Harry Potter and the Tribe of Mystics

by Lord of mystics

Harry Potter is competing in the Triwizard tournament as someone is out to get him again. meanwhile, Susan Bones is trying to get to him. But what is the interest of mystics in Harry Potter? Who are they and why are they interested in Harry Potter? Why the blue eyed slytherin want to get to Harry Potter? Starts at end of year 4. [COMPLETED]

30. Chapter 30

London

The mystics had decided to postpone exorcising the chalice of the fragment of Tom Riddle's soul for now. They knew that besides the snake, there was one more horcrux out there. Taking immediate action on the cup just might alert Tom Riddle that they were on to him, causing him to take extraordinary measures to remove or protect his remaining horcrux. They decided to wait until they could locate and secure the last one and exorcise the two at once at a time of their own choosing. It was Dumbledore who had deduced that the great snake was the sixth horcrux, Harry being the seventh and the one that Tom did not intend to make. There was little chance that Tom would attempt to make yet another one. The last unintentional one stripped him of his power and his body. Trying again would likely damage him beyond the point of no return, not dead but not alive either and powerless.

The mystics had been warned against taking too direct a hand in the upcoming war by their seer. As it turned out, they were already stretched thin. There seemed to be an outbreak of small-time dark lords in Africa and the mystics were actively engaged in putting them down. Add to that the fact that Harry was the child of the prophecy and they knew better than to tamper with fate. They had already extended a helping hand by training and healing Harry. They could lend aid by exorcising the horcruxes and occasional assistance when asked, but that was it.

Ministry of Magic

Frank Longbottom had been meeting regularly with Croaker, Moody and Amelia, talking about the preparations for the war and security measures which could be implemented in the ministry to prevent death eaters from entering. They knew that there were marked death eaters among the ministry employees. They had all been relegated to positions where their decisions could not have far-reaching consequences. Their access to information was also restricted so that they could not learn or divulge sensitive information. There were a few reasons that Minister Longbottom had not acted to oust, arrest or quietly disappear the death eaters: he did not want to tip his hand that he knew Tom Riddle was back; as long as they were trying to remain undetected, they were not actively breaking any laws; their actions and movements were a reliable indicator of what Riddle was up to; certain random and subtle Legilimency could be very revealing of what the other side was up to; and finally, it was good to have a ready supply of guinea pigs to determine how well the anti-dark mark wards worked when the time came to test them. Additionally, even though the light side with their neutral allies now held the majority of the votes on the Wizengamot, the backlash from moving openly against the death eaters now would create friction and noise that would not do anyone any good. For now, letting Riddle's lackeys had the false impression that they were unknown and undetected worked to the advantage of the light side. Letting the oblivious fools who had not realized what was really going on believe what they will would just make harsh reality that much more shocking when the truth is revealed. Besides, those fools were no loss to the light side. They would not be any good in a fight anyway.

They had what they wanted for now. They had appointed Moody as the head of the Aurors. Scrimgeour was reassigned to head of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol and he had been given a free hand to subdue any dark activities which might be happening. Scrimgeour didn't grumble too much. He was happy to be back in the field with his boys as he liked to call them. He had been a ferocious Auror in the last war and if there was a war again, he sure was not going to stay behind a desk. For that matter, Moody was not sitting behind a desk either. The veteran auror was the toughest task master the recruits could have. From their very first class, he had started berating them for everything from their physique to spell casting. Whenever anyone tried to grumble, he would boast of his former protégées who had won much renown with a wand in the past. The likes of James Potter, Sirius Black, Amelia Bones herself, Rufus Scrimgeour, Gawain Robards, Frank and Alice Longbottom were just some of the more famous ones. His day would start with making them all run for 30 minutes then he would have dummies hexing them with bone breakers. There was not a day that some Aurors did not have a broken bone. In fact, St. Mungo's had posted a team of two healers and four trainee healers on permanent duty to the Aurors just to deal with training injuries. Of course, for magic healing, simple broken bones were hardly a debilitating injury. No sooner were the trainees healed of their injuries that they were put straight back to work. No, not on the practice range. That was for trainees who had managed to dodge or shield and remain unhurt. For the rest of the day, the healed recruits had to make the walk of shame to the Auror bullpen where there was lots of hard, humiliating, physical labour (no magic allowed) to help them to remember to dodge next time.

Lunches were huge. Nobody could work that hard and not want to eat a hippogriff. The afternoons were spent dueling, practicing casting and aiming of spells or working on infiltration. When Moody joined in for the duelling, he was relentless. He had managed to get the new leg to work as well as his own leg had ever worked and he had his dodge back. When each trainee was bested in turn, he taunted them that he knew a 15 year old that could duel better than them. The group was sharp and dedicated. They were improving fast, but there was so little time and so far to go. By the end of the day, every single trainee was sore, mentally and physically exhausted or Moody just didn't feel like he had accomplished anything that day.

One morning Frank was meeting with Amelia, Moody and Croaker to discuss something that was urgent. Croaker opened the meeting, "Two weeks ago, Harold Peverell came to the Hall of Prophecy with Albus Dumbledore to pick up a prophecy which concerns him and Tom Riddle. While they were there, we came up with a plan to lure Tom Riddle into the Ministry by leaking news to his followers that Harold Peverell is picking up the prophecy at a time of our choosing. When he comes, we will be ready for him. Part of our preparations will be to devise wards that will only affect those who have been branded with the dark mark, making it burn with ferocious heat and preventing them from apparating out. Our forces will be carefully concealed, waiting in ambush. Their orders will be to arrest and disable anyone who surrenders immediately and kill the rest. This plan should take a significant number of his most faithful followers out of commission in a single action, perhaps even arresting Tom himself".

Frank nodded, "That sounds like a great plan. What will we do with the prisoners? We cannot risk keeping them in Azkaban while the Dementors are guarding the place. Those foul creatures will defect and join Tom Riddle the moment he shows his face there. We don't want to hand his most faithful followers straight back to him. Dismissing the dementors is no solution. They will just join him all the sooner. Increasing the guard is no solution either. They will just be killed when the inevitable break-out happens and the dementors revolt".

Moody spoke up, "I understand that there are a number of his most faithful minions there now. I ought to know having put most of them there myself. Could we not thwart his plan by removing and hiding or executing those prisoners?"

It was Amelia who answered, "Yes, we could do that and deprive Riddle of no less than ten of his favourite lieutenants, but there is a problem. They are all scions of noble houses and if anyone ever got wind that they had been executed without due process, we would have a riot on our hands. What's more is we would likely push a few more families to the other side".

"Not all", said Frank, "the mad witch Bellatrix nameless has been disavowed by the new Lord Black. There is one we could eliminate with impunity".

"Not quite", Said Amelia, "She is still the sister of Narcissa Malfoy nee Black and it would be noticed".

Moody blustered, "Let's lay a trap then. When he raids the prison, we'll blow the whole thing up and eliminate the whole bunch of them. It's nothing less than what they deserve".

Frank said, "We can't do that either. For one thing, there are several inmates there who are guilty of lesser offenses who will see the light of day again. For another, that would not even injure the dementors or kill Riddle. Sorry, but we are just going to have to allow the break-out to happen".

Amelia said with firm resolve, "from now we will try those we have captured and record their crimes. If we are certain that they do deserve only death, we will throw them through the veil. It has been used in the past as a method of execution and we will use it again. For those who do not deserve the punishment of death, we will send them to prisons of other countries in secret where they will serve out their sentences".

