Purging, Chapter Eight
Familiar Faces
Black Beyond
------------
O_o
I really need to get out the next chapter of Death, Be not Proud, don't I? *runs to work on it* Stupid writers block...
"Where's your familiar, little witch?"
Usagi didn't bother to turn to see the face of the voice. It was a low, haunting tenor, one she recognized all too well. They all had the same voice. She shook her head slightly, and turned the page of the spell book she was reading.
"Who needs one of those?" She replied smoothly, fully aware of the danger she was in. The tree was digging into her back but if she moved now she was going to be in a lot of pain. Not dead-- she wasn't even sure she could die anymore.
"Do you know what happens to little witches when we find them in our forest?"
The voice took on an amused, threatening note and she turned another page.
"Oh, I'm sure you have several tortures you enjoy. Why don't you tell me? You're going to anyway." She tried to see the words on the page and failed. She reached for her power and grasped it tightly, not activating it but almost.
"Very smart, little witch." It came closer and she shuddered as a clawed hand ran through her silver hair. "Very beautiful. Your beauty is almost inhuman, almost veela. But I know the scent of veela."
Usagi noted wryly that her father had been the creator of veela but decided that her guest would not appreciate the knowledge.
"Youma, if you have a purpose here, speak it now. I'm trying to study and I'll willing to let you go in one piece if you leave in the next two minutes." She turned another page and hid her relief when the words started making sense again.
"Wouldn't you think yourself so powerful? I am not just any youma. I am more powerful than you could ever dream." It crooned into her ear, almost lovingly. She rolled her eyes.
"Of course you are. You know, you should really do some research before you go after vulnerable young maidens in the forest, Youma. Look at me. I'm not human at all."
She could feel its heart quicken in anger and confusion. "No, you're not." It replied, after a moment. "But I don't recognize you."
"You wouldn't. No youma has fought me and lived. No dark creature, for that matter, has fought me and lived. Use your eyes, fool." She turned and pointed to the moon, taking it the dragon-like scales and claws in a quick glance. "See how She shines on me?" The textbook fell, forgotten. "I am her last Daughter."
It backed away quickly, its talons slipping from her hair and it stared at her with growing horror. "You're the girl that was killed. The one that the Old Queen swore would come avenge her. I was there, with my Dark Queen." For a scaly sort of beast, it looked quite pale. "She... said that her daughter would return... and that she would finish the deed..."
Usagi looked at it coldly. "I am not that daughter. I am the daughter of a man that ceased to exist eons ago. I am Etern's Daughter." Was it actually trembling now? "Now run, youma. I know you now serve the one called Voldemort. Tell him to keep his minions away from this school. I deserve a break, and as long as I am in your world the boy Harry is under MY protection. If he dares cross me I will not hesitate to unleash my fury upon him." Her eyes flashed. "If I see another dark creature on these grounds, not only will I kill it, I will send a curse after the lot of you that has not been seen in this galaxy since the second Freezing!" Her voice grew impassioned. "Now go! Give your Lord that message! Etern's Daughter protects the boy!"
She watched, much too satisfied, as the dark creature turned tail and ran. She sighed and picked up her textbook, and leaned back into the trunk comfortably.
"Now, to figure out this bloody Summoning Spell..." She sighed.
~'~
"That settles it."
"Yeah. She's going to get killed, going in there like that."
"I don't know. She seems pretty sure of herself."
"That doesn't matter, Harry. It's forbidden to go into the forest."
"Oh, like that seems to stop her, Hermione."
"Shut up, Ron."
Harry watched from the window of Hagrid's cabin as his two friends started another bout of arguments. They had just watched Usagi emerge from the Forbidden Forest, glowing silver in the moonlight, a book tucked under her arm.
He watched her glide over the grounds and up the stairs, a frown on his face.
She did have an unnatural aura of confidence around her, as he had remarked earlier. It was the step of Dumbledore, of Superman, the step of someone who had laughed Death in the face and then embraced him like an old chum. Someone who was afraid of nothing.
