"Hey Roxy, how've you been?" Bloom greeted Roxy as she and the other Winx Club members paid a visit to Alfea.
Her roommates stood talking to some of the other Winx Club members as various other students in the courtyard stared and chatted about the presence of the Winx Club in excitement.
Rainer was talking to Aisha, Krystal to Flora, Athena to Tecna and Anahita to Musa. Stella was surrounded by several admirers clamouring for her autographs and enjoying every minute of it.
"I've been great. I love it here! Classes at Alfea are awesome and I'm doing well in them, I got some pretty cool roommates who turned out to be good friends and... someone else." Roxy smiled.
"Oh? Is it anyone we should know about?" Bloom smiled mischievously.
"We'll see, Bloom. We'll see..." Roxy smiled back mischievously.
"What's this I hear about a potential significant other for Roxy, hmm?" Stella seemingly appeared next to them out of nowhere.
"Stella! I- how did you hear me over here with all of your screaming admirers surrounding you and how did you infer that I have a... "significant other" from what I just said?" Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"A woman knows, Roxy. A woman knows... So what's he like? Tall, short? Dark-haired, light-haired? Muscular, not-muscled? What planet is he from? How'd you meet him?" Stella fired off her questions without a pause between them.
"Stella! Really now? I get enough of that from Rainer and Krystal trying to find out about him and technically they don't even know there is a him!" Roxy exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Oh, secret boyfriend, huh? They're always fun. But it's even more fun when you can show him off! Why are you not showing him off?" Stella asked.
"Trying to get to know him like that first before you declare anything official maybe?" Bloom wondered.
"Exactly. Now are you done interrogating me about the love life that I may or may not be developing?" Roxy asked.
"For now..." Stella smirked.
"Joy..." Roxy groaned.
"Anyway, I'm here to give you this..." Bloom made an envelope appear in one hand in a burst of flame.
"What's this?" Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"Open it and see!" Bloom smiled.
Roxy's finger glowed slightly she and slid it along the top of the envelope, cutting it open and removing the card inside.
Roxy's eyes could be seen moving back and forth as she read the card.
"Crown Princess Roxanne of Tir Nan Og is invited by the Royal Court of Domino to a Young Royals Gala? Bloom, what is this?" Roxy asked.
"Just what it says. My parents are hosting a gala to meet all the future Kings and Queens of the magical realms and you've been invited to it!" Bloom said cheerfully.
"It also says here that we're allowed to bring up to two additional guests..." Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"It doesn't have to include a boyfriend. You could invite your best friends or whatever. It doesn't matter who you bring!" Bloom explained.
"So who are you bringing then?" Roxy asked.
"Sky has an invite of his own, so I'm using my guest allowance to bring in Musa and Flora..." Bloom smiled.
"And I'll be using my invite to bring Tecna and Nova. Sky's already using his to bring Brandon along..." Stella shrugged.
"Since it's in the summer, you have plenty of time to decide who you want to bring! Maybe we can even meet this mysterious boyfriend of yours, hmm..." Stella sidled up to Roxy, waggling her eyebrows.
Roxy rolled her eyes and shoved the Solarian princess away.
Harry and Roxy were in their favourite spot at Magic Central Park, spreading out a picnic blanket under a tree and setting out their picnic supplies while Hedwig watched them from the branches above and Artu lay nearby.
"Well, there we go. All set." Harry smiled.
"Were you always this sweet with the girls back in Britain?" Roxy smiled back.
"My popularity tended to fluctuate quite a lot there and it usually had to do with my Boy-Who-Lived status. The one time I dated a girl back then... That was a complete disaster." Harry grimaced.
"I won't even ask you to tell me about that yet..." Roxy said. "Hey Artu! Hedwig! Come down here for some food!" She magicked up a bowl for Artu and a dish for Hedwig while Harry filled them with food for each animal.
"Oh my goodness. This food is good!" Artu said between mouthfuls.
"I'll say. Harry, you need to feed me more bacon flavoured Owl Treats more often!" Hedwig paused to wipe her beak with her wing and resumed eating.
Harry and Roxy chuckled as they began to put out their own food.
