A/N: I don't have much to say right now, but I do have a few things afterwards, so stick around, OK?

Fire and Ice

The people in the main hall at Hogwarts froze, staring at the nightmare that had suddenly disrupted the Ball. It towered over them, and hissed. That seemed to be the signal everyone was waiting for, and chaos instantly reigned. Some students were running out of the Hall, some were trying to hide, but there were a few, most of them Manticores, struggling to join James.

All the Manticore rings went off then, as Rose called the Manticores. "Zulu, Zulu, Zulu, in the Main Hall. I say again, Zulu, Zulu, Zulu, in the Main Hall."

Zulu was a code phrase Manticore had made for a life or death situation, one that would require the skills they had learned in training. None of the Manticores had thought to hear that call until the war started, as it was not used in training. It was not joked about, not even James would use it as a ploy.

Across the castle, Manticores dropped what they were doing, and ran for the Main Hall.

In the main hall, James had rallied the dozen or so Manticores still there, and set the ones that were in Phoenix to herding the other students out of the Hall.

He looked at Professor Potter. "You've fought that thing before, does it have weakness?"

Harry looked at him grimly. "The last time I saw it, it had both eyes torn out, and I had stabbed it with a sword, right through the brain." He dodged a chunk of table, thrown across the room as the Basilisk tore the refreshment table apart. "I would have sworn it was dead."

"And so it is." They turned to find the Headmaster standing there. "What you are looking at is far more dangerous than a creature. It's a magical construct. It's formed of Dark Magic, strengthened with a person's hatred and fear, and other dark emotions."

James looked at the beast again. "How do we kill it?"

Professor Dumbledore had lost the benevolent look he usually had, and three generations of wizards looked up as the thing approached. "You have to destroy it with pure power. You have to put more power into the thing than it can handle. Professor Potter, if you would."

Professor Potter and the Headmaster pointed their wands at the approaching monster, and began casting spells at it. James looked at them, and then at the linked members of Manticore that were pouring into the hall from every entrance.

He activated his ring. "I want everyone to cast at that thing."

A scream split the air. James turned and froze as he saw Tiffany running across the Hall.

The basilisk had cornered a third year he vaguely recognized as a Hufflepuff, and Tiffany was running to get the student, who had fainted.

James's eyes blazed as a sweep of the thing's tail knocked Tiffany into the wall. He staggered as he felt the tail slam into her, and he felt her ribs crack as she hit the wall.

He stopped and looked at the monster as it turned its attention back to its victim. He made a gesture, and the raw magic knife he had shown Professor Dumbledore appeared in his hand. He looked at it, and concentrated. It shimmered, and grew. When it stopped shimmering, James was holding a large sword.

He charged the thing as it bent down to bite the student laying there, causing several Manticores to abort spells to avoid hitting him. It hissed as he swung, cutting across its tail and looked back at him. James stood his ground, waiting for the monster to move.

James waited, and the monster did two things at once. It looped its head over to bite at him, and at the same time, it swept its tail along the floor, knocking James's legs out from under him. James's head hit the floor and he lost the concentration he needed to hold the sword. The sword dissolved into nothing as the monster snapped at James. He rolled to the side, and avoided the first bite.

The basilisk brought its tail around and pinned James beneath its coils, leaving only his head free. James struggled for his wind under the crushing weight, nearly blacking out under the beast as it bent to bite his head off.

Tiffany saw what was about to happen to her Soulbonded, and she froze for a second. Terror, Love, Fury, Protectiveness, all of that and more swelled in her being, and something deep in her soul was released, sweeping through her, setting her nerves afire. Something hot and fierce exploded in her.

"I don't think so, monster." The voice that echoed throughout the Great Hall didn't sound remotely human, and a good many people turned. Tiffany was standing up, and her eyes had gone away, replaced by green flames. She started toward the thing, and as she walked, green flames grew around her. She did not seem to be affected by them, and they continued to grow. As they grew, Tiffany walked on them, not noticing it, or anything except the thing that had her Soulbonded trapped.

Tiffany stopped about ten feet from the beast, and raised her hands. The green flames poured toward the thing, covering it, forcing it away from James. Tiffany didn't seem to notice, as she poured more and more green fire into the construct. Only a few people saw the small ribbon of green fire that stayed with James, as he fought to breathe.

The construct began glowing under the spells and green fire, and suddenly exploded, shaking the hall, and knocking almost everyone flat. Tiffany was still wrapped in green fire, and unaffected by the explosion.

Professor Dumbledore was one of the few that was not knocked down, and he was the only one that saw the green fire fade back into Tiffany as she floated down to the floor. At least he knew what that those strange lights in her aura meant now. He made a mental note to mark her aura for future Headmasters as he helped Professor McGonagall up.

Tiffany was helping James up, and James smiled at her as he got his breath back. His eyes changed as he saw the remains of the Hall. He spotted a body, half covered by a piece of the table and started toward her even as he started issuing orders to the Manticores. "Damage control, Sphinx, take charge of clearing the debris. Phoenix, we have injured, you know your job."

Ron Stone started directing the Manticores in clearing the debris from the hall, while making sure that there were not any more students under the debris.

Mercy set up a triage point in the cleanest section of the Hall as the Phoenix Mediwizards started collecting the injured for treatment.

Hangeld helped James lift the table off the student while Adam and Lisa gently slid the girl out. Melissa reached down, and started checking the girl over. "Get Madame Potter, tell her that I have a female with a crushed pelvis." Rose went to get her as Chimera continued looking for victims.

Across the Hall, Professor Potter was helping the Headmaster when Professor Dumbledore stopped, and looked toward the wall. He turned back to Harry and frowned. "Two students just left the grounds. Get the Househeads, and find out who is missing. I would think that the missing students might be able to shed some light on this night's events."

Professor Potter looked at him. "I'll be glad to know somebody can. What was that green fire?"

Professor Dumbledore looked at him, and his eyes were troubled. "A myth."

May-ling was working nearby, and heard his comment. "Pardon me, sir, but it is not a myth. I knew of the last Pyromancer, although I never met her. It was," she paused, thinking back, "about sixteen hundred years ago." She shrugged. "Give or take a century or two."

Professor Potter looked confused. "I've never heard of Pyromancers."

Professor Dumbledore looked at May-ling. "I have read of them, but there is little known about them. I think Miss Sun Tzu and I will have a talk before I say more. Right now, we need to clean this up, and find out which students have left the school."

Harry hesitated, but turned to find the Househeads. He saw Professor Snape first, and crossed the Hall to speak with him.

An hour later, the Manticores had cleared the hall, and all of the students that had been injured were safely in the Infirmary, where Madame Potter and Mercy were directing the Phoenix Mediwizards in their treatment.

James looked around the Hall, and got the team leaders together. "You all did well, as did your teams. Get everyone to bed now. Make sure anyone that is injured stops by the Infirmary first."

The team leaders agreed and started sending orders to their teams over the links or the rings as they turned to collect their teams. James turned to Chimera, but before he could say anything, Rose spoke. "Good plan, James. When are you and Tiffany going to the Infirmary? Melissa says that one of you needs to have their ribs looked at."

