Chapter 4
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"Holy fuck!"
Duo felt that pretty well summed up the whole situation, his feelings, Heero's feelings, and the general atmosphere of the room.
"What the hell kind of stunt are you trying to pull Maxwell? Where the hell are we?" Wufei ranted, more out of habit and stress than actual logic.
"ME?!? You think *I* did this? Are you completely BLIND? I am wearing a SHEET! Heero is in a damn TOWEL! And we are both on a fucking STONE floor and you think I had something to do with this?!? *I* was at home enjoying my god damn *AFTERGLOW* when this bird…"
"Duo. Enough. Shouting certainly isn't going to help matters any," Quatre said diplomatically, looking slightly stressed himself.
Trowa was standing just behind Quatre, having just helped the shorter pilot to his feet. Both were still dusting themselves off after their unceremonious landing on the floor. Trowa looked as if he was trying *not* to enjoy the scene in front of him: minimal white cloth and considerable amounts of red tinged skin. Duo embarrassed was a very rare thing indeed.
Wufei was just to the other side of Quatre, also recovering from his unfavorable landing. He was gaping red-faced at Maxwell for so blatantly broadcasting his recent activities, not that he and Heero's current state of undress hadn't already made it quite obvious.
Heero, himself was in the most interesting predicament. He was caught between the need to stand up and reassert his dignity and the desire to stay more decently covered under Duo and his mound of sheets.
"Ah. Ah-hem. My, this, is an interesting scene isn't it?"
All five heads turned to pinpoint the new voice. All five, despite their highly unusual and unexpected dilemma, looked prepared to fight and kill the moment the first sound had been uttered. That was quite the accomplishment, considering two of the five were in a... compromising state. Dumbledore was impressed.
"I apologize, let me introduce myself. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster here at Hogwarts. I am the one who arranged for you to come here."
"And you think that is supposed to *comfort* us, you old goat?!" Duo shouted from his position on the floor.
"Ah, well, yes, I had thought... Well, never mind. Why don't we find you some clothes? Then I imagine you all have some questions."
"Some?!?"
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Heero was glaring. Not that this was unusual for Heero; he had many different glares. Duo should know, he made sure to cause as many of them as possible. *This* glare, however, was not Duo's fault. This was Heero's don't-even-think-about-messing-with-me-because-I-have-my-finger-so-tight-around-the-trigger-button-that-a-pin-drop-could-make-me-detonate glare. Duo knew to stay far away from *this* glare.
Duo really did not blame Heero one bit as he looked down at the clothes they had been given. Dark grey slacks. *Slacks!* Who the hell wore slacks anymore? Okay, besides Quatre. They also had on white linen shirts and had been given navy pull-over sweater vests to complete the ensemble. He and Heero had both flatly refused.
A pull-over sweater vest? Dear god, just tattoo the word 'tacky' on his forehead and get it over with!
They were all seated back in Dumbledore's office. Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei had never actually left and Heero and Duo had only gone into a small room that joined into the office off from the side.
"I imagine you have some questions, but, if you would, let me try to explain first and maybe I will answer some of them. Since you have all read the letter..."
"Well actually, uh, Mr. Dumbodorf? …"
"Dumbledore."
"Yea, right. Okay, well see me and Heero, we didn't exactly get a chance to *see* the letter…"
"Maxwell! You are saying you opened your package without even knowing who it was from?!!!"
"Okay boys, let's just calm down. Why don't I explain why you are here?"
"That's an excellent idea Professor. " Quatre agreed in his more assertive, executive voice, as the other pilots nodded their agreement.
"We have recently discovered that in your time…"
"Excuse me, sir? Did you just say 'our time'? What time are we in exactly?" Wufei asked in confusion.
"The year is 1997. That would be what is considered, Old Earth Calendar for you boys."
"But how is that possible sir? That would put us just a little over 300 years in the past," Quatre interjected.
"That's correct."
"That's impossible. No one has been able to make time travel possible." Duo countered.
"If you will let me continue, I believe I will answer these questions for you," Dumbledore stated calmly. Heero gave a nod, indicating he should continue, and Dumbledore watched as each of the pilots chose to follow his lead and wait to hear the headmaster's explanations.
