Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling. This version of Aleister Crowley, along with 1,083,092,867 others, was created by Kamachi Kazuma.

I am sorry for the delay. This chapter was extremely hard to get out, and I hope that after you read it, you'll understand why.

Chapter 02: Hidden Away by Magic – 魔法隠し。

Part 5

All things that live eventually die.

All systems of order eventually break down, burdened by entropy.

This…was a fundamental physical law. Even if magic appeared to cheat that balance, that inevitability, just remember.

Remember two things. Sparks and spray, and–

A great demon whose numerical value was 333, and whose nature was dispersion. A balancer, a restorer.

Nothing could last forever.

Not even this peaceful chapter of Harry Potter's life.

~~[a]~~

"Miss Perks." Mr Bennett eyed Sally at the lesson's end. "The principal wishes to see you. Report to the Director's office immediately."

Harry and Sally glanced at each other, green meeting green. "Yes, sir." Sally responded.

"Though I am not fully privy as to the reason why, I understand that you're not being punished for anything, rest assured." The bespectacled mathematics teacher angled his head. "Now, be on your way."

"Any idea what they want with you?" Harry asked immediately, once they were outside the classroom. They walked down the hallway, towards Sally's destination.

"No." Sally pursed her lips for a moment. "But–" She turned to Harry. "Harry, can you come with me?" With her experience, adults seeking to give her anything other than superficial praise was a cause for concern. And if it was the Director of this entire place…

"I don't think they'll allow it." Harry immediately said. "But I'll find a way." Ideas were already forming in his head. He gently squeezed Sally's hand.

"I'm not worried, idiot." Sally said, with a small worried frown on her face.

"I didn't say you were." Harry flashed a grin.

Minutes later, when Sally had left, he went to the end of a quiet corridor, and muttered "see me not."

Despite Sally's claims that "what she wanted just happened", Harry found out that she had indeed been casting spells, of a sort–tiny rituals and habits so deeply ingrained that she couldn't even tell she was doing them.

Such as quietly whispering to herself "see me not" every time she wanted to disappear.

With those three words, Harry became no, not invisible, but uninteresting. So uninteresting, in fact, that he could climb up a shelf and into the ceiling without anybody batting an eye.

With a bit more effort after that, he made his way to the Head's office.

"...a gifted programme?" It was Sally's voice.

"Yes." An unfamiliar female voice spoke. "We know you have exceptional talent, as seen by your grades. Our programme would let you use those talents to the fullest, to maximize your own potential."

"You'd also be able to get out of this place." Another speaker, male this time. "I understand the conditions here, while survivable, are not the most comfortable. If you accept, your every need will be cared for. You won't want for food, nor drink, nor clothes or the like."

"And this is for the rest of your life." The first voice added. "You'd never have to worry about those things again if you join us, unlike the other children here who may struggle to make a living once they become adults. You may also find family, among others like you."

Harry froze. Sally was going to leave?

This is not the time to get distracted. Elly's voice snapped at him, unusually serious. Try and see if you can shift one of these boards aside. Quietly, of course. I need to get a look at these people.

"So," Sally was saying, "if I agreed…"

"We can leave immediately, if you want." The male voice said.

"I mean, what do I have to do?" Sally asked.

"Study." The man said simply. "But even for that, you get to travel the world, and see all sorts of different places."

Harry's fingers fumbled, and there was a soft clunk.

"...May I have some time to think this through?" Sally said quietly.

"But–" the man began, but was cut off.

"That's fine. We'll give you as much time as you need," the woman said. "Let's go, Stiyl."

There was the sound of the door opening and closing, and then nothing.

Follow them. Elly urged in his mind, and Harry, not quite knowing what to think, did as she said.

Backwards, notice-me-not, through corridors until he reached the open air, then into the bushes near the carpark, a site of many past confrontations–

The man was a tall, sharp-faced teenager with red hair, dressed in black clothes that resembled both a priest's robes and a modern suit.

The woman was shorter, looking a bit older but still young, her long dark hair tied up in a ponytail that reached her hips, dressed in a simple but neat white T-shirt and blue jeans.

