Beginning of the End
Authors: Starchild and Saavik
Chapter Twenty-Three: Leaving on a Jet Plane
***Disclaimer*** See Chapter Seven.
When you see // ..// it means the person is thinking and not talking.
********************
The American students started down the jet way and stopped at the bottom.
"So where are the people to meet us? I thought they were supposed to be here when we landed." A tall African American girl muttered. Her companion, a small chubby boy with bright cheerful eyes nodded his agreement.
At the same time-
Cat and Snape arrived outside the terminal. "Wow. Who knew so many wizards flew overseas? Cat looked around her at all the robes and owls in cages riding around the luggage area.
"This is on the wizard side of the barrier. Of course all you see is wizards."
Cat shook her head. "I thought Heathrow was much larger then this?"
"Heathrow is. This is terminal 7 4/5ths. Did you expect wizards to spend that long with the muggles? And those ......flight.....people." Snape shuttered.
Cat looked amused. "Try the food sometime."
Snape took note of a large contingent of mingling youths. "I believe we have found them."
"Hum? Oh yeah the kids." Just then a loud voice reached them over the crowd.
"Hodji, calm down!"
Cat looked up to see Dan hanging from the legs of flying oriental. Nicolai was off to one side trying to ignore the happenings.
"One of yours I presume?" Snape raised an eyebrow condescendingly.
"All the seats.....bolted.....so negative." The small child was hovering about four feet off the ground and rocking back and fourth. Snape noticed he wasn't using a broom or carpet and there wasn't a wand in sight. "Can't make it work.......all the plastic and those colors!"
"Hodji, you can redecorate when we get to the school." Dan sounded exasperated.
Hodji sniffled. "Really?"
"Yes really. Now will you come down? People are staring."
Hodji took another look around and saw his teacher. He came down until he was just barely a foot off the floor. "Ms. J! Oh Ms. J. it was terrible. They had everything bolted down and I couldn't move it and Dan was yelling at me and I couldn't MOVE ANYTHING!"
"Oh Hodji, you couldn't last a few hours?"
"That was not a few hours Ms. J. That was an eternity. Why couldn't we just apparate like you did to get here?"
"I didn't apparate Hodji, Headmaster Dumbledore did. And you can't apparate straight across an ocean. We had to hop around from ship to ship under an invisibility charm. It was very tiring. Besides, according to British wizarding law the lot of you are to young to have apparatition licenses. That means you can't apperate here like at home. Just like Armstrongs, Hogwarts has an anti-appertition barrier. But this one works." Several of the students cringed.
"Legally apparate." One of the students mouthed off from the back of the group.
"Don't get any ideas Celestia. You are going to behave yourselves here, understood."
Several of the Americans nodded. Snape noted that quite a few fingers where crossed behind backs. "We are do back at Hogwarts Ms. Jackson." Snape placed his best sneer on his face and waited none to patiently.
"Hang on Professor. Let me introduce every........later." Snape's glare had intensified. "Okay everybody we're taking a portkey to Hogsmead to get to the school." Snape reached into his robes and pulled out a length of robe. Dan snickered. The fourteen students and two adults all grabbed a hold of the robe.
"Sedulus Itinera" The group whirled away and landed in a heap near the Hogsmead train station.
"Sir, I thought portkeys didn't need a spell?" One of a set of triplets asked in a rather too confident voice for Snape. He was reminded of the Granger child.
"They are normally charmed to activate at a specific time or when touched. This one was charmed to be activated only by a spell. That way if there was a problem a differing number could have traveled here safely, normal portkeys are number specific." Snape purposefully pushed the example from fourth year that proved his statement wrong out of his mind.
The girl nodded then spoke again. "Why didn't we go straight into the school?"
Snape was developing a headache. "After certain events two years ago it was necessary to change the school wards to block all forms of travel other than the carriages and your feet. Follow me." Snape started for the carriages only to be stopped by a loud demanding voice.
"But what about all our stuff!" A rather indignant girl with manicured nails and a very expensive set of robes huffed.
"The house-elves will get them Cassandra." Cat stopped walking as a thought stuck her. "How many bags did you bring just out of curiosity?"
"Only what I need to survive in this god for saken backwater."
