Thanks again the Darknesswithinonesheart for reviewing. Eriol is pronounced Eh-ree-ol. Kind of like Ariel on the Little Mermaid, only a pronounced eh sound instead of an a.
The Eriol at Hogwarts is a special person to Sakura.
Disclaimer: I do not own HP or CCS.
Quote of the Chapter: "For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare—this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far." –HpatSS
Jaded Angels and Silken BlossomsChapter 9: It Begins
***
The moment I walked into the Griffindor House Dormitory, I knew something was wrong with Hermione. She was at our normal coffee table, her notes stretched out over half of the table.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Harry's going to fight Malfoy," Hermione whispered, glancing over at the black-haired boy. "I overheard him. They're going to hold an illegal wizard's duel in the trophy room tonight at midnight."
"They can't!" I hissed. "Harry won't make the team, then."
"Team? What team?"
I told her.
"She's going to let you play?"
she asked. "First years are forbidden to even have brooms!"
"I know. She said she
convinced Dumbledore that she was desperate," I grinned lopsidedly. "I'm glad
she chose me, though." My voice dropped. "I don't think I'd ever have
found a way to talk to a Ravenclaw without something to talk about other than
my trip."
"Yeah…what are we going to do about those boys, though?"
"Hmm…we'll stay up, too," I said. "Stop them. At least try to knock some sense into them."
"Yeah. Good idea. We've got a lot of homework, we should start."
The Common Room filed out as it grew later and later. Hermione and I chose the time to read some books we had checked out from the library, most of which were Eastern Magic spells. Eriol hadn't assigned us a book, saying that most of what he taught couldn't be learned from one. We were trying anyway.
At ten thirty, the Common Room had emptied out. Even Ron and Harry were gone. The fire was burning low, and there were only embers remaining. I lit ("Lumos") the end of my wand and continued reading on the Water Dragon talismon spell. Hermione was reading a book on the history of talismon magic, something that Eriol did not plan to teach us.
At half-past eleven, we heard footsteps coming down the boys' tower. Hermione and I turned off our wands and stacked our books neatly on the table, underneath our bags. Sure enough, Harry and Ron appeared at the foot of the stairs, robed in pajamas, bathrobes, and slippers. Silently, they crept to the portrait hole and Hermione and I felt it was time to speak up.
"I can't believe your doing this, Harry," she said.
"You'll lose your chance to be on the Quidditch team," I added.
"You!" Ron snarled. "You oughta be expelled for a fat nose and a small butt, Indigo. You're no Angel, you're a devil-woman if I ever saw one!"
"Should've told Percy," Hermione said. "A Prefect, he is. He'd put a stop to this."
"Go to bed!"
"This is absolute nonsense!" I said.
"Breaking the rules to get at Draco isn't the way to go about it, Harry! I
should know, he's my cousin!"
"You're related to him, of
course you'll want to protect him," Harry said coolly. "Just go back to bed.
Ron's right, he's told me all about you. You're a devil-woman, you are."
Devil-woman? Where on Earth had either of them gotten such a wild idea?
"What you got against me?" I said shrilly. "I ain't never gotten you in trouble, I tryin' to keep ya'll outta it!"
"Well, keep ya'll noses out of our business and you will!" Ron said back. His temper must be rubbing off on Hermione and me both, because we both followed him through the portrait hole, mad as cats.
"You'll be on the train tomorrow," Hermione said. "You'll regret not listening to us, you will!"
"Take your last look around, Ron, I'm sure your Mum's gonna be so pleased to have you back at the Burrow," I said. "At least Ginny won't be lonely anymore."
Hermione and I turned back to go back through the portrait hole, only to find ourselves locked out. The Fat Lady was visiting Violet, apparently, and she was nowhere in sight. We were locked out.
"Now what'll we do?" Hermione asked me shrilly.
"No clue," I shrugged. "We can't stay here. Filch'll have our necks, too. Regardless of why we came out here, we're out here."
"Oh…" Hermione whimpered.
"See you," Ron turned away. "We'll be back. The Fat Lady'll be back by then."
"We're coming with you," said Hermione. "If we run into Filch, we'll simply tell him the truth, Angel."
