Chapter Nine:

Cobra was poking idly at the oatmeal in his bowl, wondering if he could bribe the house elves to lace it with poison for him. Probably not, given the likelihood that he'd end up killing half the table. But it was a nice dream.

The other dragon slayers didn't have this problem, he knew. Ash for Brains could just make flame. Or eat from one of the millions of fireplaces in the castle, so long as nobody was looking. Half-Pint ate air for gods sake. Rusty had been given the half-destroyed cauldrons from the potion's laboratories, which meant he had a steady supply of metal to chow down on. Even Sparky could just conjure up some sparks with a flick of his wand.

But he had to stick to smuggling potions ingredients, harvesting his own from the Forbidden Forest, or take a risk and try eating basilisk venom. He was immune to all of the poisons in Earthland, but he wasn't going to take a risk that basilisk wasn't one.

As it was, he wasn't getting enough poison to really do much more than keep him going. He missed Cubellios, not only for her presence, but for her constant clouds of poisonous gas that had allowed him to glut himself. The council had been the same as this, and he had hoped once he had gotten out things would be better.

Turning to look at the head table, he wished the old man would get on with whatever announcement he was going to make. Why they were all required to be at breakfast eluded him, despite his sense of hearing.

Around him, the students were comparing holiday experiences, chatting about what they received, or panicking because they were that much closer to exams. It was inane, trivial banter, a nice way to ease into the semester after the brief holiday.

Not that he was complaining. After such a relaxing holiday, with no snot nosed children to run herd on, he felt...dulled. It was something that had been bothering him ever since this job started. He was Cobra. Of the Oracion Seis. And here he was, babysitting kids who had no idea how shitty the world was and palling around with the fucking Faeries.

Now if that wasn't a sign of how far he'd slipped, he'd eat his coat.

They were too nice, he thought, glaring at the mages spread out over the four tables. He'd definitely tried to kill them, and might still if given proper motive and opportunity, and they dragged him into the Hufflepuff common room and handed him a stick with a marshmallow on it and celebrated Christmas and the rest of their break like that.

Honestly, who does that shit for real?

Heartfilia, he could stand. She was fucked up, so fucked over by life that it was a pleasure to listen to the agony, compared to the sickeningly sweet trilling of the other souls. Oh, all of them had been in various levels of torment when they arrived. Yet only Heartfilia was taking longer to heal, which was a comfort to his abused ears. It was like...bitterness after eating pure sugar. A novelty.

Besides, she wanted as little to do with him or anyone else, and held no illusions about being his buddy. Although, she had started to warm up to some of them before the holidays. Not her teammates, but some of the others. Ah well, meant she'd be off his back.

Finally, the old man stood up and the hall fell silent in expectation. With a twinkle in his soul, the headmaster said: "This year, we've been privileged to play host to our guests from the Fiore School of Magic. Since the exchange has gone so well, I have agreed to host four more students."

The fuck?

The doors swung open, and a small group moved in.

"May I introduce to you," Dumbledore continued cheerfully. "Mr. Freed Justine, who will be joining his classmates in Ravenclaw, Miss Meredy Fernandes, who I'm sure Gryffindor will welcome, Miss Sorano Aguria, the newest member of Slytherin, and last but not least, Mr. Macbeth Oracion, a proud Hufflepuff."

Cobra couldn't help but snort at that, but a sudden stillness in the crowd tipped him off that something wasn't right.

Over at the Ravenclaw table, Heartfilia had gone dead silent, both outwardly and inwardly.

Fuck.

Knowing that the other dragon slayers would hear him, he muttered: "A bit of a distraction would help right about now." And then, hearing resolve bloom and crystallize in the blonde's soul, he knew he didn't have time to wait.

In an instant he was on his feet, up on the table regardless of the dishes he was sending flying. Someone yelled from the other side of the hall, but it sounded like Natsu, so hopefully that was his distraction. Whistling, he drew Sorano's attention and flashed a quick signal at her, remnants of their early days as the Seis, before the lacrima, before everything changed, and pointed at Macbeth.

She got the message, considering how she dropped Macbeth to the ground with a well executed tackle.

