Chapter 11: Sakura's Stressful Examination Day

The school year was drawing to an end.

The seventh year students had begun to realize a month ago that this would likely be the last time they would all be together. Ever. While they would still occasionally see each other from time to time after graduation, they would never again share the same life with all of its triumphs and tragedies as they did now. This knowledge tinged everything they said and did with a subtle undertone of sadness.

One such tragedy was the last game of Quidditch for the year. The season had drawn to a close well in time to give the older students plenty of time to study for their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. The final game in Hogwarts had been in late May, an unexciting match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

Ever since Harry Potter had been selected as the Seeker for Gryffindor, any match which didn't include Gryffindor's legendary player had lost some of its luster, and some recent unexplained injuries had left Harry Potter in the hospital and the Gryffindor team with a reserve Seeker.

Despite all of this, the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match was one of the best attended games in the year, if only because it was the last game of the year. It proved to be just as disappointing as was feared. Ravenclaw easily held control of the Quaffle and dominated the Gryffindor Beaters and Keeper, while Gryffindor's substitute Seeker could do nothing to stop them. Several times the Ravenclaw Seeker arguably could have caught the Snitch, but instead let the game go on and on, giving the Ravenclaw Chasers the chance to rack up point after point. The end result was the worst beating Ravenclaw had given Gryffindor in 300 years. The seventh year students commiserated with each other about the anti-climactic ending to their tenure of Hogwarts Quidditch games.

The last game of Quidditch ending had the extra effect of at least psychologically finalizing the results of the house cup competition as well. It had been a close run for a while between Gryffindor and Slytherin, but mysteriously, a few days ago, Gryffindor had lost 150 points. Nobody knew why. The Ravenclaws students had asked their friends in Gryffindor what had happened, but officially nobody was saying anything. Unofficially, though, some of the sharper ears could hear definite mutters of "The Boy" which weren't quite whispered.

This left Slytherin decidedly in the lead, followed by Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and finally Gryffindor. The upperclassmen in Ravenclaw were saying there was still time to catch up, but in practice it just wasn't possible. A 50 point leap in relative standings with the precious few weeks left before term ended was almost unheard of. This was part of the reason everybody was so curious about what had happened to Gryffindor.

The house cup standings left many of the upperclassmen in each of the non-leading houses grossly disappointed. Whether this was because each student wanted to finally have a win to credit to their house in their scholastic career, or because they truly wanted "anybody but Slytherin" as they claimed, the first year students couldn't tell. Regardless, at least two Ravenclaw seventh year students were openly blaming Professor Snape's bias for Slytherin for their string of victories; openly blaming Professor Snape behind closed doors, of course. Even if that were the case, there was nothing any student could do about it, and the graduating non-Slytherins were forced to console each other over yet another Slytherin victory, it being just another disappointment in a string of disappointments at the end of classes.

Much more consequential to the students' daily lives was the upcoming end-of-year examinations. Within Ravenclaw, how the students received and treated these upcoming trials depended very much on which year the student was in. The sixth and seventh year students were very worried about the upcoming N.E.W.T.s, which would have a preeminent role in defining their post-Hogwarts lives. The fourth and fifth year students in turn were equally worried about the upcoming O.W.L.s, which would have an equally significant role in defining their last two years in Hogwarts. All four years worth of students seemed to spend every spare moment they could studying for their respective tests.

This preoccupation with studying did not extend to the second and third year students, though. With their O.W.L.s still multiple years away they had plenty of time to take it easily. Instead, what preoccupied most of them was the recent behavior of Peeves. For the most part he continued to act as rambunctiously as he ever had, much to the consternation of the entire student body, but every so often, for no apparent reason, Peeves would suddenly break off and leave. While he would occasionally give out a shout before flying away, in general he had become much less ostentatious and obvious than the first time he had exhibited this behavior back in March. Sometimes he would just emerge from the wall a long way down the hallway, make eye-contact with a group of students, and then abruptly turn around and fly back into the wall. While his newly found strange behavior made for an unexpected and welcome break from his usual antics, none of the second or third year Ravenclaw students had any idea what caused him to act this way. The only clue they had for the cause of this behavior was that based on conversation with friends in other houses; none of the non-Ravenclaw students seemed to ever observe him acting this way. Each of the second and third year Ravenclaws students was eager to crack the secret, not only to finally have a tool with which to drive away the annoying poltergeist but to receive the adulation from the entire student body at having discovered the tool as well. However, thus far, nobody who didn't already know had managed to draw the connection to Sakura.

As the first year students were even farther away from the all important O.W.L.s than their slightly older upperclassmen, it might have been expected that they would be even more relaxed than the second and third year students. However, if anything, they were even more nervous than the seventh year graduating class was. In contrast to the seventh year students, who were worried by what they knew, that being the N.E.W.T.s would have a major impact on the rest of their lives, the first years were more worried about what they didn't know. They had no idea what the upcoming end-of-year examinations would entail and had no reliable source of information from which to find out. Whenever they tried to get an answer from an older student, they would alternatively hear that the tests were impossible to fail and absolutely nothing to worry about, or that they were harrowing death-defying terrors and they should be very afraid.

