A New Dawn,
Chapter Ten,
"Something kinda
fishy's going on,"
"Hey, Mina, wait up!" panted Serena, trying to catch up with her sister.
Mina stopped and turned and smiled. "Hey, Sere. How are you doing?" she said, waiting for her sister to catch up with her.
"I haven't seen you and Josh around lately and wondered if you had forgotten about me," said Serena, grinning.
Mina smiled and rolled her eyes. "We've been very busy," she said. The two started walking again. "As have you, I see. Patrolling the grounds at night, doing homework, flirting with Harry and Ron. What don't you do?"
Serena laughed. "I didn't know it was that obvious," she said, blushing a bit. Then she smirked. "Do you have your eye on anybody?"
Mina shook her head. "Not really," she said. "But then, you know me. I don't want any kind of relationship until I'm out of school. Wanna get a good career first."
Serena looked at her thoughtfully for a minute. "That's a good idea," she said. "I wonder what Josh wants to do as a career. I haven't really talked to him that much about it."
Mina shrugged her shoulders. "To tell the truth, I haven't asked him either." she said.
"So, this is my stop." said Serena, standing in front of Lupin's classroom.
Mina nodded. "Okay," then she said. "We should find Josh later and have a nice gab session."
Serena nodded. "Sounds good to me. Talk to ya later." she said, then entered the classroom.
"Did she notice anything?"
Mina turned to Josh and shook her head. "She's too naive to notice anything that's been going on, thank goodness. Otherwise we'd be in big trouble."
Josh nodded. "That we would," he said. Then. "We'd better get going."
The two walked down the halls to the entrance hall and went out the oak front doors and were soon gone.
Serena walked out of the class room with Harry and Ron in tow. Hermione needed to "dash back to the library for a minute to do some last minute cramming."
Ron shook his head. "That girl is always doing something,"
"Yeah," replied Serena, nodding. "At least she stays out of trouble. The busier you are the better, I say."
Harry shook his head. "But that's over-kill, don't you think?" he asked.
Serena nodded. "I definitely think she's bitten off more than she can chew this year, that's for sure. She's wearing herself down." she replied.
Ron looked at Serena. "Where did all this insight come from all of a sudden? I thought you and Hermione were at each other's throats after the whole...well, you know, common room incident."
"Ron, you haven't been around much lately, have you?" asked Serena, rolling her eyes. "We apologized and got over it; it's not like we're three year olds any more. Some people just prize friendship more than petty arguments and such."
Harry and Ron looked at each other with a raised eye brow. "Where did this sudden well of knowledge come from?" asked Harry, frowning.
"I've been watching Hermione for a long time," said Serena, sitting down in the common room that they had just reached. "She's a very interesting person to watch sometimes; I just wonder what makes those wheels in her head spin fifty miles per hour. I wish I had that much energy."
"Don't we all?" muttered Ron. Then he looked up at her. "You've been pretty darn busy around here as well; I don't suppose you feel like telling us what's going on with you."
Serena shook her head. She was just glad that when that monster attacked, Harry lost the memory of seeing her as her Sailor Scout self... if only it had taken the fight they had away from him, too. That was always at the back of his mind, she could tell. He still didn't fully trust her, and that hurt, although she could understand why. "No, Ron," she said, smiling. "I can't, I keep telling you. I would if I could-"
"But you can't, so you won't." finished Ron lamely. "I just wish there was something that we could do to help the load of work you have to do."
Serena shook her head. "There is nothing you can do for me that you're not already doing Ron." she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. At times like these she felt much more mature than she should be. "But perhaps you could lay of Hermione and Crookshanks for a bit; I know you don't like him, but leave Hermione alone about it, will ya? She loves that cat. It's the first real pet that she's ever really had."
Ron's shoulders slumped and he looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry," he muttered.
"I'm not the one who needs the apology, Ron." said Serena, smiling. "But thank you for your thoughtfulness. I know how hard it is when you're pet is being chased around the castle all the time. I myself have to do that to my own cat sometimes."
Harry laughed. "You mean that cat with the moon on it's forehead?" he asked.
Serena looked up at him sharply. "That's exactly the one I mean," she said, laughing. "Don't see many of those around, do you?"
Ron looked up. "I saw one just the other day," he said. "It was white with a moon on it's forehead. It was being carried by a very pretty girl," he finished, blushing.
Serena's eyes furrowed for a minute, then she shook her head. "That's interesting," she said. "since I think Hogwarts is full of those."
They all laughed for a minute, then got to doing their homework that was already over-due.
