AN Hey all, sorry about the wait. I have no excuses for my lack of updates except that my muses have been slacking off and I left my notebook at home a couple of times. *sobs* My precious notebook! I can't write without it! Anyway, I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter, it just wouldn't do what I wanted it to do! *growls*
Anyway, enjoy. Next time I think I'm going to write a little more about Hiei the cat, a muse-bolt hit me about him. Demon cat anyone?
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Chapter 10
"Well, shit." Duo decided, staring at the three teachers.
"An explanation," Dumbledore said shortly. "In my office - now."
Very few people had the power to make Duo feel embarrassed or ashamed of his actions. He had long ago taught himself to hide behind a jesters mask and not get close to anybody. And so far, very few people had been allowed to see the boy really behind the mask. His friends rarely had the chance to see the unsure, slightly paranoid boy he really was. His war-buddy Hilde with whom he spent months living with on the L2 colony didn't even know who he really was. And only people he placed his entire trust in had the chance. People like Quatre who he had told his past to without even a thought of hesitation while someone like Lady Une had to earn a few scraps and tidbits of information eluding to his life before his part in the wars.
But to see Albus Dumbledore, blue eyes a mixture of being ashamed, worried and angry caused Duo's hidden heart to twist painfully. His unsure nature coming to the front.
And to the amazement of his friends he simply bowed his head and murmured a very soft, "yes sir."
With a curt nod, Dumbledore turned around and began walking back into the school. The group of five boys and two teachers followed. Nobody spoke the entire walk, and Duo continued to feel horrible about himself. A touch from Quatre jolted his mask into place and he offered a smile to his friend. The smile wasn't returned, for Quatre knew all about Duo's mask, all the pilots had one. Finally, they reached Dumbledore's office, just as Heero slipped from unconsciousness to sleep.
'Naturally,' Duo thought affectionately with an inward smile. His mask slipped firmly into place and he tightened his grasp minutely, sitting down on the floor of the office. His three friends did the same, leaving the chairs for the teachers.
"Tell us the truth," Albus said softly. "The *whole* truth about who you are and why you're here. And what you were doing in the forest tonight."
The boys feigned indifference, but were unsure of the headmasters request. How much should they spill? Snape opened his mouth to ask how Dumbledore knew where Duo had run off to, but was silenced when Quatre began calmly plucking twigs and leaves out of Duo's hair.
"Aren't you going to give them Vertesarium?" McGonagall snapped, glaring at the five.
Wufei snorted. "Your pathetic truth serums would do nothing to us, onna. Don't you remember questioning Maxwell a few weeks ago?"
The head of Gryffindor reddened in anger. But Dumbledore merely nodded his agreement. "Right now," he said softly, "is a matter of trust."
"We don't trust you." Trowa told him flatly. "You have given us no reason to."
"In any case," Dumbledore said in that same tone. "If you do not tell us we will be forced to expell you for the breaking of countless rules. Entering the forbidden forest, lying to professors, causing distrubances during classes and meals..." He trailed off but the words 'the death of Harry Potter' hung in the air unsaid.
"If you expell us," Duo thought to himself, ancient wizdom flowing from his eyes. "If we're kicked from the wizarding world. There's nothing to stop us from showing the Muggles what they're missing. There's nothing to stop us from fighting against them or attacking the castle. They know were powerful enough, even the students do. That's why we're still here, that's why they're trying so hard to subdue us."
The room fell silent as the two groups stared each other down. One side was angry, the other wary, seemingly unaffected by the expulsion threat. Snape in particular looked ready to argue Trowa's claim of trust. They had taken the boys into their school with no past records. They had taught them magic and tolerated their disobeying the rules. They had arranged for them to learn English faster without the help of spells. With a snarl, he finally noticed that none of the boys in front of him were *wearing* their translator charms.
"So, you noticed." Duo said softly. "I was wondering how long it would take you." He reached up to finger the place his charm would go, though no hole showed the previous presence of an earring. "That's right, we're all fluent in Japanese, English, and quite a few other languages - some of us more then others." He smirked.
In his lap, Heero shifted closer to Duo in an attempt to steal his body-heat. He was so much like a child when sleeping, so innocent that you wouldn't realize he was so cold hearted.
"You lied." McGonagall scowled, "telling us you couldn't speak English."
Quatre looked at her, his lap full of little twigs and leaves. "We did not lie," he denied, "we just never corrected you in your assumptions. We pushed you to believe things but never told you any lies."
"I don't lie." Duo growled, his eyes began to spit violet fire again. "Shinigami does not lie."
"What does Shinigami mean?" Dumbledore asked curiously. Obviously it was a nickname, but nicknames usually had a meaning behind them. Questioning these boys would be tricky. Getting the right answer might take hours of side tracking and prying.
"It means 'God of Death.'" Duo told him with a huff. "A very appropriate name for me considering my past."
"Why?"
"It doesn't concern you!" Duo snapped, "and don't bother asking again because I'm not going to tell you."
Precisely at that moment, Heero woke up. His eyes blinked sleepily for a moment, one eye green the other blue. After about two blinks both eyes went to blue. "Mm?" He asked.
"Q and A, Hee-chan." Duo said lowly, proud that he had managed to decipher the difference between Heero's grunts, sighs and monosyllabllistic questions and answers. Those few things made up the almost unknown language of Heero-speech. "They want "the truth" about tonight."
Heero looked up and saw the three professors staring down at him. "The truth," he said softly. "I don't think you would believe me if I told you."
"Try us." Snape growled, crossing his arms over his chest and delivering his best 'I-Hate-You-And-Plan-To-Seriously-Hurt-You (TM)' glare.
"Alright." Heero sighed. "First off, none of us were born in Japan. Or America, Arabia, China or Greece. Where we were born doesn't matter because you wouldn't understand it anyway... and you wouldn't believe me. We all grew up with different lives until we were fifteen or so. That's when we met, by fate you could say. We spent a little over a year fighting together in a war that you will never have heard of. We all then went our separate ways until we once again met in a steady job we all enjoyed. During one of our field assignments we fell through a sort of portal that ended up taking us here. I have a connection with Harry you can't comprehend and that's our background in a nutshell."
"That's a very vague nutshell." Snape commented snidely. "And you seem to think us unable to comprehend anything."
"You are." Wufei muttered.
Quatre shot him a sharp look. "^We're facing expulsion here, Wufei.^" The blond hissed. "^So don't push our luck.^" Wufei snorted and looked away.
There was another silence before McGonagall spoke up. "You're soldiers?" She breathed, eyes wide in shock. "But... you're so *young!* You're *children!*"
"We may be young," Quatre said softly. "But none of us are children."
His tone may have been soft, but his words were firm and his expression hard. There was nothing about him, his features or his body language that said his didn't feel passionately about his words. Nothing to hint that he was lying, and for some reason the three teachers believed him.
