Author's note: So...we finally got around finishing this chapter. And by "we", I mean my multiple personalities. We've been lounging around the new house doing absolutely nothing, and we're glad to be back!!
Review responses: Thanks to Elia950, ladysavay and Master of Bringsir for the reviews!
Elia950: Thank you, I' glad you like it! Unfortunately, I've never (watched? played?) Warcraft before, so I wouldn't know exactly how that looks...but sure, it looks like that! I'm not sure if I should put Harry in a harem, and I was already planning to pair them up with some other people...maybe "the panther one" will have Harry after all! ;)
ladysavay: *bows* Thanks! Harry's going to be appreciative, but he's only human. He might have his "right git" moments once a while, and the girls will have to knock some sense into that head of his! Hopefully he never has to go back there...but who knows? *shrugs melodramatically*
Master of Bringsir: Thank you! Thank you! I'm so happy that you like it! My multiple identities are doing a happy dance right now!
And noooooowwww.....On with the show!
Chapter II – The Burrow
Harry sauntered into the Dursleys' kitchen, humming happily. Behind him were his guardians, and though the muggles couldn't see them, he knew they could feel their power.
"Good morning!" he said, sliding into a seat and snagging a piece of toast from Vernon's plate. "How you all doing today? Fabulous weather, isn't it?"
Vernon, who had been watching the boy as if he had grown a second head, grew furious when he saw his actions. "Boy!" he called out. "What do you think you're doing: taking what's not yours? You give that piece of toast back to me this minute!"
Harry turned to stare at him, and his uncle flinched when he saw the glow in his eyes. He took a huge bite out of toast, chewed and swallowed before saying, "No, I don't think I will."
"Why, you ungrateful little!" Vernon stood and raised his hand to hit Harry, but instead a force-field that sent him sprawling backwards.
I've got your back, Elpheaba told him.
He turned to her and gave her a grateful smile, then turned back to his uncle. "I'm sorry, Vernon," he said. "But I'm protected now, and you can't touch me without hurting yourself. Just stay out of my way for a few more days and I'll be gone. And don't touch Dudley or Aunt Petunia either."
He gave a significant look to Shelley and Nadia, and they both said, "We're on it." They disappeared and reappeared at his actual relatives' sides.
Harry smiled and hurled Vernon up. "Well, I'll be going now. See you all around!"
I still want to hurt him, Ruia said, pushing the door open with her head and leading them out. Pushing him back with a simple force field wasn't enough for me.
Oh, be quiet dear, came Michaela's dreamy voice. We'll find someone he wants to hurt.
Harry smiled at the two girls' bickering as they led him out of the house for a morning walk. He could get used to this.
*~*~*~*~*
Harry watched amusedly as the girls ran around his now enlarged room making sure they had packed all of his belongings for his visit to the Burrow.
"You really don't have to do this, you know?" he tried to tell them once again. "I've been packing my own stuff since I learnt about Hogwarts."
"No! We're doing it and that's final!" Mich – who Harry was recognising to be the motherly one amongst them – said as she finally got his trunk closed.
"Face it kid, we're going to spoil you rotten," Nadia said, juggling five fireballs easily.
"Yeah, and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not," he muttered underneath his breath. He was certain the others heard him, but in respect for his privacy did not respond.
Ruia, who had been looking out of his window, suddenly looked back into the room and said, They're here.
Sure enough, there were three tell-tale pops of apparition and the doorbell rang. Harry stood from the bed and reached for his trunk, but Shelley smacked his hand away.
"I got it!" she said cheerfully and lifted the heavy trunk above her head and grinned at Harry, who was standing open-mouthed at her.
"I wouldn't think that...you look tiny...that's heavy...are you using a spell?" he finally managed to ask.
Shelley beamed at him before turning to the door. Ruia butted his legs and forced him to so after her.
"Harry!" Remus said, turning to engulf the teen in a hug, but stopped when his trunk hit him in the face, causing him to fall on his arse.
"...Oops," Harry snickered, walking around the – seemingly – floating trunk in front of him and helped his honorary godfather up, then giving him a heartfelt hug.
"Hiya Moony," he whispered into the older man's ear.
"Harry...you're alright. We were so scared you would...do something irrational," Remus said, giving back as much as he took from the hug.
Harry guiltily bowed his head, thinking about what he would have done if the angels hadn't rescued him. What had he been thinking? He was going to leave so many people who cared about him behind! What he had been thinking of doing had been extremely selfish.
Clearing his throat, he broke away from Remus and grinned at Tonks and Bill Weasley.
"Sorry about the trunk," he said, gesturing at the floating box. "I was going to carry it myself, but...well; I don't think I should explain it here. Let's get going."
Excuse me? Ruia's indignant voice said in his head. Remember what we talked about yesterday?
Harry winced. Of course he remembered, but he pretty sure his friends wouldn't understand why he had a "snake" as his "familiar". But Ruia was pretty insistent when she wanted to be. He now understood how the others felt when she had forced them to accept him as their new ward.
