La dee da… ^.^ I love you, reviewers! I cleared 100 pages on word! Gaaah X.x;;;

***

Chapter 26

Silence came over the group as they considered this new piece of evidence, and George stood watching them, curiosity obvious on his face. "So… you know 'er?"

Quatre snapped back to himself first, and fired off a response. "Not really, we've just seen her before. Had no idea she was a… erm…"

"A Death Eater," Duo supplied. Quatre nodded.

"Yes, if we'd known that we would have been more cautious around her."

Truth be told, had they known she was a Death Eater, a witch, and capable of potent magic, they wouldn't have done the damned mission in the first place. This thought flitted through all their minds at some point, but they quickly pushed past it. Now was not the time to think 'what ifs' – spending too much time dwelling on what might have happened made them distracted. In war, be it between wizard, metal or man, a distracted soldier was a dead soldier.

"Wow, that's too bad," George replied. "It woulda been great if ya coulda given some info on her, but if you've only seen her around…"

The boys nodded solemnly, doing their best to look contrite.

"Anyway," George continued. "I just came over ta tell ya I was takin' off, and that I'd see you lot around. And… you can keep the paper, if ya want. I've already read it."

Quatre smiled. "Yes, thank you George. See you around." Duo waved, beaming, and George smiled back before heading out of the library. As soon as he'd disappeared, they leaned in once more.

"Okay, so we've got a face and a possible loyalty. How's that supposed to help us?" Quatre hissed. Duo plopped his face down on an upright palm, and beside him Trowa slouched a little.  Across the table, Wufei was pouring over the article again, looking for any sort of clue aside from her location at the time. Heero was reading the texts again.

Heero's brow furrowed suddenly, and Duo leaned closer. "Find something, 'ro?" Blue eyes flicked up briefly and he shrugged.

"Nothing too important. It just says what's needed for a small time-movement spell. Nothing like what she pulled off."

"So let's pool our data thus far," Quatre suggested wearily. He doubted they had much more than before.

"We have her face again, and think she's a Voldemort lackey," Wufei started.

"She was outside London lately. We're pretty damn close to London," Duo added.

Trowa 'hm'd. "I'm under the impression that she isn't the smartest person, either. Who practices dark magic near a Ministry?"

"It could have been a trap," Heero mused, eyes still scanning the text. Trowa nodded.

"I suppose, but it was still pretty risky, her against a bunch of… Aurors, was it?"

"Yeah," came Quatre. "The wizarding police."

"That work on faulty evidence," Duo added bitterly. Heero looked up and gave him a confused look. Duo grinned. "Oh, of course, you missed that lovely lecture. Basically they locked a guy up without proving he was guilty, then he escaped."

Heero's eyebrows rose minutely and he muttered a quiet, "ah"(1), before returning to the text in front of him.

The bell rang then, alerting them to the ending of the previous period. They glanced up at Madam Pince, who started shuffling a bit more than they liked.

"I think it's time to decide whether we want any of these," Wufei muttered, gesturing to the texts. "I doubt she'll appreciate finding us with these books."

"So which ones?" Quatre asked, looking at the five books scattered across the table.

"Heero seems to like his," Duo joked, and the blue-eyed pilot glared at him.

"I'm trying to eliminate this one as a useless text. Thus far it's been that way," he retorted, looking indignant. Duo stuck out his tongue and Heero rolled his eyes. He flipped the cover of the book closed and pushed it forward. "Nothing."

"Mine had some interesting points," Trowa offered. "So did Duo's." Without needing a cue, the two pilots swapped books to see which one was better for taking away. Removing too many books would be suspicious, after all, if someone decided to look for them.

"Yours has more about the process, Tro," Duo said after a few moments. "Mine's just the side effects. We've already experienced it once, so how useful could that be?"

"And if we decide we need it we can come back," Trowa agreed, placing Duo's book on the table. "So who gets to deliver them back to their places?"

"I'll do it," Quatre volunteered. "Duo, gonna provide some cover?"

"I'll need a bit more than babbling this time, I think. Wufei can help me."

Said pilot arched an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

Duo grinned. "Yeah. I'd take Tro or Heero, but Tro doesn't yell and I'll need Heero to separate us, you weak idiotic asshole."

Wufei's eyes narrowed. "So that's how we're going to play then, onna?"

A malicious grin was his answer, and Duo stood. Wufei followed suit. Together they walked towards the exit of the library, aware of Madam Pince's eyes on them the whole time. When they were close to leaving, Duo reached out and shoved Wufei into the bookcases.

"WHAT?! YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" he roared. Wufei's eyes widened, but then narrowed as he got into the part.

