Let me just say that thanks to my reviewers, I swear that my self-confidence has tripled or something. Honestly – you guys are SO AWESOME!! ^^;;;;; Thank you!

Oh, and… We cleared 100 reviews!! This is awesome! I'm so happy! ^^;;

Of course, this fic still has a ways to go.

Hope it doesn't disappoint.

Also… please ignore any weirdness in this chapter. I'm a normally jittery person in general, and it doesn't take much to scare the shit out of me, and I just watched Signs. So I'm littleeeeee….. *shrugs* right now.

Also (yes, another one) thanks to anon for letting me know about that chapter problem, which I thought I'd fixed by re-uploading them with the last chapter. After like half an hour of fiddling, I realized what the problem was: it hates me. No no, actually it just deleted the link that I enter and then like… eats the chapter. So I got rid of the link. That should fix it.

***

Chapter 23

After suggesting that they confront Harry about his actions in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Duo almost immediately was hesitant to do so. Quatre caught on immediately and turned to him, smiling.

"Duo, if you want to go see Dumbledore about Heero then do so. We can go ask Harry and talk to you later, you know?" Duo grinned.

"Quatre man, I have no idea what we'd do without you and your little heart," he said honestly.

"We'd figure things out eventually," Wufei contributed. "Like right now I'm thinking you'd like some company to find out about Heero."

"You guys are too awesome," Duo murmured, looking at his three friends, gratitude shining in his eyes. "So, you volunteering, Wufei?"

Wufei shrugged. "All right." He looked at Trowa and Quatre. "Sure you don't need our help?"

Quatre laughed and waved his hand dismissively. "I'm sure Trowa and I can handle Harry and his friends, Wufei. Go on, I want to know how Heero's doing too!" Quatre held out a hand. "Give me your supplies. We'll make sure that it gets to the next class, even if you don't."

Duo nodded and handed over his laptop case. Wufei gave his bag of quills and parchment reluctantly. Duo gave the blond one more grateful look and started heading back down the corridor, Wufei only seconds behind. Trowa and Quatre turned and continued their pursuit of Harry.

***

"Okay, so… where the hell are we supposed to find Dumbledore?" Duo asked Wufei, not really expecting him to know the answer. Odin fluttered overhead, and Shinigami chattered at him from his perch on Duo's head. He took off and started chasing the smaller yellow owl. Duo smiled at the two.

"Let's ask the paintings," Wufei suggested. Duo rolled his eyes.

"Wufei, you and those damn paintings. Pretty soon I'm going to suspect some kind of affair going on or something." Wufei glared at him. Duo waved his hands defensively. "Okay, okay, ask your paintings."

Wufei turned to the painting to his immediate left, one of a young woman watering flowers with an old-fashioned watering can. Duo wondered why she wasn't using magic to do it.

"Excuse me?" Wufei called politely. The woman looked up in surprise.

"Um. Hello."

"Could you tell us where to find the Headmaster's office?"

The painting frowned and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Well, you follow this corridor and then go down the stairs, then turn left and follow that corridor, then make a right turn, go up the stairs, turn left again and then you should be there! It's behind a large gargoyle."

Wufei and Duo stared at her blankly before recovering, Wufei thanking her for her help and both of them setting off down the corridor, Odin and Shinigami following above.

"You catch all that?" Wufei asked dubiously.

"Uh, most of it."

"We should be fine then."

"Oh good, I've always wanted to get lost in a big haunted castle with talking paintings and moving staircases."

"Haunted?"

"Oh." Duo looked surprised. "I guess I forgot to tell you. Hogwarts has a ghost population wandering around." As if on cue, a large phantom flew through the wall to their left, cackling madly. Shinigami hooted loudly and flew back while Odin tried attacking it.

"Students out of class!" it shrieked, swatting at the two owls. Duo cried out.

"Hey, leave them the hell alone!" He lifted up his hands and the two owls landed on his palms. He tucked them against his chest protectively. The phantom held what looked to be a water balloon over its head.

"Students skipping classsss!" the phantom shrieked again.

"Uh. What?" Duo said smartly. As far as he knew, there were no classes going on at the moment. His next class hadn't even started yet. The phantom lobbed a balloon towards them, and cackled madly as it fell. The laughter stopped, however, when it found the balloon flying back at its translucent head. The balloon passed right through and exploded against the wall. Wufei had his wand out and was glaring at the ghost.

"I would suggest that you move on," he said darkly. The ghost let out a peel of laughter and readied another balloon. Before he could throw it, Wufei muttered, "Petrificus Totalus."

The phantom froze and fell to the ground, clattering against the floor.

Duo beamed at his Asian friend. "That's wicked, man."

Wufei smirked. "Well, we might as well learn it if we're stuck in this place."