"As I was saying we have recently discovered that in your time magic has become virtually non-existent."
"Did he just say…"
"Shut up, Duo," Heero ordered quietly but firmly.
"Yes, magic. Each of you has displayed magical abilities, only no one was there to discover you or instruct you. We have brought you here to fix that and hopefully ensure that magic has a more prosperous future. You were, in fact, brought here by a form of magic."
"You have *got* to be shitting me," Duo stated with complete and total disbelief.
"Take a look in your hand there."
Duo looked down to his hand where he was still holding the small figurine from that package. It was a black shiny, sleek panther. Smooth fur glossed over well defined muscle in surprising detail. From its back sprouted two leathery bat wings, also black but not as shiny as the fur. Duo was simply floored by the realism of the tiny object. Then that object turned its head to look at him.
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The Weasley house was never quiet. Voices echoed off the walls and floors of the magical household constantly. Bangs, bumps, and explosions were hardly rare. Smells of something mouthwatering drifted from the kitchen at any given time. Family members shuffled from room to room. Siblings argued and bickered. There was simply no peace to be found in the Weasly household.
For this Harry was eternally grateful. Not only did he get to enjoy the feeling of being part of the family he never had, but he also was able to finally be distracted from all the thoughts running through his head. He wanted to talk to Ron about the dreams, except every time he tried he found himself backing down. Not that he was afraid to tell Ron, he was just, well, afraid.
There had been a new development in the dreams. He was finding the dreams less and less disturbing; he was actually beginning to find them reassuring. And while that bothered him to some degree, he found that he was becoming more accustomed to the idea with every passing day.
Harry wondered how exactly he was supposed to tell his best friend that he was having warm, fuzzy dreams about their mutual worst enemy.
"Harry…"
…
"Harry!"
…
"HARRY!!! Wake up!"
…
Harry looked up from his thoughts, which had once again managed to run away with him, and into Ron's not-so-happy face.
"Oh, right then. Well, let's go!"
Ron let out a sigh that clearly expressed his utter annoyance at Harry right at that moment.
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Duo watched in complete--and utterly speechless--wonder, a first for the normally outspoken pilot, as the tiny miracle in his hand moved around. Each pilot, in turn, looked down in astonishment at the figurines in each of their own hands, figurines that had also miraculously started to move. Each pilot, in turn, looked down in wonder at the objects in each of their own hands, objects that had also miracously started to move.
Quatre hid a very childish whoop of delight as the unicorn pranced about in the palm of his hand, shaking its head with undisguisable grace.
"Oh, but you are such a beautiful thing," Quatre said in undiluted awe. "You deserve better than my hand for roaming, don't you?"
Having said that, Quatre set his hand palm up on Dumbledore's desk and allowed the unicorn to step down onto the much larger surface. The unicorn strutted down onto the workspace and made a few circuits of the area to have a look around.
First, it turned to face Dumbledore and gave brief nod, then pivoted to look thoughtfully at each pilot in turn. The delicate looking creature finally stopped on Quatre and rested its gaze there for a longer inspection. After a moment, the unicorn moved to the edge of the desk in Quatre's direction, stopped at the edge, and bowed its head grandly at the still-awed pilot.
It then backed up several spaces and galloped forward, leaping over the edge of the desk and onto Quatre's thigh. The magical creature pranced around for a moment on the blonde's leg, cultivating an air around it that spoke of grace and dignity, before finally stopping and laying down near the edge of Quatre's knee.
Meanwhile, Wufei gaped in barely contained shock as his once perfect figurine was now a moving and very alive Chinese Dragon flying right in front him. The deep red dragon flapped its wings lazily as it hovered in front of Wufei's face. Wufei, who was not too far gone to forget his ever-present manners, nodded gracefully in greeting.
"Greetings, Dragon-sama," Wufei spoke with an air of reverence for the small creature. The miniature dragon seemed to accept Wufei's simple words, for it flew over and perched on his shoulder. And Wufei, it seemed, sat just a little straighter.
Beside Quatre, at that same moment, Trowa was making similar introductions with his figurine-turned-live animal. The cat-like creature watched him with a clearly suspicious gaze, as if determining his worthiness. Trowa, like Wufei, bowed his head to the small feline.
