Many thanks to the people who review properly, with constructive data as opposed to swearing and general hate-spewing that serves nothing to anyone, aside from giving another review to a story they apparently dislike... but still end up making it look better by leaving their destructive comments... because sense this makes? Anyway, thanks! ~F

Chapter Nineteen

Important Questions

Lucius angrily crumpled the latest of a series of letters from the Ministry, once again denying his access to explore the Department of Mysteries, or even request a report of what was currently within the achieves of the lowest levels of the Ministry. It seemed that nothing short of a fully fledged infiltration or attack would be able to so much as confirm the existence of the Grimoire.

Harry may not be pleased with this required course of action, but it was possible if they pulled it off correctly, that they could pin the action on hidden and unknown members of the Dark Lord's forces, aside from their own people who were well protected behind the money that flowed from their families to the Ministry, or another unknown faction altogether.

Quickly, Lucius' quill flew across a fresh piece of parchment to his son at Hogwarts, the only safe method of getting information to Potter, under the nose of Dumbledore. Meanwhile, until they received the green light to make their move, he would continue to push and prepare those of the former Death Eaters turned warlocks for their glorious rise to power.

Unfortunately, that progress had been slow since they lost the immediately tutelage from Potter, and had to use what wisdom Lucius could glean from the tomes and scrolls that the boy had left behind. Still, growth had been made by them as a whole, but only Lucius had managed the next stage of demonic summoning, bringing forth the blue gaseous creature called a Voidwalker.

At the same time, he had also decided to focus himself toward the degrading powers of the Void, using the dark shadow magic to weaken and waste away his opponents before they could harm him, or at this point before they could bypass the stoic blue barrier that Grak'dok now represented for Lucius.

As the unofficial leader of the warlocks that remained outside Hogwarts, Lucius took it upon himself to push the team as hard as possible every time that they gathered, sometimes going so far as to hunt with nothing but their warlock abilities and demons out in the wilds surrounding his manor. Narcissa might be growing suspicious regarding the many outings and somewhat out of character behavior, but thankfully the women of the Black family knew how to hold their peace when it came to the business of the Lords of their households.

Regardless, there were limits to even what the Black household was willing to tolerate, and Lucius could easily figure that Narcissa was reaching her breaking point, and would have to be informed about something to satisfy her curiosity at some point soon.

Casually, in the privacy of his office, Lucius summoned his imp, Tarrin, to his side. The small creature appeared in a burst of green fel fire, cackling madly at the prospect of mayhem and destruction, only to quite when he recognized that they were in the enclosed area of Lucius' office, and therefore highly unlikely to make use of his favorite tool, fire…

"Tarrin," Lucius started coolly, "I have some questions for you regarding the glorious Burning Legion…"

"Yeah, sure, whatever you want…" the demonic creature said, shrugging casually. The imp had let the name slip once or twice before, and Lucius was greatly concerned with what he was hearing regarding this faction of demons.

"I know that we are assisting Potter with gathering his artifacts for the Legion, but what is the end purpose of this goal is supposed to me? What does the boy stand to gain?" Lucius asked pointedly, watching the little creature as he squirmed under the question.

"Well, I don't know a human named Harry, so I couldn't tell you what his interests are regarding the will of the Legion, nor the end goals of its leaders, but the purpose is to proceed across the cosmos, finding the sources of great magic and take them for ourselves, burning the works of the Titans as we go, in the name of our great leader Sargeras," Tarrin replied, bouncing from flaming foot to foot as he visibly itched for something to actually do.

"And what happens to the worlds that have these magic sources that the Legion wants, and what are the works of these titans?" Lucius asked, his suspicion growing dangerously.

"As the worlds themselves are the works of the Titans, they are destroyed," the Imp said, smiling toothily, even as Lucius grimaced.

"And the likelihood that the warlocks on some such world know this beforehand?" he asked.

"High, as that is always the purpose of the Legion, although at times the warlocks are moved to a new world afterward as either a reward or to continue the process if they prove loyal and useful enough. But warlocks of any stature are well aware that the Legion is going out to destroy the universe." The imp replied honestly.

Lucius felt himself grow cold. There were several options of what was going on, and each was less appealing than the last. The most benign reasoning was that Potter was unaware of what the Legion truly wanted, and was focused solely on whatever his own goal was that he hadn't asked the same questions that Lucius had. But somehow Lucius highly doubted that that was even close to the case.

