Chapter 20: Answers and Confrontations
All five of them sat on the brooms out of breath for a moment, panting for air.
"Please tell me you got it." Harry begged between breaths.
Aelita hopped off her broom and nodded. She explained, "Those spiders destroyed my laptop but I was able to get the full file onto a flash drive. We got it." The others likewise got off their brooms. They left the alleyway and began heading towards the gates of Hogsmeade. It was good timing as well since students and professors were heading back to Hogwarts anyway.
"Why did that place just fall apart like that?" Ron asked as they trudged through the snow towards the school.
"Some sort of safeguard, I think," Aelita replied.
"Safeguard against what, exactly?" Hermione inquired.
"The destruction of that supercomputer," Draco answered. "It got hit in the scuffle when the robots decided to join the spiders."
"My biggest question is how we got back to the entrance after we had been knocked out," Harry wondered aloud to no one in particular. Aelita and Draco shared a nervous look.
"Uh, that was me, actually," Hermione piped up. "The spiders had knocked you and Ron both out. I pretended to be unconscious so the spiders and robots would leave us alone for the moment. When they had their backs turned, so to speak, I got us out of there. I figured it was best to get you two back to the entrance and out of harm's way."
"Wow! You're the greatest, Hermione!" Ron cheered, hugging her close. Aelita gave Draco a confused look. They both knew that Hermione was lying and couldn't be further from the truth. The question that was on Aelita's mind in particular was why Hermione felt the need to lie in the first place. But that discussion could wait for another time.
"I'm curious as to where those spiders came from," Harry stated, ignoring Ron's look of disbelief. "They weren't there last time. Did you happen to find out where they come from?" He looked to Aelita, who laughed.
"By the time I realized those spiders were there," she replied. "I was more than a little preoccupied. Unfortunately, we can't exactly go back and look that up."
"Right before the place collapsed, some trucks started driving away," Ron added. "I assume, based on the contents of the two trailers we had knocked over, that they were taking the robots away from the facility. Would you be able to find out where they were going?"
Aelita was silent for a moment. That was a good question to consider. Maybe Jeremie would be able to figure that one out. She chose her next words carefully, "If I were to ignore the questions on legality, I might be able to with the right equipment. I no longer have my laptop, and the computer in the Muggle Studies classroom is of no help."
"How so?" Ron pressed.
Aelita thought for a way to describe in terms that Ron would best understand. She said, "Using that computer would be like trying to use a Snitch for lifting heavy objects; not impossible, just incredibly difficult." Ron nodded his understanding. They walked in silence for a few minutes. They reached the Entrance Hall. They could smell dinner from the Great Hall and unanimously decided to table their discussions for after dinner. Aelita ran forward, racing Ron towards the delicious beef stew that was calling their names.
"Well, I think I'm going to go to the Common Room and relax for a moment," Harry announced decidedly after dinner.
"Same here," Ron agreed.
"You go on ahead," Hermione said. "I'd like to get started on the video sooner rather than later."
"Want my help?" Aelita offered, wanting to be there when the discovery was made.
"That would be appreciated, actually," Hermione replied. Aelita smiled and looked at Draco.
"You go on ahead," he said. "I need a shower."
"Typical boys," Hermione teased. "Leaving the dirty work to us, girls." Aelita chuckled, and the two of them walked away before the others could retort back.
Ginny paced back and forth in her room. She had waited all day to hear from Harry, praying that they would find something. The sun had already begun to set. She looked up when she heard a sizzling sound come from her desk. She practically lunged for the fake Galleon. She picked it up and read the message that slowly appeared:
Made it back safe. Facility destroyed. Robots and mechanical spiders but no George.
Hermione watching full video now. More info to come. Proceed as planned.
Ginny placed the coin into her pocket, pulled her wand from deep within her closet, put her coat on, grabbed a flashlight, and headed out the door. She made her way outside and, glancing around to make sure no one saw her, ran off into the woods towards that house.
"Docking," Ben announced as the Skid and the Hring slid into place in the hangar in Sector 5. "How does everything look on your end, Jeremie?"
"It appears okay," Jeremie replied. "But I want to be sure. Can you guys visually inspect the ships for any damage? The ships took a serious beating, and I don't want to take any chances."
"Is that really necessary, Jeremie?" Odd complained, stretching in his seat in the cockpit of the Hringhorni. "I'm tired and ready for a date with my pillow."
"If we all do it, it shouldn't take longer than fifteen minutes, tops," Taelia countered from within the Skidbladnir. "Don't be so lazy."
"You clearly don't know Odd that well do you?" Ulrich joked as he appeared outside the Skid. Everyone laughed at Odd's expense, who curiously found no humor in Ulrich's statement.
"Jeremie, those cybernetic spiders in Siberia looked just like the ones from the Amazon laboratory," Yumi informed him. "Do you think there's a connection there?"
"Possibly," Jeremie said, typing away on his keyboard. He heard a crackling sound beside him as Ben's specter appeared next to him. He could feel the tension in the lab rise significantly. What Ben was about to tell him wasn't going to be good news.
"I had managed to retrieve the security footage from Siberia while we were there," Ben said. "You're not going to like what I found." A window on the terminal was brought up. "The video starts the day after your first visit to Siberia."
"After we first encountered Aelita's wizard friends," Jeremie surmised.
"I wish," Ben replied. Jeremie frowned. "I mean the day after you first encountered the Kolossus five years ago." Jeremie turned to stare at Ben, praying that he was joking. "Just watch." Jeremie turned back to the screen, his heartbeat thumping in his ears.
The video showed the underground loading dock. Nothing moved for a moment before several large truck trailers backed up to the dock. Men in white coats got out and opened the trailers. The robots marched out. Jeremie's eyes widened in fear. The robots did not originate from Siberia! The feed fast-forwarded after the trucks pulled away. The trucks appeared again yesterday, this time filled with the cybernetic spiders. The robots then began loading into the trucks. The filled trucks drove away with their cargo. More trucks then arrived but with no cargo. By Jeremie's determination, the empty trucks showed up not even ten minutes before they had gotten there.
