Gimme a Hand, Hogwarts!

Chapter two: Just the required explanations.

Two tawny, beady eyes glared at me.

Though it is not a widely experienced practice, when one is woken at two in the seven in the morning by a large barn owl digging some very sharp claws into one's stomach, it tends to initiate one of two reactions. The first is shock, after all, one should not be accustomed to being awoken in such a manner. The second is panic, after all, owls are very intimidating creatures.

Sakura Kinomoto, latest victim, stared at the large owl with both eyes wide open and jaw slack.

This owl was not one to be messed with. This owl meant business.

This owl was very, very scary.

The owl extended a foot and held it out haughtily. It glared at me as I gaped at it. We studied each other for a moment: its gaze calculating, mine terrified. I acted upon instinct and did the thing that seemed the most reasonable for this particular situation: I moved onto reaction two.

"Hoeeeeeeeeeeee!"

This brought about the desired result: Help. I had managed to wake the three remaining occupants of the household. If I was going to suffer at the hands of an early wake up call, so were they.

Kero, Guardian Beast of the Clow cards, poked his head out of the drawer he called home, took one look at the barn owl on my belly and went back to bed. I heard him swear before he shut the drawer. I would be having more then a few words with him after this, and none of them would have anything be, "Here's some pudding for a reward."

Luckily, as my 'Guardian' beast was too far away from conscious thought to be of assistance, my father and Touya rushed into my room. Father was looking worried, Touya just grumbled about a, "Baka Kaijuu alarm clock". This earned him a short, sharp glare before my eyes darted back to the owl on my stomach. Although beating up Touya was looking very appealing, the Owl was less likely to see the humour in the situation.

When my family spotted the owl on my abdomen, they proved what I had suspected all along: They were useless. Their jaws dropped and their limbs went limp. All four of their eyes bugged out and Touya let out a small squeek. Some family.

It must have decided that it was being ignored again, for the owl moved up my chest. Touya made a small sound of protest, perhaps deciding that this owl was almost as big a pervert as 'That stinking Gaki' (Syaoran still held the Touya's opinion of being the biggest, most perverted and threatening Chinese Gaki alive). Of course, it didn't matter that Touya thought that the owl meant to molest me, (He thought most things did) for the owl continued on its way. Its claws eventually clung unto my collarbone, piercing skin. I bit back a wince as the owl glared at me.

Then it extended a foot and stuck its talons on my nose.

My father was pulled out of his stupor and rushed to my aid, while Touya, after a swift prod, began searching for something to hit the owl with, preferably long so as not to endanger Touya.

I, meanwhile, was looking at the owl's foot through crossed-eyes. It had something white, fuzzy and vaguely rectangular attached to its foot with something brown, fuzzier and thin. It looked a little like the white thing was attached with a bit of the owl's flesh, but as I reached out a hand, (hitting the owl's beak on the first go) I realized that it was a piece of brown string. As I untied the string, the white piece of paper (I discovered this after I focused) fell away from the talon and onto the bed. At that moment, the owl loosened its grip on my collarbone and my dad gently lifted it off me.

Touya returned after his search for an owl-maiming tool, curtain rod in tow, when I was unfolding the envelope. My father sent him off to find the first aid kit while he himself ushered the owl out of the window. Once finished, he turned to be greeted by my stunned expression.

"Miss Sakura Kinomoto, Cardmistress

The second room on the second floor,

76 Cocoa drive, Tomoeda, Japan."

Great. A stalker. Just what I needed. I already had three, what did it matter that I now had another. Maybe Touya was right and the homing owl was trying to get into my pants.

Maybe Tomoyo was right and I was growing into the sarcasm.

Maybe Eriol was right and I had inherited more of Clow's genes then we had thought.

Or maybe Syaoran was right and I should stop hanging around the afore mentioned people.

I turned the envelope over and broke the seal. My father wiped away the blood on my shoulder as I scanned the letter's contents. My profound astonishment almost covered up the pain shooting from my neck.

Something wasn't right about this, I realized as I finished reading. Sure, I can accept a secret Wizarding cult buried in England that has the problem of a classic hero-villain story going on. I can accept that they expect me to help ready their race for some major bad guy ass-kicking. I can even accept the fact that they really didn't give me a choice in the matter of attendance. What I couldn't believe was that Kero hadn't known about this.

One quick plea to Watery, several drenched miniature furniture pieces and one soaked, disgruntled Guardian Beast later found me glaring at Kero and wondering when people (or rather, guardian beasts) would consider me capable of coping with stress.