Dumbledore remained impassive, though his mind was whirling. Everything he knew about these boys screamed that they weren't Muggle-born. They must have been born into strong wizarding families. That was the only way the Headmaster could explain their quick learning, their high power levels, their ability to twist the truth so flawlessly. They must have been born in very remote areas and brought up there, first as wizards then as Muggles. But that couldn't be right either. Duo had told him he was American, but Heero was the boy wasn't born in America. Duo had said that he was an orphan, but then how explain his strength and his extensive traveling? Everything that made up Mr. Winner screamed of wealth and influence, but why had he never heard of a Winner family before? Mr. Chang must have studied in the most advanced of Martial Arts Dojo's, but then why carry a sword? Why did all these boys have Muggle weapons in addition to wands? What sort of war did they fight in, it must have been big considering the battle scars Poppy had mentioned, but why didn't he know about it? How did Harry know these boys? When did they meet? Dumbledore himself had been monitoring Harry's life and never did the boy travel or receive mail, never did anything out of the ordinary happen to him.
Mr. Yuy was right, he didn't understand.
"I heard tell," he finally said, directing his words to Quatre with a loss of anything else to say. "That you have twenty-nine sisters."
Which had been a rumor among the students a month ago, before this whole mess had happened.
"Actually," Quatre sighed, "I only have twenty-eight sisters. One of them died protecting me in an attack of our home over a year ago." The blonds eyes clouded over in pain. Trowa reached over to comfort him. "Our father also died in the attack, but our mother died just after I was born."
Another silence while Dumbledore tried to make sense. Did the boy mean that he and that one sister shared parents, or that all of his siblings shared parents? Perhaps they were adopted?
"So you are all orphans?" McGonagall asked, her voice much softer and gentler then before.
None of them answered. But after looking into their eyes, one could tell that yes, they were all orphans. Their only family was each other and the few people they had found in their lives and at the Preventers.
"What were you doing in the forest?" Snape barked at Heero and Duo. "Why were you there?"
"I was fighting three incompetent Death Eaters," Heero told him stiffly. "I killed them, although it wasn't much of a fight."
McGonagall swallowed hard. Death Eaters? At Hogwarts? And Mr. Yuy had *killed* them all? What kind of child was so calm about killing another person. Is Duo like this as well? Shinigami, god of death?
"I see," Dumbledore said. "Well, I think you have answered enough questions for tonight, and that we will not receive any more answers. Your punishment will be decided later, I will tell you Sunday morning. Until then I want you to remain in your dormitories. I will have a house-elf bring you your meals." He stood up to walk them to the door.
===
As promised, a house elf appeared three times a day with a healthy yet tasty looking meal for each of the five boys. Unfortunately after the first couple hours of confinement, they quickly got bored. Time was spent sleeping, threatening to throw Hiei out a window, talking, threatening to throw each other out the window, eating and doing the dreaded thing called homework.
Duo got so bored that he created miniature mobile suits, Gundams and others, and had them battle in "space" for a good potion of one afternoon. Unsurprisingly the Gundams came out of the battle victorious against OZ troops, but fell to pieces under Hiei's paws. Thus, threatening to throw both the cat and each other out windows are explained. The long haired pilot also pulled out his many, *many* bombs and such and began checking them over and reparing at will. Heero finally managed to get his lap-top working on magic rather then electricity and they spent time watching movies downloaded from the internet.
Saturday evening they had a surprise visitor. Draco Malfoy showed up outside their door and spent all of two seconds waiting until he was let into the dorm. Duo was so desperate for outside contact that even if Draco had *wanted* to leave it was very unlikely that he would be able to. There was, however, a reason to the blonds visit.
It seemed as though he knew all the rumors circulating about the exchange students and their plot to bring down Hogwarts. He had heard that the students believed they took part in Harry's sudden death. And Draco had apparently deduced that the only way to get the real story was to go to the source. What he got was a green eyed Heero Yuy, whom his friends refered to as 'Harry-kun' and a trip though the fireplace into a secret room that contained Harry Potter's body. He was, of course, sworn to secrecy about the whole truth under threat of Wufei's ranting, (which he too had come to fear) and torture by Duo.
This led to his questioning their Muggle life style, having seen a movie being played on Heero lap top. And, Draco was most interested about the Gundam Suit models Duo had been attempting to reconstruct, all the while shooting death-glares at Hiei, who purred innocently.
After hearing the story, the *real* story mind you, about how the pilots came about, he had a million questions and ended up spending the night in their dorm.
Finally, on Sunday morning a scroll of parchment appeared with their breakfast at five AM. Harry, having just stumbled into the room a few minutes before quickly snatched it and went to rouse his friends.
"Well," Duo demanded, trying to snatch the thick yellow paper from his boyfriends hand. "What's it say?"
With an important sounding clearing of his throat, Heero unrolled the scroll and began reading it out-loud.
"As your punishment for incidents already discussed, the staff has come up with this list of requirements. If failed to be obeyed, you will be immediately expelled from Hogwarts." Heero made a face and Harry surfaced for a moment.
"Stupid bastards, they make it sound like the military or something!"
Trowa cleared his throat with a little "hem, hem" and Heero continued reading. "First, you will be removed from all classes with other students, for both their and your safety." Here, Draco snorted. "Instead each of you will spend class time with either Mr. Filch, Madam Pince, Madam Pomphrey, Hagrid or Professor Dumbledore. Meals will be served in the dormitory. All trips to the village are disallowed. Allowances may be made during holiday breaks."
Duo scrunched up his nose. "So much for being normal kids," he complained. "They're treating us like we carry some disease."
"There's more," Draco told him, snatching the paper from Heero, reading the final requirement out loud. "Your wands will be confiscated until further notice."
They all groaned, in perfect unison.
Suddenly, Quatre stiffened. "^They've put up wards,^" he stated confidently. Only Draco gave him a confused look, but he understood the words for he was wearing Wufei's translator charm around his wrist. What he was confused about was how Quatre knew. "^But simple ones, they probably think that when they take our wands, we can do nothing.^"
Duo rolled his eyes and reached for one of the bread rolls on the breakfast tray. "I call working with Pomphrey," he told the others between bites.
That brought about a new discussion, who would work with whom. In the end Heero ended up with Dumbledore, Trowa with Hagrid, Quatre with Filch and Wufei with Madam Pince in the library. The Chinese boy promised the others that he would try to spend his time looking for books about Heero and Harry's separation problem. None of them were especially pleased with the new arrangement of being forced to assist the staff, but knew better then to complain.
"So," Heero said, sitting down on the couch. "What do we do for the rest of the day?"
They all looked at each other, trying to avoid eye contact with Duo, whose eyes had just lit up with mischief.
===
"I can't believe you convinced us to do this." Harry complained, tugging lightly on Duo's hair as they walked.
"What's more," Draco muttered. "I can't believe *I* got dragged into this."
Duo laughed and stared down at the Amusement Park map he held in his hands. "How about we check out the exhibits and galleries first and save the rides for after lunch?"
His answer was five half hearted groans.
Duo grinned happily. "LET'S GO!" He hollered.
