Kindred Spirits

by Tailkinker

This is a work of fan fiction based on the Harry Potter series and the Sailor Moon franchise created respectively by J.K. Rowling and Naoko Takeuchi. The characters and settings belong to their respective owners and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes and should not be considered as part of the official canon of either series.

Reconciliation

"Bloody Peeves—where the hell is it?"

Harry paused. He had been on his way to his "crew's" training room, in the third-floor corridor, when he'd heard Ron's voice. And he was clearly worked up about something. Given the way Ron had been treating him this year, though, Harry wasn't really inclined to help him out. He started walking again, towards the training room.

Ron stomped out of the old Divination classroom. He spotted Harry, and asked, "Hey—did you see Peeves go through here?"

"No," said Harry. He opened the door to the training classroom.

"Bloody bastard stole my wand."

Harry paused again. As angry with Ron as he currently was, he couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy. Losing one's wand was almost as bad as losing one's hand—at least you could get the wand back, eventually. And Ron seemed near panic, his voice cracking with the strain.

With a sigh, Harry closed the door and turned to face Ron. "Stole your wand? When did this happen?"

"I was doing a reading." Ron held up a tarot deck. "And the bloody spook just popped in, grabbed my wand and dove under the table. I figure he couldn't take the wand out of the classroom, because it's solid, but I can't find it in there anywhere."

Old habits kicked in, and before Harry could remember that he was angry with Ron, he said, "Well, let's go find it then."

Ron sighed in relief. "Thanks, Harry. You're a lifesaver."

Harry followed Ron back to the Divination classroom, wondering why exactly he was doing so. After all, Ron certainly hadn't done him any favours recently. He glanced around the room, noting the tarot cards still on the table. "That's your reading?"

"Yeah," said Ron absently. "Trying to help you out, you know?"

"Help me out?" Harry was taken aback.

Ron turned to face him directly. "Look, Hotaru was right, okay? I treated you really badly. And I realized it the next day, when she slapped some sense into me. But I..." He looked down, and kicked at a flagstone. "I can't just..."

"Apologize?"

"Yeah. Not when I've screwed up this badly. A simple apology don't cut it. So I wanted to help you out with something." He gestured towards the cards. "You were all worried about those Mahoutokoro students, and apparently it's gotten worse. So I did a reading, to try to figure out why. I figured, maybe if I was useful at something, rather than just being Harry Potter's jealous friend—"

"You didn't need to be useful," snapped Harry. "Never mind that you were. But even if you were useless, I just needed someone to have my back. Nobody else believed me, Ron. Only Hermione, Draco and Hotaru. And I expected the same from you."

"And I let you down. I know." Ron sighed. "So I threw myself into the Divination, because Hotaru says that it works—provided you ignore Trelawney. And she's right. I've learned loads." He tapped a card. "Five of Swords, reversed. Desire to reconcile. It kept showing up. I don't know if it means you or me."

Harry frowned at the layout. "Let's go over this, in detail, once we find your wand. You said Peeves went under the table?"

"Yeah."

Harry lifted the tablecloth and rolled under the table. It was quite dark, due to the heavy purple felt of the tablecloth. He drew his own wand, and mumbled, "Lumos." With his wand lit, he could see a rather large crack in the floor, where the mortar between the flagstones had crumbled. He grinned; it would be just like Peeves to jam Ron's wand through that crack. He considered how to check for it, and remembered something he'd read during his training for the Second Task.

"Nox. Hey, Ron. Do me a favour, will you? Cast a Lumos."

"But I don't have my wand." Ron's voice was puzzled.

"Just imagine that you do."

"Okay. Lumos."

The crack flooded with light, and Harry's grin widened. It was down there, all right, and now that he could see it, he could recover it.

"Accio wand!" He pulled the wand from the crack with a jerk of his own wand. Grasping it, he rolled back out from under the table and handed the still-glowing wand to Ron.

"Thanks, mate." Ron's relief was palpable.

