Training and Confrontations

Chapter XXX The Seance

"Does anyone have a recommendation on seating?" Dumbledore asked. "Miss Lovegood?" he went on, forestalling Trelawney.

Luna moved to a seat near the back of the room. "From my right, Professor Marchbanks, Professor Dumbledore, Ron, Harry, Neville, Ginny, Hermione, Professor Lupin, Dora Tonks, Professor Trelawney, ending with Sir Nicholas on my left, materialized as well as he can be. The observers may be against the wall opposite."

"Very well," Dumbledore said, "let us begin."

Everyone took their places. "And the significance of this seating?" Griselda Marchbanks inquired as she sat.

"I shall not just be working through my own Gift, but yours, Professor Dumbledore's, and Professor Trelawney's, as well as Sir Nicholas' condition. Hermione is likely to remain the most alert of the others."

"Oh. A mundane aura, I presume?"

"Only in this respect," Luna said with a tender smile, which modified Hermione's glower a little.

"Of course." Marchbanks smiled at Hermione. "I remember you from the O.W.L.s, and after all my time on the testing team, that takes quite a lot. Your type of mental brilliance rarely mixes well with the Gift."

Hermione managed a smile at that.

"Should Sirius Black partially manifest, Hermione will be the only speaker unless he addresses someone else," Luna reminded them. "If she does not see him, remember, the order is Ginny, Remus, Tonks, Harry, Ron. The observers are to be totally silent no matter what. We want the maximum concentration on the connections."

Everyone nodded. "Please join hands," Luna directed. They all did so, although Nick's were inside Luna's and Trelawney's hands as much as he was holding them. "If you have any positive feelings towards Sirius Black, please think of them. If you don't, just think of his name."

Luna began a chant the Sibyl had taught her in one of the ancient languages of that alien world. Only Sirius' name was recognizable to most of the others. After nearly two minutes, half the candles in the seance room went out, and the others dimmed.

After another minute, a breeze stirred inside the room. Hermione remembered Luna saying to her that the temperature of any breeze would say a lot about the condition of the spirit.

At first, the breeze was cold with fear, and then it blew hot with anger. Within seconds, however, it settled down to a comforting, warm breeze, with only some small hits of those cold and hot elements.

Hermione felt Remus squeeze her hand. Her eyes darted around, and she saw a slight glow behind Luna's right shoulder. Ginny squeezed her other hand.

"Sirius?" Hermione whispered.

The table shook for a moment.

"Sirius," Hermione said softly, "will please you talk with us? It's Hermione Granger." She paused. "Remus is here, and would like to talk with you." The table shook a little. "Nymphadora is here, too, and so is Harry." The table moved a little at Tonks' name, but after Harry's, the table jumped up with a loud knock, and came down with a thud.

Hermione went on as Luna had instructed her. "Answer with one knock for yes, two for no, three if you're unsure. Are you Sirius Black?"

-KNOCK-

"Can you speak with us?"

-KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK-

"Will you communicate with us this way, until you can speak?"

-KNOCK-

"You don't know morse code, do you?"

-KNOCK KNOCK-

'That's too bad,' Hermione thought. "Do you have any reason to think you might be pressed for time for this visit?"

After a slight hesitation -KNOCK KNOCK-

Hermione gave a slight sigh of relief. "Do you recall the events in the Department of Mysteries?"

-KNOCK-

"Do you remember falling through the Veil?"

-KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK-

"Do you remember dueling Bellatrix Lestrange?"

-KNOCK-

"Do you remember anything in the Department of Mysteries after that?"

There was a slight pause, and then -KNOCK KNOCK-

"Do you realize that we are holding a seance to contact you?"

There was another hesitation, and then -KNOCK-

"You do know that this means we therefore have reason to believe that you're, well, dead?"

The pause was even longer, but then somewhat soft -KNOCK-

"I'm sorry, Sirius. Sirius, do you know most of the people here?"

-KNOCK-

"Do you blame anyone that you know here for your death?"

Again, there was a hesitation, then -KNOCK KNOCK-

"It sounds like you're not certain. Do you blame me in any way?"

-KNOCK KNOCK-

"Do you blame Remus at all?"

-KNOCK KNOCK-

"Professor Dumbledore?"

Here there was a hesitation, then -KNOCK KNOCK-

"Harry?"

The table shook with Sirius' furious answer -KNOCK KNOCK-

Hermione smiled. It was easy to imagine Sirius pounding the table. "Shall we try and manifest you further, so that you may speak? You seemingly can't fully manifest by yourself, but there are at least three mediums willing to let you speak through them, if you wish."