Going into the forest like that... surely she had met up with something big and nasty.
There was something strange about her. The way she blew off Malfoy so effortlessly, how she had managed to procure even Snape's respect, and the way the paintings bowed to her. Exchange student? For some reason he thought she was older than that. But she looked so young sometimes. Perhaps Ginny's age. And the next moment she would look like she'd been around to see Dumbledore's birth.
"I know what you're thinking, Harry." How had Hagrid crept up on him like that! "Don't even begin to suspect that one. Snape.... Fudge.... even Trelawney... of course. But that lady right there? Dumbledore will turn to Voldemort before she does."
Harry looked up at the giant of a man. "How are you so sure?"
Hagrid's smile gave him away. "Her mother was the greatest sorceress to defend our side. And it's in her blood. If she touches Dark Magic like that it will kill her, I think. She's not... she's different. And besides, she's protecting you."
Harry blinked. "What?"
Hagrid groaned. "I shouldn't have told you that."
Ron and Hermione had broken out of their argument. "Protecting Harry?" Ron asked. "Why?"
Hagrid looked at them and sighed, throwing up his hands. "You're bound to find out anyhow, you lot. But don't tell Dumbledore I told you. He really would sack me for this."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Who is she, Hagrid?"
Ron grinned. "She's a spy, isn't she? A double agent?"
Hagrid shook his head. "I can't tell you specifics. I don't know them myself. But I do know she's not human, and she's got the power to destroy Voldemort and his entire army in one finger."
Harry listened, but Ron scoffed.
"Yeah, right. If she had that kind of power she'd already have done it."
Hermione, however, was connecting the dots. "Not if she didn't think it was her business.... right, Hagrid?" A spark of passion lit in her face, the exact look she got right before an exam. "She'll do meager things... like watch over Harry, maybe... keep a few dark creatures away from the castle... but if she doesn't think it's her business..."
Hagrid groaned. "I'm going to get sacked, for sure."
"Who is she, Hermione? You know, don't you?" Harry asked. Ron stared at his friend.
Hermione broke into a smile. "She's half veela, half mermaid."
Hagrid blinked. "What?" He caught himself. "Oh, sure. Of course she is. Leave it to you, Hermione, to figure it out." Unfortunately, lying was not Hagrid's forte. Hermione's face fell.
"Then what is she?" Harry asked. "You know, Hagrid. What is she? She's not human, Hermione was right about that."
Ron's eyes darted from Hagrid to Harry, and back. Hagrid blinked first.
"She's Princess Serenity." Hagrid said, at last.
This meant absolutely nothing to the boys, but Hermione's eyes nearly exploded from their sockets. She pounced on Hagrid, grabbing his collar and yanking him down to face level with surprising strength.
"HOW?! That's IMPOSSIBLE! She's DEAD! And has been! For two thousand years!"
Hagrid looked very surprised. "She was reincarnated. Her mother did it. All of her court was. It's very possible for a Lunarian."
"Lunarian..." Ron muttered. "Weren't they the ones that had a huge kingdom on the moon a long time ago?"
Hagrid nodded miserably. "And she is the daughter of Etern."
Hermione's mouth worked up and down like a fish out of water, but the words wouldn't form. Harry's eyebrow raised. "What does that mean, Hagrid?"
Ron had gone very pale. Even he knew who Etern was.
"She... she..."
"All-powerful." Ron supplied. "Etern was... the creator of magic, Harry. Etern was the creator of this solar system. Even I know that." He shot a look to a still wordless Hermione.
Harry began to realize, slowly, what exactly that could mean.
~'~
She remembered.
It took her a moment, and she was ashamed of it. But it took her a full moment, curled up in the heavy, dark blankets, surrounded by bed curtains that let no light enter her bed, to remember who she was and where she had been.
