing one side of the story when it comes to Fairy Tail? Well she's right. They're only printing what they think and they're terrified of Fairy Tail because they don't know the full story and won't give them a chance to explain. Fudge isn't just delusional with paranoia about Dumbledore building any army. He's also totally sure that Fairy Tail are trying to take over our world. But he's wrong. They're not."

"How would you know that?" Cho asked, her eyes as wide as many of the other people in the room.

"Because I've met them. Some of them anyway. They're actually good people, every one of them."

"What!?" Katie Bell shouted and her cry was echoed by most of the other people in the room. "Even if that's true and you have met them and spoken to them, how can you be sure they're good people?"

"Just from the way they are, I suppose," shrugged Harry. "Some of them are a bit rough around the edges but they've all got good hearts."

"That's ridiculous," Zacharias immediately cried. "How can you possibly expect us to believe…"

"Actually," Susan Bones abruptly cut across him. "My aunt thinks there's more to them than we know as well."

"She does?" Harry blinked.

"I received a letter from her this morning," Susan pulled a piece of parchment out from the inside pocket of her robes. "Telling me to take what I heard in the paper with a pinch of salt. She told me not to mention this to anyone but since we're talking about it… she doesn't have proof, but she suspects the same thing that you're saying Harry. She thinks that the Ministry as a whole has been treating them like threats the moment they learned they were from another world and refuses to look deeply at their motivations. She thinks that if they did, we'd find them much less… frightening… than we do now."

"Ten points for Madame Bones then," Ron grinned, which made Susan blush.

"So… what?" Dean Thomas asked. "Everything the paper's saying about them is wrong?"

"Well, not everything," Hermione corrected. "They did wreck Azkaban and they did destroy the Malfoy Manor… and they did break into Gringott's and the Ministry and destroy a lot of stuff while they were there. But the thing is, every time they did something like that, they were launching a rescue mission."

"Damn straight we were," Gajeel said from where he was leaning up against the doorway. Everyone's head snapped over to him and the moment they saw the black mark of Fairy Tail upon his shoulder they were all left under no illusions as to who they were looking at.

"AAAAH!" Zacharias and several others cried while the former rushed for the door, a couple of others darting after him, but quick as a flash Moody pulled out his wand and cast a spell upon the door which somehow locked it, even though it didn't have a keyhole, to keep them from getting out. They scrabbled at it, but nothing happened, while the rest of the room stood momentarily paralysed with fear. Even Ginny was visibly shocked at Gajeel's intimidating appearance, but Hermione just smacked a hand over her face.

"Really?" she said aloud. "You couldn't have used Wendy or someone much less… menacing… to introduce the group?"

"Gajeel-san wanted to see what they would do," Wendy popped her head around the taller Dragon Slayer as she hurried into the room, tapping her fingers together lightly. "Is it wrong that I found that a bit funny?"

"Hello Wendy," Luna instantly drifted over towards her, but both Wendy and Gajeel had to get out of the way of the incoming train of people behind them. Harry's eyes widened as the room became even more jam-packed… for it seemed they had brought with them every single Fairy Tail mage that had thus far been found. Cana was carrying a barrel of Butterbeer that she'd filched from the Hog's Head. Elfman and Gildarts had to stoop slightly to keep from hitting their heads on the top of the doorframe. And Natsu had brought with him a piece of meat that looked like it should have been sent to Buckbeak and was devouring it just like a Hippogriff.

"You're… you're all… Fairy Tail…" Ernie looked like he was about to hyperventilate.

"We are," Erza said, stepping forward to the fore of the group and smiling warmly even though most of her audience looked terrified of her… though she was somewhat used to that so it didn't bother her much. "And you are the plucky young children willing to defy authority to do what needs to be done."

"That's right, we're Dumbledore's Army," Fred and George spilled out of the crowd excitedly - it was the first time they'd met any of the group outside the Exceed as well. "Hey, we're Fred and George Weasley," said Fred. "Care to guess which one of us is George and which is Fred?"

"I'd rather guess which one of you is Ginny," Lucy laughed, looking out at the crowd and instantly picking out Ginny Weasley - her flaming red hair was a dead giveaway. "And that's probably you, isn't it? Nice to meet you finally."

"Nice to meet you too… wow, you guys are quite a bunch, aren't you… Charla told me as much but it's another thing to see it… no wait, don't tell me. You're the girl with blond hair so you must be Lucy. The guy with the face studs, you're Gajeel. The three with white hair… you're the three Strauss siblings. And you there… you're Gray, right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Because you're not wearing a shirt."

