A shadowy figure was walking behind Ariarna.
"Who's that with her?" Ace asked as they tried to make out the figure. But Ariarna kept the person hidden right up until she reached her original position, and the painting swung open. Behind it was a narrow passageway and standing in the passageway was Harrier, Sky Knight of the Rex Guardians, who'd they'd last seen at the wedding, though Harrier himself had changed a bit as his long blond ponytail had been cut off leaving his hair shorter than Aerrow's.
"Harrier?" Aerrow asked in surprise as the man stood in the entrance if the passageway.
"Trust me, your not the ones most surprised here" He said with a grin.
Walking down the dark and cobwebbed passageway, with only their weapon light and Aerrow's lumos spell, it was hard to seen where they were going.
"I don't remember this passageway?" Ace asked, having know Hogwarts castle for longer.
"That's because it didn't exist until now, the passages you knew about were sealed off when Severus took over, this is the only way in or out now, grounds are crawling with death eaters and Dementors" Harrier explained as they walked down the underground passageway which lead them from the village towards the castle.
"How did you get in?" Aerrow asked.
"Some of us came straight after the Ministry had fallen, Hogwarts hadn't been taken over at that point and Professor McGonagall sheltered us somewhere untraceable" Harrier replied with a grin.
"How'd you mean untraceable?" Finn asked.
"There's this room in the castle that only appears when it's needed and becomes whatever is needed, not many people know about it, but McGonagall did and summoned a room for us to hide in, this tunnel links us to Abaforth so we can get food and supplies" Harrier told them as they seemed to reach the other end of the passageway, were the back of another painting stood, acting as a door.
"And when you say us?" Aerrow inquired. Harrier replied with another grin as he opened the painting.
"Hey listen up you lot, I've brought you a surprise" He announced into the room as he stood in front of the Storm Hawks, blocking them from view.
"Not more of Abaforth's cooking I hope, be a surprise if we can ingest it" Seamus, a young man with sandy hair and the Sky Knight of Terra Tundras, said in a slight brogue accent. Harrier gave a slight shake of his head and stepped aside to reveal the Storm Hawks standing behind him. "Blimey" Seamus commented as he and everyone else in the room stood up in shock and began applauding them.
If they had been shocked it was nothing compared to the Storm Hawks's, who quickly found themselves being greeted by nearly every Sky Knight squadron they knew including, the rest of the Rex Guardians, the Delacour's minus Flur, Cedric's old squadron the Diggory's now headed by Cho and the Bulgarians with their Sky Knight Victor. They were also greeted by squadrons they didn't know and even more surprisingly a number of Hogwarts students, whose parents had been causing trouble for Cyclonis and her regime, forcing them into hiding in a room just as surprising as it's occupants, with camp beds and hammocks set up everywhere surrounding a large lit fireplace, the room also had a small veranda which overlooked the outside castle and, like the rest of the room was only visible to those who knew about it. As the Storm Hawks were greeting everyone Harrier spotted someone peeping out from the veranda. He smiled, knowing who she wanted. Walking over to Aerrow he told him he was wanted on the veranda and pointed it out to him.
Aerrow was confused by Harrier's ask as he stepped onto the veranda.
"Hello" A singular word was spoken from behind him in a voice that made his heart stop. Wheeling round he saw Starling, standing besides one of the veranda's arches, hidden from view until he'd stepped out onto the veranda. Maybe it was the fact that he'd not seen her in months, but Aerrow though she'd never looked more beautiful. Her deep purple hair had grow since the wedding and was held up in her usual ponytail and she was wearing a simple black jacket, purple shirt, jeans and flight boots. "You just going to stand there?" She asked, her face beaming. Aerrow managed to snap from his thoughts and tried to speak and step forward before he was nearly bowled over by her as she ran up and into his arms.
"What are you doing here?" Aerrow finally managed to ask her.
"I could ask you the same thing, does this mean your done, with the horcruexs?" She asked hopefully.
"Almost there's one here at the castle, then we think her snake's one too but..." Aerrow began.
"To go after the snake means going after her" Starling guessed.
As the two Sky Knight talked Harrier had approached Seamus.
"Tell the order that the Storm Hawks are back" He asked. Seamus nodded and walked over to the radio they used to send coded messages to each other.
"Order, order do you read, we have a new weather report, we have a new weather report, the storm has hit, repeat the storm has hit" He spoke into the radio, hoping the recipients were listening.