Chapter 15: Goodbye For the Summer

The next few days were extremely fun ones for most of the school. Phoenix DID pay Peck the five galleons he owed him. Team Ma- sorry, Los Salvadores were back in business, and happily pranking the Slytherin House to their heart's content. Speaking of Los Salvadores, Hawk had been included in the group, thanks to Peck's ever-persisting requests that she be let in. And so they were running rampant, scoring an average of almost a prank a day. Not that many of the students minded... they were quite enjoying this torture of the Slytherins. Dumbledore seemed supremely amused about all of this, and Phoenix thought that it was because they were giving the old man nostalgic memories of when The Marauders did the same thing.

One of the more amusing pranks they did involved not just Slytherins, but the whole school. They called it "Operation: March of the Ents."

Phoenix snickered as he and his friends walked towards the point where the school grounds met the Forbidden Forest.

"This is gonna be great. It's gonna be greater than great. Heck, it's gonna be greater than greater than gr-"

"Phoenix?"

"Yes Peck?"

"Please shut up."

"But why?"

"Because we all don't want to hear your ramblings."

"We? As in all of us? But Peck, I don't think Ginny minds. Isn't that right Ginnikins?"

The girl in question blushed deeply at the blatantly embarrassing nickname.

"Uh... Phoenix?"

"Yes Ginnikins?"

"Please don't call me Ginnikins."

"But GINNIKINS! It's so terribly FUN to call you Ginnikins!"

Hermione snickered.

"Gin-"

"DON'T CALL MY GINNIKINS 'GIN'!"

This time, Harry was the one snickering.

"Why? We've always called Gin... well... Gin."

Phoenix gasped.

"I SAID DON'T CALL GINNIKINS GIN!" He paused for a moment, then spoke in a factual tone, "It sounds like she regularly drinks gin."

Everyone except for Ginny and Phoenix broke out laughing.

"Ginnikins drinking alcohol? Nah..."

"HEY! GINNIKINS IS MY NICKNAME FOR GINNIKINS!"

"But-"

"A BOYFRIEND HAS A RIGHT TO A SIGNATURE NICKNAME FOR HIS GIRL YA KNOW!"

The silence was so dead, even the crickets stopped chirping.

"She's... your girlfriend?"

Phoenix grinned proudly.

"Yup! An' she's a darned good one too! Ain't that right, Ginnikins?"

He wrapped an arm around her waist and put his head on her shoulder as they continued to walk. Ginny, however, wasn't taking all this in her stride and, if it is even possible, was blushing even more deeply than before.

"Phoenix... you're giving them information they don't need to know..."

"But why keep 'em in the dark? They ARE our friends after all."

"Does the word 'blackmail' mean anything to you?"

"Umm... no?"

Peck cleared his throat.

"Uhh... guys?"

"Yeah?"

"We've reached our destination."

Phoenix abandoned his playful tormenting of his girlfriend and rubbed his hands together.

"Muahahahahaha! This is gonna be great! This is gonna be greater than great-"

"Phoenix... let's not start that conversation over again. Now..." Peck looked at the book in his hand and started reading aloud.

"To animate inanimate objects is relatively simple, but to animate inanimate objects in ways that make them seem almost human is more complicated. It requires a little bit of Transfiguration, Charms, and of course, luck. The first step is to give the object legs. It doesn't matter what kind of legs they are, just so long as they are legs. This, obviously, is where the Transfiguration comes in. And for us, this is where Hermione comes in."

Hermione grinned.

"Ten Entish legs comin' right up."

And so, using the picture of an ent that Phoenix had so kindly provided her, Hermione commenced growing legs on various nearby trees. It took her about five minutes to finish this.

"Alright, what's next?"

"If you want, you can add arms, but they aren't necessary."

"Anything for me to get some Transfiguration practice in is great."

And so, five minutes later, the leg-bearing trees now had arms as well.

"Next?"

"Okay, now it's time to animate them. Each object needs the undivided focus of a witch or wizard, so one person can't control multiple objects. Hence, our selection of ten trees instead of fifty. Anyway, you touch your wand on the object and say 'Animatus'... Animatus? That's the dumbest incantation I'VE ever heard, but anyway... Once you're connection with the object has been established, you can remove your wand and control over the object can begin. You think what you want the object to do. For example, if you want the object to kick something, imagine it kicking the object in your mind, and the maneuver will be carried out accordingly."

