Zoom!
Heh… yeah, I was in pain (very much pain) for the latter half of this thing, so ignore any weirdness. Mild concussions (from floors… gotta stop falling down…) do that, haha. ^^;
Silvrei: LMAO! Yeah, I actually thought about "Heero wasted no time flinging himself out the window, landing be damned" but then I uh, thought about it, and figured after the war he mellowed out a bit. And I also decided he didn't have a deathwish anymore. XD
A big THANK YOU and YOU KICK ASS to my reviewers, and a thank you to those silent readers as well. I'm glad people like this big hunka fic.
***
Chapter 28
"I think you're the one in over your head," Duo retorted, stepping in front of a shocked Harry.
"No, Duo, wait," the green eyed boy started, but at the same moment Lucius shouted Crucio and a bright light shot at them both. Wufei pulled Draco behind him, and Duo shoved Harry out of the way, before they both spun on Lucius and returned the same spell.
"Not bad," Lucius drawled. "But I am far better." Draco shouted in warning, and Duo's eyes widened as Lucius held his wand out in front of him and a light began to collect at its tip that. Quickly it was as large as a beachball, and formed a spherical shape.
"What the hell…" Duo heard Harry mutter, and Lucius laughed.
"Let's see you dodge this one!" he shouted manically, even as he pulled back his arm in preparation to launch…
***
Duo's eyes widened in an expression that would be almost comical were the situation not so dire. He shot his arm out to push Harry again as he started to move back, protecting the wizard still Duo's priority. Lucius' gray eyes tracked his movement, and a wicked grin stole over his face as the wizard realized his spell was ready. He pulled back his arm to launch the sphere at the boy with the braid…
…when a small black owl swooped down and clawed at his eyes.
"AUGH!" Lucius hollered, swinging his free arm up to smack at the owl. He would have struck it, had a little yellow owl not landed on his shoulder and bit his ear. Lucius screamed, and both of the owls fluttered away.
This brief instance of distraction, however, was enough time for Wufei to charge the elder wizard and deliver a snap kick to the wrist holding the wand. A definite CRACK was heard, and Lucius howled. Wufei began to charge him, but suddenly shapes surged forward from the shadows around them.
"Draco!" Harry hollered, and Wufei spared a quick glance at the blond to see the shadowy specters circling him menacingly. The blond had his wand out and his eyes were flicking from specter to specter, trying to keep track of them all.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco hollered, aiming his wand at one of the dark shapes. Harry was running over to assist him as one of the circling phantoms clattered to the ground.
"Crucio."
"WUFEI!" Duo shouted as Wufei's body was hit by Lucius' spell, the elder wizard holding his wand in his uninjured hand. Wufei collapsed to the ground as his eyes rolled up into his head, and the Asian boy screamed and convulsed as pain wracked his body. Duo, horrified, threw his body at Malfoy and managed to distract him long enough for Wufei to be freed from his spell.
The black-haired pilot rose to one knee, panting, and stared at Lucius, who had found himself with a handful of Maxwell. Duo was throwing punches, clawing, and kicking at the wizard, and Wufei was pleased to note that Lucius apparently had little training in hand-to-hand combat.
'If you rely too much on one weapon…' Wufei thought, rising to his feet and plunging into Duo's battle against Lucius, taking the platinum-haired wizard by surprise and snatching the wand from his left hand. He stepped back and leveled it to Lucius' face.
"It won't work for you," Lucius sneered, and Wufei could see many claw marks bleeding around his eyes, his nose dripping with blood, and bruises forming on his face. Internally, he felt some satisfaction.
"No, but I could always break it then use my own," Wufei returned. "Isn't it true that there's only one perfect wand, and that any replacement will be sorely lacking?" He raised his other hand to hold both ends of the wand. "Let's find out."
He pulled the wand down, raising his knee up. Lucius shouted as it snapped, but to no avail. It broke cleanly in half.
"Nice, 'Fei," Duo commented, backing away to let Wufei handle the wizard. He turned to go help Harry and Draco, only to find Harry kneeling and looking at the sky despairingly. Duo frowned and rushed over to him. "Where's Draco?"
Two unfocused, shocked green eyes looked at him. "He's gone."
"Maxwell!" came a sudden shout, and Duo turned to find Wufei at the brunt end of another wand.
"One thing you should learn, boy," Lucius hissed, backing away as specters surrounded him. "Is to always have a backup plan." The specters converged and surrounded Lucius. After a few moments they faded to nothing, and Lucius was gone. Wufei sprinted forward to the exact spot, but there was nothing but air. As if they knew the threat was gone, Odin and Shinigami fluttered down to head height next to Duo.