More likely, in his mind, Potter knew exactly what the price for his desire would be, and just didn't care about the earth to think twice before sacrificing it. Acquiring these items seemed to be the requirements to rip a portal open enough to allow the leaders of the Burning Legion to set foot onto their world, and once that occurred there was no stopping them from annihilating their world completely.

"So, then, if the total destruction of my world is all that I have to look forward to, why am I assisting Potter acquire the tools with to achieve that goal of devastating my planet?" he asked the imp before him, wondering what Potter wanted so badly that he would kill millions for it.

"Well, I wouldn't know the exactly what the current bargain is with the warlocks here, but it has to be something, as the entire Legion has their eye on this world, aside from those concerned with the grand prize that is consuming the leaders of the Legion." The creature replied.

Curious as to what would be more important to the Legion than their current world of choice; Lucius took the bait, "What world is so important that the Legion cannot turn their attention from it?"

"Azeroth," Tarrin said, almost wistfully, "it's every demons dream to set foot on that magically charged world, which has the greatest font of power that has been ever found in the cosmos. It's also somewhat of a sore spot as the Legion has been defeated there more than once, so we have an invested interest in taking that world."

Lucius wondered for a long moment, "The boy who trains us, you know who I'm talking about, where has he been for so long?"

Unfortunately, the imp had no information whatsoever regarding Potter directly. But still, Lucius was starting to form some pretty detailed ideas as to what was going on behind the scenes of the boy's actions, and if he knew any of the other major players of either the Death Eaters or Dumbledore's group, they'd be working on their own solutions, but significantly lacking on one major thing: the knowledge of the Legion.

Without that key thing, Lucius would bet anything that his hypothesis would be by far the closest to the truth regarding Potter and his motivations. Well, let the fools think what they would, Lucius would prepare. If he was serious about annihilating their world, then the Malfoys would confront him regarding it, and proceed as needed. Potter wasn't unstoppable yet, and if Lucius was right, then he wouldn't need to be stopped.

"A world ripe in magic, with fonts of power that draw even the attention of the Lords of the Legion…" he said as he dismissed Tarrin with a wave of his hand. Lucius knew that Potter would strive to return to where he felt he belonged, especially after what he had mentioned regarding Dumbledore's effective abduction of him when he first reappeared in Godric's Hollow, but he was sure that they all had been interested in exactly where the boy had come from.

"Azeroth…" he murmured again, pouring himself some firewhiskey and swirling it to allow the flavor to temper somewhat in open air. It wasn't proper for a Pureblood Lord to become intoxicated. But a stiff drink was needed to contemplate these things. If it was that Potter wanted to return to this Azeroth, burning his home world in the process to accomplish it, then there must have been something worth quite a deal there for the taking.

Lucius would play along for now, keeping this information to himself, but he and Potter were going to have another little chat soon, and he expected the boy to become very honest very quickly. Powerful warlock or not, there wasn't any secret that one could keep from a Malfoy for long. It was this trait alone that had keep their family afloat during the madness of the First War between Dumbledore and the Dark Lord, and Lucius had only grown more cunning as time went on. He was going to enjoy putting Potter in his place, while still maintaining his loyalty to the boy's plans in the process. He was not going to be some slave again, but a partner, fully in the know and operating the process. Never again would he allow his family to be afraid for their lives because of the will of another, man or demon.

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Nobu'tan felt extremely accomplished that his plan had automatically set itself into motion. Granted, he still had extreme annoyances in the form of Gilderoy Lockhart, and less so with Colin Creevey. As they were in different houses, the first year had little opportunity to actually see or track the warlock down, but as Nobu'tan knew that the boy fell into the qualifications that he had given to Granger for her new caste of mages, he was always at least kind to the boy in response.

Lockhart on the other hand, was avoided at all costs, purely to spare the young warlock his sanity, but otherwise things were almost normal, like being back in Dalaran for a time. Magical education continued, but Nobu'tan was finally able to grasp much more as his need for the translation charm had finally run its course, and he was fluently speaking the language of English at last.

In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary that occurred was late into the second week, as Nobu'tan was returning to Ravenclaw Tower at the end of the day; he heard something through the very walls of the castle. "Come… come to me… Let me rip you… Let me tear you… Let me kill you…"

Despite having lived with powerful and sometimes uncontrollable creatures, the sheer eeriness of the voice caused Nobu'tan to jump in surprise. The magic of the castle however was undisturbed, so he was completely blind as to being able to pinpoint the location that the voice had come from, and after a few moments of fruitless searching, he gave it up and returned to the eagle knocker, answering another ridicules riddle to gain entrance to the common room.