"Damn right," Duo said, releasing Odin and Shinigami, who fluttered over to the phantom and pecked at him for good measure. Duo clapped Wufei on the back approvingly before setting off once again down the corridor.

When they finally reached the destination the painting's instructions had lead them, all they could see out of the ordinary was a gargoyle statue. Wufei and Duo both recognized it as the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Yeah, this was where McGonagall brought us. Now what the hell was that password?" Duo mumbled to himself. Wufei seemed to be thinking about it as well. Shinigami, apparently tired, sat down on the gargoyle's head. Two eyes flicked up and looked at the little bird in annoyance.

"No no, Shini," Duo called. "Get down from there. The big gargoyle monster doesn't want you sitting on its head. C'mere Shini."

The little black owl merely blinked its violet eyes and hooted. Duo was about to try again when Odin landed next to him and started pecking him. Shinigami didn't seem to like this and started pecking back.

Thus, a duel began between the two owls. On top of a gargoyle's head. And Wufei had just remembered the password.

"Ginger snaps!" he said loudly. The gargoyle then moved, startling the poor owls so badly that they fell off its head and almost crashed against the floor, regaining their senses at the last second and flying back to use Duo as a perch. Duo only laughed.

"Crazy damned owls," he said affectionately.

"Kind of like their owners," Wufei commented. Before Duo could retort, the Asian boy walked through the entrance and began ascending the winding staircase.

***

Where is Duo?

That was the first thing that hit him, followed closely by Where am I? And Where are the others? Most prominent though was Where is Duo? Under other circumstances, where there weren't so many unknowns and things to be concerned about, he would have wondered why Duo's location was most important. He made no movement to show he was awake, and tried to discern by sound and smell where he was.

Some sort of hospital, his mind supplied. The logical part of his mind wondered how he knew that, because there was no telltale beeping or whirring or dripping that was normally associated with his visits to the hospital. What there was, though, was a nurse talking to a doctor in the hallway about somebody's status. Listening in he dismissed their conversation as unimportant – he was not comatose, so they were obviously not talking about him.

Because he was affected too. That stray thought caused him to stop and think. Who was affected… oh, Duo. His mind had answered why he wondered about Duo's location. If he was in a hospital, no doubt having some connection to that liquid he'd ingested, then the liquid that had been on Duo's scalp may have sent him to the hospital as well.

Dragging himself away from the thoughts that revolved around Duo, he focused on the conversation that had begun between the man who'd been conversing in the hallway with a nurse about somebody comatose. What was peculiar about this conversation was the background crackling of flames, and the voice of Dumbledore returning conversation.

Heero's eyes shot open.

***

Duo had to admit, busting into Dumbledore's office without knocking was rather rude, but he had a feeling that the old Headmaster would know they were coming because of the noise of the gargoyle, or Wufei's exclamation when Duo had brushed past him, or the two owls hooting at each other from Duo's shoulders. Either way Duo figured Dumbledore knew they were coming, and thusly threw open the door instead of knocking.

And found himself face-to-face with a wand.

"Hey there!" he called jovially. He connected wand to hand to face, and saw a man with long, black hair staring at him suspiciously. "Mind getting your pointy magical object out of my face?"

"It's all right," Dumbledore called. "I've been expecting them. Or, Duo, at least."

When the wand didn't immediately disappear, Odin and Shinigami hooted indignantly. The man seemed to decide that a boy with an owl on each shoulder couldn't be much of a threat, and moved to let them enter.

Duo strolled in confidently, Wufei following closely, albeit more dignified. He watched the stranger carefully, and even knowing Duo was watching him as well Wufei couldn't shake the feeling of danger that seemed to radiate from him. Then Duo was speaking and he began concentrating more on the conversation than the stranger.

 "How's Heero?" Cutting straight to the point, which surprised Wufei, Duo stared at the Headmaster expectantly.

"I'm not sure, Mr. Maxwell. I've yet to check up on him, although I'm sure he's doing fine."

"Can you check on him now?"

Dumbledore shot a questioning glance to his guest, who shrugged indifferently. Dumbledore nodded and turned to the fireplace that burned brightly in his office. He murmured a few words, threw some sort of powder in the fireplace, and then… stuck his head in it.

Duo shot forward, intending to pull him out, but the stranger grabbed his shoulder. And immediately found his arm bent at an uncomfortable angle and two cobalt-violet eyes glaring at him. Odin, knocked from his perch, hooted angrily and fluttered off, landing on the edge of Dumbledore's desk. Shinigami followed.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Duo's glare intensified. "Unless I'm not mistaken, an old man just SHOVED HIS HEAD in a FIREPLACE and now you're STOPPING me from helping him."

"Well, you are mistaken," the stranger told him, trying to remove his hand from Duo's grasp and failing. "You asked him to see how your friend was doing. That's what he's doing. He's talking to the people at St. Mungo's through the fireplace."