"Pleased to meet you, my friend. Would you like to stand on the desk?" He offered, using the same tone he used to address his fellow pilots and friends; the same tone he had used to talk to Socrates.
The mysterious creature nodded its head in agreement at Trowa's proposal, and Trowa promptly moved his hand to allow the animal to move to the desk.
"Are you and Socrates acquainted?" Trowa asked. "He brought you to me, and I wasn't able to thank him properly before I arrived here," Trowa continued to converse with the silent feline.
The miniaturized creature sat on the desk and gazed at Trowa. The tall pilot could *feel* the cat assessing and weighing his personality. He felt that with this animal trust was all, or nothing. He also sensed gaining this feline's wary trust would be very important for some unknown reason. Trowa also knew trust could not be assessed, only earned.
"I don't know you, small one. And you don't know me. But I would be quite honored if you would allow me to know you and perhaps earn your trust."
The independent feline seemed very happy with this and stood back up. It jumped into the air and landed on an invisible platform. It then stalked over to Trowa's shoulder, walking along this same invisible surface and climbed onto his shoulder. It yawned lazily and then curled up and went to sleep.
A few seats over Heero was not having such good results with his figurine, which had been left forgotten in the box all this time. When he opened the box just moments ago, he had been greeted with what appeared to be a very angry, ruffled, grayish-brown wolf. Heero thought that there seemed to be something different about this wolf, something not quite normal, but he really couldn't stop to think of what it was because the wolf was growling viciously at him. The wolf leapt from the box and onto Heero's knee where he continued to growl at the pilot.
Heero had no idea what to think of the strange creature. He was still processing everything else that had happened and found himself unprepared to handle any of it. Now he had a very pissed wolf just the size of his fist growling at him from his own knee. He was strongly torn between the trained response to destroy it and the feeling to try and befriend it.
He tried to look to Duo for help but he was too distracted by his own tiny creature to see Heero's desperate expression. Heero looked back down at the wolf in resignation, he could do this.
"Gomen, I didn't mean to leave you in the box. This baka over here," Heero said pointing to Duo, "brought us here before I could open the box." Not that he would have been stupid enough to open the box like Duo had, but he didn't add that.
The wolf stopped growling for a moment and looked at him.
Heero glared back. They both seemed to weigh each other's worthiness, they also seemed to try and use that same look to intimidate the other. Neither wanted to back down first. Heero assessed this battle as a stalemate, and opted for another route.
"I will not submit to you, and obviously you have no desire to submit to me. I will regard you as my equal if you will regard me as yours, and later you can bite Duo for making me leave you in the box so long. Deal?"
The wolf's eyes gleamed with natural mischief and he nodded his head in agreement. The wolf then turned and sat down on the edge of Heero's knee. He used his position to quietly watch the occupants of the room, studying each with a disquieting intensity.
Duo looked at the creature in his hand, "Oooh, you are sooo COOL! Can you fly? Are you hungry? Have you been alive this whole time? Holy shit! You are just too damn cool!" He gave a hoot of barely contained excitement.
The midnight colored feline's purple tinted eyes gleamed in what could only be described as trouble. It spread its wings and flapped them in a surprising amount of silence and power, and then lifted silently off Duo's hand. It zipped away and Duo saw it reappear just behind Wufei. The dragon had just finished curling up on Wufei's shoulder, it's head nestled just beneath the boy's ear. The black panther-like creature's eyes flashed and it reached out its clawed paw and swiped it swiftly across the unaware dragon's tail. Before the dragon could move, the devilish panther was gone and back in Duo's palm. Duo stared down in awe at the creature for the briefest of moments before he was interrupted by the angry screech of Wufei's dragon and Wufei's yelp.
Wufei, who was now baring a singe mark just below his ear, glared around the room before resting his eyes on Duo. Similarly the dragon on Wufei's shoulder was glaring dangerously at the creature in Duo's hands.
Duo looked back down at the panther that was now smugly licking his paw with feigned innocence as if daring anyone to prove he was at fault for the ruckus across the room.
"Oh HELL yea! You are so fucking cool."
Dumbledore watched the entire scene with an approving smile.