A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since… like… ummmmmmmmm…. errr…. Hmmm….

Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.

Summary: You all should know this by now, but…

It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly odd about those girls……

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.

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It's A War

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Welcomes and Confessions

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The Eating Hall at LunaSoleil was roughly the size of four gyms placed side by side. Nine tables ran horizontally on each side of the room making it eighteen tables in all and a set of faculty tables at the head of the room for the many teachers. A large table that sat at the front of those held three large throne-like chairs. One was a shimmery purple, in the middle was the largest chair a dark midnight blue with inset stars and the last was a sea green. On top of each of the chairs perched an owl. On the purple chair was a gray owl, on the blue was a white owl, and on top of the green was a tawny.

At dinner that night Hermione walked into the crowded hall leaning heavily on Ron's arm.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" He asked her, "We could always have something sent up."

She shook her head. "If Lilah can do it, so can I." She looked over to where the girl in question was sitting surrounded by her siblings. Hermione made her way to the visitors' table and sat down next to Harry and Ron. "Hey, you guys said that Ginny was here… I haven't seen her…" She looked around the room.

Two of the tables in the front of the room –one on each side- were dedicated to the constant visitors that the school was receiving. Each of the other tables had a banner over it showing what race or type of people sat there. Each different sect was like a family. They ate together, slept in the same dorms, and learned together.

There were four tables in the front on the right side dedicated to the many young children that lived at LunaSoleil. Lilah and Danni sat at one of the tables with the kids. A very young baby was seated in Lilah's lap trying to pull her hair out and two young girls were seated on either side of her. Danni was in a somewhat similar state. A young child was standing in her lap proudly saying his abc's and another young boy that looked just like her was standing in his seat talking about how he had helped someone named "Dicy" put a puzzle together. Said the girl on Lilah's left opened her mouth and protested that "No, sissy, I did it all on my own. Lynde is lying again…" Lilah smiled at her sister, then the baby in her arms began wailing. She gave him his bottle and started to sing softly to him while Dicy and Lynde started a shouting match over their sisters.

Hermione smiled at the scene and turned back to her table. She gave a frightened squeak and jumped when she saw someone's face very close to her own. The young girl pulled back and stared hard at Hermione. Then she turned and whispered something to a boy behind her.

"Um… can I help you?" Hermione asked.

"For give me, I'm Deirdre Farstone, Delilah's sister."

"Delilah?"

"Yes, she prefers Lilah, but I love messing with her head." The girl cracked a smile. "I just wanted to welcome you and your friends to LunaSoleil on behalf of the Anila."

"The Annie-what?"

"The Anila, it means children of the wind, we're the children of the Circle."

"What Circle?"

The girl frowned. "You might want to talk to my sister or brother very soon. I think it might help you understand some things." She said. Then she turned to the two people behind her and waved them forward. "This is Devi Higgins, Lord of the Lhim'as and Erimentha Knaves, Lady of the Halflings. We've been given our titles as we are the oldest of our kind here at the school."

Hermione nodded at them with a warm smile. "That's lovely." She said slightly lost. Suddenly something in her head clicked. "Do any of you know a Ginny Weasley? The boys mentioned something about seeing her earlier today, but I must have missed her."

"The professor? Yes, she teaches us." Deirdre looked around. "She is over there with Professor Malfoy."

All of the foreign visitors swung around in their seats and saw Ginny with Aidan in her lap and Draco with Devon in his, and there were two small girls with bright red hair seated on either side of them scowling at each other. Ginny looked and waved and Aidan waved elaborately almost whacking Ginny in the face. Draco chuckled and went back to talking quietly with her.

Suddenly a door behind the high table opened and the hall went quiet. A tall woman with dark purple robes walked gracefully onto the dais and stood before her chair the purple one. Everyone in the hall stood and Hermione and her friends hastily followed. The woman smiled at everyone with a warm expression and sat gracefully. Her brown blonde hair was twisted up into a bun on the back of her head and her face looked exotic, yet natural. After she sat a man walked in who looked to be in his early thirties. He stood in front of his chair and looked out into the crowd. His hair was pitch black and if you looked close enough, you would see the golden sparks in his silvery eyes. He sat with out a word in the green chair.

The door was filled yet again with a tall wide frame of a man in his late fifties. He walked calmly to the dais and stood before the blue chair and looked out into the crown with a smile he sat down and the rest of the students followed. Held up his hands and spoke. "I would like to begin the evening with a special welcome to five very special people. Would our guests please stand?" He said looking straight at the group.

