Spoilers for Harry Potter. And yay, this ended up longer than I thought it'd be, so it's more in my normal chapter range. :)

Chapter Seventy Three - Cry Me A River

I was busy looking for the Oracion Seis, but Ame wanted those board games, so I recorded some of my memories of playing the games and gave them to the kids in the guild, telling them to go nuts and have fun.

Of course, Bickslow and Freed took it a few steps further by incorporating their prank runes into it.

I honestly didn't care, and Ame was pretty pleased with the results so….eh.

I started preparing for the festival thing that's supposed to happen in April…I really did.

And then I dropped it, because I caught a lead on Brain and the Oracion Seis.

I guess that would be put off for another year, huh?

So, I left a note, dropped Yukino off at Kagura's and Simon's, and staked out a building which…did not have Brain or the Oracion Seis.

But I still found what I had needed.

Laxus was bored.

Elle was gone. Again.

Fairy Tail wasn't the same with her – even though the guild was loud as hell. But whenever she was gone, it felt like there was a piece missing.

She's been gone a lot, lately.

He sighed as he looked around the guild.

"What's wrong?" asked Erigor, who floated next to him.

"Do you ever sit like a normal person?" Laxus asked.

"Nah, this is more fun!" Erigor said cheerfully. "Now, come on! What's wrong?"

Laxus was quiet.

"It's Elle, isn't it?" Erigor asked.

Laxus sighed. "Dammit, how do you do that?"

Erigor snorted. "We all miss her, dumbass. But it's more than that, true. You're especially close with her."

Erigor looked back over to the kids. "Still, you're close to some of them. Cana, Levy. Freed and Bickslow. Ultear and Lyon. Juvia and Gray."

"Juvia and Gray are off -"

A scream ran through the guild, and everyone heard Gray's voice. "Juvia, I'm sorry, come back! I promise I'll keep my clothes on!"

Erigor laughed at that, so much so that he almost fell off of the scythe he was balancing on.

Laxus sighed. "If you didn't know the situation, that would've sounded really wrong."

Erigor snorted. "At least they're trying to be friends."

"Please, have you seen those two idiots blush?" Laxus scoffed. "They're almost as bad as Jellal and Erza."

"WHO TOUCHED MY CAKE!"

"Erza, get back here!"

"NO JELLAL, THEY TOUCHED MY CAKE, THEY WILL DIE!"

Lyon came running and ducked behind the bar, behind Laxus and Erigor.

"What did you do?" Laxus asked, peering down at them.

"It was an accident!" Lyon hissed. "Ultear told me she was getting me cake. I thought it was mine!"

"Erza, I will give you two pieces of cake!" Jellal shouted, straining to hold Erza back.

Erza relaxed. "Okay."

Erigor, Laxus and Lyon sweatdropped.

"I see that Jellal has already figured out that cake is the path to her heart," Laxus deadpanned.

"I think you're safe, Lyon," Erigor said, and Lyon sneaked away from the bar – though he didn't return to his seat. Instead, he ended up crashing into Bickslow, who was trying to fly on his souls.

"Ha!" Cana shouted. "I told you! I don't care how good your balance is, you can't fly on those souls!"

"Watch me!" Bickslow yelled, climbing back on and flying a good three feet before he crashed into a table.

"Do you think Elle would be upset about this?" Erigor asked.

"Nahh," Laxus muttered. "She'd probably encourage it. She'd just make them move to a safer place or something."

"Should we do that?" Erigor asked.

They watched as Bickslow flew by again, crashing into a pole this time. "Ouch!"

"Nahhhh," they both said in unison.

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT USING MAGIC IN THE GUILD HALL?" Makarov roared.

Bickslow looked down, ashamed. "Only use it if you know what you're doing?"

"YES!"

This was a rule because of the way that some people used magic, like Erigor's floating or Enno's dancing. It would be fine for Bickslow to float on his souls – as long as he could actually do it.

More than a few kids returned to the training room and Laxus sighed as he and Erigor returned to that room.

They weren't faring that well without Elle there.

Yukino spent most of her time alone, or with Lucy when she and Brandish visited – something that happened a lot more often, now that Corvus could sweep both of them back and forth through the shadows.

Wally seemed pretty depressed, and only Jellal, Erza, Sho, Simon or Millianna could cheer him up. Laxus thought it was a bit weird that Jellal and Erza were in charge their little group, but he suppose it wasn't that weird. He and Elle were kinda in charge of everyone else, and Erigor was older than them.

Wait. Did that mean like he and Elle were like Erza and Jellal?

He shook his head, trying to lose the thought before he started blushing.

"WHAT THE FUCK, FREED?" Evergreen screeched, and Laxus sighed. This was something he should probably interfere with.

"I will not apologize!"

Laxus couldn't wait for Elle to come back.

I had disappeared the last few days of March, and I returned almost a month later, with nothing except for a few scales…but it was what I needed.

Of course, upon my return to the guild, I was dog piled…again.

"Guys!" I shouted, though it was muffled, and came out more like "gfysS!"

Luckily, they seemed to get the idea, and most got off…most. Juvia, Freed, and Yukino (who seems to have joined the group of children who are extremely attached to me) stayed on my lap, though they luckily let me sit up.

Lucy (and Brandish) were absent, so I had one less person hanging off of me, and Jet seems to have decided to hover near me, but not glomp me. Jellal seemed to be staying close, too.

"You're back," Laxus said.

"Yep," I replied.

"Do you have any news?" Wally asked.

"Sort of," I said, smiling. "I'm tracking them, but I'm going to need Cana's help."

Laxus crossed his arms. "Fine, but you're resting for a few days."

"What?" I cried. "But I'm so close!"