"This is why the replica was so heavily guarded," Jeremie stated. "X.A.N.A. was packing up shop. He must've known that we were coming!"
"It gets worse," Ben added. "See that logo on the side of the trucks?" The logo Ben indicated had one solid two-thirds of a circle and three small straight lines sticking out the bottom. The resemblance to X.A.N.A.'s eye was uncanny. "I did an Internet search on that logo."
"Was this why the video transfer took so long?" Jeremie asked.
"The logo belongs to a bioelectrical engineering company that was created during the summer X.A.N.A. had been freed from Lyoko," Ben continued as if uninterrupted. "There's no listed headquarters but has locations across the globe, one of which happens to be a research lab in Brazil that specializes in –"
"Cybernetic spiders," Jeremie gasped.
"Exactly. What is even worse is that this company has been shipping stuff around the world."
"And here I thought you had some good news for me. What kind of stuff?"
"Electrical, biomedical, and mechanical equipment, according to the shipping orders and flight manifests," Ben responded. "Up to five years ago, the listed weights of the shipments steadily increased. Then, all shipments ceased suddenly."
"Until last August," Jeremie finished for him. "And the weights are the same as they were when shipments stopped."
"Yeah," Ben said. "And they haven't gotten larger."
"Jeremie, what is going on?" Yumi asked.
Jeremie held his face in his hands, allowing Ben to disappear. He took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. He was afraid that this day would come. He just never thought it would be so soon. On the plus side, there are now new locations that X.A.N.A. could be holding George. He pulled the mike up to his face and began to talk slowly yet surprisingly steadily.
"Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi," Jeremie began. "Remember that discussion we had a long time ago before we had materialized Aelita? We discussed the possibility of requiring outside assistance in dealing with X.A.N.A. if he became too much for us to handle. We all know that Aelita will continue to deny this, but I'm afraid that day is sooner than any of us would like." He paused, allowing that statement to sink in. "When we beat X.A.N.A. the first time, we successfully destroyed his replicas, except the Siberian one obviously. What we never remotely considered was the possibility of needing to destroy the physical materials X.A.N.A. had pulled together. In reality, we only ever successfully destroyed two of the supercomputers that housed replicas in them. The Amazon replica had only lost power. Restore the power, and the replica is back online. All X.A.N.A. had to do when he was reawakened was simply rebuild his replicas around the world. He's not rebuilding any more. He's preparing just like he was five years ago. All we had done was delay his plans by five years.
"You wanted to know why we were helping these wizards learn the truth. The answer is now simple: we need them."
"What is he preparing for?" Ulrich asked.
"For war," Taelia replied darkly. "He's building up his army. We need to start building ours as well."
"Then I say we get Ginny over here tonight," William said. "The longer we wait to bring them up to speed, the greater the chance that we might be too late." The following silence was deafening, but no one made any objections.
"I'll make the call," Jeremie said solemnly. He dialed Ginny's cell number.
"Okay, it's going to take a couple minutes for this dinosaur to come to life," Aelita told Hermione.
Hermione shrugged. This was clearly not her area of expertise. She was nervous. She didn't know what the rest of the video was going to show. Plus, she didn't know how to tell the others about the mysterious stranger who had saved her, Ron, and Harry. She wondered if Aelita would be upset if Hermione revealed she had lied.
"Is there something on your mind?" Aelita asked in the silence. She gave Hermione a knowing look.
"A Seer instinct?" Hermione questioned, no longer doubting Aelita's capabilities.
"You could say that. What's up?"
"Well…" Hermione paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "I…didn't exactly save Harry and Ron in Siberia. Someone else did." Aelita said nothing and allowed Hermione to continue, which made Hermione wonder if Aelita had already known. "I was knocked out, too. When I came to, the three of us were back at the entrance. A short ways down the hall was this dark-haired guy. He told me that he wasn't the enemy."
"Was this guy the reason why you knew to go looking for those trucks filled with robots outside?" Aelita asked. Hermione nodded. "What else did he say?"
"He said to watch the full video and learn. He knew my name, too."
"Did he tell you his name?"
"No," Hermione answered, shaking her head. "He vanished before he did. Something deep in my gut is telling me that he either works for Franz Hopper or is Franz Hopper."
"What makes you think that?" Aelita asked.
"If you think about what we already know logically," Hermione explained. "There's us versus whatever took George. Franz Hopper could either be the enemy or is a third party that seemed to have been involved before we were. If Franz Hopper knows of the video that George sent, then he must know what George said about him. My guess is that George is going to say that Franz Hopper isn't an enemy."
"Did you think this the whole time?"
"Truthfully, yes," Hermione confessed, shaking her head. "But Harry and Ron can be so stubborn. The more information I find on Franz Hopper seems to convince me further that he was against Voldemort, not with him. The so-called 'Death Eater' in Siberia might have been a Death Eater at some point before defecting from Voldemort's cause. If this man that spoke to me sounds identical to the 'Death Eater', then I'll have even more reason to believe Franz Hopper is truly not the enemy here. But I need more solid proof to change their minds than simple conjecture."
"If it makes you feel any better," Aelita added. "I agree with you." A ding came from the computer as it came on. "Great! Now let's see what George had to tell us." She started playing the video. Hermione missed Aelita biting her lip with nervousness.
Ginny reached the edge of the property of the house. It looked about the same since she had been there last. Remembering with a shiver of the protective enchantments on the place, she pocketed her wand and tentatively pushed the gate open. No problems so far. She slowly approached the front door. Still no sign of any violent defense mechanisms against her. With more confidence, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The hallway was dark. She turned on her flashlight and began making her way through the seemingly empty house. She dared not use any magic just yet out of concern of the defensive spells placed in the house. As she walked, she glanced into the kitchen and living room. There were dirty dishes in the sink and a cold cup of coffee sitting on a table. Someone lived here but had yet to appear. She wandered into what appeared to be a study. Unlike the other rooms, papers and books were strewn about the room, almost as if someone had been searching that room. Could someone be looking for clues? She carefully walked around the room, trying not to break anything. She stooped down to look at a photo album that had been tossed aside. The front picture was of the man himself, Franz Hopper.