She groaned and rubbed her hand with her hands, cursing herself for her panic for her nightmares and stumbled out of bed, nearly tripping over the covers.
The dawn was just breaking through her window, throwing a rosy light over her, turning her silver hair a familiar shade of pink, one she recognized from her second childhood. She smiled at it and shoved her nightmares from her mind.
In silence, she dressed herself in her robes and tucked her long hair up into a bun. No need of make-up of hairbrushes, or of simple, beautiful food. Not that she couldn't use them, it was just that they weren't needed. She missed the need of them, the feeling of being human.
"Shhhh! She'll hear us!"
"Fred, you're going to get us killed this time. I know it."
"Shhh! Uh... what's the Unlocking Spell again?"
Usagi rolled her eyes and stepped away from the mirror into a dark corner and drew the shadows around herself as Fred muttered the old Latin that unlocked her door. She watched as they, very quietly, entered her room and shut the door behind them. She hadn't bothered to pull apart of the curtains of her bed, so to them it looked as though she was still asleep.
"Cold water?" George asked.
"If it was hot we'd definitely die." Fred replied, reading his wand as his brother did the same. Usagi grinned and lifted her palms to face the Weasley Twins and began to recite a spell in her head.
"On the count of three." George decided. "One, two, THREE!"
Together they ripped the curtains back and in the second of surprise when they found only mussed blankets Usagi finished the spell and they found themselves to be much, much shorter. And furrier.
"Kawaii!" Usagi exclaimed. "The exact color of your hair, too!" She skipped out of her hiding place and scooped the two disgruntled foxes up into her arms and snuggled them tightly. At this, the left fox, formerly George, noticeably brightened. Fred, however, sulked, his eyes only widening a little at the close proximity of her breasts.
She caught their looks.
"Ah-ah-ah!" She tossed them on her bed. "That's very perverted of you both. I'm way too old for either of you." She grinned. "And you can't tell anyone I just let that slip to either of you. Don't look at me like that, whichever Twin you are, because you deserve it. I might have killed you both if you'd surprised me like that." Her smile was cheerful but her eyes were serious. "I'm going to turn you back now, even though you are so dreadfully adorable. And then I'm probably going to glomp you both."
Lifting her palms, there was bolt of blue magic to both of them and then Fred and George Weasley were sitting on her bed, both looking annoyed and abashed.
That changed when Usagi took a flying leap at them and started a rather interesting tickle fight.
~'~
Dumbledore resolutely stopped himself from doing a double take when Usagi Tsukino walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, Fred and George Weasley on either side of her, and all three of them considerably mussed and bedraggled, both twin wearing very silly smiles and Usagi looking like she was the cat who got the cream AND the canary.
As they passed the teacher's table, he heard George whisper to his brother, "Remind us to try and get killed tomorrow, too."
Usagi punched him lightly. "Ecchi no..." She raised and eyebrow and sighed. "Twin, I guess. Argh. One day I'm going to figure out how to tell you both apart."
Fred's eyes lit up. "That bit about you being too old?" He broke into song. "Age ain't nothing but a nuuumber!"
George agreed. "Besides, age isn't anything to goddesses!"
Usagi went very pale before she realized they were joking. "Oh. Oh! Well, take it up with the Headmaster, koibito. I promised him I would behave."
She continued to the Gryffindor table, but the twins turned very slowly to face Dumbledore. McGonagall discreetly scooted her chair away from the unfortunate Headmaster while the other professors instantly found their plates to be the most fascinating things they had ever seen.
At the same time, they fell to their knees and crawled to tug on the hem, of his robe.
"We'll never plant another dungbomb!"
"We'll stay out of Filch's Butterbeer stash!"
"We'll never talk the houseelves into another revolution!"
"We'll never sneak out at night again!"
They offered their best pleas to the Headmaster with tear-filled eyes in pleading faces as they repeated kissed the hems of his robes. The entire Hall now had its eyes on the pair, except Usagi, who was demurely sipping Pumpkin Juice.
