I would like to take this opportunity to say a few things. First, I'm not going to tell you beforehand about couples. I've had a lot of people ask if this will be Usagi/Severus. Well...you'll just have to wait and find out, won't you. :evil cackles:
Secondly, this story will contain a few original characters. Before you hit the X button at the top of your screen, let me explain a few things about original characters, as they pertain to this story. Number one: none of the original characters I've created are based off anyone I know, or myself. They are all completely made up. Number two: None of the original characters will be paired with canon characters. Number three: the original characters will not be the entire focus of the story. The story will focus on a few HP characters and a few SM characters, and will occasionally, I repeat OCCASIONALLY check in with the original characters. Number four: I will attempt to keep the original characters as believable as possible. They will have strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully they will not fall into the "original-character-with-one-major-flaw" stereotypes. I've seen enough "she's-gorgeous-and-smart-and-strong-but-just-happens-to-be-clumsy" characters to know that they are annoying.
I beg of you-read the story, and if the original characters still bother you, leave me a review telling me what's wrong with them. Then, if it's horrible, you can stop reading. But don't just leave without giving this a chance. The story really does center on Sailor Moon and Harry Potter. You can think of the OCs as the new characters you might meet in the next Harry Potter book. If they aren't up to your standards, let me know, for my own future reference. If no one bothers to tell me they hate my OCs, I might continue to write them unknowingly.
Anyway, enough babbling. So much for putting ANs at the bottom, eh?
PS: I suggest you get EXTREMELY familiar with the Japanese names of characters, aside from just the senshi. If anyone asks me who Calaveras or Yuuichirou are, I might just get angry. If you honestly can't find the information on the web, let me know and I'll compile a list.
Chapter TwoCalaveras grumbled under her breath as she trudged up the winding gravel pathway, too upset to notice the tender care that had been given the grounds around her. She hated this place. It gave her the creeps, and hiking from the front gate to the house (a good hundred meters) always made her sweaty. Still, messages had to be delivered, and she had volunteered for the job. She just didn't understand why the South American team had chosen just south of Bogota, Columbia of all places to head their operations. Surely they could have found some place less...near the equator.
The anti-Apparation ward surrounding the grounds did nothing to make her situation easier. Instead of simply Apparating into the house, she had to Apparate outside the gates and walk the rest of the way. She understood the reasoning behind the wards, as Colombia was not only home to Muggle drug lords but also many criminals of the Wizarding variety, but she wished that there were a simpler way for her to make contact with the South American team.
The house looked very much out of place in South America. It was a huge, three-story manor that looked like it belonged in a Victorian horror novel. Silently, Calaveras thought it fit its owners perfectly, but she would never voice that opinion aloud. As she faced the thick, wooden front door, she grasped the brass knocker in her hand and knocked three times. Before the third knock had time to finish its haunting echo, an unseen house elf opened the door, and Calaveras strode inside gracefully. The master of the house was a wealthy aristocrat, and there was no way in hell she was going to look out of sorts in his presence.
Outside, the sky was pink, the sun barely visible above the horizon. Silently, she cursed. She was early, and he was probably not out of bed yet. She and her sisters constantly moved from France to Columbia to San Francisco to South Africa, and she never got the time changes right. Still, she realized she had time and stopped in front of a shiny suit of armor placed in a niche in the foyer. She had plenty of time to adjust her hair and makeup before heading into the parlor.
She quickly tucked away an errant lock of brown hair and reapplied her lipstick. She puckered up at the suit of armor and the smirked at her reflection. She looked good. Turning, she walked down the familiar hallway and entered the parlor. To her surprise, the room was occupied. A pale man sat at a piano, his fingers moving rapidly over the keys and producing a haunting song. His long, black hair had been pulled into a ponytail, tied with a black silk ribbon, and his brown eyes were closed as though he were lost in the music. She knew better.
"Calaveras, you are early," he said in Japanese, his voice soft and accented. "Last time you were late." He stopped the music and turned to her, flashing a cryptic smile.
"Forgive me," she said, turning her eyes from his face. Those teeth always managed to unnerve her.
"Never mind. You want the report, and then you wish to leave Bogota, correct?" She nodded numbly.
He stood from the piano, picking up a box that had been sitting on top. Setting it down on the table, he lifted the lid and Calaveras gaped. The velvet-lined box contained a small stack of papers, written in the man's neat Japanese, and a yellow gem, sparkling despite the dim lighting.
"Nijizuishou," she breathed. "Where did you find it?"
"I did not find it. Isidoro and Sofia found an underground chamber far beneath the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, where the crystal lay hidden. The letters explain it all. Feel free to read them. Now, unless you have some news to deliver for me, I believe you are free to go."
His tone of voice did not imply any sort of command, but Calaveras knew that he had things he would rather be doing than speaking with her. Still, she had important information to relay, and despite her jitters, she couldn't just leave. Closing the box and picking it up, she summoned her courage to address him.