Ginny was surprised. This was Franz Hopper's home! It was even more of a surprise that there were three children and who must be his wife in that same picture. He almost looked like a family man. She opened the album and read the caption for the image: "The Schaeffer Family. Waldo Franz, Anthea Ursa, Aelita Suzanne, …" The rest had been smudged beyond recognition. Ginny felt like those names were all familiar for some reason.
She smacked her forehead. Of course they were familiar. According to what Harry had mentioned in one of his messages to her the day before, a W. Schaeffer married an Anthea Hopper. Waldo Franz Schaeffer must have gone by his wife's maiden name and his middle name: Franz Hopper. There is no other explanation, especially since Waldo Schaeffer looks identical to Franz Hopper. She knew Aelita Stones had a sister but had no idea what her name was. That could just be a coincidence. Ginny was less familiar with French-Canadian names anyway. She decided a look upstairs was in order.
Suddenly, her cell phone began to ring loudly. Alarmed, she quickly silenced it without bothering to see who it was. The last thing she needed was her phone giving away her position.
"–I don't know if he has any allies but he mentioned something about visiting Franz Hopper's daughter before he left a minute ago. He does rant quite a bit though, and he mentions Franz Hopper's name multiple times. So, I'm not sure Franz Hopper is an ally of his. He could end up being an ally of ours. You might want to see what he has done to make this thing so irritated and angry." Hermione paused the video. Aelita held her breath in anticipation.
"So I was right," Hermione said after a moment of silent contemplation. "Go get the others, Aelita. I'll keep watching this for more." Aelita practically ran out of the room, trying to hide her joy.
"So you ended up destroying the whole place?" Neville asked, trying to piece things together as Ron and Harry told the story of their Siberian adventure. Ron was embellishing slightly, but Harry let him, chuckling with each exaggeration. He glanced up at the Marauder's Map sitting on his nightstand. Draco was in his private dorm. Hermione was in the Muggle Studies classroom. But Aelita wasn't with her.
Curiosity drew Harry towards the map as he picked it up and began examining it. He looked for Aelita all across it. He saw her name after a minute or two. She was rapidly approaching Gryffindor tower. But something caught his eye.
"Hey Ron," Harry said. "Sorry to interrupt your tall tale, but could you come here for a moment?" Ron frowned but approached without complaint. "What does it say Aelita's last name is?"
Hermione sat down and contemplated further what she had just seen. This whole time they had been trying to come up with ideas to find and defeat Franz Hopper. The pieces are starting to come together now. Franz Hopper had to have been an enemy of Voldemort's. Why else would he be on the Undesirables list? Maybe the work he had done was to explore avenues of fighting Voldemort with more Muggle technologies? And maybe his work had warranted some unwanted attention from a third party that used his ideas for the wrong reasons?
Something drew her to look at the information about the video. It gave the details she expected: length, size, last opened date and time, etc. She took a second glance and saw with a surprise that the creation date and time was recent. As in, it had happened within the past couple hours by a Jeremie Belpois.
She stared off into space for a moment, musing over that name and why it sounded familiar. She admired how neat and tidy the bookshelves in this classroom were. They were often more spick and span than the library's shelves. A red book caught her eye, particularly the gold lettering on its spine. The author's name was W. F. Schaeffer. She crossed the room and picked the book up. The title was Muggle Technology and Magic, The Usefulness of Integration. She flipped through it and froze on the cover page. The author's initials had been written out: Waldo Franz Schaeffer.
"W. Schaeffer married Anthea Hopper," she recalled the Prophet article. That can't be a coincidence. Her eyes drifted over the dedication and read the words aloud.
"To my beautiful wife, Anthea, and my three children, Aelita, Taelia, and," she stopped reading and gaped at the third child's name. "Merlin's beard!" She dropped the book and raced out of the room.
Ginny searched around the second floor. She found nothing particularly interesting in the bedrooms at first glance and had no desire yet to go through them in further detail just yet. Plus, the sun had completely set, and she had no desire to still be around when the current resident of the house showed up. Her foot suddenly hit something soft. She looked down and pointed her flashlight. There was a large pile of coats just sitting on the floor. She glanced to her right and saw what appeared to be a closet door.
"Now why would someone take the coats out of the closet?" she muttered to herself. She opened the door slowly and saw the light from her flashlight reflect off a bronze door handle. The door it was attached to appeared heavy. She wondered why an old wooden door like that would be in a closet. Ginny gripped the door handle and pulled as hard as she could. The door just would not budge. Glancing around her, she pulled her wand out of her back pocket and muttered, "Alohamora." She heard the lock click, and the door creaked open on its own. She peered through the doorway, seeing a flight of stairs descending into darkness. She pointed her flashlight down the stairs. It was odd that there was a flight of stairs here, especially since she was on the second floor.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly began making her way down the steps. She expected to hear the creaking of old wood but found, to her surprise, that the stairs were made of marble. The stairs did not turn at all but continued straight down. She even had to duck her head underneath a lower portion of the wall. When she finally reached the bottom, she figured she was well below even the basement of the house. She pointed her flashlight around the room. There wasn't much to see at first. The room wasn't very wide but was quite long. On one side of the room was a bookcase that had a couple journals, a small selection of books of all sizes and colors, and a dusty picture frame. She glanced at it briefly before blowing the dust off the picture. She was about to look at a book that had caught her eye when the young man in the picture waved at her. She froze as she watched him stop waving, flash a grin at her, and run out of sight.
"Muggle pictures aren't supposed to do that," Ginny mumbled to herself. She looked at the book that had originally caught her attention. The title, The Tales of Beetle the Bard, removed any doubt from her mind that the owner did not know of the enchantments on the property. She pulled out her wand again. The flashlight wasn't working as well as she had hoped anyway.