"Well then, how do you think this thing... between... us is working out? It's been a few months now..." Roxy said.
Harry paused for a moment. "I think that this is working out pretty well so far. I really do like you and I don't think I've ever felt this way about anyone else before. You like me for me. We began to get close before you knew about my past and I get the feeling that even if you had known, you wouldn't have cared." He smiled.
"You have that right. I'm not the kind of girl to be impressed by big deeds or titles. I remember when I first met the Winx Club, even though they became pretty popular in Gardenia pretty quickly, I was one of the few who wasn't impressed by them at all..." Roxy chuckled. "Even after they helped save me from the Wizards of the Black Circle numerous times, I still wasn't impressed for a while until I got used to the fact that I am a fairy. And I didn't even want to be a fairy at first..."
"I wonder what your reaction was when you discovered that you were a real life fairy princess then..." Harry chuckled.
"I was glad to have my mother, but I wasn't too fond of the princess part. I'm still not fond of the princess part..." Roxy grimaced. "I shudder at the thought of my mother and aunt throwing a Princess Ball for me..."
"All those people staring at you as you're dressed in an elegant gown and you dance and make a spectacle of yourself... I can understand that..." Harry shuddered, remembering his own experience at the Yule Ball.
"Hopefully when that time comes, you'll be there to dance with me, right? Having you there would make it infinitely more bearable..." Roxy said.
"I hope so. Having someone nice to talk to during it all makes it much more bearable..." Harry agreed.
"So, how's school treating you?" Roxy asked.
"Better than my experience at Hogwarts was, that's for sure. I have teachers who actually care about seeing you learn. Not that there weren't any at Hogwarts at all, but some... Some made you wonder why they would even want to get into the field of teaching at all." Harry's first thought was of Snape.
"My grades are excellent. I haven't gotten anything less than a B+ all year. I guess that's what happens when you're at a school that you truly love getting up to go to classes at. Hermione would be so proud of me and Ron would be shocked..." Harry laughed at the expressions he imagined on their faces upon learning that he was doing so well at school.
"I love it at Alfea too. I liked my high school well enough, but magic school is so much more fun and interesting. Plus it's the first time I got to live away from home. Unlike you, I wasn't eager to escape home, but I still wanted the experience. Now thanks to Alfea, I have so much control over the magic that I only found out I had less than two years ago. You didn't know you had magic for eleven years but I didn't know I had magic until I was fifteen years old and I didn't get to start formal training until a year after that..." Roxy said.
"I don't suppose you had any cases of accidental magic when you were younger, did you?" Harry asked.
"Well, other than my uncanny ability to get along with animals and find out what they wanted, I don't think so. I'd probably have to think harder and see if I remember anything unusual happening around me..." Roxy shrugged.
Harry reached for a treacle tart and munched on it. "Do you want to go for a little walk after we're done eating? Work off the extra calories and spend some more time together before we go our separate ways today?"
"Since when do you care about working off extra calories?" Roxy raised an eyebrow as she bit into a tofu burger.
"Since I have to stay in tip-top shape to stay at the top of most of my classes at Red Fountain..." Harry said.
"True. Plus the side benefits of that..." Roxy smirked as she sidled over to him and felt his chest. "I guess we'll go for that walk..."
"Hey, Roxy! Can I have some more of that chicken stuff?" Artu trotted over to his mistress and put his bowl next to her.
"Of course." Roxy smiled and patted his head as she reached for a chicken drumstick and gave it to him.
Harry was in his General Magic class, playing close attention to Professor Lexagos' lecture on magical cores.
"Your magic is a part of you that's just as important as your heart or your brain. It's part of your very own life-force. If your magic is taken from you against your will or you put too much strain on it, the results on your body could be disastrous." He said.
"Don't I know it..." Harry thought dryly.
"You have to learn your limits. How powerful are the spells you can cast before it begins to have an adverse effect on you?" Professor Lexagos paced up and down in front of the class.
"Certain magical ailments can also wreak havoc on your magic and can reduce you to the level of a low-level magical or what some in Earth's Wizarding World call "Squibs"."
Harry could feel several of the students in the class turn their eyes on him. When he turned around to narrow his eyes at them, their eyes went back to their notebooks or the Professor.