However all thoughts of sleep had left him, as the voice had reminded him of important things that were not best left unattended. Or at least best addressed within his own mind for when they did happen. Nobu'tan knew that demons held no loyalty to their warlocks, or mortals in general, and while Lucius, Yaxley and the other, more intelligent Death Eaters had immediately agreed to his plots and schemes, draw in by the power that they stood to gain, now that they had it they were bound to question why they ought to continue serving him in gathering that artifacts for the Legion.

Knowing the imps that they had brought into this world, like all of their kind, Nobu'tan could bet gold that the Legion had been mention at least once, and if any of them had so much as asked, the imps would do nothing to shroud the destructive nature of the demon lords, and that might be problematic if the older men decided that they loved their world more than the promises of power and riches that Nobu'tan could give them in Azeroth.

He would have to create a most convincing argument for why their world could be tossed aside for something much better. Worst of all, if it was Lucius himself that discovered this fact, Nobu'tan would probably be pushed into revealing everything regarding himself and how he came to return to their world, including the Stormreavers and their leader, his master Gul'dan.

How the man would react to learning that Nobu'tan was the apprentice of a nonhuman creature hell-bent on the destruction of his race upon another world, Nobu'tan did not know, but the manipulative man was well skilled and able to even work through the meager web of lies that currently held Dumbledore at bay. Granted the man had the key currently, knowledge of the demonic arts, which took the majority of Nobu'tan's secrets from him.

Still, perhaps power and wealth were all that mattered to the Malfoy patriarch, and protection for his family. He could show them his memories of the beauty of Azeroth, from lush and evergreen Quel'Thalas, to the grandeur of Dalaran, and the many places that he himself had seen and experienced, and convince the man that it was a safer and more profitable option for him and his family than earth.

So it would be, and if the man refused, then Nobu'tan was prepared to defend himself with all the magic he possessed. Lucius Malfoy was vastly unaware of the Arcane magic that Nobu'tan possessed, and that combined with his more advanced Fel magic would be more than able to overcome the man and his wizardry.

That settled, Nobu'tan was able to turn his attention to the month ahead. October would be interesting, given that it was highly likely that not only would Draco and the Slytherins make their move to start creating more warlocks, to match Granger and her mages, but Dumbledore and Snape would be forced to take action against not one, but possibly two groups of different magic users springing up in their midst.

Either they would take Nobu'tan himself aside and question him yet again, or more likely they would go straight to Granger, and Draco if they find out about the warlocks, although Nobu'tan doubted that the Slytherins would be as obvious about it as Granger was going to be. The worst that could happen was Dumbledore finally learning about the magic of the Arcane, but even then all it would do divert more attention away from Nobu'tan, as the Arcane magic in and of itself was relatively harmless, no more than powerful charms and a few hexes when compared to Wizardry.

But if the administration discovered the warlocks, then there may be a problem. Nobu'tan would have to make sure he got into contact with Draco after he began his group, and notified them that, while he did not care what they chose to do with his power, that they had better make sure that they were not caught, or even suspected, of using dark magic in the school, as it would mean drastic consequences.

It would be terrible if they were found out before locating even one of the artifacts that would unleash the Legion. Hopefully when the next update from Lucius came, he would be able to speak with Draco in private regarding the new group he was heading, and give them express instructions and some added guidance. Leadership was not the easiest of things, Nobu'tan had learned. Perhaps this was why Gul'dan preferred to control things from the shadows, rather than be at the head of anything aside from the Shadow Council. It felt gratifying to be following in his master's footsteps even though they had been separated for over a year.

Momentarily, as he drifted off in his bed minutes later, Nobu'tan wondered where his surrogate father was, and what chaos he was wreaking on the Azerothian humans at that moment. Perhaps he had won already, and ruled over an orc run world, preparing for many portals to be created to spread the Horde to even more locations across the stars. It was a beautiful dream, after all.

He couldn't be sure what had been the cause of his reflections that night, but the vision that he was granted in his sleep was something both refreshing and horrifying. He could see his mentor, alive and well, as the powerful orc delved into a risen cave network out in the great sea. Nobu'tan briefly recognized the place as the legendary Tomb of Sargeras, and was saddened that his mentor had ventured on without him into the fabled place.