"Lumos," she mumbled again. The ball of light coming from her wand illuminated only part of the room. But a sudden blueish-white light began shining in the very far end of the room. She extinguished the wand light immediately, but the blue light continued, if not brighter than before. She approached it slowly, keeping her wand raised in case of an attack.
The light got brighter as she got closer. Its source appeared to be placed behind something, but Ginny couldn't tell what it was. She saw a symbol on the wall to her left. She looked closely at it. It appeared to be some sort of crest. It had one name written on it: Beauxbatons.
Aelita arrived in the corridor of the Fat Lady. She saw Harry walking out of the portrait hole when she suddenly felt very dizzy. Her vision began to cloud before being consumed by darkness.
Taelia groaned and held her head. Without warning, she was devirtualized. Alarmed, Jeremie stopped trying to call Ginny, leapt out of his chair, and climbed the ladder down to the scanners. She found Taelia on the ground unconscious. He picked her up and carried her to the elevator, eager to get back to the lab and find out what was going on.
Ginny crept closer and closer until she finally laid eyes upon the source of the light. She gasped. It was a Triwizard Cup! Ginny stared slack-jawed at the cup as it got brighter and brighter. It sat at the base of three poles. Each pole had a picture hung on it. The middle pole's picture showed the young man from the picture on the bookcase. All three portraits smiled, laughed, and portrayed looks of pride. Another strange detail struck Ginny: there was a cross hanging underneath the outer two portraits. The same date was etched into each: 3 May 1973. Her heart racing, probably due to the increasingly bright light, she looked at the cup. On the bottom, etched into the silver-plating in elegant handwriting, were the words "Waldo Franz Schaeffer: Beauxbatons' 13th Triwizard Champion".
"Whoa," Ginny said. Her voice seemed to cause a reaction as lights of many different colors began to shoot out of the walls at the sound. She jumped back and gripped her wand tightly.
"Jeremie," Yumi called from inside the hangar. "Is something wrong? It felt like an earthquake came through here. Is it X.A.N.A.?"
"Uh, no idea," Jeremie replied when he made it back to his chair. "All of the towers on Lyoko are activating at once. But…they aren't controlled by X.A.N.A."
"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked. Before Jeremie could answer, the tower inside the hangar turned white.
"White!" Odd yelled his observation.
"But..." Jeremie began.
"Weren't white towers controlled by Franz Hopper?" Yumi asked.
"Well, logically, yes," Jeremie answered matter-of-factly. "But it isn't possible that Franz Hopper is controlling them. Unless…"
"Unless he somehow survived like X.A.N.A.?" William suggested hopefully.
"I wish that were the case but no," Jeremie countered. "It could be from another program he left in the Supercomputer for a given circumstance."
"Do you have any idea of what that circumstance is?" Ulrich asked.
"Just give me a sec–YAAH!" Jeremie nearly fell out of his chair when a purple light bathed the entire lab. He looked back to Taelia and had to pick his jaw off of the floor. Her necklace was hovering only a foot off the ground. The freakiest part was the huge, bright purple Energy Field surrounding it.
Unknown to Jeremie, the same thing was happening to Aelita in the Fat Lady's corridor. The only difference was Aelita's bracelet's giant Energy Field was bright pink. Harry could barely get a grasp on what was occurring in front of him.
The colors began to separate and swirl in circular rings in front of Ginny. The bottom ring blue, the next ring was orange, the next was green, then purple, then pink, and the top one was a whitish-purple color that Ginny couldn't identify.
"HOW DARE YOU ENTER THE HOME OF FRANZ HOPPER!" a booming voice yelled so loud, Ginny nearly jumped out of her skin.
"The Hermitage," Jeremie said quickly when he heard Franz Hopper's voice come out of Taelia's necklace. "Something's happening at the Hermitage!"
"Can you teleport one of us to the Hermitage?" William asked.
"Yeah, but it will take some time," Jeremie said. "It will be a challenge since I no longer have access to the tower in there."
"I can help!" Ben offered up. "William, follow me!" Together, the two of them ran into the tower.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" the voice asked Ginny.
"My name is Ginny Weasley," she answered bravely. "Who, er, what are you?"
"THAT IS NOT OF YOUR CONCERN!" the voice replied. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?"
"I'm trying to learn as much as I can about Franz Hopper," Ginny quickly explained. "My brother, George, was kidnapped by someone who continually mentioned Franz Hopper's name. I'm trying to figure out if he had anything to do with that."
"ARE YOU ACCUSING FRANZ HOPPER OF KIDNAPPING?!" the voice asked angrily.
"Not yet. But I haven't found anything that proves that he isn't to be considered as an enemy of my brother's," Ginny retorted.
This seemed to anger the voice even further. "IF GEORGE WEASLEY IS AN ENEMY OF FRANZ HOPPER, THEN YOU, MS. GINNY WEASLEY, ARE ALSO AN ENEMY OF FRANZ HOPPER!" Ginny started to raise her wand, but the lights became so bright they blinded her. She felt herself flying backwards through the air. She hit a wall with a thud and crashed onto a wooden piece of furniture. She looked up just in time to see the door she had gone through to get to the chamber slam shut and lock itself. She moaned and closed her eyes. She heard the thunder outside die down as the voice called through the door.
"MAGIC IS NO LONGER WELCOME IN THIS HOUSE!" it said.
"Now Ben!" Jeremie said, Ben and him transporting William from the Skid to the Hermitage. He froze when he heard Ginny's name. Before he could react, the Energy Field surrounding Taelia's necklace shot out in all directions. It knocked Jeremie out of his chair and threw him against the wall.
Harry's blood boiled when he heard Ginny's name come out of Aelita's bracelet and barely had time to raise a Shield Charm to protect himself from the orb that circled around the jewelry. His Shield Charm dampened the blow somewhat but was unable to prevent him from being knocked to the ground. He looked up in time to see the pink glow fade from the corridor and Aelita's bracelet fall back to her wrist.