Moody growled, "Talking about the veil, what happened to the scum who had impersonated me?"

It was Croaker who answered, "He flew through the veil, Alastor".

Alastor grinned and the scars on his face contorted into a hideous expression, "All the death eater scum deserve to be thrown through the veil for what they have done".

Frank turned to Amelia, "Who was it?"

She smirked, "It was Barty Crouch Junior. He had been sentenced to Life Imprisonment in Azkaban for the crimes he committed as a death eater. Then his father faked his death and rescued him from the prison. Since he was already declared dead and the general wizarding world did not know about it, I did not see any reason to try him again".

Frank nodded, "Right but we are not doing that with anyone who is not proven guilty".

Moody turned to them, "What do we do about the ambush we're planning for the Hall of Prophecy? I assume that Peverell will be involved?"

Frank grinned, "I liked the lad from the moment I saw him. Yes, he will be involved. In fact, he will be leading and coordinating the attack. When he decides to ambush Voldemort, we will provide Aurors to help him. Your task Moody is to select a bunch of them who are battle hardened warriors and train them for ambush without letting them know any of the specifics. We will give Riddle and his followers a mighty blow indeed".

Alastor gave a maniacal smirk, "That is the best plan I have heard. Will I be leading them?"

Frank said, "No Alastor. As I said, Peverell will be leading this attack. You are the most battle-hardened and experienced Auror we have. You will be his second in command and advisor. I will personally be third in command and taking orders from him. I would have led the charge myself but for two things; I have been out of circulation a long time and I'm still not 100% fit and I am not the child of the prophecy. However, I have escaped Riddle's clutches three times already and I'm ready to make it four. I'll be joining you and your trainees whenever I can get away from my desk. Amelia, you will be forming a perimeter with your regular forces to round up anyone who manages to escape the primary ambush and tries to make a run for it".

Amelia shook her head while laughing. It was good to have people around who loved to lead from the front.

Since then Frank and Alice regularly turned up in the Auror Floor of the Ministry, training hard like the older days when they were the star Aurors. Alice had in fact applied for her old job again and Moody had told her that the day she went through the ringer without a scratch, she would be back on the team. Till that time, she was made to sit behind a desk and look after the recruits as well as the younger Aurors.

Hogwarts

This was a Hogsmeade weekend which was a relief to the students from the gruelling weeks of school. This year was special for all of them because of the initiatives taken by Dumbledore. He had procured the services of teachers who knew their subject like the back of their hand.

While any teacher would have been an improvement over Professor Binns who was a ghost, Professor Martha Hughes was simply the best. She certainly knew her subject. But that was not all. She also engaged the students. She largely taught by encouraging the students to share what they had learned from their reading and only made subtle corrections when the discussion started to wander too far off topic. The students were excited about being in her class and her style of teaching encouraged the students to do their reading so that they could participate in the class. When the professor spoke, the students listened. She was passionate about her subject and she never sugar coated the truth. She made her feelings clear regarding the mindless fools who followed dark lords and shared many grizzly tales about the unfortunate demises of those minions, often at the hands of the very ones they served. She had introduced new history books to each class, pointing out that the standard text by Bathilda Bagshot was in serious need of editing. She had no patience for death eater's kids either. If they had any ideas that they could intimidate her or gain special privileges because of their position, she quickly set them straight. In her short time at the school, she had given detentions to almost half of the Slytherin House and many students from the other houses. Her detentions weren't meaningless tasks such as writing lines, cleaning the potions lab or her office etc. No, she sent most of those she punished to Professor Sprout who generally made them work in the greenhouses to gather ingredient for potions. If she felt that they required stronger correction, they were sent to Filch who worked them as he saw fit. Very few students were willing to incur her wrath once it was clear that she had no favourites and made no exceptions. She also loved giving homework. Every lesson ended with reams of parchment to be turned in. The students felt that the way she was going, History of Magic will be indeed a hard owl to pass this year.

The Wizarding Etiquette Professor was a different matter altogether. She never set homework in the form of written assignments. She did, however expect that the students would apply what they had learned whether they were in or out of class. She did not put much emphasis on blood purity nor did she allow anyone to use being muggle-born as an excuse for ignorance. When she told them about each custom or tradition, she also told of the reason why each one came to be. If some student contested her views, she would engage them in a healthy debate and get her point across. If she did not like a practice or felt that it was outdated, she did not teach it to them at all.

Then there was Professor Vikram, the new defence teacher. He worked the students hard and minor injuries were common in his class. Even so, he never lost patience with any student. When someone had trouble getting it right, instead of belittling and berating them in front of their class-mates, he took the time to deepen their understanding until they could get it right. He was quick with both smiles and praise every time a student showed improvement and he was equally quick to correct a student and give them push-ups if they failed to give him their very best. On the rare occasions when a student asked what the use of a thing was, he quickly arranged a demonstration that left the student with no doubts.

He never taught a theoretical class. He demonstrated everything he wanted to teach to them. He also gave them homework every now and then to submit an essay about a topic and graded them impartially. The way he was teaching, it was clear that this year there would be a record number of E or O grades from the OWLs and NEWTs. There was also a rumour that he was mentoring Harold Peverell. There were some eye-witnesses who had seen Harry and the professor practicing in the early morning light out by the lake.

The defense instructor was liked by every student in the castle. If rumours were to be believed, the Astronomy witch Aurora Sinistra was quite taken with him. Although he was always polite to everyone, he did nothing to encourage her.

This year was also the year of pranks. Of course, there were the Weasley twins. Some of it was that they demonstrated their new products which they were selling through their mail-order service. They also pranked people who richly deserved it and a few people who just presented a target that they could not resist. Then there were the pranks for which nobody took credit. There was that amazing transformation of Snape into the giant bat. Fred and George had to admit that it was a good look for the potions master and suggested that he should keep it. Snape gave them a week of cleaning the dungeons for their suggestion. There was the Ravenclaw table getting up and walking out of the Great Hall. Even McGonagall could not stop that one by herself. The students were still talking about those stunts.

All students of third year and above were going to the village today. The excitement was palpable. Harry was waiting for Susan in the entrance chamber just on the side of the Great Hall with Neville. Ron and Hermione were already off to the village and he promised to join them in the Hog's Head at one.

As he was waiting, someone entered the entrance chamber behind him and called, "So Peverell, I have not received your answer yet".

He turned to see Daphne Greengrass standing there with her friend Tracy Davis. He had been avoiding the issue of the Hogsmead visit for days because he felt that Susan would hex him for it. Besides, in the last week Susan practically spent every spare moment around him as if she was trying to make a point to someone. He had already sent a letter to Daphne during the past week about the meeting that they had scheduled today and asked her to bring some of her friends who would be agreeable to ally with him.

He turned to Daphne, "Please forgive my failure to answer, Daphne. Although I would be honoured to be your escort today and I do not wish to give you any cause for offence, Susan has laid claim to my company and I would rather face Voldemort and all of his minions than an enraged witch".

Tracy snorted, "And I thought you were a Gryffindor through and through".

Harry mock-protested, "I will have you know Ms. Davis that I have many Slytherins Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs on my family tree. The Sorting Hat itself wanted to place me in Slytherin. I might have gone along with that choice, but having already met Malfoy, I was not willing to associate with him for the next 7 years, I chose Gryffindor".

Daphne was looking at him with her mouth open in an O while Tracy was laughing, "This is rich. Imagine what Malfoy would have done if you were in Slytherin. He would have burst an artery over this".