"Serena?" said Hermione from her bed. She couldn't sleep; something had been bothering her for the longest amount of time.
Serena stirred in her bed and sat up and rubbed her eyes. She yawned and stretched. "Yes, Herms?" she replied in between a huge yawn.
Hermione got up and sat at the foot of her bed. "Something's been bothering me lately; I wonder if you could tell me the story of how the Sailor Scouts came to be."
Serena shook her head. "I don't know if I can get all of the facts to you; mind you, you're not even supposed to know about me. If Luna found out that you knew, she'd blow a gasket. She's not even okay that I'm choosing to do my homework instead of training every minute of my spare time."
Hermione smiled a half smile. "I'm not worried about the facts, Sere. I'm just curious about how they came to be, what the history behind them is."
"There's typical Hermione for you; always wanting to know the facts." said Serena, laughing. Then she got serious. "Most of this I learned as bed time stories my mother told me while I was growing up.
"There was this queen, Queen Serenity was her name; she was beautiful and a wise ruler of her kingdom. Her people loved her; she was a just and wise queen and fair to everybody that crossed her path.
"She had two sisters; both older. They thrived in the palace for their childhood and teenage years. Then, one by one they were married off to men of their mother's choice, each having had a mate chosen from the time of birth.
"The oldest one, Charity, after she had married, moved away; she had one beautiful daughter, whose origin is unknown. But she was said to have immense beauty and poses the power of love, to manipulate all those around her she felt should be in love.
"The middle one, whose name is unknown also, moved away into a far desert land to be queen of a most beautiful and dark castle; her subjects didn't have any objections to her or her husband, who happened to be one of the most handsome. They had one daughter who is said to have a fiery temper when spoken harshly to.
"Then comes the last one, and the fairest one, Serenity. She remained with her mother, who was ill of health and cared for her until her passing. She was only able to have one child and had a hard time carrying her; however, she managed and carried on in a cheerful manner, never letting the thought of not being able to have more children get to her. Besides, this one was a handful in itself."
When Serena paused to take a breath, Hermione looked at her and asked her. "So, what happened next?"
Serena smiled. "I'm getting to that, Herms." she said. Then she got serious again. "The three sisters and their daugthers thrived in peace and happiness for a long time. Then, unbeknownst to them, an evil force was rising against them, trying to overthrow the peace and tranquility they had been enjoying for many a season.
"Realizing that their daughters would need protectors, because of their royal lineage, they called upon four warriors to take the challenge of protecting them. Now, be mindful that the time had well passed and that the daughters of the three sisters were grown and were able to take on kingdoms themselves. The four protectors acted as ladies in waiting, so as to keep themselves hidden from the princesses, because nobody was to know of their duty or loyalty to the royal family.
"In this time of desperation, two of the sisters separated themselves from the other, so they were three separate kingdoms rather than just one... Yes, Hermione?"
Hermione looked at her. "So about what age were the three sisters getting to be, if their daughters were grown? And what age were their daughters?"
Serena thought about this for a moment. "The oldest sister was just inches from death; she had caught the same illness that her mother had; the second oldest sister died while giving birth to a boy; the third I'm not exactly sure what happened to. Mom wouldn't share all the details of the story to me, as I was so young and could not handle it. I think that she died in an attempt to protect her kingdom.
"As for the children; they were all about the same age, about twenty something, old enough to take over the kingdoms for their mothers, who, by the time the war was over had all passed away."
"So the children took over for their mothers?" asked Hermione.
Serena nodded. "All except for the male, who had enlisted in the army as soon as he was old enough."
"Now, what about the protectors, what did they do and where were they from?" asked Hermione, her breath short with eagerness.
"Well," stated Serena. "The job of the protectors were a lot like undercover detectives, or Auors in the wizarding world. They were to protect the princesses without being noticed. Now, they weren't supposed to marry and to have families, but by the time they were called to their duties as the protectors, they had been happily married and were each with child, one child."
"And thus the Sailor Scouts were born, right?" asked Hermione, grinning from ear to ear.
(AN: For all of those that are confused about this, let me explain something really quickly. I hope it doesn't give anything away, but I'm kinda confused myself, as it is really late and I'm sooo tired. Anyway, the ones, Charity, the one whose name is unknown and Serenity are the original queens and their daughters are the mothers of the Scouts. Make sense? I hope so.)
Serena nodded. "Yes, each queen brought forth one child, a girl, save one. One brought forth two girls in succession (AN: I'll give points to those who know who this is! )."
Hermione sat back. "I want you to tell me of what the Scouts do later, but now you're tired and I'll let you get some sleep. 'Night, Sere. Thanks a bunch."