The young first year Ravenclaws instead had to resort to talking to each other for information about the upcoming final examinations, looking especially to those classmates who had older siblings. They were no help either. All Terry knew about them was what he overheard from what his parents had managed to get out of his sister, which was that the exams were "fiiiiiinnneee." Linda's older brother, in contrast, had said that the examinations were truly terrifying and each year half of the class was expelled for having failed them all. Simple math showed that this just wasn't possible, but Linda remained terrified.

Sakura was nervous for the examinations as well, but for an entirely different reason. There were strict rules in place about what the students could, and more importantly could not, bring to the tests. Books, in particular a certain bright pink book, fell strictly into the latter. She would be forced to leave all of the Sakura Cards behind in her dorm room. There had been no indication of a card going rampant since that incident in November, but she was still nervous.

Moreover, for the past few months, she had even caught her friends' wandering eyes looking at the pocket in which she kept all of the Sakura Cards. Nobody had actually brought the subject up since the incident in March, but Sakura could tell that their interest in the cards hadn't just gone away. Between that and the risk of a card going rampant, Sakura felt very uncomfortable that she had to leave the cards behind, even if Keroberos was carefully watching over them back in the dorm room.

With all of this going through her head, it was understandable how nervous Sakura was, standing around in the field waiting for the test for Flying class to begin. However, Terry, Wayne, Anthony, Hannah, Lisa, and everyone else was themself too anxious to notice another student's anxiety.

Madam Hooch had ended up writing off this year's Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first year students. They were so nervous around their brooms that she doubted any of them would amount to anything special in terms of flying, not that that was her problem. Her task was only to ensure that they were minimally competent in the air, and despite all the hardships throughout the year, they were. Idly she wondered what their lack of talent would do to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch team in the years to come, but that was also not her problem.

The final examination for Flying class proved to be much easier than the children had feared. A simple obstacle course had been set up in the air and the students were expected to fly from point to point, passing through some large hoops as they went. There was no time limit so all of the students were able to easily pass, even if it had taken Susan two tries to get through one of the hoops.

Sakura's History of Magic examination went much less well. She found herself getting confused between all the strange English names presented. She gave it her best shot, vaguely recalling the bits and pieces about automatic cauldrons that came to her mind. In all honesty she couldn't say for certain how much of what she wrote was true and how much was made up in her imagination. Looking around showed most of the other students were doing equally poorly, if the multiple head-scratches and frequent reflexive yawns were anything to go by.

Her attempts at concentration were made no easier by Professor Binns, who was floating through the rows of students in search of cheaters. Most teachers would have settled for walking up and down the aisles, instead of literally floating through the rows of students. It was a mark of how much Sakura had truly learned in class that she was only a mildly annoyed when Professor Binns floated through her back and emerged in front of her face, momentarily blocking her view.

Sakura didn't have very much time to brood over how poorly she had done on the official History of Magic test. Directly after it was the Transfiguration class's final exam. That actually helped distract her after her horrible performance in the History of Magic class test. As Sakura was the strongest student in her class for this subject, she was actually rather confident for this test.

At least Sakura had been confident up until Professor McGonagall announced that for their final exam they would be transforming a mouse into a snuffbox. One at a time. In front of the whole class.

Sakura was immediately struck by a bout of nerves. She couldn't be considered a cowardly girl by any stretch, especially now that her phobia of ghosts had finally been conquered, but she was never comfortable in front of a crowd. Things were not made any easier by the performance of the students who went before her. Terry, Linda, and Anthony all had problems transforming the mouse. Terry had done the best of the three, forming a shape vaguely rectangular and hard, but his would-be snuffbox had a decidedly gray color and a distinct pair of whiskers in the front of it.

Throughout the attempts of transfiguration the mouse was remarkably calm, despite it being repeatedly transformed into an inanimate object. This suited Sakura just fine. She couldn't imagine having to deal with a panicked and squirming rodent while simultaneously trying to transfigure it.

Finally it was Sakura's turn. She walked up to the mouse-laden desk with much less confidence than she had had an hour before. Still, she didn't have any choice in the matter. She drew her wand, took a deep breath, and tried her best to weave the magic emitting from the tip of her wand in the appropriate patterns.

After a dreadful pause where absolutely nothing happened, the mouse quickly transformed into an ornate snuffbox, speckled with semi-precious jewels. Professor McGonagall picked the box up, turned it around in her hand, opened it up, and then put it back down on the table.

"Well done Sakura. Next," Professor McGonnagal said, dismissing Sakura and waving her wand to turn the box back into the hapless mouse it truly was.

Sakura walked back to the small crowd of Ravenclaw students feeling immensely relieved as well as proud of her accomplishment. She was the first person in the class who had been clearly successful in her transfiguration, and she both basked in and was embarrassed by the looks of admiration she received from her classmates.

Whether it was because Sakura had finally proved that it could be done, because the mouse had finally become accustomed to being turned into a snuffbox and no longer resist the transfiguration, or just a coincidence, the students after Sakura had much more luck with their transfigurations. Deborah, who had never been very good in transfiguration, successfully transformed the mouse into a very plain snuffbox. Lisa did quite well as well, forming a very passable snuffbox with colorful decorations painted on its side.

After the Transfiguration test was the Potions examination. Sakura was on a confidence-high, having done the best in the class's opinion in the Transfiguration exam and being very proficient in Potions class as well.

