Dark figures wandered towards Hogwarts, their auras were burning with anger, hatred and many other terrible feelings. Sakura watched their progress as she considered what she had to do; finally, with a flick of her Star Staff, she leapt off the outcrop on which she was standing and shot across the lake. For an instant she could see three figures standing near Hogwarts, almost as though they were confronting the intruders.
Sakura suddenly sat up in bed; she was grateful that it was all a dream but was also concerned as it was very vivid and she knew these sorts of dreams all too well.
"Are you alright, Sakura?" Hermione asked her, having noticed her sudden start from sleep.
"Yes." Sakura replied once she found her bearings. "Yes, I'm alright. It was just a bad dream." She made the excuse as a slight warping of the truth but Hermione was suspicious as Sakura's face carried an expression that suggested it was something more.
---
Later that day, when there was some free time, Sakura talked about her dream with the others. Eriol considered it to be a serious warning; those dark figures had to be a source of trouble for the school. Kero insisted that they stay on their guard, although Sakura and Tomoyo doubted he could stay on his guard for long without falling asleep.
Meanwhile Hermione continued looking through the library in the hope of finding some important information. She was disturbed by the fact that Sakura's aura could knock-out some of the students and couldn't forget that incident on the train with Malfoy. As she continuously ferreted a bizarre looking tome caught her eye. Removing it from its place on the shelf she read the title aloud.
"A Revision of Asian Magic, by Albus Dumbledore." She was surprised to find a tome written by Dumbledore himself and had a flick through. The contents page included chapters about sorcery and celestial power; Hermione felt sure she had to learn more and looked to see if she could borrow it from the library.
---
In the afternoon Gryffindor had a lesson with Hagrid in Care for Magical Creatures.
"Alright everyone," Hagrid announced as the Gryffindors gathered around, "Professor Dumbledore has allowed me to give you all a special lesson but be warned, this is a very dangerous beast. You do not want to trifle with it without your wands at the ready." Taking the hint they all took their wands out. "Okay, now follow me to a highly enchanted clearing in the forest." They all complied; Sakura was feeling nervous of the fact that they'd be up against what she assumed to be a genuine monster.
"Okay," Hagrid commented as he stopped and turned, "Before we continue I must warn you to keep quiet and I'll be conducting this lesson in a low tone of voice. The fearsome beast can catch on to noise, so be careful and quiet." As they carried on Harry started to get a hunch of what they would be facing and Sakura almost entered a panic attack when she felt the hazardous aura up ahead, especially when Syaoran whispered to her where he felt this sort of aura before.
"Right." Hagrid muttered as he put his arm out to stop the students from passing him. "Now we must not go any closer until we know what we're dealing with." He whispered to the students.
"Hagrid," Harry asked, "What are we dealing with?" Hagrid's face turned into one of foreboding; his feelings of dread gave Sakura the willies, strengthened by the threatening presence beyond.
"A dragon." Eriol answered for him, everyone looked at him in disbelief, well everyone who wasn't from Asia. "It's a magically-induced Asian dragon." Hagrid nodded.
"A very rare breed," He said, "They're difficult to deal with in that killing them is forbidden except under very exceptional circumstances." He cautiously led them into the danger zone.
Eventually they could see a pink scaly form through the trees; it took all of Sakura's strength to stop herself from screaming in terror.
"It's a dangerous job this." Hagrid commented. "I shall have to ask for volunteers." Harry, Eriol and Syaoran stepped up while Tomoyo, Hermione and Sakura hesitated to come forward but were in front of the majority of students and Neville took a few steps back. "Um, I'm sure about this, Harry. You're too valuable to lose in this ordeal." Harry stood his ground. "Mr. Li, Mr. Herwagisawa, do either of you have full confidence in dealing with this menace?"
"I have complete confidence in my endeavours." Eriol answered, not batting an eyelid at Hagrid's mispronunciation of his name. "I shall, however, require the assistance of one of my peers." He looked between Sakura and Syaoran.
"I'm not going in if he's going in." Syaoran commented, giving Eriol a hard glare. Sakura swallowed and stepped forward with her wand at the ready.
"Okay." She said. "I'll try it." She began having flashbacks to her first encounter with a dragon and considered where she went wrong. Immediately Syaoran was by her side.
"I'll back her up." He declared as loudly as he dared.
