So thanks to everyone who reviewed last week! I'm hoping I can get more character development in this chapter for my OCs ahead of any true plot driving events. I know this is the kind of story shift that people get critical of, but when I plotted book six, I took the view that Crystal Tokyo intervened in three of the five Sailor Moon Arcs: in Black Moon to stop an enemy from the future. In Infinity so that Chibiusa could train against real enemies, and in Stars, Chibs sensed that she was needed in the past and went to fight then too (and that time she brought the Asteroid scouts as well). So I saw it as perfectly reasonable that Crystal Tokyo would intervene now to ensure the timeline remained stable. I'm also, so far, enjoying the chance to exercise my interpretations of Crystal Tokyo's kids. I'm hoping they're growing on you too. (Don't worry – there's still room to send all bar Chibiusa home in 7 if you prefer the story without them).
There's a lot going on in this chapter besides. I apologize if the quality has gone down, I haven't been in the best environment for writing the past few weeks. BUT I'm hoping that non-writing things will start improving soon and making writing easier - I had a job interview this week and I'm crossing my fingers I get it.
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Last Time On Sailor Moon H: Hogwarts kicked off with the sorting ceremony as usual… with four highly unexpected first years…
Back To School
Chibiusa sighed, throwing aside the green curtains on her bed and flopping down onto the mattress. She kicked off her shoes and one of the other girls in her dorm stirred as they thudded against the stone floor. Chibiusa was amazed they could hear the shoes fall at all over the Carrow twins' snores. They're worse that Usagi, Chibiusa thought.
She rolled onto her back and stared at the dark dungeon ceiling, lit eerily by the glowing, white stones that lined the edges of the dormitory floor. They cast dramatic shadows of the four-poster beds on the ceiling and stranger, twisting shadows on the skylights over her head, or rather, the lake-lights (for Slytherin really was under the water). Chibiusa stiffened when one of the shadows in the water above moved suddenly and forced herself to relax. It was just a fish, or maybe (as Bulstrode had mentioned) the Giant Squid.
Iphigenela Nott had told her Slytherin had the best dorms in the school. But they could certainly dial down the creep factor in her opinion.
Granted, Chibiusa'd found the room pretty cool while it was still light and the blue-green light from the lake streamed in through the skylights. But she was in a decidedly worse mood now than when the rest of the first years had retired to bed.
She'd tried to make good on her promise to visit Hotaru. But she'd gotten lost looking for where one of the third years had said Ravenclaw Tower was, and she'd been wandering around the fourth floor looking for stairs that went up in the right direction when she'd been caught by the portly Professor she vaguely remembered was the Potions Master.
"Now, what's this," he'd chuckled. "First night at school and you're already breaking curfew; that's a bad first impression."
Chibiusa however, was no stranger to getting caught where she wasn't supposed to be, and no slouch at getting away without punishment either. She'd looked appropriately contrite and clasped her hands behind her, fidgeting as though she were nervous and giving the professor her complete attention.
"I'm sorry, Sir," she'd said quickly, making her eyes a wide as she could. "I only wanted to see my friend Hotaru. I haven't seen her in years! I've been so impatient to see her... please don't give me detention. I didn't realize how late it was, and..."
Slughorn had raised a hand to silence her nervous rambling and chuckled. "I hardly think a first offense warrants a detention," he'd said. "But I can't let you roam the castle so late. Think about it, you could get lost." He'd sighed. "I do hate punishing my own house. I'll take ten points for being out after curfew, and you'll be glad it's not more. Now," he'd beckoned her back towards the stairs. "Let's get you back to Slytherin."
She'd expected he might lecture her on the way back, and so had been baffled when, as they'd descended to the first floor, He began to prattle on about something much different.
"I do admire loyalty to ones friends," Slughorn had said. And Chibiusa's pout had fallen into a frown of confusion. "Tis an admirable quality – I say, how do you know Miss. Tomoe?"
"We were neighbors before I moved here," she'd told him. "Hotaru's my best friend. And her dad just died so..."
"So you wanted to see her as soon as you could, oh thats quite good of you," Slughorn had praised her. "Such a dreadful thing to lose one's father like that... I heard Professor Meioh is her mother. She must taking it quite hard."
"Um... I guess. They weren't um..."
"Oh they were separated," Slughorn assumed. "Yes, that can be complicated."
"You have no idea," Chibiusa'd muttered too low for him to hear.
"Still," Slughorn had carried on inanely. "It must be very good that Hotaru has a parent at school."
"Yeah."
"And do you know Professor Meioh as well?"
"A little," Chibiusa'd said. "I'd go over their house for tea sometimes. She's very nice."
"So I've heard."
Their conversation had trailed off then, as they'd turned down the stairs to the Slytherin dungeon. Chibiusa'd dragged her feet the whole way. She'd been more than happy not to talk to him, consumed by wondering if her housemates would figure out who'd put them in the negative before even the first class, and by trying to plan when she could next see Hotaru.
"Here we are," Slughorn had said, stopping at the entrance to Slytherin's dormitory "Now, one moment." He'd turned to Chibiusa. "As much as I have to punish rule-breakers, I am not in the habit of punishing those with admirable qualities and ideas. You're very loyal to your friends. I see a lot to be commended in that... and I can hardly take points off from a first year on their first night," he mused, looking up towards the ceiling as he thought. "Why, you may not have known better. In fact, I'm sure some older student told you it was alright. It's okay to admit it, I won't get you in trouble with them."
Chibiusa raised an eyebrow at him. "Um... Yes, that's... exactly what happened."
"Exactly," Slughorn repeated as though it had been her story all along. "So, I believe I've changed my mind. I revoke my previous point deduction and, now this is very out of the ordinary, but I am a very good judge of character and I've a good feeling about yours. I have a club you see – of other students like yourself who display exceptional qualities. How would you like to be a part of it?"
"Like an honors club?"
"Precisely – but for students of good character as well as merit. I've been very eager to restart it. Why, we're having our first gathering in a week's time. Casual, mind you. It won't be too many of the members to start – just ten or so. I would be delighted if you'd attend." He'd grinned. "You could start your Hogwarts career off right, What do you say?"
"Uh…" Chibiusa had stared at him, unsure quite what to say. Was she being... rewarded for rule-breaking?
"Oh no need to answer right away," Slughorn had assured her. "In fact why don't you sleep on it – I'll send you a formal invitation at this week. Yes." He'd clapped his hands.
"That will be perfect."
"Right..." Chibiusa'd frowned.
"Spendid. Now, run along to bed." He'd wagged his finger. "Don't let me catch you out after curfew again."
"Yes, Sir." She'd said, and she'd given the password and ducked quickly into the Slytherin common room.
Now, Chibiusa closed her eyes as she lay in bed, still in her school robes, thinking back over the encounter.
What kind of professor rewards students for breaking rules? Chibiusa thought. Wonder what other people get invited if he's decided I'm a good fit after five minutes with me.
She sighed on the overstuffed mattress and rolled onto her side when another shadow swam past the skylight. What kind of person felt comfortable sleeping under the lake?
She was beginning to drift off when the room became bright. She squinted her eyes until they'd adjusted to the light enough to see its source. Then she grinned and sat up.
"You're cute," she whispered to the bright white hare sitting on top of her covers. It hopped up to her face, nuzzling her nose. Its whiskers tickled her cheek even though the animal seemed not to be solid at all – for it didn't feel like it weighed anything as it perched in her chest.
Chibiusa reached up to pet its head, and her eyes widened: there on its forehead was the distinct outline of a crescent moon.
"Mama?" she asked, grinning.
The hare nodded, hopping up and down on her bed and leaping right out the closed green curtains.
She scrambled out of bed, not bothering with her shoes, and followed the spectral animal as it phased through the door of her dormitory and then through the door of the common room as well.
She had some trouble keeping up with its pace as it hopped up the dungeon stairs three at a time. But it was waiting when she got to the top.
From there, the hare guided her down side corridors, through connected classrooms, and up back staircases behind sleeping portraits. Twice it even nudged her into storage closets to hide from the patrolling caretaker and his cat.
She followed it on the twisting and turning route it took through the castle, all the way up to the top of a tower where all around the wooden stairs she could see the large, brass gears of a clock. The Hare phased through the door at the end of the staircase and Chibiusa hastened after it, pushing open the door and running out onto the top of the clock tower. She turned all around until she spotted it. There was the hare: hopping up onto the wall and into the arms of the young woman who'd cast it. She caught it, said something to the little specter, and then it vanished. The light in the castor's wand went out with it.
"Lumos," the familiar, soft voice murmured. The castor's wand lit up again, with a brighter light, illuminating the twin buns and long, blond pigtails that framed either side of her face. She looked over at Chibiusa with her bright, blue eyes and grinned. "Hi."
"Mama!" Chibiusa ran to her. She crashed into Usagi, knocking the both of them off balance. Usagi caught and spun her, laughing, before she regained her footing and set Chibiusa on her feet.
"I missed you." Chibiusa sighed.
"I missed you too." Usagi grinned. "How's the future?"
"Good," Chibiusa said. "It's better now that I've grown a little older. Mama talks to me about more stuff. And I made some friends!"
"One of whom has already broken half the Gryffindor common room."
"She's still not as much of a klutz as you," Chibiusa giggled.
"I am not that bad," Usagi scoffed. She ruffled Chibiusa's hair. "Hermione mentioned there were others with you?" Usagi said. "Isn't someone else in Ravenclaw?"
"Megumi is," Chibiusa said. "And Akira's in Hufflepuff. Did Mina not mention her?"
"Who?"
"I brought three friends with me," Chibiusa said. "I thought Mina'd have noticed her first."
"Maybe she forgot," Usagi sighed. "She has been getting pestered by Sora all night. Speaking of," Usagi gave Chibiusa an accusing look. "You realize it's now our job to figure out how to tell Michiru and Haruka about her."
"Uh." Chibiusa gave her a cheeky grin. "Sorry."
Usagi chuckled "You don't need to apologize," she said. "Although a note with a little warning would have been nice." She shook her head. "Though I guess I'm only blaming my future self for that." Chibiusa chuckled as Usagi turned around and put her back against the wall of the clock tower. Chibiusa copied her and leaned into her when Usagi put an arm around her shoulders to ward off the slightly chilly September air.
"How come you never mentioned the others before?" Usagi asked.
