Disclaimer:I do not own W.i.t.c.h. or Harry Potter. And I'm cool with that.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Quicksand
"Oh shit, this is not good." Irma swore.
"Irma, you've said that fifteen times, cut it out." Cornelia snapped, giving Irma an annoyed look.
"It's the truth." Irma replied.
"I have to side with Cornelia on this one, it is getting annoying." Hay Lin put in.
Irma sighed. "Fine, you're right. Sorry."
The five guardians, Caleb, and Yan Lin were all crowded into Yan Lin's office, and were supposed to be thinking up ways to save Elyon, but all they'd really done was panic.
"If we don't save Elyon, Phobos could rise to power in Meridian again." Taranee remarked, sitting down in a chair with a sigh.
"Or worse, considering Voldemort's involved." Cornelia added, flattering her black skirt purely out of habit.
"This is horrible, why didn't you tell us about this?" Irma said, pointing accusingly at Cornelia.
"I knew Malfoy was up to something, but it didn't click until I heard Cedric in the forest. I thought I could handle Malfoy." Cornelia replied harshly, standing up to look Irma in the eye.
Irma frowned, and looked over at Will. "Will, you got any ideas?"
Will was silent.
Irma dismissed it as shock, and turned away.
"I remember Seamus telling me about this club they had at school last year, I think it was called the D.A." Hay Lin said.
"Dean told me about that too." Taranee noted.
"Dean? Dean Thomas?" Irma asked, giving Taranee a smirk.
"Yeah, so?"
"I didn't know you were hanging around with him is all." Irma said innocently.
"Can't I hang around with someone?" Taranee replied, giving Irma a warning look.
"Can we please stay on topic?" Caleb cut in, clearly annoyed.
"Did Seamus say anything else about the D.A.?" Cornelia asked.
"He told me it stood for Dumbledore's Army. Last year they had a horrible Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge, and never taught them anything because she was told not to by the ministry, no magic, no spells, no nothing. Since Voldemort had returned the previous year, some of the students decided this was a problem, so they put together a club to learn in secret, and elected Harry to teach them because he's so advanced." Hay Lin explained.
Something flickered in Will's eyes at the mention of Harry, but did not look up.
"The club fell apart after a few months because someone told the teachers, but there are still members who are loyal to the cause, including Seamus, Dean, Neville Longbottom, and other students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. No Slytherins were ever in the club." Hay Lin continued.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Irma muttered.
"We should ask them for help!" Cornelia exclaimed, eye widening with hope. "We should go to Harry, Ron, and Hermione! They'll help us!"
"Cornelia, I'm not sure-" Caleb started.
"I agree with Cornelia." Hay Lin interrupted, giving a slight nod. "Elyon is their friend too."
"I'm not so sure…" Taranee said.
"Look at who the members are, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Harry, Ron Hermione, Ginny, Luna, they're all our friends, and they'll help us." Hay Lin responded. "Seamus told me that their unofficial motto was 'Courage might fail you, but friends won't'. If we can't trust them, who can we trust?"
"We'd have to reveal ourselves." Taranee stated.
"Then we'll reveal ourselves. If it helps Elyon, why should we care?" Cornelia retorted, slamming a fist down on a table.
"I'm with Cornelia!" Irma declared. "If people who call themselves our friends really are our friends, they won't care about us being guardians! They'll just want to help Elyon!"
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Irma." Cornelia said, grinning.
"Well, when you put it that way…" Taranee admitted.
"Come on, let's go find Harry, Ron, and Hermione right now!" Hay Lin said, jumping to her feet.
"Aren't you going to do anything to stop them?" Caleb asked Yan Lin, who had been silently listening this whole time.
"No, this is the guardian's decision. What they decide is their choice." Yan Lin answered calmly, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "I have faith that they have made the right one."
"Fine, but I'm going with them though." Caleb said, standing as well.
"Will? Are you coming?" Taranee asked, turning to face Will.
The answer she got was silence.