Granted, from what scraps of the warlock's monologue that he could hear, it seemed that Gul'dan had come to the Tomb precisely to use the power of the Dark Titan to find and bring Nobu'tan back to Azeroth himself. The point was driven further when he even killed one of the few warlocks that had joined him in the task of exploring the Tomb's depths.

But all fondness was dashed when the last image of the vision appeared, a terrible creature from the depths of the dark tomb, a guardian of sorts, clad in powerful Fel magic that Nobu'tan wasn't sure if even if mentor would overcome alone.

He awoke with a start, with sweat pouring off his skin and chilled to the bone. Had that been a vision of what was to come? Or something that was already happening, and nothing he could do to stop? He hoped for the former. Curling in upon himself, he sat in the darkness and waited for dawn to come, as he had no more desire for sleep and the possible return of the tormenting vision.

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Albus was ever on edge throughout the end of September and beginning of October. While nothing out of the ordinary had, as of yet, occurred, he could still feel some sort of undercurrent of tension forming between the students.

His and Severus' attempts to get closer to Miss Granger were so far yielding little, as the girl was always so very busy, and calling her directly to his office would be far too obvious to anyone as to what they were up to, but at the same time, Albus was considering throwing caution to the wind and calling upon her for answers. She had thus far cultivated a rather large number of friends and study companions, from all houses but Slytherin, and they kept occasionally disappearing in small groups for a time, only to reappear at meals or at the end of weekends looking thoroughly pleased with themselves.

According to Severus' information, it had to mean that the girl was indeed going about teaching even more students how to wield the arcane magic that she herself had been taught by Harry. The only thing that Albus found disturbing by this was that Harry himself was not involved. Indeed the boy was staying rather aloof of all his friends from the previous year, aside from occasional chats with Draco Malfoy before and after the classes that Ravenclaw and Slytherin shared, but otherwise the boy was mostly keeping to himself.

If Albus knew anything about plots and how they were formed, then this was a terribly bad sign if ever there was one. For Harry to be separating himself from people he was friendly with, there had to be some sort of distraction brewing so that the boy could have time undetected, but for what purpose, and how could Albus avoid the trap?

It seemed that the boy was quite effectively backing Albus into a corner of predictable action, giving the Headmaster no choice but to take the bait and go after Miss Granger directly, which was obviously the one thing that he shouldn't do. But the likelihood of the boy playing a far more dangerous gambit with this was high, and while Albus hated playing mind games with a twelve year old, the fact was that he was currently out of options.

So, he send a message to Miss Granger one weekend in the second week of October, requesting her presence in his office, and giving her the required password for the secret entrance to his staircase, and waiting for what would undoubtedly be a difficult evening.

Once the appointed time came, Albus was already second guessing himself. What if Harry was already making some kind of move while Albus was here following a dead end lead? But that of course was absurd, he had thought ahead and had Severus patrolling outside the Ravenclaw Tower entrance for just this purpose. Although there was the boy's cloak to factor in, rendering Severus' presence outside the dormitory irrelevant, and still give Harry amply time to act freely toward whatever end he would.

It was so very disturbing, to be working so hard against someone who ought to have been his ally, like a second Voldemort already, but Albus was not going to make that comparison, not between Harry and Tom.

The sharp knock on his door snapped him out of his wavering thoughts. "Enter," he called, and the bushy brown hair of Miss Granger appeared, the girl taking an obvious interest in everything in Albus' office as she walked toward the desk.

"Ah, Miss Granger, I presume you found my office without trouble then," Albus started politely, "Lemon Drop?" he offered, gesturing at the tin set out on his desk.

"Oh, yes please," the girl said, brightening at the muggle sweet, and taking one for herself. That alone made Albus smile, it was so rare for anyone visiting his office for any reason to accept one, and they were quite interesting to the taste, despite being muggle in origin.

"I trust that you may have some inclination as to why I have called you to my office so unexpectedly," Albus continued, growing slightly more serious, but making sure that his eyes remained grandfatherly soft and calm. That way, while the girl flinched at the abruptness of his words, she didn't shy away out of reflex or fear, but grudgingly accepted that he was clearly more aware of what went on in his school than she thought.

"Well, possibly, if it's what I think it may be…" she said, shifting her Lemon Drop from one side of her mouth to the other after speaking.