James took a deep breathe, and he felt the pain in his ribcage. He looked at Tiffany, remembering how she had hit the wall. "Right now. My Lady, if you would accompany me?"

Lisa looked at them. "Tiffany must the injured one. James would never go so quickly if it was him."

James sent the rest of Chimera to bed, and they walked to the Infirmary. "I'm really getting tired of this place," Tiffany told him as they approached the doors.

James grinned at her. "You're just carrying on a family tradition. I understand your father spent a great deal of time here."

"This is one tradition I can live without, thank you."

In the Infirmary, they found Melissa working on a fourth year Slytherin's arm. They were waiting for her to finish when the Slytherin boy looked up and saw them. He looked at them for a minute, and then looked around. "I owe Mercy an apology. Would you be good enough to extend it to her? I would do it myself, but I have to live in that house for another three years."

James looked at him, and lowered his voice. "If it's only the Cliques, you could start your own Clique, with the Manticores that are there. There would be six of you in the house, and you would have many friends outside of it. You might even find that there are more people like you in the house." James looked around. "Look here, at this scene. Here are people from every house, working together, and not worrying about rivalries. I refuse to believe that everyone in your house is a complete loss. I will forward your apology to Mercy, but in return, you're going to think about what I said."

"Why do you care? In a couple of years you'll be gone back to America, and we'll probably never meet again."

James sighed, looking down at his feet, and then looked the boy in the eye. "Once, I stood by, and let something happen because I didn't think it concerned me. That decision cost me, and I swore I would never do it again."

James looked at the boy curiously, as Melissa finished with him, and started examining Tiffany. "What brought this on anyway?"

The boy pointed at a bed where a girl slept after being healed. "My date and I were near where that thing came up, and she was hit by a piece of wood or something from the floor. Mercy ran almost under the monster, and was helping her even as the monster was still coming out of the floor."

James looked at the boy. "You know, when I stopped the abuse, Mercy was one step from ending her life. Where would your date be now, if I had stayed out of it?"

The Slytherin thought about what James had said, and then hung his head. "Point taken. I will think about it."

James stood up, and turned to go be with Tiffany. He stopped as the boy in the bed said something else. "Don't bother with my apology. I will do that myself."

James grinned at the boy, and then grew serious. "If you need someone to talk to, that is not in your house, I can be found in Manticore Hall most of the time, or somebody there knows where to find me."

He turned without waiting for the other boy's response, and crossed to the chair Melissa had pulled up for Tiffany.

Tiffany smiled at him as he took her hand. "Melissa says I'll be fine in just a minute." She rolled her eyes. "She also says she has a couple of questions about the green fire."

James rubbed his eyes. "She's not the only one. I would like to know about it as well."

Tiffany grew serious. "So would I. All I know is that I stood up, and that thing had you pinned, about to bite your head off, and then, it just sort of erupted. I could feel it growing in me, and I just threw it."

Melissa frowned as she finished with Tiffany's ribs. "They will be tender for a day or two. James, you're responsible for not letting her strain them. I trust you to monitor her, since you don't want her back in here."

She looked at Tiffany, and then at the clock on the wall. "I do have questions for you, but I'm tired from all the healing and you will be tired shortly. I had to draw on more of your energy than normal for this, and you're going to be very tired in about twenty minutes."

James frowned at Melissa. "If you're willing to put off asking questions about something new, you're in worse shape than you're telling us. Do I need to have Madame Potter look at you, or are you coming to bed with us?"

Melissa looked at James, and a ghost of a smile crossed her face. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll find a bed here, in case they need me. Besides, I would hate for Tiffany to find me in bed with you in the morning."

James blinked, and then thought about what he'd said. Shaking his head, he smiled back. "I wouldn't worry about you, it would be me I worried about. You can hide from her."

Tiffany yawned, and James's attention went to her. "As interesting as this is, Yank, could you escort me to bed?"

James smiled softly at her. "Of course, My Lady."

The two Soulbonded walked out of the Infirmary, hand in hand. Melissa watched them go, and turned to find Madame Potter watching her as she put away her wand. "I'm going to assign you a room here. Between overtaxing your Healing talent, and watching over those crazy Manticores of yours, you spend more time here than you do in your room."

Melissa tried to say something, but a yawn came out instead. Madame Potter just pointed at a room. "Go to bed." Melissa started toward the room, and then turned. "I said, go to bed. You know I'll call you if I need you." Melissa turned back, and was asleep within a minute of her head touching the pillow.

Albus Dumbledore was not asleep, and it didn't look like he was going to get any sleep tonight. It was already 0400, and he was still waiting to hear from two of the Househeads. Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick had reported all of their students were accounted for, but Professor Snape and Professor Sprout had yet to report.

He looked at May-ling, sitting in a chair half asleep, and stood up. "I believe I have learned everything I need from you, Miss Sun Tzu. You can go to bed now."

May-ling looked out of the Professor's window. "No point in bed now, I think I'll just get some of Lisa's coffee, and stay up."

Professor Dumbledore looked at her over his glasses. "I would suggest you go to bed. There will be no classes tomorrow, and James has already told Professor Potter that the Manticores will not have PT in the morning either."

May-ling looked shocked, and then her face cleared. "Tiffany must have been hurt. Is she going to be ok?"

"Yes, she will," said the Headmaster, "but how did you guess that Tiffany had been hurt?"

May-ling smiled. "James wouldn't cancel PT for anything less. Even if he was hurt, we'd still be doing PT. Since Tiffany goes out to do PT every time he does, the only way he can get her to stay inside, is not to go to PT himself. Since he goes out to PT if any one team is out there, the only way to do that is to cancel PT for everyone."

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "Since he has canceled PT, you should find your bed now. Professor Flitwick, would you escort Miss Sun Tzu to Ravenclaw, please?"

The Professor and the student left after saying good night, and Professor Dumbledore was left alone with Professor McGonagall. They sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking about what May-ling had told them about Pyromancers.

A Pyromancer could take the magic in their body, and turn it into a controlled flame, which would last as long as their magic did. It wasn't good for much, except pushing raw power into something, or burning things. It was controlled by the wizard or witch's will, and it would only last as long as they concentrated on it.

What it was good for, was being used in places you didn't want to use regular magic, as it ignored wards, and couldn't be detected by normal magic.

Professor McGonagall looked at the Headmaster. "What was that thing? Harry said you called it a construct, but I've never heard of it before."

"I have spent more than forty years trying to suppress that information. Constructs were a creation of Grimwald."

Minerva looked at him. Everyone knew about Albus Dumbledore's defeat of the Dark Wizard Grimwald. "So, you've been suppressing this spell ever since?"

"Yes. It is far too dangerous. Last night, had it not been for the swift actions of the Manticores, and the Pyromancy of Miss Potter, that thing would have taken most of the bottom floor of the castle apart before Harry and I could stop it."

Professor Dumbledore looked at the wall, and levitated a book to his desk. He found the section he wanted, and passed it to the Gryffindor Househead. She read the section, skipping back to reread a couple of parts, and looked up at Professor Dumbledore when she had finished. "That is an ugly spell."

