Author: Bunny-chan
Email: Bunnychan85hotmail.com
Mare Serenitatis
Chapter 4
5/14/04
Hey everyone. Back again for another chapter. But first, I have a question, almost a challenge, but not quite.
Who knows what Mare Serenitatis is in reference to? Basically, find out where I got the name from. Then! Name me one more 'Mare'. If you're confused, email me and I'll give you a hint. Leave your response in your review.
I've come across one more problem. Adjusting Usagi's age to fit both time and story has given me a few bumps to work out. I know in Sailor Stars she's already 16... but let's assume that only at the end of the battle she turned 16. It moves the final battle later and closer to the summer. But to make sure that Harry's birthday in late July is preserved, this needs to be done.
So enjoy another chapter of this crazy story.
Harry's knuckles turned white as he gripped his bed sheets for dear life. He breathed in heavily, thinking over the words that had just been uttered to him. His chest constricted and he found it hard to catch his breath.
"Daijoubu ka, Harry?"
Harry faintly heard her soft voice echo through his head, but he couldn't respond. It was like some force was making him numb and he continued to feel loss of sensation and control all over his body. When he was finally able to find his voice again, he spoke in a low shaky voice. "Serenity... Potter? How?"
Dumbledore looked at him sadly. "When Voldemort killed your parents, you were sent to your Aunt's while Usagi was sent to a Wizard family in Japan. It was safer that way." He shook his head and pushed his half-moon spectacles up on his nose. "I'm very sorry that you were never told about her. Usagi didn't find out either until a week ago really."
Harry's gaze moved over to Usagi and he looked her up and down. "We don't look much alike..." He said, more to himself than Dumbledore or Usagi. "The same nose and maybe similar face shapes. But that's all..."
"There will be much time for you to dwell on appearances later." Dumbledore responded kindly, the twinkle in his eye came back slightly. "But for now, perhaps the two of you would like to get to know each other better?"
Usagi smiled and nodded slightly. "Yes, that would make me happy."
Harry nodded as well; still feeling shocked from everything going on. He watched as Dumbledore made his way out of the bedroom and shut the door lightly behind him.
The two teenagers sat in silence for a long while, not really knowing how to begin the conversation. The silence seemed to bug Usagi more than it did Harry and she fidgeted restlessly in her chair beside his bed.
Harry noticed and his green eyes turned sympathetic. "Can't sit still for very long?" He asked suddenly. Usagi's crystal blue eyes shot open at his words as she nodded numbly. "Sometimes I feel that way too, especially when I'm in my History of Magic class. The professor is a ghost... so, he's particularly dull."
"Your professor is a ghost?"
He smirked. "Yah, his name is Professor Binns. I think he's been dead for a while."
Usagi scratched the back of her head and was sure there was a bead of sweat hanging above her like in the animation shows. "Isn't that odd?"
Harry chuckled slightly. "Well, it was when I first came to Hogwarts. But there are plenty of ghosts that live at the school. It's practically a normal occurrence for me now. Among the other strange going- ons there." He looked over to her and she seemed to be paying complete attention to everything he said. "So... Usagi, how old are you? Are you younger than me? I mean... you look like you are. You can't be any older."
"Oh, I'm 16 years old. We're twins, did you know? I think it's a lot to take in at once. When my mother told me, I felt like the whole world collapsed on me." She said, looking out the dingy window of the bedroom.
"Yah, it does feel like the whole world collapsed. It's nice that I have a birthday to share with someone I guess." He smiled weakly. "Too bad we couldn't have met each other a few weeks ago; it would've been nice to celebrate on the 25th together." He smiled at her, but soon lost it as she frowned.
She blinked nervously. "The 25th? I... I celebrate my birthday on June 30th."
Harry's green eyes flashed and seemed to narrow a bit. "Oh you have? I guess that you can get confused when you're not with your real family." His voice was harsh, but there was pain there too.
Usagi blinked. "I've always celebrated my birthday on June 30th. It's just the day my mother chose I guess." She finished quietly. She felt like he may be angry with her... maybe because she had a person she called mother. But for some reason his words hurt her and she didn't know why.