Cat closed her eyes. "How. many. bags. did. you. bring."
"Under a dozen. You said pack lite." The whole group paused. "What?"
Zack spoke first. "A dozen is not lite unless you're packing for a trip to MARS!"
"I hardly think you would understand my needs. I have an image to maintain."
"Yeah, the image of a fuc....."
"ZACK!" Zack closed his mouth.
"Yes Ms. J."
"Everyone in the carriages now. I'll deal with you later Cassandra."
The group meekly clamored into the horseless carriages and road towards the school. After the usual murmurs of wonderment upon the first sight of the castle, and on Cassandra's part indignation at the rustic buildings, died away the group wordlessly entered the great hall. They came to a halt in the entryway below the main staircase and Snape summed a few house-elves.
"You will go to Terminal 7 and 4/5ths and collect the luggage marked for Hogwarts." Cassandra flagged one of the elves over before they could disappear. She tossed the creature a set of keys. "Don't scratch the paint."
"Yes mistress, Dobby no scratch paint. Which paint?" Dobby looked at the keys with slight wonderment.
"The paint on my black jaguar. Mother wouldn't let me bring the limo."
Snape paused and rolled his eyes. "You paid to fly a car over here?"
"Of course. I just got my license and I am not going to wait to use it."
"You don't have a British license."
Cassandra looked taken aback for a moment. "Well, I'll just have to get one then."
Just then Harry and Neville came around the corner just in time to see Dan start for the stairs.
"Oh my GOD! Look at the stairs!" The brown haired boy made straight for the longest banister in sight. He ran up the thirteen flights and then proceeded to slide down the banisters. He reached the bottom and flew right into McGonagall.
"Young man, get off of me."
"Sorry Mrs....."
"PROFESOR MCGONAGALL!"
"Ah, yeah. Sorry professor."
Cat snickered and proceeded to introduce everyone.
After a rather long series of introductions, the staff was ecstatic to meet the new children, Cat addressed the group. "Alright kids, lets set the ground rules. You are to follow all instructions given by a staff member or ghost. Excluding the poltergeist. Understood?" A round of collective nods met her comments. "Great. Now until you're sorted at the start of the semester you'll be in the guest quarters. Don't get use to it. You'll be sleeping communally after the first. Dan stop that, boys in one dorm, girls another. Hodji leave Darrion alone. NO SEX!" Flitwick fell out of his chair. "At least be respectful of your dorm mates and find an unoccupied corner somewhere. Don't forget silencing charms. I don't EVER want to hear those noises again. Ugh." Several of the Americans laughed. Harry looked slightly green. Neville blinked. "Okay, go to bed, ALONE!" Hodji looked dejected. "Harry, Neville, please show them where to go. I need a drink."
Albus simply beamed as the new recruits where marched off to their rooms. Cat turned to look at Snape. "I almost wish they hadn't come here. Life was so much quieter...."
Snape nodded. Cat sat down and banged her head on the table. "I only hope they don't..."
A loud bang interrupted her and a shout floated down the hall. "They have armor! Oh goody."
"Oh God no. Please wait till the semester starts, please wait till the semester starts, please wait.."
"Wait to do what?" Snape was dreading the answer.
"You'll see when they do it. Albus, I warned you about this. I give you a week till you send them to Canada. This group was the worst of the lot at Armstrong's. They were always in trouble. The triplets couldn't get through a week without a prank, Hodji rearranges every room in the building twice a day, Zack will undermine the authority of God given enough time..you asked for it." Albus was simply smiling.
Cat looked back to Snape. "I get the impression you're the only sane one here." Minerva huffed and glared. Cat looked at her and grimaced. "I've already got enemies." Snape looked back at Minerva and noticed her glare at Cat. He suddenly got an idea.
"Care to retire to my rooms for a drink." Snape asked loud enough for the matron to hear. Cat grew suspicious until Snape nodded in Minerva's direction. When Cat saw the surprise and obvious ill will directed at the potions master from the head of Gryffindor she smiled.
"Of course Severus. I'd love to see your rooms again. I'm getting quite attached to them. Lovely furnishing really, where did you get them?"
Snape gave a dark chuckle and let Cat take his arm. "You'll just have to keep coming back to find out."