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "It is that. The person casting it creates the frame of the monster, and binds it with magic. After that, they pour hatred, envy, jealousy or any dark emotion into it with that spell, and release it. It will target the person or people the emotion is directed at, and continue until it destroys its target or it is destroyed."

"The fact that I find most disturbing," Professor Dumbledore said quietly, "is that somebody has saved that spell for more than forty years, and that they taught it to their child, or children."

"Do we know who the missing two students are yet?"

"Not yet. I am still waiting for the Slytherin and Hufflepuff reports."

Just then, someone spoke the password for the gargoyle. The two Professors waited, and Professor Snape walked in. He sat down and looked at Professor Dumbledore. "Two of my students are gone. Reginald Crabbe and Lasinda Martique."

The three professors looked at each other. "Are those the only students missing?"

"From my house anyway. I think Professor Sprout is looking for a student."

Professor Dumbledore frowned. "Only two students let the grounds. If there is a third student missing, we need to find that student." He left unspoken what might have happened to that student.

He looked toward the door as somebody spoke the password again, and a few seconds later, in walked James and Tiffany. "Hello, Sir," said James tiredly, "I assumed you would want to talk to us, so I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Professor Dumbledore looked at Tiffany who was sagging in James's arms, and motioned them to chairs.

Professor McGonagall frowned as James escorted Tiffany to a chair, and sat down, cradling Tiffany in his arms. Tiffany curled up, and was only half-awake as James looked up to find the four adults staring at him. He blushed, and answered the unspoken question. "She will heal faster like this. Since I can feel her pain, I would prefer she heals sooner rather than later."

He looked down at Tiffany, and his eyes were soft, warm with love and concern. That look made the Professors blink when he looked back up. The look he directed at the Headmaster was neither loving nor concerned. "Do you know who is responsible for that thing?"

Professor Dumbledore considered the boy before him, contrasting the careful, gentle touch he was using on Tiffany with the fiery anger burning in his eyes. "You will allow me to deal with this, Mr. Evans. I understand that that thing hurt Miss Potter, but it also hurt twenty-six other students, and I have the first claim."

James looked at the Headmaster, and nodded slowly. "True. I will allow you to handle the matter. If you wish to make use of Jerrick and his father in this, Sir, you know where to find him."

James looked down again as Tiffany stirred. He spent a minute soothing her as she turned, and her ribs protested.

Albus Dumbledore turned to Professor Snape. "Are you sure those students are gone, and not simply in some secluded area of the Castle? Are any of their things gone?"

Professor Snape looked up. "I didn't think to check if any of the missing student's belongings were gone. I will do so now." He got up to leave, but James stopped him. "Pardon me, Sir, but I have a faster way."

James spoke into the ring. "Hydra one, come in." He waited a minute, and then spoke again. "I'm with Hogwarts one and Slytherin one. We need to know if any of the things belonging to the missing students are gone."

James looked at Professor Snape. "Which of the Prefects do you want Sonya to have check their rooms?"

"Prefect Goyle."

James nodded and relayed that. When he was finished, he looked at the Headmaster. "Sir, what was that fire Tiffany threw?" Tiffany turned her head, and regarded the Headmaster out of one sleepy eye as they waited for his response.

Professor Dumbledore told them what he knew of Pyromancy. James smiled at Tiffany. "My Lady, the human torch." He looked back at the Professor. "Where do we find a trainer?"

Professor Dumbledore smiled faintly. "In the grave. There has not been a Pyromancer for nearly two thousand years."

Before they could say anything else, Sonya, also known as Hydra one called James. "Lasinda has some things missing, but all of Reginald's things are here. Did they have something to do with that thing?"

"Hydra one, we don't know yet. I'll let you know in the morning. Thank you for your assistance." James reported what she had told him, and went back to thinking about Pyromancy.

James thought about what the Headmaster had said, and looked down at Tiffany. "You would have to have a talent we don't know how to train, wouldn't you?"

Tiffany looked at her Soulbonded sleepily. "I won't want you to get bored."

James smiled at her. "I could never be bored with you."

He looked back at the Headmaster. "I don't suppose there is any way to keep this talent a secret?"

Professor Snape snorted. "You were a little occupied, and might have missed it, but allow me to describe the scene when I entered the Hall. That thing was laying on you, your Manticores were casting an amazing range and number of spells at the beast, and there was a woman wreathed in green fire standing about two meters off the floor, pouring green fire into the monster, a fire I could feel the heat of at the door."

James looked up. "Off the floor?"

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "She was walking on the fire, it appeared."

James groaned, and put his head down. He rubbed his forehead with one hand as he thought about it. "Too many students that are not in Manticore saw it to ignore it, I suppose." He looked up. "While we're on the subject of talents, Melissa tells me that Emma has come to her privately about her wand not being reliable. Is it still too early to give her that book?"

"How many times has it been unreliable?" asked Professor Dumbledore, looking at James intently.

"Three or four times so far. It was a month between the first two times, now it's down to once a week."

Professor Dumbledore thought about it. "The first time it happens twice in one week, have Melissa give her the book."

James looked at Professor Dumbledore curiously. "Why are you being so careful with Emma's talent?"

Professor Dumbledore looked at James for a long time, and then spoke softly. "When Miss Weasley comes into her talent, she will, for all intents and purposes, stop going to classes with you. Some few classes, such as Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology will still be useful to her. The rest of the classes teach normal witches and wizards to channel power through their wands, to cast a spell. Since Miss Weasley will not do that, she'll be attending a different set of classes."

James looked at the Headmaster, startled. "Where did you find a teacher for Warlocks?"

"I did not. There have not been enough of them to have teachers. Miss Weasley will be taking classes with myself, while you and the other members of Chimera are in Charms and Transfigurations."

James watched the bland expression of the Headmaster while he thought. James put the Professor's kid glove treatment of Emma's talent, the private lessons and a couple of things Emily had turned up in researching the Warlocks for him together, and rubbed his eyes again. "How dangerous is she going to be until she learns to control it?"

Professor Dumbledore sighed. "A warlock, as you know, does not need a focusing tool to cast a spell. They do it with a gesture, and a word. Until Miss Weasley learns to control her new talent, she could accidentally cast magic any time she speaks and moves her hands at the same time, especially if she feels strongly about whatever she is talking about.

James stared at the Professor while his sleep-fogged mind absorbed what Professor Dumbledore had just said. He considered the rash, emotional, young bundle of nerves that he called Emma, and buried his head in Tiffany's hair. "Emma talks a great deal, Professor, and she becomes emotional quite easily."

Professor Dumbledore smiled at James. "Yes, I have noticed that. The next few months should be quite interesting."

Professor McGonagall wasn't quite smiling, but the hint of laughter in her eyes gave her away. "I think you're beginning to understand how I feel, when your people come to my attention."

