Ginny was surprised to receive an invitation to Professor Slughorn's newly-reconstituted Slug Club, a social order for those Slughorn believed had special potential; she was a first year Weasley whose most notable academic achievement so far was her performance in her first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The Weasleys were a proud family, but not particularly prestigious within the magical community; certainly not prestigious enough to help in getting a Slug Club invitation. Ginny was the only first year invited; there were few second years, either, and Slughorn was spending most of his time complaining that one of them hadn't shown up.

"I don't mean to insult any of you," said Professor Slughorn, "but he was the one I was most excited to meet."

"I could bother him about it for you, if you'd like," said Hermione.

"Oh, don't feel obligated," said Professor Slughorn. "...but I really would appreciate it."

"Professor Slughorn?" said Ginny. "I have a private question." The Potions Master smiled and lowered his voice.

"Yes, Ginevra?" said Professor Slughorn.

"Why am I here?" said Ginny. "I don't mean - I mean - I don't really see what separates me from the other first years. I haven't really done much yet. Is it just because you heard about the points I earned from Professor Lockhart?"

"I did hear about that," said Professor Slughorn. He lowered his voice even more, as he was speaking about very confidential matters. "But that wasn't the reason. I was thinking about you, in the aftermath of your little problem. And I realized a very positive secondary – or, I suppose you could say primary – implication of that problem. Have you noticed it?"

"I'm afraid that I haven't, Professor Slughorn," said Ginny.

"Ginny," said Professor Slughorn, "in magical terms, you are a third seventh son." This hit Ginny like several tons of bricks, and she very seriously wondered why she hadn't thought of it before Professor Slughorn pointed it out. Seventh sons, and recursive seventh sons, had no inherent magical properties, but they were the subject of various truly ancient prophecies, particularly third seventh sons. Families that believed in those prophecies, such as the Weasleys, were inclined to have many children in an attempt to attain seventh sons that could potentially be the subjects of those prophecies. According to the ancient definition of the "seventh son" concept, no girls could be born between any of the sons, and so it was easy for a family to get out of the running. Still, it was no surprise that seventh sons should naturally spring up more in the families that believed in the prophecies concerning them, regardless of whether they were true. "Septimus", Ginny's grandfather's name, literally meant "seventh". "Arthur", her father's name, came from a Muggle hero associated with Merlin. As far as Ginny previously understood, the Weasleys had finally run out of luck, at the last possible minute, when she was born. But apparently not, apparently that had only been the obvious interpretation, and not the true one.

"Oh," said Ginny. "I suppose that I am."

"And that, in combination with your unexpected Sorting, strongly suggested to me that you are destined for great things," said Professor Slughorn.

"Thank you," said Ginny, quietly, and Professor Slughorn smiled and nodded. Ginny slipped back into the crowd, and tried to reroute her train of thought to where it had been before. There was no immediate course of action Ginny could think to take, nothing about her current life to reconsider or change, originating from this newfound knowledge of her status as a third seventh son. Therefore, there was no point in letting it consume her. She should return to her previous directive:

"Hey, Draco?" said Ginny; she fumbled for a clipboard with a signup sheet attached to it.

"Yes?" said Draco, more intrigued already than she had expected.

"I'm forming a club for Hogwarts students," said Ginny, "and I wanted to know if you're interested."

"What is it?" said Draco.

"It's sort of a Harry Potter fanclub," said Ginny, "with a special emphasis on studying the Methods of Rationality that he's provided so we can raise our sanity waterline." Ginny had looked at the list of preexisting student clubs a few days prior, and had been surprised to find that no such thing already existed. Well, see a need, fill a need, that's how you get ahead. (More advanced Slytherins alternately use the "make a need, fill a need" formula.)

"Hmm," said Draco. "It sounds very interesting, but I'm afraid I've already met Harry Potter, and spoken to him at length. I haven't read the Methods of Rationality, but from what I've heard, I suspect he's already conveyed the same concepts in conversation with me." Ginny tried not to show her jealousy regarding this. "I suspect Blaise and Tracey would be interested, though, and I wish you good luck."