-KNOCK-

There was a pause, and then Luna jerked slightly. Each person at the table jumped as they felt Sirius' spirit move through them, colder than Nick had ever been. Even Nick had jumped. Each person jumped again, as Sirius again made the circle, but this time, he stayed inside Professor Trelawney.

After several seconds, she spoke. Her voice was not quite hers, and not quite Sirius', but a mixture of both, although the cadence was pure Sirius.

"This seemed to be the most suitable body, at least for me," Sirius said. Trelawney's eyes went open. "It's very odd to see again. How long has it been? For some of you, it seems to have been several months, for others, about a year."

"You were killed in early June," Hermione said, "and today is the First of November."

"How odd." Sirius shrugged Trelawney's shoulders. "I don't really remember much of anything in between, except being upset. Does anyone know why?"

When Hermione looked out of her depth, Dumbledore answered, although he did not have much to say. "Death is largely a mystery, of course. From what little we know, I would say you were not ready to move fully on because you were so angry when you were pushed through the Veil, yet those pushed through the Veil are said to go fully into death. I know that doesn't explain much."

"No," Sirius retorted, "it doesn't. Still, how often do we get full answers from you? even though it seems this one was all you know? Tell me, are you ever going to tell Trelawney here that she's made two genuine, full prophecies? With her limited gift, that would probably thrill her. You've kept all of us in the dark unnecessarily more often than not. I know, you weren't really responsible for my getting killed, but if you had let me do anything for eleven months, maybe I wouldn't have been both so eager to go and so rusty I was careless!"

Sirius's eyes moved over to Tonks and Remus, smiling as he passed over Harry. "Moony, it's about time you let yourself go a little. Dora, he's a good man. Ron, Ginny, it's good to see you again."

Sirius winked at Hermione. "I always knew you were smart and cute, but I always thought you were wound a little too tight. Glad you've broken out. I know I approve of your choices, even if most other people wouldn't, or at least wouldn't admit they were just jealous." He nodded towards Luna. "She's a nice one, too."

Sirius looked now just at Harry, and Trelawney's face, which had had Sirius' jaunty expression for a moment, fell. "Harry . . . Harry, I'm sorry."

"For what?" Harry croaked.

"For lots of things," Sirius admitted. "First, and most importantly, for being stupid enough to go after Wormtail instead of going straight to Dumbledore and telling him what happened fifteen years ago. For making my revenge more important to my duty to you."

"Sirius. . . ."

"No, Harry!" Sirius took a deep breath. "My . . . it feels . . . it feels as if my ego has just fallen away! That I can see myself clearly for the first time." He made a face, which looked even odder on Trelawney's face than it would have on Sirius'. "I don't like it much, but I guess it's a good thing."

Sirius smiled very sardonically. "It would be interesting to see old Snape go through something like this. Anyway, Harry . . . I'm sorry. If I had done my duty, you would have grown up with a very different life."

He glared at Dumbledore. "You still would have wanted to keep Harry stashed away at the Dursleys, but I would have fought you. You know, there were a few times when I wondered if you knew I was innocent, and you put me away just to get your hands on Harry."

"I didn't," Dumbledore said. "I must admit, I have often wondered since Harry discovered your innocence if I accepted your guilt too easily exactly because of that. If so, I am sorry. I hope I did not."

"I accept your apology." He turned back to Harry. "Secondly, Molly was partially right. I did sometimes confuse you with James, and that was very wrong of me."

"I forgive you," Harry said softly, gripping Ron and Neville's hands painfully tight. They gritted their teeth and held on.

"Moony here properly told me off a few times about things like that," Sirius admitted. "I should have listened." He sighed. "I should have learned, always listen to Moony. There's a lesson for all of you. Don't always obey Moony, but take his advice seriously. Anyway, there weren't all that many good things, really good things, that happened in my life. One was James, one was Remus, and the other was you, Harry. I let James down. I let you down." He glanced at Remus. "I'm sorry if I let you down, too."

"I forgive you," Remus said.

"I got some impressions from all of you as I flickered through you. Just so you know, I approve of what you did to Wormtail, since you couldn't break my will. Did you have to give him my bike, though? I mean. . . ."

"A grandfathered-in flying cycle? Do you know how valuable it was?" Remus asked. "It was practically priceless. In the end, we had to leave him sixty Galleons and twelve Knuts in actual cash."

