Chapter 14

I entered the Old Art Room with a stack of instructional pamphlets I'd had made special from Tomes and Scrolls and delivered via Owl Order. It cost a pretty penny, and I'd had to shell out extra for one of the Second Years, Miles Bletchley, to pick them up from the School Owlery for me, as he'd been heading there anyway to pick up his monthly Seeker Weekly Subscription and I had issues as regards magical creatures.

Still, they would help and their contents were as varied as my offer of lessons, from the wand movements and incantations to cast various charms, including the Scutum and Flashbang Charms complete with diagrams, to step-by-step instructions for brewing Wideye, Strength, and Gytrash Speed Potions, to several common Italian Phrases complete with pronunciation guides and instructions on basic meditation in preparation for Occlumency Lessons. After all, I was trying to live by the Seven-P Maxim, that being that proper prior preparation prevents piss poor performance.

When I arrived, I found that I had been beaten to the room by Hermione, obviously. I'd thought getting here fifteen minutes early would be a good plan, but Hermione looked like she'd been here for at least as long as that already. Curiously, she wasn't alone, a Ravenclaw Witch with Curly, Reddish-Blonde Hair was leaning against the wall with a bored expression on her face. She looked older, Second Year if I had to guess. Hadn't Hermione mentioned an Older Witch in Second Year taking her under her wing previously? This had to be her.

"Marietta Edgecombe, I presume?" I questioned.

"Blaise! You're here! We've been waiting for ages!" Grinned Hermione before being elbowed in the side by the Older Witch. Hermione stopped talking at that and I frowned, fractionally.

"I'm Marietta Edgecombe, yes. You would be Blaise Zabini? Hermione's told me so much about you. She wanted me to come down here with her to check out your study group, only you know how enthusiastic she can be." Nodded the Older Witch, Marietta.

"I don't mind waiting. When you're Mates with someone, you tend to go along with things like excess enthusiasm." I offered.

It was a veiled insult at the clear attempt to force Hermione to conform to whatever Marietta thought she was doing with that elbow to the side. Unfortunately, if Marietta picked up on it, she didn't show it, simply bulling on ahead with the conversation like some sort of small-talk-related steamroller.

"At any rate, I was told that we needed to bring something to share with the group. Hermione's brought something she calls flashcards for French Lessons and something she calls the Scientific Method and Basic Research Methodology. I see you've got an armful of pamphlets, that must have cost a galleon or three to have printed off. My own contribution is a bit of Second-Year Spellwork. The Engorgement and Shrinking Charms, the Girding Potion, and the Full Body-Bind." Pressed Marietta.

"Well, you're welcome to join in on lessons, then. The others are bringing various other things. Who knows? You might even pick up a few things yourself." I responded, giving up on dueling with veiled insults.

I looked over at Hermione, who seemed more subdued than normal, and flashed her a reassuring grin. She smiled back at me and nodded. Then Daphne arrived, Tracey in tow. Daphne had an old leatherbound tome with faded gold lettering embossed on the cover. Manners for the Well-Mannered Witch by Lady Ceridwen Sayre. Meanwhile, Tracey was carrying a much newer-looking book, Principles of Alteration, Nineteen-Fifty Edition by Merrick Urquart. Terry arrived shortly afterward with a handful of pamphlets of his own that he claimed to have used an Auto-Copy Quill to produce. Millie showed up next, having run into Susan and Hannah, all of them carrying either books or hand-written notes and on it went.

As people continued to arrive, I noticed some who hadn't given an answer yes or no showing up. Not only had Neville and Parvati Patil seemingly brought both Harry and Ron, with Harry offering Cooking and Gardening Advice and Ron offering the Bat Bogey Hex and the Curse of the Bogies, but they'd brought the Irish Boy they hung around with, Seamus Finnegan who had agreed to contribute what he knew about making Wizarding Fireworks, which was apparently a hobby of his. I guess the Twins actually did wind up talking to Ron and calming things down there, though they hadn't shown up themselves.

"They're setting up a prank of some sort, though they wouldn't tell me who it was for or what it was." Was Ron's response when I asked about that.