"Go for it, Albus." Sprout hissed. "We'll never get another chance like this again."
"Of course?" Dumbledore said, rather helplessly. He looked taken aback when hit by two very grateful Weasley twins muttering thanks.
The Hall went back to eating and the twins pounced on Usagi.
Harry blinked and looked to Ron, whose jaw was resting on the table from several feet below his nose.
"They seem quite taken with her." He stated the obvious as Ron tried to close his mouth.
"I think they forgot that she already said she was taken." Hermione said very loudly, earning acid glares from the twins who turned to Usagi.
"You're not really, are you, Usa?" Fred asked.
Usagi nodded nonchalantly and took a sip of her juice. "Unfortunately, my dear mischief makers, it's my destiny to be alone forever." She stood dramatically. "Love has forsaken me." With that, she swept out of the Great Hall.
"That was a nice performance, my dear." As she turned down an unfamiliar corridor, the Gray Lady of Ravenclaw fell in step beside her. Usagi gave the ghost a strange look; the Gray Lady had never spoken around her before.
"Thank you. I always wanted to be in drama, but that was one of the forbidden things." She saw no reason to be secretive around the ghosts.
The Gray Lady nodded. "Why don't you tell them the truth? That you don't know what would happen if you paired with a human?"
Stopping dead in her tracks, Usagi turned to stare at the ghost, who had once been a very lovely woman. Her clothing was in a very old style, one that Usagi recognized but couldn't place.
"How do you know what I am?" She asked softly, her voice dead, her eyes lost. The Gray Lady smiled and laid a cold hand on Usagi's shoulder.
"My dear, I am the oldest ghost here. I remember the Lunarian Kingdom, and especially your mother. I served the kingdom of King Endymion the Second, father of your fiancé. I met your mother, and you bear an eerie resemblance to her. I never met you, but as I was close to Queen Terra, she confided many things to me. One of which was your rather ancestry. Etern was the most powerful of all beings ever, and it is not hard to see his blood coursing through your veins. No, my dear, you are most definitely not human."
Usagi blinked. "You knew my mother?" She reached out and to her delight found that she could touch the ghost. Her fingers felt the fine silk of the Gray Lady's sleeve, and for some reason she believed the pretty apparition.
The Gray Lady nodded. "I knew her. Not well."
Usagi smiled. "So. You don't think I'm a monster, what I am?"
"Why would I think you were a monster, my dear Queen?" The Gray Lady was startled that Usagi's hand, like all others, did not go straight through her.
Usagi understood. Her face relaxed and the disturbing emptiness in her eyes was hidden. "I see. You know, but you don't know. I hold power... so much power. Why do you think Etern chose death over immortality? After so many centuries... you begin to understand more and more of the things men were never meant to understand. Things become so clear that even the most trained of minds begins to succumb to denial and finally, insanity." There was a haunted tilt to her head. "And when someone with the kind of power Etern held goes insane..."
The fatal silence was enough for both of them.
The Gray Lady nodded, her horror showing much too well in her expression.
"That is why a Sailor Pluto is so well chosen. Unlike myself, their power is granted. They are chosen because of their extraordinary abilities to cope, more so than you can ever imagine. They can last millennia. But myself... I am not so sure."
The Gray Lady sighed.
"I cannot say that I know what to tell you, Queen Eternia. But might be able to offer you a piece of comfort."
The pointed to a door behind Usagi.
"There is are two mirrors there, which were made a couple of decades after the Alliance fell. Read the inscriptions and look into them. They will be able to tell you more than I will. But... if you ever want to listen to an old ghost ramble, dear, just ask for me."
The Gray Lady faded into the wall.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Usagi turned and stared at the door. She sighed. "It can't be any worse than fighting Metalia." She reasoned, yanked open the door, and let it shut softly behind her.
She never saw the figure at the end of the corridor turn and run away, shocked and very gleeful.
