Chapter 19: Rescue and Good Malfoy
I woke up not to the bright sunlight on my eyes, but a loud tapping at our window. Sitting up, I noticed that Trunks was staring out the window, also on all fours.
"It's Ron!" I hissed under my breath and raced over to the window. Although I'd been expecting him to arrive by the flying car, even I couldn't help but stare at it. I opened the window and smirked as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Well, aren't you three just the peeping Toms."
"Nah, we aren't Toms," Fred said jokingly, "He's Tom." He pointed to Tom, who was still asleep.
"Wake them up, Trunks," I said, pointing to Harry and Tom, who were both still asleep. "I'll take care of the window. You guys raise the car out of the way." The car floated up out of sight and I whispered hoarsely the name of my attack on the window. "Ka...me...ha...me...ha!" Golden light shot from my fingertips as I shot the ki at the window, dissolving it immediately. Ron and Fred jumped through a moment later and I led them quickly but quietly down the stairs to our things. I popped out some Capsules and put everything in them, pocketing everything. We went back upstairs, careful of the creaky step.
I put Hedwig and Penny in the back seat of the car and stepped through myself. I think we were lucky that Mr. Weasley had bewitched the car to make it larger, because we barely fit all the same.
We let Hedwig and Penny out to fly around, while those of us in the car discussed things. Since Ron already knew about Dobby from Hermione, he didn't need to know about that, but he was guffawing loudly as I told him about the Removal Charm I'd used on Vernon Dursley.
"You seriously removed his hair?!" Fred chortled from the front seat.
"Yup! And you should've seen his face before that stupid owl from the Ministry arrived," I said, smirking and looking worried at the same time. "I wish we weren't underage wizards. Really, some things."
"You shouldn't have lost your temper," Trunks pointed out.
"He was making fun of me!" I stuck my tongue out at Trunks and received a round of laughter at my childish behavior.
"At least you're using your rights," Tom pointed out. (It's 1991, peeps! Women first got their rights five years ago, that's where that comment came from. You wanna know how I knew? Look in the third book at Nick's deathday cake and do the math. 1492, he's 500 years dead, it's Harry's third year.)
"Hey, it was 2002 where I came from!" I said unintentionally.
"Seriously?" George asked us from the front.
"Yeah," I said, "And it was only in the hundreds in Trunks' dimension. A completely different Earth from mine or yours."
"This one is ours now, Angel," Trunks pointed out. "We really did have lives before all this in this dimension."
"I guess so," I sighed. "But Mary Grandler didn't do much of a change, did she?"
"I'm afraid she's done a lot more than you give her credit for," Ron told me seriously. "I looked her up. Before she died, she was one of the top students in her class. She was about to become the first lady Minister of Magic before she died. And, I found out something else. She didn't die giving birth to you guys."
"She didn't?" I asked, dazed already by the information he had spoken of.
"She was also murdered by Voldemort. Shin escaped before he could kill you guys or him," Ron looked downward.
"Dirken nearly finished us off," I growled. "So, my mum was a little more famous than Shin told me. Can't say he didn't mean well, though, but I wish he'd told me before." Trunks put a hand on my shoulder and I smiled up at him. "Guess we can't be too mad at him, though. Shin, I mean, not Dirken."
The ride in the car was long and quiet, as most of the people within had gone to sleep. Well, with the exception of Fred and I.
"Hey, Fred," I said softly, as to not wake Trunks, who had his arms around my waist loosely and was laying his own head on my shoulder.
"Yeah, Angel?" he said quietly, also to not wake anyone up.
"What did it feel like?" I asked, knowing I was being a little impertinent. "To re-grow your bones, I mean."
"Painful," Fred told me, a wide grin on his face. "Kind of like having you or Trunks punching my leg for a week straight."
"Ouch, that would break a lot more than just your bones," I said with a grimace. "We've yet to show our true powers at all, Fred. Sure, you've seen two of my attacks, but that's all. And I guess you could say that I've inherited Vegeta's smirk." I smirked at him just to spite him.
"If I ever met this Vegeta guy, I'd probably be beaten to a pulp the way you go on about him," Fred said, a feverish flush over his face.
"Yeah, Veggie's pretty stone-cold when it comes to meeting new people. If it wasn't for the fact that I was dying before I actually met him, he would've probably been so mean to me," I grinned furtively. "But not him, nah. He knows what it's like to die, he does. He's done it...once. In our world, we've got these things called Dragonballs, and we wished him back to life using them."