"Physical fitness is also key. If your physical endurance is strong, so will your magical endurance. If you can endure a 5k run without assistance for example, you would have more magical endurance than say... someone who could only run 100 metres and by the end of it were completely out of breath..."
Harry was writing as many notes as he could. He hadn't forgotten his words to Ron, Hermione and most importantly himself about a certain bald, nose-less Dark Lord...
"Ways to increase your magical core... Can anyone tell me?" Professor Lexagos asked.
Someone spoke about building physical fitness.
"Well, yes... I just spoke quite a bit about that... Anyone else?" Professor Lexagos asked again.
"Practicing your magic to know what your limits are?" Someone else said.
"Yes. Anyone else?"
Harry volunteered information this time. "Someone more powerful than you could lend you some of their own magic or cast a spell on you to increase your own power."
"Yes, good answer. Now can you tell me why that is not a good idea sometimes?" The Professor asked him.
"That is because certain magical spells are only temporary and they could wear off at a disadvantageous moment such as when you're in a combat situation. Or the attempt could go awry and simply mess up your own magic..." Harry answered.
"Good answer." Professor Lexagos smiled slightly.
Harry felt proud of himself for being able to give a good answer. Hermione would be proud of him too, he knew it...
He smiled at the thought.
"Anyway, for your homework, I'd like you all to write an essay on magical cores. More specifically, the various adverse effects that pushing it can have on a magical person. Nothing too long. Only a minimum of 2,000 words or so. I want it by the end of this week." Professor Lexagos dismissed them.
Harry immediately headed up to his dorm since his classes for that day were finished and rummaged around in his trunk, looking for a particular book.
"Aha! Found you!" He held up the book he had found in triumph.
"Magical Essences: How Magic and Physical Health Are Intertwined by Carolina Villanueva. Totally glad I visited the International Authors section of Flourish and Blotts..." Harry smiled to himself as he propped himself up in bed and began to read.
"Okay, people! Let's step up our game! We'd want to make Harry proud!" Hermione shouted.
She, Ron, Neville, Luna and Ginny were in the Room of Requirement with those remaining of the formerly Dumbledore's Army (now called Potter's Militia) practicing their spells.
Luna and Neville were currently locked in a ferocious practice duel, which most people in the room had stopped to watched.
"Just because you're my boyfriend, don't think that I'll spare you here!" Luna called.
"I wouldn't expect any less, dear!" Neville called back.
Ron , Hermione and Ginny made their way to the front of the watching crowd.
Luna raised her wand into the air, brought it down in a semicircle motion where the motion ended by her wand being pointed at Neville directly again.
A gust of wind suddenly came into the room from both her wand and behind her and blew Neville (and a few people standing behind him) into the wall- which thankfully had several Cushioning Charms applied to it beforehand.
"I think that's a win for Luna, everyone..." Ginny said casually.
"How did you do that, Luna?" Neville asked in amazement as Dean and Seamus helped him up.
"Research. Did you know that each House had their own respective element?" Luna asked.
"Oh yes! Ravenclaw has Air, Gryffindor has Fire, Hufflepuff has Earth and Slytherin has Water..." Hermione said.
"No wonder we can never get along. They're a completely opposite element to us..." Seamus joked.
"Those element spells would be pretty damn useful though. Where'd you find out about them?" Ron asked.
"The library." Luna and Hermione said in unison.
Everyone present laughed. "Of course..." Ron said, rolling his eyes.
"I agree with Ron. Those spells would be pretty useful. Can you imagine being able to set a Death Eater on fire if you're up in a fight against one?" Parvati asked.
"You know, during that fight on Diagon Alley, I saw Percy use a fire spell on a group of Death Eaters that were pretty much about to kill Ginny and I..." Ron said.
"Yeah and come to think of it, Harry did say that Dumbledore used some pretty impressive fire spells in his duel against... Voldemort..." Almost all of those in the room flinched as Hermione said his name and she herself looked as if she couldn't believe that she had actually said the name.
"So I guess that's our homework then? Try to find out more about these elemental spells?" Hannah asked.