Neville who had been quiet during this time said, "Imagine what Ron would have been like? He would not have even tried to be your friend".

"While I am sure that would have been a world changing event, it is time for us to go to Hogsmeade.", said Susan who had just entered the entrance chamber with Hannah.

Harry turned to Daphne, "We will all meet up at the Hogs Head at one o'clock.".

Hogsmeade

When they reached Hogsmeade, Neville and Hannah decided to go separate ways from Harry and Susan. They confirmed that they would be at the Hogs Head at one and went off towards Tomes and Scrolls to replenish their writing supplies. Harry and Susan ventured into the apothecary to buy some of his potion ingredients. When he tried to pay, the proprietor refused to take any payment telling him that as the landlord of the premises, he was entitled to take anything away with him and it would be deducted from the rent. Harry said that such an arrangement would be convenient for him if he were ever short of funds, but it was just too big a headache for the account manager and it was not necessary. He thanked the shop keeper and paid the bill anyway.

As they left the shop, Susan asked him what the shopkeeper meant and Harry told her that the apothecary was built on land which had been in the Black Family for generations. As such, they paid rent to House Black. In fact many businesses in the Wizarding Village were built on land owned by his Houses.

The next stop was Honey Dukes where they ran into the Marauders and Tonks who were visiting the village reminiscing over the old days. To Harry it looked more like they were there to buy tonnes of chocolate for the werewolf who loved it. He noticed that Tonks was sitting very close to Remus and trying to get his attention more and more. She left soon after they had arrived and Harry saw her tripping over nothing. He remembered that she was a metamorphmagus, the first to be born in the House of Black in three centuries and perhaps had problems with keeping her balance. He had something which could help her but that would have to wait.

Sirius took the three of them to a private room in the Three Broomsticks and ordered lunch for them. Madam Rosmerta was elated to see the marauders in her inn She fawned over them like they were her favourite children. Sirius was openly flirting with the witch making her blush. Harry was thinking about the meeting later in the day and what he would say to the people who would gather to hear to him.

"Pup, what have you been doing in the castle these past weeks? Did you prank someone?" Sirius's voice brought him out of his reverie after they were in the private room.

Before he could answer, Susan had beat him to it, "He has become an absolute terror. He started the first day and has not stopped ever since".

Then she proceeded to tell them in detail about his pranks and by the time she was done, the Marauders were laughing while holding their stomachs.

After some time, Harry told the Marauders about the meeting later in the day. They were hesitant about students being taught but Sirius agreed that they needed to be prepared for more than Stunners and Disarming spells. They scoffed at his choice of a meeting place, saying that it was far too easy to be over-heard in the Hogs Head. They assured him that they would talk to the bar-man and make sure that there were no eavesdroppers nearby. As it was, they wanted to attend the meeting and see what he would say to the students.

As it neared one o'clock, Harry accompanied Susan to the inn. The inn was a lot cleaner than the descriptions he had heard from Hagrid and a few others in the last 4 years. The barman had electric blue eyes, was gruff looking and reminded Harry of someone but he could not place who.

There were around 50 chairs which had been set up in neat rows. There were a few chairs set up facing the rest, which Harry assumed were for him and his closest friends. The barman told him in an undertone that everything had been arranged and whatever anyone ordered would be on his tab. Harry understood that Sirius had hosted this on behalf of the House of Black, something that a lord would do when he invites people to a meeting. With a wave of his wand, he made the setting more informal by arranging the chairs into a circle. He cast a few detection spells and found that anti-portkey, anti-apparition, anti-eavesdropping charms had been placed on the inn and anyone who was not invited would not be able to listen to them.

A few minutes later, students started walking in. Hermione came in first with Ronald. They sat to Harry's left. Next came Neville and Hannah who sat to Susan's right. While they were still getting settled, Daphne and Tracy came in with a party of Slytherins; Lily Moon, Adrian Pucey (a Seventh year, chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team), the Bletchley Brothers, Amrish Gupta, Trupti Kadam, Terrence Higgs (Harry had sent him a message to meet in his capacity of Lord Black), Camille Du Vant and Nerys Orpington. Ernie came with a number of Hufflepuff students from fourth year or above as Harry had expressly said that he would not meet anyone below fourth year. The Ravenclaws came as a block with Cho in the lead with her friend Marietta Edgecombe (Harry had heard her name from someone he could not remember), a couple of other girls from her year, Luna Lovegood, Michael Corner with Ginevra Weasley, Anthony Goldstein, Isobel McDougal, Lisa Turpin and Mandy Brocklehurst among those he knew or could recognise on sight. The Gryffindors came in large numbers with the twins in the lead followed by the Quidditch team. Colin Creevey came with a number of 4th years, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown, Fay Dunbar, the Patil twins, Sakura Akagi, Fiona Bellmont, Kajal Bhatt, Pete Balsall, Sally Birchgrove, Andrew Cleveley and a few others he could not recognise by name.

As they were all seated and butterbeer was distributed to them, Harry stood up, "Thank-you all for accepting my invitation and coming today. Before we go any further, I would like to have some idea of what you expect to hear at this meeting or what you would like to know.".

One of the claws said, "We would like to hear what you have to say regarding these rumours that You-Know-Who is back. There were a number of nasty articles about you in the paper. We want to hear your side of the story".

Harry responded, "I'm not going to share all the details of what happened on the night of the third task here. What I will say is that I lost a good friend that night. His only crime was that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he was murdered for it".

One of the puffs sneered, "Why did you call us here then?"

Harry recognised Zacharias Smith who had some grudge against him for some reason. He addressed the boy, "I am here to talk to you all about the war which is coming, Smith. If you are not willing to listen then you are welcome to leave. I will not hold it against any of you if you are not willing to listen to what I have to say".

The said boy huffed but said nothing and Harry continued, "To fill you all in, Voldemort (Most of the students gave an involuntary shudder or cringed) returned that night after a ghastly ritual which was a nightmare. I escaped after duelling him and suffering torture at his hands in the form of the cruciatus curse. I had some luck on my side and I escaped from there. Since then, Voldemort has been in hiding augmenting his forces and planning an assault on the wizarding world in the days to come. How he came back is something I do not know but his being back is bad news for the wizarding world in general. When he comes out into the open, we will be in a tight spot because we are not prepared to deal with the situation. The ministry has recently started to recruit more Aurors but the Aurors cannot be in all places at all times. Even if the new recruits finish their training before open hostilities break out, there still won't be enough of them to both give battle to Voldemort and his forces and stand guard everywhere. If they decide to come after us, we must be prepared to defend ourselves. The defence professor this year is teaching us some things which would help us but the bitter truth is that we should have learned these things over the last four years. Our NEWTs and OWLs results in the subject from the last few years would clearly show how badly we are doing in this area. With Professor Vikram, I am sure that there will be better results this year but we are still far behind if it comes down to survival. "All those who lost family members in the last war know how capable Voldemort and his death eaters were. We will not be able to outsmart them with only stunners and disarming spells".

One of the Slytherins said, "What are you proposing we should do, Peverell? Fight with him openly?"

Before Harry could reply, Ron was out of his chair, ranting, "What are they doing here? Are we going to invite all the snakes in it? They would sell us out to Voldemort first chance they get". Ron had been feeling resentful with Daphne coming over to meet them time and again and had kept his peace barely. But, seeing so many of them here and at Harry's request was just more than Ron could stand.