Minerva spit out her tea and Flitwick lost his seat again. Albus simply twinkled. Snape and Cat stayed touching till they reached the start of the dungeons when Snape threw her arm off.
"Don't I even get the drink? I think her reaction was rather worth it."
"You didn't have to imply you'd seen my rooms before...intimately." Snape was fuming.
"Oh, but the little guy fell down again. I had to do it, you left the door wide open." Cat smiled and Snape sighed.
"You young lady would have done well as a Deatheaters wife. You've the maniacal streak." Cat cringed. "What is it?"
"I..lets say I wouldn't make that good of a wife. Been there, done that." Snape's eyes grew dark in question. "Can I just get that drink?" Cat wrapped her arms tight around herself and shivered. Snape nodded and led the way. He would find out later, he promised himself.
Cat walked into his rooms and looked around. "Nice. Love the books. WOW! Is that one of those 3D chess sets from Star Trek. I love those. Can you teach me to play?"
Snape shrugged and brought out the glasses. //At least she made Minerva upset. Get her drunk and ...no. That would be bad. I hate my conscious. Damn thing. Can't have any fun.//
A/N: Sorry for the wait. I have more done but I don't have a floppy drive at the moment. Don't ask. Oh, we have a note from Starchild now! Yeah. She wrote most of this chapter so cheer her or flame her, not me.
LL&P
Saavik
From Starchild:
Thank You for reading all of this so far. Please forgive us for taking so long this time!!! I swear I am done having babies, my life is now dedicated to writing fanfics. I will never wander down that long tunnel again, I promise! Now stop throwing things at us, it really doesn't help our typing skills. Oh yes and thank god we finally have a BETA. **happy dance** We love our beta, life is so nice yeah yeah beta yeah yeah**end of dance** anyway..uhm.. humor us and r/r we like to read them, heck even a flame would make us chipper. Sometimes we just need to know that someone does read this stuff, and we aren't just putting it out there for no one. It's so lonely in cyberspace*sniff sniff*.
ok luv ya bye bye
And Thanks to all our new reviewers. I'll thank you properly later. I have to go write.
Saavik, LL&P
Authors: Starchild and Saavik
Chapter Twenty-Three: Leaving on a Jet Plane
***Disclaimer*** See Chapter Seven.
When you see // ..// it means the person is thinking and not talking.
********************
The American students started down the jet way and stopped at the bottom.
"So where are the people to meet us? I thought they were supposed to be here when we landed." A tall African American girl muttered. Her companion, a small chubby boy with bright cheerful eyes nodded his agreement.
At the same time-
Cat and Snape arrived outside the terminal. "Wow. Who knew so many wizards flew overseas? Cat looked around her at all the robes and owls in cages riding around the luggage area.
"This is on the wizard side of the barrier. Of course all you see is wizards."
Cat shook her head. "I thought Heathrow was much larger then this?"
"Heathrow is. This is terminal 7 4/5ths. Did you expect wizards to spend that long with the muggles? And those ......flight.....people." Snape shuttered.
Cat looked amused. "Try the food sometime."
Snape took note of a large contingent of mingling youths. "I believe we have found them."
"Hum? Oh yeah the kids." Just then a loud voice reached them over the crowd.
"Hodji, calm down!"
Cat looked up to see Dan hanging from the legs of flying oriental. Nicolai was off to one side trying to ignore the happenings.
"One of yours I presume?" Snape raised an eyebrow condescendingly.
"All the seats.....bolted.....so negative." The small child was hovering about four feet off the ground and rocking back and fourth. Snape noticed he wasn't using a broom or carpet and there wasn't a wand in sight. "Can't make it work.......all the plastic and those colors!"
"Hodji, you can redecorate when we get to the school." Dan sounded exasperated.
Hodji sniffled. "Really?"
"Yes really. Now will you come down? People are staring."
Hodji took another look around and saw his teacher. He came down until he was just barely a foot off the floor. "Ms. J! Oh Ms. J. it was terrible. They had everything bolted down and I couldn't move it and Dan was yelling at me and I couldn't MOVE ANYTHING!"
"Oh Hodji, you couldn't last a few hours?"
"That was not a few hours Ms. J. That was an eternity. Why couldn't we just apparate like you did to get here?"