"And you thought you were useless. Look at you doing wandless magic." But this reminded him of how Ron had been treating him recently, and he felt his grin fade. He turned back to the table. "Okay, fill me in on this reading."

"All right." Ron took a moment to rub his wand down, then slipped it back into his sleeve. He walked around the table, and tapped a card.

"So the Tower means chaos and upheaval. In this position, it indicates the current situation, whereas this card—" He tapped another card, one showing a woman seated between two pillars. "The High Priestess, reversed. Uncovering hidden truths. This is the challenge card." He grinned. "I figure it means that these hidden truths are what I'm trying to find."

"So far, it's not telling us anything we didn't already know," said Harry.

"Sure, but if I got cards here that made no sense, it would tell me that I'm asking the wrong question." He tapped a card. "The Magician. Manifesting desire as the root cause. We're all Wizards, so that follows." He tapped the Five of Swords again. "This is the recent past."

"The reconciliation card," observed Harry.

"This card represents the best possible outcome," said Ron, tapping the card at the top of the layout. "The Ace of Cups represents love and harmony. This card is the near future," he continued. "The eight of wands. Rapid action and progress. This card in this position means things are coming to a head."

"Meiou-sensei already told me that she knows I speak Japanese," said Harry. "She's been using Divination to spy on us."

Ron tapped the next card. "Self-Perception. The Fool, reversed. I might be stepping into trouble. Now I know how," he said wryly. "If she's spying on you, she's probably spying on me too."

He moved on to the next card. "External influences. The Wheel of Fortune. Someone's fate is in play, and there's forces beyond our control at work." He tapped the next card. "Hopes and fears. The Chariot. Willpower, determination and control. They want control over something.

"And finally," he said, tapping the last card. "The outcome. Temperance. Balance and harmony." He turned to Harry. "They're after something. They want to control something. But whatever they do, it won't hurt you or Hotaru." He grinned, and tapped the Ace of Cups. "In fact, if things work out right, you'll have a new ally."

"That is good news," admitted Harry. "Meiou-sensei was trying to convince me that she'd do Hotaru no harm. You've done more to convince me than she ever would. So that leaves just one question." His voice hardened. "Why didn't you pass me Hagrid's message? I might have gone into that dragon's den with no warning, and gotten myself killed."

"Because...I wasn't ready yet," admitted Ron. "I told Draco, though, so he'd tell you."

"Prat," said Harry, though he couldn't suppress the grin.

"Yeah," admitted Ron.

"Just like a Gryffindor," sneered Draco. "He does you one favour, and suddenly all is forgiven."

Ron seemed to be trying to fall through the floor. The fact that Hermione and Draco were both staring at him angrily didn't make up for the fact that Hotaru seemed to have accepted his apology.

"He was my friend before any of you," pointed out Harry. "And I knew that he had...jealousy issues. It's not the first time it's been a problem."

"But it was the worst," countered Hermione. "How do we know that, if the going gets tough, he won't just bail on us again?"

"You can't know," admitted Ron. Hermione stared at him in shock, and he pressed on. "I'm not the most reliable guy. I know that. And I let Harry down really badly this time."

"Perhaps he can prove his commitment," said Hotaru quietly.

All heads turned to face the smaller girl. Hermione was the first to ask the obvious question.

"How do you suggest that he does that?"

"He believes that the Mahoutokoro students aren't intending to cause me harm," said Hotaru. "I suggest that he tries to find out exactly who they are, and why they're here." She smiled. "This would be a task uniquely suited to his skills as a Diviner."

"Yeah," agreed Ron quietly. "I could do that."

"But how will that prove his commitment?" asked Hermione.

"Because this is likely going to be a lot of boring work," said Hotaru. "If he sticks to it, we'll know that he can be trusted to stick to a task in the future."

"The Third Task is next week," said Harry. "And the Fourth Task is scheduled for the end of June. I doubt very much that Ron can crack this puzzle by next week. Let's give him until the start of the Fourth Task."