Ch. 6
Shadows of dark creatures,
Steel clouds floating in the air.
People run for shelter.
What's going to happen to us?
-Open your heart, Supersonic theme.
"Very good, Sailormoon!" Angela called out as she made yet another very good save.
"I think you have a natural talent for this game!" she said as she landed. Sailormoon landed next to her and smiled a little sheepishly.
"I'm not all that good," she said softly. Harry landed next to her.
"But you are, Sailormoon," he said, thoroughly enthused. "With a little coaching, you could probably play for the national team!"
"National?" Sailormoon's eyes widened. "I'm that good?"
"Of course you are!" Kate said from her position of hovering a few feet above them. Angela clapped her hands, bringing everyone to the ground.
"I think this is all for today's practice. I'm no Oliver Wood, but I think I've trained you all hard enough."
Sailormoon had to agree. She was sweating very heavily as she left the stadium. She looked to her side. Chibiusa was running with Gohan towards the school. Wait. With Gohan???
Mounting her broom, she flew over to them.
"So, wait. Mamo-chan is here?"
Gohan nodded. He was facing Professor Dumbledore, who was behind his desk in his office. He was also flanked by the Sailorsenshi.
"All the guys are, including Rajura-kun. They want to be nearby in case they're needed or in case-" he cut himself off quite abruptly and flushed slightly.
"In case what?" Venus asked softly. Gohan sighed.
"There's no pattern to the attacks…" he murmured. Uranus' eyes widened a bit.
"They're afraid one of the Senshi will become a victim." She said softly. Gohan nodded silently. Dumbledore gave a wry smile.
"While I appreciate your coming here to help, I, quite frankly, am at a loss as to what to do with you. I'd let you stay, however, we are into the school year at this point and I do not think the Sorting Hat would appreciate it," he gestured towards the faded wizard's hat sitting on the shelf behind him. Gohan sighed.
"Well, the guys want to be closer, they say Diagon Alley's too far for them."
Dumbledore thought from behind his half-moon spectacles. He smiled and turned to the Senshi.
"I do believe that Hogsmeade has a nice inn, and it is far enough from Hogwarts so as not to interfere with any Muggle electrical equipment."
Mercury brightened. "That's a great idea, Professor!"
"Then it's settled," he said, standing. He turned to Gohan. "I will send an owl to the keeper of the Three Broomsticks to arrange for some rooms. I'll leave Hagrid to show you the way this weekend. And you girls will want to get ready for dinner, won't you?"
Shou whistled. "Nice place. I'm hungry."
"So what else is new?" Touma asked teasingly as he set his bags down. It was Friday evening, two days since they'd received Gohan's message from Professor Dumbledore. Touma began to set up the computer equipment as Seiji unpacked their things. He knew Ami-chan would want to look over the data when she came with the rest of the Hogwarts students the next day. Ami-chan…only a month and already he was going stir crazy without her. If this youma hadn't shown up, he didn't know what he'd have done without her. Still…it had to be disheartening for the Senshi, not to have even a normal year as witches.
He shook his head. It couldn't be helped. All he could hope for now was a quick resolve so Ami-chan could get back to her studies.
Hermione gasped as Sailorvenus-no, not Sailorvenus, Minako came down the stairs in her Hogwarts robes. She looked up, startled at her expression.
"What?"
"You're not transformed!" she squeaked. Minako grinned.
"Oh, that. Well, my fiancé is at Hogsmeade. As much as he loves me, I'm sure he'd rather see Aino Minako instead of Sailorvenus given the circumstances."
Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but cut herself off when she heard a series of loud thuds come from the girl's dormitory, then a sort of rumbling descending down the stairs. It culminated in Usagi landing in the commonroom, tangled in her own hair. As the commonroom exploded with laughter, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Minako helped untangle Usagi. Usagi gave them a grateful smile.
"When we get to Hogsmeade, this never happened."
"Tou-chan!"