"I didn't apparate Hodji, Headmaster Dumbledore did. And you can't apparate straight across an ocean. We had to hop around from ship to ship under an invisibility charm. It was very tiring. Besides, according to British wizarding law the lot of you are to young to have apparatition licenses. That means you can't apperate here like at home. Just like Armstrongs, Hogwarts has an anti-appertition barrier. But this one works." Several of the students cringed.
"Legally apparate." One of the students mouthed off from the back of the group.
"Don't get any ideas Celestia. You are going to behave yourselves here, understood."
Several of the Americans nodded. Snape noted that quite a few fingers where crossed behind backs. "We are do back at Hogwarts Ms. Jackson." Snape placed his best sneer on his face and waited none to patiently.
"Hang on Professor. Let me introduce every........later." Snape's glare had intensified. "Okay everybody we're taking a portkey to Hogsmead to get to the school." Snape reached into his robes and pulled out a length of robe. Dan snickered. The fourteen students and two adults all grabbed a hold of the robe.
"Sedulus Itinera" The group whirled away and landed in a heap near the Hogsmead train station.
"Sir, I thought portkeys didn't need a spell?" One of a set of triplets asked in a rather too confident voice for Snape. He was reminded of the Granger child.
"They are normally charmed to activate at a specific time or when touched. This one was charmed to be activated only by a spell. That way if there was a problem a differing number could have traveled here safely, normal portkeys are number specific." Snape purposefully pushed the example from fourth year that proved his statement wrong out of his mind.
The girl nodded then spoke again. "Why didn't we go straight into the school?"
Snape was developing a headache. "After certain events two years ago it was necessary to change the school wards to block all forms of travel other than the carriages and your feet. Follow me." Snape started for the carriages only to be stopped by a loud demanding voice.
"But what about all our stuff!" A rather indignant girl with manicured nails and a very expensive set of robes huffed.
"The house-elves will get them Cassandra." Cat stopped walking as a thought stuck her. "How many bags did you bring just out of curiosity?"
"Only what I need to survive in this god for saken backwater."
Cat closed her eyes. "How. many. bags. did. you. bring."
"Under a dozen. You said pack lite." The whole group paused. "What?"
Zack spoke first. "A dozen is not lite unless you're packing for a trip to MARS!"
"I hardly think you would understand my needs. I have an image to maintain."
"Yeah, the image of a fuc....."
"ZACK!" Zack closed his mouth.
"Yes Ms. J."
"Everyone in the carriages now. I'll deal with you later Cassandra."
The group meekly clamored into the horseless carriages and road towards the school. After the usual murmurs of wonderment upon the first sight of the castle, and on Cassandra's part indignation at the rustic buildings, died away the group wordlessly entered the great hall. They came to a halt in the entryway below the main staircase and Snape summed a few house-elves.
"You will go to Terminal 7 and 4/5ths and collect the luggage marked for Hogwarts." Cassandra flagged one of the elves over before they could disappear. She tossed the creature a set of keys. "Don't scratch the paint."
"Yes mistress, Dobby no scratch paint. Which paint?" Dobby looked at the keys with slight wonderment.
"The paint on my black jaguar. Mother wouldn't let me bring the limo."
Snape paused and rolled his eyes. "You paid to fly a car over here?"
"Of course. I just got my license and I am not going to wait to use it."
"You don't have a British license."
Cassandra looked taken aback for a moment. "Well, I'll just have to get one then."
Just then Harry and Neville came around the corner just in time to see Dan start for the stairs.
"Oh my GOD! Look at the stairs!" The brown haired boy made straight for the longest banister in sight. He ran up the thirteen flights and then proceeded to slide down the banisters. He reached the bottom and flew right into McGonagall.
"Young man, get off of me."
"Sorry Mrs....."
"PROFESOR MCGONAGALL!"
"Ah, yeah. Sorry professor."
Cat snickered and proceeded to introduce everyone.