They stood and everyone stared.

"Let's give a warm welcome to Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas." He clapped and soon the entire room was filled with polite clapping. It was more than obvious that no one knew who they were. Their fame seemed secluded to Europe.

Deirdre whispered over the clapping. "Not many in the American Wizarding communities are familiar with the wars in your country. Only the wars in our own."

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Harry stopped walking as he saw Ginny just up ahead talking to Malfoy once again. The young boys hung onto her hands and the two redheaded girls were clinging to Malfoy.

Harry turned to his friends and said, "Guys, I'll meet up with you later, I want to talk to Ginny…" He ran to catch up with her and stopped next to her. "Hey Ginny, could we talk?" He said looking pointedly at Malfoy.

The blonde raised one perfect eyebrow and stared at the-boy-who-lived. With out looking at Ginny he spoke. "Go ahead Ginny, I'll take the kids." He began to walk away and Aidan ran after him, but Devon clung onto Ginny's hand not willing to let go.

Ginny kneeled next to him and smoothed his hair down in a motherly gesture. "Devvi, va avec son père. Je serai arrière." *

The little boy opened his mouth and pleaded. "Mais maman, vous avez promis…"

"Je pense mon fils, je pense, mais aller! Vite! Je serai arrière." She said pushing him along. He looked back over his shoulder and looked at Harry, then ran off after his brother.

Ginny smiled at his retreating form and turned to Harry. "Well, what can I do for you Harry? I only have a minute. I've got to get to my office and assign a weeks worth of detentions to two trouble makers, then make it back to my rooms in time to read Devon to sleep." She said beginning to walk down the hallway at a slow but steady pace.

Harry followed and hesitated before speaking. "I- I missed you Ginny, you couldn't know how much…" He placed a gentle hand on her cheek, but she pulled away.

Ginny smiled at him. "I missed you too Harry… but whatever there was between us is… gone…"

Harry turned to her with an unreadable expression. "What do you mean?"

Ginny sighed and started to fiddle with a necklace around her neck. "Harry, what I am about to tell you may shock and hurt you, but it's the truth… When I first arrived here at LunaSoleil, I cried for you every night. I was so afraid that you would die in the war or that you would get hurt and that I would be able to do nothing to stop it. I felt so alone and I went into a sort of depressed stage. For a while I didn't speak, I went mute not saying a word. Then Draco presented himself as a friend and we grew closer. After a while, almost six months, I realized that my love for you was dieing and I was frightened." She stared off ahead of them and had a dazed expression. "How could I not love you anymore? You had been everything I ever wanted… funny, caring, respectful, gentle and kind… but there was just something missing that I couldn't name… After about a week, I realized that I didn't love you anymore, but only thought of you as a friend, a brother… By then, Draco and I had become very close and I confided in him my worries about you. He was understanding and listened to me... The next day, I realized that I had some feelings for him, but I didn't say anything."

Harry listened not liking where this was going.

Ginny continued unaware of how Harry felt. "It was a while before anything happened, then a couple of our students noticed where things were going between us and helped things along…"

"What did they do?" Harry asked trying to be calm.

"They locked us in a deserted classroom." She sand sniggering. "Deirdre, Erimentha and Devi are the worse troublemakers that I have ever taught. They may put on an elegant front for meetings and such, but those three are worse that Fred and George." She chuckled and continued. "From then on, we were inseparable. We were married before the year was up. That was five years ago…"

Her voice faded from his mind. His girlfriend who he hadn't seen for six, going on seven years now had married someone else… it had to be a lie, that bastard Malfoy must have spelled her or something…

Harry grabbed Ginny and spun her to face him. She shrieked at the sudden movement and frowned at him.

"He's put a spell on you!" Harry said forcefully. He grabbed his wand and tapped her forehead saying "Finite Incantatum." But she just continued frowning at him.

"Harry, let me go." She said trying to extract herself from his arms.

"No! It's a lie!"

"It's not a lie Harry! I love him, and I trust him!" She said.

"How can you trust a death eater?" He whispered harshly.

"He's not a death eater Harry, he doesn't have the mark! He never wanted to join them and never did!"

"But he's still evil!"

"Draco is not evil." Ginny said finally breaking away. "He may be an absolute ass sometimes, but he's not evil." She backed away from him.

Something in Harry's head clicked then. "The boys, Aidan and Devon, who are they?"

"They're my sons, Draco's sons."

"And the girls?"