"Okay, Miss Kinomoto, Mr. Himagizawa," Hagrid commented, still failing to grasp Eriol's surname, "Good luck; we'll be ready in case anything goes wrong." He turned to the others and made a 'hush' sign. Sakura and Eriol slowly advanced.
"Ano, Eriol-kun," Um, Eriol, Sakura asked, "How do we deal with a dragon without attacking it?" Eriol once again gave her an encouraging smile and answered.
"It's simple. Just follow the plan." He began to lay out how to achieve this.
---
The sight was heart-stopping! Sakura actually confronted the dragon and was able to set up a prolonged charm to deflect its attacks. When Eriol cast a distraction spell that confused the dragon for a while, Sakura prepared a very special charm. The dragon was just about to attack Eriol when Sakura placed a paralyzing charm on the dragon. The dragon was, thusly, rendered immobile and incapable of attacking.
"Blimey!" Hagrid exclaimed as they returned. "That's a new tactic on me."
"Nothing less from my dear Sakura-chan." Tomoyo commented as she put her enchanted video-camera away. Hermione spotted this and was surprised.
"I didn't know you had an enchantment camera." She commented.
"I don't," Tomoyo answered, "It's an ordinary video-camera with an enchantment on it." Hermione gasped.
"You managed to enchant a regular camera?!?"
"No, Mr. Hiiragizawa did it for me." Hermione looked between Eriol and Tomoyo and then asked.
"What for?" Tomoyo smiled happily and said.
"So I could capture Sakura's exploits on tape just like in the good old days." Hermione still couldn't understand her reasoning, but she retained a suspicion with the exchange students.
---
"Trelawney-sensei seems to be a bit clueless about her job." Tomoyo commented as the Gryffindors headed back to the common room from Divination.
"She always seems to get things wrong." Ron replied.
"Yeah, she's been foretelling my death for nigh on two years." Harry added. Hermione then tapped them both on the shoulder and whispered in their ears before the trio headed on ahead of the rest.
"Kanojo ga chanto kenshū surimasen." She didn't train properly. Eriol told the others. "Clow Reed ni naru kanojo wa motto yoi suru koto desu surimasen." You don't have to be Clow Reed to be better than her. He giggled a bit at Prof. Trelawney's expense.
---
That night Harry sneaked out of bed and woke Ron up so they could rendezvous with Hermione in the common room.
"Alright Hermione," Harry whispered once they were in the common room, "What's this all about?"
"Well," She replied, "You know what I said regarding the exchange students." Ron groaned.
"Cor, Hermione, you're still not having suspicions of them, are ya. They seem so chummy and kind, although Li seems to be reserved to most people, but he does open up around SakUra." He was still mispronouncing Sakura's given name.
"You know that can be just a cover." Hermione answered. "I've found something in the library," She pulled out Dumbledore's tome on Asian Magic, "I think it might give us a clue."
"What could they have different from any other Asian witch or wizard?" Harry asked, Hermione pointed to one particular article.
"This seems curious." She answered. "I can't prove it but I do feel it has something to do with them." She began to read. "'Clow Reed was a powerful magician born the son of an English sorcerer and a Chinese sorceress. This unusual heritage gave him the power to create a totally new type of magic, something sorcerers cannot do in the traditional sense.' Apparently he spent some of his life training himself an art of magic compression. According to this he's got the power of five million graduate wizards in one-fifth of his body." Ron whistled impressively. Hermione had pronounced 'Clow' to rhyme with 'cow'.
"What else does it say about him?" Harry asked. Hermione shook her head and said.
"Mostly just basic life activities; he was trying out some magic-based life creation techniques. Then it stops."
"The question is," Harry pondered aloud, "If this world is supposed to contain magical life then where is it all?"
"What are you insinuating, Harry?" Ron asked him nervously.
"I wasn't insinuating anything, Ron." He answered.
"Yes, you are." Ron told him. "You're saying there's some kind of monster out here, aren't ya. A kind of fierce fire-breathing chimera capable of living for centuries without food."
"That is a possibility. Ron. But we must keep open minded."
"All the same," Hermione said, "You may think I'm losing my bottle, but I'll bet that Sakura, Eriol, Shaoran and Tomoyo have connections to Clow Reed and that they have access to a power immeasurably superior to anything we can conjure."
They now stood there, looking at each other in a mixture of shock, disbelief, fear and ambivalence. They couldn't prove Hermione's suspicion but then, if she was telling the truth, they had no idea what they would be dealing with.