"AAH!" Gray cried and instantly turned to try and find one, as Juvia stepped in front of him and glowered at Ginny.

"Are you admiring, Gray-sama's chest? Are you another love rival?!"

"And that must make you Juvia," Ginny grinned, stepping towards them and grabbing the surprised Water Mage's outstretched hand, shaking it profusely. "Awesome to meet you all."

"Oh… um…" Juvia blushed, her insta-rage subsiding and being replaced by a shy smile. "The pleasure is entirely Juvia's."

"Dumbledore's Army, huh?" Natsu said. "That's a cool name. You guys are practically like a little guild of your own."

"Which makes Harry the Guild Master," Lucy noted with a smirk.

"Well the boy does have a lightning shaped scar," Evergreen crowed. "That's proof right there that he'd make an excellent guild master, isn't it?"

"Have you forgotten that Laxus still isn't a guild member anymore already?" Mira laughed. Evergreen just scowled.

"So which of you are the resident pranksters?" George cried, pointing out across the group. "Come on, there's got to be at least one amongst you or I'd feel let down."

Suddenly Cana appeared between the twins and wrapped her arms around their shoulders with a tipsy grin. "We don't really have a prankster at the moment but I suppose it's a roll I could fulfil. Put some more of this Beer Butter stuff into my body and I'd be up for practically anything. Would anyone object to me sending Fudge and his wife a box of very inappropriate magazines? I can picture whoever opens them freaking out because they'll think they belong to the other one."

"…We have to do that now!" Fred laughed.

"Oi, Levy," Gajeel said as he pointed right at Susan, startling both the bluenette and the Hufflepuff girl at the same time. "Heard that one talking about her aunt in the Government. The one you mentioned from your questioning - Madam Bones. Seems she doesn't believe we're the enemy."

Levy gave Gajeel a peculiar look before shaking her head and saying, "One of the few that does," as she moved over to Susan. "I met your aunt quite a while ago now. Has she told you about me? The one she questioned in the courtroom of the Ministry?"

"You're… Levy McGarden?" Susan asked.

"That's right," Levy nodded.

"Yeah, she told me about you. You had a particularly bad reaction to the Dementors before you were busted out. She told me that the whole reason Fairy Tail partially destroyed the Ministry was probably just to rescue you, but that that detail was omitted from the paper."

"That's right. Your aunt was the only person in that courtroom who objected to having those… things… used on me," Levy shivered. "Maybe if they'd listened to her, we wouldn't be on the run from the Ministry right now."

"She objected to tricking you into drinking truth potion too," Susan said. "She'll be so pleased to find out she was right about you."

"Well, as soon as you can find a way to do that let me know so I can thank her," Levy smiled.

Gradually the other members of Dumbledore's Army began to lose their fear and actually began to mingle with the Fairy Tail mages. Lee Jordan was the first, emboldened by Fred and George's complete lack of fear and he began an animated discussion with Erza about her magic. Others followed, most notably the Gryffindor members taking the first steps, followed by the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs together.

Lavender and Parvati were enthralled by Mirajane's Transformation Magic, which prompted Tonks to butt in and start a competition with Mira to see which of them had the better transformative abilities. It turned out to be a draw.

Angelina, Alicia and Katie were all stunned at the lack of magical sports from the Fairy Tail world but kept Gildarts entertained by regaling him with stories of their many Quidditch games. Colin and Dennis Creevey both approached Wendy, who was just as young as Dennis himself. Dean ended up talking with Natsu, Ernie with Lucy, Padma and Hannah with Lisanna, Cho with Evergreen and so on and so on throughout the whole group.

Harry, Ron and Hermione all looked to each other with wide grins. This was going better than they'd hoped. All three had assumed they they would need to take a great deal of convincing before they believed Fairy Tail were truly bad guys, but it seemed all that was really needed was for Fairy Tail to come in and be themselves, along with a little inside help to keep the rest of the DA from panicking and hexing them.

Neville had gone over to Elfman to talk. "You look very strong," he noted. "I bet most people don't try messing with you, do they?"

"And if they do they usually regret it," Elfman punched his own chest with a grin. "A real Man knows how to defend himself."

"…I guess that doesn't really make me a Man if that's the case, does it?" Neville sighed. "The bullies always walk all over me. I tried standing up to them once in the first year but I got beat up really bad. Crabbe and Goyle probably wouldn't stand a chance against you but me… I'm just the butt of a load of jokes really."

