Chapters 8.- Morning Training.
The Prefects and Professors were having a hard time trying to calm the happy mages as they continued celebrating their victory in the Great Hall.
"Professor Mcgonagall is coming." Harry commented to his girlfriend in a low voice.
"I know." Hermione too had felt it. "We need to calm down everyone."
"Well, you're the wise one. Any bright idea?" he asked.
"In fact, I might have one." Hermione replied.
She got to her feet, and concentrated in her powers.
"Silento!" she ordered.
Between all the yelling and movement no one seemed to notice the moment she made the incantation.
A second later the whole hall was in silence, the D.A. members seemed to notice her standing and understood what she wanted, they all immediately returned to their places.
Just as Hermione settled back in her seat the door opened to let in Professor Minerva Mcgonagall followed by the new students.
The Sorting Hat began its new song as every year, and then the new students were sorted. At the end they seemed to notice there were two remaining students standing.
"This year we have two foreign students." McGonagall said aloud. "Treat them the way they deserve and try to help them in whatever they may need."
"Yanagisawa Naoko." McGongall called.
Naoko, dressed in the black robes Tomoyo had arranged for her, with her short hair pulled back by a gray band, she looked a bit nervous. But after getting a glimpse of her friends smiling at her she relaxed and let the Sorting Hat explore her thoughts.
"Well, well, well…" The Sorting Hat murmured in her head. "What do we have here? A servant of the ancient forces."
"My name is Naoko." She mentally-spoke. "I am what some call a sprite, Earth's daughter, Allie to the Trees, Flowers and animals. I know nothing of any ancient forces."
The Hat remained silent for a moment, as if considering what to do after her words.
"Well, you seem to be an honest person." The hat finally said. "You fear the future, and even then never doubt when it's time to defend those you care for. Time will come for you to prove your great powers, to fight with your very soul."
"I fear nor the past nor the future." Naoko replied. "What I fear is not being able to help."
"Oh, but you will help, when time comes. Although for now you'll be well in… ¡Gryffindor!"
Naoko took off the hat in silence and walked slowly to a place next to Tomoyo and Sakura, right across from Harry, Hermione and Ron. In the way she didn't seem to notice the pair of ice-blue eyes fixed upon her.
"Elddir May." McGonagall called.
A second girl stepped forth. She was tall, very tall, with good curves, her dark black hair long to her waist, hanging in two loose ponytails, her eyes a dark shade of red.
The hat hadn't even finished touching the girl's head when it came up with an answer:
"Slytherin!"
It was no surprise for most, as the girl had a dead-cold glare that could have frozen the very center of the sun.
Shaoran turned to the Gryffindor table, looking right at Sakura, Tomoyo and Naoko (Harry and Hermione were sitting with their backs to him); the three gals returned their look; the four of them nodded.
What's happening? Hermione asked.
For the looks of her friends she noticed something was going on, but she didn't dare turn, if she did it would look strange, and they would begin questioning her, asking for explanations she could not give; not until Sakura said it was the time anyway.
There is something in that new girl. Tomoyo answered. Something strange.
Shaoran-kun had felt it too. Sakura added.
Is it something bad? Hermione asked, doubtfully.
Iie. Tomoyo denied. It's just strange.
There's magic in that girl. Shaoran explained when noticing Hermione was still a bit confused. You and Harry-kun must be able to feel it too.
Hermione nodded.
Well, that magic is like none any of us here posses. Tomoyo explained. It's as if she possessed some kind of new and unknown magic.
Or she has a magic we can identify, and is hiding it. Shaoran added.
Is such a thing possible? Hermione asked. I mean, to hide magic even from you, the Supreme Sorcerers.
With magic anything is possible my dear Hermione-san. Eriol interfered in their communication. And your friends may find rather intriguing how deep your gazes on each other are. I suggest we leave this conversation for later; when the students are on bed.
And Harry-kun can join. Hermione added.
The rest just nodded mentally.
Once their contact was broken they noticed what Eriol said was true. Some of their friends were looking at them, wondering what had made them look at each other that way. But, thankfully, before any of them could ask, Dumbledore decided it was time to give his speech.
"I noticed you were celebrating something some minutes ago, and even if indeed it is great to be happy for the outcome of the last battle, we must have our eyes open, be ready for anything that might come next." Dumbledore said as he finished.
