A New Dawn,
Chapter Twelve,
The Moon kingdom, The Cat and the
WHAT? Oh, and the big dog
thing, too.
Serena ran into the forest as fast as her legs could carry her. She sure did owe Snape a lot for giving out hints and such. She was still slightly surprised that he told her as much as he did; but then, sometimes people surprise you. She doubted whether he would be that nice to her again, but she would take what she could get.
Diving into the trees before anybody could see her, Serena sat down amongst some bushes to blend in with. She watched the student's activities and wished slightly to be a part of all of them. Nevertheless, she knew what she needed to do and she stuck with it, even if it meant staying in the Forbidden Forest for a few measly hours.
Serena sat and thought about what her brother and sister were up to. Why in the heck would they want to know about the Outer Planetary Scouts, anyway? What was so interesting about them?...although Serena kind of knew the answer to that. She enjoyed hearing about the Outer Scouts a lot, as she felt she could relate to them sometimes. Especially now, she thought, laughing to herself. They were outcasts, and now, so was she.
Serena remembered a story that Luna told her. When asked if it were true, Luna simply smiled and told her to figure it out on her own.
The story goes like this. Queen Serenity ordered guards for her daughter, the Princess, the future Queen of the Moon Kingdom. The surrounding planets were only too happy to oblige and sent her their best warriors, which also happened to be their Princesses as well. There were four inner planetary soldiers that came to the call and four outer planetary soldiers that also pledged their allegiance to the Queen and the young Princess.
The Queen wasn't very sure of the Outers antics, but was pleased with them for joining such a noble cause in protecting her daughter.
The Queen was trying to negotiate with the Outer System for the longest time, trying to come up with compromises that would bring them closer to the Inner System and thus have a joining of Kingdoms. The Outer System, however, did now want that joining to take place because it sounded to them much more like a dictatorship than a democracy, and they were very much for having their rights and their freedom. Although they trusted the Queen and her leadership abilities and they thought her to be kind and loving, they politely turned down the offer, and so they were not a joined Kingdom as the Inner System was.
And so it pleased Serenity to know that they would answer her call to help; but the Queen did not trust them, as she would have if they had joined with her and her Inner System.
So from then on out there was an umcomfortable feeling between the four Outer soldiers and the four Inner soldiers; the Inners didn't trust the Outers, and made it quite clear to them that they thought they were better than the Outers because they had joined Kingdoms and had gained the Queen's trust, while the Outers had not.
The Outers knew the truth, though. They knew that if they left the guard it would fall apart; besides, they hadn't come to make friends, they came to protect the Princess, who, at that time, was too young to protect herself.
Through the years that the Outers were there, the young Princess had found a place in their hearts and she was the reason they stayed so long; they shared a bond that seemed unbreakable that the time.
But, several things happened at that time that made the Queen suspicious of them. The Outers were caught right in the middle of a scandal and there were sore accusations towards them. The Queen accused them of treachery, treason and telling secrets of the Queen's Court to the other side, which they did not do.
The Outers were sore angry because of their faithful service to the Queen and her daughter after all those years and, though it broke their hearts to think about, they decided to leave the Moon Kingdom and the young Princess behind and go their own separate ways.
Leaving the Princess was one of the hardest things the group had to deal with; the fair Neptune had grown so attached to young Serenity that it broke her heart to even think about leaving; the mysterious Pluto was also in that same category, the young Princess snagging a special place in the Time Guardian's heart; the tom-boyish Uranus even was attached to the little runt, whom had been coined 'kitten' from the time she had met the princess, and she loved teaching her how to play and enjoy many of the sports that the Queen would call "for the men.". But most of all, the Scout of Death, Saturn loved that little girl more than her own life, wishing that she were her older sister to watch over and to protect. They had done everything together and now, to be leaving, broke Saturn's heart.
And so, with a tearful good-bye to the Princess and an all to bitter good-bye to the Inner System, the four took up their stuff and went their own separate ways, not even conversing with each other after that.
A few months after they left, they heard of the war that had broke out between the Lunarians and the Inner System. Only a few remained loyal, those of the Inner System Soldiers had, whereas their mother's had decided that it was indeed too much like a dictatorship and they broke out in open rebellion.