Frowning, Duo and Wufei both turned and looked at the Headmaster, who did appear to be conversing with someone. Listening carefully, they could also hear somebody responding. Duo released his hold on the man and crouched next to Dumbledore.

"He's waking up, then?" Dumbledore asked, seemingly surprised.

Now, normally, Duo was a very polite, respectful boy. He wasn't rude to the elderly, and didn't cheat them or lie to them. However, when Heero's condition was in question, he found that his morals didn't hold up very well.

That said, Duo grabbed Dumbledore's shoulder and pulled him back out of the fireplace, immediately shoving his own in its place.

Wufei stared, shocked. Dumbledore only laughed. When the stranger moved forward towards Duo, the Headmaster held up a hand.

"It's quite all right, Sirius," he said. "He's concerned. I understand that."

Wufei stared at the stranger, now revealed to be Sirius, in shock.

Duo, who hadn't heard the exchange, was focusing on a room that he was now looking in. A man stood in front of him, and he looked surprised at the appearance of this new face in the fireplace.

"Where's Heero?" he demanded, loudly. The man began to answer, but then a figure in the background was moving and dropped in front of the fire.

"He's awake!" came a call from far away, but Duo didn't hear it. He was too busy staring at the very alive Heero Yuy looking at him with bright, beautiful blue eyes. He grinned.

"Heero!"

"Duo," came the soft, relief-laced response.

"It's about goddamned time you got your lazy ass out of bed!"

***

When Quatre had agreed to take over questioning Harry, he really hadn't thought that it'd be a difficult mission at all. Really, he thought it would be rather simple. 'What's your connection with Sirius Black?' he planned to say, although much more eloquently, of course.

What he hadn't counted on was Harry's immediate disappearance and being stranded, albeit with Trowa, with Harry's friends.

"And that's why the Chudley Cannons are the best," Ron was saying with conviction to Trowa. Trowa was actually staring at him in horror, although masked it very, very well. Quatre would have laughed at him, but Hermione was telling him all the wonderful things about Hagrid, the teacher of their next class.

Quatre, ever the polite boy, couldn't find it in his heart to interrupt her, even when she started ranting about house elves. What a house elf was he had no idea, but he had a feeling they weren't quite as abused and persecuted as Hermione made them out to be.

"I started a group that would help liberate the house elves, although I haven't had much luck in recruiting members," she admitted, looking at Quatre hopefully. Quatre pretended not to notice.

"Good luck with that," he said, smiling. Hermione looked disappointed. She wasted no time, however, in picking up with her other favorite topic: school.

"What class do you have next?" she asked eagerly. Quatre, being the smart boy he was, had grabbed his timetable earlier and shoved it in his robe pocket. He retrieved it and handed it to the bushy-haired girl. She studied it for a few moments then beamed. "You're in our class, Care of Magical Creatures, next. Hagrid teaches that. You've met him, haven't you? He's really not as bad as those Slytherins try to make him out, he's just very enthusiastic about his job…"

Quatre tried very hard not to sigh forlornly as she started commenting on all the 'enlightening' (read: dangerous) things that Hagrid had done as the CoMC teacher.

He silently apologized to Duo, because it was becoming painfully obvious that they weren't getting answers for a little while yet.

***

Unbeknownst to Quatre, Trowa, or even Duo, Wufei stared Sirius Black in the eye with no little suspicion and curiosity.

"You're Sirius Black," he said, obviously. The long-haired man nodded, eyeing Wufei with equal suspicion. "You were accused of betraying Harry Potter's family and killing Pettigrew."

Sirius arched an eyebrow at the use of the word 'accused', but nodded again.

"So," Wufei trailed off. After spending a large amount of time around people who cut straight to the chase, like Heero and Trowa, he'd begun to pick up the habit himself, and employed its use now. "Did you do it?"

Sirius blinked, shocked. "No," he answered. He wasn't used to people actually asking him if he'd done the things he'd been sent to Azkaban for. This was a first.

"So who did it?"

Sirius had to admit; this kid definitely had gall to ask a possible murderer these kinds of questions. However, since Dumbledore hadn't stopped the exchange, he didn't think it was too much to tell the truth. Also, they could just modify his mind if he became a problem.

"Peter Pettigrew," he answered. Wufei smirked.

"Well, the others will certainly be pleased."

Sirius' curious look and questions died on his tongue as Duo scrambled back out of the fireplace, beaming.

"He's coming back!" he shouted, jumping into the air and whooping loudly.

Shinigami and Odin hooted enthusiastically in response.

*~*~*

Damned owls are getting quite a bit of screen time

But they're just too cute to ignore ^^;

Anyways… no Blaise in this chapter, but things should start picking up soon.

…I hope.

*wanders off singing* Someday we'll find it, this rainbow connection…