And so they tried it out, each of them touching one of the transmogrified trees, saying 'Animatus', and attempting to control their tree. Phoenix and Peck were making their trees have a wrestling match (A real wrestling match, not that fake junk on WWE or whatever it's called. It annoyed Phoenix to no ends that many kids actually thought that THAT is real wrestling), Ginny, Hermione, and Hawk were having their trees play 'Tea Party', a childish idea that Ginny had thought up. Seamus, Dean, Neville, Harry, and Ron were having their trees make a tree pyramid... and failing miserably.

After they all were satisfied with their practice, they climbed into the branches of their biological machines, concealed themselves in the leaves, and started a march towards the castle.

"This is gonna be-"

"PHOENIX! SHUT UP!" That wasn't just Peck... it was everyone else too.

"I feel so loved..."

Several students who were outside, enjoying the sun and fresh air, caught sight of the "Ents" heading towards the castle.

"THE TREES ARE ALIVE!"

"... with the sound of music..." That would be Peck.

After the first call rang out, mass chaos ensued. Students scattered in every direction, more students came out to see what was the matter and then scattered in every direction. Teachers came out to see what was the matter, immediately realized it was Los Salvadores, played along, and scattered in every direction.

And so it became a game of tag. But instead of tagging the students, the pilots of the trees picked them up and put them in the branches, thus letting the captured students in on the secret. Of course, captured students decided to make it even more dramatic by screaming and yelling, as though they were being eaten alive by the Ents. After they "died", they would spot out other students for the pilots to chase. Peck made a particular effort to chase after Alexandra Whitts and snickered as he watched her run away screaming.

Finally, Dumbledore came out, and he REALLY started to mix things up. Apparently he knew an even more complicated spell than the one Peck had found, for he was able to transfigure ten trees so they too had arms and legs, but he was able to animate and control all of them from his position, which was pretty far away from the trees.

And so the Los Salvadores Ents turned to face the Dumbledore Ents, cracked their knuckles (or knots... whichever you prefer), and put up their hands in a defensive position. Phoenix and Peck varied slightly from that and had their trees go into a wrestling position, hands up and waiting to pull off a takedown and gain power over the Dumbledore Ents. The "eaten" students climbed out of the trees and ran over towards their friends, who were making a ring around the two approaching teams. Dumbledore had his Ents take a gargantuan leap and had intended for them to hit the L.S. Ents, but the opposition was trained enough to sidestep the attack with ease. Phoenix and Peck, being veterans at hand-to-hand grappling AND having the plus of only needing to focus on one Ent, did various wrestling moves on their opposing trees. Phoenix did a Fireman's Carry (that seemed to be his favorite move), and Peck did a Double Leg Takedown. The other L.S. fighters didn't know wrestling, so they did what they knew best: combat.

Unfortunately for Hawk, she hadn't been in the group for a long time and was considered to be the least experienced fighter by her friends... oh, how wrong they were. She may not have known refined combat skills, but she sure knew how to kick, and that's EXACTLY what she had her Ent do... kick as hard as it could. Let's just say that her opposing Ent learned how to fly.

Now, Dumbledore may have had the disadvantage of needing to simultaneously control ten Ents at once, but he had the advantage of age and, consequently, experience. He was focusing his attention mainly on Seamus', Dean's, and Ron's counterparts to his Ents, and he was doing a pretty good job of blocking, counterattacking, and generally beating their butt... or trunk. And now, it seemed like some sort of game match you'd see on TV, because right about then, all the kids started taking sides and were either chanting "Dumbledore... Dumbledore... Dumbledore..." or "Salvadors... Salvadors... Salvadors..." True, they bungled the Los Salvadores' name, but it was still cool to hear them cheer for the group.

Phoenix wound up taking Dumbledore's Ent like Mario would take Bowser and started to swing him in a circle as fast as he could, then let go of the Ent and sent it flying.

'Well... that's one down...' CRUNCH. 'Make that two...'

If you haven't already guessed it, Peck had successfully, although with a great deal of difficulty, snapped his opposing Ent in half, thus taking it out of commission. Even though this meant less Ents to worry about, it meant Dumbledore having more concentration on his remaining Ents and thus fighting back harder.

Phoenix and Peck figured that the most logical way to go about the battle was to team up with one of their allies so it was three against one. Those are extremely good odds for the Los Salvadores Ents, thus almost sealing the fate of the triple-teamed Dumbledore Ent, and then the next Ent would have four Los Salvadores Ents on its butt, and then the next would have five, and so forth.

This tactic worked quite well, and they took down three more so it was down to five on ten, when Dumbledore's focus got to the point where he could defeat some of the Los Salvadores Ents. Hermione was the first to go. She gave a small squeak as her Ent's trunk got sliced in half. She easily rolled out of the branches, but it was still a bummer that she was now out of the fight. Neville then became double-teamed and, even though his fighting skills were quite good, had his Ent turned into twigs and splinters.