"Hey, I'm sorry, Usagi." He said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I guess I really need to get used to it all. I mean, not even a month ago, I was back to having no one. And now I have a sister. Sirius died and I've been locked up at the Dursley's... all by myself to think about what happened that night. Over and over I see him falling through that veil and it kills me." He gave a strangled sob. "I should have saved him! I could have! Sirius would still be here if it wasn't for me!"
Usagi wrapped her arms around him. "It's alright, Harry. Don't... don't kill yourself over it." She struggled with what to say on such a terrible subject. "I know what you're going through... my friends, they died. It was an accident, and I'm sure if I had just done what I was supposed to, I could have saved them. But they're gone, and that's that. I spent weeks locked up in my room. I didn't leave for anything. I was wasting away. Then one day I woke up. My friends, they died for me so I could live... they wouldn't want me to kill myself for them."
She backed away and looked into Harry's miserable and distraught eyes. "And I know that Sirius would never want you to kill yourself over him." She said softly, wiping away the small traces of tears that were left on his face. "He died so you could live. Don't ruin his intent."
He looked down, slightly ashamed of himself for acting the way he was. "How did your friends die?"
Usagi looked at him sadly. "It's a very long story... But we all got into a problem with... I guess you could call them a gang. One by one, this gang killed my friends until there was only me left. They died so I could live and beat these people. And I eventually did, but the damage was already done. They weren't coming back, ever." She finished suddenly, as if there was more, but she refused to say anything. "I'm sorry; I guess it's too painful to talk about."
Harry understood somehow that she would tell him one day, and left the issue at that. "It's alright. But tell me about Japan! I've never been there before. What is your home like?"
Her blue eyes lit up as she smiled. She babbled on to Harry about her mother and father and little brother Shingo. She explained how her school system worked and where she went after her detentions every day. She talked about Motoki, Fruits Parlor Crown, the arcade, Tokyo Tower, Juuban Park and other places in her hometown that she visited regularly with her friends.
And they sat for most of the morning, talking about things that interested them, and got to know each other better until it was as if they never parted in the first place. Harry smiled as she talked about any little thing that came to her mind and thought, it wouldn't be so bad to actually have a sister.
Harry also told her about his life with the Dursley's, their Aunt and Uncle, and how he found out about his being a Wizard. He talked about the Wizard towns and some of the customs, including the food they ate, the ways they traveled and how they dressed. He talked a lot about Hogwarts and how he considered it to be his home more than the house on Privet drive.
But their talks were interrupted by a knock at the door. A head of bushy brown hair stuck its way into the door and muttered, "Sorry to bother you guys..."
"Hermione, it's alright!" Harry exclaimed, laughing. "When have you even been that shy?"
Said girl's head shot up in surprise and her brown eyes were the size of dinner plates. "Harry...?"
"Yes..."
"Are you feeling well?"
"What kind of question is that?!"
"You're laughing."
"Can't a guy laugh?"
Hermione shook her head. "Sorry. It's just that it's been so long since I've heard you laugh. It's nice to hear it again." She continued in a more normal tone, "Mrs. Weasley wants to know if you two are hungry. We've all been holding back in bugging you two this morning... but Mrs. Weasley thought you should eat something."
But that was how Usagi and Harry spent most of their days during the days that led up to the beginning of school. They would tend to talk to each other for what seemed like hours and it would be hard for them to part at the end of the day for bed. Usagi found she had many things in common with Harry and she felt closer to him as her sibling than she had felt to any of her friends back home.
And Harry felt that Usagi was someone who could understand his problems. He admitted that the two of them had some of the same traits, but he claimed her appetite was not something they had in common. There was a sort of feeling he got sometimes in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't an overwhelming sense of protectiveness, but he just knew deep down that she was one person he'd look after for the rest of his life.
"They seem to be getting along very well, don't you think?"
Dumbledore raised his eyes to meet the steely gray ones of Remus Lupin. He nodded and smirked lightly to himself. "Yes, I quite agree Remus. Though he might not forget everything that happened only a few months ago, hopefully he'll start to recover with his family being around him."
Remus sighed and nodded his head. "Of course, Albus. It's not so easy to forget something like that. Especially Sirius..." He trailed off, gaining a misty and longing look in his aged eyes. "At any rate, Albus, what did you call me here for?"