In a twist of irony, the final exam for Potions was to remember how to craft a forgetfulness potion. Sakura had an easy time doing so, as did most of the class. The only person who seemed to have any problems with Deborah, and even her potion proved usable by the end of the test.

With Potions out of the way, Sakura and the rest of the class headed to the Charms room. By this point, between all the writing, wanding, and worrying, Sakura had completely forgotten about the Sakura Cards and was instead spending all of her energy trying to pass the various tests. The Charms examination was especially intimidating to Sakura. While she could consistently cast most of the charms she had been taught, she had never quite managed to put all the pieces together into a comprehensive whole which made sense to her. Instead she had to watch herself every time she wielded a wand, and she had grown to rather dislike the very by-the-book nature of the class, with its massive amount of rout memorization and repeated meaningless gestures she had to practice over and over.

She was so caught up in mentally reviewing what she knew in preparation for the upcoming test that the last thing Sakura was expecting was for Keroberos to fly down the hallway yelling, "Sakura!"

That was exactly what he did.

It took Keroberos two more shouts and getting several yards closer for Sakura to realize that the voice calling out was calling out for her.

The whole class had stopped walking and turned to look at the voice. They saw the yellow plushie that all of them had gotten accustomed to seeing floating around Ravenclaw Tower flying towards them as fast as he could. His progress was hampered considerably by the book he was carrying, which was both bigger and heavier than he was. About half of the students, most of them girls, recognized the pink book with the large font "SAKURA" written on the cover.

"Kero-chan? What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"One of the cards has gone missing again," Keroberos said, in Japanese to give a modicum of privacy.

"What?" Sakura asked back in Japanese. "What happened?"

"I just turned my back for a second, and when I turned around and the book was open and there was somebody running away. I tried to chase after the culprit but wasn't fast enough," Keroberos said, worry and shame fighting for dominance in his tone of voice. "Sorry."

"Are you sure that person took a card?" Sakura asked, taking the book from Keroberos. Even as she asked she could feel the absence from the book. Still hoping beyond hope that she had made a mistake she rapidly flipped through the cards to verify.

"Yes, I counted them myself. The person took..." Keroberos started.

"The Song!" Sakura finished for him.

"We need to find it," Keroberos said.

"What about the examinations?" Sakura asked.

"If somebody stole The Song we need to get it back. There's no telling what they might do with it," Keroberos insisted.

Sakura found herself agreeing with Keroberos's judgment as well. The Song was generally kind and harmless in nature, but its naivety did result in it acting inappropriately at times, and in this castle full of magic that could be dangerous. This danger was compounded if somebody had actually stolen The Song as they would almost certainly do something bad, either to it or with it. Even worse, if it somehow ended up going berserk like The Jump had earlier then there was no telling what might happen.

There was really no choice at all.

"Let's go Kero-chan. Which way did the person go?" Sakura asked.

"This way," Keroberos said flying off, Sakura in hot pursuit.

"Wait! Sakura! Where are you going?" Lisa called after the pair in English.

"Sorry. Ahh... Ahh... The loo!" Sakura shouted back in English, and continued to run.

Lisa shared a glance with Anthony and then both ran after the girl. Something was going on here and neither wanted to leave Sakura alone if there was trouble. They had seen what that book could do against Peeves earlier, and if Keroberos had come bringing it then something big was going on.

"Wait! Where are you two going?" Paul called after the pair as they ran off.

"We're going to the loo as well!" Anthony called behind him without stopping.

"What about the exams?" Deborah asked.

"Tell Professor Flitwick we are not feeling well!" Lisa shouted from down the hallway.

The pair disappeared down the hallway in hot pursuit of the already out-of-sight Sakura and Keroberos, leaving the remainder of the Ravenclaw students looking after them in confusion as they ran off.

"Now what do we do?" Linda asked to nobody in particular.


"This way," Keroberos urged Sakura on, turning a corner.

"No, it's this way," Sakura contradicted, pointing a different direction.

"Are you sure?" Keroberos asked.

Keroberos was positive that the person who had stolen The Song had run much further down the hallway. However, The Song was aligned with Yue rather than himself which meant his connection to it was much more tenuous than his connection to cards like The Firey. Sakura, as the mistress of all of the Sakura Cards, had no such limitation and was intimately connected to each of them.

"Yes, I'm sure," Sakura said.

"Wait up!" Anthony called out from behind them.

Sakura and Keroberos turned around to see Lisa and Anthony running down the hall after them. When they had finally caught up, both of them were breathing hard and on the verge of panting.

After waiting a few moments to catch his breath, Anthony asked, "What happened? Why did you run off?"

Sakura shared a glance with Keroberos before turning back to the pair and answering "Something happened, and I need to fix it."

"You mean like last time?" Lisa asked, breathing hard as well.

"Last time?" Anthony asked.

"Yes," Sakura said.

"You will not be jumping out a window again, will you?" Lisa asked.

"Jumping out of a window?" Anthony asked, concern written on his face.

"I don't think so," Sakura said hesitantly.

"Sakura," Keroberos insisted, already halfway down the hallway Sakura had indicated earlier.

"Sorry. Got to go," Sakura said, and then turned and ran down the hall after Keroberos.

"Oh no you don't. You're not leaving us behind," Anthony said, chasing after Sakura.