Harry sternly said to him, "Ronald, you need to stop judging people you don't even know. Every person in this room is here because they are willing to take a chance and throw their lot in with us. I don't care what colours they wear. The fact that they are here says everything about them that I need to know. If they are willing to trust me, I will trust them. Now, get your foot out of your mouth and sit down".

This statement was of value to the Slytherins because it meant that he trusted them and had not invited them on a whim. He may not have realised it but he had won a few supporters to him in that moment in the Serpent's pit. Ron sat down, his cheeks and ears red.

Harry continued, "Heir Du Vant, we will not ever deliberately seek battle with Voldemort or any of his followers. We are students, not soldiers. What I propose is that if the fight comes to us, we have several unpleasant surprises ready for them. We will train in a wide variety of non-lethal but dangerous spells. We will drill in shielding, dodging, aiming and creative use of spells so that we will not be a bunch of helpless sheep if we ever need to defend ourselves. I know this for a fact that no one here would join Voldemort on pain of death. As such we need to be ready if the war comes to our doorstep".

He turned to the others again, "So what I am offering is to teach you all to fight with spells other than stunners and disarming spells so that you would be better prepared if you are to face a death eater".

Hermione stood, "For those who are interested in joining, we have a parchment here which everyone needs to sign. This is to keep a record of everyone who is present at this meeting".

Harry had been briefed about the parchment by Hermione the night before. He knew it was jinxed to curse someone who blabbed about their activities to someone who was branded with the dark mark. But he had talked with her and they had charmed the parchment in such a way that no one even could divulge their secrets even under coercion or under the effects of Veritaserum. However they allowed the hex to remain for those who would voluntarily betray their secrets to Tom or his followers.

Everyone shuffled about nervously unsure about whether to commit but Harry dispelled their nervousness, "To put you all at ease, I will be the first to sign this parchment. If anyone of you does not want to get involved in it, you are still free to go".

A Ravenclaw stood, "And what makes you better prepared than us? What is there to prove that you can teach us things that we would not learn from our regular classes?"

Before Harry could answer Neville spoke, "His performance in defense is sufficient to tell us that he is better than us and can teach us. His feats for the last 4 years would put you to shame, Carmichael."

Another of the Ravenclaws whom Harry identified as Shruti Dev said, "And what are those feats, Longbottom?"

Hermione answered, "First year, he fought with a troll in the bathroom on the third floor to save me from being killed."

Everybody started muttering as everyone who had been in school that year had seen Professor Quirrell come running into the Great Hall and then fainting after he had informed the Head Master, "Troll in the dungeons'.

Before anybody could comment though, Ron added, "then he fought with Quirrell who had Voldemort living on the back of his head to save the Sorcerer's stone".

One of the gathered students exclaimed, "that was why he used to wear that turban!"

Another said, "That's why Dumbledore gave you people all those points at the end of the year!"

One of the Slytherins exclaimed, "Dumbledore was keeping such a dangerous artefact in the school? Was he trying to get us all killed?"

The twins said, "Damn! We had charmed snow balls to hit him on the back of the head".

Everyone laughed at their statement and after a few moments when the laughter subsided, Terry Boot asked, "what more did Peverell do?"

This time Ginny answered, "He killed the monster of Slytherin which was a thousand-year-old basilisk. That was what lived in the Chamber of Secrets. That was what petrified Mrs. Norris, all those students and even Nearly Headless Nick. He rescued me from the Chamber of Secrets by killing Voldemort... again. He was trying to use my life-force to return to a body again."

Neville added, "He killed it with the sword of Gryffindor. One of the portraits in Dumbledore's office told me".

The exclamations were louder this time with "There was a freaking basilisk in the school!" to "You found the chamber of secrets?" to "how did you find the sword of Gryffindor?" The claims all sounded pretty wild, but now everyone in the room knew just how much of the rumours were true.

When the exclamations quieted down, Neville picked up where they had left off, "In his third year, he learned the patronus charm, which not many adult wizards can do. At the end of third year, he conjured one powerful enough to repel about a hundred dementors and save himself and his god-father".

Nerys Orpington scoffed, "Pull the other one, Longbottom. No third year can conjure a patronus".

Hermione retorted this time, "I was there with him when he repelled the dementors and saved himself and Sirius Black from being kissed".

Lee Jordan whistled, "That is some cool magic, Harry!"

Susan who had been sitting quietly turned to the others, "Then there was the Triwizard Tournament last year. You all saw him summon his broom all the way from his dorm and out fly a dragon in the first task. Not only did he do it with style, he also beat everyone else's time. In the second task, he rescued his own hostage and the French champion's hostage too. He would have rescued all the hostages if the other champions had not shown up. Then there was the third task. Who knows how many monsters he defeated in that maze? And finally, he escaped from Voldemort, grievously injured, but still alive".

Harry had been sitting, listening quietly to everything the others said. He stood and raised his hand to request quiet before he began again, "I know it all sounds pretty fantastic when it's said that way but it is scary when you are in it and yuou realise that you can lose your life the next moment. It is the fear and our determination that often helps us to get through. I want you to know that I did not do it all myself. I always had lots of help and luck. Hermione, Ron and Professor Lupin all helped me to train and research. Even the Headmaster dropped a few clues that helped me to survive and that's part of the point I'm trying to make here. We are much stronger if we stick together and help each other. It's not all about me any more than it is all about any one of you."

Zacharias Smith said, "Are you trying to avoid showing us some of the stuff that you did, Peverell?"

Harry wanted to hex the boy but kept his cool, "Smith, I am not trying to avoid anything but whatever I did was not my work alone. I had friends with me who helped me a lot and things sort of happened the way I anticipated them. It is true that I learnt a lot of magic along the way but it was not my skill alone. I had been lucky then".

Smith sneered, "Why did your luck favour you and not Cedric?"

Harry said gravely, "That's a fair question, Smith. That night in the graveyard, Cedric was killed because Voldemort had no use for him. He was killed just for being there. I was not killed right away because Voldemort wanted to use my blood as part of the ritual to return to his body. When he was done with that, he still did not kill me. Voldemort wanted to lord his power over me. He had something to prove about how he could toy with then destroy The-Boy-Who-Lived. Killing me while I lay there, tied to the headstone of his dead father and helpless was not good enough for him. So once he had his death eaters gathered about him, he had his servant return my wand and forced me to duel him but it did not go exactly the way he planned. Thanks to the Moody's imposter, I was able to resist the imperious curse. When he engaged me properly, something happened with our wands which he did not expect. In the distraction which that caused, I was able to flee for my life. It wasn't easy to see Cedric die the way he did. It was like a nightmare that I can't wake up from. It is no comfort knowing that the only reason I'm not just as dead as he is was because Voldemort wanted to taunt me before killing me. That is what happened. You can believe me or walk away. I won't blame you either way".

Neville who had stayed silent all this while turned to Zacharias, "if you have any doubts still Smith, you are free to leave. In fact among you people, if someone thinks that Harry is lying or you do not want to join us, you are free to leave. He will not be telling you anything more about that night or going to demonstrate something just to appease your curiosity".

Zacharias left the inn. Harry decided to deal with him later. He had an interesting experiment in mind magic to perform on the boy.

As the Hufflepuff left, Hermione produced the parchment and a quill. Harry took the quill and with a deliberate flourish, wrote his name in the first spot. In turn, Susan, Neville, Ron, Hermione and then Hannah all signed in turn. Without exception, the rest of the students all came to the front and took their turn to sign. With all the signatures collected, Hermione furled the parchment and stowed it into her bag.