"And that's when Trunks was born, am I right?" Fred asked, swerving the car a little to get back on course.
"Well, a few years afterward, but yeah, basically," I shrugged a little, though careful to not raise my shoulders too much and wake up my black-haired boyfriend. "One thing I used to always say: You hurt the one you love." I laughed nervously as I looked at Trunks. "The first thing Trunks did to me when we started our training was trick me into thinking he was hurt when I punched him and then pulling me into the stream. Still haven't gotten my revenge on that one. Gotta find a way." I looked at him and winked up at Fred before laughing nervously.
We got to the Burrow as the first light began to rise over the hills. I shook Trunks, Tom, and Ron awake and Fred woke George and Harry.
"Touchdown!" Fred, George, and I shouted in unison and we grinned as the four of us stared up at the house that seemed to be held up by magic. It looked like it had once been a stone cottage but it had had so many different things added on here and there that it was now several stories high and was looking quite top-heavy.
Several fat chickens were running about the enormous yard. A lopsided sign proclaimed what I already knew to be the Burrow, but I took in the scene for the first time in awe. It was the first time I'd ever seen it in real life and it looked nothing like I'd imagined it.
"Wow," was all I could manage as I stared up at the house, barely containing my powerful awe.
"Charlie's here, of course, but he doesn't have a clue we took the car," Fred told us, "And neither does anyone else. So, when Mum calls us down for breakfast, Ron, you'll be like 'Hey, mum, look who turned up in the night!' and no one will be the wiser that we took the car."
"Okay," Ron said, "Come on, guys, I sleep at the--at the top..." He really had gone this strange shade of green as Mrs. Weasley came out of the house, looking very angry.
I closed up my ears, preparing for the shouting that I knew would hurt my ears if I listened to it.
I still heard her muffled shouts every once in the while.
"Out of my mind with worry...could've died...his job...had any trouble...Charlie or Percy..." You get the idea. When she had stopped to take a breath, I opened my ears once again, hearing them ringing slightly. Trunks, Tom, and Harry all looked very dazed at the whole thing, but Fred, George, and Ron were cowering under their short, plump mother's quiet, seething rage.
"I'm very glad to see you, dears," she said, turning to us, "Come inside and have some breakfast." I blinked at her, then followed, glancing nervously back at Ron, George, and Fred. They gestured for us to follow her and I did so, holding onto Trunks' arm uneasily.
"Oh, Angel, I don't blame you, dear," she told me as I sat on the edge of my seat, Trunks next to me. "I was worried about you too. And you brother, Trunks, and Harry." She looked at my boyfriend curiously as she tipped several sausages onto both our plates.
"Ron, didn't you say that Trunks had lavender hair?" she asked her youngest son.
"We had it changed," I explained nervously. "We couldn't really have a lavender-haired boy in this world, it would look too strange. Though I do miss it." I hugged Trunks arm tightly again before releasing him to eat the wonderful meal Mrs. Weasley had made.
"Well, despite that," she said as she flicked her wand casually to clean the dishes in the sink. "But really, flying an illegal car halfway across the country."
"At least we weren't in America, right?" I asked, trying to make a joke out of it.
"Yes, there is that fact," she said, smiling a little at me. "But really, I still can't believe you three, flying that-"
"It was cloudy, Mum!" Fred protested.
"And they were starving them!" George put in.
"They were," I said with a small shrug. I still didn't want them to get in trouble for coming to get us. "Please don't be too angry with them, Mrs. Weasley, there are worse things. They'll be in danger of death this year, you don't-"
Oops.
"Death?!" Mrs. Weasley said sharply.
"Heh heh....oops," I said, blushing. "I guess I'm not the only one with a slippery tongue."
"What do you mean by death?" George inquired, but we were diverted from the subject as Ginny came in and gave a squeal before racing back up the stairs. The subject was dropped and I breathed a small sigh of relief as Charlie came into the room.
"Well, well, what've we here?" he asked as he slid into one of the remaining chairs. "What'd you guys do, fly here?"
"In a way," I said, glancing at Fred, George, and Ron as they turned as red as their hair.
"They flew that car of your father's out to Privet Drive and got them," Mrs. Weasley retorted. "And what do you mean by flying here? Surely you don't think they'd fly here on their brooms." Clearly, they hadn't explained some of my latter abilities to Mrs. Weasley.
"Um...no," Charlie told his mother. "Angel and Trunks can fly."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Fly, as in, no brooms, no machines, they can just...fly," Charlie explained, not doing a very good job at it.
