A/N: I am both J. K. Rowling AND Clamp! Wait... no I'm not! Therefore I must own NOTHING!
You people probably DON'T want to read Order of the Phoenix again chapter by chapter, so don't be surprised if you find I've skipped ahead. The further and further we get into the book, the greater and greater the differences will be (This is a corollary of Chaos Theory), so also don't be surprised to find more 'That didn't happen in the book!'
I can't write Quidditch, and you've already read this match, so I'm not going to try. If you REALLY need to know what happened, go crack open your copy of Order of the Phoenix, and go to Chapter 19: The Lion and the Serpent.
Chapter 4: These portraits flip me out!
"Expelliarmus!"
"Expelliarmus!!"
Sakura and Michael Corner (at Ron's assistance) had shouted simultaneously at each other, and Sakura at once felt her wand fly out of her hand. She, however, caught Michael's wand, that also flew out of her hand.
"Excellent!" Harry said, as that they had both perfectly performed the jinx and were now holding each others wands. They tossed each other their own wands back.
They were at the first meeting called to order after Dobby the house elf had told Harry how to find the Room of Requirement. Sakura had, of course, been awed by it's capablilities, and soon they were starting the first meeting of the group they affectionately called Dumbledore's Army.
"You two are my star pupils!" he said smiling, then looked embarrassed to have ever said such a teacher-like thing as 'star pupil'.
"You should start on the Reducto Curse," He said, concentrating hard and three metallic practice dummies appeared near the wall.
"You want to jab, like this," Harry said, directing them, "And then the incantation: Reducto!" And just like that a brief red flash and the target had all be completely dissolved into vapor and dust, "Alright, you try it now."
"Reducto!" The dummies arms, legs and head fell off, and the rest of it collapsed along with it.
"Alright," Harry said, "Your trying to add a flourish at the end. We're lucky the wall behind the dummy didn't get it. You try it Sakura."
"Reducto!" Sakura said, pointing her wand at the dummy and concentrating with all her might. The dummy shattered into many pieces, not as small as Harry's, but Sakura had learned from Michael's mistake and made sure not to do any unnecessary wand movements.
"Alright, a couple more tries with that, and I think you'll have that down." Harry said, repairing the two target dummies and then moving on to Ginny and Neville.
"Expelliarmus!" Neville had shouted, and Ginny's wand gave a tug, but didn't come off completely.
"Your flicking it, Neville," Ginny said pleasantly and patiently with a smile, "you've got to flourish it like this. Expelliarmus!" pointing and flourishing it at Geroge, who's wand that had been trained on Zacharias (who wasn't actually his partner, he was just messing with his head), and immediately his wand flew to Ginny's hand.
"Oy!" George said.
"Expelliarmus!" said Fred, and Ginny dropped her own wand, so that only George's wand flew back toward Fred. Picking up her wand, she said, "Now, try it again."
He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, opening them he shouted, "Expelliarmus!!" and pointed with a perfect flourish at Ginny. Instantly, not only was Ginny's wand zooming toward Neville as if it had been summoned, but Ginny flew back as if a small explosion had occurred at the point her hand met her wand. Neville, so surprised it had worked at all, let alone been as powerful as it was, ran forward towards Ginny, his own wand hitting the ground as Ginny's bounced off his hand. Ginny lay there and started picking herself up, moaning slightly.
"Ginny!" Neville and Harry had said, running over to her. Michael stood dumbfounded, completely confused as he had been paying attention to his spell casting.
"Are you alright!" Neville cried as Harry slid beside her and held her up by her shoulders.
"Easy," Harry said, but Ginny simply smiled and picked herself up.
"Come on, Harry! I want to play Quidditch! That was nothing!" Then looking at Neville, deeply impressed, "Neville, that was incredible!"
Neville immediately turned something the color of a stop sign, while Michael finally snapped out of it, rushing over to Ginny.
"Are you alright!" Michael said.
"Yes, yes. I'm fine Michael." She said with a smile.
Sakura couldn't help but smile as Harry watched after her as Michael and Ginny walked towards a bench against the far wall. He turned and walked past her, muttering something to the effect of, "She's Ron's sister! Of course, I'd be protective!"