"Well I wasn't allowed to, was I?" Chibiusa said. "If I tell you too much about the future then what if that makes you do something that causes what I remember not to happen." She looked up at Usagi. "I get the paradox talk every time I come back. Trust me, it is a bad idea."
Usagi shook her head. She looked behind them towards the stars. "And why did you come back this time?"
"Cause we wanted to go to magic school," Chibiusa said. "And Mama said it was a good idea if we came back to help."
"Really?" she asked. And she looked back at Chibiusa with one eyebrow raised. "All of you?"
"Well..." Chibiusa sighed. "There's another reason."
"Oh?"
"The prophecies," Chibiusa said. "See: there was one about defeating Voldemort."
"Mhmm," Usagi said.
"And when you came back, the future with that prophecy changed."
"And then Luna made the second prophecy," Usagi added.
"Right," Chibiusa said. "But you don't know what that prophecy is. So Megumi's here to make sure it comes true."
"And who is Megumi?" Usagi asked.
"She's got time powers like Setsuna," Chibiusa said vaguely.
"So that's why she looked so pale at dinner," Usagi realized. "Is Megumi her daughter?"
"Maaaaybe."
"Ugh," Usagi made a face. "Why are you being cryptic?"
"Because Megumi's worried about saying too much." Chibiusa shrugged. "She's a little too cryptic, I guess. But this is the first mission she's ever done by herself. That's why we're all here. We're supposed to help her."
Usagi smiled and squeezed Chibiusa's shoulder. "So how is Slytherin?"
"Cold and blue," Chibiusa said immediately now that they were discussing a topic about which she had no need to weigh every word. "It's under the lake. All the light comes through the water..."
They talked until it was nearly 1:00, at which point Usagi pulled the invisibility cloak she'd borrowed from Harry over them both, and walked Chibiusa back to the Slytherin common room, guided safely away from the patrolling professors and the caretaker by the Marauders Map.
Before she sent her off to bed, Usagi knelt at Chibiusa's level and gave her one more hug, pulling her as close as she could. "I'm so happy to see you," she confessed and sniffed. "I was worried that if I couldn't find Mamo-chan, I'd never see you again."
Chibiusa hugged her tighter. "That's silly: of course I'm going to exist."
"Do you know who he is here?" Usagi asked hopefully.
But Chibiusa shook her head. "Papa said you didn't know before so he didn't want to tell me now."
Usagi sighed; her shoulders slumped.
"But you're not exactly doing yourself any favors pining after him," Chibiusa scolded.
"Hey!"
"Well you aren't," she insisted, poking Usagi on the nose. "Don't you think it'd be more romantic to fall in love with him like the first time."
"I – uh – I said that." Usagi stammered, recalling her own words from last year.
"Sooo... You know what's good for falling in love?" Chibiusa asked. "Dates. You should go on some."
"I should date?" Usagi asked weakly.
"Yeah," Chibiusa grinned. "Don't worry. It'll be fun." She hugged her one more time and stepped away, turning towards the entrance to Slytherin.
"Be careful in there," Usagi told her. "Don't let them know you're with us."
"Don't worry," Chibiusa looked back at her and winked. Then she gave the password to the common room. "I'm way ahead of you." And she waved as she ran inside, disappearing into the dark dormitory. Usagi stared after her for a few minutes longer, then sighed, looked down at the Marauders Map and began her trek up to Gryffindor Tower.
It was, thankfully, an easy walk (as Filch and Mrs. Norris were off on the complete opposite side of the castle). Usagi glanced at the map occasionally as she ascended the castle's many stairs, but mostly she kept her eyes on the ring that had shared the chain around her neck with the Silver Crystal's brooch since last year. The pink gem of her engagement ring gleamed in the light from her lumos spell.
Dating... I don't even know whom I would ask. Usagi sighed as she thought. I barely know the Hufflepuffs... and besides that, Setsuna said you don't have to be in the same house as your first life. She made a face as she thought. And you annoyed the hell out of me when we met. No way I'd have ever asked you out then. The most annoying boys she knew here were Cormac Mclaggen and Zacharius Smith. "No way am I dating either of them," she decided.
She had to wake the Fat Lady when she got to the common room, and the portrait was in no way happy to be woken up.
"Have you any idea what time it is," she huffed after Usagi'd given the password.
"You could sleep all day while we're in class," Usagi pointed out. "Then no one would wake you up."
"And miss out on socializing." The portrait glared. "Just because we're two dimensional does not mean we do not have rich fulfilling lives outside of minding your dormitories."
Usagi sighed. "Can I please go in?"
The fat lady grumbled. "You'd better not make a habit of this sort of thing." But she swung open nonetheless.
Usagi was yawning even as she climbed through the portrait hole, but froze with her hand half-covering her mouth when something clattered against the wood floor and then began to roll. She spotted the unlit candle turning over and over on the floorboards, rolling until it bumped into her shoes.
"Um," someone squeaked. Usagi looked up towards the voice.
Sora Kaioh looked between Usagi and the candle that had rolled to a stop at her feet. It must have fallen out of Sora's hands, Usagi realized – she appeared to be juggling ten of them. Sora was standing on top of one of the study chairs, stretching up to reach the candlesticks on the walls to put back the very candles she'd knocked over earlier that evening
"I've got it." Usagi flicked her wand. "Windgardium Leviosa." The candle at her feet rose off the ground, hovering perfectly straight. Sora stared at the candle as Usagi floated it across the room, and to the candlestick closest to the first year, where she let it drop perfectly into one of the holders.
It was one of the easiest charms she'd learned, one she could use just as well on the ten candles in Sora's arms as she could on the one that had fallen. She had all ten settled into their holders with one more casting of the charm.
"There." Usagi smiled as Sora hopped down from the chair, still staring at the candles. "Were you trying to fix them all yourself."
"Yeah," Sora confessed, shuffling her feet. "Um… could you help me with the tapestry too?"
She pointed over to the right side of the common room – there was the tapestry of a goblin war that Sora'd knocked over while doing a handstand earlier in the evening. It appeared she'd already tried to right it herself. The brass bar that supported the top of the tapestry had been rehung from one of the two hooks meant to mount it to the wall. But the other end of the brass bar dangled towards the floor and the whole woven masterpiece drooped along with it – a mess of fabric pooled on the wood.
"I uh, couldn't reach the second one," Sora muttered.
"I've got it," Usagi said. And another quick levitation charm set the brass bar right on both its hooks. She flicked her wand again, muttering the ironing charm she'd heard Mrs. Weasley using at Grimmauld Place over summer. The tapestry smoothed itself out as though it had never been disturbed.
"There," Usagi said, looking around. "Did you need to clean anything else?"
"Noooope," Sora turned around twice. "I think I got everything."
Indeed: all the chairs were pushed into their tables, the rugs had been stretched evenly across the floor, and the cushions sat right on the couches. Even the suit of armor by the stairs that Sora's crashed into appeared to have been reconstructed with only a lopsided helmet to show any sign it had been disturbed. And, Usagi frowned, the old clock above it now read 1:52.
"How long have you been down here?" she asked the time-traveler.
Sora twirled her turquoise hair and shrugged. "Not long," Usagi raised an eyebrow. "Not really long," Sora insisted. "I just… wasn't tired yet." She yawned. "So I thought I'd clean everything up."
Usagi frowned. Sora had bags under her eyes. And she was still in her school robes. The first year yawned again. "Not tired or couldn't sleep?" Usagi guessed, crossing her arms.
Sora scuffed her feet. "Maaaaybe both." She looked around the room again. "I'm sorry I broke things," she said. "I didn't," she yawned again, "mean to."
Usagi bent forwards so they were closer in height. Sora wasn't nearly as short as Chibiusa, but still enough that she had to stoop to get to her level.
"Sometimes when I'm in a new place, or I'm nervous," she said. "I can be really klutzy." She grinned at Sora. "Believe me, my mother wishes she had magic to fix everything I've broken."
"My moms put shatterproof charms on all the stuff in our house," Sora confessed, sharing a laugh with Usagi, one that was broken off by yet another yawn, and this time Usagi yawned as well. She shook her head, putting her hand on Sora's shoulder and steering her towards the dormitory stairs. "Come on," She said. "Neither of us wants to be tired at breakfast."
As they walked up towards the first year dorm, Sora stared mostly at her feet. "So," she said when they'd climbed up two levels, "if everyone else is at school, where's Mama and Papa?"
Usagi stared down at her. And I though thinking of Chibiusa as my daughter was an adjustment. "They're on a mission," she said. "Trying to make sure our enemies don't cause a lot of damage outside Hogwarts while the rest of us are here."
Sora nodded. "Moms are on a mission at home too," she said.
Usagi squeezed her shoulder. "And how long have they been gone?"
"Forty-two days," Sora said. "But they'll be back."
"Of course they will," Usagi assured her. They'd reached the level of the first years dorms. "Now, you'd better actually go to bed this time: got it."
Sora nodded, and startled Usagi when she stepped forward and hugged her. "Thanks for helping me."
Usagi smiled and smoothed her hand over Sora's hair. "Of course," she said, hugging her back. "And hey – it's okay if you're homesick."
Sora stiffened and jumped away. "I am not!" she scoffed. "What do you think I am? Five."
"Well I don't know do I." Usagi said, smirking and bracing her hands on her hips. "I still get homesick all the time."
"Well I'm not," Sora insisted, marching right up to her dormitory and opening the door. She hesitated at the threshold, then turned back around and darted back to Usagi, giving her one more, fleeting hug. She let go after a second. "Night." And she dashed inside the dorm room, shutting the door too quickly; it slammed shut. "Sorry!" Usagi heard her whisper.
Usagi chuckled and then yawned. She crept down the stairs one flight to the sixth years' dorm. She'd give Harry back the cloak and map tomorrow. Right now however, she was in sore need of some beauty sleep.
~SMH~
Monday morning Usagi and her friends in Gryffindor made it down to breakfast at 7:30, just in time it seemed. For when they arrived, Mcgonagall was already halfway down the Gryffindor table passing out the timetables. It took her longer than it had the year before to sort out their classes, as she now had OWL results to compare to the courses they wanted to take.
Usagi's was the easiest for her to manage; Mcgonagall took one look at her OWL scores and raised her eyebrows.
"Yes well," she said. "I see you want to continue Charms and Defence, which you certainly have the marks for. Did you want to take Care of Magical Creatures as well?"
Usagi shook her head. No one else was taking it, and she really didn't want to have to cross the entire length of the grounds just to take a class by herself.
