All righty. Here I am! For those of you who read my bio thing, you know my comp's a shitbox. It got taken away again, but it's still not fixed. Regardless, I'm going to attempt a chapter and hope it's not in vain.

Oh, and, there's Relena-bashing in this one. I hate her, so whatever they say is nothing compared to my opinion ^^

Chapter 19

"Found it," called Duo, indicating a partially hidden passageway in the corridor with the hand that wasn't holding his wand and laptop's case. "Well, a door. Not necessarily the right one."

"So open it and find out," Trowa responded, coming up beside the braided boy with only wand in hand, as his supplies were in the bag Quatre carried. Duo jiggled the old-fashioned handle, but to no avail.

"Oooh! I know this one!" Quatre called, running in front of Duo, wand at the ready. "Hermione told me about it. Alohomora!"

They all watched as nothing happened. Quatre snarled.

"Damnit! That's what she said!"

"Try, uh, flicking your wand more?" Duo suggested.

Quatre did it again, flicking his wand more. Nothing happened.

"Are you sure you're saying it right?" Wufei asked. Quatre glared at the door.

"Yes," he hissed.

"Alohomora," Trowa murmured, waving his wand at the door. A loud click resounded in the hallway, and Duo opened the door and they looked out at the grounds of Hogwarts.

"Good job, Trowa!" Quatre said, smiling. He stepped out the doorway and into the yard, looking around in awe. "It's huge!"

Looking around, the pilots saw that the Hogwarts grounds were, indeed, huge. They'd emerged on the side of what appeared to be a football field, although it was a lot larger and surrounded by elevated stands.

"That's probably for that Quidditch game they were talking about," Quatre commented, looking up at the hoops and banners around the field. Duo was scanning the area around it.

"Looks like we're surrounded by a forest."

"Well yeah, Duo," Wufei said incredulously. "Didn't you listen to Dumbledore's speech? Forbidden Forest. We're not allowed in it."

Duo snorted. "Fine, fine. We'll look at it when we have more than half an hour."

"There's a cottage over there," Heero remarked, pointing at a small hut just in front of the Forest with the hand not holding his laptop's case. "I wonder what it's there for?"

Trowa started north, with Quatre following. "All right, so directly in front of the Potions classroom is that field for the Quidditch. Then south of that is that hut. Wasn't there a lake in front of the school?"

"Yeah," Duo said, following the two. "I remember seeing it when we were going to Diagon Alley with that giant."

"And the front of the school is this way," Trowa indicated the direction he and Quatre had been moving. "Or at least it should be."

"Hermione said that the staircases move," Quatre commented.

"Wonderful," Duo muttered sarcastically.

"Wufei and I will go the back way," Heero called. He and the Chinese boy had already been heading the other direction. "We'll meet you on the east side."

"Sounds good," Trowa called back. He, Quatre, and Duo continued towards the front of the school, Duo glancing back once at Heero and Wufei's backs.

It took about ten minutes for them to get around to the east side. Once they had, they were all more at ease with the surroundings, although Duo was certain he saw something in the nearby lake. Something with tentacles, but he didn't say this out loud.

"Okay, so there's a greenhouse south, that road north, the field and hut west, and this lake east," Heero deduced. Quatre and Trowa nodded.

"Yeah, that's what we picked up. And there's that forest all around, too," Quatre said, indicating the dark and foreboding woods.

"Okay, we've got most of our bearings, should we return to the school?" Wufei asked the group.

"Well, only me and Heero have a class next," Duo muttered, glancing at his partner who didn't respond. "So you guys can do whatever."

"We can go with you inside and see who else has the next period off. We've been out here about twenty minutes, I guess we should go in and find the others so they can show you where your class is."

The group agreed with Quatre's suggestion, and they made their way back to the front doors of Hogwarts.

Duo was noticeably edgier as they walked through the halls, glancing around and fidgeting a bit more than usual. Quatre seemed to be the only one who noticed, casting worried glances at the braided boy who merely brushed them off. Quatre deducted his behavior to the way Heero was ignoring him, and dropped it.

Duo entered the Great Hall last, and he saw Fred and George waving from the Gryffindor table. They had a few textbooks sitting in front of them, as well as some younger students sitting next to them. Duo began making his way to the table after the others, but was stopped by a sharp pull on his braid. A loud cry sounded as the pain hit the base of his skull, and he stumbled backwards, his laptop clattering on the floor.

With his eyes clenched shut, he didn't see Heero drop his laptop, dive back towards him and punch whoever had done it in the side of the head. He opened one eye and watched as the body fell to the floor, its owner whimpering in pain.

"Holy shit!" came George's shout, and Heero and Duo looked up to see that all eyes were on them, and that Professor McGonagall was heading towards them with a stern look on her face. Duo pushed himself to his feet, trying to ignore the sharp and extreme pain that the pull had left with his head.

"Professor," he greeted quietly, resisting the urge to rub his skull. Heero stood tense beside him, watching his attacker carefully in case of another attack.

