By: Lina Gabriev
Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers and I don't own Harry Potter or any of their characters. Don't sue.
Couples: L/G, A/Z, F/X and M/Z
Time: After TRY
Notes: Italics Harry's thoughts (I won't always say "Harry thought" each time.)
The 8 Who United Hogwarts Chapter 3 The OTHER Reunion
"Hedwig!" Harry cried as his friend swooped down with two letters tied to her leg. Wisps of autumn wind blew across his face through the window reminding him of the school year ahead of him, which both excited him, and filled him with dread. This summer, although better then the last was still lonely. He untied the letters from Hedwig's right leg and set them on his table to open and read.
His fingers pulled opened the envelope breaking the Hogwarts seal. No doubt, it's probably just school supplies Harry figured.
A knock on the door interrupted his actions. It was followed by scurried footsteps as someone ran from his room, to downstairs, into the kitchen. Sighing, he went downstairs for dinner.
"Pass the potatoes please?" Harry asked. The Dursleys exchanged uneasy glances to one another, as if unsure what to do. Gulping, Dudley passed it as quick as lightening--or as quick as muggles can anyway--and drew his hand back just as quickly. Harry sighed as the Dursleys set one tentative glance upon anotherhis way and as heate.
When he finished, he sighed again and got up and walked over to the phone. He began dialing Lupin's number for his three-day checkup. It would have been much more fun to just not call and let the Dursley's have a one on one with Moody as promised when school ended last year. Uncle Vernon's not-so subtle signals to 'dial the DAMN phone to his WEIRD friends so that THEIR KIND didn't show up', stopped him from doing so.
"Yes Lupin. It's Harry. Yes I'm fine. Yes. Alright. I'll read the letter. Yes. Goodbye," Harry recited into the speaker, as he talked to Lupin. Last year he got no communication from the magical world. This was a definite change, but too many things were changing though.
He turned around, meeting the scared glances of his "family" and had the sudden urge to yell 'BOO' at them and see their reaction. Nothing was the same anymore. Not even the horribly tidy, boring Dursley's he has come to know. Everyone had been affected by last year.
It had been fun at first when Dudley jumped higher then the ceiling just when Harry said his name, now it was just boring. Not that he was complaining. It was better then being Dudley's personal punching bag. He probably still remembered getting attacked by that Dementor. Uncle Vernon didn't even yell at him anymore, much. Aunt Petunia is scared of him, due to the fact that he might decide to do some more "voodoo" on her precious "Dudders".
In frustration, he ran up stairs, throwing the phone on it's hook only for it to bounce off from the impact. It was saved from crashing against the floor, thankfully, due to the fact the cord wasn't long enough.
Expecting to hear Uncle Vernon start yelling at him, he paused with some hope, at the top of the stairs. Not hearing anything, he peeked over the ledge at the top of the stairs. Uncle Vernon very calmly get up and put the receiver on it's hook and sit back down without a word, which should have surprised him. Instead, he tried to hold back tears of frustration because he had been expecting that all along.
Sitting down at his desk, he began breathing heavily as he tilted his head back against the back of the chair, trying to get his mind back on track. He straightened up, reopened the letter from Hogwarts, and started to skim through it.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
COURSE BOOKS
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
Defense Against the Dark Arts by Whiet Winderburg
A History of Magic (Grade 6) by Windom Walop
One Thousand Potions by Chister Megelwhof
Telepathy by Mildred Trelawney
Curses by Lera Forten
Jinxes by Jihilda Topors
Itsurprised him when he reached "Telepathy by Mildred Trelawney. Trelawney...well he had to suppose she was back again, after Umbridge left. Umbridge...that seemed so far away now. To think that at one time he had been worried about carving his signature into his hand repeatedly, the prefect badge, and the OWL's.
"I wonder who the new Dark Arts teacher will be like..." he mused to himself, opening the other letter.