"I suppose that is a fair answer," Albus accepted, "and I shall clarify therefore. I am concerned by the actions of Mr. Potter, in teaching you some rare and, quite potentially dangerous magic, and that you are in turn spreading it to other students, supposedly without my knowledge of course."

Miss Granger seemed to have expected this, but her eyes still widened slightly at the clear and direct mention of her fledgling group. "How so, Professor?" she asked diplomatically, almost innocently.

"Well, for starters, I was still in the middle of discussions with Mr. Potter regarding this arcane magic when he decided upon himself to teach it to you, and I'm afraid all the ramifications regarding one who practices the Arcane and wizards magic haven't yet been thoroughly explored. For your safety, and the safety of those you are currently teaching, I need you all to either stop using the Arcane completely…"

Albus paused at the noticeable gasp that the girl gave, "or…" he added, "I need to have full and complete instructions of everything you have accomplished thus far, to test them for any potential side effects. You must also promise that, if I do find anything that may be dangerous regarding a particular ability or spell, that it be stopped immediately and forbidden for the safety of all involved."

"So, I presume that you and Harry disagree whether there is any danger or not?" Miss Granger said astutely.

"That's the by and large of it," Albus replied, nodding, "I'd rather be safe than tragically sorry, while he is convinced that nothing could possibly go wrong, citing himself as the example, but just one instance is not good enough, and while I am sure that that is part of why he trained you without my knowledge, to prove his point, but I'd still like to run some tests before I give this full clearance to proceed."

"I… understand…" Miss Granger said after a short pause, "I'll start copying down all the abilities that the mages have amassed thus far for you to go over, but in the meantime we shall continue to practice and grow stronger, as not only I, but all of the mages I've started teaching are in agreement that we need to take advantage of every skill we can get while here in Hogwarts, especially if there are forces out in the world that would persecute us just for petty differences."

'Ah,' Albus thought triumphantly, 'So that is how Harry managed to convince her to go through with this." It would be the retaliation to the pureblood bigotry that would motivate any Muggleborn witch or wizard to striving to be the best they could, especially if added to the temptation of unique magic known to only a few.

"Alright then, Miss Granger, I'll be expecting those notes within the month, but for now you may go." Albus said, allowing the girl to depart his office. There wasn't much more he could get from her until he reviewed those abilities and spells they had come up with, and learned them for himself. Only then would he be absolutely sure that this arcane magic was not dark in nature.

Even if it turned out to be the case, then there was still the question of why Harry's magic was tainted when he channeled these types of power, or if... Albus paused, considering the option that Harry had simply lied to Albus, and the Arcane was not the other obscure magical art that he knew.

Only time would tell if that was the case however, even if Albus didn't fell that he had time to devote to this sort of massive investigation of one of his own students, but it was specifically that it was Harry that such a necessity. It didn't sit right with Albus, but for the sake of their world, he needed to understand what Harry was capable of, because like it or not, Voldemort would eventually return. Of that Albus was certain, and when it did happen, Harry would be needed more than anyone else, all because of the prophecy.

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Draco had never realized how truly difficult it was to teach others magical arts. "No, no, no! You do not understand what I mean…" he said exasperatedly to the group of three Slytherin second year boys that he intended to start his collection of warlocks with.

He had already guessed that teaching Crabbe and Goyle would be difficult, but he hadn't expected that even Blaise would have difficulty comprehending even the very first step of touching the Fel magic of the Void.

"You're not explaining it very well, then…" Blaise retorted, growing frustrated. Draco couldn't completely blame him either. The topic was rather abstract to most wizards of their world, reaching for something that couldn't be seen, when usually their magic was just taken for granted as there and just a few words and a wand movement away. Perhaps that was why so many who never got around to learning the more difficult magic, like the mind arts or wandless magic.

Straining his mind, Draco tried to think of a way that he could transmit the idea of what Blaise and the others ought to do to make the connection with the Void and its unlimited supply of magic. "Perhaps if you gave us a demonstration first, we'd have an idea of what you mean."

Eyes flashing with the realization of how obvious it was, Draco darted forward, grabbing the Italian boy's arm, "You're exactly right, but just watching won't be enough, here," and ignoring Blaise's rather indignant squeak of protest, Draco forced the boy's hands over his own, making sure that the boy did not let go in revulsion. This was not the time for being overly concerned with what was proper.