"Kanzaki. Why did you stop me?" The red-haired man leaned against the side of the car and lit up a cigarette.

"Because that's not how you persuade someone." Kanzaki said. "You have more to learn when dealing with people."

"My apologies." Stiyl said.

"It's fine." Kanzaki shook her head. "It's your first assignment of this kind, after all."

"And we both probably only got it because we're the youngest farts in the place." Stiyl snorted, and a puff of smoke escaped his mouth. "As opposed to all the creepy old men."

"You could stand to be a bit more polite to our seniors." Kanzaki's tone was neutral, but there was a tiny smile on her face. "And put out your cigarette before you give the children here lung cancer from your secondhand smoke."

"Bah, not as if there are any around here to breathe it in." Stiyl complained, but did so nevertheless. "Think the girl will accept?"

"No idea." Kanzaki exhaled. "For all of our sakes, let us hope she does."

"'By any means necessary', huh?" Stiyl gazed a while longer at the lingering cloud of smoke, as if (or actually) looking for a sign in the fading wisps and eddies. "There's more than one magic-user in this place as well."

"But that's none of our concern." Kanzaki said.

"You're right. It's not. Let's just come back in a few days and see what she says."

~~[a]~~

"What's wrong, Harry?" Sally immediately said. Clearly, Harry's distress was evident on his face.

"You can't go." Harry said.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Sally repeated. She ran a hand through her brown hair. "Did you find out something dreadful?"

"It's–" Harry began, then stopped himself. How was he going to explain everything without revealing his knowledge of Elly? Of the other world?

Because he knew what was going to happen. Knew of a boy named Kamijou Touma in Elly's world, and knew what happened when a certain girl in nun's clothes had crashed onto his balcony, when the magician named Stiyl Magnus and the saint named Kanzaki Kaori had come to Academy City, Elly's city where Touma had lived.

He collapsed onto the ground in a heap, folded like a house of cards.

Harry, you need to calm down. Elly's composed voice spoke to him. Answer your friend. Problems can be solved.

"You really, really don't want me to leave for this thingy, do you?" Sally remarked. "I didn't know I was that important to you."

"Because you are, fool." Harry replied, his voice cracking.

If he told Sally about the other world, then people might read her mind and find out about Elly. But as much as Sally was his friend, he doubted he would be able to persuade her to stay without giving a real reason.

The intractable situation tore at him from the inside.

"Are you jealous?" Sally said suddenly. "That I got selected for some special programme but you didn't?"

"What!?" Harry's head instantly snapped upwards. "It's nothing like that!"

Sally smiled at the reaction, immediate and honest. "Yeah, I didn't think that would be the reason why either." Her smile faded. "Which leaves–"

Harry found himself suddenly hauled upwards by his shirt, and slammed against the wall. From the range of a few centimeters, Harry could only gaze into Sally's eyes, green as his own.

"Tell me, Harry. Who is Elly?"

Harry's heart stopped. "I–"

"It's about that secret of yours, right? I don't really think there's any other reason why you would be in such a sorry state."

In her study, Elly frowned. Should I make the decision for him? Tell him to keep me secret? Or let him tell her about me and solve this? She leaned on her staff and watched the screen, the world through Harry's eyes. It boils down to how much I want to protect myself and Harry, versus…versus, in short, Harry's happiness. That is essentially the decision here.

I know what the rational thing to do is. But at the same time, I can't stand to see Harry suffer and possibly lose his first real friend like this. Oh, to hell with all this.

"Harry, go ahead and tell her about me." She called out into the air.

"But, Elly–"

"It's fine. We'll deal with any problems that crop up later."

My one flimsy excuse is that, if I know the Anglicans well enough, they won't bother to look into the girl's mind at all, seeing only her as a vessel for the grimoire library. I cannot recall exactly, but it seems that that was how they treated the previous Index Librorum Prohibitorum as well.

Oh, to hell with all this. Elly cursed again. 'Every man and every woman is a star', right? We'll fight for this single cog right here, and damn all the consequences when they come.