"Reducto!" She said, turning her dummy into coarse gravel.
* * *
"M-my lord! I-I return!" Peter Petegrew walked towards Voldemort bowing low and repetitiously, so that he looked rather ridiculous. Voldemort sat on a icy looking stone chair, which looked quite like a throne.
"What good news do you bring me, Wormtail?" Voldemort hissed.
"A-a girl... a sorcerer half-brute, she...is studying at Hogwarts. S-she is very close to Harry and those horrible brats he calls friends,"
"A sorcerer?" Voldemort smiled casually, talking mostly to himself, "What rubbish is Dumbledore allowing at Hogwarts now?" He thought carefully for several minutes, "Wormtail."
He visibly shook.
"Return to Hogwarts, find out everything you can about this... sorcerer. I want no surprises when I enact my plan."
* * *
"What's on your mind, Sakura?" Ceroberos said to Sakura, floating a slight distance from her head.
She was wandering again. Sakura smiled at the thought as she turned the corner of a corridor. Tomoyo had been the one who had noticed it first. She wandered whenever she needed to think out something difficult. Almost two weeks had passed, and not a single one of the situational events surrounding either of her divinations had turned up. The rest of her friends had all but moved on, Harry and Ron had resumed an outrageous Quidditch regiment once they had finally gotten permission back from that blasted Umbridge woman, Hermione was preparing for an exam, and that meant that almost all attention was focused on that and that alone. This left Sakura to try and figure it out alone, except with Ceroberos' help.
"I still got nothing on those divinations." She sighed.
"Hmm," Kero reflected, "Did you mention it to Eriol in that last letter you sent him?"
"Yes," She said grumpily, "Told me it was something that I and I alone could figure out."
"Humph," Ceroberos said, "Sounds exactly like the kind of ate-up excuse that lazy kid would give."
They walked in silence, a couple of ghosts passed through the wall ahead of them, and, even though Sakura had all but gotten used to them, she still felt cold sweat begin to form as they passed through the wall in an exit.
"Have you tried using 'The Dream'?" Ceroberos said.
Sakura nodded, "Too much magical interference, I get other peoples dreams as well. Some of the dreams I get are rather..." She said blushing, "Interesting. 'Interesting' enough that I don't want to try it again."
Ceroberos sighed, they hit a stairwell and waited for a set of stairs to move to where Sakura was heading.
"These portraits flip me out!" Ceroberos said.
"Yeah," Sakura said, "There cool, aren't they?"
"We'd better get to that meeting. It's getting late," They walked up the stairs that had finally arrived. Sakura and Ceroberos walked down a corridor, but instead of turning around the corner that would lead to the room of requirement, Sakura stopped.
"What is it Sakura?" Ceroberos asked.
"Can you sense that presence?"
"Hmmm... Yes, it's an animal. A cat I think."
"It's Miss Noris, Mr. Filch's cat."
"Well, what do we do? We can't possibly enter the room without tipping off Miss Noris."
Sakura peered around the corner, where the cat sat quite still, right in front of the wall where the room of requirement was. Apparently, Miss Noris had already spotted someone entering and was watching to see who came out.
"Magic, I think will be necessary, and quickly! I can sense someone else coming: human, I think Professor Snape," Kero peered around the corridor, "What are you going to do?" but Sakura was already holding the sealed key and pulled out a card.
"Key of the star with powers burning bright, reveal the staff and shine your light! Release!" The resulting blasts of wind was more than enough to attract Miss Noris' attention, but the meddlesome cat hadn't taken three steps before Sakura whipped the Sealing Staff down upon the card striking it and crying, "Sleep! Place Miss Noris and Professor Snape under your spell! Release!"
The twittering fairy that was 'The Sleeps' visible form took off and before Miss Noris had even the opportunity to begin to wonder what was happening, it had fallen over, snoozing soundly as if it had been petrified all over again. 'The Sleep' continued down the hall and veered off the the left, and after a few seconds, she returned, floating and smiling at Sakura.