"Dumbledore wants to begin gathering, even though we haven't found all of the nijizuishou. He's already summoned Asia, and plans to summon Europe later in the year. Salem is coming as well. He wants you and your wife to return to England toward the end of summer. Make contacts among the purebloods and establish yourselves in society. Severus Snape has offered to board you until you find lodgings of your own, and you may use his name in your letters of introduction." Letters of introduction often mentioned a common friend as a means to assure one party of the other's worth. Snape was a wealthy pureblood, and his name would open a number of doors.
"And what of Sofia and Isidoro?" he asked. He appeared to be attached to his team.
"They will stay and continue to search for nijizuishou and any other artifacts or runes that might help. You use muggle technology to communicate anyway, right? You can still work together."
Her words did not seem to reassure him completely, but he smiled. "Very well. Carmina and I shall prepare for our return to England. Anything else?" Calaveras shook her head. "Very well. It was pleasant seeing you again. I suppose this will be the last time until we group in England? I shall miss you."
He grasped her hand and raised it to his lips, and she allowed it, though it gave her chills. He walked her to the door, silent with a small smile on his face. Calaveras repressed a shudder as she wondered what he was thinking about. In all likelihood, he was only thinking of his wife and all the pretty things he could buy for her in Diagon Alley, but she couldn't help but believe he might also be thinking about all the nasty ways he could kill her. He'd never shown her anything but civility, but she didn't trust him any farther than she could throw him.
Walking down the drive, she cursed silently to herself. Once again, her fears were unfounded and she left the estate of Andrea Mancini without a scratch. She couldn't help but think he realized her fears and was laughing at her. As she reached the front gate and stepped off the eerie property, she looked up at the gibbous moon rising silently in the sky. The sun had set while she had been inside, the sky melting from pink and orange to a deep blue, punctured by thousands of stars.
Hermione awoke the next morning with rather crusty eyes, but she felt better than she had since the attack. Aside from those two days in the infirmary, she hadn't allowed herself to cry. The last thing she wanted to do was annoy Snape with her sniffles, so she'd bottled everything up. Usagi had easily slipped the lid off that bottle, unleashing a tide of emotions the girl didn't even realize was there.
Climbing out of bed, she padded into the bathroom for her normal morning ritual. She had begun the terrifying process of taming down her hair when she heard a knock at her bedroom door. She left the bathroom with brush in hand and opened the door. Usagi stood there, wearing a blue kimono and with a soft smile on her face.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked. Before Hermione could reply, Usagi took the brush from her hand and sat her down in the chair in front of the mirrored vanity. "We're going to the temple today, so you should probably wear one of the kimonos. Rei Hino is the head priestess, and she's going to begin teaching you things you won't ever learn at Hogwarts."
Hermione murmured something that sounded vaguely affirmative. Usagi brushing her hair felt nice, and she almost sighed aloud when the older woman finished. Then Usagi pulled out one of the kimonos and helped Hermione put it on correctly. Tying the obi would have been quite a challenge without help, and Hermione was thankful she didn't have to figure it out on her own.
"All right, time for breakfast," Usagi said enthusiastically. "I made pancakes."
The pancakes turned out to be fantastic, though looking at the kitchen would not inspire one's confidence. Flour had found its way onto places it had no right being, and the counter near the stove looked in need of a good scrubbing. Still, the pancakes were good, and Usagi managed a spell to clean up the mess, blushing slightly.
As she was finishing her meal, Chibi-Usa and Hotaru entered the room with a young man whose age Hermione couldn't quite determine. He had fluffy, soft-looking white hair and reddish brown eyes that spent most of their time looking fondly at Chibi-Usa. He wore a white tunic with military-looking ornaments and carried a box under one arm. His other rested around Chibi-Usa's shoulders. Holding out the box, he spoke.
"We've had a bit of success in Bogota."
When Usagi saw the contents of the box, she squealed. "Nijizuishou!" Hermione had no idea what the word meant, but she assumed it referred to the yellow crystal sitting in the box. She'd never seen anything like it, but she could feel the magic radiating from it. "Where was it?" Usagi asked.
"Under Tenochtitlán, which was the Aztec capital city," the white-haired young man replied.
"But wasn't Tenochtitlán built on a lake?" Hermione asked, puzzled. "How would one get under such a city?"
"Smart girl," he complimented. "The Aztecs, and many other Meso- and South American tribes had strong magic at their disposal. Sofia Valdez Ramos, who is part of our team in South America and likes hunting around in temples, crashed into a set of runes on accident and opened up a charmed underground chamber where the nijizuishou and many other treasures lay buried. Most of our success has come out of Aztec ruins."
