Chapter two, complete. No review replies because this is a double upload. Can't say update, because this is the first time I've put anything up for this story.
"I'm sorry, Songwind," Trowa said quietly. "I wasn't aware that there would be so many students here. You can leave now, if you want,"
Songwind, obviously uncomfortable, shook her head. "If you are here, then I will remain here," She told him, her voice even softer than his. "It would be unseemly for me to leave you in such company."
"Songwind, we aren't at home right now; there is no one to shout formalities at us if you don't want to sit in a hall full of strangers. Go visit that willow we saw on the way in, okay?"
Songwind raised her head, and her eyes sparkled brightly. "You promise not to tell my mother?" She asked. "She'd be very upset if she found out, and the last century has been hard enough on her."
"I won't tell." Trowa promised with a smile. "Go see if the willow will let you stay with her while we're here."
"Here now, you're not talking about the Whomping Willow, are you?" One of the Ravenclaw girls asked suddenly, dropping her fork. "You can't send her out in this cold to the Willow! She'll be torn to pieces!"
Trowa just looked at the girl, his expression unreadable.
"Obviously," He said slowly, to no one in particular, "students in England know absolutely nothing about the TreeKin. Else our very rude tablemate would know that no tree, spelled or otherwise, could ever hurt one."
"TreeKin? What's a TreeKin?" Another Ravenclaw student asked, suddenly interested in the conversation. "It sounds familiar..."
"Perhaps you would know them better as dryads or tree nymphs?" Songwind spoke up nervously. "TreeKin is the English translation of the phrase the French use to describe the spirits such as myself who are born of and dwell in trees,"
"You're a dryad?" The girl demanded, shooting to her feet. "No wonder you're so bloody beautiful!"
Trowa growled quietly to himself, muttering in French. He'd kill whoever put his name in the nominee box, he really and truly would.
"Please, Songwind," He whispered in the TreeKin tongue, a soft language that conveyed meaning more by tone and gesture than by words. "Go visit your sister. See if she'll let you stay with her."
Songwind nodded and stood, hurrying towards the heavy doors. Those at the other tables not too busy stuffing their faces watched her leave, then turned to the Ravenclaw table. Trowa's glare was sufficient to make them mind their own business.
For now, anyway.
Quatre was nervous. The school he'd gone to in Arabia had been a boys' academy, so he wasn't used to girls. They made him nervous. Hell, no sense being polite; they scared the living daylights out of him.
But he was gentleman, and no gentleman would come right out and say something like that. So he spent dinner red as a beet, fending off what had to be flirtations, until the other boys came to his rescue.
"M'name's David," One said, somehow placing himself between Quatre and the girl next to him. "Wha's yours?"
"Quatre," The blond said gratefully, shaking David's hand. "Quatre Reberba Winner. Nice to meet you,"
"Ya mean i's nice ta not 'ave fillies on all sides," David snorted. "I kin tell. Makes ya wonder 'ow a lass gets 'er work done, what with all th' flirtin' she does,"
A few girls glared, but most laughed as if this was a long-standing joke.
"Be fair, David, you do your share of flirting, sure as we do," One girl, a pretty brunette with straight, shoulder-length hair and wide blue eyes, spoke up with a giggle. "It's a wonder a girl can get her work done with you chasing her all over the castle!"
Quatre couldn't help but laugh as the girls, who had until moments ago been focused solely on him, turned their attention to David's skirt-chasing ways.
David took it in stride, pointing out that the brunette never actually tried to get away, and most of the others wanted him to chase them.
"Must do wonda's ta a girl's ego, th way I chase," He told them with an unrepentant grin. "After all, wha girl wouldn' want flowers an candy ev'ry day, and lil' gifs un'er 'er pillow most nights?"
"One of these day, you're going to wake up and find you've no one left to chase," one of David's fellow boys warned him. "Then what will you do?"
"Why, I'd 'ave ta chase th' colts, wouldn' I? B'sides, there's still a whole crop a firs' years ta woo!" David laughed before turning back to Quatre. "Don' let 'em fool ya, Quatre, this 'ere's a crafty lot, an' they all got 'ot blood in their veins, same's us. But they don' mean it, ya know? Jus' funnin',"
Quatre wasn't sure what exactly David meant, but he nodded anyway. It seemed he'd made himself a friend already, something he'd never been much good at.