To someone walking past them, the group of boys were normal, if a bit reluctant. Duo had first suggested taking a port key to America and try to break into the White House - he had quickly been shot down. They had compromised with an amusement park. About two minutes later, there they were... not quite sure where they were, but glad to be there and away from Hogwarts none the less.
"I still don't believe it." Draco sighed, walking next to Wufei, whom he seemed to get along with the best. "No wonder nobody could figure you out." He smiled at his new friends, glad to have been accepted into their group.
"Hey you guys!" Quatre called at the entrance of a petting zoo, "hurry up!"
===
"My Lord," a crawling underworm murmured, close to glueing his head to the ground. "We've discovered that they boy who killed the Hogwarts Spies and his friends have left the school for a Muggle facility. They seem to have taken the Malfoy boy with them."
Well, this was news. Those boys must have a death wish leaving the school campus like that, or at the very least, a point to prove. Either way, he didn't want to kill the boys, just recruit them onto his team of dimwits. Well, he would kill the Malfoy brat, his parents had been traitors to him anyway. And those boys probably weren't dimwits, for they had managed to get off campus without Dumbledore's knowledge.
"Send the inner circle to attack them there." Voldemort decided. "Bring back the five boys alive and unharmed, we need them for the war. Tell them they can kill the Malfoy boy however they choose."
"Yes, my Lord," the worm said, unsticking his head from the floor and slowly backing away. "It will be done."
What Lord Voldemort had said was very true. If one teenaged boy could bring down three of his Death Eaters without the use of magic, he needed that boy to learn his secrets. He needed to study that boy, his weapons. He had to master those weapons. Because if Voldemort could combine wizard magic and Muggle technology, he would rule the world that much faster. He might even become immortal.
The snake faced man bowed his head against his chest and let out a low chuckle. Sinisterly evil, he laugher echoed through the room he sat in and the rest of the building.
===
Pausing midstep, Quatre glanced over his shoulder with a slight frown. His empathic senses had been acting freaky ever since the group had split up for lunch. Duo and Harry had left for hamburgers while the other four headed for a cheery Greek restaurant.
"What's wrong?" Trowa asked worriedly.
"Someone is following us." Draco said softly, having felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He might not be an empath like Quatre, but he could feel dark magic. And he'd be damned if there weren't at least six Death Eaters somewhere behind them.
The other three shrugged and began walking again, forcing Draco to act natural.
"If anyone attacks us," Quatre told the other blond. "You have to let us fight, you'll need to get away to a safe spot."
Draco nodded worriedly, unsure. After all, his name *was* on Voldemort's "I-Want-His-Head" list. But he knew just how powerful his friends were and that they could protect themselves. The day before he had been given a gift of absolute trust, mostly because of Harry/Heero. And with that trust, his friends had allowed him to preform a very simple yet rare spell. With that spell he could see each of their most treasured memories, and the nightmares that haunted them at night.
It had been a shock to learn that Wufei had a wife, and just how bad off Duo had been early in his life. He felt he could relate with Quatre when the blond lost control, or with Trowa when his friend Middi Une had stabbed him in the back. The real surprise was Heero's past, and how painful it had been for him - being trained, modified and pushed into the Perfect Soldier. While on the other side Harry was being bullied and mistreated by his "family".
Draco envied them for their inner strength.
===
Duo frowned as he swallowed his cheesburger. Something Dr. G had made sure he knew was when he was being watched. The man dubbed Pestilance had spent months staring at him, sending other to stare at him and judge how quickly he noticed. And Duo would be damned twice over if he wasn't being watched right at that moment.
Heero noticed it as well. The two-in-one boy causally finished his soda and stood up to lead Duo towards the more crowded part of the park. That's when Duo took over, leading them calmly, in a way that went completely unnoticed until he found a place they could hide for a minute and gather their bearings.
Where the two ended up was underneath a fast paced roller coaster. Just as they crouched next to one of the supproters, the ride car roared past, causing the whole ride to shake slightly.
"I just wanted a nice day away from the bastards," Duo gripped, reaching behind him and pulling his braid over one shoulder. He checked with only half a mind to make sure that his thick hair still carried its usual amount of lock picks, bombs and the such. Satisfied, he continued with his short, quiet rant. "I didn't want to be chased by more bastards that bypass the origonal ones."
Heero didn't say anything, too focused on their current situation. The strange thing was that one eye was green and the other remained blue. Dispite the difference in eye color, both darted quickly, taking in the new battle area.
"Fighting with yourself Hee-chan?" Duo asked randomly, scanning the surrounding area on his left before turning back to Heero.
"Hn."
Before Duo could pry further, a hand clamped down on each of their upper arms, taking them both by surprise. Surprise swiftly left the two as they went straight into battle mode and defence mode. Heero especially was angry that they had been found so quickly.
"You boys have no right to be under here," a gruff, slightly muffled voice told them.
Nothing about the voice was out of the ordinary - except that it had a very strong British accent... and they weren't any where near Britain. The voice's muffled sound was also an oddity, meaning the mouth was covered. And the only people who would follow them to an amusement park outside of Britain in a mask was a Death Eater.
"So if you'll just follow me..."
Power suddenly ripped through the Duo's arm, the one being held by a type of glove that suddenly radiated with power. The magic there cut open Duo's flesh and allowing his blood to pour forth. The boy didn't even wince. Instead, at the exact same time, Duo and Heero gripped the hands on their arms and threw the masked man onto his backside. The man grunted in pain and looked up in time to see Heero remove the safety from his gun and Duo pull two knives from the sheaves on his arms, ignoring the blood dripping onto the ground.
Naturally, as the man did not know what Gundam pilots could be capable of with such weapons, he laughed. A kick in his gut, curtosy of Duo, ended the torturous sound.
"Hero and Duo I presume." The man said through his grunting. "Yes, I've heard a lot about you."
"It's Heero," Duo snapped. "And we don't have time for small talk. Tell us what you want with us."
"Of course. The Dark Lord wants to meet you, learn from you. He believes that with your knowledge he can dominate the fools at Hogwarts. We have heard about your, ahm, rebelious actions there and thought we might help out a bit."
"Dream on." Duo snorted. "You can tell that bastard we want no part in his war. The people at Hogwarts might be moronic, but at least it's not completely intentional." He pulled back the knife and readied it to throw at the Death Eeater, just to wound him.
"No," Heero said softly. "I am already a part of this war, remember? Though most people think I'm dead."
Duo sighed and put away his weapons. "But what about him? We can't let him go just like that!"
"I can leave when ever I want." The man on the ground snapped, sitting up through the pain still ringing in his abdominon.
Duo cast him a disdainful look. "So why are you still here?"
Score: Duo-1. Masked idiot-0.
"Anyway," Heero cut into their glaring contest. "There's bound to be more of Voldemort's lackies around here. We just have to figure out a way to either lead them all away, or get rid of everyone else." He cast a look at his koibito.
Said terrorist, stealth master and bomb expert grinned in perfect understanding. Once again pulling his braid over his shoulder he walked over to one of the main supproters of the roller coaster. "Bomb threat anyone?"