James looked at her, and then at the other Professors. He turned back to Professor McGonagall and spoke softly. "I know that we can troublesome at times, Professor, and that you have exercised amazing amounts of patience with us. I have noticed that, and I have been remiss in not telling of my," he stopped, and looked down at Tiffany, "excuse me, our admiration for you."

Professor McGonagall was about to say something when somebody else spoke the password and rushed up the stairs. Professor Sprout came in the room, and spoke directly to Professor Snape. "Are you still missing two students?" When Professor Snape nodded, the Professor turned to Professor Dumbledore. "Headmaster, I have to inform you that there are four missing students right now. Two of my seventh year students, Ernie Wordsmith and Diana Bray are missing."

James's head came up, and a second later, so did Tiffany's. "Diana Bray didn't do this. I would know if she did." Diana Bray was a Phoenix Mediwitch, assigned to the Pegasus team. "Pegasus one, this is Chimera one, respond please."

"Roger. Was your Mediwitch with you tonight?" he said after a minute. He listened to the response.

James stiffened. "Pegasus one, the next time you can't find someone attached to your unit I want to know right then, not the next day. Chimera one, out."

Tiffany was wide awake now, and pulling the Marauder's Map out. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Tiffany got up, and James stood. James crossed to the headmaster's desk, laid the map down, and began going through it. Professor Snape was looking at the Map. "If you only knew how many times I had that map. I should have guessed it would be a verbal thing. James Potter always was good at that sort of thing."

Tiffany looked at him. "It has history, though, Professor, and right now, it's fairly important. If you had destroyed it, we wouldn't have it now."

James pointed. "Here, Diana and someone else." He stopped, looking closer, and frowned. "I will be damned. Diana Bray and Reginald Crabbe are in a broom closet together."

Professor Snape looked up. "Reginald Crabbe is in a closet with a Manticore? I don't believe it."

Professor Dumbledore agreed. "Given the events of last month, I find that hard to believe." (To find out why that's so hard to believe, read Quick Exit. Raven)

James frowned, and spoke to his ring again. "Pegasus medic, respond."

A minute later, he tried again. He looked at Tiffany, and turned to Professor Dumbledore. "Sir would you watch this for a minute, please?" he asked, indicating the Map. Professor Dumbledore agreed, and James and Tiffany pulled the Cheshire grin Port-keys out.

After they had gone, the adults looked at the Map. The closet where the two were was almost directly under the Main Hall, and Professor McGonagall was the first to voice her suspicions. "If one of those Manticores saw something strange going on, they would investigate, wouldn't they?"

They watched as the dots marked with James and Tiffany's names appeared, ran down a corridor and cut across the castle, using a tunnel, coming up a few hundred feet from the closet. The two dots went to the closet, and Professor Dumbledore tapped the Map, to enlarge that area, as the area was fuzzy with so many people there.

Before they could do anything else, Professor Dumbledore heard a call from the ring he wore. "Phoenix, I need the Medic on call."

Professor Dumbledore had been given a ring, like the other Manticores, but he'd never paid much attention to the occasional Phoenix team calls on it, as they were generally for training purposes. He looked at it again, remembering what James had called him. "Chimera one, this is Hogwarts one."

"Hogwarts one, this is Chimera two. Chimera one is busy. Diana and Reginald are unconscious, and James is checking on them. Medic is enroute, and we'll have them in the Infirmary as soon as the Medic says we can move them."

Professor McGonagall was looking at the ring as he relayed what he'd been told. "That is a useful item."

"Yes, it is," said Professor Dumbledore, "but do you really want to join Manticore?"

"Given the way their Potions lab must be stocked," said Professor Snape dryly, "I wouldn't mind being able to look around in there. Plus, it would be nice to be on the winning side openly for once." Since Professor Snape had spent almost all of the Voldemort war as Professor Dumbledore's spy, hiding his affiliation with the Order of the Phoenix, the other Professors could understand that.

They turned their attention back to the Map, as the dot marked Joy Grethen joined the other four dots, and then four of them disappeared. Professor Dumbledore moved the view to the Infirmary, where the four dots representing James, Tiffany, Diana and Reginald had appeared.

"Professor McGonagall, James once said those Multi-Portkeys of theirs had six destinations. I know one is the hallway outside Manticore Hall, one is the main door to the Castle and one appears to be the Infirmary. I would like to know where the other three destinations are, if you don't mind."

Professor McGonagall looked at him. "Why is the destination the hallway outside the door? Why not simply Port inside the Hall?"

"This is James, the Noid. Not even his Portkeys will work in the Hall."

"Hogwarts one, this is Chimera one. Diana and Reginald were stunned, and Madame Potter says we can question them in the morning. If you say Mischief Managed, the map will clear, and I will get it back tomorrow. Right now, Tiffany needs to go to bed, unless you need us for something else?"

"No, everything can wait until we talk to the two students, and find out what happened."

"Roger that. Chimera one, out."

They watched as the two dots marked James Evans and Tiffany Potter disappeared. Professor Dumbledore moved the Map to show Gryffindor tower. The dots were close together, and in the common room. A few seconds later, the dots separated and moved toward the boy's stairs and the girl's stairs.

"I should have known. I would still like to know what the other two destinations are, Minerva," said the Headmaster, as he put the Map away.

"I'll ask, but I think," Professor McGonagall said, "that one of them is the Quidditch Pitch, and the other is somewhere around Hagrid's cabin."

The talk turned to the two students still missing, Ernie Wordsmith and Lasinda Martique.

Professor Snape didn't have much to say about Lasinda. "She has been here seven years, and I may have spoken to her outside of classes a dozen times. She's quiet and very private. The only problem I've ever heard of anyone having from her was in her first year. A couple of the Cliques tried to pressure her, and she did something that made them back off, and spread the word to leave her alone." He shrugged. "As far as I know, that's still how matters stand. No one in the house bothers her, and she doesn't bother anyone. She did well on the OWLs, and that's all I know."

Professor Sprout had more to say about Ernie. "He's been distracted lately, even irritable. I spoke to him about it, but he claimed it was stress, which is easy to believe, as he is taking the NEWTs this year. I gave him some advice, and was going to bring it to your attention if the situation had not changed after the Holiday."

Professor Sprout looked up as he thought. "He's always been a quiet boy, a follower of others rather than a leader, and well liked. He did acceptable on the OWLs, but was nothing special in that regard. He was a normal student in all ways."

Albus Dumbledore frowned as he considered the information he had been given. "On the surface, this does not sound that bad, a quiet young woman and a nice boy. On the other hand, the boy you say is a follower is displaying unusual behaviors, and there is that construct tonight."

They talked about it a few minutes longer, but they decided they did not have enough information, and tabled the discussion until they spoke to the two that had been stunned.

Very few people made it to breakfast the next morning, and James had to wait until almost noon to get most of the Manticores together in the Hall. He shut the doors, and looked around. "Diana is fine, and Professor Dumbledore is talking to her now. I want to talk about the Zulu."

James had each of the team leaders report on their team's actions, and then they conducted an after action review, just as they did during training. At the end, when James asked for questions, Ron Stone stood up.

"I don't have a question about our actions but about the other students that were there, fighting with us. Should we consider them for Manticore?"