Yeah...I kinda did. You transform and crawl up here and I'll tell them, he said, bending to pick up a long black snake with golden spirals decorating her skin.
"Guys? There's something you have to know," Harry began. "I kinda got a pet...familiar during my time here. Meet Ruia – you can call her Rie."
Ruia poked out of sleeve and hissed a greeting to them. She did have to act like a magical snake after all.
Although they seemed surprised, the three Order members just nodded and Bill pulled out a piece of paper, muttering the Portkey spell at it.
"Well then, grab on and we'll be heading to the Burrow."
Nodding, Harry grabbed hold of it, but turned to the others, slightly worried about been away from them.
Mich grinned and said, "Don't worry...we might even get there before you do."
Harry snorted and felt the familiar jerk at his navel. He landed on Tonks, who had been trying to get up from her first fall.
"Harry!" Molly Weasley said, helping him up and engulfing him in a hug.
Behind her stood the rest of the Weasley family, Hermione and the angles. Shelley grinned and waved from her uncomfortable position on Nadia's shoulders.
"Oh, blimey, Harry, we forgot your trunk!" Bill said, smacking his forehead.
"No it's alright Bill, it's probably upstairs already," he dismissed.
Shelley, who had settled on Nadia's shoulder's, let go of the fire-being to give him two thumbs-up, but lost her balance and caused both of them to fall; Shelley on her butt and Nadia face flat.
Harry moved away from them so he wouldn't burst out laughing and make the Weasleys think he had gone mad.
"You look great, Harry!" the Weasley matriarch exclaimed after she pulled him away to look at him. "Turning sixteen had really brought out your eyes!"
"Yeah mate...you almost look shaggable," Ron said, throwing an arm around his best friend.
"Ronald, don't tease," Hermione admonished with a roll of her eyes. "Hello Harry, how are you?"
"Pretty good," he answered, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "You look good, Mione."
"Yes, well...Italy was a great place to relax," she said, blushing slightly at Harry's comment.
"Ooh, someone has a crush on cute little Harry," Elpheaba teased when she crept up from behind him.
Starting slightly, Harry sent an unamused look behind him and sat in a love seat next to Ginny. "I'll go upstairs and make sure my trunk's here. Coming, Ron, Hermione?"
Catching the hidden message in his statement, his best friends nodded and led him to Ron's bedroom. Swiftly entering the room and closing the door, Ron jumped straight to the point and asked, "What's going on? A new look, some more magic from what I heard and you've got a pet snake," he ended, pointing to Ruia, whose slender head was now sticking out of his collar.
Harry sighed; he wasn't sure how his friends would take then news. Hermione would squeal and research as much as she could, but Ron...well, Ron would both accept it and be happy for him...or he could just be Ron.
It's now or never, Ruia said seriously, feeling Harry's uncertainty, and I'm pretty sure you want to tell them about us.
Harry nodded sharply, took a deep breath and started from the very beginning, "After Sirius died, I was devastated and I just wanted to die. So I planned to commit suicide as soon as I turned sixteen."
Hermione's horrified gasp and Ron's face losing its colour made him reconsider doing this after all. You can do it, Ruia motivated, licking his chin with her forked tongue to give him some inspiration.
He smiled gratefully and continued the tale, "Vernon Dursley though, was well on his way to committing murder since he heard that my criminal godfather was dead and he wouldn't be around to harm him if he did anything to me. This summer was honestly my worse, and if what happened hadn't, I don't think there would have been a Boy-Who-lived anymore."
Hermione's eyes shined with unshed tears and Ron had backed up into a seat, his eyes disbelieving.
"You...you don't even look like..." Ron muttered, shaking his head in denial.
"I'm getting to that part," Harry assured his friends. "Hermione, what do you know about guardian angels?"
Clearing her throat, the girl transformed to the know-it-all and answered, "Well, they're spiritual beings that watch over mortals and when one of us is in serious need of help and a miracle, they assign themselves to the mortal and keep the person as their charge.
"There are three types of guardian angels: the low-level angels who consist of one-fifth of the whole guardian community. They have the least powerful powers and they are what muggles usually consider as "guardian angels". They stay up at wherever angels stay and watch over their charges and help them occasionally. They never meet their charges, who are mostly muggles.
"The second type of guardian angels are the middle-level ones who take up three-fifths of the guardian population. Obviously, they are the most common type of guardian angel. They have more power than the low-level guardians, but they have less than the high-level angels. They have charges that are a mixture of mundane and magical people. Sometimes they're here on earth with their charges, but they don't stay with them all the time. They move from their world to ours when their charges extremely need them.
"Thirdly, there are the high-ranking guardian angels, which are considered the leaders of the guardians. Very rarely do they have a charge that is mundane, and they believe that the only people deserving of their – very excellent, I must put in here – services are people that are certain to be put in history books after their demise. The most popular high-ranking guardians are the Penta sisters, who are also the only angels that work together," she finally finished.
"And what do you know about these sisters?" Harry asked.