"Beg your pardon Professor Dumbledore." Eriol said politely. "But I believe what the teens were celebrating a while ago wasn't the battle of last June, but the one that took place just about an hour ago."
"What!" almost all the professors exclaimed in shock at once.
Eriol seemed surprised that they didn't know what had happened in the Hogwart's Express.
Apparently they had heard the students celebrating, but never really thought of paying attention to what they were saying.
"Professor Hiiragizawa, is this another of your jokes?" Professor Sprout asked.
During the previous year Eriol had gotten the fame of being a joker, sometimes even with dark jokes; just Dumbledore and the Sorcerers seemed to be able to tell a joke from the truth.
"No my dear professor." Eriol said with a smile. "And if you need proof…"
Eriol conjured a spell in his mind, and then something like a hologram appeared floating right before the Teacher's Table, it showed various scenes of the fight (none that may compromise him and Tomoyo, or the Sorcerer's magic).
"Where are the Death Eaters?" Professor Flitwick asked, doubtful.
"They have been sent to Azkaban, along with a parchment with the list of the names of those sent, and the crimes for which they are being imprisoned." Eriol explained. "Even if the situation was risky, the D.A. members proved, again, they are well trained, ready for anything that may come."
"Yeah!" all those from the 'Army' erupted in cheers.
"Well, then I believe this is the right time to say this." Dumbledore said with a smile. "From this year on the classes of the D.A. will count as much as any other class. You will remain in the same classroom if you so wish. And you will have an official time, on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons."
They all erupted in cheers once more.
.---.
After the feast was over those from the D.A. made their way to the Room of Requirement. In there they again went to retelling individual details of the fight of earlier that day; until Hermione stopped them.
"Silence!" she ordered.
This time there was no spell, but there was no need for it anyway; they were all intelligent enough to do as she said and shut up.
"Ok." Harry spoke. "You all heard, we now have an official time to train, and you are free to invite whoever you wish to join."
"During the first months we'll dedicate the Friday's and Saturday's evening to train those who are experimented, and the Saturday afternoons to train the new ones." Hermione explained. "Of course before accepting anyone we shall test them, to be sure they are worthy of being a member of this group."
They all nodded, accepting the condition.
"What about the Gryffindor gals and the Slytherin boy that helped us last June?" one of the boys asked.
They all began nodding, also wishing to know the answer.
"Sadly Tomoyo, Sakura and Shaoran have decided not to join our group." Harry said. "They say they will help us whenever we may need them, but they are not truly interested in training with us."
No one said a thing about this, after seeing them battle (even when they didn't remember about the Sorcerer's powers) no one doubted their power.
"Ok." Hermione spoke, just as they were about to continue their talking. "We know you are all really excited about what happened earlier today, but we have classes tomorrow morning. If we have to prove everyone we are excellent wizards we have to be, not only when we fight D.E. but also when we attend classes so… ¡Everyone to your dorms right now!"
The order wasn't repeated as they all walked out the room.
"Wow Hermy, you truly have an authority attitude." Ron commented with a smile.
Hermione was a bit ashamed at Ron's words.
"That's my Hermy." Harry added and kissed her on a temple.
This made Hermione blush.
"Come on lovebirds." Ron made fun of them. "We too must get to our dorm."
The three of them were the last ones to leave the Room of Requirement. It was late already, almost midnight, and Ron thought about taking a shortcut through a small passage.
"Better not." Hermione stopped them. "We don't have the Marauder's Map with us and if Filch surprises us coming out from the passage at this time of the night he will punish us for sure, no matter what we say to him."
"You are right." Ron nodded.
The three of them continued their way to their dorm.
"Quite the liar, aren't you?" Harry asked in a low voice.
"If you had been paying a bit more attention to what happens around, and not just to me you would have noticed Tomoyo and Eriol were together right in that passage." Hermione whispered back.
"Well, but my beautiful girl isn't bothered by having all my intention is her?" Harry asked with a smirk.
He gave a quick peck below her ear, Hermy giggled softly.
Ron just turned his eyes. He was happy for his friends, really; but sometimes he just tired of feeling like a third wheel.
.---.
Tomoyo remained with her body still, not because she didn't want to move, but because she couldn't; behind her the wall of the passage halted any possible motion, before her Eriol's body kept her in place, and around her his arms, snaked around her waist and torso. (It isn't like she wanted to move anyway).