In the real world Harry spoke, quietly. "Okay. I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything." He closed his eyes. "So please, don't go with those people."

Sally withdrew. "You are such a big baby sometimes," she said, but her heart wasn't quite in the taunt. "Okay, tell me."

And so Harry started to speak at length. He started from the beginning, where he had first met Elly, where he had been saved. He told her about how Elly had been teaching him, magic and and science both, and about another world, another hero, and another version of herself.

"Elly's like a mom–no, more like an older sister." Harry said unashamedly, and Sally nodded, understanding. The girl, however, then frowned.

"So you basically have a live-in tutor in your head? All the time?" Sally's voice had a tinge of incredulity in it. "So that's the way you've been keeping up with me in class. By cheating."

"What?" Harry did not expect Sally to focus on this particular aspect. "Yeah, I guess." The surprise got Harry to agree, before a simple fact came to him. "Exactly like how being able to memorise everything with no effort is cheating." He smiled.

"All right, you got me," Sally grumbled.

When Harry had finished, even Sally had a dazed look on her face.

"That must be the wildest story I've ever heard, and I can do magic." Sally remarked, one long explanation later. "But it does explain how you know all that magic and that weird stuff. The things that you're teaching Branwen, that's also from her, right?"

Harry nodded.

"And an entirely different world." She stared out of the window. The afternoon sky was had begun to dusk in that long account. "You were scared to tell me, because–"

"Because I thought you would think that I'm crazy." Harry said. "And also because there are mind-reading wizards out there. If they knew how much of a freak I am, they might capture me, do experiments on me or something."

Sally shuddered. "Then tell me how to defend my mind. I don't want people poking around my memories either."

"Elly says she can try to teach us." Harry said.

Sally blinked. "Yeah, that is kind of weird. To refer to someone in your head." She punched Harry in the shoulder. "Oh, come on. We've already said that we're both freaks, right? What's a little more weirdness?"

"Yeah, I guess." Harry was reassured by the gesture.

"But this whole story aside," Sally said, "what's going to happen if I go with those people?"

"Elly doesn't know the specifics." Harry said. "But she managed to deduce that it's something like a…death of personality. They only need a person who has both a perfect memory and the ability to do magic, so it's likely they'll erase the rest of you, all the parts that aren't needed."

Sally's face grew grim. "Then I'm definitely not going."

~~[a]~~

"The Director says they'll be back in a few days to hear my decision." Sally said during lunch the next day. Dark circles were under her eyes, and it was clear that she hadn't had a good night's sleep. "I asked her what she thought, and she said that it really was up to me. I really wanted to tell her to tell them 'no' right there, but it gives us more time to plan if I just delay."

"Smart move." Harry said, digging into his pasta. "We'll get started on Occlumency right away, then work out what else to do." He thought as he chewed. "Have you ever run away from home? Um, I mean–"

"No." Sally said. "But…" she appeared to give the idea serious thought.

"It's probably not good." Harry said. "If we run, we lose the protection of the adults. And they may be able to track us down with some Charm or something anyway."

But nonmagical adults can still be brainwashed, and if they can track her down no matter where she goes, then there's not a lot we can do, right? Harry kept his thoughts to himself. No, I can't think too far ahead! We need to focus on the now.

Sally appeared to reach the same conclusions. "Fine." She took a breath. "So, about this whole 'Occlumency' business…"

"To tell you the truth, I don't understand it well myself," Harry admitted. And it's not as if I'll have good enough Telepathy–I mean, Legilimency to check. He look across the table at Sally's serious face.

"You have to stay strong, Harry." Elly spoke up. The magician reduced to a voice nimbly checked Harry's mental state, as well as examined Sally's face through Harry's eyes. "Now, just repeat what I say to Sally, and listen to me as well…"

Deep down, though, Elly knew it was probably a futile effort. As she had already considered, she knew nothing of the magic of the Anglicans in this world; there was no guarantee that her knowledge of an alternate timeline would be useful at all. There was also another simple but important fact.

Harry Potter was not Kamijou Touma.

He was several years younger, with all the differences in body that came with it. He had limited experience in fighting–even Touma had known how to brawl from a few incidents with delinquents.