Dear Harry,
Happy birthday Harry. Lupin will come to get you tomorrow so you can stay at Ron's house for the rest of the summer.
Hermione
Oh yeah, it's my birthday... Harry thought looking at his watch which now read 12:38. He hadn't even realized how much time had passed since dinner. I'm sixteen now...
Sighing he climbed into bed, and laid there with his back flat on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. Sighing...he did that a lot these days. A while back ago he would have been glad to go back to school. To go to Ron's house for the summer to get away from the Dursleys. Just last summer he was able to go to Siri...no. Better not to think of that. Anything but that. These days he didn't feel anything anymore except for frustration. Nothing else...
"Harry?" Lupin asked, shaking him awake. At the call of his name, Harry shot up from his bed, his face soaked with sweat.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Lupin asked, his brows wrinkled in concern.
"Nothing just another dream. Apparently he isn't very pleased," Harry said, clutching his scar.
"Right. Harry are you ready? We have to be going," Lupin said, worriedly.
"Oh right. I'll be down in a minute," Harry said getting up.
"I'll be right downstairs," Lupin said, turning towards the door. He opened the door, taking one last glance to the solemn 16 year old, and exited, shutting the door behind him.
Sighing, yet again, Harry took off his pajamas and put on his old ratty dark green t-shirt over his faded blue pants and startedsearching his room, so he could begin packing.
"All ready?" Lupin said, a half smile place on his lips, encouraging Harry to try to be happy about leaving.
"Yeah," Harry said giving Lupin a strained smile for a few seconds before dropping the façade.
"We'll travel by floo powder," Lupin said. Taking out a dark brown bag, he opened it letting Harry take some powder.
Walking into the fireplace, Harry shouted clearly, "The Burrow!" and threw the floo powder down forcefully. Through a bright green swirl of smoke he disappeared.
The Dursleys had came down for breakfast, just in time to see Harry disappear. A look of shock fluttered across Dudleys pudgy face, a look of disgust from Uncle Vernon, and a look of shock anddisgust across Aunt Petunia's features. Turning right back around, they were all determined to forget what they had saw.
Lupin smiled slightly, shaking his head, as he stepped into fireplace, repeating Harry's actions, and he to disappeared.
Coughing, Harry got up, and dusted all the soot out of his clothes and hair. He was, however glad that he was actually in Weasly's home instead of some other weird place. His first encounter with floo powder didn't end quite so pleasantly.
Lupin appeared, behind him, and except for the small amount of dust on him, he wasn't quite as disheveled as Harry. It earned him a jealous, half-hearted, silent glare from Harry.
"Harry!" Hermione cried, joyfully.
"Hey Harry," Ron said, from behind Hermione.
"Hi," was all Harry could manage before Harmione decided to cut of his air flow.
"It's so good to see you!" Hermione said, hugging him to death.
"Hermione let him breathe," Ron said, amused.
"Oh sorry," Hermione said, blushing.
"Here are your birthday presents," she said indicating the boxed on the table to her left. "The light brown box is a cake from Mrs. Weasly, just to warn you in case you shake it up or something."
"Oh Harry dear, we are about to have dinner," Mrs. Weasley said sweetly popping her head in the doorway, she looked at him and started to shake her head, "You look positively thin, are the muggles treating you harshly dear?"
The happy grin, faded, as he said, "No," then added quietly to himself, "They're not treating me anyway at all."
Hermione chattered amiably, never ceasing except to breathe.
"Um can I ask something," Harry said, when he had finally found the opportunity to interrupt. "What's going on? As far as you can tell me anyways," he added scornfully, remembering when they failed to tell him everything last year.
"The Order is still being taken place at Sirius house," said Lupin. They all gasped except for Lupin and Harry at the mention of Sirius. All night they had been tip toeing over that subject, nobody brave enough to bring it up, out of respect for Harry's feelings. What they might not have understood is that all summer he wasn't able to talk to it to anyone. Not that Harry encouraged it.