Although Ami had resolved during the trip to be the calm, collected one, she, in fact, ended up being the first one to jump into her fiancé's arms. Touma chuckled and kissed her.
"Gee, I didn't think you had noticed I was gone."
Ami giggled and kissed him again. "I missed you, even your cooking."
Shin, who was on the verge of being swamped by Makoto, managed a grin between kisses. "We're all lucky that Bertie-sama likes to cook, I can't do everything."
Throughout this, Harry, Hermione and Ron stood by, silently waiting. Finally the guys turned the girls loose and they were able to introduce themselves. Touma smiled.
"Harry," he said. "That was your owl, wasn't it?"
"Hedwig," he said, smiling. "She's really great, isn't she?"
Ami and Hermione both turned to business. "I want to see the data," they said in unison. Touma blinked.
"Lo siento, pero solamente hablo espanol," he joked. Ami took out her wand.
"I may not be Sailormercury right now, but I still know quite a few spells. Tell me, how would you like to be a cat?" she asked menacingly. Ryo grinned.
"Better give them what they want, Touma."
Touma chuckled and led the way upstairs for Ami and Hermione. Ron grabbed hold of Harry's sleeve.
"Come on, Harry. You promised to go buy some Dungbombs with me!"
"Dungbombs?" Gohan asked. "What are those?"
"You'd never want to smell one, that's for sure," Harry said with a laugh. "We're going to Zonko's Joke Shop. Care to come?"
Gohan grinned. A wizard joke shop! And maybe something he could use on Krillin once he got back.
He grabbed Chibiusa's hand and laughed. "Let's go!"
"That's him?" Zabini Blaise asked. "She chose that kid over you?"
Draco nodded sullenly. "I just don't get it," he muttered. "I mean, he has to be thirteen at the most! I'm sixteen, I should have the advantage."
"There must be something we're not taking into account," Zabini said. Draco grinned.
"Well, I know what I'm going to do to tip the scales in my favour. Doesn't Weasley still have some of his brother's toffees?"
Zabini was confused. "What would you want with a-" he cut himself off, realising what Malfoy was talking about. He grinned. "If having a tongue the size of a Quidditch club doesn't turn her off, nothing will," he laughed. Draco grinned. "Come on! We can go up to the castle real quick and do a summoning spell for them!"
Gohan sat with Chibiusa in the Three Broomsticks. She had just ordered them two glasses of Butterbeer.
"Trust me," she said, smiling. "They're well worth the wait."
Gohan grinned. "I believe you. I'm just not sure they measure up to mom's cooking, though."
Chibiusa smiled and shrugged. "What can I say? They try."
The two laughed. It had been so very long since they'd been able to just sit by themselves and enjoy each other's company. Lately it seemed as if the only time they'd ever gotten to see each other was during times of crisis. Not that this wasn't one, but it had it's rewards, Chibiusa decided. She smiled.
"How's Diana?" she asked. Gohan grinned.
"She misses you, but is looking forward to the spells you'll show her when you get back."
"Speaking of cats," Chibimoon said. "Why didn't Luna and Artemis come with the guys?"
"We needed someone in Japan," Gohan shrugged. "I, personally, think it's a waste. Everyone should come and fight, but it wasn't my decision."
Chibiusa sighed and smiled. "Well, if this youma is anything like the Shogun, then it shouldn't be too hard taking care of it."
"And if it's anything like Princess Snow Kaguya?" Gohan asked. Chibiusa paled a bit.
"Let's hope it's not."
Their Butterbeer arrived and Gohan, eager to taste his, downed the entire thing in one gulp. Chibiusa stared.
"Did you even taste it?"
"Yep! It's good! I want more."
Chibiusa giggled. "I don't have any more money on me, but you're welcome to share mine," she offered shyly. Gohan smiled and, moving his chair over beside Chibiusa's, took two straws and the two of them began to drink the glass together slowly. At length, Chibiusa left off drinking and laid her head against Gohan's shoulder. Gohan smiled and held her, the Butterbeer entirely forgotten. After a moment, the two looked up simultaneously, flushed and began to lean in towards each other, their lips coming closer…
"Ginny!!"