"Will?" Taranee repeated.
The others turned, and Cornelia instantly recognized something was wrong.
"Wilma Vandom! Do you agree with our plan or not!" Cornelia snapped.
Will blinked and shook her head.
"And why not?" Cornelia demanded "And you better actually say something this time."
"They won't accept us. Why should they? We're different." Will said.
"Are you saying that because you really think that's true, or because of a recent personal experience?" Cornelia replied, folding her arms.
Will looked up at Cornelia, surprised. "How did you know? I even managed to block Taranee out."
"It wasn't hard to figure out from the way you've been acting." Cornelia snapped, staring hard at Will.
"Figure out what?" Hay Lin asked, looking puzzled.
"That Harry Potter broke up with Will after he found out about the guardians." Cornelia answered, her voice forceful.
'So, Cornelia the earth guardian is now showing her real power of strength of will.' Yan Lin thought, observing the scene. 'But Will also has a strong will. I wonder whose is stronger?'
"Why would he do that?" Taranee said.
"Obviously he was shocked, and who can blame him, by the thought of having a girlfriend who is the protector of Earth and an alternate sort of Earth." Cornelia replied. "It happens Will, get over it."
"I know, but-" Will started.
"For god's sake Will! We have an emergency here! Elyon, the Queen of Metamoor and our friend is in danger! " Cornelia yelled, her blue eyes burning with stubbornness. "Are you going to just turn your back on her!"
Will finally stood up and made an attempt to defend herself from Cornelia's accusations. "No, no, of course not."
"Then do something Will! You're the keeper of the Heart, the leader of the guardians! Start acting like it!" Cornelia practically roared.
Will was silent for a long moment, during which time Cornelia looked more than ready to make more arguments if needed, but luckily, she didn't have too.
"Let's just go." Will finally relented.
As much as the guardians would have liked to console Will further, they knew their mission was far more important at this time.
The girls and Caleb left the office to go into the third floor hallway, where Will divided them up.
"Cornelia, Taranee, I need you to go find Hermione, Hay Lin and Irma, you find Ron, Caleb, please go to Professor Dumbledore, tell him the whole story, he'll understand." Will said.
"What about you?" Taranee asked.
"I'm going to find Harry." Will replied, firmly.
The girls exchanged worried glances, before heading off toward where they thought it most likely the people were looking for would be, and Caleb strode off down the hallway.
Will stood for a moment, collecting her thoughts, then shoving them aside, and walking, with her face set, toward the place she knew Harry would be, the lake.
"Hermione! We need to talk to you!" Cornelia cried, running across the courtyard toward the bench where Hermione was studying.
"Is something wrong?" Hermione asked, setting aside her book, and standing to meet Cornelia and Taranee.
"It's Elyon, she's been kidnapped!" Cornelia exclaimed, glad the courtyard was empty.
"What! By who!" Hermione said.
"We'll explain later, but please, call the D.A. together! We need the D.A.'s help!" Cornelia replied, almost begging. "Call them to the best meeting place!
"The D.A.? How do you know- oh never mind, anyone loyal to the D.A. will be happy to help." Hermione pulled a gold coin out of a pocket in the inside of her robe, and tapped it three times with her wand. "There, now would you mind explaining?"
"On the way to there, but I don't know if you'll believe us." Taranee said.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Hermione said.
"Oi! Ron! You got a moment!" Irma called through the crowd in the Great Hall.
"Yeah, sure!" Ron replied, making his way over the Entrance Hall from the Gryffindor table, happy to get away from Colin Creevey, who had been sitting next to him.
When he reached the Entrance Hall, Irma and Hay Lin grabbed him and pulled him into a broom closet.
"What the bloody-" Ron started to swear after the girls released him.
"Ron, listen, Elyon's been taken!" Hay Lin cut him off.
"What do you mean taken?" Ron asked, staring confused at the girls.
"Malfoy's taken her away! We think he's a death eater! Elyon's a hostage!" Irma answered, making up a lie.