"No word on Voldemort, but if there was, I probably wouldn't be able to give you the information anyway. If you need to be given it, I'm sure Dumbledore will tell you," Lupin said. "Also Sirius' funeral...I'm sure he would have liked it, no body found of course, and his death was as a free man. All charges against him are dropped thanks to Dumbledore."
They all turned expectantly to Harry, waiting for his reaction.
"Thank you," Harry said, quietly, smiling for what seemed like the first time in years. They all exhaled in relief, not realizing that they had been holding their breath expectantly.
The mood was spoiled when Fred and George apparated inside with a loud crack.
"Oh hey Harry! How ya been?" Fred asked.
"Yeah Harry, how was you're summer?" George asked.
Blank stares greeted them and they stepped back, eyebrows raised.
"What? Did we...interrupt something?"
A couple weeks later, when it finally came time for the train to leave, they were all in a rush.
Harry was happy about the news of Sirius being innocent now. Hermione was happy that the reunion went well, as opposed to last reunion, which started with Harry yelling at her. Ron was just happy to have his Quidditch position, his prefect badge on his uniform, and most importantly his friends. Of course, he could have done without Fred and George's teasing about his prefect position and the fact that they didn't have to go back to school. Still, he could and would ignore that for the time being, even if his ears took on a slight tomato color when they started embarrassing him.
"ALL ABOARD!" the conductor yelled.
A new year, with new adventures, and homework to Hermione's glee. Stepping up, Harry leaped onto the train to the last carriage, Ron and Hermione to the prefect cabin.
Next Chapter: The Gathering of the Heroes
Author's Notes:
Hello everyone. Well it's been two to three weeks since my last chapter, so I hope I'm getting faster at this, although the beginning took forever to start. Especially sincemy disk completely erased this chapter!
Please keep in mind while reading this chapter that this is my first time writing a fanfic with the cast of Harry Potter. If he seems OC to some of you, please consider the fact that he lost his godfather. If you do critize please give me an idea on how to fix it.
The author's names were made up. Except for Whiet, which I got from Charmed. It's pronounced "Why-et". I also mispelled it on purpose. It's actually Wyatt.
SetsunaFanGirl: Lina will be Lina as well as Xelloss and everyone else. No matter what they'll act like the world isn't in danger of an apocalypse and just be themselves. Except for Amelia, Filia, and Sylphiel that is. If Lina will still goof off when her sister tells her to do something (much to Filia's distress) then have no doubt she'll put food before the world. As for the toad...well I think I do something with that a little later. My favorite part of writing that chapter was when Xelloss turned Filia into a cup.
anime lover incarnation: Glad you liked it.
Darling Chii: Yeah I can tell. Truthfully I don't like Amelia TOO much myself, she's too optimistic contrasting with my pessimistic attitude :Lina Gabriev gets run over by Amelia fans: Anyway, I know I didn't really focus on the other characters to much in my last chapter. I was lucky to be able to fit all nine of them in one chapter. It'll be hard to write for 9 Slayers characters AND a bucketload of Harry Potter Characters.
Geroa: A First of all I'm glad you all liked it. As for Air Jay's comment, for those who haven't read the Harry Potter books and have just seen the movies, I will try to explain as much as you need to know, which isn't that much. Just email me at the email address listed in my bio if you have any questions for Harry Potter. It'll be extremely hard without the information to read chapters like this one.
ElderG: Thank you very much for the compliment. As for Lina using the Dragon Slave, I hadn't been planning on it, but it wouldn't be Lina if she didn't, so I might. As for the comment that nothing can compare to it...well the Avada Kadarva Curse (hope that's spelled right) is pretty powerful. And I'm sure I can cook up other cool spells. Also, you will be seeing Xelloss' trademark saying soon enough. But I would prefer if I did it in English since this is Harry Potter's world now. What would you guys prefer?