"Ah! I had almost forgotten, Remus! Please forgive me! Old age is certainly beginning to take its effect." He took off his half-moon spectacles and rubbed his forehead lightly, attaining the look of a tired old man. "I have been meaning to speak to you about a certain matter for a while now. I know that the potion that Severus prepares for you is the only thing that keeps your transformation under control." He paused, waiting for some type of response from Remus. When he received no word, he continued. "But it seems there might be a power that will ruin that fragile control."
Remus shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Albus..."
"Usagi holds an ancient magic that I have not seen in quite a long time. Her power is drawn from the Moon just like the ancient Lunarians before her have. When she used some of that power to help Harry recover from the Nundu attack, you walked into the room and felt the Moon's pull." Remus' face lit up with understanding as Dumbledore spoke. "Therefore, I ask you, be careful when around her. If she draws on too much power in your presence, it could trigger your transformation without the Moon being full, and even to a worse extent, in broad daylight."
"Do you think it could be possible for that to happen?" Remus' brows creased in a frown.
"My dear Remus, in these recent years, I've come to believe anything is possible."
"....so then we found out that Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew!"
"Suge! Honto? Did you catch finally catch him?"
Harry sighed. "We had him, but he ran off to Voldemort again." He gave a small smirk however when Usagi seemed unaffected by the name of the Dark Lord.
"C'mon! Quit fooling around! We need to get to Diagon Alley for your bloody school books!" Fred exclaimed pushing Usagi and Harry towards the fireplace downstairs. "Mum has been waiting for you two for over an hour!"
Ron laughed at the two disheveled teens as they scrambled to pull on their cloaks.
"Ack, Gomen ne! I didn't know we had been talking that long!" Usagi gasped out as she finally got her purse and cloak settled on her person.
Harry laughed, quite used to her random Japanese by now. "It's alright Usagi. Mrs. Weasley is usually very forgiving." He assured her. He placed a hand on her shoulder as they got ready to use the floo powder to get to Diagon Alley. "Now, I told you about this stuff. Just say loudly and clearly where you want to go and you'll be fine."
"You'll be fine! Just do like me!" Hermione exclaimed as she lifted her hand which was full of floo powder. "DIAGON ALLEY!" She threw the powder into the fireplace and she disappeared in a green flame.
"Sugoi....!" Of all of the things Usagi had heard about and seen since she had come, this by far was the most amazing. Imagine all of that energy she had used for teleportation when she could've used floo powder!!
Harry pushed the day-dreaming girl forward. "It's your turn, Usagi. Just remember to say it loudly and clearly."
George gave a loud laugh. "Yeah! Don't end up like Harry did with his first time! Flat on his back and a grate down in Knockturn Alley!"
Fred clapped his hand on George's shoulder and laughed with him. "Wish I was there to see it, mate!"
Mrs. Weasley didn't find it all that funny and walked right up to the boys. "Now you boys stop that right now! You're going to scare the poor girl! And what do you think you're doing bringing up such a trivial time!" She gave one last glare at them and muttered to herself. "Should really send them back to school..."
Usagi giggled despite the situation and grabbed a fist full of floo powder. She took one long deep breath and shouted, "Diagon Alley!!" while throwing the floo powder into the fireplace where she stood. She felt a pull behind her and saw the fading forms of her brother and friends. It became increasingly darker until it was pitch black. She could hear hushed voices and whispers like the wind, but there wasn't anything she could make out.
Then suddenly everything became bright again and she stared into the smiling faces of Ron and Hermione.
"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Hermione asked laughing lightly.
Usagi gave a glance around her before a huge grin plastered itself to her face. "That was AMAZING! Can we do it again?!" She started jumping up and down excitedly and didn't notice the person behind her until Ron and Hermione shouted, "Look out!"
Usagi fell hard into the body of that person, and she thought that they had been kind enough to catch her, until she found herself flung roughly to the ground. "Itai...!"
"Stupid git!" She heard the voice above her sneer. "Watch what you're doing!"