"Excellent, Sleep! Good job!" Sakura held out her hand and instantly sleep glowed and zipped to her hand in card form, "That should take care of that!" Sakura said and walked up to the wall across from the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls ballet, and paced the wall three times, as a magical door appeared.
"All right, Kero: No talking, remember," She said with accusation, "We're trying to keep something of a cover here. Everybody in the school doesn't need to know I'm a sorcerer. If your good, I'll have Sweet whip you up something nice."
"Yahoo!!" Kero said gleefully.
"Kero!"
"Oh, right!" He said apologetically, and made the zipping-of-the-lips gesture.
Sakura opened the door, and drew her wand just in time to deflect an Impedimentia Jinx. She walked in and smiled at Colin Creevey's 'sorry!'. Ceroberos wandered to the dark detectors, observing the shadowy figures of the foe glass. Sakura walked over to Harry and bowed slightly, "I'm sorry I'm late, Professor Potter," She said 'Professor Potter' just loud enough that Fred and George could here her, and get a good laugh out of it.
Harry rolled his eyes and muttered 'Professor Potter' under his breath before saying, "Alright, today we're learning to focus our happy memories, so we'll be ready to do Patronus' after the break." He blew his whistle, everyone stopped practicing and gathered around in a wide circle, he explained the lesson. Everyone was to pick a happy memory and practice being able to focus on it while their partner tried to distract them and loose focus.
"Show us how it's done, Harry!" Lavender Brown said.
"What?"
"Show us your Patronus!" Anthony Goldstein said excitedly.
"All right," He drew his wand and, "Expecto Patronum!" Instantly a white silvery mist poured out and came alive as it became a silvery white stag, brilliant in it's brightness. There were some cheers as the stag galloped around the edge before stopping and nussaling Ginny and Cho, both of whom 'Awww'-ed, before the patronus began to disappear.
"Whats your happy memory?" Sakura said quietly, suddenly feeling like she should be remembering something she just couldn't think of.
"I-I don't like to talk about it, but it's a memory of my mother and father," He said. He was quiet for a second before piping up, "Okay, so get in pairs and get to work!" Ceroberos sat silently and intently in the corner of the room, watching the wizards focus, as their counterparts tried various ways of distracting them. Michael, Sakura's partner again, conjured a feather and tried tickling her with it, but this was never going to be enough. The memory Sakura had chosen was her first kiss, with Lee some three years ago. It had been brief, unintentional, but wonderful all the same, and there was no way Michael was going to-
"Look! Dumbledore is making out with Snape!" Ginny shouted and pointed at the blank wall, this not only distracted Sakura, but half a dozen others as well.
All right, Sakura thought, That was pretty good, I'll give her credit for that one.
Ron was concentrating, but Hermione was whispering in his ear, and Sakura could tell by Hermione's neutral expression that it wasn't what she was saying that was distracting him, but Hermione's breath on his neck that was making his eyes get wide, and his original happy memory long forgotten.
"Remember! If your out there," Harry said gesturing out the door and to the world beyond, "and you need to use this spell, it's not going to be in a room full of friendly faces. If your attacked by a dementor, your insides are going to feel like they've been frozen solid, and your going to feel like all the happiness in the world has gone to dust. It's important that you stay focused, and keep concentrating. 'Constant Vigilance', as a friend of ours once said," and everyone who had taken 'Professor Moody's' Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons laughed.
Sakura froze as rapid realization fell on her. What was a dementor? A macabre cloaked figure with scabbed skin that never healed, had no eyes only a terrible mouth. An image of 'The Shadow' flashed through her minds eye. They sucked out the heat and feeling out of the air, leaving nothing but cold and freezing despair, and again, the image of 'The Freeze' passed over her eyes. Did the divination have something to do with dementors? She was snapped out of her revelation by a stray Bug Eyed Hex and was barely able to put up a Shield Charm before being hit by it.
Hermione and Ron were quite pleased with how much better Harry was feeling now that he was teaching. He snapped at them less, smiled more often, and the glint was back in his eyes, and he had only improved that much more when Gryffindor had gotten permission to fly again.
* * *
Sakura groaned loudly as the great din became louder and louder, and even more pronounced.
"WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING! HE CANNOT BLOCK A SINGLE RING! THATS WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING: WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"
"WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN! HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN! HE'LL MAKE SURE WE WIN! WEASLEY IS OUR KING!!"
Just one card! Thats all she'd need to make the Slytherin bakutoni shut the hell up! It made her want to scream that she couldn't do it! She couldn't reveal her powers in front of the whole school. Not right now, not like this. So, for now, 'The Silent', who whole-heartedly agreed with Sakura that the ruckus was indeed appalling and needed to be silenced, was left waiting in her robe pocket.
So, she watched, clutching the magic key in her hand, eyes burning down at the Quidditch pitch. If we loose, Malfoy is going to die.
But they didn't loose. Ron might have been mortified, but somehow he managed to stay somewhat on form. Harry had been watching the game progress, instead of trying to catch the snitch, apparently just as incensed with Slytherin's new theme song as Sakura was, and was given quite a scolding for not playing the game. All this aside, Gryffindor still beat Slytherin 30 to 170.
The trouble didn't start until after the match. The two teams had landed on the pitch: the Gryffindors cheering amongst themselves, while the Slytherins bitterly prepared to leave for the locker room, but Malfoy didn't. He sauntered over to Gryffindors. Sakura's eyes narrowed, and her nostrils flared as if she smelled something disgusting.
She turned to run down the stairs, but the second she noticed that the rest of the Gryffindors in the tower pennant she released the staff.
"Illusion, protect my identity! Sword!" Not even bothering to stop, she took three swings and sliced through the fabric that walled the inside of tower, and jumped through the whole she made. Falling to the rapidly growing ground, she returned 'The Sword' and cast 'The Fly' about fifteen feet above ground, growing angelic wings out of her shoulder blades. She flew rapidly to the group of Gryffindors being taunted by Malfoy, still being protected by 'The Illusion'.
"...Or perhaps," Malfoy was saying, "You can remember what your mother's house smelled like, and the Weasley's place just reminds you of it."
Harry and Geroge had broken free and were just about to charge at Malfoy when Sakura slided in, released 'The Fly' and telepathically changed 'The Illusion' to reveal herself to the group around her, simultaneously striking 'The Thunder'.
The effect was instantaneous. Harry and George stepped back, because Sakura had appeared to be a small bird just a moment before, and watched as Sakura brandished the Staff of Sealing at Malfoy. Lightning was dancing all around Sakura menacingly, carving dark grooves on the ground. All in all, it took Sakura about 30 seconds from the top of the tower to the middle of the pitch.
"Your just too annoying to keep alive, aren't you Malfoy?" Sakura did not have the artificial smile she had when she had first confronted him. The look she gave was truly murderous, and the lightning that was striking randomly from the head of the staff served to enforce that point. Malfoy, alone, fell backward, looking up to the stands of people leaving, unable to see the spectacle unfolding a hundred feet away.
"Now, listen here Malfoy!" Sakura jabbed her staff at him, lightning striking around Malfoy and making him whimper loudly, "If you keep up your idiocy: your fathers influence, your pet teacher Snape, your blood status, your quick venomed tongue, all the gold in Gringots... NOTHING will save you from my wrath!" For almost five full seconds the full Gryffindor quidditch team, plus Hermione and a gasping Malfoy stood there in silence, "NOW GO!" Sakura roared. The lightning striking around her growing more erratic.
Malfoy sprung up and ran across the pitch screaming bloody murder. No one in their right mind would believe him. She left no marks except the grass she could repair with 'The Wood', and he would have to claim she had attacked him in the middle of a Quidditch pitch where at least a hundred people were still in the stands.
She turned around, smiled humbly to the Griffindors watching her with bugged eyes and dropped jaws, spun her her staff a few times before both cards and the Sealing Staff returned to their sealed forms.
"What the God loving hell-!" George spluttered.
"Bloody hell woman-!" Fred said exactly as his brother.
All the rest of the Gryffidors assembled gave similar remarks, save Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"What?" Sakura said innocently.
"I think I just about wet myself, and I wasn't even on the receiving end of... well, whatever it was that you just did!" Fred cried.