"Wait for us," Lisa agreed, following after Sakura as well.

Sakura and Keroberos ran down the hall, chasing the fleeting but distinctive feeling of The Song. As Sakura had the strongest sense of where the card was she took the lead, despite Keroberos being the one who had seen it last. Behind the pair ran Lisa and Anthony, both in a state which made it obvious that Sakura was the most athletic student among the first year Ravenclaws.

Partly to conserve her energy and partly in sympathetic consideration, Sakura slowed her run to that of a fast jog so she wouldn't leave both of her friends behind.

"Where are we going?" Anthony asked to Lisa from a few yards behind Sakura.

"I do not know," Lisa said.

In fact nobody knew where they were going. The group was forced to take a winding path through the castle. Sakura knew which direction The Song was in, but not where all the walls and stairs were. They frequently had to double back when Sakura's feelings led them into a dead end.

"We're getting close," Sakura said, more for the benefit of her tag-along followers than Keroberos.

"I think so. I'm felling something too," Keroberos confirmed.

"Isn't that where all the greenhouses are?" Anthony asked.

"I think sOOO! Ooph," Lisa answered.

They had turned a corner, and Lisa had had to flail wildly to avoid running headlong into the suddenly stopped Sakura. Another moment longer and she would have collided with the girl. As it was, she only ended up falling backwards onto the ground.

"What? Why did you suddenly..." Lisa said as she stood up, before trailing off as she saw what had caused Sakura to abruptly stop in front of her. On the ground, several yards in front of the now lion-sized Keroberos, was a body laying face down on the ground, unmoving. It looked like a student, based on the body's size and the robe it wore.

"Who is that?" Lisa asked.

"I don't know," Anthony answered.

"I think that's the person who took the card," Keroberos said.

Sakura cautiously crept forward towards the fallen body, watched from behind by Anthony and Lisa. She kept careful guard as she approached, ready to jump away in case this was a trick or a trap. The body didn't move at all as she approached. She gently turned the body over so it was lying on its back.

With the face now exposed, it was easy to tell who it was.

"Wayne?" Lisa asked, rushing forward to his side.

A second later Anthony joined her, asking, "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know," Sakura said.

"What should we do?" Lisa asked.

"We should go get Madam Pomfrey, or a professor," Anthony said.

The Song was close. Sakura could feel it. Despite this, she stayed kneeling next to Wayne and patted his cheek, saying "Wake up, Wayne. Are you okay? Wake up."

Wayne gave a groan and shifted his head from side to side. Lethargically he swung his hand up, trying to brush away the annoyance. Slowly he opened his eyes, wincing and holding his head with his hand.

"Thank goodness," Lisa said from his side. "Are you alright?"

Wayne gave no response to the question.

"Oi, are you alright?" Anthony asked in a louder voice.

Wayne still gave no response.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked, looking down at him in concern.

"What?" came Wayne's weak answer.

"I asked if you were okay," Sakura said in a slightly louder voice.

"I can't..." Wayne said slowly in a voice not much louder than a whisper, "...hear you. Can you... speak up?"

"I asked if you are alright," Sakura repeated, louder again.

"That isn't... very funny," Wayne said.

"What?" Sakura asked. She turned to Keroberos who shook his head in answer to her question.

"No really, what is it?" Wayne asked, somewhat more gathered now.

"Can you hear us?" Anthony asked. Wayne gave no response.

"I think he's deaf," Keroberos suggested.

"Deaf? What's that?" Sakura asked.

"It means he cannot hear things," Lisa said, pointing to her ears.

"That's not funny at... all?" Wayne said, pausing at the end.

"All?" Wayne tried again. He then clapped his hands together as loudly as he could, which wasn't very loudly at all.

"I can't hear anything. What's wrong with me," Wayne asked, his weakness preventing his panicking from getting too out of hand.

"What happened?" Sakura asked. She then repeated herself slower and in front of Wayne's head while over-enunciating each word, "What happened?"

"I've no idea what you said," Wayne said in despair.

"If he..." Keroberos started saying, before being interrupted by a soul rending cry in the distance.

"What was that?" Lisa asked.

"Was that The Song?" Keroberos asked.

"We have to do something. Somebody's bound to come and check on that," Sakura said, more to Keroberos than to the three humans present.

"We should get a professor. They will know what to do," Lisa said in response.

"We can't do that," Keroberos said.

"Why not?" Anthony asked.

"Because we can't," Keroberos answered.

Anthony thought better than getting into an argument with a magical lion several times bigger than him, whereas Lisa, still remembering the fireball from months ago, had no inclination to press the issue further either.

"So what should we do then?" Lisa asked.

"We need to handle this ourselves," Sakura said. She gathered her courage then declared, "I'm going. Wayne looks like he should be fine for a while and we can take care of him after we're done."

"Let's go," Keroberos agreed.

"Do you two still want to come?" Sakura asked.

Another horrendous wail came from down the hallway, counterpointing Sakura's simple question.

Not waiting for an answer, Sakura hurried down the hallway, following both the direction of the cry as well as the source of her feelings. She was followed by Keroberos, who in turn was followed by the two human students. Her feelings eventually led her towards the end of the hall, past several doors, and eventually to a large door labeled "Greenhouse Three". Keroberos came to a stop just behind her, followed by Anthony and Lisa. All three took up positions along Sakura's flanks.