They had decided to let it look like Hermione was in charge of the parchment, that it had been her who put the charms on it. In reality Harry had done it. He had been quite inventive to include charms to prevent anyone from speaking about what they were being taught to anyone who had any hostile intention towards him. It was a very hard and obscure charm from Achala's memories which made it possible. The parchment had 50 names on it. Harry considered that an achievement considering that there were many students who belonged to the Dark Families and would follow Voldemort. He would have to make do with the 50 of them for now.

Harry turned to the others, "Now there are a few rules which you must know. The first rule is to keep it quiet. You are not to discuss what we do with anyone who has not signed this parchment. Anything that I teach you, this meeting and all other meetings are strictly confidential. What we learn here may help you with your academics, but the main purpose is to help you survive a potential encounter with death eaters. The second rule is recruitment. None of you recruit. If you come across someone that you feel should be part of this group, let me know. If I am satisfied that they are not trying to infiltrate to give away our secrets, I will admit them to the group. You, however are to say nothing. Confirm nothing, deny nothing. If asked, a blank stare is the best response. We will not admit anyone below fourth year. They are simply too young. They will be better off learning from our defence teacher. Finally, we will be meeting twice a week once I have found a place to practice. You will all be contacted when this is done".

After that the meeting did not last long. They sorted out little details such as the meetings should not clash with quidditch team practice for any house and other such matters. Harry reminded them that he would inform them when he found a place to hold their meetings. If they were to have any chance of keeping what they were doing quiet, they could not practice out in the open.

As they all were leaving, Harry asked Terrence to stay back. When the inn was empty, he turned to Terrence, "I have some questions to ask of you, Higgs before I can offer any choice to you".

Higgs nodded, "Yes, Lord Black".

Harry asked him, "Is your family supporting Dark Lord Voldemort? Have they returned to his service since he was back? Do they expect you to go into service? Are you branded?"

Higgs started telling, "Lord Black, the Dark Lord sent his minions to the Higgs family home a week after he was reborn. My father renewed his loyalty to him, though it is not clear whether out of fear or faith in him. My father asked me to join his service as soon as I graduate. He said something about keeping some followers unmarked so that they can be used to infiltrate the ministry etc. in case they adopt security measures specific to the dark mark. My father plans for me to be one such follower but I do not want to join the charlatan".

As he was speaking, Harry had been reading his mind. He could see that the boy had mind shields but they were down. He read his mind easily. Harry found that he was speaking the truth. Harry started addressing him, "I will offer you protection against Voldemort and his followers and grant you asylum in case you are estranged from your family however for now I wish for you to remain in the Serpent's pit acting as if you hate me with every fibre of your being, flushing out those who are loyal to Voldemort. When you graduate, I will give you a job and a safe house if the war is not already over by then".

Higgs left happily. The marauders came down from the upper floor where they had been sitting, listening to everything that was being said in the meeting. They commended him for the successful meeting before taking their leave.

As others had some last minute shopping to finish, Harry and Susan started to walk towards the Three Broom Sticks by themselves. Since the rules said that they could stay out on a weekend until ten p.m. he and Susan had decided to make the most of it by themselves and were going to a dinner in the Three Broomsticks.

On their way, Susan asked him, "Have you thought about life after the war is over, Harry?"

Harry thought for a moment before replying, "Not really. When I was small, all I thought was that some long lost family member would come and rescue me from the muggles. The 10 years of my life I stayed with them were spent living worse than a house-elf. On my 11th birthday, Hagrid came to rescue me from a rock in the sea where Vernon had taken us to outrun wizards and post owls so that I would not get my Hogwarts letter. Hagrid broke down the front door, gave a pigtail to Dudley, tied Vernon's rifle in knots and then told me 'Yer a wizard, Harry'. (Susan chuckled here) Since then, every year I have faced Voldemort in addition to the school trying to besmirch my name. So, I guess I never figured out what I would do after I was over the threat of Voldemort".

Susan had been listening intently. This was the first time that he talked about his life before Hogwarts and was allowing her to see Harry Potter, the orphan who had come to Hogwarts, underfed and skinny. She also had a suspicion that he might not have told his story to anyone before this and wanted him to go on but perhaps he had finished for today.

They had arrived at the Three Broom Sticks and Rosmerta gave them a private booth around which Harry put his own wards to make them impenetrable. As they sat, Susan picked up where he had stopped, "So in four years, you never thought about a career you might want to take?"

He gave her a lop-sided grin, one which made her stomach flutter, "Actually last year, the impostor Moody gave me the idea of being an Auror. My Mom and Dad were both Aurors, my god-mother is an Auror, and I could still do that but; I have so many other options now. I don't even need to work. I already have all the money I could ever need and thanks to the goblins at Gringotts, that is only likely to get better. Even so, I am interested in brooms. I already own a good chunk of the company that makes the Firebolt. Another way I could go is into potion research full-time."

She grinned, "Imagine what would happen if sometime after you have killed Voldemort, Harold Peverell the-boy-who-conquered appeared for recruitment by the Aurors. Perhaps they would put you in charge of the whole force directly. There is no Auror there right now who can fight you and expect to win. Even Auntie told me the other day that with the way you use your spells, the most seasoned veterans would not last against you for more than 5 minutes".

Harry blushed a little at the praise. That was the moment that Rosmerta chose to appear carrying their food. He cheerfully let the moment pass. They resumed their conversation once the food was laid out and Madame Rosmerta had left the booth again.

Harry asked her, "What careers have you thought about for yourself, Sue?"

She blushed a little when he called her Sue but controlled herself and answered, "I have thought about it a lot and I would like to go into magical research in the Department of Mysteries. They are always trying new things there. I wanted to be a healer when I was younger but I do not think that a person with blood on their hands would be a good healer. We will all get our hands bloody in this war".

Harry inwardly said to himself, "You need to meet Charak then".

By the time they finished dinner and emerged from the Three Broomsticks, the moon and the stars were filling the sky. When they started walking back to the castle, they realised that all the others were already gone and that they were the last students remaining in the town.

With a twinkle in her eye, Susan said, "it is getting quite late, Harry. If you were any kind of a gentleman, you would have arranged transportation so that I don't have to drag my weary bones all the way back to Hogwarts".

Harry, rising to the occasion, gave Susan a formal bow and said, "Far be it from Lord Peverell to disappoint such a fine lady.". he pulled on his familiar bond with Black Storm. A minute later, a darker blackness against the starry sky descended and with the whooshing of his mighty wings, the hippogriff landed in front of them.

Since Susan took Care of Magical Creatures with the Ravenclaws, she had not met Black Storm yet. She was reluctant at first, but once Harry introduced them, she warmed right up to the magnificent creature. In another minute, Harry had the tack on Black Storm and they were mounted with Susan hanging on tightly around Harry's waist. She snuggled up close to him making his heart beat flutter. He would have taken her for a flight all the way around the school and grounds so that he could stretch out the time with her. But they were dangerously close to being overdue and Dumbledore might get nervous and send out a search party. That would be just too embarrassing, so he made a beeline for the front gates of the school.

The hippogriff took a few galloping strides as he spread his wings and launched itself into the air. The two teens whooped with joy as they all became air borne. But the ride only took a few minute before they were landing at their destination. They leapt down from their mount. With a wave of his wand, the tack disappeared back into the pocket in Harry's robes. They thanked Black Storm for the ride and he flew off to his stall by Hagrid's hut to bed down for the night.