"What he means is this," I said, rising from my chair and into the air. Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened quite a bit as I sank back into my chair.
"They didn't tell you?" Tom said, speaking for the first time since we'd entered the kitchen.
"No, my sons have been known to keep certain information from me," Mrs. Weasley said, glaring pointedly at her sons.
"At least they told you that I existed, right?" I asked jokingly.
"You seem to find this quite funny," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Well, yeah," I told her. "There aren't many things I can find funny lately. So I make do with what I can." I shrugged. She seemed confused on this point before nodding and letting the subject go.
"Blimey, I'm tired," Fred said as he stood up, "I think I'll go up to bed and-"
"No you will not," Mrs. Weasley told him, "You're going to de-gnome the garden for me. You two as well." She glared at Ron and George.
"We'll help," I said, excitedly, "I want to see these little guys." Harry, Tom, and Trunks were also quite curious and came out with us. Charlie came as well, wanting to know further information on what it was like in the car or something in that area.
We had a lot of fun throwing the short, potato-headed gnomes out into the field, making them dizzy by swinging them over our heads. Trunks and I got our gnomes to go the furthest, of course and I think Fred and George were slightly jealous because of it.
We heard a door slam and raced into the house to greet Mr. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley didn't get all hot-headed over the car, to which I was extremely glad. (I'm trying to get to Hogwarts a little faster this time, can you notice?)
"Arthur, may I introduce our guests?" she asked him tersely, as though she were dying to tell him off about the car but was taking to my wishes about it.
"Guests?" he questioned, then looked over her shoulder. "Well, well, who might we have here?"
"Dad, this is Harry Potter, Angel and Tom Galis, and Trunks Briefs," Ron said proudly.
"Well, this is a treat, isn't it?" he said, shaking each of our hands heartily. When he got to my hand, however, he received a very nasty wake-up call, as I had forgotten to put my tail back around my waist. (I'm gonna leave that one to imagination ^-^;;)
Once he'd gotten over his shock, there was the problem of putting us somewhere. In the end, all four of us ended up sleeping in Ron's room, once it was cleaned up, which Ron, Fred, and George had to contend with.
When the seven of us entered Ron's room, it really was like entering an inferno of orange.
"Wow," I said, looking around, "Cool room, Ron, really." His ears turned pink and we all had a good laugh as we began to clean the room up.
***
(Okay, guys, I know this sounds really stupid, but I want to get to third year as quick as I can, so second year is going to be kinda short.)
Our letters arrived the next week, as did letters from Hermione, Jupiter, and Susan. We went to Diagon Alley by way of the car and I smiled as we caught up with Hermione and Susan in Gringotts.
"Hey! Hermione!" I shouted happily. "How's my favorite Animagus?" I whispered to her, giggling slightly.
"I dunno," she shrugged, throwing an arm around my shoulder as I threw my other arm around Susan.
"Well, the nekos are back together!" Susan said, grinning. "I took a Japanese course over the summer, Angel, it was so much fun!"
"Cool," I said, grinning.
"Angel!" I heard a shout ring out in the hall and I turned to see Bill running up to me, completely out of breath.
"Bill, what on Earth-" I started. He interrupted me before I could finish.
"Angel, look at the charts!" He thrust a bit of parchment into my hands and I looked at them curiously. Several stars made out a D still, but added on, there was a J and a V as well. A small P was making its way toward it as well. On the opposite side, there was an A and an H, both the same size, with several other stars beside it.
"Wow," I said softly. "The stars are predicting this! Look, here's Voldemort, Dirken, Juu, and then there's me and Harry...and Trunks, Ron, Hermione, Jupiter, Susan, Fred, and George...but what's this?" An enormous B stood in the middle, surrounded by several twisting stars.
"That's just it, Angel, I don't know," Bill said, his breath caught. "I think it's got a lot to do with what's going on this year." It suddenly dawned on me. The Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk, and Tom Riddle.
"I don't know either..." I said, my voice trailing off.
"I've got to get back down to Egypt, Angel, but I just wanted to let you know," Bill explained. "See ya later." He tipped his khaki hat to me and Apparated back to Egypt. I rolled the map up carefully and tucked it into my pack cautiously.
"Come on, Trunks, Tom, we've got to get our money," I told them. "Harry, want to come with us?"
"Sure, Angel," he said and we followed a goblin named Griphook into a cart. The cart went quickly throughout the dark tunnels and stopped in front of our vault. We climbed out and I was surprised to see it was much fuller than the last time I'd seen it. I scooped up three bags full of the coins and then we set out for Harry's vault.