"Actually, we'll run and hide and ne'er tell a lie," I said brightly.
"Huh?"
"Just follow them and hope Filch doesn't catch us," I said dully. "We should've met Syaoran and Sakura two hours ago. They're probably worried."
"Just be quiet," said Ron.
We reached the trophy room, which was covered wall to wall with crystal, silver, bronze, and gold, as well as an array of different-colored ribbons. Draco was nowhere in sight. According to Ron, Crabbe was supposed to come with him.
"Sniff around, my sweet," said a voice. And it definitely was not Draco. "They may be lurking in a corner."
"Come on," I whispered. "He ain't comin'. Draco never comes late, but he loves laying traps. It's Filch."
We still heard Filch muttering to Mrs. Norris as we made our own way slowly for the other door. Hermione suddenly tripped over a piece of silver, which caught on her leg like a python. She let out a yip and brought Harry down as well, clattering several more silver and gold trophies to the ground.
"RUN!" Ron yelled at the top of his lungs.
"There they are, my sweet!" shouted Filch. Ron and I pulled Harry and Hermione to their feet and we took off as fast as our feet could carry us. The silver cup was still wrapped around Hermione's leg with some rope. Why had there been a pile of rope with a bunch of trophies?
"In there!" Harry pointed to a door at the end of the corridor and tried to yank it open. It was locked. "Oh, no, we're doomed!"
"We'll be expelled!" Ron said.
"Oh, move over," Hermione shoved Harry out of the way. "Alohomora." The locked popped open from the simple spell and we piled into the room. Hermione peeked out the door while Ron and Harry hassled her for information on what was going on outside. I, however, was paying more attention to the life-threatening situation in which we had landed ourselves.
It was massive. Three heads. Heads. Plural. It looked like it was a huge thoroughbred dog of some kind. Short black fur. One had blue eyes, one had green, and the other had brown. They had only one tail and four legs. Those four legs were standing on top of a trap door. I also noted a large bowl of water and an empty bowl of food, both embellished with a single, ornate name: Fluffy. But there was nothing Fluffy about this dog.
I took that all in, and in about the two seconds it took me to reach over and tug on the sleeves of Harry's bathrobe.
"I don't mean to be rude," I squeaked. "But Filch is better than death."
"What do you mean, Filch is better…than…death…" Harry's eyes went wide. The dog was starting to growl. "Out! Get out!"
We ran out of there as fast as our feet could carry us. Hermione relocked the door and we ran again. Filch was nowhere in sight, thank goodness. We reached the Griffindor Common Room and saw that Juniper had returned.
"Goodness, what happened to you?" she asked.
"Huge dog," I said, grimacing. "Filch. Mrs. Norris. A backstabbing cousin. You know the drill."
"Ah. Yes, well, password?"
"Pig snout."
"You two have got to be the most idiotic dorks I have ever met," I growled once we were in the Common Room. "Just what do think they have these rules for, anyway? I know you don't think you're above them, do you? You'll be expelled before you know it!"
"Hey, you're the one who followed us!" Ron hissed back.
"Idiots! I hope you're pleased with yourselves! We could all have been killed—or worse, expelled," Hermione glared at them. "Now, if you don't mind, we're going to bed. Or do you two have another clever way to get us all in trouble?"
"No, no, we're good for the night," Ron said sarcastically. Hermione scoffed at him and ran up the tower.
"I hope you're satisfied," I said. "You oughtn't to have done that."
"What, so now you're worried about us?" Ron asked, his voice high and mighty. "I thought you were selfish, Angel, I really did."
"Selfish?!" I sputtered. "I…b…p…" I threw up my hands and climbed the steps after Hermione.
***
"A dog?" Syaoran said. "You were attacked by a huge three-headed dog because you followed two boys whom you were trying to get out of trouble and nearly got yourself in trouble. Is that it?"
"Well, yes," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "It was awful!"
"You left one thing out, 'Mione," I said. "There was a trap door. The dog is guarding something."
"A trap door?" Hermione inquired. "I didn't see one."
"No, I don't think Harry or Ron saw it, either," I said. "A bit too worried about its heads to look down?"
