Henry looked over his new club, a rune-demonstration club, and breathed in the sweet smell of success. Professor Umbridge had been surprisingly kind regarding the club, almost as if she actually cared about the wizards and witches in the school.
But that would be silly, Henry mused. Umbridge was known to be...less than reputable when it came to issues regarding children. Why the Minister decided to appoint her, Henry would never know, but it was obvious to anyone reading her public profile that she was less than thrilled about the prospect of dealing with children.
He exhaled slowly. Well, it wasn't his problem after all. Umbridge had a motive behind her kindness, no matter what she did, and right now Henry was simply thankful that she allowed this club to exist. Even if it started off as a lie.
After explaining to Daphne what the club was about, Daphne first agreed fervently, then calmed down and asked about a catch to his offer. Henry chuckled at her reaction to his answer.
"What." Daphne's voice was flat, and carrying no emotion besides that of utter disdain. Henry had to fight to control his mirth, lest his own sister be furious with him.
"I said," Henry started, then took a breath. "You will be the first of, hopefully many, members, and I would appreciate it if you could find other people who were interested."
"But..." Daphne's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You...I thought there already was a club?"
"Not yet," Henry corrected with a grin. "But, if we can manage to get five students at the minimum, there will be."
"...are you actually willing to head a club like this?" Daphne asked, monotonous as always.
"Yes," Henry admitted honestly. "Yes I am." Daphne blinked in surprise, perhaps not expecting Henry's fervent declaration, and then a small smile graced her face.
"Then...I might know some people."
And with her help, the club gained all of twelve total members. Tracey Davis, Daphne herself, and their collective sister, Astoria, were the Slytherin group of the rune club; aside from that, there were two Ravenclaw girls, the strange blonde one whose dad owns the Quibbler and another one who Henry didn't honestly recognize off the top of his head. Also in the club were three Hufflepuffs: Susan Bones, who Henry recognized from the papers, what with her being the Director of Magical Law Enforcement's niece, Hannah Abbott from his fifth-year class, and a boy Henry didn't recognize.
And then there were the Gryffindors. As he expected, Hermione Granger was also in this club, scribbling furiously on a notepad of some sort. Next to her was Harry Potter, who looked intently at Henry as if privately examining him, two twin red-headed boys who looked uncharacteristically serious (Henry guessed, from the lines on their faces), and a boy he knew could only be Neville Longbottom.
"Neville Longbottom is on this list?" Umbridge's eyebrows went up as she stared at this list. "I understand that you like the Potter brat, for whatever reason, but the Longbottom boy as well?"
"I do have an ulterior motive," Henry confessed. "I'd like to mentor him, as he is the next heir to the Longbottom family. It would be beneficial to both our families if there were an alliance between us. But, yes, I do honestly believe that he would get better in my club."
Umbridge looked a bit furious, but took a deep breath. Exhaling, she acquiesced. "Very well. I'll allow this, I suppose, if you can get the Longbottom's grades up in his classes."
Henry laughed. "Well, I'll certainly try my best."
Filch was the strangest acquisition to his club, although he didn't quite count towards the club registry, but Henry supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. Argus had apparently spent most of whatever free time he could scrounge up learning about runes, and he was actually on par with some of the sixth-year students at this point. Which, considering he went from 'little to no understanding of magic at all' to 'six years of Hogwarts magical understanding' in the span of six months, was pretty much the most amazing thing Henry had seen in the runic field.
He could already feel the excitement of helping potentially the strongest magician in the world. If he could get his fiancée to sponsor the man...
Well. He'd see her in a few weeks.
A small smile graced his face at the thought of meeting his lover, but then he sobered a bit and focused his eyes on the rest of the club.
"Now, then, welcome to the first-ever Rune Demonstration Club Meeting, and yes, that's all in capitals. So, first thing I want us to do is pick out roles for each of us to play."
The bushy-haired girl piped up. "Um, what do you mean by that?"