"Yeah, Sakura, that might have been just a little overkill," Harry said, wincing a little.
"Well," Sakura said with slight indignation, "People like Malfoy just don't learn unless you put up some... theatrics."
"Wait," George cried, eyes gleaming, "That whole act was an illusion?"
"No, everything you saw was real. I could have actually fried Malfoy if I wanted to, but I was in control, and trust me, if Illusion did it's job properly, we all probably looked like we where having an in depth Quidditch discussion,"
"What!" Angelina said flabbergasted. The rest were too stunned or too confused to think. So Sakura had no choice but to tell them her story in its entirety, as that nothing less would make any sense.
"So that weird stuffed animal that floats around you and you call a 'pet' is actually an powerful guardian beast?" Katie said wondrously.
"Your a sorcerer?" Piped in Alica Spinnet, recalling the powerful bit of magic she just performed, "Is anything that Umbridge woman teaches us actually true?!"
"Yes, yes, and NO!" Sakura said, looking around, as if to make sure they weren't being listened to, "If you don't mind, I don't want to miss lunch. I'm hungry."
Late that evening, Sakura, Ceroberos. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were all sitting in front of the fire. Ginny had apparently fallen asleep doing her Herbology essay. Hermione was giving her furtive glances every few minutes, as if she were deciding to wake her up or not. She had just opened his mouth when Ron spoke, not even having to look up.
"Let her sleep, Hermione."
"If she doesn't finish that essay of Snape's..." She let the thought hang in the air.
"I'll help her." Harry volunteered quietly.
"Is yours finished?" Hermione admonished.
"No, I'm doing it tomorrow!"
Hermione scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. Ron smiled in a 'glad it's not me' sort of way, and Sakura simply smiled. Harry, ignoring the look, looked strait to Ron, and struck up a Quidditch conversation. Sakura kept reading from Book of Spells: Grade 3. It had been agreed universally that Sakura was progressing a prestigious rate. So fast that it impressed Hermione, made Harry shake his head, and downright scared Ron. The truth of it was that as she read and practiced the things she read just seemed to make sense to her. It almost felt as if she was simply reviewing what she had already read, and remembering things she had forgotten.
This fact led her to remember her indirect ancestor, Clow Reed. She wondered if they had records back that far. Then again, she had seen a book called Vetus Tutela Alica, which in Latin meant "The Old Protection Spells". This book was still on the shelf and it was over 700 years old! She had checked that one out and found several shield charms similar to 'The Shield' card, spells that were strengthened by the feelings and emotions associated with the target.
Sakura was shaken out of her reverie by a sudden and loud squeal by Hermione, who was now standing by the window.
"Hagrid's back!" Hermione exclaimed.
They all rushed across the grounds, there identities being protected by both Harry's cloak of invisibility and 'The Illusion', so they would appear as small animals, one underneath an invisibility cloak. They had all told Sakura about Hagrid and his apparent awesomeness, but Sakura had never actually met him before because of his odd leave of absence that Harry, Hermione, and Ron seemed unable to explain. She knew they were hiding knowledge back from her, but she didn't mind. Everything Sakura needed to know had a tendency to be revealed to her when it was necessary for her to know. The four of them stumbled through the ever mounting snow fall as they neared their destination. This only suited to reminder her that the divination she had made was to take place when it was snowing. She was suddenly reminded of how very alone they were in comparison to being in the castle with hundreds of people.
Harry reached the gamekeepers hut first and before he had even stopped started knocking on the door.
"Hagrid! It's us!" Harry said, catching his breath.
"Shoulda known!" Hagrid mumbled from behind the door. Sakura could tell from the smiles on Ron and Hermione's faces that they were ecstatic to see him again, "Been home three seconds... outta the way, Fang... outta the way yeh dozy dog!" Sakura sealed 'The Illusion' and returned her staff to key form, figuring that they were safe here.