"I know," Sirius said. "I just hate to think of anyone in that group touching it."

"Touching it, yes, flying it, no," Remus said.

"What do you mean?"

"I kept the instructions, and the key."

Sirius smiled. "And even though it can operate by magic, the owner must take possession using the key. Brilliant."

Remus shrugged.

"I could stay longer, but I think I should let some other people talk," Sirius said. "Think of it as my last gift. Harry . . . Harry, I do love you."

"I miss you, and love you," Harry said very softly.

Trelawney slumped forward, and then straightened back up. Her posture was less tense than it had been when Sirius had possessed her, but it was just as assured.

"Hello, Harry."

Harry stared. Remus blinked, and said, "Prongs?"

"Hi, Moony. I must say, you've done a decent job keeping an eye on Harry over the last few years, all things considered. If he wasn't already feeling so guilty about it, I'd certainly have something to say to Padfoot about some of his choices." James sighed. "I guess I should apologize, too. I should have listened to Lils, and let Dumbledore here be the secret keeper. Padfoot and I thought we knew better than everyone, and then we out-smarted ourselves on top of that."

James looked at Harry more directly. "So, you're the most powerful wizard since Merlin, huh?"

"So they tell me," Harry said.

"Well, you are, for the moment. You are, in part because that scar created some very odd effects. It duplicated some of Voldemort's powers, which you will never lose. It acts as a conduit, drawing on some of the positive emotions of your friends and channeling it into power, connecting you directly to ambient magic, and all those other good things, as well all the bad that you've suffered. Do you know what that means?"

"No," Harry said.

"It means, once Voldemort is dead, and I have every confidence you'll win, some of that extra power will fade, because those conduits will be closed. You'll still have a lot of it, but it won't be quite as strong. Your power will be more on the level of Dumbledore, which is still of course very strong. The more you use it now, the more you'll retain. Remember that."

"Yes, sir," Harry replied.

"Ah, the attitude of a sixteen year old. I understand you have some inkling of how insufferable I could be at around your age. Try not to imitate me too much."

"I'll try," Harry replied.

"I grant you, you have a lot more to be insufferable about than I did," James said, with glances at Luna and Hermione, "and you've done better than I did at containing it."

"Thank you . . . Dad."

James smiled. "Well, like Padfoot, I'd really like to stay longer, but I won't. I love you, son."

"Love you, Dad," Harry murmured, knowing James could likely hear him, even though he was already gone from Trelawney's body. Neville and Ron were still holding Harry's hands, trying to give him the strength that he needed.

Luna straightened up. "Harry. . . ."

Harry looked at his lover, shocked. "Mum?"

"Yes, baby." Harry blushed. Lily laughed. "Sorry," she said. "Time means little to me now, so in many ways, even though I know you're nearly an adult, you're still fifteen months to me, too."

"I understand," Harry replied, while thinking, 'This just got weirder.'

"James and I are too far gone to stay for any real amount of time. It was good of Sirius to give up his time for us and help us come here. I just wanted to say to Hermione that while her parents could not make the journey, they do send their love." Lily closed her eyes and grimaced.

"Let me guess," Harry said, "Aunt Petunia doesn't."

"I regret to say Petunia, Vernon, and Dudley never arrived here," Lily said. "That was their choice in life and they are paying for their choices. Now, there is one other last one here with a short message."

Luna's head went down for a second, and then she had a more normal expression on her face. Professor Trelawney, however, was looking at her with affection. "My darling Moonchild," she said softly.

Luna was shocked. "Mummy?"

"Yes, darling. I wish I could stay and talk with you. Write your father, and tell him I love both of you. I'm so sorry that I made a mistake that day. I hope someone has my notes. I was on the right track. . . ." she trailed off, and suddenly all the candles came back on.

"This ceremony," Luna said sadly, "is over."

Everyone was very thoughtful as they left.

Saturday, November 2, 1996

It was a cold, windy morning, and one lone student was wandering near the train platform rather than in town.

"What's wrong? No place else to go?"

Colin Creevy looked up. "Oh . . . hello."

"Hi. Nothing better to do on a Hogsmeade weekend?"

"No, not really. Is there going to be a train?"

"No," the man said, a little sad. "The train service mostly ended, except for the Hogwarts Express, in the early Seventies. That was before they put that . . . car park on the other side of town, for the people who prefer Muggle transport over long-range apparation or the floo. Still, there used to be a full station here. Some of us would come here to be together, outside of House discipline, since it was empty but warm. We came together as friends, comrades across House-lines, until they pulled it down, which was after I left Hogwarts, I'm glad to say."