"That bastard, I knew he was a no good son of a-"
"Just come on! We need your help!" Irma interrupted.
"Check whatever the D.A. used to call meetings!" Hay Lin urged.
Ron reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a gold coin that looked like a normal galleon. "But- but-"
Irma grabbed his arm, while Hay Lin opened the broom cupboard, and lead him out.
"Lead us to where ever is it that you guys meet." Irma said, letting go of Ron.
"All right, this way." Ron said, leading the girls up the marble stairs.
Will didn't even stop to sum up her courage when she approached Harry, who was sitting by the lake, deep in thought. "Harry."
Harry turned and instantly got to his feet. "Will, we-"
"What ever you're going to say will have to wait. Elyon's been taken by death eaters, Voldemort wants her for something."
Harry's eyes widened. "I'll help, of course, but Will we really need to talk about this."
"We do, but we can't now." Will insisted. "I'm sorry Harry, but duty has always, and will always come before my personal feelings. I am supposed to protect earth, I can't do that without the D.A.'s, without your help."
Harry sighed and nodded. "I'll lead you to where we meet, and you can explain all this."
"Agreed." Will said.
"Anyone wanna tell us why we are having a D.A. meeting after a year?" Seamus said, among the few students who had turned up to the meeting.
"In a minute, in a minute, we want to make sure everyone's here." Harry called. He turned to Will, who was standing behind him, the other guardians at her side.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"No, but it's always worked before." Will said.
Harry nodded and walked to stand with Ron and Hermione.
Will stepped forward. "Could I have your attention please?"
The room went quiet, and all eyes were on Will now.
"Some of you might not know us, but we have something we need help with. Before I explain, there's something those of you who have turned up need to see, and I'm Will Vandom, from Gryffindor by the way." Will said. "Guys, if you could step forward and say your names, so everyone will know us."
Irma, being the I in W.i.t.c.h, stepped forward. "Irma Lair, from Ravenclaw."
Taranee was next. "I'm Taranee Cook, from Ravenclaw too."
Then Cornelia. "My name is Cornelia Hale, Gryffindor house."
At last Hay Lin. "Hay Lin, from Ravenclaw."
Will sighed, and opened her right fist, the Heart coming out to float above her palm, glowing faintly.
Gasps echoed around the room, but Will ignored them, as she and the others started their transformation.
Will closed her eyes and let the music surge though her, and she felt her face changing once again, her legs lengthen, her wings sprouting, tasting the warm familiar magic.
Finally the magic stopped, and Will looked around to see her friends standing around her, looking both beautiful and dead serious in their fighting forms.
"So, anyone got any questions?" Cornelia said, folding her arms and smirking in an amused way.
There was silence for a moment, but then a single voice said, "They've been hiding this all year!"
Will was horrified to see that the speaker was none other than Cho Chang, yet it seemed like she had said it out of surprise, not spite.
"We have our reasons of course." Irma said, folding her arms as well. "You really think anyone else would've believed us?"
"Believed what?" Ginny called from near the back row, looking surprisingly calm.
"Okay, story time." Irma sighed. "Long ago the universe was a place of absolute peace, until some people diced to start making trouble, and by trouble, I mean war. To keep some peace, the universe was divided into two halves, one half for those who wanted war, and all that, the other side for those who hated fighting, to do that, the veil was created. One side was earth, the other side was Metamoor, where all the baddies live."
Taranee took over. "And Candracar was created to help keep the balance, keeping the veil up. However, at some times, they can't keep the balance themselves, they need a little help, and that's where we come in, the guardians of the veil, and we help keep humans on our side, people from Metamoor on their side, and the occasional keeping peace on both sides now and then."
Cornelia took her turn. "There have been generations of guardians, we're only the newest ones, and someone we'll have to pass our duty on to another generation. We learned we were the guardians when Will and I were fourteen, and Hay Lin, Irma, and Taranee were thirteen, so we've had the job three years, and we were all given special powers to do our job."