Another lunging step and he was tackling Heartfilia, shifting so that neither of them hit their heads on the hard stone floor. Not about to cause a scene in the Great Hall was one thing; concussed was another.

She fought him like a wild thing, clawing, kicking, and biting, but he didn't let go. People were peering down at them, but he didn't have time to deal with them. Right now, there was only one thing on her mind, and it would definitely screw their cover.

"Alright everyone, get back. She needs some room. Let them breathe," Laxus was ordering as he muscled his way through the growing crowd. "Oracion, get her out of her and calmed down." And then tell me what the hell just happened, his soul was saying, and Cobra nodded.

Shifting slightly, he got himself into a position where, as he stood up, he balanced Heartfilia over his shoulders like a sack of flour. Not the most elegant solution, but it was practical.

Lucy was still raging when he set her down inside Mest's office.

How dare he! She thought, balling her hands into fists.

"You were about to blow our cover by flipping shit in the Great Hall," Cobra said nonchalantly, lounging against Mest's desk. "What was I supposed to do, let you kill him?"

"He deserves it," she hissed, pacing the floor in an attempt to rein herself in. "He...he took her away!"

"She wasn't actually alive to begin with."

"Your snake couldn't actually talk to you," Lucy snapped, turning on him. "Does that make her less of a friend?"

"Leave Cubellios out of this," he snarled, and she snarled back, glad she had hit a nerve.

"Then don't try to justify what he did to Michelle."

"Haven't you figured out? We're not nice people. We needed the clock key, and yeah, we turned your doll into a real person to achieve it. Boo hoo. Sorry we hurt your feelings."

"I'm only going to return the favor," Lucy growled, starting for the door, but when she pulled on the handle it wouldn't budge. "Do to him what he did to Michelle."

"He isn't going to let you step on him," Cobra warned with a snicker. "You can't land a hit on me, and I know all your movements. What makes you think you can land a hit on him, since he can reflect all your movements back? At least with me you have a slim to nothing chance. Macbeth can just sit there and let you wear yourself out with your own attacks."

"Fuck off," she tossed over her shoulder. "And undo the damn door."

"Not until you cool your tits," the poison dragon slayer said, sounding amused. "There's nothing you can do that will get you out of this room before you calm the fuck down."

There were several phrases that she considered throwing at him, but she had learned that crass language was his daily vernacular. Crude insults meant nothing to him.

But they did make her feel better.

Twenty minutes later, after she had exhausted her vocabulary attempting to insult him and he had just leaned back against Mest's desk and laughed, she slumped into one of the chairs. "Fine. I'm not going to attempt to kill him."

"Or rough him up, or really, do anything to him. In fact," Cobra said smugly. "You're going to leave him alone unless required of you. And if you do need to interact with him, you'll be polite about it."

"And is he getting the same instructions?" Lucy snarked. "Or is it just me who's being hobbled?"

"Macbeth usually only wants to sleep," the poison dragon slayer said with a shrug and a laugh. "I doubt he'll go out of his way to provoke you."

"If he does?"

"Then he'll get the same talk. Now, are you going to behave yourself during Runes, or do we need to continue this conversation?"

"I'll behave, mom," Lucy replied with a roll of her eyes, enjoying the way he bristled at that. She was surprised Laxus or Mest hadn't come in, but she assumed both of them figured Cobra was a better disciplinarian in this situation, since they couldn't hear her soul.

"The council's dog is outside," Cobra said as she went to open the door. "He has our bags."

"And you didn't let him in?"

"Did you want pity?"

No, no she didn't. She wanted to rage and scream, and Cobra had let her have that. He let her throw her anger against him until it subsided, leaving them both in one piece in the end. Much less destructive than whatever she would have done to Midnight.

"...thanks," she mumbled, opening the door.

As Cobra had said, Mest was outside, both of their school bags in his hand. Snagging hers, Lucy ignored his questions and headed to Ancient Runes. The first period wasn't over yet, but it wasn't worth going to the lesson just to have Snape issue her detention as he released the class.

Of course, as it turned out, Midnight was in Runes too.

