Gimme A Hand, Hogwarts!

Chapter Four: Supportive Family.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE IT IS?!"

Touya was inconsolable. I'd started out this little quest optimistic. Yeah, my brother was a little protective, but he'd cave and let me go, right? I'd bring out the waterworks if I had to. I could do that.

I wasn't expecting it to be easy, but I had been hoping that Touya would actually listen, instead of just screaming in a testosterone fuelled rage.

Touya's hand was brought down forcibly onto the wall and, half way down the hall, a framed picture fell to its death. A bead of sweat that had run down the length of his nose dripped onto the floor as Touya continued his irrational tirade.

My father, who had been leaning against the wall, was now by my side, and looking quite exhausted. He had decided, probably due to experience, to let Touya rant himself into unconsciousness. Although, in fore sight, it didn't look like that would happen anytime that day; his rage had lent Touya inhuman energy.

Touya himself seemed perfectly content to continue his tirade. He routinely switched from various emotions. The most prominent was, of course, blood-curdling rage. Underneath there was a range of emotions of varying degrees: Sorrow, protectiveness and illogical suspicion. It was the last emotion that chose to join the party now.

"IT'S ALL THE GAKI'S FAULT!"

When I'd first brought up the subject of my going to school in England, he'd been protective. ("She's only 15! She's still just a baby!")

This had quickly turned into anger. ("How can you let her go?! She can't go!")

Then hopefulness. ("I could go with her to make sure she's safe...")

Then Anger again. ("She'll get attacked! There are all types of weirdos in England!")

And, of course, in Touya's mind, 'Weirdo' meant only one person.

"THAT STUPID PERVERTED GAKI!"

Yes, Touya had finally cracked.

He wouldn't listen to me when I tried to insist that the letter hadn't come from the Li household, instead insisting that the "Gaki's family" had brainwashed me and blocked my powers. Indeed, Touya was always quite sure of the fact that it wasn't really ME when I tried to convince him of my love with Syaoran, but the evil subconsciousness Syaoran had implanted into my brain.

"Touya, I called Eriol. He knows that Hogwarts exists. He's BEEN there."

I knew that this wouldn't stop Touya from blaming it on Syaoran, but it was worth another try. He'd ignored it the other six times I'd mentioned it. It was a complete lie. Eriol had never even mentioned Hogwarts, nor anything about Wizards. I was guessing, and had to remember to ring Eriol myself before Touya got onto him with his whole 'threat' list.

"HE'S IN ON IT AS WELL!"

This was when Tomoyo walked in.

Ignoring my brother, who was now screaming that Eriol was going to pay for joining forces with Syaoran, I greeted Tomoyo with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

"'Lo Tomoyo-chan"

Tomoyo cast me a sympathetic look, then glanced at Touya when he screamed, "HE WILL DIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!"

She turned back to me with a raised eyebrow.

"I take it Touya was displeased when the news of you leaving to England sunk in."

I looked at her wearily, rubbed my temples and muttered, "You have no idea."

"SHE'S NOT GOING."

I snapped.

Touya turned his glare to me when he discovered that he was now tied to a dining chair and gagged. My father cast him a sympathetic glance and sighed, while I held his glare. Tomoyo broke off the staring contest by pulling me upstairs. Touya's eyes widened when he realized that his one escape option was quickly being pulled upstairs.

I gave him a wave as we turned the corner.

Once upstairs, I let out a relieved sigh and rubbed my temples again. Tomoyo flopped onto my bed and started searching through her bag. Kero popped out of his hiding place and sat on Tomoyo's shoulder, nibbling a piece of cake. With a triumphant sound Tomoyo revealed her letter from the depths of her bag.

It looked like my letter, honestly, but when Kero saw it, he jumped, spat out the crumbs he had in his mouth, and made a grab for her letter. She was quicker and pulled it out of his reach as I picked the fallen Guardian beast up by the tail and gazed at him quizzically.

"Errr... Yes?" Kero asked. He was trying to discreetly get out of my grip. I pitied him, but that didn't mean that I couldn't take advantage of the fact that he was obviously hiding something.

"Kero-chan," I began, confused.

Why had he wanted the letter so despretaly? It seemed a little much for a scrap of paper. Perhaps I should take a look at the intriguing letter.

"Tomoyo-chan? Can I please have a look at your letter?" I asked politely. Kero's eyes bulged, and he made another mad grab for the letter. I glanced at the letter. Then at Kero. Then back to the letter. Its contents were very different to mine.

