AN: Sorry about the late update everyone! If your wondering about why I'm updating now, I went back to school since the dorms and dining halls are still open. My break wasn't turning out to be much of a break back at home. Anyway, enjoy!

Darcy frowns when Bloom flies over the forest once more - she's been doing that a lot, half the time they use the spying spell they found she's in the library and the other half she's out in the forest. To be fair, though, they can't exactly spy on the scary red-head all the time - they've got classes to go to for the lectures, homework to do, and they need to eat and sleep. And the spell Darcy's using is rather frowned-upon - well, using it instead of paying attention is, if they didn't want people spying on others they wouldn't have had it in the Cloud Tower Archives in the first place. Ergo, they can't keep it active at all times to keep an eye on the terrifying red-head.

Stormy comes into their room right then, asking "Watching Bloom again?"

Darcy nods, and says "Yeah. She's out in the forest again. What is she doing out there anyway?" Because the spell always goes blank whenever she enters the forest itself - if she's not in it, say over it, they can see and hear everything she does. If she's past the treeline...nothing.

Stormy shrugs, asking "If you want that answer so badly, why don't you go ask her yourself?"

Is she serious?! "Because I'm not suicidal! All three of us saw the look on her face right before Faragonda came into the room, she would've killed us!"

Stormy nods, and says "Point." Scary point, at that. After a minute, she jokes "Maybe she's looking for Lake Roccaluce."

Darcy rolls her eyes at that, and asks "What for? To find Princess Daphne of Domino?"

Stormy chuckles, and says "Maybe she'll try to scare her into saying where the baby princess' body is."

"What, so she can get the full power of the Dragon Flame herself?"

They share a look, and then start laughing until they cry, falling into each other at the sheer hilarity of it. Bloom's scary, but the Fyres were more stubborn than anyone else in known existence. And Princess Daphne, while reportedly not having the infamous Fyre stubbornness as a main part of her personality…they're sure its there somewhere in her. And threatening her for the location of her long-dead baby sister? Yeah, that would probably bring it to the surface, if not her temper as well. Whoever Bloom is, she wouldn't stand a chance against the former Holder of the Dragon Flame - supposedly, the former Holders still had a connection to it even if it wasn't inside them.

They laugh so hard, they completely miss Bloom's voice come from the orb, saying "Found you, Daphne. Here I come." When they finally look over again, the spell's gone black.

Bloom's just managed to find Lake Roccaluce in the forest, by flying a solid mile above it so that the spell isn't affecting her. It might be considered cheating, but she really doesn't care. She cares about her sister more than the rules of a spell that's keeping her from her sister.

Currently, she's…directly over the lake, which gives her a few options for how to get down there. She could fly down there, and risk getting turned around by the spell.

She could teleport down there, which involves losing eyesight of the lake and risks the spell interfering and sending her straight back to Alfea - since you can't teleport into the forest from the edge, she's tried.

Or…well, she was a Gryffindor for a reason. That reason being rash decisions like this one, diving in headfirst into something.

Steeling her nerves - bodies of water are not her favorite thing, since she was never taught how to swim, and the Second Task did nothing to help with that whatsoever - Bloom murmurs "Found you, Daphne. Here I come." She then curls up into a ball, changing back into her normal form before she can lose her nerve.

And drops, creating a shield underneath her to take the impact for her.

Daphne's talking with Omnia and the Guardian Selkies - minus Serena, for obvious reasons - when they all hear a sound that should legitimately be impossible.

A splash.

A big splash.

Too big for it to simply be an animal that fell into the lake, or a fish jumping out of the water only to come back in.

Daphne and Omnia share a look, and Omnia says "It seems someone's breached the spell and gotten to the Lake."

Daphne immediately says "That should be impossible. The spell is still holding strong. We tied it to the Sirenix Stone!"

Omnia smiles at Daphne, and says "You and I both know your family has never been particularly concerned with impossible, Daphne. Honestly, I'd have thought your mother was the one born to your family instead of your father."

Daphne grimaces, and says "Mother held the Dragon Flame ever since they got married and…you know."

