Notes: I was honestly not expecting the overwhelming response I got from last week's update, in fact, I haven't really even finished answering all reviews. I'll try to get to that soon, though this week has been very intense. Tomorrow we have this practical lab activity that I've been organizing for over a month now, so I'm pretty nervous over how things will turn out. Things should quiet down slightly after that.

By my estimates we'll have another chapter next week before updates becomes sporadic again so enjoy this while you guys can. I guess many of you were really looking forward to this part of the story.

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Chapter 58: Revelations

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"Shh, it's fine Ron." Hermione said as the taller teen slowly began to snap out of his daze.

"Whazzut, 'Mione." Ginny watched her brother slur out as he stirred, eyes blinking as if to regain their focus.

The atmosphere was tense as seconds slowly trickled by. Her arm still flared hot with pain, but Ginny stubbornly ignored it, her eyes still glued and not daring to look away from the blonde that had just brutally killed the three Death Eaters that ambushed them outside. Even now the group were still huddled together in a distrustful semicircle with a recovering Ron at its center, all wands pointing at the supposed traitor, or should she say savior? Ginny didn't know anymore. All she knew is that she'd definitely feel a lot better if she could only use her wand arm.

As if finally reaching full clarity, Ron's eyes widened at the sight of Zidane Tribal, his body quickly sitting up straight and his hand reaching for his wand. "Bloody hell, what's he doing here?"

The blonde didn't seem all that bothered by their attitude towards him as he appeared to be more preoccupied with catching his breath, his tail –that's right, tail– curling slightly as he straightened up. If he was in the least bit aware of the atmosphere, he wasn't showing it at least. Ginny was starting to believe it was intentional since she was sure everyone could hear her brother, or at very least feel the animosity rolling off of Neville in nearly tangible waves.

She may have not been as close to Zidane as Neville and Luna were, but that didn't mean she hadn't considered him any less a friend. From the beginning he'd been nothing but amicable and caring, drawing people towards him with that strange charisma of his. They had shared so much despite his relatively short time in Hogwarts. He had eaten meals with them, fought in the snow with them, suffered in class with them, practiced together in the DA with them, played Quidditch with them, saved her from that Bludger, and even helped win them the Cup, however all these moments were built on flimsy foundations from the start. Zidane Tribal was not who they had thought he was, or even apparently what they had thought he was.

"I guess I should start off by apologizing." The blonde said suddenly, eliciting a scoff from both Neville and Ron. Luna was surprisingly calm, though there was a melancholy look in her eyes that hadn't disappeared since they left Hogwarts. Even now she was still avoiding eye contact. Hermione was still by Ron's side, strangely subdued. Harry had his brows knit closely together as if fiercely trying to make sense of everything that was happening. After all, Zidane had certainly stopped the Death Eaters from getting the prophecy, but he had been the one that betrayed them from the start, hadn't he? He was one of the bad guys, wasn't he?

Ginny didn't know what to think. A part of her still wished she could turn back time to when they were still at Hogwarts and celebrating their victory over Ravenclaw. Back before any of this happened. Perhaps even back to before they met Zidane. However, a fiercer side of her wanted, or rather, demanded an excuse. For his own sake Ginny wanted him to give her a damn good reason as to why she shouldn't jinx him into next week.

"Why didn't you take us to Voldemort? Did you want all the credit for yourself?" Neville shot, though Ginny noticed the pained look that suddenly flashed across Zidane's face.

"He didn't because he's not a Death Eater, are you?" Hermione said quietly from where she now sat.

There was a collective pause as they all suddenly turned to look at the bushy haired girl. Ginny came to an abrupt halt. For a moment she thought she heard wrong or that perhaps she did get hit from a jinx earlier that was making her head all funny, however judging by everyone else's reactions, she was just fine.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry questioned, his brow furrowed as he continued to warily point his wand at Zidane.

"Harry's right, the bloke was hidin' it from the start!" Ron shot. "He's a bloody dark creature, isn't he?"

"We were wrong. I was wrong." Hermione answered closing her eyes.

Ginny's eyes darted towards her brother and then to Hermione. The bushy-haired girl's attitude disturbed her. At this point her brain was racing to make sense of her words, a strange sense of dread rising. The truth was inconvenient at this point and she was well aware of that, just as she was aware that they had walked into what was probably an elaborate trap from the start. However, in a dark and small corner of her mind her thoughts mirrored those of her brother. Zidane had betrayed them; his intentions, hell, even his identity was still unclear. He could still very well be a dark creature with equally as dark intentions even if he wasn't a Death Eater. He was not a wizard, at least, Hermione's spell proved that. He had hidden that from them, or at least it wasn't like Zidane had been sporting a tail when they first met.