"Kero, why didn't you tell me? I gave you plenty of incentive! We've talked about those stalker auras plenty recently! Why I am not worthy of the responsibility! I am so si… Stop looking at me like that"

I stopped as I saw Kero's eyes enlarge and moisten. Admittedly I didn't explode like I just had often, and I had been told that I was scary when I did, but Kero has faced worse. I think it scared him (or should have scared him) much more when I went into a decline four years ago. I think his feelings at that time ranged from terror, to anger, to pity, most of the time within two minutes of each other. In any case, Kero had seen me much worse, so I felt even more enraged when he tried to act helpless. Oh yes, I was going to get the answer out of him, and if that meant by a means of violence, I was quickly going to oblige.

"Sa-Sakura," Kero began. "I-I just didn't think it was necessary."

"Necessary! KERO..!"

"No, listen Sakura. I didn't tell you because… because I was hoping that they wouldn't ask you." At the outraged noise erupting from my throat, he added, "Wishful thinking and wrong, I know. I'm sorry Sakura."

I looked into his small black eyes again, and I knew I was done for. Call it compassion, call it pity, call it nature, call it whatever you like, I was mad and I knew it. I couldn't help but forgive him, I never could. He hadn't abandoned me, even though he didn't agree with some of my decisions. He'd stuck by me through thick and thin, and I was grateful. This was a small matter, I told myself calmly. It means nothing. It has no importance over the end result.

However wide Kero may have been stretching his eyes, and however many whimpers and apologies I received, I wasn't about to waste this golden opportunity. I wasn't about to throw away a guilt token just as I was getting to the ticket booth. I was going to ride this train for all it was worth, and then continue on and hit a pedestrian. I was going to squeeze every last piece of knowledge from Kero's stuffed head, until I was sure I had gotten every answer he knew.

And then I was going to order a pizza to celebrate.

"Fine, but as an apology, tell me everything you know about what is happening."

"Saku-"

"Everything."

Kero gave a big sigh. He floated over to my bed and plopped himself in front of me. He sat and looked pensive for a while and I began to think that he was going to zoom off out the window. He certainly looked like he was considering it. Therefore, as a precaution, I shut the window with a pull of magic. Kero obviously put two and two together and realized that I didn't trust him not to fly away.

"The breeze was giving me a chill," I commented as an explanation.

Kero bought into the lie, as it was quite chilly. He sighed heavily, scratched an ear and began.

"Once upon a time," Kero said, trying to lighten the mood, "there were two races of magical people: Wizards and Sorcerers."

I nodded and listened to Kero as he explained about the Wizard's jealousy over the Sorcerer's greater power. I observed his face as he explained. It revealed nothing. It was hollow, as if he had never been a part of the epic war he described. I would have to ask him about that. He explained that as the Wizard's grew in population, the Sorcerer's numbers dwindled due the witch massacres of the medieval age. The humans had not been able to kill any real witches, wizards or Sorcerers, (though they did manage to settle a great many disputes at the stake) but many of the actual magicians caught and accused of witchcraft were Sorcerers. This, in return made it impossible for the Sorcerer who had been publicly burnt to return home, unless they dearly wished to have the king's armies upon their family.

Their solution was to flee. Many chose to flee to Asia, where it was believed that they would be able to settle in without so much as an upward glance. The Wizards, whom had made several trips to Asia, guaranteed that they would be safe. A few, however, decided to escape by the water, crossing many different seas. Only one had ever returned to England. She claimed that she and her family had been attacked by a magical Sea ceature. She did not recognise the magic, and so had returned to her homeland to seek help. The Sorcerers who remained in England anxiously awaited word from their comrades in Asia and across the seas. It was many years later when they finally had word from one of the families who had moved to Asia. They were unsuccessful in fitting in except for a select few. The rest that had not been slaughtered by the terrified population had gone underground.

That was when they chose to attack. The Wizards, whom the Sorceror's had long considered their closest, indeed their only, ally, turned on them. Their jealousy of The sorcerer's abilities had managed to soar to such lengths that they supported a genocide. Once there were few enough of the Sorcerers, the Wizard's slaughtered their race; all save for the few who were able to hide.

"We may have been more powerful, but they outnumbered us by far. We felt any loss harder; they barely cared if their own fell. We were left with three or so small clans of Sorcerers; They were left with a civilisation."

 After he had ended the history lesson by telling me that the few Sorcerer clans, Eriol and myself were the only of out kind left, he went on to bring me a little more up to date.