Pre-fight jitters bounced around uncontrollably inside of Sakura's stomach. It wasn't as bad as before her fight with The Nothing, or the final confrontation she had had with Eriol for that matter, but that was scant comfort for her current trepidation. She looked at Keroberos, who appeared as unflappable as ever. If he had any anxiety his demeanor betrayed none of it. Little did she realize that she likewise was presenting a confident stoic facade despite her inner nervousness.

In contrast to the seasoned pair, Lisa and Anthony were visibly shaking with worry, jumping in fear with each shriek.

"Greenhouse Three. Is this not where they keep all those dangerous plants?" Lisa asked.

"I think so," Anthony agreed. "Are you sure we can't just find some professors and let them deal with this?"

"Yes. We can't involve anybody else," Sakura said.

"Okay. Still, I wouldn't mind half as much except for that noise," Anthony said. He had done well, barely managing to keep his voice firm.

Sakura agreed with him. The cries were horrendous, both in pitch and intensity. It was near enough to human to tug at the primordial instincts of fear within her, but not similar enough to wholly match her expectations. The mismatch was jarring to say the least, terrifying to say more, and that didn't even take into consideration the sheer volume of the cries. Even from behind the closed doors they were painful in intensity.

"You could simply cover your ears," Lisa said, following her own advice.

"That won't work very well in there. It's not like you can protect yourself without using your hands," Keroberos observed. "It's not too late to leave if you want to."

"But it's a good idea," Sakura said. "We just can't use our hands, right?"

"What do you mean?" Anthony asked.

"Is there anything we can use to cover our ears?" Sakura asked.

"That is a good idea," Lisa said.

"I don't think I have anything," Anthony said, patting around his pockets.

"Why don't you try using your robes?" Keroberos suggested.

"Will it work?" Sakura asked as she took off her robe and tied it around her head like a makeshift turban. However it was too bulky for her to get a good handle on. Between the sleeves, the hood, and the overall bulk of the cloth it was difficult to properly set around her head. It kept sliding around and falling off, leaving Sakura with her hair sticking up like she had just been struck by lightning. Once she was able to get it to stay in one place it barely had any effect on the sound, doing a better job of blinding her than anything else.

"This isn't working," Sakura said.

"I can't get it to stay either," Anthony said.

"Is there anything else we could use?" Lisa asked.

"Why don't you use The Silent?" Keroberos suggested.

"The Silent? What's that?" Lisa asked.

"Good idea," Sakura said. She pulled the Key from around her neck and expanded it to its larger size. She then reached into the book containing the remaining the Sakura Cards and pulled out the appropriate card.

Sakura threw the card into the air, twirling her rod around as she chanted in Japanese, "Silent, form a barrier and block all sound. Silent!"

The Key struck true as it always did, spinning from the magical energy being forced through it. To Sakura's eyes, the feminine figure of The Silent grew out of the card and started running around the four of them. Faster and faster it ran, until it became a translucent blur, eventually completely fading from view.

In response to Sakura's action, Lisa asked, "Is that not ..."

Anthony put his hand to his ear and asked back, "..."

"..." Lisa tried again, and then said, "..."

Anthony cupped his hands in front of his mouth and shouted, "..."

All of them were interrupted by another rending shriek from the greenhouse. It was distinctly audible, but only as a harsh whisper in a library rather than as the scream of terrible despair from before. It was still enough to send chills down their spines, but it only spooked them rather than making them want to plug their ears and move into a fetal position under a safe blanket in bed.

With both Anthony and Lisa looking in her general direction, Sakura waved the bright pink Key to get their attention then pointed towards the door. The two students and Keroberos nodded back to her.

Sakura took the lead and opened the large door. She had half expected to be blown off her feet by a miasma of evil, but nothing like that happened. The door simply slid silently open with all of the effort but none of the sounds it usually gave. The blast of hot air which greeted Sakura made for a distinctive counterpoint to the chill of the stone castle.

Sakura clutched the Key close to her chest, nervously looked around, and slowly walked into the room. Behind her, Keroberos followed, keeping a watchful eye for The Song and betraying no sign of his very present nerves that any of the humans could detect. Lisa and Anthony crept in behind the two. The door silently shut behind the four.

Greenhouse Three superficially looked normal. Green foliage surrounded them like a mini-jungle, making for an appropriate location for a showdown of sorts. Closer inspection told a very different tale, though. Despite the short exposure, the plants around them were showing distinct signs of stress from the magical wailing they were being exposed to. At least Sakura assumed that the drooping leaves riddled with brown spots and small holes were a sign that something was wrong. With magical plants it was hard to tell at times.

Her observations were abruptly interrupted less than a dozen steps into Greenhouse Three by another shriek, this time from the air above them. They looked up just in time to see an unidentifiable dark blob give a horrendous cry and dive straight at the four of them.

Keroberos wasted no time in shooting a fireball directly at the dark figure, which swerved with amazing aerial agility and avoided the shot. Keroberos shot another fireball at the figure, now flying in a circular path around the four on the ground, almost managing to wing it. At the last possible moment it swerved again, and the fireball flew harmlessly above the figure.