"Very well," Mcgonagall cleared her throat. "And it appears you have two Acceptables… Unfortunately I don't believe Sprout permits students into NEWT level with only an Acceptable nor do I… so you'll have two classes."
"You're gonna have two classes!" Ron exclaimed through a mouthful of eggs. "Lucky."
"Ron!" Hermione hissed at him and hit him on the arm as Usagi flushed a deep shade of red.
"Uh, Professor" Usagi looked up at Mcgonagall. "Are you sure I can't take Transfiguration too…"
Mcgonagall pursed her lips. "While I'd encourage you to study any subject that caught your interest, Miss. Tsukino, I simply can't let you continue to the NEWT level with only an Acceptable."
"Aww, please Professor, it's really interesting – and everyone else is continuing," she said. "Plus… I've only been doing magic for a year," she grinned and shrugged. "I think Acceptable's pretty good in my case."
Mcgonagall raised an eyebrow. "You do, do you?"
"Yes," Usagi nodded. She trained her best puppy-dog eyes on Mcgonagall. "Please…I'm only taking two other classes – and everyone else could help me with the work. I can do it."
Mcgonagall rolled her eyes. "Begging does not work on me, Miss. Tsukino." She considered the nearly empty timetable in her hands and sighed. "However, a good argument does. Fine." She tapped her wand once on Usagi's timetable and the Transfiguration class appeared on the otherwise empty Monday and Wednesday afternoons. "I will permit you a month's probationary period. If you cannot keep up with the work, you'll be removed from the class."
"Yes!" Usagi cheered, high-fiving Mina across the table. "Thank you!"
Mcgonagall shook her head, though she was smiling a little. "Now Mr. Longbottom," She said, going through the list of courses he'd requested to continue with.
"Professor," he said as she reviewed his list, frowning. "I know I also had an Acceptable too, but… but I'd really like to continue Transfiguration."
Mcgonagall sighed. "I'm sorry, Longbottom, but you're not a novice at magic like Miss. Tsukino, I'm afraid the Acceptable really won't be enough."
Neville's shoulders slumped. "I understand."
"But…" Usagi frowned. "But he does have special circumstances. He has a new wand."
Mcgonagall raised her eyebrows. "You had need of a new wand, Mr. Longbottom?"
"Erm… Yeah," Neville said, fishing the cherry wood wand out of his sleeve. "Got it right before Ollivander…well anyways. Dad's, I mean my old one, broke in the Department of Mysteries. So I got this one."
"He already said on the train it works better!" Usagi pointed out.
"It… does, yeah." Neville said, straightening up in his seat. "I guess… I'd probably have done better on my Practicals if I'd had this then."
"Can't he try the class too?" Usagi asked.
Mcgonagall sighed and tapped his schedule. "One month – I want to see significant improvement, is that clear?"
"Y-yes," Neville gaped, seemingly stunned he was being given any sort of special considerations.
"Now…" Mcgonagall considered his timetable again, frowning. "You've made the grade for Charms as well, Mr. Longbottom. I don't see it on your list."
"Well… I mean I really like Charms," Neville explained. "And… I guess my mum likes it. But, uh, Gran's always said Charms was a soft subject."
Mcgonagall pursed her lips. "Take Charms," she said, tapping his timetable with her wand. "And I think I shall write your Grandmother, and remind her that just because she failed her Charms practical, does not mean the subject is useless." Neville stared up at her with something akin to awe and, as she passed him his timetable, a hint of delight.
"I didn't know that," Neville murmured, reviewing his courses. They all had Snape first thing after breakfast.
"Do you really think I'll be good at Transfiguration just because I have a new wand?" he asked Usagi as Mcgonagall sorted out Harry's courses.
Usagi smiled. "I think you need the chance to try – and," she held out her hand. "I bet we can both do well if we help each other. Right?"
He grinned, grabbing her hand as they shook on it. "Yeah."
~SMH~
All in all, the senshi's experience of Snape's Defense class was much the same as their experience in his Potions class. He was curt, critical, and quick to pick on Harry. Still, as Makoto pointed out during their free time before lunch, he was loads better than Umbridge.
Everyone but Hermione had a free period after lunch as well, which they spent in the southern courtyard. Ron and Mina filled the hour with a conversation about just how amazing it was to have free time in the middle of the day – and on a Monday no less – while Ami tried her hand against both of them at chess. She held her own against Ron, and would have beat both he and Mina faster than she did if her chess pieces had not been hell-bent on arguing with her every move. Mina proved much more adept at bullying her own pieces into behaving.
It was strange going down to Potions class without Usagi, but she'd assured all of them she hardly cared about not qualifying for that class, more than happy to begin a tradition of a Monday afternoon nap rather than spend it in the grimy, smelly dungeon. Thus Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Mina, waved her off at the top of the stairs and made their way down to the dungeon together.
They were the last to arrive, it seemed. Harry and Ron had gone down early in the hopes of asking the new professor what they could do about Harry and Ron's books… though it seemed from the absence of books on their desk and the absence of the new Potions Master that they had not seen him yet. The whole class, about twenty students from all the houses, were all whispering when Ami pushed open the door and walked in. All of them were pointing towards the four cauldrons bubbling on the teacher's desk.
One of them, Mina realized, smelled rancid. The scent slammed into her before she'd even crossed the threshold, causing Makoto to crash into her.
"Alright?" Makoto asked Mina as Rei and Ami turned back towards them.
"What is that smell?" Mina exclaimed. She stared towards the simmering potions in front of the class, putting a hand over her mouth and nose. "Ugh! It smells like something died and fermented in garbage!"
"What are you talking about?" Rei frowned. "All I smell is…" she closed her eyes and smiled as she took a whiff of the rich scents that filled the classroom. "Cherry blossoms and fire and…" she furrowed her eyebrows from confusion. "Your shampoo?"
"That's definitely not what I smell," Makoto said. "Pastries in the oven, and roses, and summer air right before a storm…"
"Maybe which ever potion it is smells differently to everyone," Ami said as they took the open two benches behind Hermione and Harry. "I mean I smell new books, and hot coffee, and Old Spice." She flushed as the others turned to stare at her.
"That's a men's deodorant," Makoto observed, smirking at her.
"And it uh… smells very nice," Ami stuttered.
Mina would have needled her about what men it smelled nice on if she hadn't been so preoccupied trying not to breathe. The longer she stayed in the classroom, the stronger the cloying scent of rot and decay became. She hadn't even heard the teacher breeze into the classroom, preoccupied with trying to press the sleeve of her robe close enough to her face to block the scent.
"Ten points to Ravenclaw," the teacher announced himself, stopping beside Ami and Makoto's bench as he made his way up to the front of the class. "That was quite insightful what you just said because the potion you're all smelling does smell differently to each person – what was your name?"
"Ami Mizuno," Ami said.
"Well, I can already tell I'm going to love having you in class," Professor Slughorn chortled. And he looked around at the rest of the students, beaming as he carried on walking to the front of the room. "Now, one of these potions is the one you are all smelling: can anyone identify which one – yes, Miss!" he said, waving at Hermione who'd shot her hand up into the air.
"Hermione Granger, Professor," Hermione introduced herself. "It's the Amortenia."
"Oh ten points to Gryffindor – very well done indeed. Which potion up here would that be?"
"The one on the left sir. It's easily identified by its pink color and its scent. They say its meant to smell like what attracts you."
"Then why do I smell rot?" Mina exclaimed.
Slughorn frowned. "Well, Miss…"
"Aino," Minako muttered behind the sleeve of her robe.
"Miss. Aino, well it is true people have been known to smell a wide variety of scents from Amortenia – and the things or, in many cases, people that attract us do," he chuckled. "Certainly have a wide variety of scents, alas: to each their own."
All of the students in class turned to Rei, and several chuckled.
Rei glared at Mina, turning red. "I smell like rot do I?" she seethed.
"Nononono," Mina whispered back. Slughorn moved to the farthest cauldron and asked Hermione to identify it. "The potion's wrong! You smell like – like lavender and wood smoke and – and even when you smell bad you still smell good – Rei!" she shouted when Rei turned abruptly away from her.
"Now, now," Slughorn interrupted. "I know Amortenia has a tendency to cause drama, but usually only after it is drunk. Let's settle down." He was directing a stern look towards Mina.
"Excuse me Professor," Draco Malfoy drawled from across the aisle. "Could you say what those other potions are again – some of us couldn't hear."
"Yes – we must be considerate of our classmates. As Miss Granger's just said: This one here," he waved to the cauldron on the far left. "Is Polyjuice potion – who can tell us what that does – besides Miss. Granger."
Harry hesitated and then raised his hand. "Er… it can turn you into another person, Sir. If you have some of their hair or something to put in the potion."
"Ten points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, that is exactly right!" Slughorn said. "And… this one…" he asked, pointing to the middle cauldron.
Draco Malfoy raised his hand.
"Veritaserum," he said confidently. And all of the scouts stiffened.
"Precisely, yes you can tell by the clear colour, I'm sure. Now Veritaserum is quite useful it –"
"Forces you to tell the truth against your will," Minako seethed, remembering what it had done to Setsuna last year. Even the senshi were startled by the venom in her voice.
"Now, now," Slughorn chuckled. "It's only sanctioned for use in a very select few interrogations. And those are conducted, I dare say, by highly vetted ministry officials."
"Because the ministry is so good at deciding who should have power," Mina muttered. She heard Harry and Ron cough to cover laughter in front of her. Thankfully though Slughorn had not heard her last comment; he'd carried on to the last potion, bypassing the smallest cauldron of gold potion bubbling in the middle of the desk.
"And of course we have already identified the Amortenia," he said, waving his hand over the pink, putrid potion that was still overwhelming Minako. "I'm sure Miss Granger, smart as you are, are familiar with what it does."
"It's a love potion sir," Hermione said, cheeks pink from the praise. "Though 'love' is a misnomer. It doesn't really produce love – just infatuation or, sometimes, obsession."
"Precisely! Now –"
"What the fuck!"
Every eye in the dungeon turned towards Mina who was glaring at the pink potion with renewed venom.
"I don't tolerate that kind of language, Miss. Aino." Slughorn frowned. "I'm afraid that will be ten points from your house."
Mina seemed not to care though. She scowled at Slughorn. "So drinking that thing forces you to love someone against your will?"
"Well, as Miss. Granger's said," Slughorn said blithely. "It is not quite so bad as that – it only mimics love. Any who consume it will not be permanently affected."