"Tomorrow is your birthday!" he shouted back at me.

My mouth dropped. Was it?

"Oh…" I said quietly.

"You missed Juvia's birthday," Juvia said sadly, curling up into me more.

My heart started breaking, and I scooped her up, cuddling around her. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart," I whispered, stroking her hair.

"You missed mine, too," Millianna said quietly. She was eight now, and Juvia was nine.

I pet Millianna, stroking her hair, and she curled up next to me.

I hadn't even realized. I remember celebrating Makarov's eightieth birthday and Gray's tenth, and I had dropped by Laki and Max to say 'hi' for their tenth and ninth birthdays, but then I was gone, and so busy searching that I didn't pay attention to them.

Laxus met my eyes, his arms still crossed. "So? You owe us. You've made them all sad, so you've got to stay for your birthday before you leave, alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'll stay three days, and I'll spend one day with Juvia and one with Millianna. And Ultear, I'll try my best to come back for your birthday, too, though I don't think it will take me that long."

We spent the night the rest of the day huddled in the training room, watching all of the Harry Potter movies. It was pretty late by the time they were done, and most of the kids had fallen asleep early into the seventh one.

Mavis and Zeref (who seemed to have returned from their honeymoon period permanently while I was gone), and even the other adults joined us not too long after the first one started, so we gathered everyone and started over again. Also, because of suggestions, I went to the Konzern and grabbed Lucy, Brandish, and Layla so they could join us. Unfortunately, Jude was too busy.

Sometimes I forget that he runs all of the countries' railroads.

While we watched the movies, we laid on top of each other (after we had covered the ground in fluff), and Loke, Corvus and Phoenix all came out to join us, though I had to put Lucy in between Loke and Corvus so they wouldn't fight.

That didn't really work either, because Lucy wanted to sit on me, with Juvia, Freed and Yukino, with Millianna by my side so I could pet her.

I mostly let people choose where they wanted to sit, and made Laxus sit next to me, because it looked like he was starting to get jealous of the tiny children that were hogging my attention.

All in all, it was pretty good, though there was a lot of crying involved.

While I myself seem to be crying a lot in this lifetime, I still couldn't compare to the guild's resident crybaby – Zeref.

Zeref and Mavis spent most of the end of the fourth movie onward completely in tears, and they had cried a few times about Harry's home situation in the previous three movies (which counts just about anything with Sirius, which means they spent around half of the third movie in tears, too).

Of course, it also made the children with their parents there (Lucy, Cana, Gray and Ultear) spend a lot of time seeking for comfort. And if they didn't have parents there, they tended to go for the next closest relative (like Simon and Kagura, or Enno and Nab) or someone they considered really close.

So, of course, this meant that Jellal and Erza were spending time together (with Sho and Millianna hanging onto Erza), as were Gray and Juvia, and Cana and Lyon, (that was weird) as well as me and Laxus.

And all of the other kids (seeing as most of Fairy Tail was full of orphans) turned to me, which meant I spent more of my time comforting the tiny crying children than being comforted myself.

Still, despite the chaos, it was a good day, and it was certainly enjoyable.

Yukino got to spend the time snuggling with me, Layla, Lucy (who she's started calling Lucy-nee, like Hisui did) and Ophiuchus.

Honestly, the most annoying part was the end where Harry uses the Resurrection Stone and summons his parents, Sirius and Remus, because all of the adults were sobbing like babies. The only reason they didn't wake up the kids was because I asked Freed to put down a rune down when I noticed them getting sleepy that would keep them out.

Gildarts was sobbing his heart out, practically suffocating Cana, and Macao and Enno were hugging each other. Wakaba was crying pretty heavily too, sniffling, and Makarov was crying big crocodile tears. Silver was crying especially loudly, and was hugging Ur, who had a few tiny tears running down her cheeks (she was by far the most composed adult).

Reedus had burst into anime rivers, and Erigor was sniffling and whining muttering sadly about the ending. Even Laxus seemed to be crying a bit.

But Mavis and Zeref, who were sitting down with us rather than the adults in the back (which isn't that surprising, considering that they're technically in our age group) had their arms wrapped around each other and were sobbing their eyes out. Large, inconsolable sobs were the only noise you could distinguish from them, but every once in a while, you could hear phrases of something, like "it's sooooo saaaaaad!' and 'pooooooooor Harrrrrrrrrry'.

Eventually, everyone's tears had dried and the movie had ended.

Most of the kids were still asleep, so I spent time teleporting them back and forth. I took Simon, Kagura, Erza and Sho all back to Fairy Fields with one trip, though Kagura and Sho were both asleep, even though Kagura actually lasted pretty far into the last movie.

When I returned, I noticed Gray comforting Juvia, who was still crying. Luckily, it hadn't started raining. After the first few weeks, it hadn't started raining again when Juvia was sad.

Juvia wiped away her tears and smiled at him. "Thank you, Gray-san -ack! Your clothes!"

Well, they were getting there.

After multiple jumping back and forth, all of the kids were in their dorms (though more than a few of them made me tuck them in) and Lucy, Layla and Brandish were at the Konzern.

The adults were saying goodbye, and taking their awake children back home with them; Cana, Gray, Ultear, Lyon and Nab all staying awake throughout the movies. I gave Laxus one last hug, during which he gave me an odd look, where I rolled my eyes and said, "Come on, I know you were sad. And it's not exactly easy to hug your grandfather."

He smiled back at me and checked the time. "Happy Birthday, Elle. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I returned. I picked up Yukino (who had long since fallen asleep) and went back to our little home in the woods, where I switched out her clothes and got her ready for bed, before laying her down in the bed next to me.

She might have turned three not too long before I left, but she was still small, and I felt better with her in the same room.