Elfman regarded Neville carefully before laying a thick hand upon his shoulder. "It's a rare Man that can admit his faults like that to a near complete stranger," he said consolingly. "But if you really want to be a Man… you've got to do something about it. Train long and train hard to make sure a bully never picks on you again. And then make sure they know exactly who it was that got the better of them when the time comes. I think… the best thing about being a real Man is that technically anyone can be one, including you. But it doesn't really come naturally so if you are one, it means you've worked at it. So… make sure you work at it and you'll find yourself as much a Man as anyone else in this room."

"…Thanks," Neville said, feeling oddly uplifted after that speech, even though he wasn't totally clear on what this guy's definition of a 'Man' actually was.

Eventually only Zacharias and Marietta were left standing by the door, looking unsure of what they were supposed to be doing but clearly both still very suspicious of Fairy Tail still.

"Are you going to introduce yourselves or not?" said a voice by their feet, and they both looked down to see Charla standing next to them, looking very much like an ordinary cat since Mavis' illusion was still up around them but that was still more than enough to jar the two of them into shock.

"What… you… you just…" Zacharias spluttered.

"Yes, yes, I talk, I know," Charla waved a paw dismissively. "The point is you're both being very rude right now, and I think you should stop."

"Aye. Are you still scared of us?" Happy asked, stepping up next to Charla's side.

"You're with Fairy Tail too?" Marietta gasped.

"Of course. Do you have talking cats in this world? And yes, I know you have sphinxes but they don't count," said Charla.

"The point is, do you really think we could be on the side of evil?" Happy asked. "Even when we've got people like Charla here, who are just too darned cute to be evil?"

"Oh shut up, will you?" Charla snorted at him, though she didn't look at him due to the slight redness that appeared beneath her fur. "The point is, you have to give us a chance. And I can tell you now that being friends with Fairy Tail is probably one of the safest things you can be right now. Stick close with them and they'll come to your aid whenever you need them."

"How do we know you're not just trying to get close to us so you can stab us in the back?" asked Zacharias.

"If we wanted to hurt you then we could have easily done so by now. And think about it - this is the Room of Requirement, right?" Happy said. "If Dumbledore's Army needed a place to learn how to defend themselves, why would it let in people who wanted to threaten them?"

Neither of the two suspicious students could refute that.

"Give us a chance," Charla said. "And we won't let you down."

There was a short pause, after which Marietta slowly walked away to join the rest of the group and started talking with Evergreen as well. And then, despite one last suspicious glance at the cats, Zacharias went over to talk to Gajeel.

Eventually though time ran out. They'd only really had half a lesson considering the number of introductions they'd all gone through but it was still time very well spent nonetheless. Most of them were quite disappointed that they had to leave, seeing as how they'd just made some fascinating new friends.

"Will you be teaching us a few things too?" Dean asked when it was time to go.

"We don't really know enough about the magic of this world to be effective teachers," Erza told him with a shake of her head. "But I suppose there are other things we could pass on to you where possible. Like how to stay agile on the battlefield or something."

"You could always use Gray for target practice," Natsu snickered.

"Why you…" Gray growled at him.

"Most importantly though you need to keep the fact you know us a secret for now," Gildarts said clearly. "Until the Ministry is willing to see sense about us we would not have any of you getting into trouble on our account. Hopefully that won't be too much longer but even so, just keep quiet for now, okay?"

"Raise your hand if you agree to keep Fairy Tail a secret," Fred shot his hand into the air.

Everybody in the room raised their hands, even Marietta and Zacharias.

"Thank you," Erza nodded to them respectfully. "We promise to do our best not to destroy anything else."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Tonks chuckled, leading to a smattering of laughter across the room.

"Oh, and there's… one more thing you should all know," Levy said, gesturing back towards the tunnel entrance… and the lone figure now standing in it.

"What's up?" Sirius grinned.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

---

"Seriously? I mean seriously?" Harry glared at Sirius an hour later. "You only escape from custody yesterday and you decide to pull a stunt like that?"

"Believe me, Harry, we heavily advised against it," Remus sighed. "But Sirius insisted that if your group was going to learn the truth they should know the whole truth."

Most of the members of Dumbledore's Army had gone back to their dormitories now. It had been a lot harder to convince them of Sirius' innocence than it had been for Fairy Tail's. After all they had been believing he was a mass murderer and Voldemort's most devoted supporter for much longer, and he hadn't done himself any favours by breaking into the Gryffindor Common Room during Harry's third year.

Plus, it had been very hard to make them believe that the real mass murderer had in fact been Ron's old pet rat.

But when Harry mentioned it had in fact been Pettigrew that killed Cedric Diggory, albeit on Voldemort's orders, that had sobered them up quite quickly. Cho had burst into tears, but perhaps because of that she was the first one to claim she believed him. And one by one they had managed to extract a solemn promise from each of the members not to breathe a word of what they knew about Sirius to anyone until the time was right.