"Thank you," said Ginny, and Draco gestured farewell and left to mingle. Well, that was disappointing – it was a shame to miss out on someone so close to Harry, but at least he'd been amicable about it. Ginny decided not to ask Hermione – she probably had her own private one-person Harry Potter fanclub already. Soon, Ginny would have her own private network of people who understood her deep personal connection with Harry Potter.

"Is this a cult?" asked Sheila Carrow. Ginny wanted to bury her head in her hands in frustration, but she had too much dignity for that. She was leading over two dozen people, many of them older than herself, people who she had personally convinced to come to this abandoned classroom at this time. She would have to maintain her composure.

"No, and I'm offended by your insinuation," said Ginny.

"I'm sorry," said Sheila. Ginny nodded, and set off some small fireworks her brothers had lent her. None of them were present, despite at least Fred and George expressing admiration for Harry at points in the past; Ginny suspected this had something to do with her being their little sister. Another notable absence was Luna, who, despite her ongoing friendship with Ginny, had declined her invitation to this first meeting; although at least she had said that this was because she needed to catch up with the Methods of Rationality before attending any meetings.

"The first meeting of the Harry Potter fanclub is now in session," said Ginny. She scanned the room; the club's members were mostly from the first three years, though, to her dismay, Lesath Lestrange had also chosen to come to the meeting. Whether this was a result of his unusual interest in Harry Potter or something more sinister was anybody's guess. His presence was balanced out by Cedric Diggory, another older boy who was better-regarded. "To start out, who here has read the Methods of Rationality?" About half of those attending raised their hands. "Alright. Anyone who hasn't should by the next meeting, or at least start. They're a really quick read; you won't have any trouble getting through them."

"What are the Methods of Rationality?" asked Colin, right on script.

"I'm glad you asked," said Ginny. "The Methods of Rationality are Harry's newsletter, except, instead of covering current events, he covers techniques for how he thinks, and how we can think, if we try. How to think rationally, how to be less wrong. There's a new installment every Friday. His mission is to try to make wizards smarter on average, and given that he's Harry Potter, I think he's going to succeed, and we're going to have to keep up or else be left behind."

"What if it's a trick," said a first year Gryffindor named Karissa, "and he's trying to make us dumber so he'll have an easier time taking over the world?"

"That's an interesting hypothesis," said Ginny, "but you don't need to take Harry's tips on faith. They work through pure reason. If the Methods of Rationality told us to think in a way that didn't make sense, that would be blatantly out of line with the rest of it. Thank you for the question."

"If all of us are smarter, won't Harry have a harder time leading us?" said Lesath. "I don't want to be so stupid that I fail him, but I wouldn't want to be smart enough that I could accidentally unravel one of his plots." Ginny wasn't sure how to take this.

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's not how Harry would want you to think," said Ginny. "Read the Methods. Now, let's talk club structure. We are meeting on a weekly basis, on Mondays. My current plan is that I, Ginny Weasley, will be the Club President, and my assistant, Colin Creevey, will be the Club Vice President."

"Doesn't 'president' mean that you're elected?" said Tracey.

"Are we going to vote on this?" said Blaise.

"No!" said Ginny. A pause. "Um, maybe later if there's interest in an election we can hold one."

"I'm running for Club President!" said Blaise.

"What's the third Method of Rationality?" said Ginny. Silence. "I thought so. So. What would Harry want us to do with our time at our fanclub meeting?"

"Discuss current events, and the grievous issues facing the wizarding world?" said Colin.

"That's a good idea!" said Ginny. "What are some problems out there terrorizing the world that you think need solutions?"

"Blood purists?" suggested Penelope.

"A bit inflammatory," said Ginny. "But yes, true, absolutely. Blood purism is fundamentally irrational because I doesn't match the evidence, and on top of that it's a hate movement, which is a generally bad thing to associate yourself with. Interbreeding with Muggles and Muggle-borns consistently has no effect on strength of magic; a better explanation for the slow decline of some aspects of magic is the Interdict of Merlin, which hopefully won't continue to weaken us thanks to the rise of modern communication infrastructures. I'm not sure if blood purism is really the kind of problem we can look for a solution to, though. It probably would have faded out on its own if not for the actions of Voldemort, who is finally well and truly gone, though at great cost. My condolences to all present whose loved ones died at his hands. Any other problems facing the wizarding world today?"