"Eriol…" Tomoyo whispered when his mouth left hers for a moment. "We shouldn't be here, if anybody finds us…"
"Nobody is going to find us." Eriol assured her. "Hermione-san made sure of that and took Harry-san and Ron-san away." He smiled. "Besides, we couldn't finish what we were doing earlier today."
"You would have rather left the kids handle those D.E. on their own?" Tomoyo asked, a bit surprised.
"I'm sure they would have been able to handle it perfectly fine, anyway they had Sakura-chan, Shaoran-kun, Harry-san and Hermione-san." Eriol replied. "And I still have some things in mind I wish to do with you."
"Eriol-kun…" Tomoyo began seriously.
"Don't worry hime, nothing you wouldn't want." Eriol assured her.
They had set that straight since some weeks ago, back in the mansion, when they were making out (snogging) in his library. Things had gotten really hot, passionate, until Tomoyo had roughly pushed him away. Eriol had apologized about a hundred times, Tomoyo assured him it wasn't his mistake, but of the both of them. And so they had decided they wouldn't go any farther until they were sure it was what they wanted.
"You said we couldn't do that." Eriol murmured in her ear. "But didn't say anything about doing this…" He kissed her earlobe." Or this…" he kissed her cheek. "Or this…" he kissed her shin, then her neck, her shoulder.
Tomoyo smiled lightly at his caresses, returning them with a smile.
They both knew they wouldn't go farther than that, at least not yet.
.---.
The clacking of metal against metal woke McGonagall up. When she turned to look at the clock, she noticed it wasn't even seven a.m.(the time when most of the students woke to bathe, get some last-minute work done, and get breakfast –Clases began at nine–.), and just then the clacking could be heard again.
"Those kids are causing trouble again." She murmured.
She got a robe over her sleeping clothes and went to the window, supposing some kids were causing trouble, even when they had just arrived. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw the moment she opened the window: seven teenagers were standing in a part of Hogwarts's grounds, out of view of the windows of the dorms or the Great Hall; the three men were holding swords of different styles, the women one had an ornamented sword, another a whip, the third a cane, and the fourth was barehanded. And if that hadn't been enough, McGonagall's nerves got on high alert when the teens lunged against each other and began fighting, everyone against everyone.
McGonagall immediately used magic to get into her red robes and black shoes. Then she went to find a door to reach the grounds.
Once McGonagall exited the castle she noticed the battle between them had gotten even harder; because now they were using magic along with the weapons.
The Professor was about to use her wand to stop them when a hand on her shoulder halted her motion.
"Albus…" she was quite surprised to see him there.
"Don't interrupt them just yet." Dumbledore said.
"Is this some kind of game?" McGonagall asked.
"No." Dumbledore shook his head. "What's happening there is real, with real weapons and real magic."
"But then you must stop them! It's dangerous for them to fight like that. They will hurt themselves!"
"One of them was practically born with a sword to his side, three others have used their weapons for about six or seven years already, and the last three have used them from some months to a year, and even then they're fast learners."
Just then McGonagall noticed something, it was as if the teens had silently taken a decision: two of them sprung wings in the back, and began a sword-fight from above; the other four began a fight men against women; and the last woman (the one with no weapons) stepped aside, and began using magic against everyone. It was like some kind of choreography, almost too beautiful, too perfect, to be true.
And it was until then that McGonagall noticed something else: the magic they were all using, they had no wands in their hands.
"What the hell!" McGonagall cried out.
Her voice broke the delicate concentration the teens had, and one of the attacks went straight to McGonagall and Dumbledore.
McGonagall didn't even know if she would have time to bring out her wand when one of the women was already standing before her, hands raised. The Transformation's Professor gasped when seeing a bright yellow light enveloping the woman before her, and neutralizing the attack just before it reached.
A second later the woman fell to her knees, breathing deeply.
"Oh my!" the woman with the whip cried out.
"Daijoubu ka!" the winged woman cried out landing roughly, and apparently forgetting she was supposed to speak in English.
The man with a silvery sword with a green stone on it dropped it to the ground and dashed to the woman's side.
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.
"Just fine." She replied. "I'm just a bit worn out. That attack was hard, and I had very little time to prepare myself."
They all turned to the man holding a sable.
"My deepest apologies." The man said sincerely. "I hadn't expected the attack to take that course, I got distracted."