The others seemed to be on edge as they met up with her outside the class, but Lucy ignored them as if Cobra hadn't just tackled her in the middle of the Great Hall. Angel was there as well, but aside from a perfunctory glare, the other Celestial Wizard didn't seem to be in the mood for discussing the past. She did however stick close to Midnight though.

Freed was there, at Laxus's elbow as usual, and he surprised Lucy by giving her a hug.

As he stepped back, he said: "That's from Mira. Bickslow also said said that life's a lot more boring without the Cheerleader around." They all stared at him, but the rune mage just shrugged. "I was going to pass the message on no matter what, and would any of you really cross Mira?"

There were shivers all around.

Before they could catch up, the door opened and they were filing into the classroom. Surprisingly enough, Freed seemed to be unconcerned by the new way of doing magic, and was keeping up with the class, despite Levy having told Lucy at the beginning of the job that nothing back home was like this.

He's been coached, Lucy realized, watching Freed easily translate a sentence. Dumbledore knew that they would be arriving at Christmas and didn't tell us. How long has he been teaching them?

Freed was there for Arithmancy too, blending in as if he had been there from the start. Meredy had also joined them, bouncing cheerfully into the seat between Levy and Jellal with a smile.

Now that she was distanced from her anger, Lucy could process it rationally. Obviously, they had backup. It was a relief. Now they could leave a full team with the Gryffindors and concentrate on the castle whenever an attack happened instead of having to split into pairs and do their best. Four new people meant four fresh pairs of eyes, which would also help. As nice as their new friendships were, they had a way of dulling their senses.

And once she had processed her anger at Midnight's appearance, and her rationalization of their appearance, she could focus on other things. Like what had been going on since they had left Fiore.

All four of the new arrivals had been dragged to the Room of Requirement during the lunch hour. One of the house elves had been convinced to send up lunch for them, and one of the others who had gotten there first had recreated the guild hall for them.

Apparently she wasn't the only one desperate for news from home.

"What happened to the others?" was the first question most people were asking. "Is everyone gone?"

"Most everyone," Freed said, looking longingly at the plate in front of him. "The Strauss siblings crossed my path once or twice. I think they have reasonable information on where the others went for the most part."

"What about you?" Erza asked.

"The Raijinshu joined forces with the remaining members of Crime Sorciere," the rune mage answered. "It's how we came to be here."

"What happened to Sawyer and Richard?" Jellal broke in. "What are they doing while you guys are here?"

"They went to look for Richard's brother. Evergreen got some information from someone in Mermaid Heel who had been in contact with him." Sorano took charge of answering the question, allowing a grateful Freed to eat something. "She and Bickslow were going to connect up with the Strauss siblings for a while."

"Why didn't they come along?" Natsu asked through a mouthful of food, earning a scornful look from Sorano. "It woulda been fun!"

"Probably because Bickslow would have a hard time maintaining cover," Laxus said. "And with that said, I'm guessing Ever didn't want to leave him on his own."

"For his sake, or for the rest of the world?" Cana laughed.

Freed looked mildly offended for a moment, and then smiled. "Both?" he offered.

Everyone laughed, even the Crime Sorciere members.

The month of January was a flurry of excitement over the upcoming apparation lessons and the new arrivals. Meredy seemed to be an instant hit with the Gryffindors, and Midnight was easily accepted by the Hufflepuffs once they realized that his main goal in life seemed to be to sleep.

Freed was welcomed wholeheartedly by the Ravenclaws after his first intellectual debate with a fifth year studying for the OWLS. And according to Cana, Angel was in the middle of a quest to subjugate Slytherin.

Lucy wished her well.

She, Luna, and Cobra continued returning to the Chamber of Secrets every so often. It was her initial refuge in the first two weeks, while she tried to keep her word and not kill Midnight. For a while, you couldn't walk through the main room of the Chamber without stepping on pottery shards that had once been clay disks she had blown up. Cobra had also let her throw spells at him until she got tired one night after her required detentions for skipping class and causing a scene, which did a lot towards getting rid of some of her pent up stress. It might have been her imagination, but the next night Snape looked slightly relieved as he set her lines.