"Well, for starters, they're not actually sisters. They are the only angels to be created, not dead people, they were created on the same day, they've known each other and been together since the day they open their eyes, so everyone calls them sisters. Penta is basically "five" in their language, and that tells you that they are five girls.
"There's the oldest, Michaela. She's an earth Elemental, a Seer and a Healer. She's the one that usually mothers their charges to death. She's just like your mother, actually, Ron," she said, turning to flash a grin at Ron, who sent a death glare back at her.
"The second to be created was Nadia. She controls the element of fire, and she's really aggressive. She's also a Necromancer, so she feels more connected with the dead or dying than the living. She also has super strength and speed, and she's the self-proclaimed bodyguard of their charge.
"Next to be created was Elpheaba, a water Elemental and Metamorphosis. She also has tons of what we would call "degrees" in risk-taking and finances and legal stuff like that. She's like fun big sister and lawyer of the group, and possibly the most logical out of all the sisters.
"Fourth is Shelley, an overly hyperactive air Elemental and a Veela. She's a "let's do it now!" kind of person, and books call her the "cheerleader" of the group. Myth has it that not even the sisters are sure if her cheerful personality affects them because it's a power, or it just does because it's hard to be grumpy when she's around.
"And lastly...there's Ruia. I can honestly say I'm fascinated by her, because there's absolutely nothing about her. It's almost like she's made up or something. She can't be an Elemental, and I have no idea what kind of powers she has. Maybe that's her power: to make sure no one knows her power. Who knows? Unless one of us actually gets lucky enough to become their charge...oh bloody hell, Harry!" she finally got on. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
Harry grinned cheekily at her, but Ron's face had developed a confused look on his face, and he turned to Harry and asked, "What's she on about, 'Ry?"
He grimaced at the utterly annoying nickname and answered, "Hermione Jean Granger and Ronald Bilius Weasley, I, Harry James Potter-Black, am honoured to share a life-changing secret with you. I present to you...the Penta sisters."
Slowly, like a present that had been highly anticipated and now had to be savoured, the four girls appeared to the other two in the room. Hermione, about to have a conniption from excitement, finally threw herself at Harry, squealing excitedly.
"Oh, Harry! I'm so happy for you!" she exclaimed, crushing him in an unyielding hug.
"Mione...you're suffocating me," Harry was able to say, and she immediately let him go, blushing furiously.
"'Ry? Harry? There are four extremely gorgeous girls in my room. And they're all staring at me. And one is walking up to be right now," Ron said in a dazed voice, his eyes never leaving Shelley's as she walked over to him, smirking.
"Hi. I'm Shelley. You can call me Shells," she purred, leaning over to him. "What's yours?"
"I'm Ron," he breathed in awe. "You can call me Ron."
Shelley giggled happily, turned off her Veela charm and threw her arms around him. "Oh Ron, we're going to be the best of friends!" she gushed, squeezing him happily.
Hermione sent a disbelieving look to the pair and muttered, "So that part about the sisters is true. The girl's on a permanent high."
Elpheaba, who had been trying to sneak up Hermione and scare her, snorted at the younger girl's statement and ended up on the floor, rolling around laughing.
The two standing shared a bewildered look before Michaela promptly attached herself to Hermione and insisted on doing her hair, producing a bag of exotic hair products for the bushy-haired girl.
"Harry," Hermione called out ten minutes after the plant-being had ambushed her, "does this mean Ruia really doesn't exist?"
Of course I exist, Ruia said, turning her head to look at the girl. I just don't like all the popularity.
"Okay, so skill #1: telepathy. I understand where you're coming from with your argument," Hermione called out to the air, not realising where the youngest of the angels was, "but your not showing yourself to anyone has made you more popular. The fact that no one knows anything about you makes them more intrigued, hence more popularity."
"In all our thousands of years or existence, why didn't we think of something like that?" Nadia grumbled from her place in front of the door where she was drawing out a plan in case there was an emergency and they need to evacuate the building.
"Probably because none of us actually understands the mind-boggling minds of mortals," Elpheaba helped as she threw an Exploding Snap card down and caused the mini- bomb to go off.
"I resent that comment," Hermione said, sighing as Michaela massaged her shoulders. "Wow, you're really good at what you do, Mich."
Mich beamed from the praise, causing flowers to erupt all around them. Ron and Shelley, who had been engrossed in a game of Wizard's Chess, threw the board away and began rolling around in the grass, laughing happily.
"You know Harry, I could really get used to this," Hermione said, giving him a lazy smile from the bed.
"I know, Hermione, I know."
And then Harry knew that even if Voldemort appeared right that moment and tried to kill him, he wouldn't succeed easily. Because love, life and friendship were on his side. Not to mention five hot immortals.
*~*~*~*
The Golden Trio has met the Panta sisters! And Hermione's gone "know-it-all" on them! I bet they like that, huh?
Next chapter...Diagon Alley! Luna Lovegood! Draco Malfoy! The Penta sisters!
Review! Please? Thank you!!! :D