A shout jerked the young couple apart and they both turned. Ginny's eyes were filling with the same eerie blue light that had filled the other two victims. As she tipped backward, she was caught by her older brother, who was looking decidedly shaken. Chibiusa and Gohan looked at each other. Another attack.
"This is getting altogether too serious."
The Troopers, Senshi and Gohan were gathered in the Three Broomsticks .Ron was back at Hogwarts, in the hospital wing sitting by his sister's bedside.
Rei now continued. "The attacks seem to be coming faster now. We're beginning to run out of time."
"Yes, but what can we do?" Ami said, exasperated. "We still haven't been able to pinpoint the source, the attacks are happening too quickly and are, I'm sorry to say, too low on the scale. Whoever this is will have to attack a larger quantity of people simultaneously in order for us to get a lock."
Usagi and Makoto paled.
"What is it?" Shin asked.
"We've got a Quidditch match next Saturday," Makoto whispered. Usagi nodded.
"The entire school will be there."
"The entire school? This may be the break we've been looking for," Seiji said slowly.
"We'll try to get a lock on it if it attacks," Touma said. "If it does, we'll pinpoint it's base and do a Sailor Teleport."
"There's no other option?" Minako asked dejectedly.
"None that will allow us to finish this off quickly," Ryo said. Makoto sighed.
"Then I guess it's settled. Let a lot of people be drained, find the youma that's doing this, then defeat them before the students know they've been drained."
"Let's hope," Seiji muttered.
Hermione wandered over to the group.
"We're going to be leaving in about a half hour," she told the Senshi. "Will you guys be ready by then?"
"I'm not sure," Ami said. Hermione nodded.
"That's what I thought. Here," she said, thrusting the map into Minako's hands. "She knows how to use it. You'll find a trap door in the basement of the candy shop. It'll lead you back to Hogwarts."
"Really?" Chibiusa said in awe. Hermione nodded.
"Yes. Harry, Ron and I will be waiting up in the commonroom for our Senshi, so we know that everyone got back all right."
"We'll be back before midnight," Rei assured her and Hermione walked away. Rei sighed.
"So what do we do now?"
"I think," Ryo said, dragging Rei onto his lap. "That we should get some down time in right now and just enjoy each other's company."
Rei grinned. "Why I do believe that's the best idea I've heard all day."
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Minako said, and the map of Hogwarts traced its way onto the parchment. Makoto's eyes widened.
"Whoa," she whispered. Minako nodded.
"Since we're off the Hogwarts campus right now, we're not showing up. But once we are, we'll show up again."
"Okay," Uranus muttered. "Let's go." They set off along the passageway.
"Lumos," was whispered by half a dozen voices at once and the passageway was filled with a soft glow. Minako led the way, monitoring by the glow of Chibiusa's wand if they had shown up on the map. After about forty-five minutes of walking, she smiled.
"We're almost there, we're on the map!"
Chibiusa peered at the piece of parchment. Sure enough, nine dots labelled "Tsukino Usagi", "Aino Minako", "Hino Rei", "Chiba Usagi", "Kino Makoto", "Mizuno Ami", "Sailoruranus", "Sailorneptune" and "Sailorpluto" were inching their way across what looked like the lake and towards Hogwarts. After another ten minutes, the passageway began to curve upwards. A quick glance at the map told them that they were in Hogwarts. Minako wiped the map clean, stuffed it into her robes, and climbed out of the entrance. She turned around, helping each Senshi out in turn. After helping out Usagi, everyone turned around-and found themselves face to face with Severus Snape. He grinned nastily.
"Well, isn't this a surprise."
The girls sat in Snape's office, seeming quite dejected. Who knew what Snape was going to do to them now that he'd caught them sneaking into the school. He might expel them! And then how would they stop the attacks?