James looked up, surprised. "Other students?"

Ron nodded. "One of them was a fourth year Slytherin, standing over Mercy while she was working on a girl, and the other two were a Ravenclaw named Desiree Drannig, and a Hufflepuff girl she hangs out with, but I don't know her name."

James looked at Sonya. "Do you know the boy he's talking about?" James described the boy he'd talked to in the Infirmary.

Sonya nodded. "His name is Geoff Goyle; he's the younger brother of Prefect Goyle."

James looked at Zachary Moore, the team leader for Hufflepuff's Unicorn team. "What's the name of the girl, do you know?"

The sixth year boy frowned, and made a call on his ring. A few minutes later, he looked up at James. "Her name is Mary Linden."

James nodded. "Right. Those of you in their houses know what to do. Give them the once over, and get them up here to talk to Rose and Melissa."

He stood up, and collected his notes. "That's all I have. You all did good work last night," James looked pointedly at the Pegasus team leader, Conor McCloud, "with one exception, which has already been discussed, and I think we will not have that problem again."

James looked out over the crowd. "I do have one more thing to say. You all did well last night, and I am proud of every one of you. You responded to the Zulu, and fought well. Congratulations, Manticores."

Debra Valentine stood up. "We had good trainers, and better leaders," she looked around then, and continued in an impish tone, "even if one of them is a real hothead."

James and Tiffany grinned at her. "Which one of us are you referring to?" James asked her, "Tiffany, the green fire thrower or James the berserk?"

Laughter came from the crowd, as she answered him. "When you put it that way…"

The group was in good spirits as they made their way to lunch. James was talking to Conor about his Medic, telling him her condition when his ring sounded. "Chimera one, this is Hogwarts one."

"Hogwarts one, Chimera one, go ahead." James answered the call, even as he looked at Tiffany. "Maybe making his ring a commo unit was a mistake."

"I have finished talking to Miss Bray and Mr. Crabbe, and I would like to see you, Miss Potter and Mr. Clearwater around three, in my office, if you don't mind."

"Not at all, Hogwarts one." James replied. Tiffany called Jerrick and relayed the message as James finished talking to the Professor.

They ran into Mercy and Melissa who had missed the meeting, since they had still been in the Infirmary looking after the last of the students hurt in the attack, and Mercy looked at James after they said hello. "Did you do something to Geoff Goyle? He was very polite to me this morning, and said some things that make me think you had a talk with him."

James smiled at Mercy. "I did talk to him, but his attitude change was your doing. He was impressed with your actions from last night."

Mercy shrugged. "I didn't do anything, except help people. That is what I do."

James looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Mercy, I have heard from at least four different people this morning, that all say you came within a meter of that thing last night, trying to help a Slytherin girl that caused you a great deal of bother, while you were in Slytherin. That is a bit above 'helping people' as you put it."

Mercy shook her head. "No, it's not. She needed the help then, and I could do it. No one else was close enough, and none of the Manticores were hurt at that point, so I helped her."

James smiled at her, and hugged her. "And people call me crazy."

Prefect Goyle was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and stopped the group. He took a deep breath, and spoke. "I am given to understand that I owe the lives of my brother and his fiancée to your group, and particularly Miss Riddle." He sighed. "As much as it hurts me to say it, I am in your debt. When you have need, you may call on me."

Mercy stepped up before him. "I will call that marker now. I want you to help your brother. He's going to be doing some things that some of the other Slytherins are not going to like, and he will need all the support he can get."

Prefect Goyle looked at her. "That's it? Help my brother?"

Rose was looking down the Paths in her head. "That does not sound like much, but it will be a heavy burden on you, so when you need help, remember who helped you without reservation."

Prefect Goyle looked at her, and his eyes narrowed. "You sound very sure of that prediction. Could it be that not all of the talents of your group have made the papers?"

"Obviously not, after all, Tiffany's green fire was unknown." Rose said calmly.

Prefect Goyle smirked. "Was being the key word there. I take it you have not seen the morning paper yet." He handed them a copy of the Daily Prophet, and walked away.

James sighed, as he opened the paper. "Rose, can we afford to buy the Daily Prophet?"

Dark Magic Attacks Hogwarts

Latest generation of Potters rises to the Defense of Hogwarts.

Late last night there was an assault on Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, resulting in multiple injuries and severe damage to the Great Hall. Eyewitnesses claim that the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore and Professor Harry Potter were joined by Mr. Potter's daughter, Tiffany Potter. While the nature of the attacker is under dispute, all of the reports agree that Miss Potter was seen throwing green fire at the attacker, while standing three meters off the floor.

James stopped reading. "Eyewitnesses? How many people saw what happened last night anyway?"

Melissa shrugged. "There were still thirty or forty students in the Hall that were not Manticores when that thing attacked, and most of them were hiding in the Hall during the battle. I would say that at least twenty-five or thirty students saw Tiffany pull her Fire Goddess act."

James blinked. "Fire Goddess?"

Melissa grinned at the blushing Tiffany. "Yes, there are some strange tales going around this morning about Tiffany being the daughter of Pele, Goddess of fire."

James grinned at Tiffany who was rolling her eyes and blushing. "It's nice to know I was right. I mean, I've always thought she was a goddess."

Only their entry into the Main Hall just then prevented Tiffany's retribution. In the Hall, a wave of talk swept over the crowd as the people in the hall saw who had come in. The group ignored it, and headed to their respective tables.

James, Tiffany and Rose headed for their normal seats, and sat down. Somebody sat down across from them, and they looked up to see Joseph Sterling, the seventh year Prefect for Gryffindor regarding them calmly as he started to eat. He took a bite and then looked at James. "I seem to recall, that after your fight with Mr. Crabbe, you told us that you had nothing to hide. I don't seem to recall being told about green fire, or you carrying a sword around the school."

James shrugged as he thought quickly. "We didn't know about Tiffany's fire until last night, and I do not carry a sword."

The Prefect sighed. "I don't know where you got it from, but I saw you swinging a large sword at that thing last night, just before Miss Potter pulled her fire act."

James sighed. "All I can say is that it is a Shaman thing. I cannot say more to anyone that is not a student of Shamanism."

The Prefect nodded. "Then you did create it out of nothing. Somebody claimed that, but there were conflicting reports."

James made a noncommittal motion with his hands. "I assume that you have some thing specific to talk about."

"Rumours actually." The Prefect looked around, and lowered his voice. "The new Prefects have been told about your Project, after Rose and Melissa cleared them, but after last night, a lot of other students are starting to put things together. I thought you might want to know that almost everyone has a theory about Manticore today, and a few of them are close to the truth."

James frowned. "Are any of the ones close to the truth dangerous?"

The Prefect looked at James. "Dangerous to whom, and what would you do about it?"

James grinned mirthlessly. "You know to what, and as for what I would do, that would depend on the person, and how dangerous they are to our Project."

"The Prefects will keep Rose and Melissa informed, as we have been doing all this time. I am certain that they will inform you of anything that requires your attention. So far, they have dealt with everything that has come up, without your extreme measures."