Sakura jumped and ran to grab Keroberos, interrupting his third shot. He turned to Sakura, his mouth moving without generating sound. It didn't need to as Sakura understood and shook her head at him. He turned back to the floating figure in the air.

The Song just hovered in mid air, allowing the first good look at it. Unlike the brightly cheerful character from before, it had taken on a far darker and more sinister appearance. It was draped with large swaths of torn dark cloth, looking like a tattered monk's robe ripped almost beyond recognition. Its skin had taken on a gray pallor, and its hair was frizzy and wildly erratic. The frazzled dirty black locks of hair were only made more jarring from the large swaths of harsh gray which were streaked around it.

Sakura's observations were interrupted as The Song rose a few feet and gave another ear piercing shriek, only barely made tolerable by the bubble of silence Sakura had created earlier. It then dived straight at them.

Keroberos raised his head and made to prepare another fireball. Sakura noticed his actions and would have none of it. She reached up and grabbed his head, to the shock of both Anthony and Lisa, interrupting him a second time. He turned to look at Sakura, his mouth moving with no apparent effect.

Any semblance of communication from him to her despite the inability to talk was brutally interrupted when the two of them fell to the ground, forced down in an attempt to avoid the swooping of The Song. They were followed immediately after by Anthony and Lisa, who likewise threw themselves to the ground from the attack.

The Song flew back into the air, giving another cry as it did so. Sakura, Anthony, and Lisa scrambled to their feet as Keroberos pushed himself back onto all fours. There was no reprieve as The Song turned in the air and flew straight back at them like an insane enormous boomerang.

The four quickly scattered from the dive attack. Keroberos and Sakura running to the right while Anthony and Lisa ran to the left, both pairs following the clear paths of stone threading through the foliage around them.

Sakura looked over her shoulder as she ran to identify where The Song went and saw that it had swerved to chase after her and Keroberos. She gave out a silent lamentation and redoubled her efforts to get away.

The Song gave another shriek, which was enough of a warning for Sakura to duck her head and dodge to the right, almost crashing into a couple of mandrake plants. The plants made several silent rude gestures at Sakura for her almost collision while The Song passed through the area she had been moments before and flew ahead in front of her.

Seeing her opportunity, Sakura reached into her robe for her book. She willed The Windy into her hand and pulled it out in front of her. Once it was in her hand she hesitated, worried how she would call upon the card in the silent world she had created. Her decision was forced when The Song reached an apex in flight and turned, heading straight at her again with another shout.

As fast as she dared Sakura threw the card into the air, trying to implore The Windy to entrap The Song. When the Key came down it intersected the card as usual, but unlike normal there was no effect. Sakura could only contemplate this lack of result for a brief moment before The Song swooped in and knocked her flying through the air.

Sakura flew through the air towards a spiky plant, but her flight was stopped short after several yards against the soft fur of Keroberos, who had moved with instantaneous agility to break her fall. She had barely managed to keep hold of the Key as she flew through the air, but The Windy had been knocked from her hand and was caught up in the slipstream of The Song's passing.

As her eyes traced the direction of the card, Sakura failed to notice the large vines of the Venomous Tentacula plant she had been flying towards earlier reaching out for her and Keroberos. Its vines proved to be a couple of feet too short to reach them, but that didn't prevent it from silently thrashing them around in a futile attempt to latch on to both of its would be victims and pull them to its spiked center

Sakura tried to follow the path The Windy took through the air, but could barely spare a second to watch it fly into a bed of plants before her attention was dragged away to her side by another unearthly wail. She turned just in time to see The Song rearing for another pass.

Keroberos reacted to handle the attack this time. He would have preferred to just hit it with one of his fireballs, but Sakura had made it clear that she didn't want The Song hurt which severely limited his options. He had been around her long enough to not question her judgment, though. After all it had been her compassion which had earned Yue's loyalty, as well turned The Nothing into The Hope.

Any of his projectile attacks would have been too much so his only option was a more close quarter engagement. With this aim in mind, he launched into the air at The Song.

The Song tried to dodge, but Keroberos was easily the more experienced flier. He matched its maneuver, catching it at the apex of a roll. As gently as he could he knocked The Song to the side, sending it for a loop but otherwise leaving it unharmed.

Keroberos spared a quick glance towards Sakura, who nodded and turned away from the aerial combat. Keroberos would protect her as she retrieved The Windy that had been knocked away. Given The Song's agility and its airborne nature, most of her standard cards wouldn't be able to handle it. The Windy had proven itself fast enough and gentle enough that she preferred to use it if she could, especially when it was just laying on a small bed of harmless looking plants just a couple of yards away.

While Sakura ran over to pick up the card, it having landed in the middle of a bed of plants that Sakura didn't recognize but luckily happened to be harmless gillyweed, The Song tried once again to get past Keroberos and attack the young girl he was protecting. It feinted in the air and made to dodge past him. Keroberos would have none of it, though, and properly forecast then rebuffed The Song's maneuvers just as deftly as the first time he had sent it sprawling.

The Song retreated again from the guardian beast, who readied himself to intercept the next inevitable attack. Keroberos was taken by surprise when instead of charging again, The Song turned around and fled. He was left confused for several crucial moments until he looked below and saw Lisa and Anthony staring open-mouthed at the pair in the air. The Song was flying straight at them.