"I've got about fifteen questions," Hermione admitted. "First of all, who are you? Secondly, what's a nijizuishou? Third, why do we want it?" It was obvious that she had more questions, but Usagi held up a hand, asking for quiet.
"My name is Helios. For now, all you need know is that I am a seventh year student at Beauxbatons Academy, and that I work as a courier for the Order. You're Hermione Granger, correct?" He bowed to her, and she stared dumbly at him, nodding. "I believe Usagi-san can explain the nijizuishou better than I." He tugged on Chibi-Usa's hand and the two of them disappeared.
"Go chaperone," Usagi said to Hotaru, smiling. Hotaru rolled her eyes and followed her sister. "Now, nijizuishou are crystals. Niji translates to rainbow, and ziushou or suishou means crystal. So, rainbow crystals. There are seven scattered around the world. There is a legend in my family of a talisman called Ginzuishou, or Silver Crystal, which was created by the first of my line, possibly even before the time of Merlin. The Ginzuishou is supposed to possess unsurpassed magical power, and may even have the power to bring back the dead. An early member of my line unleashed this power at the cost of her own life, and the crystal shattered from the strain. The seven fragments vanished, and have been hidden throughout the world for hundreds of years. I didn't really believe in them until Rei found one at a temple she was visiting in Hokkaido about ten years ago. Another was found deep in the jungle in the Congo. The South American team has turned up two. The other they found at the bottom of Lake Guatavita, in Colombia, along with what is most likely the treasure associated with El Dorado."
Hermione gaped. "El Dorado? Isn't that just supposed to by a mythical city?" Usagi shook her head.
"That's what I thought, but Helios got the story from Sophia and her partner Isidoro. The legend comes out of a South America tribe called Chibcha. Whenever a new king was initiated, he was covered in fine gold dust and paddled out to the middle of Lake Guatavita and offered gold and jewels as a sacrifice to the gods. When the Spanish learned of this, they were convinced that they could find a fortune in gold beneath the lake, but none were successful in finding the treasure. Through some conniving, the leader of the South America branch managed to purchase the lake and the surrounding land, and with a bit of magic, they found what they were looking for," Usagi smiled. "There was quite a bit of gold, but not nearly as much as what the legends predict. South America single handedly keeps the Order financed."
"Just how big is the Order, anyway?" Hermione asked.
"Well, only Dumbledore knows every member, but I know we have at least a few members on every continent. I head the Asia branch. We also have bases in southern France, Cape Town in South Africa, Bogota in Columbia, Salem and San Francisco in the United States, and of course England. I don't know the exact numbers, but the major concentrations are in England and here in Japan. Technically, we only have four members in Africa, but they hire locals to do most of the work. None of them are very good at languages..." Usagi giggled at something Hermione didn't see. "Anyway, anything else?"
"Do the Death Eaters have members all over the world?"
"I know they have cells in every country in Europe, and a few members in North America. However, they're snobby and I doubt many of them would bother learning foreign tongues. Maybe French or some other Romance language, but not Japanese or anything. You have no idea how difficult it is to get around a country when you don't know the language. I went to Mongolia for a few days..." Usagi shuddered. "Thank Merlin I had a guide."
"Surely one or two Death Eaters knows Japanese..." Hermione insisted. It would be so much more practical.
"Oh, Severus speaks Japanese, but he can't come over here due to his invaluable position at Hogwarts," Usagi said, grinning. Hermione saw the humor in the situation, and for the first time in over a week she giggled. It was short and soft, but it was clearly a giggle, and Usagi congratulated herself for the small achievement. "They might have someone else who speaks Japanese, but they concentrate solely on England. If they won there, they would undoubtedly set their sights on Europe and maybe, eventually, the rest of the world, but they like to take baby steps. Anyway, we need to be going. Rei is expecting us at the temple in just a couple of minutes, and I doubt you've ever walked up temple steps before."
Hermione had not walked up temple steps before, and did not know what Usagi was talking about. By the time she finally made it to the top of said steps, huffing and puffing, she understood.
Harry Potter sat alone with Remus Lupin in the den at Twelve Grimmauld Place, head in his hands. He hadn't slept since he found out what had happened to Hermione, and had hardly eaten anything. His mind was churning furiously with thousands of questions, and while the response from those around him was mildly better than last summer, it was still not satisfying. Everyone else seemed so busy, rushing in and out of the house for whatever reason. He had finally managed to catch Remus for a talk.
"Tell me everything you know about this woman Hermione's with," Harry demanded. He had been assured that Usagi was powerful and kind, but he would feel more comfortable if he knew more about her.
"Merlin, Harry. I haven't seen her in...almost seventeen years. Where to start?" Remus smiled fondly, and Harry felt a bit better. "She's about four years younger than me. When she came to Hogwarts, she made fast friends with your mum and through her, with us. She made Gryffindor and we just...took her under our wing. Everyone in Gryffindor liked her, and she made tons of friends outside. Even some Slytherins, believe it or not. Her best friend was in Slytherin, actually. She always called me her niichan, which means big brother."