Familiar Faces
Black Beyond
------------
O_o
I really need to get out the next chapter of Death, Be not Proud, don't I? *runs to work on it* Stupid writers block...
"Where's your familiar, little witch?"
Usagi didn't bother to turn to see the face of the voice. It was a low, haunting tenor, one she recognized all too well. They all had the same voice. She shook her head slightly, and turned the page of the spell book she was reading.
"Who needs one of those?" She replied smoothly, fully aware of the danger she was in. The tree was digging into her back but if she moved now she was going to be in a lot of pain. Not dead-- she wasn't even sure she could die anymore.
"Do you know what happens to little witches when we find them in our forest?"
The voice took on an amused, threatening note and she turned another page.
"Oh, I'm sure you have several tortures you enjoy. Why don't you tell me? You're going to anyway." She tried to see the words on the page and failed. She reached for her power and grasped it tightly, not activating it but almost.
"Very smart, little witch." It came closer and she shuddered as a clawed hand ran through her silver hair. "Very beautiful. Your beauty is almost inhuman, almost veela. But I know the scent of veela."
Usagi noted wryly that her father had been the creator of veela but decided that her guest would not appreciate the knowledge.
"Youma, if you have a purpose here, speak it now. I'm trying to study and I'll willing to let you go in one piece if you leave in the next two minutes." She turned another page and hid her relief when the words started making sense again.
"Wouldn't you think yourself so powerful? I am not just any youma. I am more powerful than you could ever dream." It crooned into her ear, almost lovingly. She rolled her eyes.
"Of course you are. You know, you should really do some research before you go after vulnerable young maidens in the forest, Youma. Look at me. I'm not human at all."
She could feel its heart quicken in anger and confusion. "No, you're not." It replied, after a moment. "But I don't recognize you."
"You wouldn't. No youma has fought me and lived. No dark creature, for that matter, has fought me and lived. Use your eyes, fool." She turned and pointed to the moon, taking it the dragon-like scales and claws in a quick glance. "See how She shines on me?" The textbook fell, forgotten. "I am her last Daughter."
It backed away quickly, its talons slipping from her hair and it stared at her with growing horror. "You're the girl that was killed. The one that the Old Queen swore would come avenge her. I was there, with my Dark Queen." For a scaly sort of beast, it looked quite pale. "She... said that her daughter would return... and that she would finish the deed..."
Usagi looked at it coldly. "I am not that daughter. I am the daughter of a man that ceased to exist eons ago. I am Etern's Daughter." Was it actually trembling now? "Now run, youma. I know you now serve the one called Voldemort. Tell him to keep his minions away from this school. I deserve a break, and as long as I am in your world the boy Harry is under MY protection. If he dares cross me I will not hesitate to unleash my fury upon him." Her eyes flashed. "If I see another dark creature on these grounds, not only will I kill it, I will send a curse after the lot of you that has not been seen in this galaxy since the second Freezing!" Her voice grew impassioned. "Now go! Give your Lord that message! Etern's Daughter protects the boy!"
She watched, much too satisfied, as the dark creature turned tail and ran. She sighed and picked up her textbook, and leaned back into the trunk comfortably.
"Now, to figure out this bloody Summoning Spell..." She sighed.
~'~
"That settles it."
"Yeah. She's going to get killed, going in there like that."
"I don't know. She seems pretty sure of herself."
"That doesn't matter, Harry. It's forbidden to go into the forest."
"Oh, like that seems to stop her, Hermione."
"Shut up, Ron."
Harry watched from the window of Hagrid's cabin as his two friends started another bout of arguments. They had just watched Usagi emerge from the Forbidden Forest, glowing silver in the moonlight, a book tucked under her arm.
He watched her glide over the grounds and up the stairs, a frown on his face.
She did have an unnatural aura of confidence around her, as he had remarked earlier. It was the step of Dumbledore, of Superman, the step of someone who had laughed Death in the face and then embraced him like an old chum. Someone who was afraid of nothing.