As he escorted Susan to the Badger's hole, she snuggled up close to him, holding his hand, their fingers intertwined with each other. A few people they met along the way whistled at them. Harry resolutely avoided eye contact with them. As she was about to go into the badger's hole, she pulled him close to her and reached up to give him a peck on his cheek. She entered the fake barrel before he could say anything.

The next day

The next day, he had blushed every time that he thought about the peck on his cheek. He had some feelings for Susan but he was still not sure about them. There was no one he could ask for advice.

If he asked Sirius, the marauder would just have fun at his expense. He didn't expect much better from Remus either. The only one whose advice he felt he could trust was Alice but he still felt awkward about approaching her with the questions that were on his mind. Amelia was Susan's aunt and may be a bit biased. He did not even want to think about what Mrs. Weasley's reaction would be if he tried to talk with her about it. The only one he was comfortable talking to was Rachael and she was half a world away.

Harry had also been on the lookout for Zacharias Smith since breakfast. He was constantly looking for a way to corner him. The opportunity came for him when the classes were over for the day and the Hufflepuff was going to the Quidditch pitch for flying practice. When they entered the stadium, Harry wandlessly stunned him then dragged the boy to the Hufflepuff dressing room and enervated him.

As the boy came to his senses, he started shouting, "Peverell, I will have you expelled for attacking me".

Harry sighed. There was no way to have a civilised conversation with the puff. He petrified the boy, entered his mind space and started sifting through his memories.

There had been a blood feud between House Potter and House Smith in the past. The fighting did not end until the Lord Smith died and the dowager Lady Smith had gone to Lord Potter as a supplicant asking him to end the blood feud. The feud had tarnished the reputation of the Smiths who boasted of having been descended from Helga Hufflepuff. The boy had been taught about the feud. He had been indoctrinated to blame the Potters for their tarnished reputation and to hate them. Harry had no recollection of this feud and Smith's own memory of it was thoroughly second-hand, biased and sketchy at best. Harry had no hope of learning the truth of it from this source. It didn't seem very important to his father either. If it was, he would have mentioned it during Harry's time in limbo.

Harry carefully started casting the spell to lock the memories of the meeting at The Hog's Head and Harry's ruthless rifling of his memories. Harsh had told him that this was a delicate version of the Fidelius which was used to lock memories of a person and the memories so locked could be undone only by the caster. The mystics had locked Voldemort's memories this way since an Obliviate charm could be undone by a skilled legilimens. He planted fake memories of his being in the Three Broomsticks the whole day enjoying the weekend. He also wiped the memories of his being attacked by Harry and the memory spell performed on him. The boy would not remember the meeting and others would not be able to talk to him about the meeting or what they had learnt in the sessions with Harry due to the charms on the parchment.

A week later

For the last week, the morning exercise routine for his friends continued with some more people joining him on the run after they had found that the physical exercises helped their casting. There were around 25 students this morning with a number of the Slytherins.

Harry had another worry on his mind for better part of last week. That being working out a way he could communicate with everyone to tell them about the meeting times or alert him if they were in trouble. There was an easy answer to his question which came in the form of the 'protean charm'. Hermione offered to do it on some fake galleons but Harry pointed out that it would be too easy to get such a thing mixed up with their real money and spend it by mistake. They needed something better than a fake Galleon.

Then Harry remembered how he used to carry his wand around in his pocket before this year and how dangerous that was. The answer to his predicament came to him. The answer was wand holsters and he just happened to own a large part of a company that made them. With a few seconds on the mirror to Remus, his steward had instructions to obtain one-hundred Auror grade wand holsters and send them to Harry with Dobby. The next day, Dobby popped into the fifth year boy's dorm as Harry was getting ready to go out for his morning work-out.

Later that day, Hermione and Harry worked together to cast the charms on the premium holsters. Not only were they capable of two way communication, Harry's wand holster could be used to determine the location and well-being of the wearer of any other holster. Then the holsters were Glamoured to look perfectly ordinary to anyone but the person that they were keyed to. Each time that the Holster had a new message, it would heat up to alert the wearer. With the devices prepared, Neville and Hannah delivered them to the intended recipients in three houses while Daphne took it upon her to deliver it to Slytherins. Harry was careful not to be seen to do anything directly and kept his involvement behind the scenes.

His next challenge was to find a place to meet and practice. The mystic was not forthcoming on this subject. He would have to find it another way. He would have to find someone who knew every inch of the castle. He racked his brain for the better part of a week on this problem. Fred and George had explored the castle extensively, but they only knew what the Marauder's Map showed and Harry knew the place he was looking for was not on that map. Even Dumbledore admitted that in his over 70 years at Hogwarts, student, teacher and Headmaster, that he did not know everything about the school. Hermione having memorized "Hogwarts a History" said that there was a hint about a room that answered to specific needs, but that was all.

He finally got a break when he asked Professor Flitwick about it. The charms master had enthusiastically told him that except for the elves, no one knew every inch of the castle. With that clue, he took Susan to a dinner date in the kitchens. This was a clever cover for his true intention that being to have a meeting with the elves.

-Flash back starts-

When Susan and Harry entered the kitchen together, many elves approached them bowing and asking what they could do for them. Harry asked them if they would put on a private lunch for the two of them. A moment later, the elves lead them to a beautifully spread table for two off to one side of the kitchen. The table was laid out with linens in Gryffindor colours and set with golden dinnerware and flatware. The goblets were of the finest silver crystal with the Hogwarts crest etched into them. The scene was lit with smokeless candles. Harry walked around to Susan's side of the table and held her chair out for her. Once he too was seated, an older male elf, with all the airs of a maitre D at a five-star restaurant, came to their table and asked, "What Master Peverell be liking?"

Harry looked at Susan and asked her choice by raising an eye brow at her but she shrugged. Harry asked the elf to bring them the lunch which was being served to the rest of the school and treacle tart, his favourite dessert. While food arrived, Susan asked him, "That day in Hogsmeade I wanted to ask you so many questions but there was not enough time".

Harry smiled, "You can ask those questions now, Sue. I will answer them if I can".

She asked the most important (in his opinion) question, "What is your desire?"

He put down his fork and sat still for a few moments before replying, "During my first year here, I came across the mirror of Erised. It is a magical artefact which shows one their heart's desire. What I saw was me with all my family behind me. It was the first time that I saw my parents. My deepest desire is to have a family to call my own. While Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice consider me as good as their own child, Gran Augusta dotes on me as a loving grand-mother, Aunt Amelia and you consider me as your family and Mrs. Weasley mothers me a bit too much for my comfort sometimes, I crave a family above all things".

She asked further, "And have you given any more thought about what will you do when you graduate from here?"

He smiled, "I have so many avenues open to me. I would love to take up enchanting to make racing brooms or I could delve into research in potions or something like that. Then there can be times when I will be called upon to fight and I will fight then".

Susan listened to his options and pondered them for a long time before she spoke, "Looks like you have a lot of options to choose from but do not worry. We will figure it out together".

He remembered something that he had to ask, "Sue, what is your desire?"

She blushed a little, "My desire is to have a family and live in peace without people bothering us all the time".

As the lunch was winding up, Harry called an elf, "Little elf, can you answer a question for me?"

The elf nodded its head vigorously, "What be master asking for?"

Harry asked, "I am looking for a place where I can practice defensive magic with my peers.

The place needs to be big enough. We also need to make sure that no unwelcome observers ever find the place or learn what we are doing there".

The elf was jumping up and down with glee, "Tippy be knowing a place, Master Peverell. There be a room on seventh floor near the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.
The room be big enough to become anything and not found unless in need".