"Do you have any idea how much fortune tellers in America make?" Duo demanded, climbing the stairs backwards so that he could talk to Ron and Harry. "We're talking hundreds of dollars a reading! It's unreal!"
"Duo, please turn around and walk like a normal human being," Hermione pleaded. "I keep thinking you're going to overbalance and bowl into us."
"Would I do that?" Duo asked, smiling, although he did turn around. "And we're here!"
"Oh, joy," Hermione muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Hermes, you are one sour girl,"
"Do not call me Hermes!" Hermione yelled, kicking Duo in the shin.
"Ow! That hurt, Hermes! Ow!"
"Calm down, Hermione," Harry said. "You said yourself; he's American. He doesn't know any better."
"I'm right here, you know. And the trapdoors open, so let's go up, shall we?" Duo suggested.
And we'll skip the Divination lesson, because Trelawney gets on my nerves, even if I can spell her name right. All you need to know is Harry, supposedly going to die, Hermione doesn't like it, Duo thinks the teacher's a bit weird in the head,and Trelawney's about as stable as a baboon on crack.
Wufei decided to skip lunch. The last thing he needed was to deal with that annoying Malfoy brat when he was his most unfocused. So instead of going to the Great Hall with the rest of the students, he went outside.
It didn't take much wandering to figure out that the only things worth seeing were an enchanted willow, the Forbidden Forest, and a cottage. The TreeKin that had come with Barton was communing with the willow and the forest was off-limits, so that left the cottage.
Nataku close at hand, Wufei walked down the sloping lawns to the small house, looking it over carefully as he approached. There was a sizable garden, a large paddock, and an assortment of groundskeeping tools in sight. He'd almost reached the door before he saw them.
Hippogriffs.
They were wonderful specimens, with strong horses' rear legs, tails, and barrels, and eagle-like forelegs, heads, and wings. They ranged in type from the stocky English grays to an American palomino, to - wonder of wonders - a black Chinese stallion.
Wufei loved all magical creatures, but the one he held above the rest had always been hippogriffs. Only fire lizards had been able to top them, and he suspected that was only because of Nataku. This was the first time he'd seen a live hippogriff, and they definitely rated higher than fire lizards now.
He slipped between the rails of the paddock, unable to take his eyes off the magnificent beasts. He knew how to approach one, and also how to get away if it didn't like him. Nataku murmured nervously but stayed beyond the fence, sensing that Wufei wanted no distractions.
The nearest, and smallest, of the hippogriffs was a bay Arabian mare, and he moved slowly toward her, stopping a good distance away to await notice.
She finally raised her head, yellow eyes focusing sharply on him. She turned to face him, keeping him within her sights, while the other hippogriffs looked on curiously.
Don't blink, he reminded himself. Hippogriffs mistrust blinking too often, as it implies nervousness and agitation. He bowed smoothly, keeping his eyes on her.
"Good afternoon, my Lady," he greeted her in Chinese, although the words more than likely meant nothing to her.
After a tense moment, the mare bent her forelegs in an acknowledging bow, and Wufei breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're magnificent, my Lady," He told her, moving forward one slow step at a time until he was close enough to touch her beak. He did so, gently, stroking it until she dropped her lids in pleasure and moved closer to him.
Then he put more strength in the caresses, moving his hand back to scratch beneath her thick neck feathers; the other, he brought up to her eye ridges. The pleasure points of hippogriffs were much the same as those on a fire lizard, although his books had advised against trying to get at a hippogriff's belly.
"Lovely. That's what you are, is lovely." He whispered, still speaking in his native tongue, as the fluid syllables seemed to soothe her. "Never could any mere horse or eagle compare to you, in flight or on the ground," He continued to murmur compliments and endearments until something hard and cold bumped against his arm.
The other hippogriffs were crowding around him now, wanting at the very least a scratch from him now that the - he now realized - alpha female had accepted him. The herding instincts of horses bred true in these creatures, save that a mare led in place of a stallion.