Serena nodded. "You're welcome, Herms, I hope I didn't confuse you too bad. Like I said, I'm new to this whole thing myself. I'm not sure if I got everything right."
Hermione smiled and went back to her bed, laid down and her snores filled the room finally.
Serena laid her head back down and was out within ten minutes of tossing and turning to find the right position to sleep in.
Getting up for classes the next day was not an easy thing for Serena to do. Her dreams had been haunted by mysterious places and people for most of the night and she hardly got any sleep.
She pulled herself out of bed and went to her trunk to get out her clothing. She looked over to her clock and realized that she was up an hour earlier than she needed to be. Scolding herself, she looked around to Hermione's bed. Maybe she could finish telling her about the Scouts this morning for a bit before classes.
She was startled as she realized that Hermione was not in her bed, nor was anywhere to be seen. Serena jumped up and walked down to the common room, careful to not wake anybody else that was still sleeping.
When she got down there, nobody in the common room seemed to notice her presence. She was slightly surprised to see that Mina and Josh were sitting there, talking to Hermione about something that seemed to be important. Serena sat down on the stairs so as not to be seen and listened in carefully.
"...did you manage to get anything from her besides useless historical facts?" Mina was saying.
Hermione shook her head. "No, but I did learn something interesting. I didn't know one of them had a male child; I thought they were all destined to have girls."
"That's interesting, isn't it, Josh?" asked Mina, looking at her brother.
"Unfortunately I already knew this," said Josh, shaking his head. "Mother told me."
Mina looked back at Hermione. "So, she didn't tell you about the Outer Planetary Scouts, then, did she?" she asked.
Hermione shook her head. "I don't think so. She was just getting into the story of the Scouts when I decided that I had asked too many questions; I didn't want to look suspicious." she said.
Serena cocked an eye brow. 'Suspicious?' she thought, hiding more in the shadows. 'Not more suspicious than you look now.'
"She wouldn't have caught what you were doing for us, Hermione." said Josh, grinning. "While she excels academically, she isn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to 'outside' negotiations. Besides, she hasn't had time to think anything of us, she's been too preoccupied with 'Sailor Scout' training and late night visits with her father."
Hermione looked up, startled. "What? She hasn't been visiting with Black, has she?" she asked sharply.
"Hermione," said Mina, putting her hand on her shoulder. "There is lots that you need to know about our little sister, lots that we can tell you, but you have to trust us. Do you?"
Hermione was hesitant, but then nodded eagerly. "Yes, I do trust you guys; now, tell me, what's going on with her?"
The three walked out of the common room, leaving Serena alone with her thoughts, which wasn't such a good thing at the moment. She felt sick that she had told Hermione all that stuff last night, even if they all knew it. Luna was right; these stories were to be kept secret until a later time when all the Sailor Scouts were reunited and could be protected. As of yet it was just Serena, and she felt terrible for having told all these stories to Hermione.
"Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?" asked a voice coming from the shadows, making Serena jump. Then she turned to see the small purple feline with the moon.
Serena bit her lip to keep it from trembling. "Luna, I am so, so sorry. I hadn't known that was going to happen, I didn't think Hermione... I didn't think that they were..." she had tears streaming down her face by this time. "I didn't think they would try to betray me like that, and take away all of my friends doing so."
Luna was about to chew the young blond out, but something inside of her made her stop. Here was this thirteen year old girl going through one of the toughest times probably in her life what with just finding out that her father was a convicted murder, and that her siblings just took one of her friends away, and that her friend basically betrayed her trust in her. "It's okay, Serena. Don't cry." said the feline, hopping onto the step Serena was sitting on. "It's really not your fault. I had a feeling that something like this would happen. I guess it's a good thing those stories I told you weren't accurate, isn't it?"
Serena looked at her. "They were fake?" she asked, wiping her eyes.
"Not entirely, but yes, for the most part, they were fake." replied Luna, a gleam in her eyes. "And if they're going to lie to your friend about you, why not fill them up with all the false information you can? I've got lots more stories for you to give to Hermione, since she's acting as a 'spy'. They're all not credible and have nothing but fictious merit, but it will get the job done all the same."
Serena smiled and petted Luna behind the ears. "Thanks, Luna. Now I can worry more about my training."
Okay, done with Chapter Ten... I hope ya'll enjoyed this one. I know it got kind of confusing, but as Luna said, it wasn't an entirely true story, so of COURSE it would be confusing. I just had a bad, bad case of writer's block with this one and got most of this out late last night, so R&R, it would make my day.