And, more importantly, no mysterious power resided in Harry's right hand. The ability to negate magic–-it did not seem like much, but with that alone, an ordinary (well, perhaps not so ordinary, but the point still remained) high school boy had stopped a world war and defeated a god (a magic god, but again, given how the blonde eyepatched girl had rewrote the world, was there really a need to split hairs?)

All Harry had was the magical capacity of a Hogwarts First-Year student, speaking generously.

And, perhaps most importantly, even above all that–

They weren't in Academy City. This was no Magic-Science conflict. All known rules of engagement were out the window, and they were playing on a board which they did not know the size or shape.

For the first time since her death, and the second time in recent memory, Elly prayed.

~~[a]~~

"Hey, Harry."

It was an uncharacteristically quiet Sally that said the words in Harry's room, a few nights later, after practicing both spellcasting on the roof, followed by meditation in for Occlumantic purposes.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"I'm scared." Sally said directly. There was a tremor in her voice. The man and woman–Kanzaki and Stiyl, Sally thought to herself, had returned, and she had said no, and they had left, but always making it clear that she could change her mind. "So scared. How are we going to fight off two older magicians? How are we going to survive?"

"You know, for a moment I thought you were lying." Sally continued, the words spilling out of here. "I thought you really were jealous, that you made up that entire story because you didn't want me to leave. It would have been better, almost, and I would probably have stayed anyway. But I know…" she placed a hand over her chest. "...I know you're not that type of person. Even when I was being mean, even when I treated you so badly...you still went ahead and...you were always..."

She was openly crying at this point, words and tears spilling out both.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry…"

Without a word, Harry wrapped his arms around her, and enveloped her in a warm hug. With her at eleven and he being at ten, she was taller than him, but within the hug, Harry thought that she seemed small.

Small and fragile, despite all of her outward mannerisms and behavior.

He reached up to the back of her head, and began to run a hand through her dark brown hair. It was not the smoothest, nor was it the softest nor straightest. But it was Sally.

His first friend. His best friend.

And over and over in his mind Harry ran through all the spells he knew, all the magic at his disposal: a litany, a lullaby.

~~[a]~~

"What on earth is that?" A sudden voice said at Harry's shoulder, and he jumped.

"Branwen," Harry acknowledged.

"That looks like a map." The older girl pointed out. "Or one of those architect things."

"It is." Harry said, turning back to the papers in front of him. It was the floor plan of St. Ursula's, every wing and every level mapped out. Harry had, with the aid of some magic, filched it from one of the office rooms.

"Is that…this place?" Branwen said. "What are you even doing?"

"Preparing."

"Preparing–" The black-haired girl wanted to ask, but cut herself off. "What's going on? You and Sally, recently–"

"Don't ask." Harry said brusquely. His eyes remained fixed on the floor plan. An escape route here…maybe a trap there… He tried to memorise it all, so he wouldn't get lost if he ever needed to lead pursuers away.

"I can help, you know." Branwen said. She laid a hand each on Harry's shoulders, and gently shook them.

Harry remained unswayed. Speaking of getting lost, what about if we need to run away from here? Should I get Sally to look at a London map? "No," he said absentmindedly, out loud. "It's too dangerous–" He then cursed himself immediately. Too dangerous? If this gets Branwen more interested–

"Fine." Branwen withdrew her hands. Harry looked back in surprise, to meet a serious expression on her face. "I'm not going to ask more. But you gotta remember. I'm older than you. And older kids are supposed to help out younger ones. And I guess I owe you?" She held up a single finger, and a tiny flame, a little candlelight, burned on her fingertip for just a moment.

Despite everything, Harry smiled at the display, even as his resolution to not involve anyone else remained firm.

~~[a]~~

Three weeks later, when the fire alarm suddenly rang, Harry knew they had come.

I suck at writing transitions. That is why everything takes so long. I also wanted to take longer to make it better, but the more I stared at it, the more I didn't know what to do. And then three months passed without an update, until I got mad at myself.

Next time: Stiyl and Kanzaki.

Review please!