"What does she mean?" The teen asked, emerald eyes flicking towards Hermione and then glaring at the teen who only sighed in response.

"I suppose it's best if I introduce myself again." The teen said, cyan eyes meeting each and every one of them. "My name is Zidane Tribal, though a lot of you also know me by the name of Marcus Crescent. I'm currently a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

….

Harry froze, eyes wide and disbelieving. It couldn't be.

"No, no way, there's just no bloody way you're Crescent." Ron stammered.

"He is." Hermione said. "I didn't believe it at first either, but I realized it once you defended us back there. Those blades, as well as that golden flame. We saw it for ourselves that night during the Astronomy OWL. Harry, you said Crescent could make himself invisible too, didn't you? You were right. He has been following you, only hiding in plain sight."

Harry swallowed hard, his throat suddenly becoming very dry. Zidane couldn't be Crescent. Crescent was dark and intimidating; a mysterious and reserved man who never spoke. He was a deadly shadow that had even gone as far as follow him in his nightmares. He was a horrifying man with an even more horrifying Boggart…

"In exchange for a favor, Dumbledore asked me to watch over you during the school year. I was kind of in a difficult situation at the time so I agreed." The blonde continued despite of the deafening silence that had settled.

The Boy-Who-Lived still couldn't believe it. Both images of the two refused to overlap in his mind. Crescent had such an intimidating presence that even though he was relatively short, it was hard to get an estimate of his actual height. That, coupled with the ever-present cloak made it hard to get an accurate profile. He supposed that maybe there was a possibility that there was a physical match, however, experience told him that physical appearances easy enough to change with magic; the incident last year with Barty Crouch Jr. confirmed that.

Harry remained silent, various memories replaying in his head. From the moment they first settled inside the compartment in the Hogwarts Express, Zidane had been there. He recalled how angry he had been feeling back then because of how he had seemingly been left behind by his two best friends. Zidane had been there to lend him an ear. He had also been there when he first got detention with Umbridge, and at the time he couldn't help but feel it was unusual to have this stranger following him when nobody else dared. It didn't stop there, however. Umbridge's quills continued to fail, and though he thought he was just lucky at first, now he realized that it had all been far too convenient. There had also been that attack at Hogsmeade, an attack which surprisingly hadn't been aimed at him, and according to Sirius, had involved Crescent. Zidane had been suspiciously absent that day as well.

"Prove it." Harry said, his jaw set in a firm line as carefully examined the blonde they once thought they knew.

The blonde teen sighed as he ran a hand through his hair before meeting his eyes once more. "We officially met in the Hogwarts Express, but the first time I really met you was when I went with Moody and the others to come pick you up at Little Whinging. That was the first time I was taken to Grimmauld Place, as well, and you stepped on my tail on the way in, though it was already numb and half-frozen from the broom ride. Of course, it wouldn't have been like that if it weren't for Moody being paranoid about being followed, but then again, that's just how Moody is."

Harry blinked, unsure of what to think. He had actually nearly forgotten all about that.

As if not nearly done the blonde this time turned to face Hermione.

"During Christmas break, you cancelled your plans to go skiing with your parents because Arthur got attacked by a snake. At the station I approached you and we then met Moody. I also went to St. Mungo's with Kingsley, only I got potion spilled on me and I had to lose the cloak. You all probably know the rest of the story." The teen said sending a last look at Neville.

"Bloody hell." Ron said with a look of that was equal parts horror and awe.

"I never meant for things to turn out the way they did." Zidane said as he locked eyes with them. His gaze was strong and unflinching, making Harry feel hard-pressed to believe him.

"If so then why did you lie to us, Zidane, if that's really you real name? Who are you even?" Neville suddenly shot, making everyone turn to look at him. His words were still laced with bitterness, though Harry couldn't deny that a part of him still felt the same way.

Zidane's gaze faltered slightly, as he averted his eyes and paused as if finding the words.

"To start from the beginning I think there's something I need to make clear. My name really is Zidane Tribal. I didn't lie about that. However, as you've all probably come to realize right now, I'm not a wizard, or well, human, at least by your definition. To be more specific, I'm not even from this world." Zidane said drawing in looks of disbelief.

"You're mad! How're we supposed to believe any of that other-wordly rubbish?" Ron interjected.