Moving his arms in the opening motions of demonic calling, Draco allowed the Void's energy to reach out and connect with him, pressing some of it through the physical contact so that Blaise sensed it as well. As soon as that happened, all resistance disappeared from the other boy, and within moments he was grasping both of Draco's hands hard enough to squeeze the bones together.

It was true then, Draco mused. Blaise really was bored with how the world worked, and this evidence of something new and exciting was enough to peak his interest well beyond anything in the last several years.

"Reach out and grasp that calling of the great beyond," Draco instructed, feeling the other boy attempting with his might to reach his magic through and touch the Nether, desperate for the connection. Draco did not fight the boy's attempts to leech off his own connection to make the final push, and felt with a jolt as the boy triumphantly brushed the demonic magic of the Void.

"It's… fantastic!" he said, no doubt feeling the charge of power in himself even as Draco ended his spell and separated their intertwined magical ties.

"You've merely taken the first step." Draco said quietly, "there is so much more that you do not understand to come."

Glancing over at where Theodore was still striving to get the pair of thickheaded members of their dorm to understand, Draco sighed, "Continue working on strengthen your connection by relaxing and retouching the Void until it becomes as easy as breathing. Only then can the real work begin."

Blaise nodded, finally comprehending the importance of this step, and Draco was able to, slowly, explain everything that had happened to Theo about what had worked for Blaise. Almost recreating the same situation, Draco had both Crabbe and Goyle place hands on his shoulders, as he reached out to the Twisted Nether and began channeling the energy to bring forth a Voidwalker, which both he and Theodore had mastered some time previously.

It seemed to be the deciding factor, that one needed to be shown the way first, then left to their own devices on how to make the connection themselves, as both large and muscle brained boys were able to make their own link with the Fel powers within the remaining hour and a half that they had to go about training unobserved. Charging all three of them to practice making and breaking the connection throughout the week, Draco promised that they would test the strength and reflex the following session that they met, and hopefully begin with the most basic of warlock incantations and spell.

He could easily envision Blaise joining their cadre of demon summoners in short order, while both Crabbe and Goyle may take longer, but Draco hoped he may be surprised with the two larger boys. And once these three were well on their way, they could slowly start incorporating others from Slytherin House into their ranks. From his last check Granger had a slight advantage on then in numbers, but also had Professor Dumbledore breathing down her neck, so if they played their cards right and worked from the shadows, as they already ought to be as Slytherins, they could enjoy some anonymity for quite a while yet.

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Hermione wasn't terribly pleased with being so singled out by the Headmaster, as she knew without a doubt, much as Harry had, that the arcane magic was only as harmful as the wielder. But the kindly old man had a point that he had every right to at least be made aware of what occurred within his own school, and therefore she obediently copied everything that they had studied and researched up to the middle of October and mailed it to Professor Dumbledore without complaint.

Not that that stopped her from continuing the makeshift classes that she held on a weekly basis, currently only open to certain first and second years from three of the four houses. As Harry had advised, she had selected candidates that met the parameters of strong wills, but curious minds, and good senses of loyalty to a cause.

To that end, her group only consisted of herself, first year Colin Creevey, who had been personally recommended by Harry, as well as second year Gryffindor Fey Dunbar, Hufflepuffs Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, and Ravenclaw Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein.

Most of her new mages were only just past the initial connection to the magic of the ley lines under Hogwarts, but the two Ravenclaws, and surprisingly Colin were already surging ahead in their self studies by leaps and bounds, while the others were still trying to master their first spells. It was rather impressive to see that everyone she had selected had their own personal reasons for wanting nothing more than to be as proficient as possible with the new magic of the Magi.

Granted, only herself and Colin were Muggleborn, and therefore directly in the line of fire of the dark wizards wanted to rise in power again, but the rest were all members of families that had staunchly opposed the rise of Voldemort, and most of the same had lost relatives to the man and his Death Eaters. Even the thought that he might return, or some other would take his place was motivation enough to make sure that they had means to protect their futures and the freedoms that their relatives had given their lives for.

Their group was divided into two sections, those working to learn the first ability, a bolt of Frostfire, and those three more advanced students that were working to produce a nova of frost that would ensnare attackers.

Hermione had already master both of these, and far more abilities, but she was more than willing to take the time to coach the others through connecting to the primal energies of magic and warping it to their needs in cases of emergencies.

"Alright, this is going to be somewhat short of a session, as I'm sure that most of you want to be early for the Halloween feast," Hermione prefaced, smiling as most of the others nodded in agreement. "So let's throw as much effort as we can into working right now and then relax with all the excellent food that we'll be eating tonight!"