Keroberos tried to shout a warning, but it came out just a silently as everything else in the greenhouse besides the dreadful screams of The Song. Luckily his warning proved unnecessary as both students seemed to realize the danger at the exact same moment and turned to run.

Lisa looked around desperately for a path to escape as the pair fled the apparition. To her side she saw the door they had entered the greenhouse from, only a couple of yards away. Closed. Pursued as they were it might just as well have been a couple of miles away. The simple ordinary action of opening the heavy door would take only seconds, but these were seconds she and Anthony didn't have at the speed they were being approached.

Lisa and Anthony had no chance to regroup and blindly ran away along the path before them, a path which hit an abrupt dead end in a dark corner of the room. The two students were forced to come to an equally abrupt stop, lest they run into a wall. They turned around, staring at the onrushing assailant.

Beside them, a large Devil's Snare plant noticed the encroachment of the children to its domain and started moving its tendrils towards them. The tendrils looked soft, almost moist, and moved as if to encircle the pair while avoiding any beams of sunlight coming through the large greenhouse windows a few yards away.

Despite their Herbology classes, neither student noticed or paid any attention to the plant currently flanking them, their attention instead fully focused on the flying monstrosity chasing them. Anthony had no intention of being attacked helplessly and pulled out his wand. Taking her cue from Anthony, Lisa took out her wand as well.

Both thought frantically, desperate to think of some charm, jinx, hex, or even curse that they had learned which would be useful in this situation. Unfortunately Lisa couldn't think of any, and Anthony could only think of one. One was better than zero, though, so despite it being so seemingly useless, Anthony waved his wand and tried to shout out the charm, desperately hoping despite of the lack of sound that it would work.

Nothing happened.

Only for a moment. The end of his wand started to glow with the magical light of a Lumos charm. This caused The Song to pause briefly to examine the situation and this new development.

Possibly more importantly, and certainly unnoticed by everybody in the greenhouse, the large soft, springy tendrils of the Devil's Snare which had been silently surrounding the two children froze at the sudden appearance of this extra light in the greenhouse and then quickly retreated back whence it came.

Unlike the Devil's Snare, when the light failed to do anything besides sit at the end of Anthony's wand, The Song charged forward again. Keroberos was still right on its tail, but he was unlikely to catch it despite the momentary reprieve.

Sakura had almost reached The Windy and looked over her shoulder to see how Keroberos was doing. She didn't see him where she was expecting. This worried her. She took a quick scan of the air above her, looking for both Keroberos and The Song, but could see neither. Then a quick flash of gold through the foliage caught her attention. She looked further down and caught sight of The Song flying away from her at top speed, pursed closely by Keroberos. In front of the two of them she saw Lisa and Anthony, now crouched down clinging to each other, directly in the flight path of The Song.

Sakura reacted purely on instinct. Reaching into her robe and pulling out a card, she threw it into the air and chanted out as quickly as she could while tunneling her magic through the Key. Her spell was inaudible but that didn't matter; her was intention was clear, and her will manifested itself to The Shield. From there it projected through the air and around Anthony and Lisa.

The Song careened into the newly formed magical bubble, which flared brightly as it fought to protect the pair contained within from the wrath and fury just outside. The construct held, and after a millisecond which felt like an eternity, The Song was repelled and thrown back.

It only took seconds for the Song to regroup in the air. Seconds was all Keroberos needed. He flew directly in front of Lisa and Anthony, causing both to shout silently. He reared around and took a defensive posture in front of the two, making it clear in no uncertain terms that the two would not be hurt while he was there.

Keroberos could almost see the thought process going through The Song's head as it floated in the air. It was trying to figure out if it could break through his defenses. They both knew the answer to that question. Keroberos then chanced a glance over to see how Sakura was doing. She had turned her back again and was reaching over several plants, still trying to reach The Windy, which was just out of arms length.

The Song turned to follow Keroberos's gaze, and saw what appeared to be a small harmless girl with her back turned. It was an easy decision to make, and The Song once again ran away from the guardian beast towards the unprotected human.

There was no way to catch up to The Song and Keroberos knew it. Furthermore, unlike the young wizard and witch he was protecting, Keroberos knew his mistress could more than take care of herself. She had proven that more times than he could count. Despite this he couldn't help but shout out a warning, for all the good it would do in the silence of Greenhouse Three.

Whether it was by coincidence or telepathy, Sakura turned around looked up at that exact moment, The Windy finally retrieved and in her hand. It was just in time to see The Song charging at her like a tsunami of power and rage. Against this Sakura stood as firm and immovable as a rock, confident in her skills and that everything would end up alright.

At the speed The Song was traveling, it would take mere seconds for it to reach Sakura, more than enough time for her to do what she wanted to. She took the card she had retrieved moments ago and with more confidence than she really felt inside she threw it into the air.

Sakura started to chant. Like The Shield earlier, her voice was suppressed by her own magic, but that didn't affect her. She already had cast one spell so knew it could be done, and her will couldn't have been made more clear if she had shouted her request from the spire on top of Ravenclaw Tower itself.

She threw the card at The Song, even though it would have no direct effect on it. It swirled through the air up, over, and eventually back in front of her where she tagged it squarely with the Key. Like The Shield earlier, despite the lack of vocals, her magic channeled through the Key as it always did, funneled into the card, and ultimately caused The Windy to manifest.