Will told her bit. "I was given the Heart of Candracar, the source of our powers, and appointed leader of the guardians. Irma was given the power over water, among other abilities, Taranee controls fire and can read peoples minds, no don't worry, she won't do it unless she feel she needs to, which isn't often, Cornelia was granted earth with a few other surprises thrown in, and finally Hay Lin was given air, as well as the ability to turn invisible."
Hay Lin took the finish. "Elyon is Queen of Metamoor, was raised on earth, and she became Queen after we helped her overthrow her evil older brother, Phobos, and we didn't see her for a while after that. We met her on the train on the way to Hogwarts, and learned she had arranged to attend school this year. She was recently kidnapped by Cedric, one of Phobos' flunkies, and Draco Malfoy, who I'm sure you all know."
"We believe that they took her to Voldemort, and Phobos. We believe they've teamed up to try to get us, Phobos for revenge, but we don't know Voldemort's motive." Cornelia said. "We need to get her back, but we need help. So please, please help us." She sighed, and sank to her knees. "Please, I'm begging. You're all Elyon's friends, please help save her."
The other guardians also sank to their knees, and were painfully aware of their hearts thudding painfully loud in their chests, while the students mutter and talked among themselves.
Hermione and Ron stepped forward.
"They were willing to reveal their deepest secret to us to try and help their friend, our friend. Can we really say no to them? We've all had loved ones endangered my the death eaters, they're no different from us." Hermione said, trying to help, but nothing in the eyes of most of those in the room changed.
"Why should we trust them if they've been hiding this?" Lavender Brown said, from where she was standing with her arms folded with a group of girls who were all into Divination.
"Put yourselves in their place. Would you have really shown yourself first thing to a bunch of people you didn't even know?" Ginny snapped from across the room, obviously choosing the guardians side. "Here's what I say, those who want to help, come over to this side, if you don't, go over there."
Slowly but surely, a large group of students stood on Ginny's side (including Lavender, who had changed her mind), with only a few, including Cho Chang and her group of friends on the other side.
"You can leave if you don't want to help, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about what you've seen or heard here, understood?" Will said, rising to her feet, and giving the students who wouldn't help a serious look.
"Fine, we won't." Cho Chang agreed stiffly.
"I don't see why anyone would risk their necks for a bunch of people they hardly even know." Cho's friend Marietta said coolly.
"Well, some of us do know them very well." Ginny snapped back.
"And some of us hardly know them, like you said, but we feel if we were in their shoes, we'd want someone to help us get out friend back." Cody Larson, one of the beater's on the Gryffindor team, added.
"Plus, it took a lot of courage to reveal all this to us. Wouldn't you want them to accept you? Besides, if they are the protectors of the whole universe and have been keeping us safe for three years, I think we owe it to them to help." Lisa Jones, one of Irma's fellow chasers, said.
Without another word, Cho and Marietta left the room, the other five people who had been standing with them apparently changing their minds after those little speeches.
"You know, we really can't thank you enough, really." Will said, turning to face the group of people before her.
Harry stepped forward, and surprised Will by smiling at her. "Of course, we all have to look out for each other."
"Harry…" Will whispered.
"I want to talk to you when we get back. There are some things we have to sort out." Harry whispered.
Will nodded. "I know…" Will looked firmly on those who had agreed to help, and took a deep breath. "Let's go save Elyon!"
Her statement was met by cheers, but they died when Luna stated, "Any idea how to get there?"
The room was silent for a moment, while Will thought frantically.
'I could find them with the Heart, but I wouldn't be able to bring this many people there with it." She thought.
Suddenly, the door to the room burst open and Caleb yelled, "Professor Dumbledore has a way for us to get there! Follow me!"
"Caleb, you're a life saver!" Cornelia exclaimed, rushing over to him and throwing her arms around him.
Caleb blushed. "I know."
Will looked back at the small crowd with a determined smile, hope renewed. "You heard the man, let's go!"
End Chapter Twenty-Five