Hermione nodded. "Exactly."
"Well that's one homework assignment I won't actually mind doing these days..." Dean said.
"Yes, but don't let it distract you too much from studying for your exams that start next week..." Hermione reminded them.
"We won't. Me mam will kill me if I start to fail anything now especially when we're so close to our last year here at Hogwarts..." Seamus said.
"Last year here. And to think that actually being at Hogwarts seemed so far away at some point..." Ron reminisced.
The various sixth years and the few seventh years present made noises of agreement.
"Okay then everyone. Let's get going then. We don't want to be late for bed. Chop, chop!" Hermione clapped.
After everyone else had left, she and Ron spent some extra time practicing before finally heading up to Gryffindor Tower.
"Well, that was an interesting session, don't you think?" Ron asked as they walked up the stairs to the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Yeah, it was. Even though we had quite a lag between the first session we had this year and the last... eventful one last year, they don't seem to have dropped off at all..." Hermione said.
Once they gave the Fat Lady the password ("Oubliatem Remembraum"), they climbed in and found that no one was in the Common Room.
"Odd. They went to bed that early on a weekend?" Ron raised an eyebrow.
"How do I know what runs through their minds?" Hermione shrugged as she flopped into a sofa and Ron flopped in beside her.
"It's been a long, difficult year, Ron. Harry left, my parents..." Hermione sighed sadly after a while.
"You know, Hermione. Your parents wouldn't want you to feel this bad. I know you put on a brave face all the time, but they would have wanted you to try and be happy..." Ron said.
Hermione smiled weakly. "I know that, Ron. But my parents are gone... I mean Harry's parents were murdered too, but he never got to know them and have happy memories with them... I did... Oh my goodness, where am I going to go when the school year finishes?" Hermione sobbed into her hands.
Ron rubbed her back awkwardly. "Well, you know, you could always stay with us Weasleys... Mum would be glad to have you over..."
"I... really?" Hermione looked up at him.
"Yeah, you've always been welcome before so why you shouldn't be welcome especially now?" Ron said.
"You're... you're right, Ron. I'm just not thinking clearly. You're a real sweetheart, you know? And I've really noticed... You've gotten so much more... mature over the last year or so..." Hermione smiled and wiped away her tears.
"Coming from you, that's a big compliment..." Ron grinned.
They looked at each other for a few moments and were then suddenly making out.
"Did we just..." Ron looked at Hermione, looking stunned.
"I think we did. And I think we should do it again, Ron..." Hermione smiled.
She leaned in for another kiss.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Britain, Voldemort was sitting in his evil lair, thinking to himself.
"Yesss... These Trix could be useful to my plans, especially with those powers of theirs with this... new magic..." He thought.
"However, they are imprisoned within this Magix realm. How do I get there?" He wondered.
As he stroked Nagini (who was curled up in his lap) idly, he glanced over at that day's Daily Prophet.
One of the taglines on the front page caught his eye and he used his wand to Summon it.
British Fairy Interview Series: Interview Number 10- Last In Series.
Voldemort raised a ridge that would have passed for an eyebrow if it had any hair on it.
He found his way to that article.
At twenty-two years old, Dana Bixley is the youngest of the Earth Fairies to be locked away in their prison, being imprisoned at the mere age of five.
This fairy who hails from Manchester, watched her parents murdered, her mother a fellow fairy and her father a sorcerer as they tried to defend their home and their daughter shortly before the last of the Earth Fairies were imprisoned.
"I was really young when it happened, but I still remember it so clearly..." The Fairy of Wind says. "I never had time to develop my powers fully so unlike a lot of the older fairies, I'm still at my basic level fairy form and my spells aren't as strong as they could be..."
Voldemort put down the newspaper to think.
"In order to get to this Magix realm, I shall need some of their type of magic..." He mused.
Then for a moment, he paused.
And after another moment, he smiled a most evil smile that only Satan himself would fail to be unnerved by.
In a suburban area of Manchester, a young woman with long, light pink almost-white hair and light blue eyes hummed happily as she walked around her living room.
"Oh dear house. I missed you so. It's been a lovely couple of months since I've been back. I only wish my mum and dad could have been here with me to share it..." She said as her fingers reached for a photograph above the fireplace.