Now only Harry, Hermione, Luna and the Weasleys remained in the room with the Order and Fairy Tail.

"Hey, it all worked out for the best, didn't it?" Sirius shrugged disarmingly.

"But what if it hadn't?! What would we have done if one of them hadn't promised to keep silent. I barely trust a couple of them as it is."

"Then I assume someone would have used a Memory Charm on them to make sure that they didn't blab."

"They still could, you know! A promise is nothing but words - they can be broken easily."

"Well if they do blab now they'll have a good thing or two to say about me."

Harry sighed. "You're going to kill me one day, Sirius. Is it possibly to be worried to death?"

Sirius laughed and clapped Harry's shoulder. "Sorry. I promise I'll consult you next time I decide to do something that'll potentially get me in trouble. But now that that's all over and done with… we can get onto the other reason why we're here."

"Which would be what exactly?" Pantherlily asked, the black cat having opened the front door in the middle of that sentence and walked through in full battle form, Mavis floating right behind him. "That whole gang is here, it seems."

"Lily, where've you been?" Gajeel grunted.

"Giving Umbridge a healthy dose of the frights," Lily chuckled. "As far as she's concerned her werewolf stalker just appeared again today. She was cowering under her desk when I last saw her, and this time I made sure to clout her in the side and knock her sprawling, just so she knows the werewolf isn't entirely a figment of her imagination even though nobody else can see it."

"Did you really have to use a werewolf?" Lupin sighed. "She's always tried to persecute part humans like me - this isn't going to help in that regard."

"No, but it plays to her fears and hopefully we can ensure that after this is over she'll never be in a position of power ever again," Lily replied. "So… what's the other reason why you're all here."

"Well it's simple really," Sirius said. "Much as I'm loving the company, my house is getting rather overcrowded with almost everyone from your guild living there. I've run out of beds. I even had to give up my own last night so that Elfman could use it."

"…It's not very Manly to steal another Man's bed, is it?" Elfman muttered embarrassedly.

"Anyway, when we heard about this room… well… let's just see if it lives up to its name as the Room of Requirement, shall we?" Sirius grinned.

"Was that door there before?" Fred asked, pointing at a very large metal door set into the wall off to their right. One that should theoretically lead into an old classroom if opened. And yet when Erza strode over and opened it she walked straight into what appeared to be… a stadium. Or at least something like one. It was almost the size of a football field, with a domed ceiling two stories high and walls that were made of an extremely sturdy looking metal. There were four other metal doors set in the other walls, two in the far wall and one on either side.

"What in the world…?" Hermione breathed as everyone steadily filed through. "What the heck did you guys ask for?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Levy smiled as she stepped up next to her fellow bookworm. "You guys need a place to train without being discovered. So do we. And we were hoping this room could provide us with one and it certainly looks like its trying."

"And we need some more living space too," Lucy said from where she'd run over to the door set in the left-hand wall and thrown it open. "And… yep… there's five beds in here. This must be the boy's room then."

"…Seven… eight… nine beds in here," Cana confirmed from the opposite door. "This is definitely the girls room. Free from any peeking holes too from the look of it, just in case any of you boys were thinking of being perverts."

"And those two back there are both bathrooms," Moody said, peering through the doors at the far end. "One for each gender again. More than enough space to house every Fairy Tail member here if they so chose."

"Well I don't think we'll all use it for that at once," Gray noted, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking round in amazement. "I'm sure some of us will stay in Grimmauld Place and some in the Hog's Head, just to make sure we have a clear path between the three locations if nothing else."

"Juvia will go wherever Gray-sama goes!" the Water Mage cried, and to his credit Gray didn't react any more than temporarily face-faulting.

"Still, this room is amazing!" Lisanna said, siding back a section of metal wall to reveal a large assortment of books behind it. She brightened when she saw several of them were about the Old Religion… maybe some of these could help her get a better handle on her new magic. There wasn't anything about the magic from their own world though… evidently this world couldn't conjure things from another dimension, which meant that sadly it was unlikely to be able to provide them with a way home either. But they hadn't expected it to. Even the most powerful of magic had limits and these room wasn't just some magical answer to all their problems. Just quite a few of them.

"It is indeed, but we still ought to test it," Erza said, and suddenly a sword flashed into her hand, then another, and suddenly she was clad in her Heaven's Wheel armour. "If we're going to train in here we need to make sure it can contain us!"

She burst into the air and roared, "TENRIN… BLUMENBLATT!" and launched her blades in a full on assault at a nearby wall.