It was the only relief she saw in him these days. She didn't notice it until after the break, when everyone was relaxed, but Snape and Malfoy were both wound so tightly that she was amazed they hadn't snapped. It leant more proof to their suspicion that Malfoy was a Death Eater, or just a Death Eater agent, in the school, and Snape was being forced to walk a fine line.

Their hands were still tied in Malfoy's case. Dumbledore wouldn't even let them search his belongings. In desperation, Lucy had suggested bringing Jellal into Slytherin to use his sleep spell on the boys' dorm and just checking his arm for the mark, but Dumbledore had refused.

"I don't understand," she hissed, raking her fingers through her hair during one of their strategy meetings. "We are 95% certain that Malfoy is a Death Eater. Cobra's soul listening magic basically confirms it. Why won't he let us act on it?"

Midnight cracked an eye open from where he was sleeping against the table. "Soul listening."

"What?" she replied absently, trying to regain her cool after the flare of anger against the headmaster.

"Soul listening," he repeated. "You called it soul listening."

"Well, yeah," Lucy replied, rolling her eyes at Cobra who had a shit eating grin on his face. "That's what it is, isn't it?"

"Nobody calls it soul listening," Midnight continued slowly. "They all call it mind reading."

"For heaven's sake, it's soul listening," Lucy growled. "I've been told off about calling it mind reading too many times to forget."

Midnight let it drop, and they moved on with the conversation.

"What is he waiting for?" Laxus mused, looking at their list of evidence (albeit somewhat unethically gained) against Malfoy. "Is he waiting for a disaster? A death?"

"From what I've gained," Jellal said slowly, leaning back in his chair. "The headmaster has a habit of...playing things fast and loose with safety. People don't say much, but the Gryffindor trio seem to think the Philosopher's stone was far too easily reached, when you consider three eleven year olds found it. And the Chamber of Secrets...given the past history, shouldn't the school have been shut down after the first student petrification? Last year Potter and his friends got to the Ministry by flying on thestrals. Has that method of egress been cut off? Could I fly into the school grounds by thestral?"

It was a sobering realization. "Are you saying that he wants Malfoy on the loose?"

"I'm saying it's a possibility," Jellal replied carefully. "Potter's been sniffing around Malfoy since Slughorn's party, when Malfoy was caught, apparently trying to crash. In the meantime, Dumbledore's giving Potter private lessons. His arm hasn't showed any signs of healing."

"What's your hypothesis?" Mest asked from the head of the table.

"I think Dumbledore wants to provoke Malfoy's plot," Jellal answered, staring down at the table. "And I think he plans to die in the process, cementing Malfoy's place in the Death Eaters. My guess is that Draco's being used as a second spy, in case something happens to Snape."

All of them sat in silence for a long moment.

"It could make sense," Laxus said into the silence. "All of the pieces fit."

"Oh fuck," Mest swore softly.

Lucy couldn't help but agree.

On edge after figuring out a probable theory, Lucy and the others were wound tighter and tighter as February passed. They were exempt from apparation lessons, due to the dragon slayers' motion sickness and the overall questionable advisability of attempting to learn a new form of magical transportation when it wasn't their natural way of using magic.

As nothing happened and February drew to a close, Lucy felt as if they were balanced on a knife's edge. She almost wanted another attack, wanted Malfoy to strike just so they had an idea of what he was planning.

The Hogsmeade trip on the first of March was cancelled, thanks in part to the strongly worded suggestions they had submitted through Mest. While nobody truly believed Malfoy would attempt to use another student to send a cursed object into the school, they didn't want to chance an attack of a different nature.

Lucy woke up to a patronus putting intangible paws on her chest. "Meet in hospital wing," the otter said in Jellal's voice as the blonde attempted to shake off the chill. "We have an incident. Strategists only."

Well, that narrowed it down to...the Ravenclaws, Cobra, and Mest. Sliding out of bed, she slipped easily into one of her own outfits, strapping on her knee brace over the skinny jeans she had taken to wearing in the cooler Scottish weather. Tugging her hair out of the collar of her turtleneck, Lucy stood and quietly drew open Levy's bed-hangings.