Henry smiled. It only took six months, but she seemed to be over her original hesitation of raising her hand before speaking in a classroom. "Well, things like a club president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer. Stuff like that. Admittedly," he confessed when everybody still looked confused, "I'm basing this off of Japanese clubs, as that's the only reference I have right now." He gestured. "But we have eleven members, and Mr. Filch over there, so I think we'd need some sort of structure before we began."
Daphne nodded, and Tracey spoke up. "Why not have Daphne be club president?"
"Why?" Hermione said to Tracey, a bit irritated.
Tracey shot a look at Hermione. "Because she's the one that got everyone in the club, duh. Would you have joined if Daphne didn't invite you?"
"Yes," both Hermione and Henry said at the same time. They looked at each other, Hermione embarrassed and Henry thoroughly amused.
"I'll second that," Harry said from his spot on the floor. Henry had gotten them all to sit on the floor in a circle so that he could figure something out, and after he did, he decided they should just stay there. Harry and Neville were holding pears, which was also part of what he was trying to figure out.
A sudden burst of muttered agreement followed Harry's statement, with even Hermione begrudgingly admitting that Daphne would make a good club president.
"Then..." Daphne looked embarrassed at the sudden attention her word gave her. "Um. I guess we...need a vice-president?" she muttered, shy and red-faced.
"I nominate my-" Tracey started, clearly thinking about nominating herself, before hesitating. "Um, actually..."
"I nominate Harry to be the vice-president," Hermione suddenly said, pointing furiously at the now thoroughly confused boy who wasn't paying attention.
His pear barked. Neville's barked a few seconds later. Henry blinked. "First, let me take your pears back."
Henry walked to Harry, picking the fruit from his hand, and walked over to Neville and did the same. "Okay, now go back to whatever you were talking about," Henry said dismissively, staring fervently at the pears.
After about ten minutes of staring unblinkingly at the pears, Henry blinked rapidly to moisten his dried eyeballs. Then he turned back to his club. "So, you guys decide everything?"
"Yeah," Daphne said, quietly, ignoring Tracey's irritated glare at her brother. "I'm club president, Harry will be vice-president, Hermione's secretary, and Ernie will be treasurer. If that's...acceptable?"
"Oh, yeah, that's fi-wait, who's Ernie?" Henry asked. Everyone pointed to the Hufflepuff Henry didn't know, who was raising his hand. "Ah, okay, I don't really know you. Sorry about that."
"That's fine," the boy mumbled. Henry nodded with a grin and continued.
"Anyway, now that everyone has a role - either staff or member - keep in mind that they ultimately don't mean anything except for the records, and that staff has more stuff to do. Everyone is equal in the club and I don't want to see people lording their status over others." Henry frowned. "I get enough of that at home," he muttered, audible enough for everyone to hear, making Daphne turn away, embarrassed. "Most importantly, though, I expect you to actually want to come to club meetings. I promise I'll try to make them as fun as possible.
"Speaking of which, that's the next order of business: setting up a meeting time. I have to let Professor Umbridge know about the time for our next meeting so she can supervise the club," Henry admitted, and as he expected, everyone froze and then shouted in anger, surprise, and shock.
"I thought you said you weren't working with Umbridge!" Harry shouted, the only clear voice Henry could hear in the sudden cacophony, and Henry finally had enough. He waved his arm around and the air in the room got colder.
"An air rune. A very simple runic array, combining a bunch of minor things to create what is known as a "standard air rune". Combine it with a water rune," and he drew another one in the air, causing the room to get even colder. "And you get a nice air-conditioning effect. The classical elements, also known as the four or five Greek elements, coupled with the Chinese and Japanese five elements, each of which are separate, are one of the first things this club is going to study. More importantly, though.
"Knowing that Umbridge is the only reason this club was created without any supervision, knowing that Umbridge is pretty much the liaison between me and the Board of Governors, and knowing that it is only luck that I have apparently befriended her, is it any wonder that she needs to supervise it?" Henry grinned a crooked and lopsided smile. "I'll convince her to never have to supervise another meeting, if you manage to stay focused next meeting."
"What do you mean by that?" Hermione asked, stunned. "By the 'without any supervision' part?"