"My daughters, Peyton is four and Elia is five. Randi is around here somewhere, most likely with those friends of hers, she's ten now."

Harry's eyes filled with sadness and he looked at Ginny with an empty expression. "I only have one question, why?"

Ginny smiled sympathetically at him. "In truth, I don't really think I loved you Harry, I know I said that I did, but it was mere infatuation, nothing else… When I came here, I fell in love, sometimes I still can't believe it, but it happened…" She placed a hand on his shoulder, but he jerked away. She sighed and turned to walk to her office. "I'm sorry Harry…" Then she was gone.

Harry stood still, then walked to the Outer Quarters with his mind filled with questions. Not watching where he was going, Harry ran into something, or rather someone very small and knocked them over.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" He said helping them up.

It was a small girl with familiar blue-black hair as she pushed the long curly tresses out of her eyes, familiar brandy-wine eyes were revealed. She squealed and hugged him tightly. "Uncle Harry! Mother said you were here! I didn't believe her until dinner when I saw you and uncle Ron and aunt Hermione, but wow! It's lovely to see you!" Randi said bouncing on the balls of her feet.

If there was one thing aside from a Weasley married to a Malfoy that Harry never thought he'd see was an ecstatically happy Randilyn Weasley-Riddle. She squeezed him around his middle then started to drag him somewhere.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see someone civilized! I mean, I love my sisters to pieces, but they're always fighting! And the boys are lovely, but they're just so quiet! Father says it's just their nature and that they'll most likely always be that way, but lord, it's freaky!" She babbled on and on about other things and continued to lead him somewhere.

Harry thought hard, "Father" must be Malfoy. He thought angrily. But his anger cooled as he looked down at the young girl latched onto his hand. She had been the product of Ginny's time under Tom Riddle's spell and had stayed hidden until her mother's sixth year when her safe house was attacked. The five-year-old Randi had gone to Hogwarts then and remained under the protection of Dumbledore. Ginny confessed that the weekends she went missing were to see her and that the months in the summer when she virtually fell off the face of the earth were visits to the safe house. He had connected with the little girl during his seventh year and had become a type of father figure to her. That is, until Ginny had disappeared along with her daughter and Malfoy. It seems that his father status had been stolen. He tuned back into Randi's babbling.

"…And then I told her that she was acting like a wet little four-year-old and then we got into this gigundi row and she threw her rucksack at me so I threw one of my kickers at her and called her grotty then she went mad and started gassing off about how I was a lying cheat and how I'd have poxy spots before the year was out so I called her a name that made mum smack my head. I was so mad I dumped my spaggy bol in the little git's head…It was absolutely brill…noodles were everywhere and the sauce was covering her plaits and bunches… Then mum smacked me again said I had to apologize. I did, and the weird thing is, we've been best mates ever since." (((((Translation: …And then I told her that she was acting like a naïve little four-year-old and we got into this huge fight and she threw her backpack at me and I threw one of my sneakers at her and called her gross and then she went crazy talking about how I was a lying cheat and how I'd have disgusting zits before the year was out so I called her a name that made mum smack my head. I was so mad I dumped my spaghetti on the little jerk's head…It was absolutely brilliant… noodles were everywhere and the sauce was covering her braids and pigtails… Then mum smacked me again and I had to apologize. I did and the weird thing is, we've been best friends ever since.))))) She giggled and opened a door on their left. "I want to show you my collection…" She told him.

"What are you collecting now?" Harry asked, she'd always had something stored up.

"Babies." She said calmly.

They walked into the room and Harry realized that it was some sort of nursery. He was slightly shocked to see Lilah sitting in a rocking chair with a small bundle in her arms. She was rocking slowly between two beds, one holding the young girl, Wendy, form earlier that day and the other holding a miniature version of her self. A man knelt next to the dark girl's bed and kissed the little girl's head, then he exited the room.

Randi gestured to the room. "This is my collection. I get to help Lilah with the Anila." She walked over to Lilah and peered into the bundle. "How is he?" She whispered.

"Just fine." Lilah whispered back. "Danni is putting Lynde to sleep if you want to go and say good night."

Randi nodded, waved to Harry and disappeared behind a door to an adjoining room. Harry stared after her for a minute, then approached Lilah. He gestured to Wendy's sleeping form. "How is she doing?"

"Poor thing cried herself to sleep… Misses her mother…She started babbling about someone named Glyn around thirty minutes ago, then fell asleep." The bundle in her arms cooed, and she shhed it.

"Who's that?" Harry asked peering at it.