"ME? HOW CAN I POSSIBLY COMPARE WITH YOU, MAXWELL, WHEN YOU'RE SO UTTERLY RETARDED YOU MAKE A KARP LOOK INTELLIGENT!"

Ignoring the urge to start chuckling, Duo growled inhumanly and dove at Wufei, swinging fists and kicking out. Wufei, for his part, matched him and countered. They were vaguely aware of Madam Pince shouting at them and walking towards them.

Quatre made use of the distraction and slipped into the Restricted Section, four texts in hand, and placed them on their appropriate shelves. Once done, he slipped back out, where he found Pince shouting with her wand raised.

"IF YOU TWO DON'T STOP THIS INSTANT-." On cue, Heero and Trowa stepped in and pried the two fighters apart. Heero wrapped his arms around Duo's waist, lifted and heaved him away from Wufei, while Trowa opted for a calm hand on Wufei's shoulder. Regardless of method, the two fighters visibly calmed.

"Oh man," Duo groaned. He looked at Pince pleadingly. "You're gonna report this?"

The librarian gave him a murderous look.

"But, ma'am, really, I can't get in trouble again, I have so many assignments and I'm new here and I can't possibly keep up and learn and serve detention and get in trouble and still be expected to maintain an excellent average if you tell on me! I'm so sorry, it'll never happen again, Wufei isn't even really hurt he's so used to this kind of thing happening! I have a pretty bad temper you know and I can't exactly control it all of the time-."

"Silencio," Madam Pince muttered tiredly. Immediately, the sound of Duo's voice disappeared. "Young man, if you promise to RIGHT NOW and not set foot in this library for a week, I will ignore this… sizeable slight."

Duo beamed and started moving his mouth again, thanking her while no sound came out. Heero smirked.

"He says thank you many, many times," Heero translated. Duo frowned and smacked him in the shoulder. Madam Pince pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed again.

"Finite incantatem," she muttered, turning on her heal and walking away before Duo could speak to her again.

"Thanks!" Duo shouted after her, and grinned when she flinched. He bounded out the library door, granting the poor librarian's wish and not waiting as the others followed more slowly. On the way out Trowa shot Quatre a questioning look, to which the blond responded by tapping the book hidden under his robes and grinning.

It took little over five minutes to return to their dorm, managing to avoid getting lost. It was a triumph they celebrated silently, filing into the Common Room through the Fat Lady's portrait. As soon as they entered the room, they were immediately surrounded.

"Heero, you're back!" Harry exclaimed first.

"You all right there, mate?" Seamus asked, rising from the burgundy couch and looking at the brunette carefully.

"Ya sure gave us a scare," Ron said, laughing weakly. It was Hermione who surprised them the most, however, turning and glaring fiercely at them.

"You skipped History of Magic!" she hollered accusingly. She crossed her arms and huffed when her accusation was met with nothing but laughter, from both sides of the room.

***

After supper the boys congregated in their room once again, passing the time until Quatre, Heero, and Trowa were due to Astronomy class, which Hermione promised (threatened) to escort them to.

The book Quatre had filched from the library was hidden under Trowa's mattress, because, as Duo so eloquently put it, "he found the book, so he should have the honor of sleeping on it."

Duo was lounging on Heero's bed, wile Heero sat in the corner of the bed next to the wall, fiddling with his laptop. Wufei was looking over the pile of assignments Hermione told them to do for skipping History, although he claimed he was merely getting a feel for the wizarding world. Quatre and Trowa sat on Trowa's bed, talking across the room to Duo.

"I think that the other kids might be able to help us," Duo said. The two across the room from him looked skeptical, but he pressed on. "No, really. They've been living through this crap, right? If she's a Voldemort lackey, and Harry's Voldemort's enemy…"

"Duo," Quatre said warningly, and Duo frowned at him.

"I'm not going to use the kid as bait, Quatre," he snapped. "We don't even know if she's really a Death Eater."

"Regardless, getting the children involved isn't a safe plan anyway," Wufei pointed out, though he didn't seem to notice that these "children" were the same age as he was. "It's possible that any of them could be traitors."

"What a nice thought," Duo said dryly, sighing. "That would suck though. They're kinda growing on me."

"Bad plan," Heero murmured.

"I dunno Heero, having people grow on you isn't such a bad thing," Duo said, leaning back and sending the Wing Pilot a meaningful look. Heero glanced up, nodded, and returned to his laptop screen. Duo bit down a sigh by forcing a grin and turning back to Quatre.

"So I guess we have to work on, what, forming better relationships with the student body, eh? It'd help to get info on Voldemort from people living through it, ya know?"