"But, but," Mina sputtered. "It's legal."
"Certainly," Slughorn said. "It's also very expensive, of course the ingredients and instructions are readily found, but I dare say," he chuckled. "Most witches and wizards maintain no where near the potions proficiency of NEWT students once they leave school. True it is slightly easier to brew than some of the other potions on our curriculum, but still – advanced work. And I should mention: only licensed brewers may sell it, and only in quantities sufficient for small dosages – twelve hours at most."
"A lot can happen in twelve hours," Mina said darkly.
"Well it has a wide variety of uses," Slughorn said, looking around nervously at some of the students – mostly half-bloods and muggleborns – began to look at the love potion just like Mina was: with shock and disgust, rather than the curiosity or excitement of their pure-blooded peers. "Why, many couples use it to breathe passion back into an old relationship, or smooth over a first date. I dare say it has no permanent side-effects."
"And what if you get dosed for a long time, huh?" Mina carried on. "Or you hate the person that gave it to you?"
"Well," blustered Slughorn. "There are certainly antidotes to Amortenia that can cancel its effects before it has worn off naturally – and it always wears off. Besides, there are laws in place to discourage that sort of usage."
Mina raised one eyebrow, remaining unconvinced.
"But – I don't want you to worry," Slughorn chuckled. "No one has to test Amortenia. But you will all get the chance to brew it today. It is a delightful little potion."
"We're making it!" Mina gaped.
"Yes – I considered the Draught of the Living Death, you see, but I thought, as some of you are new to the potioneer's art," he nodded meaningfully towards the four senshi, "That Amortenia would be a better place in the curriculum to start – and more interesting. I dare say it's a good choice given all the interest it has piqued so far…"
"I won't brew it," Mina declared.
Slughorn frowned. "I am not asking you to use it, Miss. Aino, simply to study it and the highly advanced potions techniques it employs."
"I won't brew it." Mina repeated.
The Potions Master shook his head and sighed. "Then I regrettably must warn you that refusal to complete classwork will result in another twenty point loss for your house and," he said. "A detention with me on Wednesday, now if you'd reconsider."
"Fine," Mina stepped out from behind her bench. She walked swiftly to the door, leaving all of her supplies on her desk. "I'll see you then." And she wrenched open the dungeon door, slamming it behind her.
Slughorn shook his head. "Yes… well, as I was saying there are important things to be learned from this, and – if I could direct your attention to this last potion: this is your prize if you do, indeed, brew me a perfect Amortenia…"
~SMH~
Hotaru normally liked to take her time leaving Charms, always interested in the insights into the course work that could be gleaned from striking up conversations with Flitwick. Today however, she sat in the seat closest to the door and bolted out class as soon as the bell began to chime, sprinting across the second floor to the grand stairs and out into the cool, grey afternoon air.
She and Chibiusa had barely gotten the chance to talk at breakfast – having just enough time before their first classes to notice that they both had the period before dinner free. She'd told Chibiusa to meet her at the lake by the spruce tree that leaned out over the water. But when she reached it, the lakefront was empty. Hotaru spun around, peering back towards the Castle. Had Chibiusa gotten lost on the way down…
"Hotaru-chan!" The shout above her made her jump as Chibiusa dropped out of the branches of the spruce tree, covered in the pine needles.
They crashed into each other, the shrieks and giggles echoing all over the lake and causing heads of students across the grounds to turn towards the exuberant sounds.
Finally, Hotaru pulled away from her. "Why'd you go into Slytherin!" she told Chibiusa. "They're not nice!"
Chibiusa shrugged. "I mean my roommates seem okay."
"There's Death Eaters in that house," Hotaru frowned as Chibiusa dragged her over to the big rock on the shoreline and sat down on top of it.
"Is one of them Malfoy?" Chibiusa waved a dismissive hand. "I can handle him."
"Chibiusa," Hotaru warned. "Your friend told you you could pick."
"And I picked Slytherin," Chibiusa defended. "I mean, it's good to have someone in every house," she said, ticking off reasons on her fingers. "And I made them all think I'm a pureblood. And," she grinned. "I'm ambitious and cunning."
Hotaru scowled and crossed her arms. "I still don't like it."
Chibiusa shook her head, linking her arm through Hotaru's and shuffling closer to her as she looked out over the lake. One of the Giant Squid's tentacles had just breached the surface. "I can handle myself – promise." She squeezed Hotaru's arm.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching ripples from the water bugs and breeze roll across the surface of the lake. After some time, Chibiusa leaned her head against Hotaru's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
She felt Hotaru stiffen. "You already know, then?"
Chibiusa nodded. Hotaru lean her head against her hair. "He's at peace," she told Chibiusa. "He's with my mother… and he won't have nightmares about the Death Busters anymore. And he won't have to miss me when I'm not there." She sighed.
When she didn't say anything more for a few minutes Chibiusa nudged Hotaru's foot with the toes of her pink shoes. "But," Chibiusa prompted her.
Hotaru clenched her fists. "It's not fair."
Rather than try to say anything, Chibiusa wrapped her arm all the way around Hotaru, watching her hands which she continued to fidget in her lap while.
Hotaru watched the calm surface of the lake. "It's worse cause everyone knows," she finally said. "They reported it in the newspaper here."
"Oh no," Chibiusa muttered.
"So everyone keeps staring at me," Hotaru scowled. "Like yesterday and all day today they just look at me with sad eyes, and even the professors keep looking at me like they want me to cry or talk about it."
"Well they care," Chibiusa said. "And most people probably would want to."
"Well I don't!" Hotaru said. "I want to…" She clenched her fists. "No, I'm going to kill her," she confessed. "But that's not the sort of thing you can tell people."
Chibiusa frowned. "But… they'd understand. Everyone'd understand."
"Everyone we know would," Hotaru said. "But everyone else would think I was a dark witch or something. Lots of the school's still freaked out by the glaive."
"Then they're stupid," Chibiusa said. Then she frowned. "Wait…everyone knows about the Glaive?"
"It's my wand," Hotaru confessed, summoning it to her hand.
"You don't have one?" Chibiusa asked. "Even I got one – look:" she pulled her own out of her pocket. It was a thin, red wand with a handle polished to a pink sheen. "Cherry and Unicorn." She grinned. "Same unicorn that's in Mama's wand. And it's exactly 8 inches." She gave it a wave, gold and silver sparks shot out of the tip. "The wandmaker lady said it was 'stubborn' too, whatever that means."
"I think that means you're stubborn." Hotaru giggled.
Chibiusa stuck out her tongue. "Can you show me a spell?" Chibiusa asked, standing up on the rock and offering Hotaru her hand. "I can only do a couple."
Hotaru beamed up at her. "There's a cool one I can do sometimes." She took Chibiusa's hand and stood. She faced the lake, keeping her hand clasped in Chibiusa's and squeezing it. Then she took a deep, centering breath, and pointed the Glaive out over the water. "Expecto Patronum!"
She concentrated very hard as the pale white light appeared at the end of her Glaive, eyebrows drawn together. Chibiusa gasped and grinned as the light arced away from the blade, gathering together into small wings that flapped brightly against the grey sky. The wisps of light gathered into a solid looking butterfly that raced in a circle around Chibiusa. Hotaru grinned when Chibiusa spun, following the patronus, which grew brighter when Chibiusa and then Hotaru began to laugh.
Their laughter carried up to the open window of the Staff Lounge, upon which Setsuna Meioh was perched. She smiled as she sipped her tea, leaning against the window frame as she watched the two girls play on the shore: Chibiusa chasing the butterfly patronus as Hotaru directed it to fly in circles over her head. Behind her, the door of the Staff lounge clicked open.
"She seems much better than she was at the last Order meeting," Minerva observed, joining her at the window.
Setsuna glanced at her, then back her daughter and the girl whom she loved just as much as one. "Well if there's one person who can make her feel better its Chibiusa," she told Minerva, smiling down at the children. "Chibiusa never lets anyone feel like they're alone." She sipped her tea. "How were your classes today."
"Interesting," Mcgonagall said. "Miss. Tsukino successfully swindled me into allowing she and Longbottom into my NEWT course. And I was quite surprised."
"She did well?"
"Oh no – she'll need to put in a lot of hard work if she wants to keep up with the class," Minerva said. "Mr. Longbottom however…" she trailed off. "I fear I have taken Augusta at her word too often regarding that boy. She wrote me before his first year asking me to look out for him – said he'd barely a speck of magic in him…" She sighed. "And I attributed his academic struggles solely to that. I never even considered that the fact he did exceptionally well on all his written tests might speak to a boy capable of doing better on his practicals if only he had a different wand."
"Do wands make much difference?"
"Immensely," Minerva said. "Though when you've been doing magic as long as I have, you become less dependent on a perfect match. And I have been incredibly foolish not to consider how the comfort a child has with their first wand can determine how well they go on to do at any magic." She waved her wand, and a golden bird chirped, appearing from the tip. A real feather from its wing fell on Setsuna's arm. "I had them conjure these today. And they've never done that. Vanished certainly, never conjured. Usually it would have taken Mr. Longbottom two classes to get a feather." She vanished the bird. "Neville surprised the both of us today; he managed the whole bird in three tries."
"Impressive," Setsuna murmured.
"Yes well," Minerva scowled. "At the moment, I am not sure if I shouldn't send a howler to Augusta Longbottom or simply write to her son and daughter-in-law, and have them do it for me. I hadn't even been aware he was using Frank's old wand." She summoned a bottle of liquor out of the cabinet across the lounge. The cork popped off the floating bottle and it poured a liberal amount into Minerva's tea before soaring back into the cabinet. She took a long sip. "And I had the first year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws this morning as well."
"You did?" Setsuna asked, tightening her grip on her tea.
"Yes – and if that 'sister' as you're insisting she is of Michiru's hadn't already set her desk on fire I'd be inclined to call her my best student."
"How did she manage that?"
"She turned all her matches into needles on the first try, then tried to show off how good a job she'd done by striking one against the desk. Suffice to say she requires a bit more practice to give it more than just a perfect appearance."
Setsuna chuckled, still staring out at Chibiusa and Hotaru. They'd joined several other younger students who were on their free period now, and were skipping stones across the lake's surface. "And… my cousin?"