"What about magically? She's supposed to be really powerful, right?" Harry interrupted. He could understand that Usagi was likable, and he was pretty sure Lupin was crazy about her, but that wouldn't help a bit if Death Eaters tried to hunt Hermione down.
"I don't suppose anyone has every told you about the Serenity bloodline," Lupin said. Harry shook his head. "She can trace her bloodline back to well before the time of Merlin, and that bloodline can do certain kinds of magic no others could. They can heal injuries and purify darkened souls, and they can wipe out truly Dark wizards without casting any sort of Unforgivable. Usagi was adept at any magic but she never got the theory behind anything. She could turn a slug into a working piano by her second year, but she got horrible grades. She put absolutely no effort whatsoever into studying or writing essays."
"She'll drive Hermione mad," Harry commented, feeling sorry for his friend. This Usagi lady was probably the sweetest, most powerful witch in the world, but if she made any comments on studying too hard or not relaxing enough, Hermione would be upset at the very least.
"Who knows. It's been almost seventeen years since she went to Japan and no one but Dumbledore's heard a peep out of her since then. Who knows how much she's changed, especially after what happened. The same thing that happened to Hermione happened to Usagi when she was sixteen." Remus looked down at his hands. "If Rei hadn't found her, she probably would have bled to death just from the rape..."
Harry didn't know a lot the physiological...effects of rape, but that sounded horribly painful. Lupin had his head in his hands and looked as though he was trying not to cry. Usagi must have been really important to him, to get this sort of reaction out of him after seventeen years. Harry got up and put a hand on Lupin's arm.
"We're going to destroy every last Death Eater," Harry said, his voice cool and dangerous sounding. "Lucius Malfoy first."
I debated adding another scene on the end going back to the original character introduced in the first scene, but decided against it. It would have been short, and you've waited long enough for this chapter as it is. I have a few more words to say in regards to my OCs.
At the end of each chapter, I will have a brief summary of the OCs in the chapter, especially at the beginning when they are first being introduced. I will introduce them one or two per chapter (or less) in attempts to avoid confusing you. Many people seem to get confused if you have too many OCs. I will not reveal anything that wasn't in the chapter, but the short notes might help sum things up for you.
Secondly, as I introduce the new characters, let me know what you think of each one. Comment on each individual. Did you like this one person but hate this other? Was any particular one bordering on Mary-Sue-ism? What did you think of their personality? Anything I might change to make things easier or better? I really do appreciate any feedback, positive and especially negative. I actually rather enjoy reasonable flames, because they help me write better. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings if you absolutely hate my OCs, or even some other part of my story.
Okay, the main OC in this chapter is Andrea Mancini. He's a wealthy aristocrat living in a manor south of Bogota, Columbia. He heads a cell of the Order of Phoenix, he can play the piano, and he speaks Japanese. It can be assumed he speaks Spanish (lives in a Spanish-speaking country) and Italian (his name's Italian). The cell he runs is looking in ancient Aztec, Maya and Inca ruins for nijizuishou and other artifacts. He creeps Calaveras out, even though he acts like a gentleman.
Other characters mentioned, but not actually appearing are his wife, Carmina, whom he dotes on, a woman named Sofia Valdez Ramos who is a bit of a clumsy tomb raider, and her partner Isidoro, who we know nothing else about.
On Aztec/Inca/Maya/etc mythology: It all comes from a book I own called Mythology of the American Nations. It's all as true as any myth is. Don't ever ask me to pronounce anything...I can't.
On Nijizuishou/Ginzuishou: The translations as Usagi gives them are as accurate as I can determine based on my Sailor Moon Role-playing Guide and Resource Book and my English/Japanese dictionary. The dubbists got something right...:dies:
On names: Because the characters are really, really, really speaking English, I am giving names in English order, or given name then family name. If I change this, I will point it out in the text, but it can be assumed that characters will be speaking in English for the greater part of this story.
Calaveras: is Avery in the dub, one of the four sisters who work for Rubeus in the second season. I realized that Sin didn't even recognize the name, so I will do a list of more minor characters who will appear in the story.
Dub:Japanese (family name, given name form)
Jedite:Jadeite
Nephlite:Neprite
Zoycite:Zoicite
Malachite:Kunzite
Catzi:Cooan
Bertie:Beruche
Avery:Calaveras
Prizma:Petz
Molly Baker:Osaka Naru
Melvin:Umino Gurio
Andrew:Furuhata Motoki
Chad:Kumada Yuuichirou
Sammy:Tsukino Shingo
Greg:Uwara Ryo
That's all I can think of for now. If any other characters pop up, I'll add them. Otherwise, I think I'm done for now. I hope you enjoyed!