"Our government kind of sucks," said Tracey.

"Bureaucratic inefficiency!" said Ginny. "A truly ancient problem that Muggles have had little more success fighting than ourselves. Any suggestions on how we could reform the Ministry of Magic to be more operational?" A pause, as people thought.

"I can't think of anything," said Tracey.

"Try to think for at least five minutes before you tell me that," said Ginny.

"What if we started an intergovernmental body that slowly overtook and replaced all of the world's magical governments, including the Ministry of Magic?" said Blaise.

"That would probably just make things worse," said Tracey.

"We should try to fix the system from within," said Cho. "Vote in officials who are saner than the current average until everything improves."

"Literally everybody has been trying that forever," said Tracey.

"That's a good point, Tracey," said Ginny. "We're far from the first people to think of this problem, so we shouldn't expect to come up with a working solution in an afternoon."

"No," said Tracey. "I mean, we should try to fix the system from outside. Start a violent revolution."

"That sounds like fun," said Colin, and Ginny shot him a look.

"I heard Hermione has a phoenix," said Flora.

"She's probably going to be the next Minister of Magic," said Hestia.

"I've never seen her with a phoenix," said Ginny, skeptical and hoping to reroute the conversation to Harry-Potter-related matters.

"It's true," said Cho. "She tries not to appear with it in public but she shows it off all the time in the Ravenclaw Common Room."

"They say that's how she wiped out Azkaban," said Flora.

"Azkaban was decommissioned by the Ministry of Magic and replaced with the Azkaban Memorial Museum," said Ginny.

"Oh, so you believe the official story?" said Hestia.

"I thought one of the Methods of Rationality was to doubt everything," said Flora. Ginny screamed, and then clapped her hand over her mouth.

After the disaster that had been the first meeting, Ginny didn't want to go on, and was considering disbanding the Harry Potter fanclub as soon as possible. She very well might have, had Harry Potter himself not made a surprise appearance at the second meeting.

"I heard you started a fanclub?" said Harry. He was a few minutes early, though most of the members were already there, milling about, waiting for the meeting to start.

"Yes," said Ginny, and blushed. Harry Potter was talking to her. Harry Potter. This was what she had always wanted. This was literally the best case scenario of starting a Harry Potter fanclub, which she had quickly dismissed as unlikely.

"I'm interested to see what you put together," said Harry.

"I'm the Club President, and Colin's the Club Vice President," said Ginny. "We're studying the Methods of Rationality."

"Oh! Harry!" said Sheila, cutting in. "I'm so glad to see you. I have a question that I've desperately been meaning to ask you."

"Yes?" said Harry. Sheila shielded her mouth and lowered her voice.

"Is this a cult?" asked Sheila. Harry got the most baffled look on his face.

"What?" said Harry. "No, of course not." An awkward silence. "Um, Ginny, could you excuse me for a moment?"

"Of course," said Ginny. Harry left the room, and Ginny suspected that she heard barely-contained laughter as he did. "Sheila! What have you done? You drove Harry off!"

"I'm sorry," said Sheila. "I'm just really afraid of joining a cult. I trust you and I trust Harry, but you can never be too careful, right?" Ginny wanted to push the matter further, but, to her delight and surprise, Harry was already back, and dragging a large chest with him.

"Hey, you wouldn't mind if I took over this club, would you?" said Harry.

"Of course not!" said Ginny.

"Alright," said Harry. "Then I'm the Club President, now, and you're the Club Vice President."

"What about me?" said Colin. Harry pondered this.

"You can be the Club Secretary of State," said Harry.

"What's that?" asked Ginny, gesturing to Harry's chest.