Lilah smiled. "My youngest brother Denton or Dennys as Dysis called him." She indicated the sleeping girl in the bed next to Wendy's. "She's four and Dennys is six months old." She smiled down at the bundle. "The boy who was in here when you walked in is my brother, Demitri, along with our sister Drucilla– just call her Drew, we're triplets. I'm almost positive you've met Deirdre, you can call her Deedee. Oh, and I'm sorry about Blake's behavior today, though I really should be apologizing to Ginny. He can just be so over protective of us. He feels that as the oldest it's his duty."

Harry cracked a smile. "Your parents must have a time with all of you."

Lilah's smile faltered and she stared out the window. "They did…"

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Harry said. "I didn't know…"

"It's all right…" She said. "It's been a while…"

Harry looked at the way her eyes seemed to empty of emotion and sympathized for her. He had never gotten to really meet his parents, but he sort of knew what it felt like to loose someone, he'd lost a lot of people in the war, and to other people… "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"It's a long story, but it won't be the first time I told it." She said.

"I've got time…" Harry said.

Lilah shrugged and shifted Dennys in her arms. "When my mother was seven months pregnant with Dennys about a year ago almost, she and my father took Dicy and Deedee shopping. It was a sale and Dee was going nuts, kid loves to shop. We lived in a remote area of Northern California and they had to take a train to the shopping town. On the way there, the train was attacked by the Undria'im and they just barely escaped. My father was killed in the struggle and Dee's leg was broken in three places, she's still got the limp… My mother managed to get them off the train and into the surrounding forest. Dennys managed to choose that moment to come into the world- two months early. It was a blessing that Dee knew what to do and managed to contact Blake, Demitri, Drew and I via cell phone. We apparated there and got them to a hospital. My mother was overcome by grief about my father and didn't really want to try to go through labor. It wasn't long before Dennys was born. She took one look at him and named him after my father, then she passed out. To this day, the doctors still can't figure out what's wrong with her. She's still in that coma. We all go to see her twice a week." She looked up at him and cracked a cryptic smile. "She's in the hospital down the street."

Harry sighed. "I'm sorry." He said again.

Lilah smiled. "S'okay, hakunamatta."

"Hakata ma what-what?" Harry said with frown.

"Hakunamatta." She said. "It means no worries, what's in the past is in the past. It's from my favorite movie from when I was a kid, The Lion King. I can't do anything to change what happened, I can only worry about what's to come." Her words made Harry think as she shrugged and stood cradling Dennys she walked over to a crib on the other side of Dysis's bed and placed him gently in it.

"If your mum can't take care of Dennys, who's been feeding him?" Harry asked.

"He had a wet nurse at first, but he took to the bottle very quickly..." She turned to the door. "Come on, I'll take you back to the outer quarters." They left the nursery and shut the door with a soft click.

The hallways were mostly quiet. It was late and the students were in bed. Some of the teachers were on patrol and one stopped and greeted Lilah. "Hey Lilah." He said. He had short dirty blonde hair and sleepy blue eyes.

"Hey Vaughn." She turned to Harry. "Harry, this is Vaughn, he's the one that healed Hermione, he runs the healing arts class, taught me everything I know."

"And we're still working on it…"

"I know, I know…"

"Don't think that one little thing like this is going to get you out of your Saturday classes." Vaughn said.

"You act like I didn't know it would happen sometime…I just wasn't expecting someone else to get hit." She muttered. "But you know what that means…"

"The last member of the Circle of Fire has been found" Vaughn said with a slight smile. "We can finally get this over with. Hmmm… maybe we should tell everyone to start packing. We finally get to have some fun before we split." He gave Harry and Lilah a slight bow. "I'll see you bright and early tomorrow Lilah, good night to you Mr. Potter." He walked away then, continuing on his rounds.

Lilah smiled after him as Harry turned to her with a confused look. "What is that all about?" Harry asked. "What's the Circle of Fire? What should everyone start packing for? Who are you fighting?"

"Why, the Undria'im of course… Not everyone is as against them as my friends and I are. Most of us just want them gone because they've run us from our own world, and now they're trying to do it again." Lilah clinched her fists in fury. "But this will be the last time I run from those creatures. They've messed with me one to many times, not they die." She said glaring at nothing.

"You talk as if you were there all those years ago…" Harry said.

They had reached the outer quarters by then and as Lilah's hand lighted on the knob, she turned to him and said in a very odd voice, "I was." And then she was gone.






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A/N: I'm on a roll! R&R!!