A nod of approval later, Deathscythe's pilot began attached a small but affective bomb to the supporter. When wired correctly, any movement would cause the explosives to go off. However, Duo wired it in such a way that only when he pressed the deatonator would there be a very big boom. Completing his task right as the roller coaster sped past again, the pro-terrorist created a cell phone and used it to make his threat heard.
Thierty seconds later he grinned and banished the phone. "Were good to proceed, 01."
Heero nodded, running two fingers over his bullet clip. Then with bearly a glance he fired four shots in quick succession. None hit the man but the metal bits still managed to pin him to the ground. "Those barriers are stronger then the ones surrounding Hogwarts." He said emotionlessly. "Good luck getting out. Koibito, come here, let me see your arm... it might need stitches."
===
On the other side of the park, four boys stiffened at the sound of gun shots.
"Heero," Quatre whispered as everyone around them started paniking. He began pushing forewards through the running Muggles. "He's in trouble!"
As the civilians began to panic more and more, a sudden announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was informing them of a bomb threat and advising the civilians to immedieatly leave the park. The boys quickly decided that it was Duo's doing and began moving towards where the gunshots had been fired.
Trowa quickly got annoyed with the pushing and screaming people, so he glanced upwards to see if there was an electorical wire or something of a similar nature alongside the path. What he saw was a line of paper-lantuarns. With a non-existant grin, pilot 03 threw himself upward and landed on the cord. He quickly determined its strenght and cast a weightlifting charm on himself, and a strenghtening charm on the cord. Trowa then began walking calmly towards the sorce of noise. He made it about halfway there when a carefully place severing charm broke the line and he just bearly yet gracefully landed on his feet a little off the path.
Wufei, on the other hand, had already arrived at what he thought to be the destination. Equipt with only his wand, katana and a gun he flitted around the base of the large roller coaster. It seemed that Wufei's magic was best suited to give him a boost of speed. And what a boost it was, for his running form couldn't even be seen save a small outline of where he had previousy been. The widowed pilot decided the base of the structure safe and leapt cleanly upwards onto the rails. He dodged an oncoming ride and stood watching. A moment later he was forced to dodge as a bright red subduing charm blasted the wood formerly under his feet.
Quatre and Draco, being unable to walk on tightropes or run faster the the speed of sound, were forced away from their destination by all the civilians. Three masked forms managed to grab the two boys and drag them to a secluded area. Two clutched Draco in a tight hold, while the other threw Quatre to the ground and held him at wand point.
"Now, now," the masked man said in a somewhat calming voice. Quatre shivered at the tone and Draco growled angrilly, struggling uselessly. "We don't want to hurt anyone, in fact - we want your help."
"Go find your help elsewhere!" Quatre screamed, "I would never help you with anything!"
The men chuckled humorlessly. "Oh, but I'm sure you'd *love* to help us..."
Draco fell still, staring at the man holding Quatre's life captive. Those boys had trusted him with their secrets, he owed them *something*! He hung his head. But against three Death Eaters, the blond thought miserabally, I can do nothing. I can't even move my arms enough to cast a damn spell! I'M SO FUCKING USELESS! Distressed and terrified, Draco could only watch helplessly as the Death Eater kicked Quatre harshly in the ribs.
The small boy on the ground cried out in pain, clutching his hand across his chest as though it would subdue the pain. The pilot coughed up a little blood, his aqua eyes slitting in hatred. Suddenly, his face went slack and the three Death Eaters stood frigid.
"What is this?" One of the ones holding onto Draco cried fearfully. "I don't understand!"
Draco smirked and shook off the men holding him. His eyes were burning silver, rather then gray. "You bastards," he murmured, pushing them backwards with a sweep of his hand. With caucious steps Draco walked towards his unconscious friend and carefully checked his pulse. Quatre's heart beat strong, and his empathy fed into Draco's anger. "You have on idea what those five can do." He spun around and gave them a full out grin. "But that's alright, because you probably couldn't comprehend it anyway." Something inside the pure blooded wizard crumbled and he lifted his hand, staring at it in amazement.
In his anger and fear for Quatre, he had managed to break down the wall holding back his magic. He didn't need a wand to string it out, the force of his skills rushed through his blood and sang with power. An aura of blue surrounded his hand, pulsing with his heart. The Death Eaters started backing away from him, terrified.
With a flick of his hand, Draco had them all pinned to the ground and unconscious. With another, he managed to levitate his friend onto his back. Forcing all his freed power inside himself, he began walking slowly towards where he knew he needed to be.
He was exhausted.
===
Trowa dodged another spell and landed lightly on an over head powerline. Despite everything the black robed Death Eater had said to him and thrown at him, he was still calm. And that alone infuriated his foe.
"You're skills are needed." The man shouted up at the teen. "We can make you great!"
Trowa cast him a glance before sighing. He had gotten to streach out his muscles during this fight, but that was about it. Having grown bored, Trowa gathered his magic together and simply narrowed his eyes. The man fell over and remained motionless.
The same happened with Wufei, though he did need to call on his katana to fight off the two who had come after him. By putting his magic in his hands and transfering that onto the swords blade he managed to send such a powerful attack that it took ten minutes for the dust to clear. And only one figure emerged from the cloud.
"And Duo said that watching Yu Yu Hakusho was a waste of time," Wufei grinned, looking down at his sword. "That was actually a fairly useful trick." With another grin he darted off towards where Heero and Duo were. They had to get back to the castle before anybody noticed they were missing.
===
"Duo here, reporting for duty!"
"Mr. Maxwell, you're late." Madam Pomphrey sighed, putting down the bedding she was carrying. Noticing that Duo had decided to wear only black pants and a tee-shirt she sighed. "Anyway, come over here and help me make these beds."
Duo flashed her his most charming grin and began carefully tucking in corners.
"Oh dear!" Pomphrey gasped, her eyes suddenly noticing the white bandage on the boys arm. There was a small amount of red seeping onto the gauzy white cloth. "Let me see your arm!"
Not even waiting for him to answer, she snatched the apendage and began unwinding the bandages from his upper arm.
"HEY!"
With a gasp, the medi-nurse stared at the cut in the boys flesh. Around the cut were strange shaped bruises, though the strange thing was that the wound was being held together by what looked like... thread.
"...what is this?" Pomphrey whispered, not letting go of Duo's arm.
"It's healing!" Duo snapped, taking his arm back into his possesion. He swiftly conjured more bandages to wrap around his arm and sat pouting on one of the beds he had been able to finish making. "Heero and I were sparing and I got hurt. It's no big deal, I've had worse." He explained, leaving out the whole "huge fight with the Death Eaters at a theam park" part of the story and looking at the nurse with big purple eyes. "But the wound is supposed to stay wrapped so that it can heal."
Pomphrey sighed, wishing the boy had just come to her instead of trying to close the wound with silly Muggle techniques. Those damn Muggles had no idea what they were doing when it came to medicine. Always ten steps behind.
Duo bearly managed to hide his smirk as he got off the bed and moved to make another one. Now that Pomphrey had seen his wound, she wouldn't let him do any strenous work.