Omnia says "I'm well aware. Still, Marion's temper combined with her…knack, shall we say, for magic…"

Daphne chuckles almost despairingly, just thinking of what Bloom's been up to all these years if she's managed to get around the spell they set up, and says "That's what you call her genius-level affinity for magic. A knack for it."

Omnia nods at the entrance to the cave the Sirenix Stone is hidden in, asking "Are you going to go meet your sister face-to-face? Or is she going to have to come down here?" Daphne stops just short of cursing, Bloom would be stubborn enough to come all the way down here to the hidden cavern in the lake. "Do ask her just how she got around or through the spell, Daphne. I'm rather curious to know."

When Daphne gets out into the lake itself, she almost immediately zeroes in on her sister's body - she's not swimming, but twisting around and trying to get her bearings.

Oh, Bloom…

Daphne quickly takes Bloom to the surface, where she sends herself to shore while taking in big gulps of air before falling onto her back with a drawn out 'Ow…' At Daphne's look, she mutters "Don't give me that, Daphne. I just fell a mile straight down into your lake to get around that spell you have going. I'm perfectly allowed to be sore."

Daphne chuckles, shaking her head and saying "Only someone from our family…"

Bloom mutters "We have stubbornness issues, I'm well-aware."

"We do. Honestly, I'd wonder how people think Mother was the born Fyre, except she was a magical genius. Father's willpower - sheer stubbornness - was legendary. I heard he regularly had people at red Fountain tearing their hair out by the roots."

After a minute spent healing the soreness that generally comes from falling a straight mile into a body of water - even if she did make a shield to absorb the worst of the impact - Bloom sits up and gets her first face-to-face look at her sister. At least her spirit looks like she's been doing alright? Even without a body? She's not sure what to think about her being solid orange, though.

After a moment of silence, Bloom asks "Alright, what the bloody hell are you supposed to say upon meeting your long-lost sister after all this time? 'Hey, I know we don't actually know each other like we should, but I'm your long-lost sister. Nice to meet you!' Is that how it goes?"

Daphne bursts into laughter at that, and sits down next to Bloom. After she gets herself under control, Daphne half-sarcastically says "I'm Daphne Alexia Fyre, nice to meet you."

"Bloom Jessica Potter-Fyre. Or is it 'Fyre-Potter?' Either way, same to you." The two sisters share another look, then burst out laughing again.

And then Daphne takes Bloom by surprise by pulling the younger girl onto her legs and wrapping her arms around her. And then it all just seems to pour out of Daphne - how she sent Bloom away through a portal so she'd survive the destruction on Domino, how the Witches cursed her power and stripped her of her body, how she can't leave the Lake for very long or she'd have gone searching for her, how she thought she was dead all these years when she couldn't sense her magic, everything. Soon enough the both of them are crying, Daphne holding onto Bloom like she might disappear, and Bloom hanging onto her older sister just so she doesn't go track down the Ancestral Witches herself to tear whatever's left of them apart for cursing her sister like they did. At least, that's what she tells herself.

Still, they cursed not Daphne herself…but the power she obtained. Sirenix. …bloody fuck, how is she supposed to break something like that?! A simple 'Finite Incantatem won't be enough - she's going to try it anyway, just to see if there's any kind of reaction - but maybe if she overpowered it? Or made a new version of it?

"Bloom? What are you thinking of?" Daphne watches as her younger sister blinks and comes out of her thoughts - no, oh heck no…

"What? Daphne, what's wrong?"

Daphne tightens her hold on Bloom, saying "I know that look, Bloom. Mother would get it, and Father knew he'd either be helping her get out her old notes…or he'd be sleeping alone for several days as she worked on whatever project she'd thought up." It doesn't take Daphne very long to connect the dots, and she immediately spins Bloom around to face her. "No, Bloom, absolutely not!"

"Daphne, you don't even-"

"You are not going to go on the Sirenix Quest to try and break the Curse! I forbid it!"