"Harry!" Ron's voice rang out. Harry turned to see him climbing out of the portrait hole, "What happened?! I heard a loud voice and something about Ginny."
Harry didn't say anything. He looked back to Aelita's slumped body. Anger growing in his eyes, he slowly stood up and began walking towards Aelita. He drew his wand as she began to stir.
William had just appeared in the Hermitage garden when he saw a very bright light flash from one of the upstairs windows. He could barely hear anything over the roar of the thunder and had to cover his ears. As the noise died down, he Super-Smoked into the Hermitage as fast as he could and reformed at the top of the stairs. He turned around and immediately regretted doing so as he locked eyes with Ginny.
"Jeremie…" he began. Ginny raised her hand, which held an intricately carved stick. "Oh no." William knew what to expect, but before he could do anything about it, he saw a flash of light come from the tip of the stick immediately followed by the world going dark.
Ginny heard something to her left and stood up to face the stairwell. She hadn't even taken a step forward when she saw black smoke fly up from the stairwell and begin forming into a person. Recognizing it as Death Eater smoke, she prepared for the impending duel. She was shocked to see the smoke form into William.
"William is a Death Eater?!" she thought. But when he turned to face her, she wasted no time in raising her wand. She heard him say "Jeremie" before her stunner knocked him backwards. He disappeared into thin air, no audible crack to go with it. She didn't ponder on that mystery for very long. She walked down the stairs, wand raised and expecting to see more people. The only thing she found was a drop in the temperature. There seemed to be a cold breeze coming from the basement.
"William is a Death Eater," she mumbled to herself. "And he said the name of Aelita's ex-boyfriend. William was Aelita's friend." She smacked her forehead. "That must mean Harry unwittingly brought the enemy into Hogwarts! I have to warn him!" She reached into her pocket for the fake Galleon.
Aelita groaned and opened her eyes. She didn't know how she had fallen to the ground; she only knew that she had definitely lost consciousness for a brief moment. Holding her head, she looked up and saw Harry standing over her. He didn't look happy.
"Harry, is there something wrong?" she asked, moving to stand. But Harry pointed his wand at her chest. She stopped moving. Harry began breathing heavily as Ron walked up behind him. He wasn't happy either.
"It all makes sense," Harry hissed. "Why your name is different on the map, your fighting skills, your exceptional computer skills: you've been in league with Franz Hopper this whole time. You've been feeding information to him about us!"
"Now hold on," Aelita snapped back. "What possibly gave you the idea that I'm allied with him?"
"Ginny," Ron answered before Harry could. Aelita looked at him and saw Ron twiddling a fake Galleon in his hand.
Ron continued, "According to her, Franz Hopper was once called Waldo Schaeffer. And she also found that his oldest daughter was named Aelita."
"That just proves that his daughter and I have the same name," Aelita observed. They were dangerously close to discovering the truth. The Sorting Hat had warned her that Harry would not act rationally upon doing so.
"So is this just a coincidence then?" Harry then asked, shoving a piece of parchment in Aelita's face. It seemed to be a map of Hogwarts. And in the hallway the three of them were standing in, three names sat on the map: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Aelita Schaeffer.
Aelita's eyes widened involuntarily, but she wished they hadn't. That initial reaction gave her away. Before she even got a chance to explain, Harry began to yell.
"We trusted you! We allowed you to help us! But this whole time, you've been the enemy!"
"What could've possibly made you think that?!" Aelita argued, jumping up and scowling back at him.
"Just now! 'If George Weasley is an enemy of Franz Hopper, then you, Ms. Ginny Weasley, are also an enemy of Franz Hopper!' Sound familiar?"
"That voice," Aelita whispered to herself in shock. She thought she had imagined it. At that moment, her vision blurred, and a hooded figure with a brown cloak stood in Harry's place.
"Hogwarts is no longer safe for you right now, Aelita. Harry has allowed his anger to consume him. He's become irrational. You need to get away," the man told her and disappeared. She glanced briefly at Harry's shaking hand. She knew that the man was right.
"What is he doing to Ginny?!" Harry yelled angrily. "Tell me!"
"Harry! Calm down, mate!" Ron then barked, grabbing his arm. "I'm worried about Ginny, too, but let her bloody answer!" Harry looked at him, fires of rage in his eyes. Ron flinched in fear. Unfazed, Harry whirled back, but Aelita had already run down the corridor and gone around a corner.
"Catch her, and I will calm down," he snarled, chasing after her.
"Taelia? Taelia!" Jeremie yelled, trying to wake his girlfriend. She groaned.
"What happened?" she asked groggily.
"My best guess is another one of your dad's leftover programs," Jeremie explained. "Ginny must've activated it at the Hermitage." Taelia's eyes nearly bugged out her head.
"Is that supposed to be the good news or the bad news?" she asked sharply.
Jeremie gave a nervous smile and said, "The good news."
Taelia had to visibly restrain herself from strangling him as she said through clenched teeth, "Then what, pray tell, is the bad news?!"
"Yes. I'd like to know that as well," a voice said loudly. The pair of them jumped. "What is the bad news?"
Taelia looked past Jeremie to the opening of the passage at the top of the lab. She drew in her breath as Jeremie turned around slowly. There was Ginny, pointing a stick at them. But they both knew from Siberia that intricately carved sticks meant trouble.
"Don't move!" she shouted down to them.
"What do you –?" Jeremie began.
"I'll be asking the questions around here, thank you very much!" Ginny barked. Jeremie gulped, and Taelia nodded her understanding. "Where are the others?"
"Who?" Taelia asked, feigning confusion. Ginny jumped down from the opening.
"You know very well whom I'm talking about," she retorted.
"Jeremie?" Yumi's voice asked, coming from Jeremie's fallen headset. "What's going on?"
Jeremie grimaced as Ginny looked at the computer screen. She clearly noticed the icons of William, Yumi, Odd, Sissi, and Ulrich. Ben had conveniently removed his icon from the terminal screen just before Ginny had looked.