"Really?" Colin asked eagerly. He knew the code phrase, and obviously this good looking stranger did, too.

"Really." The man looked at Colin. "You know what I mean?"

"I do." Colin wondered how old some of the passwords were. "Archery."

The man smiled. "Arrow." This was a recognition code that many of the student homosexuals used.

"I'm Colin."

The man smiled. "My name is Julian."

"You're looking better this afternoon," Ginny said to Colin.

"I'm feeling a lot better, thanks," Colin replied. "Did you two have a good day?"

"Lots of shopping, no attacks, and lots of time to shop -- so yes, it was a pretty good day," Ginny said. Neville, loaded down with her bags, just rolled his eyes. Ginny asked, "What did you do?"

Colin shrugged. "I just wandered around." He looked around. "Harry didn't come in?"

"Yeah, he, Luna, and Hermione just went to the Three Broom Sticks and hung around, in case there was trouble. They're coming along last."

"That makes sense."

"Well?" Voldemort demanded. "Did you find anything out from your worthless brat of a cousin?"

"No, Master. He refused contact and told me the next time he will hex me and head for the nearest teacher. I did meet an interesting young man, however."

"Why would I care about your predilections?"

"The student in question is a Fifth year Gryffindor, with a long crush on Potter. I'm sure I can arrange to meet with him during the next Hogsmeade visit, if you would care to make his acquaintance."

Voldemort leered. "Perhaps. What is the boy's name?"

"Colin Creevy."

"Would any have any suspicions? I take it he would not be of willing use?"

"No, Master. He is Muggle-born, and up to the start of torture, he would probably think it a glorious thing to sacrifice himself for his beloved. And Moody is going to start trying to teach them resistance to the Imperius."

"There are ways around that, except for the most determined and powerful. Yes, a perfect tool, then, if an unwilling one."

Harry, Luna, and Hermione were walking a short way behind the last of the other students, hand-in-hand with Harry in the middle.

"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked. Harry had been avoiding talking about the seance since it had ended, saying he had wanted to think about it. He had been so preoccupied in the pub that Hermione hoped he had thought enough about it.

"I'm still not sure," Harry answered. "Better, on the whole, I think."

"You think?" Hermione asked gently.

"Yes, I think so. It's sort of like . . . having a scar reopened, so that it will heal cleaner."

Hermione and Luna both wrinkled their noses.

"Well, you asked!" Harry said.

"True," Hermione asked.

"I'm glad they all came," Harry said thoughtfully. "It was good to hear them." Harry made as to go on, but stopped.

"Go ahead," Luna said in a gentle tone. "You realized something. You can tell us anything, my love."

"We won't be judgmental," Hermione agreed as she glanced around, making certain no one could overhear.

"There was one thing Sirius said," Harry said slowly, "and afterwards, I was so glad he said it. I never realized how much I had wondered. . . ."

"What it would have been like if Sirius had raised you?" Hermione asked, equally gently.

"Yes," Harry said, with a great weight of emotion on that one word.

"I'm sure Professor Lupin would have helped him," Luna said. "If so, it would have been a fairly responsible, if boisterous upbringing."

"Yes," Hermione agreed. "If it had just been Sirius, you probably would have been a half-tamed savage."

"I probably would have been a lot more like my father," Harry agreed soberly, "an arrogant princeling. Oh, nothing like Malfoy, or at least not as bad as he used to be, but I would have been spoiled." He grinned. "I imagine I would have yelled a lot at Snape, and there would have been a riot when those two confronted each other."

"True," Hermione said. "Still, if Remus had had a nearly equal share in raising you, you wouldn't have been too bad."

"No, not too bad," Harry agreed. "God, I feel so guilty for saying that."

"It's not disloyal to his memory to remember him accurately," Luna said. "If you had just been raised by Sirius, you would have been arrogant and spoiled, but you still would have that innate sense of justness and fairness that would have made you tolerable. After all, if it survived the Dursleys it would easily survive Sirius' spoiling. If Professor Lupin had somehow been allowed to raise you alone, you would have been more bookish, and perhaps almost as shy as you have been. A Harry Potter raised by Professor Lupin and Sirius would have been an excellent balance."

"I know it's selfish," Hermione said, "but since we've ended up together this way, it's hard to imagine anything better, even if you had to suffer so much along the way."

"Good point," Harry said. "It's time to move on with our lives, isn't it?"