James thought about that, and nodded. "Fair enough, I trust them."

James called the team leaders on the ring, and told them to be listening to the talk in their houses. He was distracted for the rest of the meal, as he thought about how to control the rumours.

When the three students Professor Dumbledore had requested got to the gargoyle, they found Diana and Reginald waiting there. Diana looked at James. "We were told to be here at three."

James shrugged, and whispered the password to the gargoyle. The students went up the stairs behind the gargoyle, and knocked on the door at the top. When the Headmaster told them to enter, they trooped inside.

In Professor Dumbledore's office, they found Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall waiting. After the students greeted the Professors, they found seats and looked at Professor Dumbledore. "Miss Bray, Mr. Crabbe, would you tell your stories again, please?"

Diana looked at Jerrick, knowing that he would be the one to ask the most questions. "I had been walking with a boy, when I saw a pair of students sneaking down one of the corridors, and I followed them." She indicated Reginald. "It was him and I girl I didn't know. They joined another boy from Hufflepuff, and the girl led them to a small room. The boy from Hufflepuff left out a door on the other side of the room, and I attempted to watch them, but somebody came up behind me and stunned me."

Reginald took up the story. "Lasinda had some kind of spell going that warned her that somebody was watching. She sent Ernie out to circle around and stun whoever it was."

Reginald looked at James. "I don't like you, and had Lasinda been telling the truth last night, about the thing being harmless, I would have helped her cast it. The instant she told me that it required blood from each of us, I knew it was dark magic and refused to help her. She told Ernie to take care of me, and when I turned to see what he was doing, she stunned me. That is all I know about the whole thing."

James looked at Diana, but remembered the presence of Reginald before he could say anything. He looked at Reginald. "I don't like you either. However, I have to applaud your honesty and integrity. I wish you had shown it earlier."

Jerrick asked them both a couple of questions, and when he was done, Professor Dumbledore sent them both on their way. James still got the last word, when he told Diana to go see Rose and Adam in the hall.

He took a second to talk to Adam, asking him to explain why following people without telling anyone where you were going was a bad idea, and telling him to give her a class in using her ring for communication.

He looked at Jerrick, who was looking at his notes. "What do you think, Jerrick?"

Jerrick looked up, looking at James and the Professor, and finally settling on looking at a point halfway between them. "I don't have much on Lasinda, she's been a model student until last night. The only thing that was abnormal about her was in her first year. I talked to Michael Grey, who was in Slytherin when she arrived. When the cliques tried to pressure her into joining one of them, she cast some sort of spell that caused everyone in the clique that bothered her to have nightmares. After three days of no sleep because the nightmares were so real, they promised to leave her alone and make sure the other cliques left her alone also."

Jerrick checked his notes. "After that, she was a model student. No detentions, very few points lost, and her potions earned her house quite a few points over the years. I'm still going through her library check out record, but in the last two years, she has checked several books out of the restricted section, including one she still has, unless it's in her room with the stuff she left behind."

Professor Dumbledore asked, "what book would that be?"

Jerrick consulted his notes again. "'The Use of Emotions in Spells' is the title of it."

Professor Dumbledore frowned. "How did she get permission to check out that book? Even for a book from the restricted section, that book is carefully watched."

Jerrick looked at the Headmaster. "According to Professor Flitwick, who gave her the permission to check it out, she was studying spontaneous casting. He said that she had some kind of theory about why a person could cast wandless magic under times of stress that would normally take a wand."

James looked at the Professor. "Why is that book so dangerous, Professor?"

Professor Dumbledore sighed. "It has a chapter discussing how Dark Wizards use pain, fear and other types of suffering to power some types of magic. While it does not detail how they do it, it describes enough that any good student could figure it out."

James frowned and looked at Jerrick. "See if your father can get us a copy of that book quietly. We might need to know what she can do." He looked at the Professor. "I had Rose follow the construct back to Lasinda in the Paths this morning. She has slid into darkness, and her path will cross ours again. Sometimes it's before the war, sometimes it's in the war, depending on the path she takes from here."

Professor Dumbledore sighed again. "Where did we fail her?"

Tiffany looked at him. "Professor, from the sound of her actions first year, she was already on the path of darkness when she arrived. I think a closer look at her family might be a good idea at this point though."

Professor Dumbledore disagreed with Tiffany. "We had her for nearly seven years. We should have been able to help her in that time. Very few people travel so far down the path of darkness that they cannot be saved."

Jerrick turned his attention to Ernie Wordsmith. "Ernie is another story altogether. Until Halloween, he was a typical student. He didn't have any real enemies, or real good friends he was simply there. Pardon my stereotyping, but he was a Hufflepuff."

Jerrick looked at his notes. "Right around Halloween, he started to get moody and irritable. According to his housemates, he would get angry for little or no visible reason, and then come back later and apologize, saying it was the stress of the NEWTs. That being a completely logical excuse, most people thought nothing of it."

"As Professor Sprout has already said, everyone assumed he'd be fine once the Holidays were over, and they simply waited for him to calm down."

Professor Dumbledore sighed again, and this time there was a heavy sense of sadness in his voice as he spoke again. "I will be announcing at dinner that the Aurors found Mr. Wordsmith this morning. He was dead."

The three students stared at him in shock. Tiffany covered her mouth with one hand and reached for James's hand with the other.

Professor Dumbledore looked down at his desk. "There is one thing that we will be keeping secret, as it appears he was used in some sort of ritual, as a sacrifice."

Professor Dumbledore was staring at Ernie's school file. Nothing in it led one to believe that just three days before his seventeenth birthday, he would die a lonely death, sacrificed to another's thirst for power.

"The ritual he was killed in is one described in the book Miss Martique had checked out of the Library. I was wondering where she learned of that ritual, as I did not know she had checked that book out of the Library. The ritual creates a shell around the caster that prevents magical detection. The Aurors will not be able to find her with magic, no matter how much of it she uses."

James looked at Jerrick. "Get Jose and Asp working on this today. Finding her is a top priority until I say otherwise. I assume that your father and the Aurors will already be working on it, so they can take care of that end, but get those two on it, and warn them that she has already killed once."

James looked at Professor Dumbledore. "Sir, would you say that from the evidence we have right now, it would be safe to say that Miss Martique would use the Unforgivable Curses?"

Professor Dumbledore agreed with that statement, wondering where James was going with this.

"Then when you talk to Ernie's parents, Sir, I would say that it appears that Miss Martique used the Imperius Curse on Ernie, and she killed him when it looked like he was going to throw it off. You can offer proof in the form of his erratic behavior."

"We do not know if that is the case, Mr. Evans," said the Headmaster.

James looked at him seriously. "We do not know that it is not the case, either. If Miss Lasinda Martique takes offense to our telling people she did do that, she can come forth, and prove me wrong. Telling his parents that would ease their mind some, as well as making Ernie look better to the public. He's dead, and has paid the ultimate price for whatever he had done. Let him rest in peace, and don't make his family's last memory of him be that he was a Dark Wizard."