His plan had worked like a charm. People had no idea what they were doing when it came to Gundam Pilots. They were always at least ten steps behind.
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AN Review and I'll update.
.
Anyway, enjoy. Next time I think I'm going to write a little more about Hiei the cat, a muse-bolt hit me about him. Demon cat anyone?
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Chapter 10
"Well, shit." Duo decided, staring at the three teachers.
"An explanation," Dumbledore said shortly. "In my office - now."
Very few people had the power to make Duo feel embarrassed or ashamed of his actions. He had long ago taught himself to hide behind a jesters mask and not get close to anybody. And so far, very few people had been allowed to see the boy really behind the mask. His friends rarely had the chance to see the unsure, slightly paranoid boy he really was. His war-buddy Hilde with whom he spent months living with on the L2 colony didn't even know who he really was. And only people he placed his entire trust in had the chance. People like Quatre who he had told his past to without even a thought of hesitation while someone like Lady Une had to earn a few scraps and tidbits of information eluding to his life before his part in the wars.
But to see Albus Dumbledore, blue eyes a mixture of being ashamed, worried and angry caused Duo's hidden heart to twist painfully. His unsure nature coming to the front.
And to the amazement of his friends he simply bowed his head and murmured a very soft, "yes sir."
With a curt nod, Dumbledore turned around and began walking back into the school. The group of five boys and two teachers followed. Nobody spoke the entire walk, and Duo continued to feel horrible about himself. A touch from Quatre jolted his mask into place and he offered a smile to his friend. The smile wasn't returned, for Quatre knew all about Duo's mask, all the pilots had one. Finally, they reached Dumbledore's office, just as Heero slipped from unconsciousness to sleep.
'Naturally,' Duo thought affectionately with an inward smile. His mask slipped firmly into place and he tightened his grasp minutely, sitting down on the floor of the office. His three friends did the same, leaving the chairs for the teachers.
"Tell us the truth," Albus said softly. "The *whole* truth about who you are and why you're here. And what you were doing in the forest tonight."
The boys feigned indifference, but were unsure of the headmasters request. How much should they spill? Snape opened his mouth to ask how Dumbledore knew where Duo had run off to, but was silenced when Quatre began calmly plucking twigs and leaves out of Duo's hair.
"Aren't you going to give them Vertesarium?" McGonagall snapped, glaring at the five.
Wufei snorted. "Your pathetic truth serums would do nothing to us, onna. Don't you remember questioning Maxwell a few weeks ago?"
The head of Gryffindor reddened in anger. But Dumbledore merely nodded his agreement. "Right now," he said softly, "is a matter of trust."
"We don't trust you." Trowa told him flatly. "You have given us no reason to."
"In any case," Dumbledore said in that same tone. "If you do not tell us we will be forced to expell you for the breaking of countless rules. Entering the forbidden forest, lying to professors, causing distrubances during classes and meals..." He trailed off but the words 'the death of Harry Potter' hung in the air unsaid.
"If you expell us," Duo thought to himself, ancient wizdom flowing from his eyes. "If we're kicked from the wizarding world. There's nothing to stop us from showing the Muggles what they're missing. There's nothing to stop us from fighting against them or attacking the castle. They know were powerful enough, even the students do. That's why we're still here, that's why they're trying so hard to subdue us."
The room fell silent as the two groups stared each other down. One side was angry, the other wary, seemingly unaffected by the expulsion threat. Snape in particular looked ready to argue Trowa's claim of trust. They had taken the boys into their school with no past records. They had taught them magic and tolerated their disobeying the rules. They had arranged for them to learn English faster without the help of spells. With a snarl, he finally noticed that none of the boys in front of him were *wearing* their translator charms.
"So, you noticed." Duo said softly. "I was wondering how long it would take you." He reached up to finger the place his charm would go, though no hole showed the previous presence of an earring. "That's right, we're all fluent in Japanese, English, and quite a few other languages - some of us more then others." He smirked.
In his lap, Heero shifted closer to Duo in an attempt to steal his body-heat. He was so much like a child when sleeping, so innocent that you wouldn't realize he was so cold hearted.
"You lied." McGonagall scowled, "telling us you couldn't speak English."
Quatre looked at her, his lap full of little twigs and leaves. "We did not lie," he denied, "we just never corrected you in your assumptions. We pushed you to believe things but never told you any lies."
"I don't lie." Duo growled, his eyes began to spit violet fire again. "Shinigami does not lie."
"What does Shinigami mean?" Dumbledore asked curiously. Obviously it was a nickname, but nicknames usually had a meaning behind them. Questioning these boys would be tricky. Getting the right answer might take hours of side tracking and prying.
"It means 'God of Death.'" Duo told him with a huff. "A very appropriate name for me considering my past."
"Why?"
"It doesn't concern you!" Duo snapped, "and don't bother asking again because I'm not going to tell you."
Precisely at that moment, Heero woke up. His eyes blinked sleepily for a moment, one eye green the other blue. After about two blinks both eyes went to blue. "Mm?" He asked.
"Q and A, Hee-chan." Duo said lowly, proud that he had managed to decipher the difference between Heero's grunts, sighs and monosyllabllistic questions and answers. Those few things made up the almost unknown language of Heero-speech. "They want "the truth" about tonight."
Heero looked up and saw the three professors staring down at him. "The truth," he said softly. "I don't think you would believe me if I told you."
"Try us." Snape growled, crossing his arms over his chest and delivering his best 'I-Hate-You-And-Plan-To-Seriously-Hurt-You (TM)' glare.
"Alright." Heero sighed. "First off, none of us were born in Japan. Or America, Arabia, China or Greece. Where we were born doesn't matter because you wouldn't understand it anyway... and you wouldn't believe me. We all grew up with different lives until we were fifteen or so. That's when we met, by fate you could say. We spent a little over a year fighting together in a war that you will never have heard of. We all then went our separate ways until we once again met in a steady job we all enjoyed. During one of our field assignments we fell through a sort of portal that ended up taking us here. I have a connection with Harry you can't comprehend and that's our background in a nutshell."
"That's a very vague nutshell." Snape commented snidely. "And you seem to think us unable to comprehend anything."
"You are." Wufei muttered.
Quatre shot him a sharp look. "^We're facing expulsion here, Wufei.^" The blond hissed. "^So don't push our luck.^" Wufei snorted and looked away.
There was another silence before McGonagall spoke up. "You're soldiers?" She breathed, eyes wide in shock. "But... you're so *young!* You're *children!*"
"We may be young," Quatre said softly. "But none of us are children."
His tone may have been soft, but his words were firm and his expression hard. There was nothing about him, his features or his body language that said his didn't feel passionately about his words. Nothing to hint that he was lying, and for some reason the three teachers believed him.