He paced his office, glaring at them. Finally he stopped and spoke.
"Sneaking into Hogwarts after hours. Staying behind in Hogsmeade. You've broken quite a few rules." He stopped to see what effect he was having on the girls. They seemed scared enough. He drew himself up to his full eyes, his cold black eyes staring at them.
"Thirty points from each house," he announced finally.
"But Professor Snape, that's not fair!" Usagi suddenly burst out. "We only stayed behind trying to find out something about these attacks! What if it's a teacher that's attacked next?"
Snape's cold stare silenced her, but he sighed.
"Did you find out anything?" he finally asked. Ami sighed.
"We're almost there, Professor."
He sighed again. "You're showing a tremendous loyalty to this school…fifty points to each house. Now go!"
The girls hastened to leave his office. Makoto blinked.
"Did we just escape the office of the meanest teacher in the school with twenty points added to each house?"
"I think we did…" Ami said slowly. "But I'm not entirely sure…"
"Let's just get back to our commonrooms before we get caught by someone who may not be so forgiving, like Professor McGonagall," Minako recommended and everyone dispersed.
Minako, Usagi and Chibiusa entered an unusually quiet Gryffindor commonroom. Hermione ran up to them.
"You got back alright?"
"Yeah," Minako said. "We were fine until we got caught by Snape…"
Hermione gasped. "How many points have we lost?" she asked after a moment. Chibiusa smiled.
"See, that's the strange thing, we're up twenty points."
A collective gasp went up from the other Gryffindors.
"You mean," Ron said slowly. "That Gryffindor is up twenty points after you got caught…by Snape???"
"Don't ask us to explain it," Minako said. "It doesn't make sense to us either. If you'll excuse us, now, we've got to go over what we've learned."
Minako, Usagi and Chibiusa retreated to a corner of the commonroom and began talking things over in Japanese.
"So we're really going to sacrifice all those people?" Usagi whispered. Minako sighed.
"I don't like it anymore than you do, but what else can we do?"
"It took Mamoru to get us to notice the Kisennian flower. It took Luna's love, Kakeru for us to do something about Princess Snow Kaguya. It took Chibiusa for us to act on Badianyu!" Usagi said fiercely. "Is it going to take an entire school of innocent people for us to take care of this youma??"
"What else can we do?" Minako repeated. Usagi sighed and stood.
"We can leave now and do something about this youma ourselves. If it's centred above Hogwarts, we can still do a Sailor Teleport and look around until we find it," she stood, suddenly very senshi-like.
"And I'm going, whether you all come or not!" She ran up the stairs to her dormitory. Minako and Chibiusa sighed.
"We go?" Minako asked, though she already knew the answer.
"We go," Chibiusa confirmed. They ran up to the dormitory as well.
Harry, Hermione and Ron had listened to the argument. Although they could not understand it, they could tell Usagi was agitated. However, it alarmed them when Supersailormoon-not in Hogwarts Robes- came down the stairs followed by Supersailorvenus and Supersailorchibimoon, neither wearing their robes, though they all had their wands. Ron stood.
"You're doing something about the attacks?"
Chibimoon nodded. Ron drew himself up.
"I'm going with you," he said with such a tone of finality that it didn't occur to any of the Senshi to argue. They climbed out of the portrait hole and stood, finally noticing that Harry and Hermione were with them. Supersailormoon sighed.
"You all can't come."
"Why not?" Hermione huffed. "You may need our help!"
Venus sighed and smiled warily.
"She's right, you know."
"Fine," Sailormoon said. "Follow me."
"Where are we going?" Chibimoon asked.
"We're going to the highest tower in this school," Sailormoon said, still walking. Harry tugged on her fuku.
"That would be that way," he said, pointing in another direction. Sailormoon laughed shrilly before letting Harry take the lead.
Moving quickly, they made it to the tower in about ten minutes. They were quite startled to see the other Senshi there. Mercury smiled ruefully.
"None of us could stand the thought either," she said softly.