Sakura heard the bolt being drawn back, and the door was drawn open. Sakura and Hermione both screamed slightly. Before her was the largest man she had ever seen! They had told him he was big, that he was part giant, even, but nothing actually did justice the size of the man she was staring at than to actually see him for herself. He was easily twice ass tall as Sakura, and had to be at four times her width. It wasn't his size, however, that had made Sakura scream, it was his face. To be put mildly, it looked as if his face had be hit by a truck, repeatedly. His whole face was a kind of purple, and his lip was split cleanly down the middle. One of his black eyes was swollen shut, and cut across the top of the same side of his forehead was bleeding rather steadily.
"Merlin's beard!" Hagrid said almost as loudly as they had screamed, "You to hafta keep it down- Hey wait. Who are you?" He said surprised.
"Oh Hagrid," Ignoring his question completely, "What happened!" Sakura was still slightly stunned by his appearance.
Seeing that his question wasn't getting answered outside, or anytime soon for that matter, he gestured them inside.
"It's nothin', it's nothin'!" He said almost annoyed, as if Hermione had already started fussing over him like a mother.
"Hagrid!" Harry said, "What happened to you!"
"Yeah!" Ron said.
"I said nothin'" He said firmly as he placed a large brass kettle over a fire, "Wanna cuppa?"
"Oh, come off it," Ron said with wide eyes, almost stuttering, "Your in a right state!"
"I'm telling you, I'm fine!" He said turning to beam at them, but wincing instead, "Blimey it's good to see y'all again!" He said happily, turning his attention to Sakura, "and who migh' you be?"
Sakura, realizing she was being very impolite, "S-Sakura, Sakura Kinomoto. I'm a transfer student from Japan."
"Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed, "You've been attacked!"
"For the last time, it's nuttin!"
After she had forced herself to talk, Sakura's initial shock dissipated, but decided that this was a conversation best left to people who knew Hagrid.
"Hagrid! Would you say it was nothing if one of us showed up with a pound of mince instead of a face!?" Ron demanded.
"Hagrid, those cuts look pretty bad. Perhaps you should have Madame Pomfrey look at them?"
"I'm dealing with it, I'm dealing with it!" He said, picking up a large slab of disgusting looking green meat, and slapping it on his largest cut, "See?"
"Wha-! That meats long gone Hagrid! Did you addle your brains too!?" Ron said.
"I did not addle ma brains!" Hagrid said defiantly, "It's dragons meat! Healing propratie's ya know?" He said moaning in relief.
"So Hagrid, are you going to tell us whats up?" Harry said.
"Can't" He said looking to Sakura, "Top secret, worth more'n me jobs worth than tellin ya."
Hermione looked back to Sakura, "Sakura's fine Hagrid! Anything you could tell us , you could tell Sakura!"
Sakura smiled warmly at Hermione's bode of trust in her.
"Still couldn't tell ya nottin."
"Did the giants get to you, Hagrid?"
"Giants? Who said anythin' abou' giants!" He almost dropped the steak in surprise, "Who yeh been talkin' to? Who tol' yeh what I've been up- eh?"
"Well, we sort of... guessed."
"Arghh..." Sakura listened as Hagrid seemed to argue with himself, "All right, I'll tell ya, but darned it! Yeh kids got more knowin's of thangs your not supposed to be knowin' than anyone I met! And tha' no complement either!" He said sloshing boiling tea into five buckets shaped to look like cups. He then proceeded to tell them all about giants that he and Olympie Maxine traced to the mountains south of Britain, and carefully tried to convince them to join Dumbledore in the fight against Voldemort. After a couple days of negotiating, there was a rebellion and a new giant became the tribes leader. A new leader that was not at all interested in negotiations. Combined with Death Eaters and hostile giants, it didn't take long for events to take a dangerous and disastrous turn that lead to him and Olympie leaving.
"That still doesn't explain how you got in this right state!" Ron said gesturing to his face.
"Or why your back so late!" Harry said emphatically.
"Who attacked you?" asked Hermione.
"Yes," Said a cold voice from the door, "Who attacked you indeed, Professor Hagrid." It was Umbridge, smiling almost triumphantly.
A/N: This chapter, although has Sakura kicking Malfoy's butt rather throughly, seemed off to me. Oh well, Chapter 5 will be better. Be prepared for those promises I made about freaking out Sakura and what not.