Harry excitedly asked, "And what is the room called?"

"The Come-and-go room, sir also known as the Room of Requirement", the elf replied.

Harry asked about how to open the room and access it. When the elf had answered all of his questions, they left through the fruit bowl painting and headed off to their classes, hoping to go unobserved. If anyone learned about their date, it would cover the real reason for their visit to the kitchen, but Harry would never have another peaceful day again.

-Flash back ends-

That evening, Harry had taken Vikram along (promising Susan to take her when he could ascertain that the room was not dangerous) and they reached the portrait of Barnabas the barmy teaching ballet to trolls. The wall opposite to the painting was bare. Harry walked in front of the wall three times wishing, "I need a place to practice magic where no one can find us".

As he finished his third pass, a door emerged out of the plain wall. It was very ornately decorated and as he opened it, he gasped.

Despite having seen some very bizarre creatures during his travels and even Mother Magic herself, the room surprised him. It was a huge room which had many practice ranges around it with dummies programmed to cast or defend as needed. There was a table full of dark detectors like a Sneakoscope, probity probes and a foe glass. Near the table were huge shelves bulging with ancient tomes.

As he was trying to take in everything that the room had to offer, the mystic said, "Rowena outdid herself".

Harry raised an eye brow at him, "Are you also as ancient as Guruji? I thought you hardly look a day above 45".

The mystic snorted, "I am a child if you compare me to Guruji, Harry. I am only 80 years old. Guruji told me the story of this room. It was designed by Rowena Ravenclaw with significant input from Helga. Slytherin had his Chamber of Secrets, Godric enchanted the sorting hat, and Rowena designed the Headmaster's office. This room was designed by Rowena and Helga. The only thing to be careful of is that this room will answer to anyone irrespective of whether they have good intentions or bad. It has infinite uses and can fulfil almost any needs, there are a few limitations. One of the major limitations is that it cannot violate the laws of magic like producing food from thin air".

Harry nodded, "Still this room will be of great use to us. I can teach the students here. At times I can use it for my own purposes".

The mystic nodded, "I agree however I would advise you to use the path behind the mirror for other meetings with your friends since anyone can walk into this room anytime increasing the potential risks of eaves-dropping.".

The classes had been the same for the last week. McGonagall gave them complex transfigurations which Harry could do with ease. She had stop comparing him to the other students because it just made the rest of the students look too disappointing with their progress. She of course knew that none of them had been subjected to the same gruelling exercises as him however at times she could help but compare this Harry to what she had seen in previous years.

Before this he had turned in mediocre essays that would barely scrape an A and now he was writing essays that were detailed, inciteful and to the point. There were no crossings-out and instead of the blotchy chicken-scratch of former years, he wrote in a smooth, flowing script with little illustrations around the capitals at the beginning of each paragraph. He seemed to always have just enough material to fill each assignment without exceeding the parchment length. There were definite gaps in his theory, which is why he was not getting O all the time, but at the rate he was going, it would not be long before he would be at the top of the class there too.

When she teamed him with other students, he was always better than them at casting. He usually spent his time quietly and patiently helping his partner to correct their casting and their aim. There was also the suspicion that he was an animagus but she had not been able to prove that. She had tried to hit him with the animagus revealing spell and he had dodged it rather spectacularly. She did not try it again because Harry was alerted to her intention and he never let his guard down.

Flitwick was a bit disappointed with Harold Peverell because he did not make himself stand out like he did in his other classes. True that he was able to finish whatever Filius assigned him to do rather quickly, but, he had not shown any extraordinary skill. He had expected the boy to be showing a grand display of charms by now. He had a fleeting suspicion that he was behind all the pranks of which the twins had been innocent but could not prove it. Even if it were true, none of them were charms but pure transfiguration. He chose to wait for a time when Harold Peverell would show his skills. With Voldemort back and the wizarding world readying itself for war, that day would not be far away.

Filius also had received a letter from his kin at Gringotts asking him to offer any assistance that he could to Harold Peverell. The goblins were in charge of the money of the Wizarding World. When they saw that money was leaving the vaults of families who were known death eaters, more often than usual it meant that war was not far away. He had also been told of the preparations being made by Harold Peverell. He was making preparations to clothe an army in the best armour that he could find, made from Basilisk Skin. His steward was also visiting the bank more often. They were in talks to purchase a potion making company involved in the business of making wolfsbane potion and going through financial crisis. Perhaps Harold Peverell was trying to bring the werewolves to his side in the war with promises of free wolfsbane.

Severus Snape was having a difficult year. He had wasted two lessons with the first year dunderheads. Instead of humiliating them and throwing them into potion brewing from a cold start, he took the time to teach them the importance of weighing out ingredients precisely, using clean equipment and the properties of the ingredients. He had never done that in the previous years and he had seen the results for himself. This first year class was perhaps the best he had seen since he started teaching the subject. More than half of them were brewing nearly perfect potions by their third lesson. Those who failed tested his patience but he gritted his teeth and restrained himself from pulling his hair at their slightest mistakes. It had made a remarkable improvement in his class. Students were actually smiling. Some of them even asked questions! The dunderheads!

The fifth year class was the most difficult of the lot because he had to remember to sneer at the students every now and then even though he really did not want to. Harold Peverell had become quite the potioneer. He always brewed three potions at a time. What was more interesting were the potions with his own alterations. Even with Snape's formidable potions knowledge, he was hard-pressed to understand all of the alterations Harry was making to his custom brews. Without realizing it, he had begun to look forward to his fifth year classes and seeing what Harry would do next. He considered setting Harry to try and brew Felix Felicis for extra credit but that would be long wait since Felix took more than 6 months to brew.

Neville Longbottom was also in the class and Severus could not say anything to him. The lad worked quietly at his table brewing perfect potions class after class. Severus knew that he was green thumb meaning he knew his plants thoroughly so his prowess in brewing was not unexpected either. Severus could gauge someone's power and Longbottom terrified him. He knew that Harold Peverell was powerful like the Dark Lord but Longbottom was no slouch either. With the training that the boy had gone through this summer, he had become a force unto himself. Severus had also been stunned when Longbottom's parents had made an appearance in the Wizarding World after 14 years of incapacitation. He had been embarrassed by Alice for being a bully to her son when she had been nothing but kind to him.

Frank had not chastised him but rather reminded him of the times that he had warned him about some prank of the marauders which would have been too humiliating or caused some real injury. He wanted the war to be over as soon as possible because he was ready to turn in his resignation and go into retirement. He had enough of the Wizarding World and its troubles for one lifetime.

Grubbly Plank was having the best time of her tenure at Hogwarts this year. She had taken the class for part of the last year but that time, the students were not showing any interest in the subject. This year, the students were interested in the creatures that she had to show to them. The information that she had received on the Yeti was a goldmine. There was a real dearth of first-hand accounts with that creature. It seemed that they are not seen unless they want to be and those occasions were both rare and long ago. Just about all the information available on them was folk-lore, myth and endlessly regurgitated old accounts, at best sketchy general characteristics and none of it reliable. It seemed that Harry Peverell's was both a keen observer and that he had a first-hand encounter. She wanted to know more about these remarkable creatures, but he was not saying anything more. She had been impressed when she saw his bonded hippogriff. Judging by hippogriffs she had seen and known before, this one was a king of his kind.