The others cheered lightly, before immediately getting to work. Hermione slowly walked back and forth between the two groups, offering advice gently to each person who seemed to be struggling. Colin's biggest struggle, for example, was that he tended to overcharge his spells, pumping far more magic than was needed into them, with dramatic consequences.

On the other hand, some of the other girls, like Hannah and Susan, were still somewhat afraid of how devastatingly powerful the first spell was. It took combining the powers of fire and frost into one brutal attack to usually launch any mage into the arcane arts, but some, especially those who were afraid of the impact that the blast was capable of, had problems merging the two elements together.

Logically, Hermione would have started with one element or the other for simplicities sake, but Harry had explained to her that it was part of determining what element the individual preferred over the other early on, or in the case of those who were more effective with pure magic, neither. That was judged by the strength of each half of the spell, or as a whole.

Getting them to accept that spells had consequences was the first step in overcoming this issue, and thankfully, by the end of their short session, the others had more or less come to terms with the amount of strength that they could expect from the magi's abilities.

"Well done everyone, really good job!" Hermione said as she called for a halt to their practice and dismissed them all for the feast that would be starting below in under an hour. They all, herself include, wanted to wash up and change into fresh robes for that, as to not betray what they had been up to. Professor Dumbledore, and most likely the others head's of house were aware of them, but it ought not to further than that, for everyone's safety.

Quickly returning to Gryffindor Tower, with Colin and Fay in tow, Hermione happily changed into fresh robes and went swiftly down to the feast, which was already starting by the time she arrived.

Harry, as well as Draco and his Slytherin friends were already down there, enjoying themselves with the large selection of food and treats, mercifully without the interruption last year had presented with the troll. Hermione sent subtle nods at the pair of them, pretty sure that both groups were aware of what she was up to, Harry naturally as the original idea generator of the concept, and Draco through the Slytherin boy's keen observance of the ebb and flow of the school.

Over the rest of the feast, Hermione noticed the others she had been teaching trickle in and out with their friends, acting perfectly normal, which was excellent. It was imperative that no one know exactly how many or who was part of their faction, aside from Harry, as it gave them a small advantage if someone was to try and shut them down by force.

Hermione wasn't thinking of parents or the Professors in this vein however, even Professor Dumbledore she couldn't see trying to stop them, especially after he himself tested out some of their abilities and realized how straight forward and clean the magic was. No, Hermione was primarily wary of the school Governors, lead by none other than Lucius Malfoy.

Cordial thought the man had been when they met in Diagon, Hermione was under no false pretenses as to who the man was or what he represented, and she wasn't able to accurately trust what he would react to if he found out that a splinter group of magic users was forming under a Muggleborn's hand in the school. While she definitely did not agree with the man's potential logic with opposing such an organization, it was the way this world worked, and if she hoped to alter it, she had to work from the shadows for the time being.

But, now was not the time to overly worry about discovery, when the feast was coming to a close. With a din of scraping and shuffling the many students rose and started filing out of the hall to proceed to their dormitories for extra study and sleep. Due to the odd configuration of this portion of the castle, while there were two different ways from the Great Hall, there was still only one route to the grand staircase, meaning that the corridor that went past the second floor landing and Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was quickly arrived at by students from either end of the corridor.

But, something was wrong when they arrived at the area just outside of the landing. Hermione only noticed because she had glanced over at Harry, who was several people over and ahead of her, surrounded by his housemates. The boy had paused momentarily, a frown crossing his face, like he had heard something extremely unpleasant, and he looked toward the wall near the bathroom.

Hermione followed his eyes, and quickly found something shining on the wall ahead. Someone far ahead cried out at the same time as a small splash was heard, there must have been water on the floor there. But most everyone else was transfixed by the same thing Hermione had seen.

Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches, and reading: 'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware.'

The chatter and bustle around them died away as more and more read the message, and soon, Hermione noticed the other thing on the wall that had spooked everyone looking at the message. Underneath the message, hanging by its tailed from the torch braket like a sick trophy, was Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris.

"What's going on here? Whats going on?" shouted the cantankerous caretaker's voice as he shoved his way through the stunned crowd. Then he spotted his cat, and fell back with a cry, clutching at his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris!" he shrieked at no one in particular. Whirling on the crowd of assembled students, eyes popping, he started screeching at them all. "Who did it? Who murdered my cat?!"