Dumbledore remained impassive, though his mind was whirling. Everything he knew about these boys screamed that they weren't Muggle-born. They must have been born into strong wizarding families. That was the only way the Headmaster could explain their quick learning, their high power levels, their ability to twist the truth so flawlessly. They must have been born in very remote areas and brought up there, first as wizards then as Muggles. But that couldn't be right either. Duo had told him he was American, but Heero was the boy wasn't born in America. Duo had said that he was an orphan, but then how explain his strength and his extensive traveling? Everything that made up Mr. Winner screamed of wealth and influence, but why had he never heard of a Winner family before? Mr. Chang must have studied in the most advanced of Martial Arts Dojo's, but then why carry a sword? Why did all these boys have Muggle weapons in addition to wands? What sort of war did they fight in, it must have been big considering the battle scars Poppy had mentioned, but why didn't he know about it? How did Harry know these boys? When did they meet? Dumbledore himself had been monitoring Harry's life and never did the boy travel or receive mail, never did anything out of the ordinary happen to him.
Mr. Yuy was right, he didn't understand.
"I heard tell," he finally said, directing his words to Quatre with a loss of anything else to say. "That you have twenty-nine sisters."
Which had been a rumor among the students a month ago, before this whole mess had happened.
"Actually," Quatre sighed, "I only have twenty-eight sisters. One of them died protecting me in an attack of our home over a year ago." The blonds eyes clouded over in pain. Trowa reached over to comfort him. "Our father also died in the attack, but our mother died just after I was born."
Another silence while Dumbledore tried to make sense. Did the boy mean that he and that one sister shared parents, or that all of his siblings shared parents? Perhaps they were adopted?
"So you are all orphans?" McGonagall asked, her voice much softer and gentler then before.
None of them answered. But after looking into their eyes, one could tell that yes, they were all orphans. Their only family was each other and the few people they had found in their lives and at the Preventers.
"What were you doing in the forest?" Snape barked at Heero and Duo. "Why were you there?"
"I was fighting three incompetent Death Eaters," Heero told him stiffly. "I killed them, although it wasn't much of a fight."
McGonagall swallowed hard. Death Eaters? At Hogwarts? And Mr. Yuy had *killed* them all? What kind of child was so calm about killing another person. Is Duo like this as well? Shinigami, god of death?
"I see," Dumbledore said. "Well, I think you have answered enough questions for tonight, and that we will not receive any more answers. Your punishment will be decided later, I will tell you Sunday morning. Until then I want you to remain in your dormitories. I will have a house-elf bring you your meals." He stood up to walk them to the door.
===
As promised, a house elf appeared three times a day with a healthy yet tasty looking meal for each of the five boys. Unfortunately after the first couple hours of confinement, they quickly got bored. Time was spent sleeping, threatening to throw Hiei out a window, talking, threatening to throw each other out the window, eating and doing the dreaded thing called homework.
Duo got so bored that he created miniature mobile suits, Gundams and others, and had them battle in "space" for a good potion of one afternoon. Unsurprisingly the Gundams came out of the battle victorious against OZ troops, but fell to pieces under Hiei's paws. Thus, threatening to throw both the cat and each other out windows are explained. The long haired pilot also pulled out his many, *many* bombs and such and began checking them over and reparing at will. Heero finally managed to get his lap-top working on magic rather then electricity and they spent time watching movies downloaded from the internet.
Saturday evening they had a surprise visitor. Draco Malfoy showed up outside their door and spent all of two seconds waiting until he was let into the dorm. Duo was so desperate for outside contact that even if Draco had *wanted* to leave it was very unlikely that he would be able to. There was, however, a reason to the blonds visit.
It seemed as though he knew all the rumors circulating about the exchange students and their plot to bring down Hogwarts. He had heard that the students believed they took part in Harry's sudden death. And Draco had apparently deduced that the only way to get the real story was to go to the source. What he got was a green eyed Heero Yuy, whom his friends refered to as 'Harry-kun' and a trip though the fireplace into a secret room that contained Harry Potter's body. He was, of course, sworn to secrecy about the whole truth under threat of Wufei's ranting, (which he too had come to fear) and torture by Duo.
This led to his questioning their Muggle life style, having seen a movie being played on Heero lap top. And, Draco was most interested about the Gundam Suit models Duo had been attempting to reconstruct, all the while shooting death-glares at Hiei, who purred innocently.
After hearing the story, the *real* story mind you, about how the pilots came about, he had a million questions and ended up spending the night in their dorm.
Finally, on Sunday morning a scroll of parchment appeared with their breakfast at five AM. Harry, having just stumbled into the room a few minutes before quickly snatched it and went to rouse his friends.
"Well," Duo demanded, trying to snatch the thick yellow paper from his boyfriends hand. "What's it say?"
With an important sounding clearing of his throat, Heero unrolled the scroll and began reading it out-loud.
"As your punishment for incidents already discussed, the staff has come up with this list of requirements. If failed to be obeyed, you will be immediately expelled from Hogwarts." Heero made a face and Harry surfaced for a moment.
"Stupid bastards, they make it sound like the military or something!"
Trowa cleared his throat with a little "hem, hem" and Heero continued reading. "First, you will be removed from all classes with other students, for both their and your safety." Here, Draco snorted. "Instead each of you will spend class time with either Mr. Filch, Madam Pince, Madam Pomphrey, Hagrid or Professor Dumbledore. Meals will be served in the dormitory. All trips to the village are disallowed. Allowances may be made during holiday breaks."
Duo scrunched up his nose. "So much for being normal kids," he complained. "They're treating us like we carry some disease."
"There's more," Draco told him, snatching the paper from Heero, reading the final requirement out loud. "Your wands will be confiscated until further notice."
They all groaned, in perfect unison.
Suddenly, Quatre stiffened. "^They've put up wards,^" he stated confidently. Only Draco gave him a confused look, but he understood the words for he was wearing Wufei's translator charm around his wrist. What he was confused about was how Quatre knew. "^But simple ones, they probably think that when they take our wands, we can do nothing.^"
Duo rolled his eyes and reached for one of the bread rolls on the breakfast tray. "I call working with Pomphrey," he told the others between bites.
That brought about a new discussion, who would work with whom. In the end Heero ended up with Dumbledore, Trowa with Hagrid, Quatre with Filch and Wufei with Madam Pince in the library. The Chinese boy promised the others that he would try to spend his time looking for books about Heero and Harry's separation problem. None of them were especially pleased with the new arrangement of being forced to assist the staff, but knew better then to complain.
"So," Heero said, sitting down on the couch. "What do we do for the rest of the day?"
They all looked at each other, trying to avoid eye contact with Duo, whose eyes had just lit up with mischief.
===
"I can't believe you convinced us to do this." Harry complained, tugging lightly on Duo's hair as they walked.
"What's more," Draco muttered. "I can't believe *I* got dragged into this."
Duo laughed and stared down at the Amusement Park map he held in his hands. "How about we check out the exhibits and galleries first and save the rides for after lunch?"
His answer was five half hearted groans.
Duo grinned happily. "LET'S GO!" He hollered.
To someone walking past them, the group of boys were normal, if a bit reluctant. Duo had first suggested taking a port key to America and try to break into the White House - he had quickly been shot down. They had compromised with an amusement park. About two minutes later, there they were... not quite sure where they were, but glad to be there and away from Hogwarts none the less.
