Hotaru stepped through the boundary and into life, guiding Haruka and Michiru through with her. The blinked even in the dim light of the corridor of number 12, used to the muted dark of the realm beyond the midnight gate, taking in the sensations of the world – sights, smells and touches, all things that did not exist in the place that was death.

"Harry," Hotaru called, striding through into the study, "where is the Horcrux?"

"It's right here, why?"

"Give it to me?"

"Why?"

"I know how to destroy it?"

"Great," Harry leapt up from the armchair he had been squished onto with Rei, "how?" but Hotaru did not answer.

"Ron," she shouted, causing the red head to peer out from the top of the stairs.

"Wha – Holy shit! But… you're dead! Aren't you?" This, perhaps inevitably, caused a slight riot. Doors slammed and henshin phrases were shouted as people thundered up and down stairs to the hall. The only people who seemed to have expected this were Setsuna (of course) and Usagi.

"How the hell," Minako said, her wand pointed straight at Haruka's chest, "are you here?"

"That would be my doing," Hotaru moved in front of Haruka and Michiru, "I brought them back."

"I thought you couldn't though," Makoto said, her wand steady, "you said that once they were beyond the gate there was nothing you could do for them."

"That was before I was truly master of my own power," Hotaru waved the point aside, "and they were waiting."

"It was our duty," Haruka said, "to wait and come back to protect the princess.

"Welcome back," Usagi said, smiling from the top of the stairs, clutching Mamoru's jacket around her shoulders. Haruka bowed her head very slightly, and the senshi began, slowly, to lower their wands.

"You have your princess form," Minako finally noticed, ever ridiculously observant.

"I achieved it when we found ourselves across the gate," Haruka nodded, "the midnight dimension is… different." Her dress was almost exactly the same as Michiru's, only the bows were yellow and the collar blue.

"I think this calls for a celebration!" Minako shouted, "we have Usagi back, Michiru and Haruka aren't dead anymore… today is definitely a good day," she grinned before turning to Usagi, "although I think we should sort your hair out first…"

"No. We deal with the Horcrux before anything else," Hotaru spoke over Minako's babbling, "Ron, come here." Ron looked nervously around, but no one came to his rescue. In fact, Makoto gave him a little shove in the back to make sure he went forward. He stumbled past the others and rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Hotaru looked him squarely in the eye.

"What did is say to you, when you tried to see it through the stars?" Everyone glanced from Hotaru to Ron, still not entirely sure what was going on.

"I… I couldn't see it," Ron said hesitantly, still glancing around the hall.

"But you heard it, didn't you?" Everyone was looking at Ron now.

"Yes." He said finally.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Harry asked, affronted.

"It knew… things," Ron jumped immediately to the defence, "when I tried to see it, it saw me instead." He was looking at Harry and Mamoru now, trying to reason with them.

"It does not matter," Hotaru brushed Ron's pleas to the side, "in fact it is nothing short of a boon. Ron is now in the perfect position to destroy the Horcrux. Harry, I believe Dumbledore taught you at least a little of the incalculable power of certain magical acts?"

"Well… only a very little," Harry mumbled.

"Ron, each of the shitennou has a weapon – Harry has his sword, Hermione has the ability to summon her dagger at will and the twins will one day discover their own. Right now, you need to find yours."

"But… how?"

"You will now, when the moment comes. For now, Harry – please open the locket."

"How're you going to do that?" Mamoru asked, frowning, "we've tried."

"I think," Harry said after only a moment's pause, "that I'm going to tell it to open in parselmouth."

Everyone watched as Hotaru laid the locket down on the floor. Harry stared at it for a moment and then hissed softly. The locket opened. There was a moment in which nothing happened, and then two eyes blinked behind the glass of the locket. Ron flinched as they looked at him before a figure began to rise out of the locket.

She was Hermione, but at the same time she was not Hermione.

"Ron…" The real Hermione said, more than a little scared, "Ron, what's happening?"

"Did you ever truly think I would lower myself to you?" The voice of the Hermione coming out of the locket was higher, darker, than Hermione's voice. Ron didn't seem to be able to tear his eyes away from her, to look at the real Hermione, who was practically screaming at him, looking at her other self every other word, fear in her eyes.

"Ron, you need to destroy the locket now," she cried, "it has to be destroyed remember! Ron, can you hear me?" Still there was no response. Setsuna, Hotaru and Usagi watched on calmly, as though waiting for something, but the others were all showing signs of nerves and fear.

"Ron?" Hermione was in tears now.

"As if I could ever love someone as pathetic as you," the non-Hermione crowed. And then Hermione kissed Ron. Harry rolled his eyes, wishing they could have got this over with a few years ago, rather than choosing such an inappropriate moment to start groping one another. Then Ron transformed, his previously black shitennou uniform now grey with a green edge.