"Bring them all here, now," she ordered. Jeremie walked to the chair and glanced at Taelia as he sat down. She nodded.
"Uh, guys," he said into the headset. "I'm sending you into the Skid."
"But it's still docked to the tower," Ulrich replied.
"This isn't up for discussion, Ulrich," Jeremie retorted, already typing. "Energize. I'm teleporting you now."
"But –" Odd began to argue.
"Teleportation," Jeremie said, cutting him off. He set the headset down and turned to face Ginny.
"Well?" she asked impatiently.
"Wait two more seconds," he replied. And sure enough, two seconds later, four flashes of light appeared between Ginny and Taelia. They formed into Yumi, Odd, Sissi, and Ulrich. They froze when they saw Ginny.
"And where's William?" she demanded.
"Out cold," Ulrich answered for Jeremie. "I figure you took care of that."
"Me?!" Ginny asked incredulously. She thought for a moment, and then realization crossed her face. "Well, he's a Death Eater. I did what I could to protect myself."
"First off," Jeremie clarified. "He didn't have a chance to attack you."
"And secondly," Yumi added. "William's a what?"
"A Death Eater," Ginny repeated. "Surely he explained to you what that is since you work with him and Franz Hopper." She stared into their blank and confused faces. "He's an evil wizard, right?"
Ulrich busted out into laughter. "William? A wizard?" he asked. "That's funnier than all of Odd's jokes combined."
"But then how does he –?" she began to ask.
"Turn into smoke?" Taelia finished for her. "That's one of his powers when he's been virtualized like these four."
"Virtualized?" Ginny asked, slowly lowering her stick. The term from Franz Hopper's journals had appeared again. "So, if I understand correctly, all of your, er, powers are because of this computer?"
"To summarize it best, yes," Jeremie answered.
"Except mine and Aelita's," Taelia piped up again, forming an Energy Field in her hand. "It seems that the ability to do this is hereditary."
"So Aelita is working with you," Ginny concluded out loud, more to herself than to the group. "But who is Franz Hopper?"
Everyone turned to Taelia, who took a deep breath before answering, "He's mine and Aelita's dad. He's the one who built this Supercomputer and, without meaning to, the source of our problems."
"Care to explain that further?" Ginny asked.
"It's a long story," Jeremie answered.
"I think we've got time," she responded.
Aelita dashed through the door to the Grand Staircase and stopped to look around. The stairs were motionless, for now. She heard footsteps coming from behind and began running down the staircase in front of her. She stopped in the middle as the top of the staircase began to slowly move away from the doorway she had just come through.
"Come on," she whispered to the stairs. "Faster!" Suddenly, she saw Ron jump for the staircase she was on. He misjudged the distance and only was able to get his upper body on top of the stairs, gripping the railing before he fell off.
"Stupefy!" Harry's voice rang out. The flash of light sped right toward her. She whipped out her wand but had to duck to avoid the spell. As she looked up, she saw the entrance to the corridor that led to the Astronomy Tower. Thinking that she had no other choice, she began running towards the top of the stairs again, towards Ron.
Ron, having successfully pulled himself up, saw Aelita running towards him and shot Confringo at her. The enormous ball of fire flashed in her eyes for a second before she jumped sideways. Twisting her body in the air, she planted her feet squarely on the railing.
"Thank you, gymnastics," Aelita thought. Keeping her balance on the railing, she resumed running towards the top. Ron just stared open-mouthed at her as she flipped and ran past, but she could still hear Harry's spells flying past her. When she was within ten feet of the top, she jumped for the corridor.
The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. One of Harry's Stunners came flying at her with no way for her to avoid it. She spun in the air, closed her eyes, and concentrated like she would on Lyoko. A pink, Energy-Field-like shield appeared between her and the spell. The spell hit the shield, barely leaving a mark in it. She continued spinning in the air, landed in the corridor with a roll, stood up without hesitating, and ran down the corridor.
As she turned the corner, she slammed right into someone, and they both fell to the ground. Aelita was so dazed and dizzy that she could barely stand up straight or make out whom she had run into in the poor light.
"Aelita?" asked a familiar voice quizzically. Aelita stared at Hermione in complete shock. "Where are you going in such a hurry? I just –"
"Over here!" Ron's voice called out. Without wasting another minute, Aelita got to her feet and ran past Hermione, leaving the girl staring after her in confusion.
She saw the familiar paintings look at her in surprise, some yelling at her for waking them. She rushed past the cat painting, just like in her dream before she came to Hogwarts. She found the black spiral stairs leading up to the balcony. Taking them two at a time, she raced up the stairs. She only stopped when she reached the edge of the balcony. She gazed down into the grounds below. In the distance, she saw the twinkling lights of Hogsmeade and knew where she had to go. Hopefully, someone there will have some Floo Powder for her to use. She'd go to the Hermitage, find Ginny, and try to explain everything to her. Maybe she won't be so quick to Stunning her.
She heard footsteps behind and turned around, unsurprised to see Ron emerge. She formed an Energy Field, and he stopped in his tracks. She gave him a sad frown before throwing the Energy Field at him. She leaped backwards over the railing before she saw it hit Ron. She barely heard his shout through the whistling of the wind. Rotating in the air, she hit her bracelet. She stopped falling abruptly. She looked at her bright pink wings for a second before flying towards Hogsmeade.
Harry rounded a bend and saw Hermione standing with a very confused expression on her face. She turned to look at him.
"What's going on?" she asked, bewildered.
"Aelita isn't who she says she is," Harry explained coldly. "Her last name is Schaeffer. And according to a message Ginny just sent us, Franz Hopper used to go by the name Waldo Schaeffer."
Hermione nodded. "Aelita is his daughter," she said. "I discovered the same thing on my own."
"We let the enemy into the castle without even knowing it," Harry said even more coldly as he started to chase after Ron. He didn't bother to stop when Hermione yelled something after him. He ran onto the Observation Deck and skidded to a halt. Ron was covered in a pink light and was immobilized. A second later, Ron fell to the ground in a crumpled heap with a groan. Harry then rushed to Ron's side.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Been better," Ron replied with a grimace. "That hurt! Not anything compared to the Cruciatus Curse, but still hurt." Harry grabbed Ron's arm to help him up. He recoiled immediately as his hand felt like it had been electrocuted.
