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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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- A/N2: This chapter is dedicated to lolo and Willow… Lolo, I hope this meets up with your standards… I tried at least…
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It's A War

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Search and Rescue

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Later that night Seamus woke up to hear and feel his stomach grumbling loudly. He mumbled something incomprehensible even to himself in his state of half-sleep and rolled out of bed. As he stumbled towards the door he stubbed his foot on the dresser and grumbled about stupid pieces of furniture moving around with minds of their own.

He flung the door open and walked down the hall, out the curtain, through the common room and out into the outer hallways of the school.

He wandered the halls silently retracing their steps from earlier that night to the dining hall. Making sure to stay absolutely silent, he let his mind wander. Where do I have to go to get a decent midnight snack around here. Do they have a kitchen someplace? Probably several with all the kids running around. If they have so many kids here I wonder how they keep them in their beds at night-

His musings were suddenly cut off as he heard a low growl not too far ahead of him. In the shadows he could make out two luminous eyes peering out of a nook in the wall. The creature emerged slowly and in a snake-like manner.

Seamus backed away from it slowly and disappeared into the shadows keeping a watchful eye on the animal and whipping out his wand… just in case.

The animal continued to slither down the wall, its claws tapping the stone silently. Silver fur sprouted from the scalp of a ivory head and bright amethyst eyes peered down the hall. Pointy teeth dripping crimson blood extended from the mouth of the creature and left a tiny pool of blood on the floor that Seamus's keen eyes could still pick out in the faint light from the moon.

The cat-like creature lifted it's nose in the air and sniffed. Growling, it stalked towards Seamus's hiding place. Sea held his breath as the creature came closer and closer threatening to come upon his hiding place. So this is how they keep the kids inbed… He thought fleetingly. I'll leave all of my CDs to Dean…Hermione can have all my books, Harry can have my broom, and Ron can have my Chudley Cannons stuff…

Suddenly Someone walked around the corner and the creature turned its head, but did not move.

"Élan? What on earth are you doing? Leave the poor student alone." Said a familiar Southern drawl.

Seamus breathed a sigh of relief and edged toward Tally while the creature's eyes trailed his movements.

Hiding behind Tally Seamus whispered, "What is that thing?"

"Élan? He's not a thing Seamus. He's a glyphn."

"A who-what's it?"

"A glyphn, one of the converted Undria'im." She picked up the creature which immediately turned into a domestic cat, but stayed silver and kept the same amethyst eyes. Seamus noticed now that there were tiger like markings in darker silver on the thing's face. "Did you scare Seamus Élan? I told you that we had visitors! Shame!"

The cat-thing seemed to grin mischievously. "You didn't tell me not to scare him, you just said not to eat him…"

Seamus stared at the thing in horror. "It-it can talk?"

"I'm not an 'It', human. I am the Lord of the glyhpns thank you very much." The glyphn barred its bloody teeth at Seamus and proceeded to clean its fur while nestled in the crook of Tally's arm.

"Élan and his family are Danni's experiment pets. She's been working on domesticating them. I help her sometimes and I can safely say that it's been quite the experiment so far." She rubbed Elan's head gently and he leaned into her hand like any other regular cat would. "Élan's my favorite. His daughter Livonia is also quiet lovely.

Seamus looked up into Tally's eyes and saw the same mischievous glint that was in Élan's eyes. No wonder she liked these freaky animals, they were just as vicious as she was. She gave him a smile and set Élan on the floor.

"Now, I don't want to hear of you trying to maul another person in this castle…wait, save Elaine Richards…you can eat her alive if you want, it'd do the world good to have one less horrible person around…" She smirked seeing the evil brat screaming in horror and terror in her mind's eye. "Oh, and please have Liv come and get me when it happens, I wanna hear her scream."

Seamus stared at her with complete horror in his eyes. "You are scary."

"You'd be surprised at how much you don't know about us Seamus Finnagan." She said with an evil smile. Cuddling Élan close to her chest, she walked away humming a haunting tune.

Seamus stared after her wondering if it was just his overactive imagination that saw her eyes glow fire red for a minute, or if he had really seen that.

He shook his head and continued down the corridor, still intent n something to eat.

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Thirty thousand miles away, in the depths of a remote forest near Mt. Cook, New Zealand, three figures crunched through the snow leading three horses.

Suddenly, one of them stopped near a tree and threw her hood back. "Take a minute to rest. They won't find us here. We'll keep looking in a minute." She said to her companions.

"Oh no. We are not stopping again. I refuse to freeze my toes off in below zero degrees weather. I can't believe T'keyah sent us on this wild goose chase for a stone that probably doesn't even exist anymore. We have the others, why can't we just do with those?" Whined one of the companions. "And then those weirdos in the purple capes started to chase us… good thing we lost them."

The first figure turned and faced the whining one. "Rotter, if you don't shut your trap and stop complaining, I swear, I'll ride off and leave you here."

Rotter grumbled about temper mental Elementals and scuffed his boots against the hard packed snow.

The last figure chuckled, but said nothing.

"Oh shut up Dennys." Rotter said to the last figure.

The female that spoke first paced around a tree to their left and felt the branches and leaves. The tree had to be sixty paces around and seventy stories tall. "This is it." She said.

"How can you be so sure of that oh Great Ivy?"

She smirked, flipping a strand of loose brown hair over her shoulder. "It's the only live tree for about fifty miles all around. Remember, we are on a mountain where it has been snowing continuously for the past, oh three months."

Rotter snarled at her, and turned away.

Dennys chuckled again and moved towards the tree. She pulled an ax from where it sat on her back and hacked away at the bark of the tree vertically. The pieces pealed away slowly, and an hour later, she had hacked out a curved crevice to the center of the tree. There she stopped and Ivy approached the tree once more. She held a hand up at the newly revealed wood and ran a finger lightly along the ridges of the wood.

The tree split slowly to reveal a hidden chamber locked inside of the tree. A brown glittering stone hovered there.

"Ah Elanère. You have led us on one hell of a journey."

Ivy reached to a leather pouch on her hip and opened it while slowly reaching for the stone in the tree. Placing it in the pouch with three other stones, she smiled wistfully. "Of thirty Mage Stones left by the first of The Nines, eight were destroyed by people afraid of their powers, yet twenty-two escaped the fate of their brothers. Ten were found long ago, but twelve eluded us until now. The last of the stones has been found, and the collection is complete."

"Wow, I didn't know you were a poet." Rotter said scathingly.

"Thank you for ruining my moment Stephan Rotter, remind me to mail you the bill." Ivy said raising a hand once more to the wood. The opening closed, and the tree re-grew it's lost wood in mere seconds.

Not a minute later, the tree withered to the ground slowly, and was no more than a sapling.

Ivy crouched down and stroked the new leaves springing forth. "Ah Ilana, your powers astound me." She sighed and stood to face her companions. "We're done here."

"You know we were called to return yesterday." Rotter said to Ivy.

She moved with the rocking motion of the horse as they galloped to the top of the mountain. "I know. T'keyah will be angry, but we had to find it…"

They reached the summit and saw a purple portal sparkling at the other end of the plateau. They galloped through it, and were gone.

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A/N: Hey you bloody chickens!!!! I want reviews and I want them now!!! Willow, I know you've been reading and I want reviews… you too lolo… and it wouldn't hurt to update!!!