"You're going to stand by these stories, then?" Mcgonagall shook her head. "She did quite well. Turned her match to a needle by the second half of class. And hers was not still flammable as Miss. Kaioh proved by testing them herself." She looked down at Setsuna. "How were your own courses,"
Setsuna smiled. "Well, I don't think I have any more Morgana Averys on my hands, but the seventh years were quite receptive to the Muggle Studies lesson, and Miss. Granger's already been by my office asking when she can take the OWL."
"That girl would scare me if I weren't constantly impressed by her," Minerva chuckled. "Filius still accuses me of stealing her from Ravenclaw somehow."
Setsuna nodded. "And I had the fifth years in Divination this morning. Luna Lovegood is my star student again, as I expected… She's been trying to recall her prophecy, you know."
"Has she had any luck," Minerva asked as Setsuna lifted her tea to her lips again. It had an odd smell, Minerva wrinkled her nose, trying to identify the flavour.
Setsuna shook her head. "I told her it may be impossible – and its contents cannot be accessed via the Time Dimension. I'm afraid destroying the physical prophecy destroyed all memory of it from there as well."
"Hmmm," Minerva took another long sip of her tea. "You know, while it may not be complete charlatanry, I believe I'll stand by my opinion: all this divination business is utter rubbish."
She was expecting a witty retort, so was surprised when Setsuna only nodded her head, sipping her tea once more and then staring into the opaque liquid. "It may well be."
"You're not doubting your abilities are you?" Minerva asked.
"Well I still cannot see Lestrange," Setsuna sighed. "I have tried every avenue available to me – including guessing."
Minerva raised her eyebrows. "You loath guessing."
"That I do… I've even begun looking into some of the Divination techniques I teach the students, and many of those I've never had a need for. I'm not even sure I can use them myself."
As she took another sip of her tea, Minerva caught the scent wafting off it again. She furrowed her brows, frowning at Setsuna. "You put Pepper-up Potion in that," she accused.
"You caught me." Setsuna smirked. "It has a stronger effect than coffee."
"It's not meant to replace sleep," Minerva lectured her. "I've had too many seventh years do this during their exam season; Smoke coming out of their ears is one of the lesser side-effects."
Setsuna shrugged. "I only need it for a little while."
"Yes, well you'd ought not make a habit of it."
"You can't put me in detention like one of the students, Minerva," Setsuna laughed, lifting her spiked tea and taking another sip.
"Oh I can't, goodness I hadn't realized." Minerva smirked. "Then I guess I have no other option." She sipped her tea. "I'll just have to write Haruka and Michiru."
Setsuna choked on her tea, a blush rapidly covering her cheeks.
"In fact I think I will," Minerva carried on. "I'm sure they're quite concerned with whether you're taking care of yourself."
Setsuna cleared her throat. "No one needs to worry about me," she insisted. "I'll be careful with the Pepper-up Potion."
"That's all I ask," Minerva said. "Now, what kind of Slytherin and I getting in Hotaru's little friend there?"
Setsuna sighed. "A good one."
~SMH~
Given Mina's confrontation with Slughorn, the Gryffindor sixth years were anticipating that the point totals would have gone down below the other houses. But they were not expecting the near eighty-point deficit they encountered upon arriving at the Great Hall for dinner.
"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed as they paused outside the Great Hall to stare at the counters. "It's barely been a day!"
It was the talk of the whole Gryffindor table as more and more of them arrived for the evening meal. Mina stood by her actions, not apologizing once for the thirty points she was responsible for, and Harry's own ten point loss from Snape was met with resigned headshakes from all the Gryffindors.
When Ginny heard she sighed, and slouching over the table with her face propped up on her fists. "Typical Snape," she muttered. "I know another ten was one of the third years – Mcgonagall caught them trying to give Peeves fireworks of all the stupid things."
"But that's still thirty points behind," Ron pointed out. "And it's only Day One."
"Does it really matter?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Ginny and Ron said with the same tone and expression.
As the first course came out though, and rumours circulated the Gryffindor table, all that could be gleaned was that no one present was responsible, though there was a rumour, which a giggling Lavender Brown relayed to them by whispering in Ron's ear, that there was a first year involved.
Mina rolled her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling I know which first year?"
Her guess was only confirmed when, as the main course came up from the kitchens, the doors of the Great Hall swung open, and a pouting Sora Kaioh trailed through them. Mina was about to roll her eyes when she realized the first year was favouring her right leg, and there was a fading bruise around her eye. She shot to her feet along with Rei and Usagi as Sora shuffled over to their part of the Gryffindor table.
"Hi," Sora mumbled, plopping down on the bench between Ginny and Mina. She had a scowl on her face as she reached out for a roll and tore it in half.
"Who the hell did this to you," Mina demanded.
Sora shrugged. "Don't know their names." She said through a mouthful of bread.
"Did you do it then?" Cormac McLaggen exclaimed, leaning around several of his friends. "Pick a fight on the first day and put us in dead last."
"Shut up," Mina ordered, shooting him a deadly glare.
"I got in a fight," Sora muttered, picking the crust off what remained of the roll. "I didn't start one." She stuffed another bite in her mouth.
"What happened?" Usagi asked, much more softly than Mina.
Sora glanced up at her. "They were two Slytherins girls" She began, and their friends at the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables who were sitting close enough all leaned across the listen.
They'd cornered her in the courtyard, according to Sora. Or rather, they'd cornered another muggleborn student to taunt them and Sora'd stepped between them. And they must have been members of the Inquisitorial Squad, Mina surmised, as they'd known all about Michiru's sailor form and had told Sora that none of her sister's special powers were going to help her against Death Eaters if she couldn't even stand up to a dementor.
Sora'd then attempted to punch them, and one had been quick enough to cast Levicorpus on her, swinging her up into the air by her ankle, accidentally twisting it. The second had made a point of saying no one liked Slytherins who joined the wrong side of the war, and cast a boxing hex towards her eye.
"And that was when my wand decided to work," Sora told them. "It hit them with really hot water. I think it burned them."
"Good," Mina, Rei, and Ron declared at the same time. "Are they here?" Mina asked, glaring across the Great Hall at the Slytherin table.
"They're still in the hospital wing," Sora said, pushing around the peas that Usagi'd put on her plate. "I left early. I didn't want to miss dinner." She lifted her fork away from her plate "The water pushed up the sleeves on one's robes." She said, "She had this drawn on it." and they all looked at the shape she'd made with the peas, a green snake twining through what all familiar with the image she was trying to portray knew to be a skull.
"You said it was drawn?" Hermione said.
"Yeah – the water made the ink run."
"So the Slytherins are drawing fake dark marks on their arms now," Ron said. "Reckon they have junior initiation ceremonies in there?"
"They could be trying to show their allegiance to Malfoy," Harry said. "He's got the real thing."
"You don't know that," Hermione cautioned.
"But I'm right – I know it." Harry said, glaring over at the platinum blond Slytherin.
"I don't see Pansy," Ginny said. "So she was one."
"She could be trying to impress Draco," Ron mused.
"See Hermione," Harry said.
"Well... we would need more evidence," Hermione said. "I know he's awful Harry, but he's our age..."
"Hermione's right," Usagi sighed. "We need proof." She propped her head up on her hand, staring glumly at the table. "I don't like Chibiusa being in that house," Usagi worried. Upon hearing her, Ami stood up from the Ravenclaw table and put her hands on Usagi's shoulders.
"Chibiusa will be fine," Ami told her, and their quick glances over showed the Slytherin first year certainly seemed to have garnered no ill will from her housemates so far. It even appeared Chibiusa had made some friends: she was laughing with two first year twins, and even seemed to have convinced the younger Slytherins that Hotaru and Megumi were alright, as they were all huddled together across the aisle from each other. "She's very capable," Ami said to Usagi. "After all, haven't you taught her everything she knows?"
Usagi smiled. "Of course." And she directed her attention back to Sora. "I don't understand though." She frowned at the first year who was now spearing her food with angry stabs of her fork. "How did that lose you thirty points? They attacked you."
Sora scowled again. "The Slytherin professor found us as I got them with the water." She looked up at the staff table. "The greasy one."
"Snape," Ron cursed.
"He took ten from them and thirty from me," Sora said. "And I've got detention."
"Of bloody course," Ron muttered. "Suppose you can hex him back tomorrow, Harry?"
"Ron!"
"What?"
Ron and Hermione were still arguing when the dinner dishes were swapped out for the pudding. Though Mina had a distinct suspicion they'd forgotten what they were arguing about. Pudding, it also seemed, cheered Sora back to her previously exuberant self, as she was soon, to Harry's delight, wondering how difficult it would be to slip Snape a Canary Cream
And in the middle of pudding, they got one more surprise. Owls began to stream into the Great Hall with copies of the Evening Prophet, which that they dropped in students laps at all the different tables. These had been small papers reserved for special editions the last time Usagi and the senshi had seen them. But it seemed, at some point over summer, the Evening Prophet had evolved into a full-fledged paper complete with different sections, news updates from the mornings edition...
And Obituaries.
Ginny, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Neville each got a paper of their own, and Ami at the Ravenclaw table. But theirs was the largest concentration of newspapers in the hall, for it seemed barely a hundred Owls had soared in.
And no sooner had Ginny skimmed the news and begun scanning the obituaries, than the fifth year several seats down had leaned over and asked if she could borrow it.
"Sure..." Ginny said. "No one I know... and there's not much in it, well. Not much I believe anyways."
"I still wanna see," her roommate said, scanning the Obits herself. "My dad cancelled my subscription. I didn't find out until this morning when his letter showed up instead of the paper."
Ginny nodded. "That's what my mum did. Ron and I only get it thanks to Fred and George."
"Can I borrow it after her!" someone else shouted further down the table.
It was a scene playing out at every table, including at Slytherin: students passing the copies of the Prophet to their friends, dormmates, even to students at other tables, all of them with a desperate eye on the obituaries page. There were sighs of relief from around the hall as they confirmed that no one they knew had died that day.
The ritual that began with Monday's evening paper continued every morning and evening throughout the week, punctuated by two incidents. The first occured on Tuesday night when Ravenclaw's burly Keeper broke down in tears. The second happened Wednesday during Breakfast, when, one-by-one, every head in the hall turned to stare at Hannah Abbott.
The sixth year didn't notice them at all, She was laughing with Susan Bones, Akira, and Makoto describing poor Terry Boot's most recent, bumbling attempt to ask her on a date, punctuating her story with sound effects and funny faces in between bites of her pancakes.
She only noticed the paper when Ernie Macmillan glanced at her from across the table. She reached out a hand for it. "Mind?" she asked him.