Aurora Sinistra had a life which was untouched by the goings-on of the wizarding world. She taught Astronomy and it was a boring subject if you ask a student. The best thing to happen this year was the defense instructor who had come to teach at the castle. He was polite and cheerful at all times, but he was either completely oblivious to her interest in him or he was simply not interested in her. Whatever the reason, he had not done anything to encourage her advances.

Serpent's pit

The serpents pit was changing. In the previous war, the snakes had stood together behind the dark lord with the exception of a couple of stragglers who had stayed on the sidelines. All of the Dark lords hype about pure-blood superiority and how the wizard's rightful place was to rule over the muggles had appealed to the ambitious and exclusive Slytherins and they followed him in droves. This time around, however, there was no face to lead them. The dark lord had chosen to remain in the shadows. Then there was that history professor. She did not spare any details when it came to teaching about the massive losses suffered by all the wizarding families. This dark lord and all others like him did not care about pure-blood wizards or anyone else for that matter, anyone who stood in the way of his plans was branded a blood traitor and marked for death. Then there was the money. So much of history and the present was determined by the flow of gold. In the last war, the houses of Rosier and Black had brought not only numbers of powerful recruits and allies but also gold and lots of it. The Lord of Rosier, Evan Rosier was in his inner circle and had wealth to splurge on his conquests. The House of Black had given him Bellatrix, Regulus, Lucius (he had been inducted by Bellatrix) and they brought the might of the Black wealth with them. With the wands offered in his service and the mountain of wealth, the Dark Lord had been paying his recruits for their services but this time, the wealth of the Blacks and Rosier were with Harold Peverell who was the Lord of both the houses.

The Dark also had lost a lot of his followers in the last war whose heirs otherwise would have walked the halls of Hogwarts and become a part of his army. The Notts had lost 3 sons in the war at the hands of the Aurors with 2 of them being killed by Moody himself. Evan Rosier had been killed heirless by Moody. Regulus had been killed sometime during the war but no one knew about it and Bellatrix was cooling her heels in Azkaban. The Lestranges were practically extinct because their last two scions had been in the care of the dementors too long to have any hope of siring new heirs. This time, there was no Black in the Serpent's pit. The House of Nott had one heir who from the looks of it was not at all interested in House politics. The House of Parkinson had a sorry excuse of an heiress in the form of Pansy Parkinson who was good at nothing but following Malfoy like a lost puppy. Bulstrode was nearly a troll by her stature but sadly seemed to have about the same magical aptitude as one. Crabbe and Goyle, for all their bulk seemed to share one brain cell between them. The sixth and seventh year students did not care about amassing power in the serpents pit at all. They were deeply immersed in their NEWT studies and being so close to graduation, they could enter into the dark lord's service for real once they were out of there, instead of playing at politics with school children.

The only one who could have been a serious contender was Draco Malfoy. Previously, with his posse, being the heir of Black and with his father's wealth behind him, he had been directing things in the snake pit. But, no more. The death eaters knew that his father had nearly outlived his usefulness. Potter or Peverell or whatever he was calling himself this week, had taken the heirship away from him. The vassals of the houses of Black and Rosier had also withdrawn their support and that left Draco with his four idiotic minions, no vassals and a long history of bullying to his disadvantage. Not only had he become irrelevant, none of the other snakes even liked him. What's more, the way things were going for his father, the dark lord would discard him soon too. He was not sentimental about disposing of tools that were no longer useful.

The only one who seemed to be amassing power was Daphne Greengrass who was consolidating power quickly in the pit. It was a known fact that she was Harold Peverell's friend. Although the heiress of Greengrass was more than capable of looking after herself, people had learned quickly since term started that Lord Peverell was someone you crossed at your own peril. For that reason no one attempted to start a feud with her. Malfoy seethed daily about Daphne becoming a friend of Harold Peverell but his rants were not heard. They were all waiting for him to cross one line too many and watch Peverell use him as a whetstone and maybe teach the arrogant whelp some manners. Things were changing and the house was dividing itself in two camps- Dark Lord or Harold Peverell. With the pros weighing heavily in Peverell's favour, it was not hard to understand why the children of the neutral families and those who were disenchanted with the dark lord were looking to the boy who lived.

The Room of Requirement

Harry had sent a message via his Wand holster to the students about the time and place for the meeting. He was waiting for them to arrive on the seventh floor. Vikram was standing by under his own cloak of Invisibility. As each group of students approached the seventh floor, Harry made a great show of waving his wand and using some arcane spells while Vikram walked back and forth the required three passes to summon the room under his invisibility cloak and the door appeared. This was to lead the students to believe that the doors were opened by some complex incantations instead of the simple way of walking past it three times while wishing for a place to practice. He of course planned to tell his friends the way to access the room. The charade was to prevent others from bringing children of death eaters to the practice room.

The first group of students arrived consisting of Susan, Neville, Hermione, Ronald and Hannah. After Harry had them safely inside of the room, he told them how it was really done. Once they all had a chance to look around, Hermione, as he had expected, gave a cry of enthusiasm and said gleefully, "Oh Harry, this is the perfect place. There are dummies we can practice with and the books. There are so many of them that we can learn new hexes and jinxes from them and practice here. I would bet that the room is fortified to withstand magical discharge from all our spell casting. How did you find it? What is the room called?"

Others were watching her with amusement.

Grinning, Harry had to shake her by her shoulder, "Hermione, breathe. Take a breath between sentences, will you? AS everyone will have similar questions, I would rather wait until we are all here and explain all of that once. In the mean-time, have a look around. I'm sure that there are several books there which would interest you".

Harry went back out into the hall and put on the same show for each group of students as they arrived. When a quick head-count told him that everyone was there, he re-entered the room with the last group and Vikram, under his cloak behind him. He came into the room and was greeted by quite a buzz and a barrage of questions, "What is this room?", "How did you find it?", "How come nobody ever told me about this place?", "Where did all this stuff come from?"...

Harry stood to address them and signaled for silence, "Welcome to the Room of Requirement. I don't know everything about this room. What I do know is that it accommodates the needs of the person or people who use it. We will meet here twice a week to practice spell casting".

He deliberately did not share what he knew about the room's history. That would have lead to more questions that he did not want to answer. He knew of no books which said anything about the Room in general much less where it was or who designed it.

As they were all gathered, Hermione stood, "We are all here to learn some magic that they don't teach us in class..."

She was cut-off mid sentence by Du Vant who said, "Are you going to teach us? We thought Peverell would be the one to teach".

Hermione was flushed, "Yes, he will be teaching us".

One of the Ravenclaws said, "Then let him speak, Granger. Or are you his spokesperson?"

Harry stood and said sternly to them, "I have agreed to teach you all. We will be practicing duelling and people will get hurt. For that reason, I insist that you show
respect for each other at all times. There is no place for hot-heads in this room. You can start by showing respect for Hermione. She has an exhaustive repertoire of spells and she knows how to cast them all perfectly. You would do well to listen to her". He then motioned to Hermione and sat down.

She started speaking again, "Our first order of business is to elect a leader for our group".

Cho said, "Who else other than Harry? There is no one who can lead us better than him".

All others murmured assent to the proposal and it was decided.

Then Hermione said, "We need to decide a name for our group. Are there any suggestions?"

Reviews

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A/N- I am leaving a cliff-hanger here with a request to you guys to suggest some names for them. It cannot be DA this time around and Harry's Army sounds pedestrian. I hope you all are enjoying the fic so far. Thanks for the lovely reviews. Keep sending your infinite love to this fic.

THANK YOU HYPERGYM.