"Yeah," Hermione nodded. "Anyway, I found some interesting information in The History of Talismons. Clow Reed's mum, Su Li, helped create talismons for the public use. She really loved Muggles."
"Yeah, but she got in trouble, didn't she?" I asked. "I mean, come on, even China has to have a Muggle Protection law, right? They could hurt themselves if they didn't know what they were doing."
"Yes, she was arrested and charged with several things," Hermione said, materializing the book. "In fact, Clow was raised by his father, James Reed, for half of his teenage life. That may be the reason why most of the magic Clow used had a Chinese twist to it; he missed his mum."
"That would explain a lot," Syaoran nodded. Sakura was absent from our blank void, watching the precognitive dream in hopes of remembering at least a tiny scrap of it in the morning. "He used a lot of elementals in the Clow Cards."
"Like?" I asked.
"Watery, Fiery, Lightning, Earthy," Syaoran listed off. "Sakura is partial to Windy for some reason."
"It's because she has a Wind personality," Hermione said, looking at her book again. "She's powerful, but semi-dense when it comes to a lot of things. Your basic blonde, without the blonde hair."
"Hey!" Syaoran protested.
"He, on the other hand, has a Thunder personality, which is why he's partial to the Lightning Dragon talismon," Hermione pointed to Syaoran. "He seems cool on the surface, but he actually has a real hot temper." I giggled as Syaoran's face heated up. It was true.
"Clow also had a Wind personality," Hermione said, pointing to her book. "He also had the tiniest scratch of Flower personality inside him, too. Most people have several different elemental personalities. Of course, not many people have Flower."
"What's Flower?" I asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Love of unpredictability and creative methods," Hermione answered.
"Well, that describes him perfectly, then," I said. "He's definitely weird."
"He once said that the reason he created the Clow Cards was because he was bored," Hermione said gravely. "It says that he was and still is considered to be the most powerful wizard ever to have lived. Even over You-Know-Who and Dumbledore."
"Never thought I'd hear that," I muttered.
***
Hermione and I decided it would probably be best just to ignore Harry and Ron. We sat as far away from them as we could and didn't talk to them all morning. Today was the last of September and soon we would be moving into October. Autumn was my favorite season of the year, and the gorgeous orange, red, and brown leaves in the Forbidden Forest didn't let me down. I couldn't enjoy them half as much as I usually did now.
Classes moved on, as they have to. We were trying to change stones into rubber balls in Transfiguration. In Herbology, we were learning about the different medicinal herbs that were common throughout the magical world. History of Magic was as long and droning as before, even as we moved on into the early 1900s.
Eriol was now teaching us how to write talismons and fill them with magic of both the moon, the sun, and our own "star", which he helped point out in the night sky during one lesson. Charms had finally moved on into some actual spells, and we were learning how to create light.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was just as uninformative as ever. Potions was just as horrid as ever.
About a week after our encounter with Fluffy the three-headed dog, I received a large parcel. Sakura headed up several barn owls, she bearing three letters herself. The parcel landed on the floor behind me. A few nanoseconds after my parcel landed, four screech owls came in carrying a second large parcel, this one for Harry. Only one letter accompanied his.
"What on Earth?" I said. I opened one of the letters and balked.
Dear Angel,
We heard about your new position on the Quidditch team. Congratulations! In celebration, your brother said it would be a good idea to buy you a new broom. Isn't that nice? We've got to go! Enjoy your new broom. Ask your friend to take a picture of you after your first game and send it to us!
A bit of bad news here for you, though. We're beginning to think David's a Squib, too. He hasn't shown any of the classical wizard signs yet, and it's getting late in the game. Cross your fingers that he does soon!
Love, Mom and Dad
I opened the second, with many mixed feelings.
One of your Professors told us, Sissy. So I sent you an early Christmas present! What do you think? I want your old one, though, okay? ^_~
And the third.
I informed your parents of the agreement. They sent you a newer, faster broomstick model. Please do NOT open the parcel at the table, or they'll all want one. I think it's the same model I got for Harry. Please meet Wood at six-thirty out on the Quidditch field.