To her surprise, the blunette was curled up with a book, reading despite the early hour.

"We've been summoned to the hospital wing," Lucy whispered. "Strategists only. Incident."

Levy furrowed her brow, but closed her book and pushed back the covers. Satisfied that her job was done, Lucy headed to wake up the male members.

Having learned her lesson about Laxus sleeping in the nude the last time she had to wake him in the middle of the night, Lucy went to wake Freed instead. As she drew back the curtains on his bed, she was surprised to see that he slept half-naked as well, if his bare chest was anything to go by.

Fighting to control the spread of her blush, Lucy shook the rune mage awake. "We have an incident," she murmured as his eyes flickered open. "Jellal's called a strategy meeting in the hospital wing."

"I'll wake Laxus," the green haired man promised, reaching for the pants that were laid out on the nearby chair. "We'll meet you there."

Hoping Jellal had notified Cobra and Mest through patronus, Lucy headed straight for the hospital wing, knowing that the other Ravenclaws would follow as soon as they were ready.

Jellal was waiting for her, tucked neatly into a hospital bed. Cobra was lounging on top of the covers of the next bed over, looking smugly satisfied.

"Don't you look like the cat that ate the canary," she grouched, dropping into the chair between them. "And got cream too."

"I haven't eaten so well in ages," the poison dragon slayer informed her. "You will not ruin this moment for me."

"What's the emergency?" Lucy asked, ignoring Cobra and turning to Jellal. "And who else is in the ward?"

"Potter and Weasley," Jellal answered, gesturing to the only bed with its curtains drawn. "Natsu was here, but I sent him back to the dormitory."

"They're the emergency?"

"Weasley nearly died this morning," Jellal murmured quietly. "Poison."

"Did he finally piss Cobra off?" Lucy couldn't help but ask. The dragon slayer on the next bed over hissed in irritation but she ignored him. "Moving on, who, what, where, and when?"

"Don't know, something reasonably common that can be mixed with wine, Slughorn's office, and not more than an hour ago." Jellal recited tiredly. "Weasley woke half the dorm this morning after he got into some chocolates that had been spiked with a love potion. We took him to Slughorn for an antidote, and Slughorn gave them the wine."

"Slughorn's a coward," Lucy muttered under her breath as the rest of the strategy team filtered through the doors of the infirmary. "He wouldn't have the stomach to poison Weasley in front of Potter, let alone other witnesses. Did Natsu smell something was off?"

"Not in time to warn us."

"So how close is Weasley to dying?"

"Not very." Jellal had to raise his voice to be heard over the slight sounds of the others finding seats. "Potter shoved a bezoar down his throat to keep him from dying right then and there. Cobra got there a minute or two after and got most of the poison out of him. What's keeping us all on our toes is that the poison reacted with the love potion. Snape's working on a counter, and Pomfrey stabilized him. Potter's sitting with him now; McGonagall went to notify the parents and the headmaster."

"So, Slughorn tried to poison Weasley?" Laxus asked, bypassing the longer version of the morning's events. "That's out of character from what you've told me about him."

"Wasn't him," Cobra grunted, the smug smile still playing around his lips. "He kept babbling on about how it was sent to him, and he had planned to send it on to Dumbledore."

"Another deadly object meant for the Headmaster, if Katie Bell's friend was right that she was insisting on taking it to Dumbledore," Levy mused grimly. "Once may be a coincidence, twice is a pattern, at least in my book."

"Are we sure that it couldn't have been Slughorn?" Mest asked. "He certainly comes off as the jovial sort, but men like him have their fingers in any number of pies, and most often end up the true power behind thrones. From what I was able to discover, Riddle was in his Slug Club."

"Seemed as if he'd been hit with a confundus," Cobra interjected with a shrug. "Just localized to the bottle. Enough to obscure the memory of who gave him the bottle and then plant the idea of sending it to Dumbledore. Except our poisoner didn't count on his greed being more powerful than the suggestion."

"I'm not sure whether to thank Weasley's lucky stars or curse his bad luck," Levy said philosophically. "Love potion and poison, all on his birthday."