Then there was Ravenclaw. It seemed like most of First-Year Ravenclaw had turned up, alongside Cho Chang from Second Year, joining Marietta Edgecombe. Sue Li and Padma Patil were offering Basic Wuxing Alchemy Lessons and Basic Sanskrit Runes respectively while Lisa Turpin and Mandy Brocklehurst were offering knowledge of various Minor Concealment Charms and Care of Magical Creatures respectively. Anthony Goldstein was there and offering Kabbalist Charms from his brother's courses in Jerusalem. Cho Chang, meanwhile, was offering her flying expertise and had even brought a broomstick with her for practice, the perks of being a Second-Year.

For Hufflepuff, aside from Susan and Hannah, Wayne Hopkins had shown up with instructions for the Potion of Aillen's Breath, which would give the drinker the ability to breathe fire temporarily, along with instructions for the Ritual of Geasa-Binding, which was one of the three known forms of unbreakable vows and the only one that wouldn't result in loss of magic or death in the event of attempts to go against the terms. Apparently, it would simply render the oathsworn incapable of doing so. The only other member of Hufflepuff to show up was Cedric Diggory, a Third Year who brought with him the knowledge of the Seize and Pull Charm, the Banishing Charm, the Freezing Spell, and the Antidote to Uncommon Poisons.

Aside from my group, the only other Slytherin to show up was Sophie Roper, who had brought the Incarcerous Charm and the Incarcifors Spell, both of which had been innovated by her family back in the eleventh century, before the Ministry had taken over Azkaban Island from the Dark Wizard Ezkridis in the Fourteen-Seventies, back when the Ministry still used the cells under London for keeping prisoners and the Ropers held the office of Chief Gaolers of the Wizengamot.

All told it was more people than I'd been expecting and the turnout was actually a little humbling. As the last of everyone filed in, I noticed Hermione, Susan, Daphne, and Terry all looking at me with looks that I would call significant. Did they expect me to make some sort of speech? Right, I suppose I shouldn't keep everyone waiting, then. I stepped up onto the plinth in the center of the room, something that had previously been used to show off various sculptures or paintings, and cleared my throat, using the Sonorus Charm to amplify the noise. As all eyes turned toward me, I began to speak.

"Right then, thank you all for coming. It's good to see that you've all decided not to let cross-house rivalries and grudges blinker your sense of curiosity. As I'm sure you've all figured out by now, this gathering represents a pretty massive opportunity to gain more knowledge. Knowledge, as they say, is power, and by trading what we have with each other, we all grow stronger as a result. It's not less, it's more, something I'm pretty sure that those who decided not to attend will be kicking themselves over once we catapult past them." I offered.

"Bloody Hell, Mate! I told my Brothers I'd give you a shot, but you sound as if we're going to war!" Called out Ron.

"We very well could be. Look at what happened just a generation earlier, I'll bet nobody thought war was coming last time. Or the time before that. How do you plan for a Dark Lord? They tend to crop up out of nowhere every couple of decades. It's been eleven years since the last one disappeared. We might very well be due." I pointed out.

"Disappeared? You-Know-Who was defeated, by Harry Potter! He's in this room with us, you know. You could try giving credit where it's due!" Insisted Marietta Edgecombe.

"Maybe, but did anyone ever find a body? No offense, Harry, but you were a baby at the time. Not exactly an all-powerful Merlin-Type." I retorted.

"None taken. I didn't believe it either." Snorted Harry.

"So what are you trying to say?" Queried Cedric Diggory.

"I'm saying that it doesn't hurt to get a headstart, just in case. Even if I'm worrying over nothing, this study group is still a good idea, from an academic perspective if nothing else." I answered the person who likely needed the forewarning the most.

"A bit grim, but fair." Shrugged Daphne.

"Right, then. Enough with the doom and gloom, let's get down to what we all came here for. I now pronounce the First Meeting of the Hogwarts Cross-House Study Group begun!" I grinned, adding a sense of lightness to my tone that cut the tension.