"Because one of you has already seen it." The teen answered calmly while then turning to focus his attention on the Boy-Who-Lived. "I don't know exactly how it is that it happened. I think it had something to do with your Occlumency lessons with Snape, but for some reason you probably got a good look at what I'm talking about."

"W-what." Harry began, unsure of what the tailed blonde was referring to. He tried to think, after all, if he had seen another world, he'd think he'd remember it.

"You've had those visions haven't you? Those with the dragon and the tree, among other things." Zidane continued in spite of the clueless looks he received from Ginny. Neville and Luna seemed better at masking their expressions

Harry blinked as he recalled those strange visions that had plagued his dreams; too realistic to be mere fabrications, but too bizarre to make any sense from then at the time. Flicking his gaze quickly towards Ron and Hermione yielded identical looks of surprise.

"How did you-?" Harry began, now a little more convinced of the truth to Zidane's words.

"Because I was there at the time those memories took place. What you witnessed are scenes from my world." Zidane continued despite Harry's sense of alarm at the thought of creatures like those actually existing. "Back home I'm what's called a Genome and it was only by mishap with a spell that I ended up here on Earth. I had no idea how to get back home, though I stumbled upon the magical community by accident and, after some bumps along the road, crossed paths with the Order of the Phoenix. I struck a deal with Dumbledore then. He'd find me a way home and in exchange…"

"You'd watch over Harry." Hermione surmised, to which Zidane gave a small, sad smile.

"I initially wanted to tell you all, I should have told you all. Dumbledore didn't want me to reveal myself, though honestly I didn't care much for his opinion at the time, in fact, I still don't. However, I just could never really find the right time and it just became more difficult as time went on. I won't deny that a part of me was afraid of how you'd all react, in my short time in this world it quickly became clear that wizards weren't exactly very tolerant towards those different from them. In the end I settled for telling you all once the semester was over. I figured even if rejected, it wouldn't matter much since I was still going home. Obviously, that didn't go very well." The blonde admitted. "I'm really sorry about not telling you guys before, though if given the chance to repeat this ordeal I don't think I'd act much differently. Even though it started out as a job, I really do treasure the time we spent together, and I really do see you all as friends. None of that was a lie."

Only silence met the blonde, though the tense atmosphere that had once overwhelmed them was gone. In its place was indecision.

The blonde's shoulders slumped as let out a dejected sigh. "Well, I supposed I should have expected as much."

Harry suddenly felt the need to speak. He didn't know what to say, however, somewhere inside of him something had shifted. He realized that as crazy at the story sounded, he believed every word of it. The blonde had deceived them before, and he was fully aware of that, but during the past months there were times when he'd seen Zidane's mask slip; rare moments in which he spoke earnestly about his friends back home or the problems he had with his brother. Harry realized that it was the same now. He wasn't cracking jokes, or flirting with girls, nor was he changing subjects or dodging truths. It was the first time they saw him fully unmasked.

The blonde made a move towards the door from where he was now leaning against the wall, however as he extended his arm towards the handle, his was stopped in his tracks when Luna suddenly spoke.

"Your Wrackspurts are gone." The silvery-blonde haired girl said stepping forward

"What-?" Zidane said, blinking with wide cyan-colored eyes.

The blonde teen seemed to tense as Luna approached him and took his gloved hands with her own, the fur of his tail bristling slightly to give away his surprise.

"I believe you're telling the truth. I won't lie, it's a little upsetting that you lied to us, but I'm also sorry you felt like you had to hide the truth." The girl continued, looking at down at their hands. "Even though I'm a witch, I've still been picked on and called names like 'Loony' so I can somewhat understand your fear, though my own experience probably doesn't compare to yours."

"Luna…" The teen responded, his expression being one of disbelief.

"Did you know this was the first time I ever enjoyed myself at Hogwarts so much? Being with you and Neville, and everyone, made for some of the best moments in my life and I don't want that to end. The truth is, I'm really sorry for the way I acted too. We should have stopped, even for just a second to hear what you had to say, but we didn't and were just as guilty for that. I'm sure Neville feels the same way." The girl gave a warm smile before looking at Neville.

Neville averted his eyes with a displeased sigh.

"I'm really sorry Neville." Zidane continued.

"You told me you were human, back when you stood up to Umbridge." The teen said, eyes purposely staring downwards at the ground.

"Technically I said I wasn't a half-breed, and I'm really not-" The blonde said before shutting up. "…I'm really REALLY sorry."

