Disclaimer: See "Stories of the Hogwarts Sisterhood"

Disclaimer 2: Wellard and the Aurors come from "Hornblower"

To flamers: I don't take kindly to flames so get out of here, if you know what's good for you.

Note: This is a sequel to "Stories of the Hogwarts Sisterhood"; taken place several months later during Easter holidays, so read that first.

Thank you for the reviews!

Jestana, Margo Wulfric- I like the class too *smiles*

Isabelle3- See the lower part for answer

Rated PG-13 for content

Chapter 20: "My Name Is Achilles McGonagall"

In the next few days, the Slytherins remained the same. The Gryffindors often found them reading about Muggle warfare in the library. Sometimes, Malfoy could be found reading about operating Muggle war planes. In the mornings, there were a lot of mails for the Slytherins so the other students could practically see nothing but owls at their table during mail time.

"It's scary, seeing that the Slytherins are so obsessed in this Muggle war stuff," said Ron to Harry when they passed by a Slytherin who was reading about the attack on Pearl Harbour in the library. "Do you reckon that they are up to something?"

"Maybe," said Harry simply. "Anyway, Athena said that she would tell Professor McGonagall about this......"

Once he had finished his sentence, Athena came running into the library.

"Hey Athena, so what did your mother say?" asked Harry.

Ignoring Madam Pince's frown, Athena said, "She said that maybe the Slytherins are having a Muggle war mania."

"Well, it is not affecting us." said Ron.

"But she said that she would ask all teachers to keep an eye on them."

"I doubt that Snape will." said Harry flatly.

"By the way, I had sent an owl to my friend in the Auror Headquarters about this a few days ago."

"And what did your friend say?" asked Ron.

"He told me to keep an eye on the Slytherins; they might be up to something. Muggle war weapons might be not as good as magic but they are deadly. He said you will die immediately if a Muggle bullet hits your important organs."

"How did he know?" asked Ron in awe.

"Well, the Aurors are being trained to use swords, guns and cannons properly. So that they could handle any weapon once they got their hands on them. I heard from my friend that the Aurors of the higher ranks get to use swords and guns while the Aurors of the lower rank get to use guns only."

Silence.

"Whoa." said Harry and Ron in unison.

***

In the Dumbledores' summer house, Achilles walked slowly into the lounge and to the shiny black piano that was standing alone in the middle of the room. He stopped beside it and stood for a moment as he ran his fingers along its polished case.

"I used to play this for hours while Mom and Dad listen." Achilles thought.

Then he looked at the couch at the corner of the sun-lit room as if his parents were there, watching him. He sat down on the long chair in front of the piano and lifted its keyboard cover.

"Just like brand new." he thought as he looked at the keys.

He put his hands on them, hesitated for a while and started playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata".

As he did, someone came in quietly and he didn't notice.

He kept on playing, getting more and more enthusiastic as he went. When he played the last note, the other person in the room clapped.

He looked up.

"Poppy?"

Poppy just smiled. "That's excellent. Looks like your skills didn't go down the drain after 20 years."

Achilles didn't know what to say.

She sighed and stared at the piano for a while sadly before she said: "William used to play that too. He was an expert in this."

Achilles blinked in surprise. He thought that Poppy would never talk about William.

"Every time when he plays, I would sit close beside him and listen attentively. My favourite is Beethoven's "Waldstein". Could you play that?"

"Hm, okay." said Achilles slowly and he started to play while Poppy leaned on the side of piano and listened.

As the soft music filled the air, Achilles noticed a sorrow look on Poppy's face and her expression worsened as he went on.

"Oh stop, stop........." she muttered weakly and covered her eyes with her hand.

Achilles stopped immediately and asked in concern, "Poppy, are you okay?"

Poppy sniffed and said, "Yeah........anyway, I am here to inform you that you are allowed to go."

"Huh?"

"I said, you are allowed to get out of here, you are free."

"Really?"

Poppy nodded.

Achilles smiled brightly and got up quickly. "Great!" Then his smile faded. "Hm, Poppy?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"For what?"

"For leaving home 20 years ago."

"For a while, yes. But when I see from your point of view, I understand why you want to leave. We are being stupid for not telling you the whole truth, aren't we?"

"Um......not exactly, I mean, you swore not to because it is too painful to talk about." said Achilles slowly, and looked at Poppy for her reaction.

Poppy's face showed no expression. But then she said, "Achilles, promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Find a suitable day and apologize to your mother."