"Well," Henry shrugged, embarrassed. "Apparently threatening children is a bad idea when you're a teacher. Granted, I never learned any better, since my own sensei apparently never got the memo." He clapped his hands. "So I'm not technically allowed to supervise detentions any more, nor am I allowed to interact with children without another faculty member to 'protect them' or something silly like that." He shrugged again. "Hey, I'm twenty-one. I'm allowed to make stupid mistakes sometimes."
Filch snickered in the background. Henry threw a pear at him, which he deftly caught. "Hey," Henry warned, shaking his finger. "No comments from the peanut gallery."
"I didn't say anything," Filch said with a toothy grin, cackling as Henry curled his hand into a fist and shook that at him.
"Anyway," Henry continued on, "if you haven't noticed, Argus seems awfully warm in this room. Why?"
"Because he's, um, using a fire rune?" Hermione supposed, and Henry shook his head.
"That's about a third of it, yes, but just using a fire rune would mean that he would actually be on fire." Henry grinned. "So that's not entirely it."
"It's a...fire rune, mixed with a layer of a water rune?" Daphne guessed, and Henry raised an eyebrow.
"Above or below?"
Daphne shook her head, unable to answer. Henry turned to the rest of the club. "Anyone?"
Hermione also shook her head, but it was one of the twins who answered. "It's gotta be above, right?"
Henry nodded. "Yes, it has to be. When using this runic script, air is one of the five immutable elements; the other four are fire and water, which you've already seen, earth, which looks like this," Henry paused a bit to draw a rune in the floor with his finger, and the floor caved in the exact pattern of the rune without any effort on Henry's part, "and the fifth, divine element known as the quintessence, although the ancient Greeks called it the aether, and the ancient Indians called it the akasha. As to how it has to be above, the ancient Greek philosopher Proclus surmised that there were three aspects to the main four elements: sharpness, subtlety, and mobility. Fire is sharp, subtle, and mobile; air is also subtle and mobile, except it's blunt where fire is sharp. Let's put it another way, since this group seems to be lost here," Henry ended with a chuckle.
Henry drew a fire rune on the ground, and waved his hand to form a water rune in the air, and then activated both at the same time. The fire rune spat out a fireball that stayed in place. "Hmm...how about..." He looked at the children staring in awe at the display. "Tori, come here." The youngest person in the club stood up and obediently went to Henry's side. "Now touch the fireball."
"What?!" Astoria looked at her brother as if he was crazy. Well, Henry thought, he probably was.
"Touch it. Go on," Henry urged, seeing as Astoria wasn't all that willing to put her hand into a giant fireball. Henry grabbed her hand gently and guided it, instead. "From the top, here, like this. There. Now just gently push down." Henry put his hand on the bottom of the fireball as Astoria pushed down on the same fireball, neither of them burning their hands.
Astoria stared at the fireball, and then her hand, with wide eyes, and then withdrew her hand from the burning, cold ball of fire. "Whoa."
Henry chuckled and nodded. "Whoa."
Tracey got up and went to stick her hand in the fireball. She pulled it out quickly, but then put it back in, slightly more hesitantly. "It...doesn't burn?"
Henry grinned and looked down at the confused Slytherin. "Nope! It's actually still burning. But I drew a water rune in the air that suppressed the flame; what it does is make the fire go around your arm harmlessly. The fire rune keeps its shape, though, so the fireball is trying to go around your arm and keep its shape at the same time, making it push down."
"'Ey, Henry," Filch called out. "What'd happen if you smashed it and made it turn into tiny fireballs, hm?"
"Ah, don't do that," Henry chuckled with nostalgia. "The fire splits off into many different parts and burns everything, since the water rune only worked for the fireball. It's a pain to put out, let me tell you." He looked at the twins. "Now, what would happen if I were to put the water rune below the fire rune? Obviously, right now that would have been impossible, since I put the fire rune in the ground, but if I put fire and water in the air, water below fire..."
He proceeded to do so, and the room filled up with smoke. "And that's why it doesn't work," Henry smiled through the thick air; it was just water vapor, really, so it wasn't particularly unpleasant, just humid. "Fire is all three of the textures: sharp, subtle, and mobile. Therefore, nothing can go below it and work the way we want it to; adding things below it makes it more volatile. Adding air below fire makes the room turn dry, with little moisture in the air; meanwhile, earth below fire is a recipe for a bomb."