Professor Dumbledore looked at James for a long minute, reminding himself not to underestimate this young man. It was far too easy to remember only the violence and coldly pragmatic side of James, and ignore the compassion he hid so well.

The four of them discussed the events of the night before for a few more minutes, and then the students left.

The next few days tested James's patience severely. Between the use of Dark Wizardry at the Ball, Tiffany's Pyromancy and the death of Ernie Wordsmith, the reporters were sending more owls to the students than their families were. Since the some of the sleazy reporters were offering money for eyewitness accounts, a good many people that were in the Hall sent them stories of what happened. Some of the less scrupulous students who had not been in the Hall merely listened to the stories going around the school, and sent the reporters their own versions of what had happened.

By the day the students were ready to leave on holiday, there were impossible stories circulating everywhere. James's favorite was the one that had Tiffany burning to ashes, and rising out of them with vengeance in her eyes and wings of fire, like a Phoenix.

The first Manticores that headed for Hogsmeade to visit with their families reported a problem. More than a dozen reporters from Wizard papers around the world had gathered, and were trying to talk to everybody that came off the grounds.

James just smiled, and told them that Professor Dumbledore had anticipated this problem. He passed out Portkeys to all the Manticores, which would take them directly to Cumulus's office in Hogsmeade. Chimera disappeared for over an hour, and when they came back, they warned everyone about trying to walk to Hogsmeade.

The reason became apparent just before lunch, as a freezing rain with large hail moved in, and settled right over the area where the reporters were. Several Manticores watched the reporters, waiting for them to run for cover, but most of them stayed where they were, raising umbrellas or using other means to try to stay dry.

Mercy watched them for a minute, and then asked, "why aren't they leaving?"

James turned innocent eyes on her. "Possibly, it's because some evil, evil person sent them an Owl, telling them that the rain was sent there to drive them away while Tiffany, her parents and I attempt to leave."

Mercy looked at him severely. "James, they'll freeze if they stay there waiting for that."

James sighed. "I wish, but the cloud we found for that storm will be gone within the hour."

James looked at the reporters one more time, and stepped away from the window. "Since I don't want to lie to them, I have to be going. Tiffany and her parents are joining Rose, me and our parents for lunch, and that means we have to leave."

With almost everyone gone that was not in Manticore, and most of the Manticores spending the days with their families in Hogsmeade, the third annual Manticore snow war was held in Hogsmeade, with the teams fighting a running battle across the hillside near the Shrieking Shack. The linked teams would have had easy victories over the unlinked younger Manticores and Phoenix, except that James and Chimera set out to help the unlinked Manticores.

James and Chimera talked to the unlinked teams and Phoenix for a few minutes, and the results were quite amusing to the family members and townspeople watching.

Watching the people behind Mercy's hastily built snow fort rolling a snowball and then casting a spell on it was fun, but the results when the snowball hit a target were far more amusing.

When one of the magical snowballs hit a target, all the snow in a five-foot circle would be attracted to the snow already on the person, and fly off the ground and cover them.

The linked teams soon got over the shock of having the snow on the ground attack them, and started bombing the camp, the way James and Tiffany had done the teams the year before.

Since a snow fort by nature cannot move, the battle was fairly even, until a third group attacked from the flank, caving a wall of the fort in, and peppering the defenders with snowballs.

Hangeld wiped snow out of his eyes and looked at his attacker in surprise. Wolfpack, on skis and broomsticks, had come from the back of the Shrieking Shack to launch their attack, and that changed the fight entirely. All of Manticore closed ranks to defend their own.

The battle that raged after that ended only with nightfall. Manticore had far more people, but Wolfpack had decades of experience in warfare and fighting. Moreover, when Manticore managed to get some of their people around the back of the Shrieking Shack, they found that Wolfpack had hidden reserves busily building their own snow fort. Several Weasleys, both of Tiffany's parents, and more than a dozen other parents had sided with Wolfpack.

Manticore finally carried the day, mostly from sheer youthful exuberance and energy. Few of the adults had been doing the constant training and PT of Manticore, and all of them were years older.

As the sun was going down, James and Adam sent the teams forward in a mass rush, attacking from the west so that the setting sun was squarely in the defender's eyes, while having two teams aloft, dropping snow on the defenders.

The sheer numbers, added to the slowed reactions of the tired adults, allowed the teams to breech the fort, much as Wolfpack had done earlier. Wolfpack, being in better shape, was willing to keep fighting, mostly because they thought a bit of night fighting practice would do Manticore good, but the rest of the adults decided that dinner and something hot to drink sounded far more interesting.

With the loss of half of their forces, and their defensive position ruined, Wolfpack conceded the field, while swearing to return for vengeance next year.

The night after the snowball war, Chimera bundled up warmly, and kept Rose company as she went to the forest to talk to the Centaurs.

They were in the same clearing they had been in the first time, although there were six of them now.

Rose and Melissa moved forward to greet Rune, the Centaur that had been teaching Melissa how to heal the non-humans, while James set up a couple of folding camp chairs. He looked at the Centaurs. "I apologize for not having seats for y'all, but Hogwarts is lacking in non human comforts."

One of the Centaurs looked at James. "We do not sit as you know it, but the courtesy is appreciated."

James shrugged. "Courtesy is a small thing, between people that may have to depend on each other."

"The stars tell us that a time of great turmoil approaches," said the Centaur, "But great will be the need, before we get involved."

Rose was talking quietly to the Centaur that had spoken to them last year, an older male named Mace. "You asked me to come to you this night. Is it still your wish for me to look down the paths of what could be?"

"It is, Seer," he said quietly, "for the stars are unclear. A cusp approaches, and the stars tell us that things may go several ways depending on the actions of many people and races. Before we decide what to do, we would have more knowledge."

Rose nodded and slipped into the paths of the Centaurs in the clearing with them.

James, Hangeld and Adam were keeping an eye out, watching the forest as the girls talked quietly with the Centaurs. Rune was discussing the Healer's gift with Melissa, and one of the Centaurs was asking Tiffany about the Pyromancy.

James looked into the clearing, and watched the two races intermingle. "Tell me," he asked the Centaur standing nearby, "how did our races grow apart? The histories tell me that at one time, humans and the fey folk were friendly. What happened to that unity?"

The Centaur looked at James. "Many things happened. Some of it through pride, some through arrogance, but mostly, it was different viewpoints about the world. Most of the Peoples that humans call the Fey, Centaurs, Dryads, Nymphs and the like move through the world without disturbing it. Humans tend to look at the world, and wonder how they can change it to better suit themselves."

"Not all the human folk are like that," said a new voice, "some few of us would live in harmony with Mother Earth."

James and the other Chimeras had spun at the sound of another human voice, although the Centaurs did not seem surprised.

Thendal, the Centaur that was talking to James looked out at the edge of the clearing. "So you have said, but the majority of your folk do not."

James had his wand out, as did Adam and Emma, but the man who stood at the edge of the clearing was not making any movement.