"I honestly don't care if you are a Genome or half-kneazle of whatever the bloody hell it is you are." Neville said, his tone still upset. "Just…don't ever keep these things from us. If you want us to trust you then it has to go both ways…and well, I'm sorry too."

Looking up Neville's eyes finally met Zidane's stare head-on, though not with anger, but rather, stubborn determination.

"I will, I promise." The tailed blonde replied, offering a gloved hand which was promptly taken by Neville. Luna then surprisingly enveloped both teens in a hug.

"Err, not to ruin the touching moment, I'm actually really glad we got this sorted out, however we are still currently in a lot of danger." Ron spoke up from where he sat beside Hermione.

"Crap, Ron's right." Zidane said, slapping himself on the head. "We've wasted too much time. The Death Eaters will likely be searching for us already and I'm not so sure this is the best place to hole up. The rest of the Order should be on their way, but I'm not sure how long it'll take."

"Wait, how did you get in contact with them? Snape wasn't at Hogwarts and McGonagall is still in St. Mungo's." Hermione asked, her brow furrowed.

"Kuja went to search for help. He was actually the one that found me after you guys immobilized me." The tailed teen responded.

"Wait so is Professor Kuja also…" Ginny questioned.

"Yeah, I wasn't lying when I said he's my long lost brother. I honestly thought he was dead, but he somehow managed to end up here as well. He's actually surprisingly persistant, kind of like and Oglop when you think about it." Zidane admitted, his tone slightly humorous in spite of the grim subject.

"So how long do you think it'll take?" Hermione asked, ignoring the unfamiliar term. After all, this wasn't the time.

"Well it's hard to get an estimate, but we should prepare for the worst case scenario anyways." The blonde thought as he then took a good look at the group. "We should probably do something about those injuries first."

"You can use that healing magic, right?" Harry said, recalling how the teen had healed his hand after Umbridge's detention.

"Well, to be honest healing isn't really my forte. The same goes for magic in general." Zidane said, saying the latter as an afterthought and making Harry suddenly feel very uneasy. "Kuja's a lot better than me when it comes to magic, but I can heal wounds as long as they're not anything major, and I can do basic first aid if it comes to that. Hey Ginny, let me see your arm."

The redhead obliged, though winced as she let her now swollen arm be prodded and examined.

"It's definitely broken. I don't think I can heal it with magic." The teen said before reaching to his side and beginning to rummage through the small, satchel-like bag around his waist. "Hear drink this. Good thing I saved a couple of them for emergencies."

Ginny was handed a small, sealed, glass vial containing a yellowish green liquid. With a frown the girl uncorked it and get it a tentative sniff only to wrinkle her nose in disgust.

"Are you sure this is safe?" The girl asked. "I mean, not to be rude, but do you think this will work on wizards and not make me grow a third eye or something?"

"Huh, I never really thought about it, but it works on my friends back home just fine and many of them are human, I guess we just don't really pay much attention to that sort of thing." The blonde said while the girl gave it another hesitant look before downing the bottle on one go.

The group looked on in surprise as the girl's various cuts began to heal and particularly when the girl's arm, currently set in position by Zidane's gloved hands, began to glow.

"It'll feel weird for a while, not to mention it'll be really fragile. If I were a proper healer I'd tell you to sit this one out, but I really get the feeling we'll need all hands on deck over here." Zidane said before motioning Luna over to get her injuries looked at.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked, feeling the slight weariness in the way Zidane spoke.

"I dunno, call it a gut feeling." The blonde said as he began slowly healing the party's wounds. "There's plenty of stuff that's rubbed me the wrong way from the start. For starters it's already strange that Voldemort is making his first attack, and in the Ministry of Magic no less. I think they were serious about wanting the prophecy, but at the same time I don't think that's all there is to it."

"I've been thinking the same thing and I actually wanted to ask you some things as well. It's strange that the Death Eaters continued to come after us even though we didn't have the prophecy." Hermione mentioned, her brow furrowed as Zidane slowly decreased the swelling on Neville's face. "Also, why didn't Voldemort retrieve the prophecy himself? There have been two instances of a break-in at this department this year, the first resulting in Sturgis Podmore's arrest, and the second resulting in Mr. Weasley's attack. He's already proved himself capable in infiltrating this place so why didn't he take the prophecy himself? That is, unless of course, that's not all he's after."

"Are you saying there's another secret weapon?" Ron asked as Zidane treated the strangle-marks around his neck, only to flinch as the teen touched them. "Oww!"

Ignoring Ron's cry Zidane answered. "Well, the Order hasn't really mentioned anything about a second secret weapon so we can rule that out."