As Hermione moved out of the way, a curved metal star appeared in Ron's hand and he threw it down at the locket with all of his might. There was a small crack, and the glass in the locket cracked, the dark Hermione disappeared, and the hallway suddenly seemed far less dark.

Everyone stared at the shattered remnants of the locket for a little while, blinking, until a noise from upstairs broke the silence. "I don't know what the hell you're doing down there," Sirius shouted, "but some of us were asleep." At once, they burst out laughing and the tension vanished. Not one of them, not even Setsuna, could help the grins spreading across their faces as they looked down at the shattered remnants of the Horcrux.

Sirius and Lupin were peering down the stairs, looking more than a little confused. "This is going to take a little while to explain," Minako laughed, seeing the confused looks upon their faces.


"Come on Usagi, we could do anything with it!"

"I don't want to do anything. I want it the way it was. Hermione knows the spell, what's the problem?"

"But you could try a change of style."

"Minako, accept that I don't want one and move one."

"But…"

"For practically seventeen years, my hair has been in the royal style of my family without my knowledge. Know that I know this, do you really think I particularly want to change that one part of my heritage."

"Heritage? Usagi, it's just a hairstyle."

"Yes, but it's one I have to teach Chibiusa in Crystal Tokyo. She may not be so interested in learning if I don't use it."

"But…"

"And besides, Sailor Moon would look bizarre with short hair."

"I suppose," Minako huffed in defeat, "but you could still do something other than those dumplings every once in a while."

"Maybe," Usagi said evasively as Hermione set to work on her hair. It only took a few minutes for it to be impossible that it had ever been cut at all. "That's better," Usagi said, smiling as she admired her new look in the kettle, "I feel so much more myself now. It'll be even better when I actually get it up."

"I really must be going now," a voice came from the hall and Usagi looked around towards the stairs, "I've left it late enough as it is."

"Just come downstairs," Haruka snapped, as to the point as ever, "stop moaning about it and let Usagi help you."

"I couldn't possibly ask for her help so soon after everything she's…"

"Usagi is a lot tougher than most people give her credit for," Makoto told Lupin, "besides, it's your energy that'll make the change, and she'll just direct it. If it required her own power she wouldn't be able to do it without her wand."

"What is it?" Usagi called up the stairs, pulling her robe tighter around her pyjamas.

"It's nothing, really," Lupin was saying, trying to back away whilst being herded down the stairs by an impressive arrangement of senshi.

"It's not nothing, especially not with the full moon tonight," Seiya said firmly, guiding Lupin down the stairs.

"You're a werewolf?" Usagi asked, taken aback.

"Yes," Lupin sighed, "since I was a boy."

"Right then. Come here," she beckoned him towards the table, taking a seat herself.

"Are you sure you have enough power?" Mamoru asked, frowning a little.

"I don't need any," Usagi reassured him. "This is how I escaped from Malfoy Manor."

"What do you mean?" Ami asked, settling across from Lupin, next to Mamoru.

"Fenrir Greyback." Usagi explained. "They sent him down and when he touched my arm, I knew what he was. I took some of his power and manipulated it, sending it back to him and changing him."

"Changing him?"

"We explained most of this," Rei snapped.

"It's alright Rei," the corner of Usagi's lip quirked up, "I don't mind explaining." She turned to Lupin, "I control the moon and the moon controls your transformations, so I just manipulate the effect the moon has upon your powers, negating it. I can change it in one of two ways: what I did to Greyback has left him completely unable to transform, but I could also change the transformation into a non contagious animagus form. The first one's quite painful though, as it's a more significant change."

"I think… I think I would like the other choice anyway," Lupin said after a moment. Usagi reached forward and took his hand, closing her eyes. There was silence as everyone in the house, even Kreacher, looked on although truth be told there was not much to see. After only a few short moments Usagi leant back, blinked a little and smiled.

"Go on," she said, "transform."

Lupin hesitated for a moment and then, in the blink of an eye, a wolf was sat on his chair. There were whoops of delight as Lupin changed once more into himself.

"How can I ever repay you?" he asked, his eyes sparkling.

"I don't know," Usagi said honestly, "but I suggest first we make a start on retrieving my wand." Her eyes glinted with a light that none of them had quite seen there before.


I was going to keep Usagi's hair short, but I just couldn't picture it.

And yay for animagus Lupin xD

Thanks to

DiamondAir

Chuni Luni

Wonderbee31

IsadoraKayStone

amaramichelle

for reviewing chapter 53 :) Sorry this one took its time x