When we reemerged into daylight, Harry and Tom were extremely dazed from the speed at which the carts had moved, but I wasn't. Trunks flicked a little of his black hair out of his eyes and we made our way to an ice cream parlor, where we were to wait for the Weasleys, Susan, Hermione, and Jupiter, when she arrived.
I was in for a surprise when Jupiter arrived with Malfoy in tow, Lucius following them quickly behind. And Malfoy was laughing. Harry, Trunks, Tom, and I blinked at the scene in utter disbelief. Even I wasn't expecting to see Malfoy with a smile on his pale face.
Only it wasn't pale. The normally ghostly-white boy had a tan and he was actually looking quite dashing. Mr. Malfoy looked as if he was trying to act like he wasn't with them. I giggled as he whispered in his son's ear and left them with a small bag of money.
"Hey, Angel, lookie who I brought with me," Jupiter told me, laughing at our shocked and disbelieving faces. "I made Malfoy...see reason, I guess you could say. His dad's not happy right now."
"I should say not!" Malfoy told us, a wide smirk on his normally-scowling face. "You should've seen his face when I told him I wasn't going to join his little team when I got older."
"Little team?" I asked inquiringly.
"Don't you know?" he asked, lowering his tone to a whisper so soft we had to lean in to hear him. "He's in league with Voldemort. Jupiter here convinced me what was right and wrong...especially after what her mother did." We all nodded grimly. I looked at the slowly moving map within my grasp and saw another group of stars moving to our side, a D followed by a tiny M. Draco Malfoy.
"Well, I guess that's interesting," I said, observing the map closely.
"Whatcha got there, Angel?" Jupiter asked me.
"Bill Weasley gave it to me," I told her, "He plotted the star courses and let's them move whenever the real ones do. And it's quite odd." I showed her and Malfoy the map and pointed out Dirken and us.
"Wow, that's pretty interesting," Malfoy said, looking at the map intently. "But look here. There's another star up here. It says 'AD' I wonder who it is?"
"Albus Dumbledore," I whispered to myself. "And he'd got his wand right there, look. And there's all the other teachers." Sure enough, Professor McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape, Sinistra (the Astronomy teacher), Madam Hooch, they were all there, even Hagrid, though he couldn't quite be considered a teacher, at least not yet.
"I wonder why the stars are aligning so peculiarly," Malfoy thought aloud, "I mean, even when Voldemort came the last time, there wasn't any warning, not even from him."
"What do you mean?" I asked, "Do you know?"
"Well, that's what father told me," he shrugged and looked slightly uncomfortable.
Ron and the other Weasleys joined us and we began to explain what on Earth Malfoy was doing there. I think Ron was still sort of mad at him, because he tried to stay as far away from him as possible but still remain close to us.
I suggested that we saved the books for last, considering how many books (almost all by a blond wizard named Gilderoy Lockhart) we had to get. Shop after shop we went past, buying what we needed, including, but not limited to, parchment, Potions ingredients, new quills, some new robes for Trunks (he'd outgrown his old ones), and food for Penny and Hedwig.
We stopped outside Flourish and Blotts, a rather large bookstore, and all but I were in for an huge surprise. The sign on the door read "Magical Me by Glideroy Lockhart, book-signing". I gave an inward groan as we were swept into the store by a literal stampede of people attempting to get Lockhart's book and signature.
"Peachy," I grumbled as I forced my way through the crowd, pulling Trunks, Harry, and Tom along with me.
Gilderoy Lockhart, a blond-haired, blue-eyed wizard, whom I knew was a complete fraud, heard me. He looked up. He looked at me with his blue eyes shrewdly...and then he saw Harry.
"It can't be Harry Potter!" he shouted and the crowd parted as he walked quickly forward. His forget-me-not blue robes swirled around him as he looked at Harry with a sort of mirthful gleam in his eyes.
I think Harry had gotten it from me when we were in the halls in the school and someone asked if he was Harry Potter, because he said in a very bold manner.
"Yes, sir, and these are my cousins."
"Cousins?" Lockhart gasped. "This beautiful young lady can't possibly be the time-keeper, Angel Galis, could she?" Obviously, Dumbledore had informed him of my...unique capabilities.
"And Trunks Briefs as well?"
All three of us nodded, dumbstruck. I hadn't expected him to know all that and I really hadn't wanted my identity known in the magical world with the exception of my school.
The crowd whispered around us and many were pointing at me. Some were muttering things like, "I didn't know Potter had a cousin!" or "What's so special about her?". My face burned a maroon fire as Lockhart shook Harry's hand and then moved to mine.