"What about those 'teachers' we claimed?" Trowa asked suddenly. "Those could come in handy."

"Yeah, and since a couple of us have Astronomy next…" Quatre trailed off, fumbling through his robe for his timetable. "It's with Hufflepuffs…" He frowned. "We haven't had a class with them yet."

"They probably aren't anything to worry about," Trowa mused. "We haven't heard anything important about that House, except for the death of that kid."

"And that was an accident," Quatre added. "All the info on Voldemort seems to come from either Ron, Hermione, or Harry."

"The Slytherins are supposed to be evil, aren't they?" Duo asked the room. Wufei sat forward.

"That's what I gathered from the way the onna and the redhead talk about them," he said. Duo smirked, but refrained from comment on the lack of names.

"So, we'd probably want contact with Slytherins." Duo looked back at Heero. "And if I remember right, that'd be your area, bud."

Heero smirked and nodded. "Harry would probably work, too, since they're…" he trailed off, and the others nodded. They weren't sure if the room was actually soundproof, and were risking having their discussion in there, but they would not risk breaking confidence; especially not when their confidant could be a very important ally.

"I hope this class isn't going to be boring," Quatre muttered. "I'll be pretty annoyed if we went through all the trouble of not skipping it to find out it's boring."

"Hate to break it to you, Quatre, but they're stars. We know everything there is to know about stars." Duo laughed when Quatre groaned.

"Damnit, you're right!" the blonde swore.

"What time does that class start?" Wufei asked. He wasn't scheduled to take it, but wanted to know regardless.

"Umm…" Quatre paused to think about it. Before he had a chance to respond, a female began shouting in the common room.

"C'MON YOU LAZY BOYS, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR ASTRONOMY, AND I'LL NOT HAVE YOU DOING THAT ON MY WATCH!"

Five sets of eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Um. Okay. Guess we should get going," Quatre said, standing and smiling. "Seems Hermione doesn't like to wait."

Heero and Trowa rose from their seats on the beds, said goodbye to Wufei and Duo, and they left to calm the poor brunette girl down. Duo snatched up Heero's laptop the second the blue-eyed boy was out of site, and opened up a game site. Wufei arched an eyebrow at him.

"Duo… don't you have your own laptop?"

Duo grinned. "Yeah."

Wufei, knowing from experience that questioning Duo further would be pointless, merely sighed and returned to reading, already counting the minutes he had to spend alone with the braided idiot.

***

"L1," Heero murmured, pointing at a specific area of the sky. Quatre nodded enthusiastically. Heero moved his finger around in a squarish movement. "L12-799, L13-568, L16-755…"(2)

"Yes, yes, Heero, no need to show off," Quatre droned, sticking his tongue out at the other boy. "I'm sure you could point out every colony in every district." He pointed directly above them. "L4, beyond the roof, of course." He moved his hand down and left. "L3."

Heero smirked and pointed behind him, into the room. "L5." He shifted his hand upwards. "X18-999."

"Lovely," Quatre said dryly, glancing back at where Heero pointed out the opposite window. "It's so fun being reminded of that damned colony."

"It's there," Heero said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, yes, I know," Quatre responded, shaking his head. They'd spent the last half hour pointing out the window, and through the walls, at the non-existent colonies. The other students had left them alone for the most part, sending them odd looks every once in awhile. Their constellation and location homework had taken the better part of ten minutes for them, while Trowa got the lucky job of trying to help other students in the room. Professor Sinistra, after seeing their work completed, had allowed them the rest of the time to spend how they'd pleased, but Ron had seized Trowa for help.

Said pilot was currently arguing, albeit quietly, with Ron about the location of Gemini in the night sky. Neither Quatre nor Heero were anxious to go help, and had amused themselves with naming colonies.

"I think I'm getting homesick," Quatre mumbled, frowning. "I never get homesick."

"Helps when you have a home to be sick for," Heero added, smiling a bit.

The two pilots watched out the window for the remainder of the period, each caught up in their own thoughts of their homes, how those they'd left behind were faring, and whether they would ever get home.

Their heads angled in such a way, and their thoughts occupied so, made them miss the two figures racing across the field below, and the telltale braid of the one in the lead.

***

(1)…Does anybody else think that seeing Heero do that expression would be the cutest thing ever? ^^;; Could be the Heero-obsession talking, though…

(2) Totally made that up. I doubt they'd all start with L1, just because they were in the L1 cluster, but I'm unoriginal (or have you forgotten already?? ^^) And yes, I'm sure they're written like that (or almost sure) because X18-999 is. If not, it's my story, so nyah =P

Another chapter down! Who-the-hell-knows to go!