Going into the forest like that... surely she had met up with something big and nasty.
There was something strange about her. The way she blew off Malfoy so effortlessly, how she had managed to procure even Snape's respect, and the way the paintings bowed to her. Exchange student? For some reason he thought she was older than that. But she looked so young sometimes. Perhaps Ginny's age. And the next moment she would look like she'd been around to see Dumbledore's birth.
"I know what you're thinking, Harry." How had Hagrid crept up on him like that! "Don't even begin to suspect that one. Snape.... Fudge.... even Trelawney... of course. But that lady right there? Dumbledore will turn to Voldemort before she does."
Harry looked up at the giant of a man. "How are you so sure?"
Hagrid's smile gave him away. "Her mother was the greatest sorceress to defend our side. And it's in her blood. If she touches Dark Magic like that it will kill her, I think. She's not... she's different. And besides, she's protecting you."
Harry blinked. "What?"
Hagrid groaned. "I shouldn't have told you that."
Ron and Hermione had broken out of their argument. "Protecting Harry?" Ron asked. "Why?"
Hagrid looked at them and sighed, throwing up his hands. "You're bound to find out anyhow, you lot. But don't tell Dumbledore I told you. He really would sack me for this."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Who is she, Hagrid?"
Ron grinned. "She's a spy, isn't she? A double agent?"
Hagrid shook his head. "I can't tell you specifics. I don't know them myself. But I do know she's not human, and she's got the power to destroy Voldemort and his entire army in one finger."
Harry listened, but Ron scoffed.
"Yeah, right. If she had that kind of power she'd already have done it."
Hermione, however, was connecting the dots. "Not if she didn't think it was her business.... right, Hagrid?" A spark of passion lit in her face, the exact look she got right before an exam. "She'll do meager things... like watch over Harry, maybe... keep a few dark creatures away from the castle... but if she doesn't think it's her business..."
Hagrid groaned. "I'm going to get sacked, for sure."
"Who is she, Hermione? You know, don't you?" Harry asked. Ron stared at his friend.
Hermione broke into a smile. "She's half veela, half mermaid."
Hagrid blinked. "What?" He caught himself. "Oh, sure. Of course she is. Leave it to you, Hermione, to figure it out." Unfortunately, lying was not Hagrid's forte. Hermione's face fell.
"Then what is she?" Harry asked. "You know, Hagrid. What is she? She's not human, Hermione was right about that."
Ron's eyes darted from Hagrid to Harry, and back. Hagrid blinked first.
"She's Princess Serenity." Hagrid said, at last.
This meant absolutely nothing to the boys, but Hermione's eyes nearly exploded from their sockets. She pounced on Hagrid, grabbing his collar and yanking him down to face level with surprising strength.
"HOW?! That's IMPOSSIBLE! She's DEAD! And has been! For two thousand years!"
Hagrid looked very surprised. "She was reincarnated. Her mother did it. All of her court was. It's very possible for a Lunarian."
"Lunarian..." Ron muttered. "Weren't they the ones that had a huge kingdom on the moon a long time ago?"
Hagrid nodded miserably. "And she is the daughter of Etern."
Hermione's mouth worked up and down like a fish out of water, but the words wouldn't form. Harry's eyebrow raised. "What does that mean, Hagrid?"
Ron had gone very pale. Even he knew who Etern was.
"She... she..."
"All-powerful." Ron supplied. "Etern was... the creator of magic, Harry. Etern was the creator of this solar system. Even I know that." He shot a look to a still wordless Hermione.
Harry began to realize, slowly, what exactly that could mean.
~'~
She remembered.
It took her a moment, and she was ashamed of it. But it took her a full moment, curled up in the heavy, dark blankets, surrounded by bed curtains that let no light enter her bed, to remember who she was and where she had been.