"Mister Zabini, are you quite all right?" A groan sounded in response, and McGonagall sighed. She looked up to Fred and George, who had approached the scene soon after she'd arrived. "Would one of you fetch Madam Pomfrey?"

Fred nodded and walked, slowly, out of the Hall. George smirked.

"All right, Duo?" asked Quatre, peering at him. "Didn't break anything?"

Duo barked a laugh. "No, Quat. Yanked my braid."

Quatre sighed loudly. "Well, Heero stopped him, at any rate."

For the first time since the ordeal, Duo stopped to look at his attacker. The stocky boy curled on the floor, he recalled, had been Hermione's partner in Potions. Duo snarled at him, crouching and grabbing him by the hair. He pulled it back harshly to look into Zabini's face, which was already starting to bruise.

"Let that be a lesson to you, you little shit. Do. Not. Touch. My. Hair." Duo let go of Zabini and stood again, though noticeably closer to Heero.

McGonagall was glaring at both of them. "Mr. Yuy, Mr. Maxwell, and Mr. Zabini. I will expect you three in my office later this evening to serve detention. There is no fighting in the halls of Hogwarts." Madam Pomfrey rushed into the Hall moments later with Fred, and McGonagall resigned herself to the task of explaining what happened.

Malfoy strolled in just behind her, and eyed Zabini with interest. "Who took out Blaise?" he asked in general. He looked at the five boys and George, who were standing a little ways to the side. "Oh, let me guess. It was one of you."

"He attacked Duo from behind. He deserved it," Heero growled. Draco smirked.

"Ah, so it was you. Well, good show then." Without another word, he walked over to the Slytherin table, leaving George and Wufei looking after him curiously.

Madam Pomfrey was assisting Zabini to stand, and Fred moved over to the group. "Well, that was interesting. Guess we should sit, then, since the action is over."

The five pilots turned and moved towards the table, Heero and Duo on one side and the other three facing them. Fred and George boggled at their unity, and took their seats back at the table with the younger students.

"There you are!" came Hermione's call. Looking up, they saw that Harry, Ron and Seamus were with her. She lead the group towards the five pilots, smiling brightly. "I just saw Zabini being dragged to the infirmary by Madam Pomfrey. Whoever did that is my new hero; he was abominable in Potions."

"Heero did it," Quatre said, smiling. Hermione laughed.

"Well, excuse the pun then." She sat down next to Wufei, and the group that had followed her in assembled themselves as well.

"You two ready for Transfigurations with McGonagall?" Ron asked Heero and Duo, who regarded him with surprise.

"Well shit, McGonagall's our next teacher? Damn. She's pissed at us."

"She gave us detention," Heero added. Duo heaved a sigh.

"Damnit, why does trouble always have to follow us around? It's worse than damned Relena." Duo made a face at the mention of the blonde girl.

"Hm, speaking of Relena, I wonder how she's taking Heero's disappearance?" Trowa mused.

Duo snorted. "She's probably got the whole planet searching for him."

Heero merely shook his head slowly and Quatre laughed. Harry watched them, amused. "Somebody has a crush on Heero, I guess?"

Duo grinned. "More like an obsession, eh Heero? Follows you all over the damn planet."

"Us," Heero objected.

"No, Heero, you. Whenever she sees me she gets pissed off." Duo grinned lecherously at the blue-eyed Asian boy. "Though I can't imagine why."

"Could be because you started threatening her," Quatre offered.

"Or because you chased her with your gun that one time," Wufei added.

"Or maybe because every time she gets near Heero you start screaming at her," Trowa also added, smirking at the braided boy.

Duo grinned and feigned embarrassment. "Yes, well. She gets a little too close to Heero for my comfort."

Hermione frowned, watching them carefully. Then she smiled, amused. "You'd almost think that you two were a couple," she said jokingly. Only Ron laughed, and Duo smiled in response.

"We're still working on that," he murmured, stealing a glance at Heero before watching Hermione's reaction.

Her eyes widened and she blushed, looking very abashed. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it, I had no idea that you were gay!"

A few people glanced up at this, but Duo ignored them and shrugged at Hermione. "Now you know." He smiled. "That doesn't… bother you, does it, Herm?"

Hermione shook her head quickly, bushy hair flying. "No, no! I have no problem with somebody being gay."

Duo grinned. "Good."

Harry cleared his throat and excused himself then, telling the others he'd meet them in Transfigurations. Hermione and Ron stared after him curiously, but the pilots did nothing because they knew why he'd left.

As Hermione had been speaking, they'd been staring at him pointedly.

***

Hehe, poor Harry. And Heero. ^^;;

So we got a bit of fighting. I'd see Heero as the protective type, wouldn't you? Although at first I was going to have Duo merely kick the shit out of him, but I thought this way was cuter ^^

Anyway. My comp is still shit, it still crashes, but hey. Here's another chapter, and the next one will be out whenever ^^;;;

(Who knows when my comp'll get sent to get "fixed" again…)

Thank you for the reviews, they're great for morale ^^;;