"A chest full of Muggle clothes," said Harry, opening it to reveal dozens of identical tee-shirts and pairs of jeans. "The Methods of Rationality are Muggle thinking techniques, so it's only fitting that you should wear Muggle garments while studying them to get in the right spirit."

"That makes sense," said Ginny. At this point, Luna entered the room.

"Hi, Ginny!" said Luna, ignoring Harry. "I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier. I had a problem with a Faldron-"

"What's that?" said Ginny.

"A Faldron," said Luna. "It's a little creature that takes up residence in your cauldron, and then it's just about impossible to get rid of."

"I've never heard of a Faldron," said Blaise.

"That doesn't mean it doesn't exist," said Luna.

"Read the Methods," said Blaise. Luna just stared at him.

"Here are your tee-shirt and jeans," said Harry. "Change into them before the meeting starts."

"Alright," said Luna, taking them from him, thinking little of it, leaving the room alongside several other girls. When Ginny got back, the room looked very different. Harry had removed the room's normal lighting and replaced it with candles; the room was much dimmer, now. Flora and Hestia Carrow were standing side-by-side across from the door, holding hands, humming rhythmically in a low register, wearing their new clothes. Harry had also removed all of the room's furniture, and was directing everyone to sit in a circle on the floor.

"Greetings, my young apprentices," said Harry, when he was satisfied that everyone had changed. He was standing above Lesath, who looked particularly funny in his ill-fitting uniform. "I am the new President of the Harry Potter fanclub, or, as it shall now be known, the More Sane Squad, because we have used our arcane knowledge of rationality to become more sane than the rest of the world. I am your instructor and your mentor in all intellectual matters. When I speak, you will respond with 'yes, Harry'. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Harry," mumbled Harry's new ensemble.

"We are the next generation, who will inherit the world," said Harry. "You will all take control much more rapidly than expected, and under my command. You will not always know what is best, and under such circumstances I will inform you of what you want and how to get it. Sometimes, it will be for the best that you question me, but I will tell you when that is the case. Understood?"

"Yes, Harry," said everyone present, except for those who had begun humming with Flora and Hestia, and Luna, who had crossed her arms and looked distinctly unimpressed.

"Lesath Lestrange," said Harry, not even bothering to look down at him, "would you sacrifice part of your magic forever for the advancement of my goals?"

"Yes, Lord," said Lesath.

"Yes, Harry," said Harry.

"Yes, Harry," said Lesath.

"Good," said Harry. "At the conclusion of the meeting, I will have as many of you as possible make Unbreakable Vows of loyalty to me. Given my own status as a Master Rationalist, this will only serve to make you more rational and improve your lives. Do you all find this acceptable?"

"Yes, Harry," murmured the crowd.

"Perfect!" cried Harry, and he began to laugh in a perfect impression of Professor Quirrell. "Do you all revoke all ties to your family, your friends, and your most deeply-held-beliefs, to serve rationality and only rationality, as it manifests before you, as me?"

"Yes, Harry," said the crowd.

"Do you revile cognitive blocks in any form in which they prevent themselves, and will you believe me when I tell you that you are suffering from one, and it needs to be corrected?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Harry," said the crowd.

"Would you give your life at a moment's notice on my orders, whether for such a noble purpose as to save my life, or for such a petty one as to make a point to an enemy?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Harry!" said the crowd.

"I want to see bowing!" shouted Harry. "No, not half-hearted couple-of-muscle bows, full-body bows! I want to see chests on the floor! That's better! Lesath!"

"Yes, Harry!" said Lesath.

"Lead the Squad in a round of 'hail the Dark Lord Harry!'" said Harry.

"Yes, Harry!" said Lesath. "Hail the Dark Lord Harry!"

"Hail the Dark Lord Harry!" said the crowd, now a bit confused.

"You lied!" shouted Sheila, ending the procession. Everyone stared at her. "You lied to me! This is a cult!" The candles all reached a simultaneous end, and the room's regular lighting returned. Harry gestured for the humming to stop.