And Ernie hesitated. Hannah's fork stopped halfway to her mouth and she lowered it back to her plate, instantly becoming Somber. "Ernie?" she asked.
"I'm, uh, not done with it yet." Ernie said. "Besides, there's nothing – Hannah!" She'd leaned across the table and jerked it out of his hand.
Hannah ignored him, turning to the page he'd been reading.
"Hannah?" Makoto asked when she'd been staring at the Prophet for over a minute with no reaction.
Hannah put the paper down, sliding it back across the table to Ernie, and turned her attention back to her plate. She didn't look at any of them, merely continued eating her pancakes.
"Ernie give it to me," Susan Bones demanded as Hannah continued to eat in silence. She too only took a second to find it. She whimpered, and passed it along to Makoto.
Setsuna received the Prophet that day too and her breath hitched when she saw what Hannah had seen. Right on the third page:
Timothy Abbott, Auror Trainee, 18. Last seen leaving the Ministry Tuesday at 21:03.
Timothy Abbott had been one of her hardest working students besides Morgana Avery, and he'd been a Ravenclaw to his core. He'd asked so many questions. He'd wanted to bring roller coasters to the Wizarding World...
"Now that there's a Missing Persons," Horace Slughorn, who'd managed to sit down beside her that day, said almost jovially. "I say: he hardly fits the profile for those Death Eaters though – pureblood. I knew his father. Lovely man. Now a boy his age, I'm sure they'll turn up at a club somewhere tomorrow. Probably had one too many firewhiskies. Just you wait."
"I really doubt any of us are thinking that's what's happened, Slughorn," Hooch muttered. She'd been glaring at him since he'd stolen Mcgonagall's usual seat to sit beside Setsuna. Hooch stood from her seat and clapped Setsuna on the shoulder. "It's just a missing person," She whispered as she passed.
"I'm sure these are terribly stressful," Horace carried on as Setsuna stared at Timothy's picture. "Especially as your new to the country. You know I think you're quite brave helping us with –"
"I need to go," Setsuna announced, getting up herself and following Hooch out of the Hall. She summoned the Time Doors as soon as she'd left and spent hours determinedly gazing into the sands.
But Timothy only appeared to be sleeping, in some location she could not disclose, which meant he had not gotten there himself. Or perhaps the location was hidden from her. He also, as she stared at him, shimmered: so this was a vision of what he should look like, not his true image. Which perhaps meant that had been hidden from her too, or that whichever person controlled his fate right now, was out of her reach.
Lestrange." Setsuna tightened her hands around her Garnet Rod.
She did not leave the Time Dimension again until she was assured of the state of every single one of the students who'd been in her NEWT Muggle Studies class the year before, and then she checked on the three students who'd been in her Divination class as well. All of them were fine... so far.
Wednesday was also the day that Harry got a surge of D.A. members asking if the club was resuming.
"I don't know," he told all of them in an increasingly frustrated voice. By the time the 17th person – Justin Finch-Fletchley – asked on him way to lunch, he might have shouted in his face had Ron not been there to answer first."
"It's alright if you don't want to continue it, mate," Ron told him.
"I just don't know if I can teach the D.A. and have Quidditch, and do whatever Dumbledore wants me to do," Harry sighed. "Whenever he gets around to telling me what that is." He'd been hoping for an owl of some sort since Sunday, but Dumbledore had been silent on the matter.
"I'm sure it will be soon," Ron said as they entered the Great Hall. They were early to lunch, having had a free period before, and so were spotted very quickly in the near-empty room. Makoto was already there, leaning over the Hufflepuff table with Michael Corner (who must be the Ravenclaw Captain, Harry realized). She waved them right over.
"Harry – we wanted to talk to you," she said, grinning. "You said you were going to try out every position on Gryffindor right,"
"Yeah," Harry said "I mean – I don't want to make it seem like I'm playing favorites."
"Right – I was gonna do the same thing. I mean it's only fair. And so was Corner," She grinned. "And I heard from Sprout they want to choose a new announcer too – did you have anything planned for your practice yet?"
"Uh… nothing definite," Harry said, running a hand through his hair. He hadn't thought about it at all, actually.
Makoto grinned. "Good – cause I had a plan. We'd need to book the pitch all day," she said as she began to explain.
The three captains had their practice planned by the end of lunch, and all Ron would say to anyone about the meeting was that the idea was brilliant. "You'll just have to be there on the Saturday," he would told them. Mcgonagall had been so pleased she'd actually smiled at Harry when he'd told her about it that evening, promising the announcement would be issued soon.
The Evening Prophet came again that night on the heels of about 50 school owls, all of them carrying pressed, parchment envelopes with a silver wax seal. They dropped into the hands of fifty students around the hall. Several Senshi and their friends were among the recipients – including Harry Potter
"Wa's fat?" Ron asked, pointing at the envelope with his fork as he chewed a large mouthful of potatoes.
"Dunno," Harry said, noticing that further down the table, Lavender and Parvati had received similar letters. And around him: Hermione, and Neville had also received them.
It was a strange letter for certain.
Mr. Harry Potter,
It was a delight to meet you this week in my class – superb job on the Amortenia brew, my boy. The best I've ever seen. I see a talent in you, one that I think would be further nurtured by the company of other exceptional students at Hogwarts like yourself. And I would like to invite you to join my club founded for such exceptional students. We'll be having our first informal dinner soon – a casual dinner for ten of you that I'd be most pleased to invite you to: Saturday at 17:00 in my office.
Prof. Horace Slughorn
"Weird," Rei declared, reading over Hermione's shoulder.
"What was it?" Mina asked.
"Wants Hermione to join some club," Rei said, looking at Makoto talking to that little first year who sat next to her everyday. "Looks like Makoto's got one too."
"And Ami," Usagi said. "And Hotaru… and Megumi and Chibiusa." She frowned and looked at Mina. "Did you get one?"
"Noo…" Mina frowned, looking at all the other students getting letters. "What gives?"
"They're invitations to a dinner," Harry said. "From Slughorn."
"No they're not," Hermione said, checking her own again. "Mine only says I'll be invited to a dinner with other students soon." She frowned. "Neville what about yours?"
"Same thing," he said, folding it up and stuffing it into his pocket. "Mum wrote me this morning about Slughorn," he said. "I think this is something for his Slug Club. He invites all his best students to join. Dad was in it at school. Slughorn got him his mentor at the Auror office. Apparently the Weird Sisters were members too."
"The band!" Mina exclaimed. She'd listened all of Ginny's records over the summer and knew the members by name. "Wait – ugh!" She smacked her face. "Great. I refuse to make one disgusting potion and now I'm barred from all the coolest things." She scowled and checked her watch. "And I have detention in twenty minutes."
"At least yours isn't with Snape," Sora said. She'd been all too happy to adopt Harry and Ron's opinion of the Potions-master-turned-Defence-professor. "How come I don't get a letter?"
"Cause you're a brat," Mina snapped. She scowled.
"You can go to the dinner for me," Harry offered, waving his letter towards her. "I'm not going."
Mina sighed. "No give it to Hermione or Neville, they actually got letters. Besides," she swept her hair over her shoulder, "I don't need Slughorn's stupid club."
The assertion didn't mean she stopped being irritated at her exclusion however. In fact, Mina stewed about it all the way up until Slughorn, Snape, and Sprout, the three teachers who'd issued detentions that evening, rose from their seats at the staff table, signaling all the students who'd been unfortunate enough to get stuck in them to scarf down what remained of their dinner while the teachers moved to their classrooms.
Mina waited until the last possible second to stroll into the sixth years Potions classroom. Cauldrons were lined up along the wall when she arrived.
"These are the third and fourth years," Slughorn said. "For your detention, you're to clean them. Don't worry about putting them back, I'll sort that out later."
"Fine," she said, raising her wand.
"Scourgify would be a bad solution here," Slughorn cautioned her, and he lifted a bottle of green solution, a sponge, and gloves out of his desk. "The potion residue in those particular cauldrons reacts badly to cleaning spells. Hence," he shook his head. "Why I have saved them for detention."
Mina made a face. "Fine."
"Splendid," he said. "Now you may leave as soon as you're done. I'll be in my office should there be any accidents.
Like if these turn me into a frog, Mina thought as Slughorn retreated from the classroom and to his office, which was further down the hall.
She sighed, rolling up the sleeves of her robes and muttering curses as she set about pulling on the oversized gloves and pouring the solution into the first cauldron. It fizzled and the steam nearly covered her face. Her nose wrinkled. It smells like licorice and mouth wash – gross!
It was not a simple process. For one the fumes from the cleaning were already making her hair sticky. For another, The potion residue in the cauldrons resembled everything from grease to tar. And some – like in the cauldron that had D. Creevey written on spell-o-tape on the side – had chunks of dried potion in them the consistency of old gum.
"What did you do?" she muttered as she scrubbed that one. "Brew a permanent sticking charm?" She dug the sponge into the basin of the cauldron for the eleventh time and pushed against the glob of hard potion on the bottom, gritting her teeth until – "Gah!"
The chunk flew out of the cauldron, and the cauldron flew out of her hands. She darted forwards to catch it and her foot slipped on some of the cleaning solution she'd spilled earlier in the hour. She pitched forwards, catching herself on one elbow and rolling onto her back, managing to grab the cauldron on the way down. She sighed, turning towards the closed door of the classroom rather than looking up at the fifteen Cauldrons she still had to scrub.
This is a sign, Mina thought, setting Creevey's cauldron beside her. Her arms ached from all the scrubbing, her hair stuck to her face, and she thought she'd never eat licorice again as long as she lived. I'm not getting up. I'm just going to sleep here.
She had just about decided she had to move when she heard a sound from outside: a sound no one but she or the other senshi would have heard. It was the swish of a cloak. The footfalls that should have accompanied it were absent… as though someone had muffled the sound of their feet.
She trained her eyes on the crack under the door, but could not see a bit of the dim hallway. She waited, the swish of the robes passed the classroom, and she got to her feet.
I should have at least seen the shadow of their shoes, she thought. She abandoned the cauldrons and drew her wand, creeping to the door and easing it open. She poked her head out into the hall.
No one. She frowned. Flitwick had taught her a spell last year, one to accompany smokescreens or arrow shots. "Homenem Revelio" she whispered.
There – in the classroom where the seventh years brewed – someone was inside.
She walked swiftly down the hall, right past Slughorn's office, and up to the classroom.