In the first place, mine had been requesting me to attend Hogwarts to guard Harry Potter, under the guise of a teacher. Tomoyo's said that she had been accepted, and that they apologised for the lateness of her acceptance, but their foreign exchange was only being opened that year to students whose English was less then good. And while my letter was long, explaining much, Tomoyo's was short, brief and to the point. Tomoyo had been accepted in a foreign students scheme. She and a number of other Asian students would be going to Hogwarts to learn a western type of magic. And Hogwarts had brought in a number of Asian teachers to teach the English students Asian magic.

I was going to teach. Tomoyo was going to learn. I was going to teach students older then me. Tomoyo was older then me. I was going to teach Tomoyo.

I really needed to sit down.

Once seated, I remembered that I would have help. The letter had promised it. The letter hadn't named the person, but had said, "There is no need to be alarmed at the prospect of teaching. You will have another person helping you. He's about your age and we request that you meet him a week before the students return on the first of September."

It was the 'he' that had set Touya off.

Absently, I focused a little on the letter that had come via owl to give my mind something to occupy it. I found a most perculiar thing. "Kero?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"You know when I asked you about Tomoyo's aura?"

"Yes...?"

"And you know how you said that it was just a normal living aura, right?"

"Yeeees?" Kero was sweating now.

"Is this letter alive? If not, why does it have an aura? And why doesn't my neighbour's cat have an aura? Come to think of it, why doesn't my neighbour have an aura?"

Kero looked at me with those puppy dog eyes. "Sakura, necessary precautions had to be taken..."

My back hit the mattress. This was too much.

"So Tomoyo's a witch and I'm the Queens guard." I told the ceiling. At least it couldn't shock me with anything else.

In a small voice, Tomoyo decided to contribute. "Perhaps we should call Eriol-kun?"

Kero looked thankful for the distraction and I murmured distractedly, "Yes, he might know."

"Besides," Tomoyo giggled, "it sounds like Touya's going to ring him and 'give him a piece of his mind' if we don't occupy the phone soon."

Tomoyo-chan was right. I could hear the sound of a chair being scraped against the floorboards and my father's panicked, "Touya-san! I'll get your sister in here if you don't listen!"

I muttered another spell, heard a satisfactory yelp of pain and the following call of, "Thank you Sakura-chan! Can we have a bit of water to put out his hair now?!" Pause. "Thank you!"

I reached for the phone, and it rang. I hated it when it did that.

Before I even heard the voice at the other end, I greeted, "Hello Eriol-kun."

I heard a chuckle. "How did you know it was me, Sakura-chan?"

I rolled my eyes. Why must he insist on doing this? "The same way I always do."

"Ahhh," he was trying to sound mystic. "I thought you needed to talk to me. What is it you require? Oh, and Hello Tomoyo dearest."

I decided against replaying the message to Tomoyo exactly, so I distorted it. A bit.

"Eriol wants to know if you've been snogging anyone else."

Tomoyo whacked me on the head, and grabbed the receiver away from me the second before my sleeve caught fire. I patted it out frantically, heard both of their laughter and smirked. A second later I heard Eriol curse.

Tomoyo slowly turned to face me.

"What did you do?" She asked in a murderous voice.

I grinned. Eriol really should remember that revenge on him, or his house as the case may be, was only too easy.

"I forgot to give Suppi my Easter Present." My grin got wider as I heard the shattering of glass in the phone.

Tomoyo looked liked she was about to launch at me and rip my hair out, when she stopped, listened intently to the person on the other end, and grinned. Then she hung up.

"Hey! I needed to talk to Eriol! You needed to talk to Eriol!"

Her smile got wider as someone tapped my shoulder.

"Hoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I turned to face the new person. His hair looked slightly crisped, and he looked miffed, but it was undeniable of who it was.

"Eriol-kun!!!!" Tomoyo screamed, and launched at him instead. I grinned.

"You know why we needed to talk to you." It wasn't a question. Eriol had a nasty habit of knowing everything.

"And?" He also had a nasty habit of making it very difficult to get information out of him.

"I'm going too."

Well, there's a chapter for anyone interested. Might just quickly edit the rest and put them up. I'm not really interested in CCS anymore. Oh well. Oh, and thanks to everyone who was wonderful and nice about me being on Hiatus.

Bye all!

Argentum Sol