"You're not kidding!" he said, tenderly reaching for Ron again. The painful shock didn't happen again. Harry pulled Ron up as Hermione ran up to them, panting and catching her breath.
"Is she up here?" she asked. Ron shook his head. "Well, where did she go?" Ron said nothing and glanced towards the railing. Harry followed his gaze, and the image of Albus Dumbledore's body falling over that railing flashed in his mind for a second. He walked in that direction.
"You don't think she…" Hermione began but trailed off, her eyes following Harry.
"She did," Ron said. "She made this pink, electric ball in her hand, stared at me for a second, threw it at me, and jumped."
"I don't think she knows Aresto Momento yet," Hermione said. "I can't believe she would just jump."
"Unless she knew she could survive it," Harry added sternly, suddenly stiffening up. In the dark grounds below, he saw something with pink, glowing wings flying away from the castle.
"Is that her?" Ron asked, now standing next to Harry.
"I don't know of any creature on the grounds, or in existence for that matter, with wings like that," Hermione answered.
"And she's too smart to jump from the top of this tower without knowing how to survive the fall," Harry said.
"But making fully functional wings like that requires a lot of advanced magic," Hermione said. "I can't even think of where to start to make them."
"I bet Franz Hopper taught her how," Harry grumbled.
"Probably. But before you two start jumping to extremes, listen to what I found on the complete video," Hermione said quickly. "George doesn't think Franz Hopper is our enemy."
"What?!" Ron shouted. Harry remained silent but allowed his anger to dissipate somewhat.
"He said that whoever or whatever had captured him clearly didn't like Franz Hopper, as in having fits of anger kind of dislike," Hermione clarified. "Plus, I checked the information about the video file and saw that it was created by a Jeremie Belpois."
"Isn't that Aelita's ex-boyfriend?" Harry asked, now more curious than angry.
"Yes," Hermione replied. "I think George might have accidentally sent the video to Jeremie and the rest of Aelita's friends. They must have been in Siberia for the same reason you were back in August. They were trying to rescue George and thought that you two were responsible for his kidnapping."
"But the one guy was a Death Eater," Ron countered.
"Did he actually have a wand on him?" Hermione asked. Harry thought about it for a while.
"I don't think so," Harry answered. "I don't think any of them did."
"And I know they were there today with us," Hermione added sheepishly. Harry narrowed his eyes. "I had been knocked unconscious like you two. A young man that I think matches the so-called 'Death Eater's' description rescued us. He told me about the trucks and that he wasn't the enemy. He knew about how we didn't have the full video. Aelita wasn't recovering the video file. She was transferring it from France."
"How come neither Harry nor myself saw them?" Ron asked.
"Probably because of the last encounter they had with us," Harry surmised. Hermione nodded in agreement. "Why didn't you just tell us about that guy right away?"
"I was a little preoccupied at the time!" Hermione contested. "There were mechanical spiders and robots attacking us, the building was collapsing on top of us, and thinking straight was a harder challenge than anticipated. I was planning on telling you later." She gave a guilty smile but clearly knew that it didn't really help her case.
"Where's she going?" Ron asked, suddenly pointing into the sky. Harry's eyes looked in the direction Aelita was heading, distracted from Hermione's reasons.
"Hogsmeade," he said, flicking his wand subtly. "She's trying to get to Hogsmeade."
"She won't be able to," Ron stated in a Hermione-esque fashion. "The castle's protection spells will stop her." At that moment, Aelita swooped upward, climbing higher than the Astronomy Tower. They all watched in confusion. Suddenly, Hermione gasped, causing Harry and Ron to look at her in alarm.
"I think she's found a way out!" she exclaimed. Noticing Harry and Ron's perplexed expressions, she continued. "Think about it. No one can Disapparate or fly on a broom through the boundaries. Floo Powder in select professors' offices and Portkeys specifically made by the Headmaster or Headmistress are the only magical means on or off the grounds. Those wings are undoubtedly made by magic. Aelita probably knows she can't simply fly out of the grounds."
"So?" Ron asked. "That just proves that she can't leave." Harry elbowed Ron, silencing him.
"But Sirius and Buckbeak were able to leave the grounds our third year without using magic! They just flew out as if there was nothing stopping them. Birds and other creatures with wings do the same thing however they please," Hermione explained further, as if uninterrupted. "They don't use magic to fly. Aelita is going to imitate the exact same thing."
"Unless she's been hiding a set of non-magical wings growing from her back this whole time, how will that work?" Ron asked again.
Hermione huffed and said, "Honestly Ron, do you really need me to spell it all out for you? We already know that she can move her body through the air so that she can control how fast and in what direction she falls. She's, essentially, going to fall through the enchantments and off the grounds!" They were all silent for a moment, Hermione's conclusion sinking in for them all.
"How are we going to stop her from leaving, then?" Ron asked.
"We can't from here," Hermione added. "She doesn't yet know how to Disapparate or create Portkeys so she'll have to find some Floo Powder in Hogsmeade."
"So then the question is how are we going to intercept her in time?" Ron continued for Hermione.
"The secret passage under the Whomping Willow," Harry answered, not looking at either one of them.
"But there's no way we can run faster than she can fly!" Hermione retorted.
"Way ahead of you," Harry said, turning around as three brooms flew onto the deck. Hermione looked as if she were about to burst with pride and hug Harry for his planning.
"We fly through the passage," Ron deduced, more to himself than to the others.
"While immobilizing the Whomping Willow," Harry added.
"That is bloody brilliant, Harry," Hermione mumbled, causing Ron to chuckle as he mounted his broom.
The cool night air rushed past Aelita as she climbed higher and higher. She glanced down. The gate to Hogsmeade and the surrounding wall were just another hundred yards. She knew she could start falling now but also knew that her chances of survival weren't in her favor, even at this height. Just a little higher would be enough.