After they heard of the massacre that had gone on at the Moon-Kingdom Palace, they decided it would be best if they wiped their own memories clean and started a new life on earth, where they were sure to meet up with the Princess again one day, and enjoy the friendship they had with her.
As Serena thought about it, she watched the sky slowly turn from beautiful brilliant blue to a darker, more mysterious blue with little stars poking in and out here and there. She looked at the moon and thought that she could see it smiling at her. She smiled back, fully appreciating the light that it was giving out.
Serena felt something was going wrong and ran over to Hagrid's cabin. She noticed Buckbeak tethered to a post and lying there, looking so upset and so depressed.
Her heart sank. She remembered what had gone on during her little visit with the Professors today. When her and Snape were coming out, she saw Hagrid carrying Malfoy in after Buckbeak had attacked him.
It occurred to her with perfect clarity- they were going to kill Buckbeak!
Eyes filling with tears she stumbled away. She couldn't take the thought of such an animal being killed because of some foolish adolescent.
Looking up on the hill, Serena could see Ron, Harry and Hermione gathered together to watch the horrible sight. She wished that she could have been up there with them, but she couldn't.
Now she knew how her father felt, being innocent, yet not being able to be around friends or family, being exiled because somebody sold you off to somebody rather larger with more power.
Serena went as far as she possibly could away from Buckbeak. She didn't want to hear it; she couldn't hear it. Tears spilling out of her eyes now, she realized something. Harry, Ron and Hermione were running towards the Whomping Willow. What on earth were they doing?
Then Serena heard Ron's frantic voice calling out to his rat. "Scabbers, come back here Scabbers!"
A minute after trailing behind them, Serena stood stock still as she saw the gigantic dog she had seen so many times before. She couldn't help it, she shouted out to them. "Watch out, guys!"
The big dog threw a glance at her, then continued to growl menacingly at the three. Then, without a warning he pounced on Ron, knocking the kid over.
"Ron!" screamed Serena as she hurried forward to try to help. To no avail, however, as the dog simply pulled Ron along as if he were a rag doll.
Harry and Serena ran after him, but were stopped abruptly by the massive branches of the Whomping Willow. Harry's forehead got cut and Serena's cheek got cut.
Two other people came to stand by Hermione as they watched as Harry and Serena stood, trying to figure out how to deal with the tree.
"Too bad," muttered Josh, shaking his head. "I thought for sure our plan had worked."
Mina went walking right forward, so intent on either yelling at her sister, or hurting her, which she was sorely tempted to do, when Serena ducked as a branch came swinging at her. Mina didn't notice it and was hit full force by the branch. It knocked her back a few feet and she staggered into Hermione and Josh, knocking them all down.
"Imobilious!" shouted Serena, pointing her wand at the tree, making it quit moving all together. Then she turned to Harry and grabbed his hand. "Come on, Harry. We've gotta hurry!"
As soon as they were down in the grassy slope, the tree started moving again, blocking the three outsiders so they couldn't get in.
When they got out of the grassy slope and tunnel they looked around. "This place looks like it hasn't been occupied for years," muttered Serena.
Harry looked around at all the torn cushions and ripped off chair legs. "I don't think it was meant to be occupied," he replied. "I think this is the Shrieking Shack."
Serena turned to look at him sharply when they both heard a noise from above. "Ron," said Serena, and the two of them hurried up the stairs.
They found him on a rather old bed, with faded bedding, holding his leg in pain from where it had snapped when he was trying to keep himself from getting dragged into the Shrieking Shack in the first place.
They both ran over to him. "Ron, Ron are you alright?" asked Serena, kneeling at his side in an instant. She was looking around for something that might help ease Ron's pain.
"Where's the dog?" asked Harry, urgently as he looked around and could see no sign of the huge dog at all.
Ron, pale white and shaking, pointed to the door. "Harry, it's a trap. He's no dog, he's an Animagus."
And, from behind the door came the form of the infamous murderer, betrayer of his parents, the person who was supposed to be after him, Sirius Black.
Heehee, okay, I love giving you guys cliffies. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it's not much, and it may be a little confusing... I don't know, tell me what you think. R&R, it would really, really make my day.