"God Malfoy! You didn't have to do that! She didn't mean to bump into you!" Ron shouted into Malfoy's face while Hermione helped Usagi up.
"Daijoubu, Ron-kun..." Usagi stuttered as she dusted herself off. She looked at the boy who she bumped into. His hair was such a pale blonde that it made hers look like the sun and his the moon. His cold blue eyes glared at her until they sparked and a lazy grin grew on his face.
"A foreigner, huh, Weasel? Granger...?" He scoffed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a green light shine through the grate and Harry appeared.
Harry took one look at the scene before going to Usagi's side. "Are you alright?" At her nod her turned and glared at Malfoy. "What in the hell do you think you're doing, Malfoy?!"
The blonde-haired boy noticed how close Harry got to the girl and gave him a glare and sneered. "Keep your little foreign girlfriend away from me, Potter! Or else you're going to find yourself in a lot more trouble than you bargained for!" He stuck his nose in the air and swiftly left the scene.
Harry stared at Malfoy's fading back with hate. He really didn't understand Malfoy's problem, and he probably never would. He was about to say something nasty, but the blonde he was standing next to beat him to it.
"Mou! What is that guy's problem!? Does everyone have a stick up their-"
George and Fred stepped through the grate with their mother. Fred clapped a hand on Usagi's shoulder. "You weren't talking about us, were you?"
"Malfoy was being a jerk again. I swear that prat never grows up!" Hermione exclaimed, obviously disgusted with their encounter.
George looked surprised for a second. "You mean that ferret was here?"
Mrs. Weasley hushed them all and started to usher them towards the shops. "We're here for books, school supplies, and robes. Not gossiping!"
Usagi suddenly looked downcast. She didn't even realize she had come all of this way with no money whatsoever. She dug into her skirt pocket and pulled out a few hundred yen... but that was all she had on her. Hermione and Ginny noticed and walked next to her.
"What's wrong, Usagi?" Ginny whispered close to Usagi's ear, hoping it wasn't something major. She could tell the blonde was upset over something. Hermione leaned in too for her answer.
"I'm so stupid. I didn't realize that I didn't have any money on me. I don't think I can buy anything today. I don't think I can even send an owl or call my Mother and ask for money in time." She said in a hushed voice. She didn't have a problem with asking for a favor and paying back for it, but she hated the inconvenience it caused everyone else.
Hermione wasn't worried. She knew that Harry would have no problem lending his sister money for the day. And probably with the amount that Harry had from their parents, it wouldn't faze him in the least to buy Usagi's robes, books, and supplies.
Mrs. Weasley noticed the three girls hunched together, Hermione and Ginny on either side of a downcast Usagi. "What's wrong?"
Fred and George were too far ahead to notice that their mother stopped walking, but Ron and Harry did and curiously looked back as Mrs. Weasley talked to Usagi, Hermione and Ginny.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Weasley. It's just that I forgot that I don't have any money with me except for some yen. And I can't buy anything with just that." Usagi explained on the verge of tears. She really wanted to get her books and robes with the other girls.
The older woman sighed and began to laugh. "Is that all dear? Oh you had me worried for a second. Dumbledore gave me a key to your vault, one that your parents left you. They left one for Harry too. I completely forgot to tell you and give you the key." She handed over a bronze key to Usagi with a smile.
Harry grinned at her. "See? It's alright, Usagi." He walked over and took her hand. "We'll go over to Gringotts together and I'll explain the currency to you. Do you want to get your yen changed too?"
The two talked excitedly together as they made their way to the Wizard's bank. Usagi's blonde Odangos bounced as she laughed with her brother.
Hermione smiled at the scene. "You know, I think Harry will make a wonderful brother."
Ron gave her a lazy smile. "You think? Aren't you the one who's always positive about things, Ms. Brain?"
The girl in question stared at the red head coolly. After a few silent moments she threw her hands up in the air and sighed. "Well, I guess there's no point anymore." At his confused look she continued. "I'm not helping you with your work anymore this term." She smiled to herself as she made her way down the street, ignoring Ron's pleads of apology and promises of chocolate frogs.
Bwahahahahaha! I'm leaving it off there. Next chapter will have a bit more too it. But I think 8 pages was pretty good....