"He was after Draco," Duo heard Harry mutter despairingly. "He wasn't even here to see me… he was here for Draco…"
Duo opened his mouth to try and console the obviously upset wizard, when he heard his name being called from a distance. Looking up, he saw Wufei gesture towards the school, though he himself was not looking in that direction. Following the Asian boy's gesture, Duo found himself looking at three figures – most likely Heero, Quatre, and Trowa – running toward them. Far behind them he could see two more people running at a slower pace, but still trying to keep up.
"Harry, we're about to get some company," Duo warned lowly. Harry looked up and across the field, eyes narrowed and bloodshot behind his glasses.
"Oh fuck off," he snarled. "It's Hermione and Ron. I cannot deal with them, Duo, not now," he said to the pilot, who sighed.
"Well I don't know what you want me to do about them," he admitted, shrugging. Harry frowned. "Whatever you do better be damned quick though."
Harry stepped behind Duo, out of his friends' line of sight, and muttered "Accio Invisibility Cloak" quietly. Duo blinked and watched as a cloak came soaring lowly across the grass – had he not been looking for it, he wouldn't have noticed it was there. The cloak flew straight to Harry, who immediately pulled it over his head and… vanished.
Duo's eyes widened. "Shit man, I gotta get one of those."
"Good luck to you," Harry muttered thickly, and Duo could hear the boy hurrying away. Duo had heard the strain in the other boy's voice – he was probably going away so his friends wouldn't know about Draco, as his obviously upset demeanor would have hinted to something being wrong. From what the pilot knew of Hermione, it would have been a matter of time before the stress had multiplied and Harry would have freaked out and told her everything.
It was the human thing to do, of course.
"Duo! Wufei!" Quatre shouted again as they ran up to where the two stood ten feet away from each other. Heero looked between them suspiciously.
"What were you two doing?" he asked, looking at Duo especially. When the boy turned to look at him, however, all suspicions quickly made haste and were replaced by concern. Duo's face showed tightly drawn emotions – most likely he was trying to hide that he was upset. "What happened?"
"Draco is gone," Wufei said flatly, not bothering to look at his companions. He stared out into the open field, as if doing so would bring Draco back. "His father took him, and they're both gone."
"Wha-… his father?" Quatre started, looking at Wufei in surprise. "But his father's dead, Wufei."
"Sure as hell didn't look dead to me," Wufei snapped, turning to look at his comrades. Their eyes widened as they saw the visible strain on the warrior- sweat beads on his forehead, mouth tight, and eyebrows furrowed. "His torture spells felt real, too."
Quatre glanced at Duo for confirmation, and the braided boy nodded. "That fucker nearly did us in. Snapped his wand and everything, but he had a fucking backup," Duo muttered, gesturing to the two halves of what had been a wand. Trowa bent and picked them up. As the footsteps of Hermione and Ron grew loud enough to be noticeable, Odin hooted warningly, fluttering over to land on Heero's shoulder. Duo shot his friends a pointed look.
"Nobody tells them that Draco was out here," Duo said. "Harry was too, and he doesn't want them to know yet."
Quatre looked very mad at that idea. "He needs to tell them, and he needs to tell some professors, Duo! Draco's supposed-to-be-dead-father just showed up and kidnapped the damned kid!" he hissed. Duo shrugged helplessly.
"It's a confidence thing, Quat."
"Eventually that confidence won't be enough anymore, you know that," Trowa said quietly. Duo and Quatre nodded.
"Why are you following us?" Heero called suddenly. Hermione and Ron looked sheepish as they came along beside them.
"We thought you might be… you know, in trouble. Normally students don't just run out of class," Hermione explained, as if it were obvious.
"Plus that class was so bloody boring I would have fallen asleep had I been there any longer!" Ron exclaimed. The redhead punctuated this by yawning hugely.
Heero shrugged. "You're going to get in trouble." Ron didn't look too disturbed.
"We'll just blame't on you, alright?" Quatre smiled and shook his head.
"Alright, fine. Now that we've seen nobody's hurt or going-to-be-hurt, I think we should get back," he said. "I think Sinistra's going to have a fit if we don't."
"Too late," Trowa muttered, sounding amused. The boys and Hermione turned to look at Hogwarts, where they could see the shapes of adults running out to them.
"Why the hell do we keep getting in trouble?" Duo grumbled, looking at a wide-eyed Shinigami and pouting. "Why can't somebody else get in trouble?"