She turned the handle on the door. The orange shadow of the person that Homenem Revelio had lit up was not inside the classroom, but the storage closet at the back. She could see the orange light under the door.
Mina strode in, wand drawn, and crept around the side of the classroom, ducking behind the teacher's desk at the front. She leaned around the side, watching the storeroom door. Whoever was trespassing continued shuffling around inside.
"Glacius," she whispered. A thin sheet of ice spread across the floor in front of the storeroom.
The sounds of movement stopped. And she heard the handle on the storeroom door turn.
Mina jumped back as a shadow flew out of the storeroom and over her icy trap, the classroom door burst open and the shadow escaped, dousing all the candles in the room and the hallway as it passed.
Mina's heart was hammering as she stood up, gaping at the door. What the hell was that? She dashed towards the storeroom, being careful of the ice, and checked over the shelves.
But it all looked orderly: every jar, dried plant, drawer, and the frozen animals appeared as if they had not been touched. She attempted to count them, before realizing she had no idea how much of each ingredient there ought to be.
She walked out and stared at the now melting ice.
They flew over it somehow, she thought And that exit made a lot of noise…so they knew I was here.
Perhaps that meant that she scared them. Or perhaps whatever they were up to was too time-sensitive to deal with me. She gnawed her lower lip as she hastened back to the sixth year classroom where fifteen cauldrons were still left to clean and considered rushing through them, but opted not to. I don't even know where I would start to look for whoever that was, Mina thought. Well… maybe the Slytherin common room.
Malfoy, as Harry was quite sure, was up to something. And Harry, she had found, had decent instincts when it came to Voldemort and his followers. I'll see what he thinks of this.
It was another half hour before she finished her detention, and she more than happily shucked off the gloves and tossed them onto Slughorn's desk. Thank god she wouldn't have to see a cauldron again until Monday afternoon. She brushed her hair out of her face and groaned. It was slimy. She glared at the now sparkling cauldrons and the cleaning solution on one of the desks. "Whyyy," she groaned as she stalked out of the classroom.
She was walking across the ground floor towards Gryffindor Tower wondering how many showers she'd need to take to get the feeling of potions out of her hair and wondering if she were now cursed to look like Professor Snape forever when she heard another set of footfalls, loud ones, shuffling towards her.
"Wait!"
Sora? Mina thought, turning around watching the first year trying to run towards her, still favoring her right leg.
"Easy on the ankle," Mina worried, glad to see the bruise around her eye had faded since dinner.
"It's getting better," Sora said. "The nurse said it'll be fixed tomorrow."
"Well don't run on it now," Mina nagged. She looked in the direction Sora'd come from: nowhere near the Defense classroom. "Did your detention just end?" she asked.
"Nooo." Sora panted. "It was over an hour ago."
"And you…what. Went for a stroll."
"No!" she said. "I took a wrong turn… Can I follow you? I've been looking for the tower forever!"
Mina bit her lip, trying very hard not to laugh. "Fine," she waved Sora in the direction she'd been heading. She looked sideways at her. "You got lost… for an hour?"
"Peeves chased me," Sora muttered.
Mina raised an eyebrow at her. "This is the second time…are you afraid of the Poltergeist."
"No," Sora protested. "He just freaks me out."
Minako sighed. "Use Waddiwasi," she said.
"Waddi-what?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "Waddi-wasi. Trust me. You won't be disappointed."
Sora nodded, muttering the spell under her breath as Mina led them down the corridor that would take them to the tower stairs (if said stairs were in a decent mood).
Mina frowned as she thought of something. "Did you run into anyone else?" she asked.
"Just a couple kids leaving the library," Sora said. "Why?"
Mina hesitated. "There was someone down in the Potions dungeons," she confessed. "Stealing ingredients, I think."
Sora frowned. "That's really weird… it couldn't be a student."
Mina raised her eyebrows. "How do you know that?"
"Cause you couldn't possibly be tricked by a student," Sora said casually. She was smirking.
Mina glared at her. "Why you!" she began to say. Then stopped, "No you're right." Those had to have been advanced spells, she considered. "It'd have to be an older student if it was… maybe a pureblood or someone very good at Transfiguration… at least I think that was Transfiguration." She shook her head. Hermione would be the one to ask.
"What happened to your hair?" Sora asked.
Mina flushed. Running her hand through the sticky, potion-fume-tainted locks. "The potions." She groaned and mourned: "it shall never be gorgeous again – even if I clean it forever."
"Oh!" Sora took out her wand. "I can help!" And she pointed her wand at Mina. "Aguamenti!" she shouted cheerfully.
The fountain of water arched out of the wand and down on top of Mina's head before she could dodge it, leaving her soaked in cold water and potion slime. "Just when I was warming up to you," she muttered, glaring down the eleven year old.
Sora rolled her eyes. "I'm not done yet." She lifted her free hand. "This is one of the only things that still works with this Wix-magic-stuff." And Mina watched, intrigued as her hand began to glow a bright, teal color.
And so did the water covering her. Mina gaped as the grey-tinged potion residue that had been stuck to her vanished – even the stains on the sleeves of her robes. When the glow faded she was still covered in water, but she was clean.
"I take it back." She declared, running her hand through her now cleaned hair. "Maybe you aren't a demon child." She grinned at Sora. "What? You can't get rid of the water too?"
Sora shrugged. "Well… I got the gross stuff out, didn't I?"
Mina shook her head. "I guess that does get you some points." She waved her own wand over herself. The drying charm had been a necessity to master when she'd found out her hairdryer was never going to work here. "Thanks," she told Sora as they carried on towards the tower entrance. "You're alright."
They were in luck: the stairs were parked right at the end of their corridor and they climbed them without trouble. And the staircases cooperated all the way up through the fifth floor landing where they attempted to move as Mina and Sora climbed onto the first step. By then though, Mina hardly cared; wherever the stairs landed from here there would be a route up to the common room. She could already see the Fat Lady two floors above.
"Abstinence," she told the Portrait when they got there. And she swung open promptly. Mina checked her watch: 4 minutes before curfew.
"Auntie Mina," Sora said as Mina helped her climb through.
"Yeah?"
"Well… Megumi said to be really careful not to say too much… but she also said I can't lie to you. So that means I also can't let you believe a lie." She smiled at Mina. "Rei would never cheat on you."
Mina stared at her "Really?" But Akira…
Sora crossed her arms. "Duh."
Rather than glare at her, Mina grinned. "What else was I supposed to think?" She doesn't cheat on me! "Okay…good that's good. Then I can tell her about…" She froze.
It had been four days since the sorting… And no one had told Rei about Akira…
Sora snorted. "You're so busted." Then she walked away towards the dormitory stairs, leaving Mina standing in front of the portrait hole, now pale as Nearly Headless Nick.
"I'm dead," Mina murmured. "I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead."
~SMH~
By Thursday morning, the flyers about upcoming Quidditch tryouts had appeared in the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and the Gryffindor common rooms with information that piqued the entire school's interest.
All of them declared that tryouts would be the next Saturday from 10 to 2.
"It's actually brilliant!" Ron said in praise of the idea Makoto'd come up with. "We can play actual games! I mean as long as we don't put all of one house together – don't want Kino or Corner," he spat the name of the Ravenclaw captain, "Figuring out our strategy."
The flyers, Harry noticed in the morning, also declared that anyone interested in becoming an announcer for the Quidditch games should be sure to see Madam Hooch. "She must have added that," he determined.
"No one could ever top Lee," Ron declared. "D'you think they'll have them audition at try outs?"
It would have been the most talked about story of the day were it not for the other gossip that had made its way out of Gryffindor that morning – a delightful rumor that passed from Parvati Patil to Padma Patil at the beginning of breakfast and was around all four houses by the first class of the day – Minako Aino had been kicked out of her dorm.
Makoto only heard about it on Tuesday after Muggle Studies from Susan Bones, who'd got it from Lisa Turpin, who'd talked to Terry, who'd heard it from Romalda Vane who'd heard it from Padma, whose sister had seen it happen. Apparently Mina and Rei had gotten into a row. One that had resulted in Minako being kicked out of the dorm and then pitched down the stairs when they'd turned into a slide.
"But I though it only did that to boys?" Ernie Macmillan exclaimed as he walked with them.
Susan shrugged. "Maybe it reacted to Rei – I mean she can light her hand on fire, I wouldn't be surprised if she can do other wandless stuff."
"But what were they arguing about?" Makoto asked. Sure Mina and Rei squabbled daily, but never over anything that would get Mina so publically kicked out of Rei's bed.
"Well the rumor is that Mina cheated on her with someone," Susan explained
"I thought they said it was Rei?" one of the Ravenclaws walking with them said.
"Then why'd Mina get kicked out?"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Makoto raised both hands, looking between all the gossipers with a shrewd stare. All of them averted their eyes. "Who the hell started that rumor? My friends would never cheat on each other."
"But then why would she kick her out?" Susan asked.
"Ah..." Makoto frowned, thinking as they made their way to the library. "I don't know."
"Isn't your Little her sister?" Ernie asked. "Maybe she knows."
Makoto didn't ask her, but Justin Finch-Fletchley did while the rest of them leaned towards Hannah as she scanned that night's Evening Prophet for anything about her brother.
"I dunno," Akira told him, trying to read the paper over Makoto's shoulder. "But Mina and my sister fight all the time. Last week it was about who ate all the chocolate."
Hannah Abbott was passing the paper along to Susan, shaking her head. "Nothing on your Aunt either," Hannah whispered, staring down towards her empty plate.
Makoto and Susan had had a hand on each of her shoulders since she sat down though neither could think of anything to say. She'd written to her cousins and gotten a reply during their free period – still no news of Timothy. "Hannah," Makoto worried. "You should eat something."
The few newspapers rustled as they were read and passed around the silent Hufflepuff table. Hannah shrugged.
Akira got up from her seat beside Makoto and walked around her, hugging Hannah. And she slipped an apple onto Hannah's plate.
The sixth year nearly smiled. She cleared her throat. "Doesn't their fighting bother you, Akira?" she asked in the forced, casual tone she'd maintained the past two days.
Akira shook her head. "They kinda like fighting, I think. But when I have to sort it out, that's when its bad."
Makoto looked over at the Gryffindor table: Mina and Rei were separated on the bench by five of their friends, and Usagi was across from them, head darting between the two as if trying to keep up with a tennis match. "Well someone might have to talk some sense into them this time too," Makoto muttered.