After a rather long series of introductions, the staff was ecstatic to meet the new children, Cat addressed the group. "Alright kids, lets set the ground rules. You are to follow all instructions given by a staff member or ghost. Excluding the poltergeist. Understood?" A round of collective nods met her comments. "Great. Now until you're sorted at the start of the semester you'll be in the guest quarters. Don't get use to it. You'll be sleeping communally after the first. Dan stop that, boys in one dorm, girls another. Hodji leave Darrion alone. NO SEX!" Flitwick fell out of his chair. "At least be respectful of your dorm mates and find an unoccupied corner somewhere. Don't forget silencing charms. I don't EVER want to hear those noises again. Ugh." Several of the Americans laughed. Harry looked slightly green. Neville blinked. "Okay, go to bed, ALONE!" Hodji looked dejected. "Harry, Neville, please show them where to go. I need a drink."
Albus simply beamed as the new recruits where marched off to their rooms. Cat turned to look at Snape. "I almost wish they hadn't come here. Life was so much quieter...."
Snape nodded. Cat sat down and banged her head on the table. "I only hope they don't..."
A loud bang interrupted her and a shout floated down the hall. "They have armor! Oh goody."
"Oh God no. Please wait till the semester starts, please wait till the semester starts, please wait.."
"Wait to do what?" Snape was dreading the answer.
"You'll see when they do it. Albus, I warned you about this. I give you a week till you send them to Canada. This group was the worst of the lot at Armstrong's. They were always in trouble. The triplets couldn't get through a week without a prank, Hodji rearranges every room in the building twice a day, Zack will undermine the authority of God given enough time..you asked for it." Albus was simply smiling.
Cat looked back to Snape. "I get the impression you're the only sane one here." Minerva huffed and glared. Cat looked at her and grimaced. "I've already got enemies." Snape looked back at Minerva and noticed her glare at Cat. He suddenly got an idea.
"Care to retire to my rooms for a drink." Snape asked loud enough for the matron to hear. Cat grew suspicious until Snape nodded in Minerva's direction. When Cat saw the surprise and obvious ill will directed at the potions master from the head of Gryffindor she smiled.
"Of course Severus. I'd love to see your rooms again. I'm getting quite attached to them. Lovely furnishing really, where did you get them?"
Snape gave a dark chuckle and let Cat take his arm. "You'll just have to keep coming back to find out."
Minerva spit out her tea and Flitwick lost his seat again. Albus simply twinkled. Snape and Cat stayed touching till they reached the start of the dungeons when Snape threw her arm off.
"Don't I even get the drink? I think her reaction was rather worth it."
"You didn't have to imply you'd seen my rooms before...intimately." Snape was fuming.
"Oh, but the little guy fell down again. I had to do it, you left the door wide open." Cat smiled and Snape sighed.
"You young lady would have done well as a Deatheaters wife. You've the maniacal streak." Cat cringed. "What is it?"
"I..lets say I wouldn't make that good of a wife. Been there, done that." Snape's eyes grew dark in question. "Can I just get that drink?" Cat wrapped her arms tight around herself and shivered. Snape nodded and led the way. He would find out later, he promised himself.
Cat walked into his rooms and looked around. "Nice. Love the books. WOW! Is that one of those 3D chess sets from Star Trek. I love those. Can you teach me to play?"
Snape shrugged and brought out the glasses. //At least she made Minerva upset. Get her drunk and ...no. That would be bad. I hate my conscious. Damn thing. Can't have any fun.//
A/N: Sorry for the wait. I have more done but I don't have a floppy drive at the moment. Don't ask. Oh, we have a note from Starchild now! Yeah. She wrote most of this chapter so cheer her or flame her, not me.
LL&P
Saavik
From Starchild:
Thank You for reading all of this so far. Please forgive us for taking so long this time!!! I swear I am done having babies, my life is now dedicated to writing fanfics. I will never wander down that long tunnel again, I promise! Now stop throwing things at us, it really doesn't help our typing skills. Oh yes and thank god we finally have a BETA. **happy dance** We love our beta, life is so nice yeah yeah beta yeah yeah**end of dance** anyway..uhm.. humor us and r/r we like to read them, heck even a flame would make us chipper. Sometimes we just need to know that someone does read this stuff, and we aren't just putting it out there for no one. It's so lonely in cyberspace*sniff sniff*.
ok luv ya bye bye
And Thanks to all our new reviewers. I'll thank you properly later. I have to go write.
Saavik, LL&P