"We're just lucky," Quatre said sarcastically.
***
Six separate lectures – two from Dumbledore, one from Snape (who came out of nowhere, or so Duo claimed), two from McGonagall, and one from Sinistra (who had stayed for moments before rushing back to the classroom) – later, the boys, Hermione, and Ron trudged back into their dormitory, followed by the two misfit owls.
"A bloody week's detention!" Ron groaned.
"On top of what we got excused from," Duo added to Heero, who sighed. Heero nodded.
"It was too good to be true anyway – just because I almost died," Heero droned, rolling his eyes. Quatre snickered.
"Did you see Snape's face when Duo told him to shut the hell up? That was so priceless!" The blond exclaimed, letting out a full laugh.
"He looked like he was going to pop a vessel," Duo agreed, grinning. Trowa smirked.
"Yeah, too bad it got you an extra weekend's detention cleaning the Potions classroom." Duo huffed and shook his head.
"Yeah, watch me as I go to those. It's getting to the point where I really don't give a rat's ass about their dumbass rules."
"I do hope that you aren't serious, Mr. Maxwell," came McGonagall's voice. Instead of giving in and jumping like Ron and Hermione, the five boys turned and looked at McGonagall nonchalantly.
"Don't you know it's bad for my health to have people sneak up on me?" Duo asked rhetorically. McGonagall ignored his comment and glared at him.
"Unless you wish to be expelled from Hogwarts, I hope you decide to improve your behavior." Her steely gaze swept over the entire group. "All of you. I am very displeased by your actions, and not only have you lost us a large amount of points for Gryffindor, but by going so close to the Forest you placed yourselves in danger as well!"
"Please save it," Duo grumbled. "Please. I've had the 'great peril' and 'danger' lectures three times now. I know."
Professor McGonagall gritted her teeth angrily. "I hope then, that by now it's gotten into your thick skull."
"Yeah, soaked right in," Duo retorted.
McGonagall flushed angrily, and opened her mouth to respond when a crashing sound came from the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. Looking over, the group saw a furious-looking Harry storm in, slamming the Fat Lady's portrait behind him. He walked up to Wufei and Duo, face an angry red.
"He refused to help me," Harry hissed, eyes shining. Wufei's own eyes narrowed, while Duo arched an eyebrow.
"We will discuss this later," Wufei responded calmly, using his eyes to gesture to McGonagall. Harry nodded, and stormed off.
"Do try and control your temper, Potter," McGonagall called after him. Without even turning around, Harry called back, "Don't bloody talk to me!" and disappeared up the staircase to his room. McGonagall, shock written all over her face, gave the group gathered in the Common Room one last scathing glare before storming out. Shinigami hooted after her, and Duo shushed him.
Hermione gave Ron a 'look', to which the redhead nodded.
"I wouldn't go up there right now, if I were you," Trowa advised them. Hermione frowned at the lanky brunette.
"Oh, and what would you know about this?" she asked.
"I really doubt that he wants to talk to anyone right now," Quatre replied. Trowa nodded, but Hermione and Ron looked incredulous.
"Uh, sorry, but we've," Ron gestured to Hermione and himself, "known Harry a lot longer than you lot have. I think we know when he needs to talk to someone." Quatre arched an eyebrow, and then shrugged. Taking that as permission, Ron walked past the group with Hermione trailing behind him. They disappeared up the staircase, and once they'd disappeared Duo smirked.
"So, Harry, want to discuss this in our room?" he asked the air.
"Yes," came the reply from his left, and Duo nodded. Heero started towards the staircase first as Odin fluttered along behind him, hooting softly. They headed down while the others, one invisible, followed behind.
***
"So what did you tell Dumbledork?" Duo asked once they were all settled. Immediately after entering the room, Quatre, Heero, and Harry had set up silence and detection spells around its perimeter. Once Harry had removed his cloak they'd shut the door, and Quatre put a locking spell on it as well. Harry placed his broom, which he'd brought to throw off Ron and Hermione, on Duo's bed. The two owls had settled side by side on Quatre's empty bed, and proceeded to watch the group of boys.
The braided pilot was now sitting on Trowa's bed between Heero and Trowa, with Quatre and Wufei on the next bed, which belonged to Wufei. Harry stood in the middle of the room, and was pacing.
"I told him what happened, with Lucius and Draco and the shadows. You and Wufei, as well," he said, gesturing to the Asian boy. "Sorry."
"Don't be," Wufei replied smoothly. "It was a valid part of the story."