"I wonder how high the enchantments would allow me to –" she was thinking before she was suddenly knocked downward.
"Oh, that high," she thought. She looked down again, rotated her body to a horizontal position. Still thinking about her lower chances of survival, she took a deep breath and deactivated her wings.
"Immobilus," Harry heard Hermione yell out behind him. The Whomping Willow didn't even have time to begin moving before being immobilized.
"Look!" Ron yelled out, pointing at the sky. Harry and Hermione looked to where Ron pointed. They only saw stars.
"I don't see anything, Ron," Hermione said.
"Exactly! Shouldn't we be seeing pink wings?" Ron asked.
"You're right!" Harry exclaimed in alarm. "She's started falling!"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Move it!" She sped past Harry and Ron. Without waiting for further instruction, they sped after her and towards the hole under the big tree. Harry had to duck to avoid hitting his head on the tree's trunk, and soon, they were all speeding along the passage, a difficult task since it was underground.
"So, when George turned the Supercomputer in Siberia on, he brought this X.A.N.A. back online?" Ginny asked for clarification. Jeremie and Taelia had done their best to explain the situation to Ginny, including showing her the complete video that George had sent.
"Pretty much," Jeremie answered. "X.A.N.A. had paid us a quick visit, giving George a chance to record and send that video. He had accidentally sent the whole thing to us before sending you a CD with the corrupted video file."
"Before X.A.N.A.'s lovely arachnid acquaintances joined up with Aelita and your friends in Siberia," Taelia added. "She and Jeremie had been copying the complete video file to Aelita's flash drive. We have yet to hear if that was successful."
"Why did you copy it?" Ginny asked.
"Aelita told us that your friends showed her the video they had," Jeremie explained. "She understood why you guys branded Franz Hopper as an enemy. We were hoping to slowly bring you guys up to speed."
"Emphasis on slowly," Yumi added.
"Oh," Ginny mumbled sheepishly. She looked away from them.
"What is it?" Jeremie asked. "Is something wrong?"
"Well…," Ginny began before trailing off, shrugging ever so slightly.
"Oh no," Taelia said, with the alarm in her voice rising. "Don't tell me you've already notified them about Aelita's connection."
"Okay, then. I won't tell you," Ginny said, smiling guiltily. They all stared at her in stunned silence. Suddenly, the computer began to beep loudly, causing them all to jump. Jeremie turned to the monitor.
"Well, whatever you did has caused Aelita to leave the school grounds," he said.
"How do you know that?" Ginny asked.
"For reasons unknown to me," he explained. "Aelita's phone goes out of service the second she walks onto the grounds. I made a program to let me know when it comes back. In other words, I know exactly where she is the moment she leaves the grounds."
"And apparently, so does X.A.N.A.," Taelia observed, pointing at the screen. It showed a map with a dot labeled with a picture of Aelita's face and a second dot, labeled with X.A.N.A.'s eye, racing towards the first dot.
"No!" Jeremie yelled frantically. "There's nothing we can do from our end to save her. X.A.N.A. must've activated a tower in a nearby supercomputer!"
"Can't you teleport them to her?" asked Ginny, referring to those standing behind her. "Or do you not have the range?"
"I have the range, alright," he replied. "But that would take at least a day for me to set up the teleportation program and another couple of days just to test it to make sure it works!" They all looked worried.
Ginny was silent in contemplation. "You mentioned that you've encountered the spiders in Siberia before," she thought aloud.
"Yeah, in the Amazon Rainforest. So?" Ulrich asked, irritated at the change of subject.
"So, could that mean George is at that lab?" Ginny inquired.
"It's a possibility," Jeremie answered.
"If you help me free George, I'll help you save Aelita and destroy that Amazonian supercomputer for good," Ginny offered.
Jeremie stared at her. "You know how to get them to her," he said. It wasn't a question. She nodded.
"Jeremie," William's voice said, coming through the earpiece. "Ben and I heard everything. Take her offer. We're in the Network now. Send us the coordinates to that replica. I'll go to that lab and then you can tell Ginny where to go so she can join me." Jeremie looked to Taelia. She nodded.
"Okay," Jeremie said to Ginny. "Deal." Ginny nodded and gripped her wand tightly.
"You know this virtualization stuff actually makes sense to me," she told Jeremie.
"Really?" he asked. "Not many people do, even people who aren't raised by magic."
"How did you know about that?"
"Do you honestly think that Draco had been completely tight-lipped about everything at Hogwarts while he spoke with Ulrich today in Siberia?" Ginny smiled and shook her head. "So that makes me curious as to how you can understand it?"
"I've read the school's academic journals Franz Hopper had written. He mentioned the term 'virtualization' a couple times in one of them."
"Do you mind showing me this collection tomorrow?" Jeremie asked, now very intrigued.
Aelita felt the ward over the school pass through her body as she fell over the gate. She counted ten seconds before activating her wings, stopping her fall, and flying towards the village. She heard a slight rumble of thunder. A second later, electricity coursed her body tens of times over. Her wings vanished, and she fell to the clearing below. She hit the ground with a thud and looked up. A shield surrounded her, made completely of electricity and with a radius of up to a hundred yards around her.
"Hello, Aelita," a sinister voice whispered to her. She jumped up and looked around. There, less than twenty feet from her, was X.A.N.A.
"Glad you came to see me," he said, grinning. "We really didn't get a chance to catch up earlier today."
"It'll be a short visit, I assure you," she quipped back, drawing her wand. "I'd be happy to demonstrate all that I've learned since our last face-to-face meeting."
"I'm sure you would. But will it be enough?" At that moment, dozens of Creepers, Tarantula, Krabs, and Flying Manti appeared out of nowhere. Aelita immediately began to feel that her chances of survival had severely dwindled. She made a large Energy Field shield in front of her and began casting spell after spell at the monsters. X.A.N.A. laughed maniacally as the monsters converged on her. The fight for her life had begun.