In it were a young woman with curly blonde hair and big, blue eyes and a young man with dark hair and hazel eyes holding a grinning little girl between them.
"Ah, the good old days before the Wizards of the Black Circle came for us..." She said.
As soon as she put the photo back on the fireplace, she heard several loud cracks and her senses immediately went off.
She transformed out of instinct, now donning a simple, shimmering, knee-length dark purple halter-top dress, silver peep-toe ankle boots and her hair in a curly side ponytail held back by a silver clip.
Flapping her Tinkerbell-esque wings, she looked to her left and to her right, holding up her hands, which were alight with navy blue energy.
Then on her right, a Stunning Spell came at her, which she quickly reacted to by putting up her shield.
"Who are you people? Oh wait. Death Eaters..." She narrowed her eyes at the six black-robed individuals with silver masks invading her house.
"Smart, aren't you, Dana?" One Death Eater chuckled as he flung another curse at her shield.
"What the bloody hell could a Death Eater possibly want with me?" Dana asked as she fired energy blasts through the shield, striking down three of the Death Eaters.
"Oh no you don't, pretty little fairy!" One of the Death Eaters and the only woman in the bunch, flung curse after curse at her.
Dana screamed as her shield gave way.
"I have to get out of here!" She thought, flying out of the room, with curses whizzing past her, narrowly missing her wings and head.
A spell with green light came at her, only missing because Dana had brought her wings straight up and it whizzed past.
"NO, NO YOU IDIOT! THE DARK LORD WANTS HER ALIVE!" The female Death Eater shrieked.
"Wait, this Voldemort guy wants me? Whatever for?" Dana said aloud as she flew into the attic and was about to make a portal back to Tir Nan Og when the door was blasted off the hinges, hitting her and smacking her right out of the air.
Groaning and rubbing her head as she stood up, she formed a tornado and sent it at the incoming Death Eaters, trapping them within it, allowing her to narrowly escape through the attic door.
She had reached her living room again and had almost made a full portal back to Tir Nan Og when she was hit by a pain so intense that she fell to the floor and the portal disappeared abruptly.
She screamed as sweat broke out all over her body and she flickered between her human and fairy forms.
Through her pain, she could hear the woman Death Eater shrieking with delight.
"Enough, Bellatrix! The Dark Lord will want her in reasonably good health for her to perform the magic he requires of her!" She barely heard one of the other Death Eaters speaking as she was fully consumed by her pain, her fairy form now completely gone since she was too weak to hold it.
"Fine then. Bloody spoilsport..." Bellatrix lifted her torture curse on Dana with a huff.
However Dana was to feel relief for only a moment before she felt nothing at all.
"What happened here?" Madam Bones asked as she stepped into Dana's wrecked house.
"Death Eater kidnapping, apparently. The Muggles called their policemen when they heard the sounds of screaming and things smashing a few hours ago. Luckily some of us were able to head them off and it turns out that the lead police officer on the scene is actually a Muggle-Born wizard so he stayed and helped for a bit too before he had to go off..." Tonks said as she greeted Madam Bones at the entrance.
"Who lives here that the Death Eaters would possibly want to kidnap? We have no records of any witches or wizards living in this part of Manchester..." Amelia wondered.
"Madam, we found this upstairs..." Kinglsey Shacklebolt came from down the stairs, levitating a picture and levitated it right into Madam Bones' hands.
Amelia felt a migraine coming on as she looked at the picture of Dana in her fairy form sitting inside the house, smiling broadly.
"Dana Bixley. A British Fairy and the youngest of the lot. Interviewed in our Daily Prophet a few days ago. Are we sure this is her house though and not someone who knew her?" She asked, dreading the answer.
"The evidence seems to indicate that it is indeed her house, Mam..." Tonks said.
Amelia groaned.
"Queen Nebula will have our hides for this. She always said she wouldn't get involved in our efforts to take down Voldemort, but this will draw her attention for sure, having one of her subjects abducted by Death Eaters..." Amelia rubbed her head.
Tonks looked worried as she watched her boss go about her job and her words sunk in.