"What makes Angel Galis so special, you ask?" Lockhart called over the crowd.
"Mr. Lockhart, please," Tom hissed at the overly buoyant man.
"Nonsense," Lockhart said with a wave of his hand, "What we have here is the second survivor of the curse that killed so many! You-Know-Who tried to kill this young lady last year and he once again failed! What is it that is so spectacular about the Potter line?"
"Actually, sir, Angel is my cousin by my mother's side, not my father's," Harry pointed out. Lockhart ignored him.
"This is just the time to release some information that I've been sitting on for quite a while," he continued, "I have the great honor and privilege to announce that this September, I will be taking the post as the Defense of Dark Arts class at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry!" The crowd exploded into excited applause as Harry, Trunks, Tom, and I were presented with our Lockhart schoolbooks free of charge.
I rolled my eyes as we walked out of the store, all of us laden down by our schoolbooks, including all the Lockhart books and one copy of the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2. I had given Fred mine and had bought my own set.
"I don't take charity just cause I have a famous cousin," I explained to Fred as I tipped the books into his trunk. Harry had given his to Ginny, saying that she deserved the books more than he did.
At that moment, however, Lucius Malfoy stepped into the shop.
"Well, well, well," Lucius Malfoy said as he stepped over Ginny's cauldron, holding up her copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. "If it isn't Arthur Weasley. Oh, and Angel Galis is with him, what a...pleasant surprise." I noticed the edge of ferocity in his tone and growled in my throat. "What's wrong, little Angel? Does your friend's cat have your tongue?" I growled again, louder, and sounding a good deal like Fluffy.
"Father...father, you might not want to-" Draco Malfoy began but Lucius cut him off.
"Quiet, boy!"
"But father-"
"I said 'quiet'!"
"Malfoy, leave your father be," I told him softly before turning to stare at him pointedly. "If he wants to get hurt so bad, let him continue."
"You?" the man laughed in a gravely sort of way, like a fingernail on a chalkboard. It hurt my ears slightly and I clamped my hands over them. "You, hurt me? I think not, little girl."
"I am not little," I growled as I pulled my hands away from my ears. "Trunks, don't even think about it." Trunks was standing beside me, poised to attack at any moment. He loosened up. "If he continues on, I will deal with him, not you, understood?"
"Yeah, I understand," he said, his eyebrows knitted together in a frown I'd say was a lot like Vegeta's.
"A boyfriend at your age?" Mr. Malfoy said tauntingly. "I'm surprised. You are only twelve, after all."
"You'd be surprised what a bond can do to a person," I growled at him.
"Now, now, Angel, don't get your hair all in a ruff," Mr. Malfoy continued, a sneer quite like his son's on his face.
"Sir...sir, you might not-"
"Quiet, brat!" he shouted at Tom.
"That does it," I said under my breath. "Lilac Petals!" I threw the ki faster than even Trunks could act or react.
The entire store watched as a dozen tiny, lilac-colored bits of light touched places all along Mr. Malfoy's skin, extracting his powers and bringing it back to me.
"Like they said, sir," I told him with a smirk. "You might not want to mess with me." The entire store gaped as I walked out of the store, my books store in my pack.
The Weasleys were all quite impressed with my "brilliant" show. Even Mrs. Weasley was happy to find that man's smirk wiped off his face.
"I've never seen such an awesome show of power!" Mr. Weasley said that evening, "Quite extraordinary, if I do say so myself. Where did you say you learned these powers?"
"Trunks taught me, Vegeta taught him," I told him with a shrug. "Trunks is a lot more powerful than me, but at least Lilac Petals only takes the majority of your energy instead of killing you. If I'd used the Kamehameha or the Gallic Gun attack, Malfoy would be a pile of ashes right now."
Jupiter and Draco Malfoy had come home with us. He looked up at his name and I giggled. "Not you, silly, your father."
"Oh," he said, relief quite evident on his much softer features. "Call me Draco, I think the name Malfoy has been tainted a bit too much."
"Hear, hear!" I cried and the rest of the table chortled merrily. Jupiter slept in Ginny's room and Draco with us in the top room. Ron had gotten used to the blonde's complete turnabout and was being more than kind toward him. I think that our group has just added another to its number.
And that was enough to make up for Pan and Chee, number-wise, but in my heart there was still this tiny little ache that stretched out for them. After all, they had been my sisters, my triplets, and my best friends, if only for a short time.
***