"More recently, I suppose for the past five generations or so, the Wizard's have become haughty, and many refused to intermarry with the non-magical peoples or muggles. This will lead to their downfall also, as history tends to repeat itself. That's probably why this Dumblydore fellow is so keen to make the peace between us and them."

"Kero?"

"Yes Sakura?"

I paused and after some brief thought changed the question I had been about to ask.

"Which of the stalker auras belongs to Dumbledore?"

Kero looked relieved. He must have thought that I had been about to ask him about 'That stinking Gaki'. "The Silver one." He held up a paw to pause my next question. "They're too weak to sustain a coloured one. This Dumblydore is a very powerful wizard, (His aura is nice and sparkly) but he is one of the very few."

And then I asked the question he was dreading.

"And just where does Syaoran fit into all this?"

Kero rolled his eyes at me and clenched his paws. "Always on about The Brat. He's the future leader of the most powerful clan in existence, that's how he's involved."

"I know that," I answered, disgruntled. "What I wanted to know is how he's more involved. C'mon," I continued as he opened his mouth to protest, "I know he's more involved then you're letting on."

Kero threw a glance to the framed picture of Syaoran on my bedside table. "Fine."

I awaited eagerly. I might get to see Syaoran again!

"He goes to Hogwarts."

"Really? Cool! So I might be teaching him!"

Kero floated to my head and patted it while muttering a soft, "Yeah, you might teach the brat something." I doubt that he meant for me to hear it, but I did anyway. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing I was expecting. I was anticipating "Teaching him to die, if we're lucky," or "He'll be expelled before you'll have the chance," but I was certainly not expecting that.

Kero must have seen my pensive face and was eager to get my mind away from Syaoran.

"You'll have to be careful around that place though. I'm sure that if the student body, or even the teachers, found out that you're an ancient legend, it would cause a panic and more then a little malice. There are sure to be a few wizards who know of the tale. You must be wary of those in particular. You and Eriol are two of the elite of the Magical world. You're so powerful, that even weaklings like Wizards may be able to detect it."

Knowing that Kero wanted to get off the subject, I encouraged it, "And what about Syaoran? Is he part of the elite?"

"Maybe, but he's no where near your capabilities."

"But he's more powerful then you?" I asked snidely. An all-out match between Kero and Syaoran would be interesting, to say the least. I had always felt that both held back on their attacks on one another, either because of me or because of a mutual respect for the other.

"No, he is not."

"Alright, alright, no need to get snappy. So then, who is Harry Potter?"

"The Tragic hero. There's a prophesied upcoming battle, in which either he or his foe will die. That's why you're going to protect him."

I paused momentarily.

"Hey, when did you find out about all of this, anyway? You haven't been downloading things from the internet again, have you?"

Kero looked at me, peeved. "No, I rang Eriol. He told me about Harry Potter. The History I already knew, and some of the other stuff I pieced together."

"And how did you find out about Sy-?"

I was cut off by the phone downstairs ringing. I sighed as I climbed off my bed, knowing that everyone else would be too busy enjoying the Saturday morning to get out of bed again. As I scampered down the stairs, Touya's tired voice followed me, "Kaijuu, get the phone."

The last few steps to the phone were taken on a loudly as possible, and with much damage done to my feet. I picked up the phone and propped it on my shoulder. I picked up a pad of paper and a pen and began writing to Kero, who had flown down.

"Hello?" I sounded distracted even to myself. I began writing. Kero, are there any wizards in Tomoeda?

"Hi Sakura!" I knew that voice. Yes, one.

"Tomoyo-chan," I groaned. "Why have you called me at quarter to eight on a Saturday?"

Who?

Tomoyo giggled on the other end. "I called for a reason, you know." I doubted that the reason really needed to interrupt my flow of revelations.

Why was Kero ignoring my last message? Who, Kero?

"Sakura-chan, I got a weird letter today."

Oh no. Oh no no no no. Why did Tomoyo have to get pulled into this? She was pulled into the Card capturing adventure, and though she hadn't gotten any permanent, noticeable scars from it, it had being unbelievably dangerous. Perhaps she'd be okay, I supposed rationally, after all, she'd be with me and (hopefully) Syaoran. Turning my head to face Kero, I glared at him as I asked Tomoyo, "Weird? How?"

"Well, letters aren't normally delivered by owls."

_____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _____

'Twas an improvement, but I still don't like this chapter. It's mainly explanations and is horribly boring. Please never read it again. It gave me much pain.

If you're wondering about Sakura's address, I got sick of hearing people say that she lived in "Cherry blossom" street. REALLY sick of it. Well, thank you for being patient-ish with me! ^_^