"Good point!" Gray slammed his hands together, "ICE MAKE… HAMMER!"

"Oh, I'm getting in on this!" Natsu bellowed as he and Gajeel simultaneously charged at another wall.

"KARYUU NO… KOEN!"

"TETSURYUUSOU: KISHIN!"

The other stronger members of Fairy Tail piled on their own magic - Mirajane and Elfman both morphing into their Take-Over forms and blitzing forward to slam Evil Explosions and their bare fists at the walls. Juvia swished into water and struck the walls with a tidal wave of force and Gildarts slammed his foot down and raised his hand, a blast of Crash Magic thundering from his palm and sending everyone standing close to him flying with the backlash of power he emitted as his attack struck the wall head on. To the Hogwarts students it felt like their stomachs had dropped from their bodies. It was the first time they'd been given a proper demonstration of Fairy Tail's magic, with the exception of Harry witnessing Lucy and Evergreen's magic. And though they'd heard how strong they were, they could not only see it now. They could feel it.

And it stole their breath away.

When the smoke from the multitude of attacks cleared, the walls were in a sorry looking state, rent with a multitude of cracks and gashes in the metal but amazingly they were still standing, even after Gildarts' blast. "There are wards around the walls," Moody noted. "They don't stop your attacks from hitting them but they significantly reduce the damage they do upon impact. And then…"

He didn't need to finish because moments later the walls glowed and suddenly… they weren't broken anymore. Every piece of damage that Fairy Tail had just caused disappeared into nothingness, leaving the walls as smooth and intact as they had been when they'd first arrived.

"Alright!" Lucy cheered. "I think we've found the ideal place for us to train."

"Aye sir!" Happy whooped with her.

"Yeah, but more importantly, this room provides us with something else too," Gray grinned savagely.

"What's that?" Natsu turned to look at him… and saw Gray's fist swinging right towards his face.

KABLAM!

"GAAAH!" Natsu cried as he was slammed across the room to crash into the far wall. Harry and everyone else from their world stepped back in sudden alarm. "WHAT THE HELL!?" Ron shouted what they were all thinking, but Gray just laughed.

"I've been itching to do that for weeks!" he said.

Natsu just stood up, his face twisting into a strange half-grin, half-snarl combination that made him look practically insane. "THE FEELING'S MUTUAL, ICE BASTARD!" he roared as he blasted forwards on a plume of fire and slammed his head into Gray's stomach. Gray shot backwards to crash straight into Gajeel and Elfman, knocking all three of them to the floor.

"SUCKER PUNCHING PEOPLE IS UNMANLY, GRAY!" Elfman shouted, scooping Gray off the ground and hammering his foot into his stomach to knock him away.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THAT, SALAMANDER!" Gajeel bellowed and bulldozed forwards to slam his forehead straight into Natsu's with a solid clang of iron that sent him spinning.

"HOW DARE YOU STRIKE, GRAY-SAMA!" Juvia yelled and threw a watery blast at Elfman.

"BACK OFF, GAJEEL! I'M FIGHTING NATSU!" Gray got up and bodily threw himself at the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"OH, I'M GETTING IN ON THIS!" Cana laughed as she pulled Natsu to his feet and swung him around by the arm to throw him at Juvia. And in mere moments what looked like half the people in the room had descended into a full scale brawl, punching and kicking and beating at each other with furious energy. Every non-Fairy Tail member was left stunned, watching the fighting and unable to believe their eyes.

"What are they doing?" Tonks cried. "They're all friends!"

"This happens all the time," Lucy sighed. "Hardly a day goes by back home where some kind of fight doesn't start."

"Best to let them get it out of their systems," Mira chuckled.

"They've had to suppress themselves from doing this while staying with Sirius or Aberforth," Gildarts smiled. "But now they're in a room they'd have a hard time destroying. They can finally let rip again."

"Besides, fighting is one of the way these guys bond with each other," Lisanna pointed out. "In Fairy Tail, everyone is friends with everyone, but they're also rivals. And the boys have fun reminding each other of that."

"The girls usually stay out of it though," Erza laughed, right up until Gajeel was thrown right into her and they both slammed into the wall. Seconds later Erza shoved Gajeel away and bellowed, "WHO DID THAT!? CEASE THIS AT ONCE, YOU IDIOTS!" and hypocritically she tossed herself right into the fray to bludgeon Elfman in the face with her armoured fist.

The Hogwarts students all stood together, staring in absolute disbelief.

"Well, it's official," Ron said. "These guys are bonkers."

Harry had to agree.

"Let's just be glad they're on our side."