"A bomb?" Daphne's eyes were wide. "Can you show us?"
"Sure," Henry smiled, and lit the fuse, before quickly running earth runes around the ticking bomb, forming a solid box of earth that successfully muffled the most potent part of the blast. "The blast can be used to push people away, and the shrapnel is dangerous and potentially fatal, but it's not really that strong."
"You'd need to use stronger fire runes, then?" Daphne mused to herself, biting her thumbnail in a surprisingly cute manner. "Or stronger earth runes...you'd need to have more earth runes to make a more potent base...sharper shrapnel..."
"My sister, the demolitions expert," Henry whined playfully, making increasingly elaborate gestures pantomiming sadness. "My beautiful, sweet and dainty sister, obsessed with explosives. Where, oh where, did I go wrong?"
Astoria giggled. The two Ravenclaw girls that weren't blonde and the Hufflepuffs were smirking in obvious humor. The Gryffindors and the blonde Ravenclaw were taking notes or something.
Daphne ignored all of them and continued to mutter to herself, staring at the box that once contained an explosion.
Henry blinked, then nudged her shoulder. "Uh, Daphne. You...probably shouldn't play with explosives yet? I don't really want you hurt." He smiled a tentative, awkward smile, and Daphne blinked back to awareness.
"Oh, s-sorry." Daphne blushed instantly, embarrassed beyond belief. Tracey nudged her playfully in the shoulder, and Daphne pushed back with a grimace. Tracey just grinned.
"Right." Henry coughed. "Let's, ah, let's continue, then."
Notebook
November 28, 1995
Wow, I haven't written in you in...geez, it's been, what, two years? Apparently it was right before I asked my girlfriend for her hand in marriage, so I'll just make this as summarized as possible.
She said yes, if you could believe it, and I could hardly believe my ears. It was the greatest day in my life, although I'm really hoping that my wedding day will be better. Whenever that is.
I honestly hope it's soon. Every time I think about it, I get really nervous. I don't know what she was thinking when she said yes; hell, I don't remember what I was thinking, offering myself for marriage. I'm twenty-one, I'm not really ready for this!
Except, well, father seems okay with it, and my sisters all are on board with the idea. Oh, that reminds me! We've totally made up. Sometimes father slips and calls me by that awful name, but he's actually called me Henry a few times unprompted! I have hope for the man. Mother is...a bit stubborn, but she'll come around. They act so similar sometimes, I think they'd actually like each other! Or...or they'd yell at each other for the next forty years. One or the other; hopefully the former, probably the latter.
I kind of just fast-forwarded two years. I'm working at Hogwarts! Yeah, the wizard school. Yes, I'm still magic-less. I just started in July of this year, so it's a bit confusing for me, and other than getting censured by the board of governors (they're the guys who run the school) I think I'm doing pretty well! You know, for a guy who never actually attended any formal schooling, other than whatever my girlfriend told me about Japanese schools and the education I had getting the crap beaten out of me by my teacher, but you already knew that, seeing as how you're a book that I used to write in all the time. I have a club, too, and my sisters are in it. Today, Daphne nearly blew everyone up, it was hilarious in hindsight. Not so much during the actual event. Thankfully, I knew how to defuse a polarized earth rune bomb; if I didn't, well...
I'm honestly scared, diary. Something big is happening, and I don't know if I can manage to survive it. If, in the event that I'm already dead, and somebody comes and reads these entries, once they get to this part, please, contact everyone I've ever met. You'll know, since you've already read the previous entries. Please, tell them that I love them. I don't know if I'll get the chance to, so I'm writing this down here, just to make sure that they know. It never hurts to be paranoid, except in relationships, and this thing we have here isn't a relationship. You're a book. It wouldn't work out. And if you're reading this, then I'm dead, and that would work out even less. Please for the love of sanity don't call a necromancer; I have enough problems as it is.
Oh well. Enough dark thoughts. Back to work for me! Papers, ugh.
Henry