She groaned and rubbed her hand with her hands, cursing herself for her panic for her nightmares and stumbled out of bed, nearly tripping over the covers.
The dawn was just breaking through her window, throwing a rosy light over her, turning her silver hair a familiar shade of pink, one she recognized from her second childhood. She smiled at it and shoved her nightmares from her mind.
In silence, she dressed herself in her robes and tucked her long hair up into a bun. No need of make-up of hairbrushes, or of simple, beautiful food. Not that she couldn't use them, it was just that they weren't needed. She missed the need of them, the feeling of being human.
"Shhhh! She'll hear us!"
"Fred, you're going to get us killed this time. I know it."
"Shhh! Uh... what's the Unlocking Spell again?"
Usagi rolled her eyes and stepped away from the mirror into a dark corner and drew the shadows around herself as Fred muttered the old Latin that unlocked her door. She watched as they, very quietly, entered her room and shut the door behind them. She hadn't bothered to pull apart of the curtains of her bed, so to them it looked as though she was still asleep.
"Cold water?" George asked.
"If it was hot we'd definitely die." Fred replied, reading his wand as his brother did the same. Usagi grinned and lifted her palms to face the Weasley Twins and began to recite a spell in her head.
"On the count of three." George decided. "One, two, THREE!"
Together they ripped the curtains back and in the second of surprise when they found only mussed blankets Usagi finished the spell and they found themselves to be much, much shorter. And furrier.
"Kawaii!" Usagi exclaimed. "The exact color of your hair, too!" She skipped out of her hiding place and scooped the two disgruntled foxes up into her arms and snuggled them tightly. At this, the left fox, formerly George, noticeably brightened. Fred, however, sulked, his eyes only widening a little at the close proximity of her breasts.
She caught their looks.
"Ah-ah-ah!" She tossed them on her bed. "That's very perverted of you both. I'm way too old for either of you." She grinned. "And you can't tell anyone I just let that slip to either of you. Don't look at me like that, whichever Twin you are, because you deserve it. I might have killed you both if you'd surprised me like that." Her smile was cheerful but her eyes were serious. "I'm going to turn you back now, even though you are so dreadfully adorable. And then I'm probably going to glomp you both."
Lifting her palms, there was bolt of blue magic to both of them and then Fred and George Weasley were sitting on her bed, both looking annoyed and abashed.
That changed when Usagi took a flying leap at them and started a rather interesting tickle fight.
~'~
Dumbledore resolutely stopped himself from doing a double take when Usagi Tsukino walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, Fred and George Weasley on either side of her, and all three of them considerably mussed and bedraggled, both twin wearing very silly smiles and Usagi looking like she was the cat who got the cream AND the canary.
As they passed the teacher's table, he heard George whisper to his brother, "Remind us to try and get killed tomorrow, too."
Usagi punched him lightly. "Ecchi no..." She raised and eyebrow and sighed. "Twin, I guess. Argh. One day I'm going to figure out how to tell you both apart."
Fred's eyes lit up. "That bit about you being too old?" He broke into song. "Age ain't nothing but a nuuumber!"
George agreed. "Besides, age isn't anything to goddesses!"
Usagi went very pale before she realized they were joking. "Oh. Oh! Well, take it up with the Headmaster, koibito. I promised him I would behave."
She continued to the Gryffindor table, but the twins turned very slowly to face Dumbledore. McGonagall discreetly scooted her chair away from the unfortunate Headmaster while the other professors instantly found their plates to be the most fascinating things they had ever seen.
At the same time, they fell to their knees and crawled to tug on the hem, of his robe.
"We'll never plant another dungbomb!"
"We'll stay out of Filch's Butterbeer stash!"
"We'll never talk the houseelves into another revolution!"
"We'll never sneak out at night again!"
They offered their best pleas to the Headmaster with tear-filled eyes in pleading faces as they repeated kissed the hems of his robes. The entire Hall now had its eyes on the pair, except Usagi, who was demurely sipping Pumpkin Juice.