And with that, everyone got to work exchanging pointers and knowledge. I wound up giving an introductory lecture to Occlumency Basics for a large group for the first hour or so of the study group. The first twenty minutes or so was just spent walking everyone through the meditation pamphlets before I got to the first exercise, which was to order your mind. The meditation pamphlets gave the steps to allow everyone to enter their own mindscape through meditation and mnemonic devices, but the first real exercise was to order your own mindscape. You had to be able to organize your mindscape before you could build defenses after all.

Of the group, Hermione, Daphne, Susan, and Padma Patil proved to have a talent for Occlumency and were able to start ordering their Mindscapes with just a little prodding from me. Harry, Millie, Cho Chang, and Cedric Diggory needed a bit more help, but they were starting to figure it out too by the time the hour was up. Everyone else needed a lot more practice with meditation first before they could even begin to order their mindscapes without someone holding their hands.

Once that was finished, people broke into various groups. I started off by learning the Full Body-Bind from Marietta Edgecombe and the Seize and Pull Charm from Cedric Diggory. Fortunately, my inborn talents for Charms and Defense allowed me to pick up both of those after five and six tries respectively. With that done, I moved on to one of the practice cauldrons that had been set up around the room for potions practice by Professor Flitwick, who agreed to be our Faculty Advisor, provided we weren't expecting regular, hands-on, tutoring from him. I began to try my hand at the Girding Potion, which took an hour to brew.

As was my habit, thanks to Magnus Gamp, I moved to brewing the Basic Wuxing Elemental Cycling Fluid while the girding potion was heating for the final time. One dose of this splashed on an object would turn one element into another using the Principles of Wuxing Alchemy. It couldn't turn lead into gold, but it could turn stone into water, for instance. It also served as a very basic introduction to Wuxing Alchemy.

Once those were done, only one hour remained in the time allotted for the study group. I was able to pick up two more Charms, one from Susan and one from Millie. From Susan, I picked up the Telum Pugnus spell she'd used against Tracey in Dueling Club, and from Millie, her Grandfather had contributed a number of older, dueling spells. I grabbed the Arrow-Shooting Spell. Unfortunately, there was only so much time allotted to the study group and a wealth of spells and other knowledge to learn. Fortunately, this was far from the last session. If anything, we'd likely only expand going forward, judging from how everyone seemed satisfied with our first session.

Of course, by now it was closing in on eleven at night, which meant that everyone had to hurry to their common rooms to avoid infractions from Filch. You got a pass for going to and from Clubs, but with Argus Filch as the Caretaker of the Castle, the definition of to and from clubs tended to be fairly strict. As in, if you loitered, you might very well be staring down a detention-worthy infraction. I grabbed the pamphlets that Padma Patil and Morag MacDougal left on Sanskrit and Ogham Runes before heading out.

Fortunately, I managed to make it back to the Slytherin Dorms without issue, whispering the Password for the day, Weedosoros, and entering the common room. I headed straight to bed, not even bothering to do anything else. I wanted to be rested for tomorrow, when I would take my first steps into runecarving. As I slipped off into sleep, my dreams were, thankfully untroubled by portents of doom.

It seemed that just for tonight, I would be able to sleep peacefully. . .

XXXX

AN: Bit of a shorter chapter this time around. Still a decent size at over two thousand words, but I really just wanted to give the Cross-House Study Group its own chapter, at least to start with. As you can see, it's proved a bit more popular an idea than expected, at least to start with. It's likely that some of these people might decide to drop out, but it's also likely that others will join from word of mouth.

Blaise has also tried to get people thinking about a potential return of Voldemort, though he's had to dance around the issue, drawing inferences and posing questions rather than outright saying that Voldemort is still out there. Meta-Lock can be a bitch like that, unfortunately. Still, at least some people are thinking about a Dark Lord potentially cropping back up within their lifetime, which is more than could have been said for some people in canon, right up until the Ministry Fell.

At any rate, the next chapter will be another of the timeskippy amalgamation chapters as we go through the rest of September.

Stay tuned. . .