"Where did the love potion come from?" Laxus asked Jellal.

"One of the Gryffindor girls. They're all mad for Potter. Granger tipped him off that they were getting desperate enough to potion him before Christmas."

"So we have Weasley laid up until they negate the potions, and a poisoner on the loose." Mest was pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Marvellous. And meanwhile, Potter's at risk for love potions."

"Did anyone see you remove the poison from the boy?" Laxus asked Cobra.

"Natsu took Potter to run for the matron, and I kept Slughorn busy. They asked how we minimized the poison when Pomfrey started doing her scans, and I told them that it was a method derived from a muggle concept." Jellal dropped his voice as the matron exited her office and went behind the closed curtains. "Slughorn's too busy blubbering about how he didn't know to care, and I had a word with Pomfrey to let her know that it was a Fiore quirk, not something we could share."

"Immediate concerns," Lucy said, conjuring a quill and parchment. "Any takers?"

"We should keep a watch on Weasley," Freed said, the first interjection into the conversation. "If the poison was intended for him, we need to be nearby while he recovers."

"I'm sure we can come up with a rotating roster of injuries and illnesses," Levy said with a snort. "Worst comes to worst, all the ladies suddenly start getting terrible cramps…"

"Moving on," Laxus said shortly. "We need to check Potter's belongings for anything tainted. This could have easily gone the other way."

"Natsu's already doing it," Jellal answered. "I sent him to do that to give him something to do and to deflect attention from the hospital wing with all of us here. With his nose, he should be able to figure out what's tainted and what's not."

"Long term," Lucy said as the immediate concerns petered out.

"Two attempts on the headmaster's life that caught students in the crossfire. We need to figure out who is doing it, and shut them down." Levy answered promptly.

"It's time we talked to Snape," Lucy said grimly. "We've been putting off getting confirmation of our working theory, and we can't wait any longer. Dumbledore will put us off, but Snape might answer, if we phrase things the right way."

"We need to up the watch on Potter and all of his friends," Laxus said with a sigh. "A dragon slayer near him at every meal to check for poison or other taints. Someone with them at all times. I think we need an exceed shadowing Potter around the clock."

"I'll talk with Wendy and get her to mobilize them," Mest volunteered. "Charle should be able to whip Lily and Happy into line."

"Who's approaching Snape?" Laxus moved on, looking for volunteers.

"Blondie and I," Cobra growled from his bed. "We'll get detention for arguing in his class and approach him then."

Without much more to settle, they hashed out a rotation of falsified injuries to keep Weasley protected. The Gryffindors were now permanently attached to Potter's hip, whether anyone liked it or not.

Just a few more months, Lucy reminded herself as she headed back to the Ravenclaw dorms to get ready for telling the rest of the group. He just has to live a few more months before it's not our problem.

Early on in the first few months they had been there, different ideas about how they could get rid of Voldemort had been bandied about. After all, they weren't used to being hired for a set length of time and then just leaving, with the major problem unsolved. They were Fairy Tail, after all.

But they had been told about the prophecy. Most of them had been ready to dismiss it as a pile of crap, but Charle and Cana had been adamant that it would come to play. If that was true, then none of them could defeat Voldemort. Only Potter could.

And Gajeel, surprisingly enough, had made the best point.

"This is their world," he said firmly. "The war is about their future and we're not going to be here long enough to care. In Edolas, we didn't overthrow the king because the people of Edolas wanted him overthrown. No, we kicked him to the curb because he was shitty and stole our guild. If the people here want Voldemort dead, they're going to have to do it themselves and make a world they want to live in. We can't make those decisions for them."

Natsu had been disappointed that they weren't going to be allowed to rampage throughout the countryside, but most of the rest of them were satisfied with that. It wasn't fair to Britain if a group of strange witches and wizards came along, dispensed their own personal brand of justice, and left, leaving them with whatever new problems they created.

***So I came down with a nasty head cold, traveled for Thanksgiving, and got exactly...no writing done. Whoops. But I'm close to 50k if I keep at it these next few days, and if I move right along I should manage to finish this without too much delay.***