He was a shorter man, stocky and had the tan of a man who spent most of his hours outdoors. He was dressed in leather clothes and looking at James. "So you are Rolling Thunder's apprentice. I am Terrence. Rolling Thunder has asked me to train you in the Shaman ways while you are here." He smiled wryly. "I was chosen for two reasons. First, Rolling Thunder trusts me, and second, I am one of the few Shamans on this side of the ocean that doesn't think you should not be trained any more."

James looked at him. "Why wouldn't I be trained? I have not broken any of the rules."

Terrence moved up closer to the group of Chimeras. "But whatever we teach you, your Soulbonded also learns, and many of the more conservative think that she knows too much of our ways already."

Rose had stopped looking at the Centaurs paths when Terrence had made his presence known, and now she looked at James. "He is not a threat to us, Brother Mine, so I'm going to let you deal with him, while I deal with the Centaurs."

"Why do I have the feeling that your task will be easier, Sister Mine?"

Rose grinned, and turned her attention back to the Centaurs.

James offered Terrence a seat, and was refused. "No discourtesy meant, but I do not like chairs." Terrence slipped a leather bag off his shoulders, and pulled a leather pad from it. He laid the pad down, and sat on it. "So, tell me what you have done with your training."

Adam and the other moved away, giving them privacy, and Terrence looked up. "Miss Potter, since you will be learning these things as well, I would rather teach you directly. Please join us."

Tiffany came back, and sat next to James. James was looking at Terrence. "Would you be the new presence in the forest that Nightrunner has told me about?"

Terrence smiled. "I am, and with your permission and Nightrunner's, I would like to meet your friend. It has been many years since a wolf was in this part of the world."

James reached for the now familiar touch of Nightrunner, and slipped into his thoughts. He came back a few minutes later, and looked at Terrence. "Nightrunner doesn't mind."

James and Tiffany were questioned thoroughly about what they were doing with the Shaman skills, and how they were training on their own.

Emma looked around, watching Rose deep in conversation with the Centaur, James and Tiffany talking to Terrence, and Melissa talking to Rune. "I absolutely hate standing around."

Hangeld smiled at her. "It could be worse, you know. We could be standing around in a winter rain."

Lisa and Adam were still keeping watch and one of the Centaurs came over to them with two mugs that steamed in the chill night air. "We thought you might like something warm while you wait for the Seer to finish speaking to the Elder."

Adam and Lisa gratefully accepted, and sipped the warm tea. The Centaur waited, and they made small talk while they finished the tea. Across the clearing, they could see Hangeld and Emma doing the same thing with another Centaur.

A couple of hours later, Terrence got up and put his pad away. "I have an idea of where you two are at in your training now. I will see you again, soon." He slipped into the forest, and was quickly lost to sight.

James and Tiffany sat for a few minutes longer, in silent talk, and then rose to join the others. The other Chimeras had already learned that asking James about the Shaman magic was an exercise in futility, so there were no questions about that. Emma did ask if James trusted Terrence, and James shrugged. "Rolling Thunder gave him a scroll to give to me, and writes that he trusts him. If Rolling Thunder is willing to hold his honor, I am going to trust him."

Rose spoke with the Centaur Elder for another hour or so, and when they were done, all the two of them would say was that the Elder was unwilling to commit his people to anything with the information that Rose had been able to give him, and that Rose would be returning the following year.

Christmas morning, James gathered the Manticores in the Hall again, as he had the previous year. This year, the Manticores received a nice watch, which was almost unaltered by Chimera. The only thing they did to them was make it so that all of them told exactly the same time, for synchronization purposes.

James stood up in front of them after they received their gifts. He looked out at them and spoke quietly. "You all have accepted this mission of ours, and the possible consequences of it. I thank you for it, and so does Tiffany. We know why most of you are going, and we don't have the words to tell you what it means to us."

James looked at Melissa, and as he had arraigned earlier, Melissa opened her Empathy, broadcasting to the Manticores. Love, Respect, Admiration, Pride, all the things that James and Tiffany felt in Manticore, about Manticore flowed over the crowd. Even the fear for, and worry about them was there, but it was muted, a single note in the background.

Melissa held it for just a second, long enough to be sure that everyone felt it, and then stopped. James smiled at the crowd, and then he and Tiffany saluted them all. "Fortunately, we have something better than words. Now, your families await you in Hogsmeade."

After the holidays, the time passed quickly. Manticore was planning their first live mission, and one that was very dangerous at that. It's no wonder that few pranks were played, and few of the Manticores got into trouble.

Richard March was an exception. He had gone to a Dance put on by his girlfriend's school, and while he was there another boy jumped on him. The other boy was drunk, and Richard handled him easily, which should have ended the matter.

The boy had brothers though, and by the time the story got to them, they heard that Richard had beaten him to a pulp, after attacking him from behind.

All four of them confronted Richard. Surrounded by superior numbers and having his girlfriend to protect, Richard overreacted.

A few seconds after they surrounded him, Richard and Cathy were in the midst of three groaning, bloody bodies, and one limp, unmoving figure.

While the one was only unconscious, the fight attracted the attention of the staff, who called the police. Cathy's parents showed up, and that's when all hell broke loose.

Richard had been given a Portkey to get him back to Hogwarts. In full view of four police, a dozen students, two paramedics and three staff members, Richard simply vanished.

Those people didn't matter, as they could be dealt with the way Wizards had always dealt with Muggles that saw something that they shouldn't.

The local TV station, in search of a story for a slow news night, had been broadcasting back to the studio, and got a very good, if slightly off-center picture of Richard looking at his watch, and then disappearing.

They had found a good story for the night.

A/N: OK, I was going to end this chapter with the start of summer, and only have the Giantlands mission in the next chapter, but this one is getting a bit long. Twelve thousand words of long, actually. Therefore, next chapter, we'll find out what the results of this are going to be.

We'll also meet the ministry team, all the people that will be offered Manticore slots this year, and settle a few dangling problems before the mission. Before I go though, I have to say a few things to those of you that review.

First, to those of you that have me on author watch.

Second, to those of you that have added this story to favorites.

Last, but not least, to Taintless, who has added "Immortality" to a C2 community

To all of you, I apologize again for the delay in the last couple of months, and Greeneyes tells me to tell you that she will attempt to keep me in one piece until I finish this.

You have my thanks, both for reading my offering, and for being so kind to it.

Requiem for a Dream: My longest running reviewer, Bless you, and I hope I continue to hear from you. Yes, Rose and Melissa will be a couple, and we will see how it affects them, Manticore, and the rest of the world.

Elfy19: Yes, Tiffany has a names for James, but she's a more private type of girl, and uses it over the Soulbond. Fudge would be out of the Ministry in any normal world, but I despise him, and I have plans for him. Stephanie will be a Manticore, but she's not playing. She has never been allowed to have an opinion of her own, and that may be interesting when she finds out that not everything is as "My father says."

Aeli Kindara: My most prolific reviewer recently, (smile) I am sorry about the long wait there, but my Beta went away for most of the summer, and when she returned, I had both hands in casts. (Can you say rock-climbing accident?) That's all over now, and I can go back to updating as normal for me.

"May thy road be ever smooth, and the wind ever at thy back."

Love,

Raven