"Go for it, Albus." Sprout hissed. "We'll never get another chance like this again."
"Of course?" Dumbledore said, rather helplessly. He looked taken aback when hit by two very grateful Weasley twins muttering thanks.
The Hall went back to eating and the twins pounced on Usagi.
Harry blinked and looked to Ron, whose jaw was resting on the table from several feet below his nose.
"They seem quite taken with her." He stated the obvious as Ron tried to close his mouth.
"I think they forgot that she already said she was taken." Hermione said very loudly, earning acid glares from the twins who turned to Usagi.
"You're not really, are you, Usa?" Fred asked.
Usagi nodded nonchalantly and took a sip of her juice. "Unfortunately, my dear mischief makers, it's my destiny to be alone forever." She stood dramatically. "Love has forsaken me." With that, she swept out of the Great Hall.
"That was a nice performance, my dear." As she turned down an unfamiliar corridor, the Gray Lady of Ravenclaw fell in step beside her. Usagi gave the ghost a strange look; the Gray Lady had never spoken around her before.
"Thank you. I always wanted to be in drama, but that was one of the forbidden things." She saw no reason to be secretive around the ghosts.
The Gray Lady nodded. "Why don't you tell them the truth? That you don't know what would happen if you paired with a human?"
Stopping dead in her tracks, Usagi turned to stare at the ghost, who had once been a very lovely woman. Her clothing was in a very old style, one that Usagi recognized but couldn't place.
"How do you know what I am?" She asked softly, her voice dead, her eyes lost. The Gray Lady smiled and laid a cold hand on Usagi's shoulder.
"My dear, I am the oldest ghost here. I remember the Lunarian Kingdom, and especially your mother. I served the kingdom of King Endymion the Second, father of your fiancé. I met your mother, and you bear an eerie resemblance to her. I never met you, but as I was close to Queen Terra, she confided many things to me. One of which was your rather ancestry. Etern was the most powerful of all beings ever, and it is not hard to see his blood coursing through your veins. No, my dear, you are most definitely not human."
Usagi blinked. "You knew my mother?" She reached out and to her delight found that she could touch the ghost. Her fingers felt the fine silk of the Gray Lady's sleeve, and for some reason she believed the pretty apparition.
The Gray Lady nodded. "I knew her. Not well."
Usagi smiled. "So. You don't think I'm a monster, what I am?"
"Why would I think you were a monster, my dear Queen?" The Gray Lady was startled that Usagi's hand, like all others, did not go straight through her.
Usagi understood. Her face relaxed and the disturbing emptiness in her eyes was hidden. "I see. You know, but you don't know. I hold power... so much power. Why do you think Etern chose death over immortality? After so many centuries... you begin to understand more and more of the things men were never meant to understand. Things become so clear that even the most trained of minds begins to succumb to denial and finally, insanity." There was a haunted tilt to her head. "And when someone with the kind of power Etern held goes insane..."
The fatal silence was enough for both of them.
The Gray Lady nodded, her horror showing much too well in her expression.
"That is why a Sailor Pluto is so well chosen. Unlike myself, their power is granted. They are chosen because of their extraordinary abilities to cope, more so than you can ever imagine. They can last millennia. But myself... I am not so sure."
The Gray Lady sighed.
"I cannot say that I know what to tell you, Queen Eternia. But might be able to offer you a piece of comfort."
The pointed to a door behind Usagi.
"There is are two mirrors there, which were made a couple of decades after the Alliance fell. Read the inscriptions and look into them. They will be able to tell you more than I will. But... if you ever want to listen to an old ghost ramble, dear, just ask for me."
The Gray Lady faded into the wall.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Usagi turned and stared at the door. She sighed. "It can't be any worse than fighting Metalia." She reasoned, yanked open the door, and let it shut softly behind her.
She never saw the figure at the end of the corridor turn and run away, shocked and very gleeful.