Laughing softly, Wufei complied, as the alpha female slipped away to make room for one of her followers. If he lingered overlong on the Chinese stallion, none of the others minded as long as he tended to them in their turn.
A warning bell sounded from the castle, and Wufei sighed regretfully.
"I'd love to stay with you, my beauties," He told them, running his hand up and down the beak of the American palomino, "but I've Care of Magical Creatures next, and I'm afraid I have to go find where it is. Forgive me." Slowly, carefully, he extracted himself from the knot of hippogriffs and bowed to them all. Rather than a full formal bow, each inclined its head and closed its eyes, a sure sign that they'd taken a liking to him.
He didn't realize he'd had an audience until he turned around.
"Well done, lad, well done!" The giant man on the other side of the paddock fence exclaimed, clapping softly. "Weren't sure what ta think, yeh in there with 'em all over yeh, but yeh done all righ'!"
"Thank you?" Wufei hazarded, not sure what to do now. He'd been caught redhanded where he knew he wasn't supposed to be, and all the adults here seemed to be teachers. He could very well get in trouble.
"C'mon then, out yeh go, best not disturb 'em." The man said, motioning for Wufei to climb out of the paddock. "Yeh'll be seeing more'f 'em soon, if'n yeh're the new boy'n Slyth'rin; they're the lesson fer Car o' Magical Creatures, they are."
"Then, you would be the Care of Magical Creatures instructor?" Wufei asked, slipping between the fence rails again. "Hagrid?"
"That'd be me, all righ'," Hagrid said, the movement of his beard suggesting a smile to match the one in his voice. "Ain't never seen tha' mare take t' no one like that b'fore," he continued, shaking his head in amazement. "Not e'en the man what I got 'er from could make 'er bow."
"I've been told I have a way with animals, sir," Wufei informed him, coming to the conclusion that he wasn't going to be reprimanded. "But I never imagined I'd be allowed to see hippogriffs here. We've barely any in China, and these are the first I've laid eyes on outside of pictures."
"If tha' was yer firs' time, 'M even more impressed!" Hagrid exclaimed, clapping Wufei on the shoulder with one ham-sized hand. The noise attracted the attention of one of the English grays and the Scottish chestnut, both of whom moved towards the source to investigate. Hagrid waved them off with an, 'all righ', all righ',' and they returned to lounging with the rest of the herd.
"I should be going now," Wufei told Hagrid, finding himself loath to leave the big man's company. "I have a feeling that my so-called housemates shouldn't see me here outside of lessons,"
"True," Hagrid agreed, not in the least offended. "Them Slyth'rin's got a mind t' see me out on th' street, like as not. Be best if yeh came back in with 'em,"
Wufei nodded, bowing gravely, then turned and walked back towards the palace, suddenly feeling much warmer towards this place.
And Harry rides a hippogriff, Malfoy gets less than he deserves, and we're moving right along.
Heero pushed his bangs back in a gesture that had become more habit than anything else. That and that alone betrayed how nervous he was. He'd always been horrible at Potions, no matter who tried to teach him. He could only manage simple ones, not something as complicated as a Shrinking Solution.
Which is exactly what they were making.
Heero discovered to his surprise that he wasn't the worst student in the class, however. He actually found himself feeling quite sorry for one Neville Longbottom, a nervous-looking boy whom the professor seemed to enjoy picking on.
"Orange, Longbottom," Professor Snape was saying, making a spectacle of examining the color. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?" From there, Snape went on at some length about what Longbottom, while the boy just stood there, turning red.
"Please, sir," a Gryffindor know-it-all named Granger said, "please, I could help Neville put it right-"
"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," Snape informed her coldly, and Heero almost winced. He was liking this teacher less and less with every passing moment.
The potions had stewed, everything had been cleaned up, and now Snape was going after Longbottom again, using the potion on the poor kid's pet toad. The man was nothing short of sadistic, and Heero probably would have sent him through a wall by now, except-
Except. Except that if he blew it here, he'd never be able to go home. If he let his emotions control him, his mission would fail. If he screwed this up, it meant he would have to die.