Achilles swallowed before he talked. "Will she forgive me?"

"She will, I am sure she will." said Poppy and patted Achilles's shoulder. "And one more thing......"

"What?"

"Change back to your name, will you? Your name is special and you shouldn't ignore it."

***

Achilles returned to the Auror Headquarters immediately and reported to Pellew.

Pellew was not pleased at him for being absent and he didn't make an effort of hiding it. "You have gone for days! Do you know that you are very much needed here?!"

"Sorry, Sir." Achilles mumbled, thinking that it would not be easy to get another leave.

After five minutes of scolding, Pellew finally let Achilles to get back to his work but before he left, he said, "By the way, Mr Smith?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Did a girl named Athena McGonagall look for you a few days ago?"

"H-how......."

"Don't ask, just answer my question." said Pellew impatiently.

"Um, yes."

"So she is your sister, then?"

"Yes."

"Then may I suggest you to change your name back to Achilles McGonagall in the register?"

"Yes Sir."

"All right, you may go, Mr McGonagall."

Once Achilles got out of Pellew's cubicle, he bumped into Bush, knocking his rolls parchments out of his arms.

"Oops, sorry!" said Achilles and kneeled down to help Bush to collect his parchments.

"Thanks," said Bush and smiled broadly when he saw who was helping him. "Hey, Richard! Back for work, I suppose?"

Achilles held a finger. "Ah! Don't call me Richard."

"Huh?"

"From now on, my name is Achilles McGonagall." said Achilles proudly.

***

At Friday morning, the Slytherins were not reading any books on Muggle warfare; instead they were sitting at their house table, talking quietly. When owl posts came, as usual, most of the owls headed straight to the Slytherins.

"I wonder who would write to them," said Ron as he watched Malfoy reading his letter. "I mean, they are not super stars like Wood, and they are not exactly the popular kind......."

Malfoy smirked, crumpled his letter and leaned forward to whisper something to the Slytherins. He leaned back and waited until the bell rang. He got up with the rest of the Slytherins and instead of going with them, he marched to the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, are all of you planning to do anything meaningful today?" he asked the Gryffindors.

"Like what?" asked Hermione.

"Like writing to your parents."

"I just wrote to them yesterday. What are you up to, Malfoy?" asked Ron suspiciously.

"Nothing." said Malfoy slowly and an evil grin appeared on his face. "I think you should, so that they would know what you are up to until.........."

He stopped and ignoring the Gryffindors' annoyed faces, he turned to Harry.

"You know, my father is right, Potty. You are going to be in the same sticky end like your parents."

"Will you stop talking nonsense and tell us what is going on?" said Athena irritably.

"You will find out soon. Farewell." said Malfoy and left.

"Until what?" asked Ron.

No one answered.

***

During Transfiguration, the class was changing their eye colours. Athena had successfully changed her eye colour into green. Harry, who was still thinking about Malfoy's words, absentmindedly changed one of his eyes into blue when he was supposed to change his both eyes at the same time.

Athena looked whether Minerva was looking and quickly, she changed her hair colour into black as well.

***

Meanwhile, on the outside, some of the students were lying peacefully outside near the lake, watching the blue sky when 12 Muggle war planes came to view from afar.

"Wow, will you look at that?" asked a Hufflepuff boy in awe as he pointed at one of the planes.

"Those are Muggle war planes," said a Hufflepuff girl. "My dad is a military officer, so I know this. I think they are doing drills or something......"

***

Mandy was on a lawn, teaching a flying lesson.

"Oh, Madam Hooch, look! War planes! Are they coming for us?" asked a first year.

"Don't be ridiculous, Muggles couldn't see this place, they must be just passing by." snapped Mandy.

***

"Athena!"

"What?" asked Athena as she turned around and looked at her mother.

"I didn't ask you to change your hair colour as well, change it back."

"Aw, I just want to see the 17 year old Minerva again." said Athena and grinned as she looked into the mirror.

"Athena, please, you are frightening everyone here." said Minerva.

Sure enough, the class was staring at Athena and Minerva in shock. They didn't know that Athena looked so much like her mother once she had her eye and hair colour changed. Athena grinned and stood up beside her mother.

"I need glasses." said Neville finally.

"Fine, I will change it back." said Athena and she sat down.

***

When the war planes were exactly over the castle, a Death Eater in the first war plane crackled madly, "Bombs away."

CLICK

***

"There," said Athena, looking like herself again. "Better?"

BOOM

"What was that?" asked Harry in horror.