"We can't let all those people be drained," Jupiter said. "We've got to do something now."
"So it's a Sailor Teleport, then?" Uranus said. Everyone nodded.
"Harry. Ron. Hermione, stand in the middle and for goodness' sake, hold hands and don't let go," Mars told them. They did so and the Senshi joined hands around them.
"Sailor Teleport!" they all yelled at the same time and in a moment, they had teleported from the top of the Hogwarts tower.
"Shimatta!"
Touma leapt from his seat and ran to the lounge of the Three Broomsticks. Rajura looked up.
"What is it?" he asked, seeing the look on Touma's face.
"They've teleported."
Rajura cursed and quickly got to his feet.
"Let's go."
"You guys can look up now," Mars said a little amusedly. Harry, Hermione and Ron looked up and gasped. They were flying!
She looked around at the Senshi, all of whom were focused on the space in front of them. Mercury activated her visor and smiled.
"I'm getting readings. We need to go off to the left…"
She trailed off as a reading caught her eye. She gasped and opened her mouth, but before she could warn them, a blast of energy hit them, making them stagger. She gasped.
"Our shield is being drained! We need to land!"
"Ami-chan!" Venus said. "Is there any chance we can hit them with a Sailor Planet Attack from here?"
"We can try," Mercury responded. Venus nodded.
"Right. Harry, Ron, Hermione, once we do the attack, grab hold of a Senshi. Ready!"
"OK!" Everyone chorused.
"Sailor Planet," Venus started, increasing their speed. A vast plain of glittering crystal stretched out before them.
"Attack!" all the Senshi chorused and they hit the crystal dead on. Their shield broke and the Senshi landed, Uranus, Pluto and Jupiter each with a Hogwarts student in their arms. Jupiter set Harry down and looked around.
It was eerily beautiful. They could see a crystalline structure rising into the black sky off in the distance. Mercury scanned her readings.
"I'm getting magical energy signatures from there," she announced.
Jupiter smiled grimly. "Then that's the way we go," she said.
"First rule of defence," a harsh voice called out behind them. "Watch your back!"
They turned to see Rajura, fully transformed into his armour of illusion, standing there. Beside him were the Samurai Troopers and Gohan, all looking very grim. Seiji grinned ruefully.
"So much for our plan."
"You know good as well as we do that we can't let all those people get hurt!" Sailormoon called out. They could almost see Rajura's grin.
"Of course not," he said, amusement highly evident in his voice. He may have defected, but he was as much Shogun as ever. "Since we're here, we might as well get this done and over with before someone else gets hurt."
No amusement this time. Mercury nodded and turned to the Crystal Tower.
"There! That's where we need to go."
They set off towards the tower, each alone with their own thoughts. There was no time for conversation now. Mercury had out her computer as well and was analysing the readings she was receiving, Touma looking over her shoulder. The two of them gasped and each dived for a different student as two blasts of energy came crashing down. Touma had gotten Ron and Hermione, Mercury Harry. Gohan ran over to Mercury, who was now wincing in pain.
"Daijoubu ka?" he asked worriedly.
"My ankle," she gasped. Touma bent over her and examined it. It was a bad twist, it was already starting to swell.
"There's no way you're fighting on this," he announced.
"I'm staying here with her. You guys go on ahead."
"But-" Shou started to protest, but a hard look from Touma quieted him. It wasn't good to cross Touma when he was being protective of Ami. Rajura understood and nodded.
"We'll be back," he said softly and nodded to the others who hesitantly followed him.
This was trouble. Already down one Trooper and Senshi. With three innocents to protect and an entire school riding on their success with a youma they knew nothing about. Things were definitely looking grim.
A/N
I'm not sure how many chapters there will be, but they're going to be very fast moving. Don't worry, everything will be resolved, I have a habit of tying up loose ends…and in the process creating all new ones, only to be answered in the next fic! Hee Hee! Read on, I'll have the next chapter up soon!