"Anyway, he told me that it was impossible to apparate and disapparate inside Hogwarts, and then he told me that even if it did happen there was nothing he could do about it!"
"Wait, 'even if'?" Quatre interrupted, frowning. "He didn't believe you?"
"I don't know," Harry said despairingly. The green eyed boy sighed loudly, looking out the tower window. "He won't help get Draco back, though, and… I can't leave him. He hasn't done anything, and he'll get punished for disobeying his father… they might even kill him." The last statement was said very quietly, but the boys could hear it easily.
"Well what if we don't rely on Dumbledore?" Heero asked. "Do we absolutely need him if we were to get Draco back?"
Harry looked at the blue eyed soldier, hope evident in his eyes. "I, I don't know. He's a very powerful wizard, but…"
"It would be a rescue mission, not a battle," Heero interrupted. "It isn't power that's needed, it's stealth. We have stealth."
Quatre looked at Heero suspiciously. He wasn't acting like normal, offering their services as a means to help Harry without even discussing it. Quatre glanced at Duo, and saw in his face that Duo was thinking the same thing. They mirrored each other; both furrowing their brows and watching Heero talk to Harry.
"But Lucius had no problem beating us, and taking Draco. It would take so much effort to rescue Draco…"
"I wouldn't say he had no problem," Wufei muttered, frowning and obviously annoyed at the thought of being beaten easily. "He had the advantage. He wouldn't have it again."
Another look passed between Duo and Quatre, and the two arched eyebrows and shrugged. If everyone, even Wufei, was acting as a hero, then they might as well play along.
"Okay, well, we'd need a bit more backup than each other. In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty novice when it comes to this stuff," Duo drawled. Harry smiled weakly.
"I guess I could be more helpful when it comes to that," he admitted. "We could do… more lessons. I've taught other students the basics before, I'm sure I can do it for the six of you."
"We know the basics, we're just very basic at them," Quatre said, smiling. Harry nodded.
"What we need is a good wizard on our side, and only our side," Trowa mused from where he sat in the corner on his bed. Duo turned back to look at him.
"Sirius." All five heads shot around to look at Wufei, who stared back impassively. "Why not ask him to help? He hasn't done anything wrong, Dumbledore trusts him, he's a wizard, and he's around. Why not?"
"He's around?" Harry demanded. "Since when?"
"We met him when Heero was at the hospital," Duo answered. "He was in Dumblie's office."
"Why the hell didn't anybody tell me!" Harry growled, glaring at the closed door. Duo frowned at him, but didn't respond, realizing he wasn't referring to them. "They're so…. Fucking SECRETIVE I don't even know what the bloody hell's going on!"
"Welcome to our world. Enjoying your visit?" Quatre said sarcastically. Harry sighed.
"No. I want a refund."
"Sirius, then," Wufei repeated. Harry nodded, frowning.
"If we can find him, then yes, he'll help. He hates being in hiding."
"Obviously you don't blame him for killing your parents," Trowa pointed out. Harry nodded.
"That's true. I don't because he didn't do it. Pettigrew did."
"That's what he said," Wufei replied, nodding. Harry snorted and arched an eyebrow.
"You actually asked him?"
Wufei frowned and looked indignant. "Of course I did. I wanted to know."
"So how are we supposed to find Sirius? And what are we supposed to do once we find him?" Trowa shot out. Duo answered first.
"Do a sweep. This castle's only so big, and now we have Harry to help. As for once we find him, we should do some research at the lame ass library, but you'll have to count me out for that. Sweep I can do, but Pince'll kill me if I set foot in there again."
"And when do you propose we do this?" Quatre asked. "We have class tomorrow, plus detentions, if you remember."
"We don't skip at the same time," Heero replied. "I have the easiest excuse, because I can say I'm sick and they'll believe me. Getting shipped to the hospital makes it more believable."
"Pince doesn't have a clue as to what our schedules are, so like, Heero can skip, Harry can duck out of class- don't give me that look, I know you do that all the time –and they can research in the library. Spectres would be a good topic, and especially cloaking spells," Duo suggested. Heero nodded his assent.
For the next few hours the boys sat, under the watch of two little owls, and planned the day to come.
Of course, things hardly go as planned.
*~*~*
And another one done. Another lengthy wait period… but hey o.o;;; Hope nobody was disappointed, and I'm so glad that so many people are enjoying this ^^;;
P.S., please ignore any random words that might stick out somewhere. I type something, then I go back and alter sentences, sometimes forgetting some words. If it doesn't look like it belongs, it probably doesn't ^^;
