Of Wizards and Keyblades: Chapter 6



pairinngs: It's too complicated to list.



author's note: Thanks a whole bunch for your patience and ideas Katrina, my beloved beta-reader! . To Dre: *Hugs* thanks for the many reviews! I'm afraid I don't have room in my "Master Plan"for the adventure into KH, but you did give me an idea, but that's a secret that only Katrina will get to hear *heehee*. I also got a couple of requests for a Sora/Ginny pairing, and I think I can go a bit on that, but I'm afraid that it's only going to be a crush, nothing permanent. On with the show!



Sora's heart leapt into his throat. 'Donald and Goofy were here? How? Why?' he thought, staring at Harry as though he had sprouted another head.

"What do you mean?"

"I had another vision, Voldemort seems to have found out about you, somehow, and he has captured your two friends to use as bait." He squinted, trying to grasp the fading memory.

"Were they tortured?! Where are they-" Harry cut off his question.

"No, no, not tortured. A cell....yeah, like in an old castle dungeon. Voldemort was feeling evil, and that was why I screamed....he has so much bloody hatred that it burned me. We need to tell Dumbledore." He said, gingerly getting out of bed. Ron shooed the other boys back to their own four posters, muttering "Show's over, go on. I'll handle him."

Sora and Ron escorted Harry out of the Tower, and back down to the familiar corridor with the stone gargoyle.

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"Well, boys, thank you for coming to me so quickly. I do not want either of you to go gallivanting off into the night to rescue them without more facts. I will send one of my informants out at once to collect some more information. You had better head back up to your dormitory. I will take care of this and keep you both posted. Don't worry, Sora. We will find a way to rescue your friends." Dumbledore patted him in a reassuring manner, his polka-dotted nightcap swinging drowsily on top of his head, and ushered them all out of the circular office.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sora was seriously frustrated. His friends needed his help, and this overly cheerful old bat with an insane polka-dotted nightcap refused to let him do anything about it. He stomped back up to bed, Ron and Harry walking hesitantly behind him, and threw himself onto the downy mattress that swallowed him whole. Sleep did not come to ease his worry until a few hours later.

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Harry stared at Sora's snoring form, which was spread to cover the whole bed. 'He is worse than Neville.' He thought, and prodded the boy awake.

"Up! You don't want to go to class without breakfast!"

The Keyblade master looked up groggily and unceremoniously threw a pillow at the Boy-Who-Lived's head. Harry, in return, shrieked in indignation and sent the offending pillow back with a resounding thwap. The brunette, now fully conscious, rose up on his haunches and tackled the emerald-eyed teen to the floor, both playfully punching and kicking and biting and clawing, the once innocent pillow fight turning into an violent testosterone-driven two-man mosh pit, until Ron ran upstairs at the sound of their growls and hollers and pulled them apart. Hermione and a short red-headed girl followed him.

"What in the world are you two doing?! Honestly, you both have lost your bloody minds! Fighting for no reason. I should take points." The bushy-haired prefect sniffed, looking down disdainfully at Harry and Sora, who were checking each other's battle wounds( Harry had several nail indentations in his arms, and Sora had two reddening sets of teeth marks on his left leg), and apologizing profusely for the damage they caused.

Sora then noticed the girl grinning in the doorway, and blushed pink with embarrassment at the situation. 'She is kinda pretty, looks a little like Kairi, except with long curly red hair and freckles.' That made him only blush harder.

"Oh, Sora, this is my little sister Ginny. Say 'hi' Ginny." Ron poked his sister in the ribs, and she smacked him and squeaked "Hello" before tearing off downstairs.

"She hasn't acted that shy since she first met Harry." The red-headed teen shrugged at his sister's antics.

Harry felt a pang of jealously well up in his stomach. Since the start of school, he started to notice how beautiful Ginny had grown to be. He hated to admit it, but he had a full-blown crush on his best friend's youngest sibling. Now he didn't regret giving Sora those bite marks.

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After breakfast, the quartet walked to History of Magic, which Sora deemed the "Most Boring Class in All the Worlds." The other three had to agree. The old ghost droned about things that otherwise would have seriously interested the Keyblade Wielder, like Dragon Wars and vampire skirmishes. But this dead guy put him into a stupor.

When the dullest hour of his life was over, Sora joined Harry, Ron, Hermione, and, to his infinite blushing, Ginny, for some leafy tea in the Great Hall (he had water).

"So, Sora, what do you think we will do about the....Duck and Dog thing?" Harry whispered, eyeing the other students at the table.