"We all did." The woman with the whip said, this time in English. "We weren't expecting visitors, as we supposed we had gotten up early enough."
"We did." The woman with no weapons assured her. "We've been here for two hours already, it's seven o'clock."
'Two hours?' McGonagall couldn't believe it. 'This kids have been up since five!'
"Time sure goes flying when you're having fun." The woman commented as her wings disappeared.
"It is good that you have quick reflexes." The man whose wings had also disappeared said with a smile. "Your magic is improving faster than any of us might have expected; yours too Harry-kun."
It wasn't until then that McGonagall noticed who the seven teens before her were:
"Potter? Granger? Yanagisawa? Daidouji? Kinomoto? Li? Professor Eriol?" McGonagall enlisted, her surprise growing with each name.
"Good morning sensei, I mean Professor." Naoko said bowing.
The other six imitated her.
"What are you doing here this early?" McGonagall asked.
"I though it was obvious Minerva." Dumbledore stepped in. "They were training."
"Training?" McGonagall was truly confused.
"Hai." The teens nodded.
"We are used to train early morning, before the day-work." Shaoran explained. "I've done it practically since I was three, Sakura-chan, Tomoyo-chan and Eriol-kun have done so since they're ten or eleven, if not before. Naoko-chan, Hermy-san, and Harry-kun have trained with us for the last months."
"I don't understand." McGonagall murmured.
"It's rather easy." Dumbledore explained. "They were born for this. After all, they are sorcerers."
"What!" This new information got the teacher almost to the limit.
"Tomoyo-chan…" Sakura whispered.
Tomoyo seemed to understand because she immediately gave a step forward and raised her hands, concentrating, until she began singing:
"Memories of that night,
I call to you now,
Come back, wake up,
Let this human know
What has been done.
Now it is the time,
For her memories to come back." Tomoyo sang.
It was as if McGonagall had been thrown into a tornado of images, as the scenes of that fateful night, the battle when Voldemort was finally defeated came back to her; but this time there was more, small images, the missing pieces she had known nothing about. And one above them all:
Flashback
Harry had just done an Expelliarmus spell using nothing but his hands to canalize his magic, and it had been strong enough to send the D.E. crashing into the nearby trees and walls.
"Albus, what's happening here?" Mcgonagall asked shocked.
"Many things are going on here Minerva, many things." Dumbledore replied calmly.
"Those kids are really strong." Snape said. "Even Potter and Granger."
"They're sorcerers, and the last two are half-sorcerers." Sonomi replied. "Even if they have been trained just shortly those other wizards are no match for them."
End of Flashback
"So it is true." McGonagall murmured, finally understanding. "You are Sorcerers."
"That's right." Eriol nodded.
Just then Sakura got in high alert.
"Someone's coming." Shaoran said, he too had felt it.
"Friend or foe?" Hermione asked.
After what had happened before she believed the D.E. could attack them any moment.
"None." Sakura replied. "But still, it is someone who knows nothing of our powers."
"I suggest we get out' a here." Tomoyo said.
"You're right." Naoko nodded.
"Excuse us Professors." Sakura said. "We gotta leave now."
With that Sakura summoned the power of the Move Card and they all disappeared, to reappear a second later in their respective towers.
"Albus…" McGonagall murmured to Dumbledore as the teens disappeared. "What will happen now?"
"Many things will happen now Minnie." Dumbledore replied calmly. "Many things."
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry… I can't finish telling you how sorry I am. I hadn't noticed it had been this long since the last time I updated, really. And I was truly busy with the exams, an investigation, a Photograph homework I had to do during the night, Swimming classes, well you may imagine; and then something happened with the server of FFnet and it wouldn't let me update so... But I'm getting on vacation soon enough, so'll I'll updating more frequently (I hope).
I still feel I'm receiving too few reviews, I don't know if it's because you don't get notice of my updates, or you're not fully interested in this story.
Anyway, as you can see little happened in this chapter, but now I'm just missing a small detail to boost this story. This story will be different from the previous, you'll soon see why.
By the way, according to the voting, bad Severus is still winning, along with the good Malfoy. The voting will be finishing soon, because I have to begin writing scenes that will involve them acting the way you decided they should be. So hurry and vote!
Thank you all my constant readers and reviewers. It is for you that I still write this.
See you in the next update.