"I still don't believe it." Draco sighed, walking next to Wufei, whom he seemed to get along with the best. "No wonder nobody could figure you out." He smiled at his new friends, glad to have been accepted into their group.
"Hey you guys!" Quatre called at the entrance of a petting zoo, "hurry up!"
===
"My Lord," a crawling underworm murmured, close to glueing his head to the ground. "We've discovered that they boy who killed the Hogwarts Spies and his friends have left the school for a Muggle facility. They seem to have taken the Malfoy boy with them."
Well, this was news. Those boys must have a death wish leaving the school campus like that, or at the very least, a point to prove. Either way, he didn't want to kill the boys, just recruit them onto his team of dimwits. Well, he would kill the Malfoy brat, his parents had been traitors to him anyway. And those boys probably weren't dimwits, for they had managed to get off campus without Dumbledore's knowledge.
"Send the inner circle to attack them there." Voldemort decided. "Bring back the five boys alive and unharmed, we need them for the war. Tell them they can kill the Malfoy boy however they choose."
"Yes, my Lord," the worm said, unsticking his head from the floor and slowly backing away. "It will be done."
What Lord Voldemort had said was very true. If one teenaged boy could bring down three of his Death Eaters without the use of magic, he needed that boy to learn his secrets. He needed to study that boy, his weapons. He had to master those weapons. Because if Voldemort could combine wizard magic and Muggle technology, he would rule the world that much faster. He might even become immortal.
The snake faced man bowed his head against his chest and let out a low chuckle. Sinisterly evil, he laugher echoed through the room he sat in and the rest of the building.
===
Pausing midstep, Quatre glanced over his shoulder with a slight frown. His empathic senses had been acting freaky ever since the group had split up for lunch. Duo and Harry had left for hamburgers while the other four headed for a cheery Greek restaurant.
"What's wrong?" Trowa asked worriedly.
"Someone is following us." Draco said softly, having felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He might not be an empath like Quatre, but he could feel dark magic. And he'd be damned if there weren't at least six Death Eaters somewhere behind them.
The other three shrugged and began walking again, forcing Draco to act natural.
"If anyone attacks us," Quatre told the other blond. "You have to let us fight, you'll need to get away to a safe spot."
Draco nodded worriedly, unsure. After all, his name *was* on Voldemort's "I-Want-His-Head" list. But he knew just how powerful his friends were and that they could protect themselves. The day before he had been given a gift of absolute trust, mostly because of Harry/Heero. And with that trust, his friends had allowed him to preform a very simple yet rare spell. With that spell he could see each of their most treasured memories, and the nightmares that haunted them at night.
It had been a shock to learn that Wufei had a wife, and just how bad off Duo had been early in his life. He felt he could relate with Quatre when the blond lost control, or with Trowa when his friend Middi Une had stabbed him in the back. The real surprise was Heero's past, and how painful it had been for him - being trained, modified and pushed into the Perfect Soldier. While on the other side Harry was being bullied and mistreated by his "family".
Draco envied them for their inner strength.
===
Duo frowned as he swallowed his cheesburger. Something Dr. G had made sure he knew was when he was being watched. The man dubbed Pestilance had spent months staring at him, sending other to stare at him and judge how quickly he noticed. And Duo would be damned twice over if he wasn't being watched right at that moment.
Heero noticed it as well. The two-in-one boy causally finished his soda and stood up to lead Duo towards the more crowded part of the park. That's when Duo took over, leading them calmly, in a way that went completely unnoticed until he found a place they could hide for a minute and gather their bearings.
Where the two ended up was underneath a fast paced roller coaster. Just as they crouched next to one of the supproters, the ride car roared past, causing the whole ride to shake slightly.
"I just wanted a nice day away from the bastards," Duo gripped, reaching behind him and pulling his braid over one shoulder. He checked with only half a mind to make sure that his thick hair still carried its usual amount of lock picks, bombs and the such. Satisfied, he continued with his short, quiet rant. "I didn't want to be chased by more bastards that bypass the origonal ones."
Heero didn't say anything, too focused on their current situation. The strange thing was that one eye was green and the other remained blue. Dispite the difference in eye color, both darted quickly, taking in the new battle area.
"Fighting with yourself Hee-chan?" Duo asked randomly, scanning the surrounding area on his left before turning back to Heero.
"Hn."
Before Duo could pry further, a hand clamped down on each of their upper arms, taking them both by surprise. Surprise swiftly left the two as they went straight into battle mode and defence mode. Heero especially was angry that they had been found so quickly.
"You boys have no right to be under here," a gruff, slightly muffled voice told them.
Nothing about the voice was out of the ordinary - except that it had a very strong British accent... and they weren't any where near Britain. The voice's muffled sound was also an oddity, meaning the mouth was covered. And the only people who would follow them to an amusement park outside of Britain in a mask was a Death Eater.
"So if you'll just follow me..."
Power suddenly ripped through the Duo's arm, the one being held by a type of glove that suddenly radiated with power. The magic there cut open Duo's flesh and allowing his blood to pour forth. The boy didn't even wince. Instead, at the exact same time, Duo and Heero gripped the hands on their arms and threw the masked man onto his backside. The man grunted in pain and looked up in time to see Heero remove the safety from his gun and Duo pull two knives from the sheaves on his arms, ignoring the blood dripping onto the ground.
Naturally, as the man did not know what Gundam pilots could be capable of with such weapons, he laughed. A kick in his gut, curtosy of Duo, ended the torturous sound.
"Hero and Duo I presume." The man said through his grunting. "Yes, I've heard a lot about you."
"It's Heero," Duo snapped. "And we don't have time for small talk. Tell us what you want with us."
"Of course. The Dark Lord wants to meet you, learn from you. He believes that with your knowledge he can dominate the fools at Hogwarts. We have heard about your, ahm, rebelious actions there and thought we might help out a bit."
"Dream on." Duo snorted. "You can tell that bastard we want no part in his war. The people at Hogwarts might be moronic, but at least it's not completely intentional." He pulled back the knife and readied it to throw at the Death Eeater, just to wound him.
"No," Heero said softly. "I am already a part of this war, remember? Though most people think I'm dead."
Duo sighed and put away his weapons. "But what about him? We can't let him go just like that!"
"I can leave when ever I want." The man on the ground snapped, sitting up through the pain still ringing in his abdominon.
Duo cast him a disdainful look. "So why are you still here?"
Score: Duo-1. Masked idiot-0.
"Anyway," Heero cut into their glaring contest. "There's bound to be more of Voldemort's lackies around here. We just have to figure out a way to either lead them all away, or get rid of everyone else." He cast a look at his koibito.
Said terrorist, stealth master and bomb expert grinned in perfect understanding. Once again pulling his braid over his shoulder he walked over to one of the main supproters of the roller coaster. "Bomb threat anyone?"
A nod of approval later, Deathscythe's pilot began attached a small but affective bomb to the supporter. When wired correctly, any movement would cause the explosives to go off. However, Duo wired it in such a way that only when he pressed the deatonator would there be a very big boom. Completing his task right as the roller coaster sped past again, the pro-terrorist created a cell phone and used it to make his threat heard.