"Yes," said Harry, "and how long did it take you to figure that out?" Harry stared at Sheila, but she had no answer. He addressed the crowd. "Much of what I've said in the past few minutes was facetious, to teach a lesson, particularly to Sheila, but also to all of you." Ginny was relieved to hear this; on some level she had enjoyed Harry's game but on some level she had been getting worried about how far it would go. "You can't just believe or accept things I say because I say them. I'm just one of you. If I convince you of something, it should be through pure logic and reason, not simply because I declare it to be so. You need to decide things for yourself. And obviously you can't just ask someone if they're starting a cult. If they were, they wouldn't tell you. You need to make observations and derive conclusions from them yourself."

"I'm sorry," said Sheila. "I'm just really afraid of joining a cult. My parents were in one, and it killed them both." Harry was momentarily left completely speechless.

"I'm sorry," said Harry, finally, and in the same moment, Ginny noticed that Luna had slipped out; she was gone.

"Luna!" said Ginny, catching up with her in a hallway looking out on the largest stairwell in the castle.

"How did your cult meeting go?" said Luna. Her voice was acidic in a way few had ever heard it.

"It wasn't actually a cult," said Ginny. "It was just a joke Harry was playing to teach us a lesson. Maybe it was a bit misguided..."

"That sounds an awful lot like an excuse to me," said Luna. "But it explains something. I've been reading the Methods of Rationality, and they're interesting, a bit pretentious at times, but interesting, they have some good points. And Harry, as I understood him from his writing, was acting completely out-of-character just now in that room. So I guess it makes sense that it was all just an act. Of course, it could be his writing that was all just an act. Or maybe both. So how did the rest of the meeting go?"

"Everything just kind of got more and more cultish," said Ginny, "to the point of absurdity, really, until Sheila screamed that she'd been lied to and it was a cult. At which point Harry stopped everything and revealed that it had all been a lesson for Sheila's benefit, to show her that it was stupid and pointless to ask someone if they were starting a cult, because they would lie if they were, and then there was this awkward moment where Sheila revealed that the reason she was so concerned was because she was deathly afraid of winding up like her parents, and then I noticed you were gone. And then the meeting returned to normal, pretty much. Everything from the first part of the meeting was discarded, except for the name 'The More Sane Squad', because Harry really liked that, I guess."

"Goody," said Luna, still dripping with sarcasm.

"And then I decided I had to know where you went and why, so I asked Harry if I could duck out early to find you," said Ginny.

"You went after me?" said Luna, her tone changing on a dime to its usual state. "That's very sweet." She smiled and sat on a nearby bench; Ginny followed suit. "As for why I left... Well... The meeting was exactly what I was worried it would be."

"But you said it was wildly out-of-character," complained Ginny.

"Yes, but only in how quick and obvious it all was," said Luna. "Even if it was all a joke, I still suspect that the More Sane Squad is going to turn into a cult. Gradually and subtly, maybe, but still. Harry thinks he doesn't have to worry about that, because he's caught on to how all religions go, big deadly irrational cults. But he hasn't actually fixed the problem at all, he's just created a 'cognitive blind spot', as he calls it, and his little bubble of ideology is going to balloon like all religions do, into a cult, with followers unquestioningly taking his little kernels of wisdom and worshiping him as an idol or God. Irrationality from rationality. Tragic, really."

"Um, Luna," said Ginny. She had trouble getting this out.

"What is it?" said Luna. "You sound stressed."

"I know Harry doesn't agree with me on this..." said Ginny. She struggled to find the words, and grasped for the fine golden chain around her neck. "But I don't actually think religion is an inherent irrationality. I'm not an agnostic, and I'm certainly not an atheist."

"What are you?" said Luna.

"I'm an Eastern Samothrace Orthodox Wizard Christian," said Ginny. Luna considered this.

"I'm sorry," said Luna, "but that's much more ridiculous than anything I believe. Filled to the brim with internal contradictions. Does 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' ring a bell?"

"It only says that in the Muggle Bible," said Ginny, taking on a tone of calm explanation rather than protest. "It's an issue of translation; the word Muggles translate as 'witch' translates more accurately as 'demon-summoner'."