Professor M. McGonagall
"My parents bought me a new one?" I blinked to myself. We weren't exactly the best-off family in the world. Sure, we got a thousand dollars from the US Government once a year and 33, 000 dollars from dad's job, but that wasn't reason to go completely loopy with money.
"A new what?" Hermione looked at the parcel. "It's enormous. What is it?"
"Can't tell ya at the table," I shook my head. "Come on, we'll open it in my room."
In the Tower, Hermione and I opened the parcel. It was a Nimbus Two Thousand, which was, according to Quidditch Through the Ages (an up-to-date book on Quidditch), the best model on the market. It was built for speed and built for power. And it was packaged in, not Styrofoam peanuts, but candy. Under the broom handle were four cans of soda.
"Good Lord, do they think I can't survive without candy?" I said, laughing at the sight. It was pretty funny.
"This is a really good broomstick, Angel," Hermione said. "You'd better hide it."
I nodded and packed the broomstick back into the candy. Using the box to conceal it, I used an Invisibility Charm and put the box firmly under my bed.
That night, I pulled the broom back out of its Charmed box. Hermione said she would go ahead and do the night's homework and then wait for me in the dreamscape. Broom in hand and a grin on my face, I headed out onto the first real Quidditch pitch I had ever seen.
The sun was setting, but the pure beauty of the red leaves against a pink sunset was awe-inspiring. There was lights set up around the pitch, which came on and illuminated the six ghostly fifty-foot hoops and the graying green grass. The stands were raised around the pitch, in alternating colors of red and gold for Griffindor and blue and silver for Ravenclaw. I expect that those were the last two teams to play last year.
Mounting the new broom, I kicked off from the ground. It was much steadier than the old school broom, and it was more responsive that my Cleansweep 7 ever was. The lightest touch in either direction took me there without difficulty. With a whoop, I took off into the air as fast as a falcon and as lean as the lion of my House.
A roller coaster was all I can say to describe the feeling. Going at least sixty miles an hour on a broom, feeling the wind whip around me. The half-ponytail I'd had my hair in fell out and my brown hair gave in to the passing gales.
"Hey, Indigo, come down here!" Wood shouted up to me. I saw him and came in for a light but speedy landing. I stayed on my broom and hovered in front of him a moment.
"Aw, you're no fun, Wood," I grinned. "This is my first time on such a good broom."
"You're a natural, McGonagall was right," Wood said. "Get down. George and Fred said that you knew the basic rules for Quidditch, but I wanted to make sure. You're going to be our back-up player, in case anyone falls out. That means you'll need to know how to play in each position."
"Cool," I nodded.
Wood showed me some moves that were and were not allowed on the field in each position. He ducked and dove out of the way of my Bludgers and I did the same for his. I sent the Quaffle back at him when I caught it and went after it when I didn't. I tried to get the Quaffle past him and only did once. Finding the Golden Snitch turned out to be a real mess for me, because my eyes just could not find the tiny flash of gold and white. That seemed to be the only position, besides Keeper, that I really hoped I wouldn't have to take over.
However, I turned out to be an excellent Beater.
"Even the Weasley twins can't hit that hard," Wood said, so enthusiastic that I had to stop him.
"Wood, I don't want to take over their position unless they're put out of commission on their own accord," I warned him. "The Weasleys are my host family, and I've already gotten into it too deep with Ron. I don't think that boy likes me very much. Anyway, I don't want Fred and George bitter with me, too."
"With all the pranks they pull, I'm surprised we haven't been looking for new Beaters on the first up team, too," Wood said, rolling his eyes. "When Charlie left last year, I didn't know what we were going to do."
"Well, now you do," I said, smiling. "Although I think that it may be Harry you're worrying about next."
"Why's that?"
"Uh…never mind," I said quickly. "Let's go inside, I'm tired."
"Indigo…" Wood warned me.
"Really, it's nothing, it was a joke, you know, ha ha?" I said nervously.
"Ho ho," Wood added.
***
Your clue again on who Eriol is: he's very dear to Sakura. If I do get published, I'll be sure and tell everyone! I want everyone to buy it if I do. ^_^