"Well, Headmaster didn't give me much of a choice. I guess I'll just hang around here until he gets more news. What's our next class?" He answered idly, trying to form some sort of makeshift rescue plan for now, just to sort his ideas.

"Oh, you're going to love Divination, it's so-"

"-Stupid! Merlin, why did Dumbledore put you in that joke of a class? It is taught by a hoax of a palm reader, and it is not the least bit practical-"

"Aw, stow it, Hermione. Sora and I are gonna have loads of fun making up new ways to kill off Harry here. Ain't that right, Sora?" Ron said in between sips of that disgusting leaf concoction.

"What?!" the brunette boy gawked at the red-head,"Are you insane?!"

Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron laughed at the astonished look of horror on their friend's face. "Not really, you poor naive child. Professor Trelawney keeps predicting Harry's death. So we come up with new and creative ways for him to kick the bucket."

"Oh. Okay, I'll help out. Sounds like...fun." Sora stuttered, mentally smacking himself.'Stupid, stupid, stupid! And in front of Ginny, too.'

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Ron had been right, Divination was fun! Sora made goofy faces in the misty crystal ball. But just as he tilted over it to cast an eerie light on his face, something within it moved. He peered closely, and saw a tall dark figure writhing on the ground, like it was being suffocated and then electrocuted. He elbowed Harry, who leaned in and stared at the figure, and pulled back with a gasp of recognition. Sora and Ron gave him an inquiring look, but the Boy-Who-Lived mouthed an 'I'll tell you later.'

Stepping out of the stifling room, they immediately accosted him, and he hissed, "Snape! It was Snape in that ball, and he was being tortured! I wonder why that showed up in the crystal...." He trailed off as they got down to the Entrance Hall.

"Oh well....stupid stuff comes up in that room. Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins next. Hagrid teaches it. It's pretty cool. Just watch out for Malfoy and his goonies." Ron informed Sora as they met up with Hermione on the lawn.

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"T'day, class, we'll be goin' inter the forest ter study the social habits o' the bugbears. Jus' stay close ter me, an' ye won' have ter worry abou' the monsters in the forest." Hagrid boomed, ushering the students onto the safe pathway into the dark wood. Sora didn't like this very much, especially with Malfoy trying to trip him every step he took. He suppressed his itching trigger finger...he soooo wanted to blast that brat's smirk off his face.

"Ah, 'ere they are! See th' nests on the ground? They oft'n mate fer-wha' was that?" A dark shape, low to the ground, flew past the trees to Hagrid's right, and the whole class stopped and nervously glanced around them.

Sora's trigger finger itched again...but not for Malfoy. Something dark and...heartless...radiated from the moving shadow.

Suddenly, the figure stepped onto the path. It was short, with glowing carbuncles for eyes, and a white Death Eater robe on. The emblazoned Cross Heart with entwining snakes was clear in the shaded sunlight. Four more emerged from around the class, forming an ambush circle. People drew their wands, but knew not the first spell to use, they had never seen these creatures before. But Sora had seen their cousins.

He turned to his trio of friends. "Light Killers! Leave this to me! Reversus!" And to everyone's absolute astonishment, a long, lethal looking Blade the shape of a key appeared in their peer's hands. He charged at the first Heartless, slashing and parrying, and fired an ice block, but it only took out a little of the creature's strength. 'Oh, I wish I had one of my keychains...'he moaned mentally, and decided to use his strike raid and ragnarok attacks to finally finish off the beast. Harry stepped in and started cursing the other four, and the other Gryffindors took the hint and helped. With that, three more Light Killers evaporated to set free a shimmering Heart of Light, which floated into the sky. Now only one was left. Sora shoved the Keyblade under it's throat, but almost fell when it croaked,"Don't! I can give you information!"

"Very well. Harry, stun him."

"Stupify!" The Heartless fell, and Sora bent to scoop it up in his arms. "Sora...where did you get that....sword?" The black haired boy asked, pointing to the weapon. Everyone, even the Slytherins, nodded in agreement.

"Well, uh, it's my Keyblade. I....gotta go." And he ran as fast as he could down the path, carrying the unconscious Heartless, retreating away from the questions he wasn't sure he should, or even could, answer, up into the castle, and right to Dumbledore's office. He needed help with this.

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author's note: (*waves* hi kristin!)thanks to all who reviewed and sent in ideas, I'm really grateful! I'm really loving writing this, it is my first shot at a multi-chaptered story. It's turning out better than I imagined, and I am so happy for your encouragement. So please review!