Bloom gives Daphne a look of utter confusion, and asks "Why would me trying to get the cursed power break that curse? I was just going to make a counter spell…"

Daphne relaxes to the point where she'd go completely boneless if she still had bones, and says "Alright then. Don't scare me like that, Bloom! I thought for sure I was going to lose you to the Curse like I've lost everything else!"

Bloom narrows her eyes at Daphne, and asks "Why would trying to get the Sirenix Power break the curse? Daphne?"

Daphne immediately says "Not a chance, Bloom. Not a single chance in all of magic's power. You are not going to risk getting cursed yourself just for me."

Therein immediately ensues a long argument about 'just for me' - because Daphne seems to have a different opinion about it than Bloom, and neither sibling is willing to budge in their belief or admit defeat. Bloom refuses to not try to free Daphne from the Sirenix Curse, Daphne refuses to let Bloom risk herself getting cursed for her when she's had this Curse on her for a decade and a half and has learned to live with it. Is this what its like to have siblings? She'll have to ask Ron.

Daphne won't say why she was under the impression Bloom would try to earn the Sirenix Power herself either, leaving her more curious than if Daphne had simply explained. Something to look into after she breaks the Curse on Daphne, though.

Unfortunately, Daphne doesn't even know how the Witches Cursed the Sirenix power, only that they did.

Bloom hums, then says "Well, I can think of two places I could check out for info about something like that. Even if one isn't likely to have any information, its still the more accessible place."

Daphne doesn't particularly want to know the answer to this, but she figures she should try to warn whoever it is that's going to be in Bloom's way to get out before they're trampled. Oritel used to send a warning to the librarian, after all. "And what would those two places be?"

Bloom nonchalantly says "Well, the first one I'm going to check out if Alfea's library. They probably won't have much on Curses, but still. If you don't know much about it, I doubt Faragonda would either, though."

Daphne feels a sinking pit of dread forming in her metaphorical stomach, and asks "And the second place?"

"The Cloud Tower Archives."

Daphne buries her face in her hands, muttering a prayer to the Great Dragon - that's…not good. A logical idea? Yes, absolutely. Dark Magic like Witches use is all about Curses and such, though there are different kinds of curses. But…walking into Cloud Tower, the place the Ancestral Witches founded… In all likelihood, its probably going to break out into a massive fight, with Bloom against all the ambitious or vindictive Witches in the school who'd want to punish the Fairy for trespassing in their school.

Techna walks into the library, having heard there's a book on Magi-Technology at Alfea - it's a very advanced concept, technology infused with magic that can actually affect or even cancel spells. Needless to say, she's extremely interested. She doesn't find the book, though.

What she finds is Bloom standing at the magical podium looking beyond frustrated as she crosses off another line in a list of things she wants to search for. "Sirenix Curse!" After a moment when nothing happens, she crosses out yet another line.

When Techna takes a peek at the list, what she sees is…well, its not something your average Fairy would be searching for. Curses, Magic Curses, Magical Curses, Curses that affect Magic, Curses that affect a transformation, Sirenix, Sirenix Curse - all crossed out. Whatever it is Bloom's looking for, its not in Alfea.

"Um, Bloom? Why are you looking for curses?" Bloom jumps a good foot in the air, and Techna's faced with the end of her Wand faster than she can blink.

After a moment, Bloom recognizes her and puts the Wand away, saying "Sorry, Techna. Don't sneak up on a girl like that, I nearly took your head off!"

Techna nods, fully believing her, then says "Noted. You didn't answer my question, though."

Bloom blinks, thinks for a moment, then says "Right, sorry. Trying to undo one, but first I need to know how it works. There's nothing here, though." She was really hoping she wouldn't have to go to the 'big, bad Cloud Tower,' if only to spare Daphne the worry and herself a lecture, but needs must.

Good thing she has a Time Turner.

AN: Alright, so...yeah. Bloom's heading to Cloud Tower! If anyone's wondering about Daphne, she is just as stubborn as the rest of the Fyre family when she needs to be...its just not a main part of her personality until then. She did hold the Witches off long enough for Bloom to escape, after all. Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming soon!