Sakura could see the gentle magnificent figure of The Windy expanding and climbing out of the card, reaching a size which overshadowed The Song. It cast its tendrils of power at the onrushing figure. The Song tried to dodge the chains of air as it had dodged Keroberos's fireballs from before, but The Windy's perfect control over the currents easily matched The Song's maneuvers and caught it firm.

Now that the Song was securely held, Sakura slowly approached it. It struggled and strained against The Windy, but like so many other cards in the past, The Windy's hold on it held and it had no chance of escaping.

Much like The Jump earlier, Sakura held the Key in front of her in a ready position. She then raised it in a grand gesture, and, swinging it down, impelled The Song to return to its natural form.

The energy streamed out of The Song in all directions before coagulating in a mass in front of Sakura, swirling faster and faster in a cacophony of power. From this maelstrom the simple form of a card materialized, quietly hovering in midair waiting to be taken possession of.

While the card had been restored, some of the energy had peeled away and had been drawn into the head of the Key, causing it to glow with what looked like an inky blackness but was more accurately described as a very dark gray color. This brought with it an uncomfortable feeling of illness to Sakura. An overall feeling of aching and despair characteristic of the most severe of colds filled Sakura and made her long to purge the feeling from her body with some metaphysical filter.

Unlike a traditional sickness, Sakura figured that this feeling was caused by whatever happened to The Song, rather than some strange virus or bacteria. That didn't do anything to make it feel better, though, and she hoped to remove the effect as quickly as possible.

Sakura gathered her will and forced herself to overcome the lethargy which had invaded her body to move the Key like she had after she had after she had resealed The Jump. There was no effect and the feeling refused to leave her. She tried again with more force and effort, but again with little effect.

Sakura mustered all the energy she could in her state and flung the Key in a downward stroke, picturing like there was some ball or something stuck in the Key which she was trying to throw out with all her might.

Half way through the stroke, the Key released the energy it had been holding. An ear-splitting explosion of noise erupted from the star at the end of the Key, throwing Sakura off her feet.

Even as far away as they were, Lisa felt as if her eardrums had been shattered. That feeling was transcended with horror as she watched Sakura flying backwards through the air. With no Keroberos to block her fall, she flew backwards several yards through the air, bouncing once and skidding to a stop flat on her back.

"Sakura!" Keroberos, Lisa, and Anthony all shouted.

They were at her side moments later, running as fast as they could, or flying in the case of Keroberos.

"Are you okay?" Keroberos asked.

"I think so," Sakura answered.

Sakura pushed tried to push herself up, but then winced as she felt a jab of pain in her arm. Girding herself she tried again, ignoring the pain and pushing herself up to a sitting position.

"Don't overdo it. It looks like you're hurt," Keroberos said.

Her arms were covered in scratches and scrapes, a couple threatening to start openly bleeding. Her legs didn't look any better.

"Your back," Lisa gasped.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"It looks pretty bad. We better get you to Madam Pomfrey," Anthony said.

"I'm okay," Sakura insisted. She experimentally turned her torso a bit and felt nothing out of the ordinary besides a little stiffness. She went on to say, "More importantly, we should leave before somebody comes."

"That's a good idea," Keroberos agreed.

The area Sakura had been standing moments earlier looked, not coincidentally, like the site of an explosion. There weren't any scorch marks anywhere, but there was a tell-tale hole in the ground radiating in a circular pattern. Several of the surrounding plants were showing damage as well. A giant tree Sakura didn't recognize had several of its branches broken off, and it had gotten off lucky. A neighboring group of flowers which looked like mini-umbrellas and a collection of mandrake plants on the other side of Sakura had both been uprooted by the force of the blow, and that was just the damage Sakura saw with a momentary glance.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the whole castle heard that sound. Somebody's probably coming to investigate right now," Anthony said.

"Do you think you can get her on my back? I can carry her out of here," Keroberos said.

"No, I can walk," Sakura said.

"Are you sure?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Sakura insisted, climbing to her feet with only a minimal amount of wincing.

"Okay, but don't overdo it," Keroberos repeated.

After putting The Windy, The Shield, and The Song away, Sakura took a quick skim through her book to make sure she hadn't lost or otherwise missed a card. With all cards accounted for, Sakura allowed the Key to return to its smaller form and returned it in the usual place around her neck as she walked out of the greenhouse. She was once again followed by Keroberos who was followed in turn by Lisa and Anthony.

Sakura ended up setting the pace, despite walking with a modest limp. Nobody else wanted to go any faster, lest they push her too hard as they headed towards the door.

In a sense the three first year students' ignorance about many of the plants which surrounded them was a good thing. It was nothing short of a miracle that none of them had been seriously injured or killed in the deathtrap that Greenhouse Three could be to the unaware. No nightmares of being eaten alive by a plant would haunt them, and indeed it wouldn't be for several years that any of them would even realize how dangerous some of the foliage which surrounded them could be and exactly how lucky they had been.

None of this was on their mind as they opened the door they had entered from mere minutes earlier. A blast of cool air blew the hot sticky humidity of the greenhouse away from their bodies as they left the room, refreshing the four of them and letting them feel like their trial was finally over.


Last Updated: March 16, 2013