"Alright," said Luna, "but even if God exists, which is an entirely different argument, why on Earth would you think that your specific sect, of all of the hundreds or thousands of competing ones, happens to be the correct one?" Something deep inside Ginny broke at that moment, and it would be long before she realized what that was.

"It's just a set of several different beliefs," said Ginny. "If it turns out that I'm wrong on the most specific ones, which I'm willing to accept as a possibility, then I still have my confidence in the less specific ones, which was already higher anyway. First, I'm a theist, then, I'm a Wizard Christian, then, I'm Eastern Samothrace Orthodox."

"What do you believe, and why do you believe it?" asked Luna.

"As a theist, I believe that the Lord God created the universe," said Ginny.

"Alright," said Luna. "Who is that?"

"The creator of the universe," said Ginny.

"Circular reasoning," said Luna. "Who is that? Go into some level of identifying detail, that separates him from the gods of other religions."

"His name is Yahweh," said Ginny. "He selected the Jews as His chosen people, and led and protected them for many eons. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. As a Wizard Christian, I believe that He sent His only son to die for our sins-"

"Define sins," said Luna.

"Ways we fall short of the glory of God, through disobedience," said Ginny. "Because we're all imperfect, we have all committed sins, and unless those sins are balanced out, none of us can ascend to Heaven. By suffering through the Crucifixion, and three days in Hell before His Resurrection, Jesus Christ, the son of God, atoned for all of our sins and gave us all the gift of eternal life in Heaven."

"Alright," said Luna. "Go on."

"Jesus Christ was also a father," said Ginny. "His wife Mary Magdalene bore his children. While the human aspect provided by Mary Magdalene meant that His children lacked the perfect intelligence and morality of God, they possessed some small fraction of His power, and those children became the first wizards."

"I'm sorry," said Luna, "but that's blatantly counterfactual. We have plenty of records and even magical artifacts predating Christ, for example from ancient Egypt. Wizards are descended from Atlantis, not from Jesus."

"Atlantis was lost to time," said Ginny. "We have no idea when it was founded or when it was destroyed. It's even possible that it hasn't been founded yet; the fallout from the destruction of Atlantis violated the Time-Turner rules of time travel and-"

"Complexity penalty," said Luna. "You'd need to find some way to travel through time further than six hours without being eaten by Nargles."

"There's no such thing as Nargles," said Ginny.

"There's no such thing as God," said Luna. Ginny glared at Luna but did not directly respond to her.

"As an Eastern Samothrace Orthodox Wizard Christian," said Ginny, "I believe that the true church was the one founded in Eastern Samothrace by the converted Muggle Pliny the Younger; it later fell into the control of wizards and was being managed by the Bishop Gregor when, as prophesized, it was ransacked and burnt by invaders." And the third seventh son will rebuild the church and bring wizardkind back to the light, Ginny thought, but didn't say. "The church has never been rebuilt despite several attempts, but Eastern Samothrace Orthodoxy remains the most common sect of Wizard Christianity." Which is dwindling, as the wizarding world is secularizing even faster than the Muggle one, Ginny also thought, but also didn't say.

"A very interesting story," said Luna, "but you skipped the most important question. Why do you believe it?" Ginny tried to say something, but couldn't. "You can't answer me, but you know the answer. It's because it's what your parents believe. If your parents had been Djinn Muslims, you'd have just finished telling me the fascinating story of Djinn Islam. If your parents had been Wizard Buddhists, you'd have just regaled me with the story of Buddha and how his wisdom improves your inherent magical power. And if your parents had been normal like mine, you wouldn't have a story at all and we wouldn't be having this conversation. The More Sane Squad? You're no more sane than I am. I didn't agree with everything in the Methods of Rationality, but at least I understood them."

"Luna," started Ginny, slowly. "You've given me a lot to think about. Do you think you could leave me alone for a while, and then we can talk again?"

"Sure," said Luna, and she stood up. "And you can go on being a Wizard Christian if you like. But if you do, please never bother me about being rational again." Luna left, reconsidered, came back, hugged Ginny, and then actually left.