So he kept to himself as the teacher deducted points from Gryffindor because the Granger girl had outsmarted him. He held his temper in check and cleared out with the rest of the class instead of staying behind to give Snape a taste of his own medicine, like he would have last year. Like he had.
Draco Malfoy had the feeling he was being watched.
Every time he left the Slytherin common room, he felt eyes on him. But he could never find the mysterious watcher, no matter what he did. It was a strange and frightening experience, to know that someone was there but not be able to find them. He tried not to go anywhere alone, but sometimes he just had to get rid of Crabbe and Goyle. They were mindless, and didn't make very good sounding boards.
He discovered the identity of his stalker not long before Halloween, when he was wandering the halls alone. One minute, the corridor had been empty. The next-
"You're not really hurt, are you?" A soft, rasping voice at his ear whispered, and two cold arms wrapped themselves around his shoulders. "I'd hate to think of you injured, pretty little boy," The voice continued. "I just might have to put you out of your misery."
Draco was so scared he couldn't scream. His legs began to shake, and he almost fainted. Then the stranger gave himself away by bursting into peals of laughter.
"Oh, gods, that was fun!" He exclaimed, let Draco go and stumbling over to the wall, still laughing. "I've wanted to do that for ages!"
Draco turned to glare at the American boy, who stood with his forehead against the wall, holding his sides.
"I suppose you thought it would be funny to frighten me?" He demanded angrily. "I hope you enjoyed it, because when I get through with you, the only thing you'll be able to frighten will be earthworms!"
"You wouldn't really kill me, would you, Malfoy?" The American asked, getting his laughter under control. "Just for a little prank that no one else saw?" He paused for a moment, then continued more seriously, "I've been watching you, you know."
"I guessed," Malfoy said coldly.
"I'm afraid my master would have my hide for my sloppy work, but it was my best. I wanted to see what you were like. Do you believe in destiny?"
"No." Malfoy answered, not sure where this conversation was going. Wherever they were headed, he had a feeling he might not like it.
"I do," the American informed him, turning his penetrating violet gaze on the blond. "I believe that it was destiny that got me here, and I believe it was because I was supposed to meet someone here. I take it you don't believe in love at first sight, either?"
"Of course not," Draco scoffed, liking the drift of this little talk less and less.
"Once again, I do."
The brunette pushed off the wall and strode quickly to where Draco stood. Draco backed up until he hit the wall, then tried to slide sideways. The American didn't give him the chance to escape; he pinned him against the stone with both hands, effectively trapping the taller boy.
"Draco. Old Latin for dragon. Are you a dragon, Malfoy? Or a scared little fire lizard afraid to fly?" The smaller boy leaned closer, standing on his toes, until the two were eye to eye. "Have you ever truly flown, my little dragon? Or do you just run across the beach, pretending to spread your wings?"
Then he was gone, as suddenly as if he were a spirit, leaving Draco alone in the hall for a moment before the first wave from the Great Hall found him.
:Something is wrong with the boy: Kero said. No need to specify which boy; along with the words came a mental image of Duo Maxwell. The whole Sending was laced with the slightly yellow undertones of concern.
:Why do you say that: Heero asked in the same silent manner, not wanting to call attention to himself.
:Look at him, Heero. He does not speak so loudly as he did, nor so much. He seems to me to be sad for some reason.:
:Kero, don't you dare: Heero told her, snapping his book shut and turning to glare at her. :You will not invade that boy's mind the way you did the last one! You will not blow this for us:
:I will not have to invade.: Kero informed him curtly, her mindvoice coldly formal. :He has the Gift, as you do. It will be the same as vocal speech to him, though perhaps a bit more intense. I wish only to find the source of his trouble, not the location of his hideout: The kyree surged to her feet and walked briskly to the door of the boys' dormitory, ignoring the looks from the other Gryffindors. :Do not interfere. This is my mission.:
End of chapter two, and I'll post these just as soon as I can think of a damned title. Who else liked what Duo did to Malfoy? David's a cool character, although I have no idea where he could be from...