'Oh, flying crap... Dumbledore's catching up...'

And so Dumbledore started doing the same tactics that Los Salvadores were doing... eventually, it was down to two Dumbledore Ents on five Los Salvadores Ents. Dumbledore's dynamic duo (A/N: Heh... DDD .) took out another Los Salvadores... and another... but then one of them finally was taken out. The remaining three Los Salvadores were Phoenix, Peck, and Harry. However, now Dumbledore could give his remaining Ent his full and undivided attention, and that spelled trouble in neon letters for it's three opposing combatants. With a swift kick to the middle, Harry's Ent snapped in half.

'Damn... that doesn't look good.'

However, Phoenix and Peck quickly learned to fight as a unit. When Dumbledore tried to do a quick punch to Phoenix's Ent, the boy ducked and dodged it while Peck's Ent grabbed the arm and snapped it off.

'One limb down... three to go.'

Even though it had lost an arm, the Ent was still a formidable force. Instead of the usual hand-to-hand combat that he used with the other Los Salvadores opponents, Dumbledore opted for some more creative tactics. He had his Ent leap into the air and come bearing down on Phoenix's Ent. The boy jumped to the side and, while still in midair, kicked the trunk of Dumbledore's Ent. Even though he had the Ent kick with its full force, the akward position that it was in, leaping away from the target and all, caused it only to knock Dumbledore's Ent down, at which point it was about to get up when Peck seized the opportunity and brought his Ent's fist down upon the weakened opponent.

CRACK!

The Ent gave in to the full force of Peck's blow, and all of the Los Salvadores supporters cheered. Amidst the cheering, some clapping, loudest of all, was heard. This clapping belonged to Dumbledore, who was also chuckling merrily, too.

"Well done! That was quite a show. 10 points each. That makes 90 points for Gryffindor and 10 points for Ravenclaw if I'm not mistaken."

And so the combatants dismounted their beasts and bowed. After that, the rest of the day proceeded normally, except that everyone was talking about the "Great Ent Battle"...

And so the rest of the year passed like this, until the final day came before summer. 'Twas a sad day for Phoenix & Co., 'cause it meant that it would be another whole year until they met again. Darn shame...

And so, after the Feast, Dumbledore's parting words, and several other formalities, it was time for the students to leave. They all filed through the Great Oak Doors, into the carriages, and towards the Hogwarts Express.

The train ride was also uneventful. Los Salvadores was too tired to do any pranks during the ride, and so Peck slept, Harry and Ron played chess, Hermione read some books, Seamus, Dean, and Neville traded jokes, Hawk slept on Peck's stomach (A/N: Muahahaha! Okay... spazz attack is over...)), Ginny sat across from Phoenix, eyes glazed over and staring at him, while Phoenix was polishing and cleaning his firearms.

At the doorway into the muggle world, the friends paused for a moment to say their last goodbyes.

"Well, dudes-" cough. "- and dudettes."

"Thank you."

"Anyway, I wish we could, like, stay in London or something for the summer so we could visit you guys, but home calls."

"Ah, it's no problem Phoenix. Besides, what're owls for?"

"Umm... sending messages."

"Right... and..."

"And what?"

Harry sighed.

"Phoenix... WE CAN OWL EACH OTHER!"

Phoenix blinked.

"Oh yeah... I knew that..."

"Doubtful..."

"Well anyway, so long guys... I'm gonna miss you all. 'Specially my Ginnikins."

And with that, he pulled Ginny into a tight hug, leaned down and gave her a small kiss. It may have been small, but it was filled with love, and so it was worth more than a million long-but-empty kisses. Ginny quickly pulled away when she heard not just the cheering of her friends, but of what had to be about 50 other students.

"Oh..." And she blushed deeply.

Phoenix, on the other hand, was taking all this in his stride, bowing and grinning all the while at his audience.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

And so, the friends traded a few more goodbyes, Hawk and Peck made plans to visit each other over the summer. She may be living in London now, but as luck would have it, they would be moving back to the U.S. over the summer.

Finally, they walked through the doorway, into the muggle world, and into their separate lives for the summer...

A/N: Yeah... so that's the story... pretty anti-climactic, huh? Well, I've learned one thing out of all of this: never finish a story ahead of time... it's always better to do it a chapter at a time so you can take in reviewers' comments, adapt your characters, and improve your story as you go along. As opposed to making a crappy story without realizing it, getting reviews that make you realize you've got pathetically stereotypical characters, and then smack yourself because you can't do anything about it. Anyway, I think I'll write an amusing story about Typo Demons before I start my second part of this whole trilogy...