"I was thinking that maybe he was also after you, Harry." Hermione said, turning to face the teen. "Zidane, you got ambushed at Hogsmeade as well, didn't you?"

"Well I wouldn't call it an ambush, but yeah." The teen replied. "You think he might have pulled this off just to draw the two of us out of Hogwarts?"

"It would be like killing two birds with one stone." Luna replied as she thought it over.

"Well that makes sense, though there's still something else that has been bothering me." The blonde said, his tail swishing side by side as he looked deep in thought.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Don't you think pulling this off is kind of cocky of him?" Zidane questioned and at the confused looks he elaborated further. "I mean, until now the guy has been trying to keep attention away from himself and stick to smaller crimes that the Ministry is only happy to cover up. It's the most logical choice considering that he's been trying to gather forces. But this is a direct attack on the Ministry. Even assuming he wins and manages to get the prophecy and kill both of us, there would simply be no way to cover that up. It would be a direct declaration of war.

"So are you saying that Voldemort has an army?" Harry questioned, dreading the answer.

"I'm not sure. I mean, the last I heard, Death Eaters definitely had an advantage in the Giant front, plus there are several Werewolves, and Dementors at his beck and call, but even then I don't think their numbers would be nearly enough." The teen answered. "It's just too soon."

"Are we sure he's not bluffing?" Ginny asked, somewhat hoping that was the case.

"It's impossible to know, but I agree with Zidane. There's definitely something really fishy about this setup. It just seems far too sudden for Voldemort to make a move in public. This is, after all, the Ministry of Magic. Attacking this place will not go unnoticed, even overseas." Hermione said, deep in thought. "The biggest question now is how exactly we're going to deal with this. Should we try to escape or stay put and wait for help?"

"I'm pretty sure that they'll be watching all the exits, but at the same time I don't think it's a good idea to stay barricaded in here. They're going to find us eventually." Zidane mused, his hand on his chin.

"We could try to Floo out of here, but I'm not sure if the networks are still running. It could be another trap to get us and the prophecy." Luna said, her tone surprisingly calm despite their current situation. The Boy-Who-Lived had to admit that it was encouraging.

"Oh right, what about the prophecy?" Harry asked the cyan-eyes teen. He'd nearly forgotten about it.

"Right here." Zidane said, pulling out the glass orb and throwing it up in the air before catching it. "If you don't mind I think it's best if I hold on to it."

"But-" Harry began but was interrupted.

"I think he's right. It'll be harder for them to get a hand on both of their objectives." Hermione reasoned.

"Yeah, but isn't Zidane an objective as well? They've also tried to catch him before. If what you said before is right, then they'll likely have that in mind as well." Harry argued. Maybe he just still didn't like the idea of the blonde carrying what may be the key as to why Voldemort killed his parents.

"Don't worry, I've faced worse odds than now. If push comes to shove I still have a couple of aces up my sleeve, but otherwise I'd rather not use them. The clever eagle hides its claws and all that." The tailed teen assured them, even though Harry didn't quite comprehend the meaning of Zidane's words.

"That's all well and good, mate, but that's not really the most pressing issue here, is it?" Ron said with a hint of impatience. "What will we do now? I think we really ought to decide it now."

"Actually," Zidane began in a low voice, his tone suddenly becoming very serious, his entire body seeming to tense while his tail seemed to bristle slightly. "I think that's no longer an option."

"What is it?" Ron said, frowning.

"Shhh!" Zidane whispered harshly as he very slowly, and very silently made his way over to the door before pressing his ear against the door frame. "There's people outside."

Harry strained his ears to hear something, anything, only to come up blank. Around him it seemed like the others had similar results.

"Are you sure?" Ginny whispered, her brow furrowed as she still tried to search through the silence.

"Positive." Zidane said. "There's seven, maybe eight of them, though they're trying to be sneaky."

"Hermione do you remember how many doors were in the previous room?" Neville whispered.

"A dozen." Hermione answered and even Harry could detect the nervousness in her voice.

"Okay, so the odds don't seem to be much in our favor." Ginny said stepping back slightly and away from the door.

"The door is locked isn't it?" Ron whispered with a hint of hope.

Hermione gave the redhead an incredulous stare before responding. "Ron, I honestly don't think they will care-"

"EVERYONE DOWN!"

…

To be continued…

…

A/N: It was really nice to hear about what Patronuses you guys got last week. My question this week is: What patronuses do you think the FFIX cast would get? Anyways, until next time!