Thierty seconds later he grinned and banished the phone. "Were good to proceed, 01."
Heero nodded, running two fingers over his bullet clip. Then with bearly a glance he fired four shots in quick succession. None hit the man but the metal bits still managed to pin him to the ground. "Those barriers are stronger then the ones surrounding Hogwarts." He said emotionlessly. "Good luck getting out. Koibito, come here, let me see your arm... it might need stitches."
===
On the other side of the park, four boys stiffened at the sound of gun shots.
"Heero," Quatre whispered as everyone around them started paniking. He began pushing forewards through the running Muggles. "He's in trouble!"
As the civilians began to panic more and more, a sudden announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was informing them of a bomb threat and advising the civilians to immedieatly leave the park. The boys quickly decided that it was Duo's doing and began moving towards where the gunshots had been fired.
Trowa quickly got annoyed with the pushing and screaming people, so he glanced upwards to see if there was an electorical wire or something of a similar nature alongside the path. What he saw was a line of paper-lantuarns. With a non-existant grin, pilot 03 threw himself upward and landed on the cord. He quickly determined its strenght and cast a weightlifting charm on himself, and a strenghtening charm on the cord. Trowa then began walking calmly towards the sorce of noise. He made it about halfway there when a carefully place severing charm broke the line and he just bearly yet gracefully landed on his feet a little off the path.
Wufei, on the other hand, had already arrived at what he thought to be the destination. Equipt with only his wand, katana and a gun he flitted around the base of the large roller coaster. It seemed that Wufei's magic was best suited to give him a boost of speed. And what a boost it was, for his running form couldn't even be seen save a small outline of where he had previousy been. The widowed pilot decided the base of the structure safe and leapt cleanly upwards onto the rails. He dodged an oncoming ride and stood watching. A moment later he was forced to dodge as a bright red subduing charm blasted the wood formerly under his feet.
Quatre and Draco, being unable to walk on tightropes or run faster the the speed of sound, were forced away from their destination by all the civilians. Three masked forms managed to grab the two boys and drag them to a secluded area. Two clutched Draco in a tight hold, while the other threw Quatre to the ground and held him at wand point.
"Now, now," the masked man said in a somewhat calming voice. Quatre shivered at the tone and Draco growled angrilly, struggling uselessly. "We don't want to hurt anyone, in fact - we want your help."
"Go find your help elsewhere!" Quatre screamed, "I would never help you with anything!"
The men chuckled humorlessly. "Oh, but I'm sure you'd *love* to help us..."
Draco fell still, staring at the man holding Quatre's life captive. Those boys had trusted him with their secrets, he owed them *something*! He hung his head. But against three Death Eaters, the blond thought miserabally, I can do nothing. I can't even move my arms enough to cast a damn spell! I'M SO FUCKING USELESS! Distressed and terrified, Draco could only watch helplessly as the Death Eater kicked Quatre harshly in the ribs.
The small boy on the ground cried out in pain, clutching his hand across his chest as though it would subdue the pain. The pilot coughed up a little blood, his aqua eyes slitting in hatred. Suddenly, his face went slack and the three Death Eaters stood frigid.
"What is this?" One of the ones holding onto Draco cried fearfully. "I don't understand!"
Draco smirked and shook off the men holding him. His eyes were burning silver, rather then gray. "You bastards," he murmured, pushing them backwards with a sweep of his hand. With caucious steps Draco walked towards his unconscious friend and carefully checked his pulse. Quatre's heart beat strong, and his empathy fed into Draco's anger. "You have on idea what those five can do." He spun around and gave them a full out grin. "But that's alright, because you probably couldn't comprehend it anyway." Something inside the pure blooded wizard crumbled and he lifted his hand, staring at it in amazement.
In his anger and fear for Quatre, he had managed to break down the wall holding back his magic. He didn't need a wand to string it out, the force of his skills rushed through his blood and sang with power. An aura of blue surrounded his hand, pulsing with his heart. The Death Eaters started backing away from him, terrified.
With a flick of his hand, Draco had them all pinned to the ground and unconscious. With another, he managed to levitate his friend onto his back. Forcing all his freed power inside himself, he began walking slowly towards where he knew he needed to be.
He was exhausted.
===
Trowa dodged another spell and landed lightly on an over head powerline. Despite everything the black robed Death Eater had said to him and thrown at him, he was still calm. And that alone infuriated his foe.
"You're skills are needed." The man shouted up at the teen. "We can make you great!"
Trowa cast him a glance before sighing. He had gotten to streach out his muscles during this fight, but that was about it. Having grown bored, Trowa gathered his magic together and simply narrowed his eyes. The man fell over and remained motionless.
The same happened with Wufei, though he did need to call on his katana to fight off the two who had come after him. By putting his magic in his hands and transfering that onto the swords blade he managed to send such a powerful attack that it took ten minutes for the dust to clear. And only one figure emerged from the cloud.
"And Duo said that watching Yu Yu Hakusho was a waste of time," Wufei grinned, looking down at his sword. "That was actually a fairly useful trick." With another grin he darted off towards where Heero and Duo were. They had to get back to the castle before anybody noticed they were missing.
===
"Duo here, reporting for duty!"
"Mr. Maxwell, you're late." Madam Pomphrey sighed, putting down the bedding she was carrying. Noticing that Duo had decided to wear only black pants and a tee-shirt she sighed. "Anyway, come over here and help me make these beds."
Duo flashed her his most charming grin and began carefully tucking in corners.
"Oh dear!" Pomphrey gasped, her eyes suddenly noticing the white bandage on the boys arm. There was a small amount of red seeping onto the gauzy white cloth. "Let me see your arm!"
Not even waiting for him to answer, she snatched the apendage and began unwinding the bandages from his upper arm.
"HEY!"
With a gasp, the medi-nurse stared at the cut in the boys flesh. Around the cut were strange shaped bruises, though the strange thing was that the wound was being held together by what looked like... thread.
"...what is this?" Pomphrey whispered, not letting go of Duo's arm.
"It's healing!" Duo snapped, taking his arm back into his possesion. He swiftly conjured more bandages to wrap around his arm and sat pouting on one of the beds he had been able to finish making. "Heero and I were sparing and I got hurt. It's no big deal, I've had worse." He explained, leaving out the whole "huge fight with the Death Eaters at a theam park" part of the story and looking at the nurse with big purple eyes. "But the wound is supposed to stay wrapped so that it can heal."
Pomphrey sighed, wishing the boy had just come to her instead of trying to close the wound with silly Muggle techniques. Those damn Muggles had no idea what they were doing when it came to medicine. Always ten steps behind.
Duo bearly managed to hide his smirk as he got off the bed and moved to make another one. Now that Pomphrey had seen his wound, she wouldn't let him do any strenous work.
His plan had worked like a charm. People had no idea what they were doing when it came to Gundam Pilots. They were always at least ten steps behind.
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AN Review and I'll update.
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