Usagi was, as it happened, not trying to keep up with Mina and Rei's argument, so much as pass along both sides it as one of them was refusing to talk to the other.
"Tell Rei that I'm still sorry," Mina said.
Usagi sighed. This was the fifth apology she'd passed along, as Rei staunchly refused to acknowledge anything Mina said directly. "Mina's still sorry."
"I panicked."
"She panicked," Usagi relayed, arms crossed as she looked tiredly between them. The other sixth and fifth years around them watched the back and forth with a modicum of terror. Rei's wand was on fire. And it had been all day.
"Tell Mina, that's not an excuse."
"Tell Rei I know I was stupid."
"Clearly," Rei muttered before Usagi could tell her so.
Mina jumped on the opportunity. "She just looks so much like you."
Rei glared at her. "So you let me find out four days later?"
"Er..."
"And then worse – you had Hermione tell me," Rei lambasted her. "Who'd be a much better parent than you, come to think of it." Rei stood from the table. "In fact, now I might take your advice: find someone smart enough to actually trust me."
"Rei!" Mina jumped up from the table too as Rei left her seat. She caught her arm as she passed. "You didn't mean that."
Rei glared at her and jerked her arm away. "You know what they say about self-fulfilling prophecies." And she stormed from the hall – heels echoing across the flagstones.
When she threw open the double doors and disappeared, Mina dropped heavily back into her seat.
"She's gonna leave me," Mina moaned.
"No! Mina!" The despondent blond turned towards Usagi when she shouted. She leaned over the table and put a hand on Mina's arm. "She's just shocked. She's got to be mad while she figures out what else she feels – you know Rei."
Mina nodded. "Do you think she'll take me back?"
"Well duh!" Usagi squeezed her arm. "She loves you."
Then Sora leaned around Usagi, smirking. "But you're definitely sleeping be on the couch for a while."
Ginny and Ron snorted. Mina groaned and fell forwards towards the table, rattling the glasses and cutlery when she banged her head on the wood. "Great."
~SMH~
Mina had initially planned to tell them all the details of her encounter in detention that Thursday, but given the drama with Rei, decided to hold off until Monday, when all the senshi at Hogwarts had planned to hold their first meeting. She really hoped Rei would deign to talk to her by then. As it was, she spent the weekend on the common room couch; the stairs to the girls' dorms had not yet seen fit to let her in. She even resorted to flying up to the dormitory window on her Firebolt, only to be repelled from the window by a powerful knock-back jinx.
Rather than dwell on it though, she did something she rarely ever did: visited the library. She spent all of Saturday there, and it was so early in the term she barely saw another soul save the snappy Madam Pince.
If she couldn't sort things out with Rei, she at least had to sort out what the person thieving from the seventh year Potions storeroom had wanted. Which meant researching exactly what kinds of potions the seventh years were learning that had ingredients stored in that room.
Mina (in part due to persistence and in part due to falling asleep on the potions books) was in the library well into the evening Saturday. And so wasn't around to gripe when Hermione (in Harry's place), Parvati, and Lavender departed the common room for Slughorn's office and whatever dinner the Potions Master had planned.
It was an eclectic group of eight students who met each other in the dungeon hallway: Parvati, Lavender, and Hermione from Gryffindor; Ami from Ravenclaw; Makoto from Hufflepuff; and a scowling, strawberry-blond haired boy from Slytherin who seemed to become more and more irritated the larger the group grew. In particular, he gave Hermione a dirty glare when she descended into the Potions dungeons at five minutes of five.
"His problem what I think it is?" Makoto asked, pounding her fist into her palm.
Hermione, for her part, barely spared the fifth year Slytherin a glance. "Probably," she said. "Doesn't matter though – I hardly care by now."
"I do," Makoto said, glaring towards the Slytherin boy until he looked away.
At a minute to five they all heard twin sets of footfalls clattering through the stone corridors above, and saw Chibiusa and Hotaru race down the stairs.
"Okay," Chibiusa panted. "We're not late."
"We were testing my broom," Hotaru said. "For try outs."
Ami was frowning. So was Hermione. "So four of us have been invited…" Ami mused.
"But why Parvati, and Lavender, and… him?" Hermione wondered, looking particularly at the Slytherin boy. "Did Slughorn send out invitations at random?" As she spoke, the door of the Potion Master's office swung open.
"Good evening!" Slughorn beamed, stepping to the side of the door to let them inside. "Come, come. I dare say the house-elves have outdone themselves! Oh, Miss. Granger, this is a surprise!"
"Sorry," Hermione said. "I just – well Harry couldn't come, you see. He had a lot of homework. He thought I'd like to go instead."
"Oh how generous of him," Slughorn smiled. "Yes, yes, I'll have to catch him at the next dinner. Shame, I had really hoped he could attend my first one. But that is absolutely fine," he insisted, waving them all inside. "Now… we're waiting on one more… perhaps two though she did mention she was busy. Anyways," he waved the last of their group – the Slytherin boy – into his office. "Take a seat."
Slughorn kept his office much differently than Snape had. It was much better lit – with brightly burning candles on the side tables and the walls, and on the dinner table in the center (which, Ami realized from the designs, might well have been a transfigured desk). There were photographs all over the office too: of Slughorn at various ages standing with students, famous Quidditch stars, even several people wearing auror robes or the pressed, professional styles of high-level ministry officials. The office furniture also did not reflect Snape's previous presence at all. There was a warm, red, white, and brown knit rug covering the stone floor. And all the chairs at the dinner table, the shelves and the cabinets were built from warm, golden hued wood.
They took their seats around the table (which had covered silver dishes of all sizes spread across it). The Slytherin boy was quick to snag the seat between Chibiusa and Parvati – a Slytherin and a pureblood, Makoto noted with growing contempt. Slughorn sat directly across from them, with Hermione and Ami on either side of him. He grinned as he gestured to the covered, metal dinner dishes on the table. "Help yourselves," he said, checking the watch on his wrist. "We'll just have to wait for our two stragglers – I do hope they can make an appearance. In the meantime do we all know each other? No wait, of course not." He chuckled and waved at Chibiusa. "You're a first year – would you like to introduce yourself?"
Chibiusa grinned, sitting up straighter in her seat.
"My name's Usagi – everyone calls me Chibiusa," she said, looking at Ami and Makoto too as though she'd never met them. They did an admirable job of keeping a straight face. "I lived in Tokyo for nine years and I moved to London two years ago."
"And what do your parents do?" Slughorn asked.
"Weeeell," Chibiusa said. "My Dad's a healer, and my mom's a chef." And at that, Makoto couldn't keep from snickering.
"Splendid – yes: Chibiusa impressed me quite a bit on her first day. She's persistent and loyal, I admire those things a lot. Why I am continually surprised she isn't a Hufflepuff. Now," he smiled at the sullen, Slytherin boy next to her. "We also have Mr. Eustace Evercreech. I've heard you have the best Muggle Studies marks in your class, Eustace, my boy. Is that true?"
"Yeah," Evercreech shrugged. "I mean, I hardly think it's a real class – nothing magical about it. But mother said it might be a good bonus for a ministry job. I love Charms though."
"Well Muggle Studies is useful for a great many things," Slughorn said ignoring Evercreech's addition about Charms completely. He looked at Parvati and Lavender. "And I have a couple of other top students here: Miss. Patil and Miss. Brown. Now, you're a couple of seers, am I right?
Lavender giggled. "Yes, sir." She said. "Divination's the best class ever."
"Now that is an enthusiasm for learning I wish I could spread to every student," he beamed. "You know it is so rare to find those adept at the future seeing arts. We didn't have a Divination course for much of my tenure here, you know. I am most curious to hear about it. Now, I'm sure you know Miss. Kino…" he said, moving on and introducing the last three students. He seemed to have selected them for their academic prowess, Hermione assumed at first, for he was impressed by Ami's and Makoto's potions work, as well as her own, and spent a solid two minutes asking Makoto what it was like taking Muggle Studies as a muggleborn, and whether she'd taken similar classes with Setsuna at home (a question which resulted in an elaborate mess of lies and Ami jumping in to help).
When Slughorn got to Hotaru though, he did not mention her classes at all.
"And this is Hotaru Tomoe – Professor Meioh's daughter. You know I was quite shocked to learn someone her age had a twelve year old."
"Uh…" Hotaru blanked.
"Professor Meioh is her step-mother," Ami supplied.
"Erm…right." Hotaru said, fidgeting in her chair.
"Ah, yes, well that would make sense. I say, she's quite young to have two professorships. How old is she, Hotaru."
Hotaru glanced at Chibiusa "Twenty..."
"Eight," Chibiusa supplied.
"Yeah. Twenty eight." Hotaru nodded.
Slughorn's eyebrows rose. "And she's managed to raise you and become so professionally accomplished in such a short time. My goodness. Did she do similar work in Tokyo?"
Hotaru squirmed in her seat at being the center of attention and looked to the other senshi for help.
"She was a researcher," Ami jumped in, "for a muggle university,"
"Yeah she could probably teach physics even better than Muggle Studies," Makoto chuckled.
"I see - and what is Physics?"
"It's like Arithmancy," Ami supplied while Hotaru tried to lean back in her chair lest Slughorn want to call on her again. "It has equations and formulas as well, but to describe how the universe works. They use it in everything from muggle transportation to astronomy."
"Fascinating," Slughorn said as he passed a basket of bread around the table. "And by all accounts she's changing the face of Muggle Studies, is that true Mr. Evercreech?"
Evercreech shrugged, "I guess she teaches differently than Babbage… I dunno."
"Hmm," Slughorn pursed his lips in clear disappointment. "A shame, well perhaps Miss. Kino could give some insight."
"I mean she's been my only teacher, and I'm muggleborn," Makoto said, "but she even manages to surprise me a lot so I think they're cool classes."
"I've heard they're brilliant," Hermione threw in. "She's letting me take the OWL late so I can enroll in that class."
"Now that is ambition – to cram three years of study into a few weeks or months."
"Well being muggleborn helps," Hermione said. "But I think it'll be so worth it."
"You know," Lavender Brown jumped in, eager to get Slughorn's attention back. "I heard a rumor Professor Meioh didn't know Divination at all before Dumbledore asked her to teach. Now she's as good as Trelawney."
"I think she'd better, actually," Parvati said earning a startled look from Lavender. "Well she is."
"Truly?" Slughorn asked, looking eagerly between the four senshi.
"She didn't know your Divination, but she knew ours just fine," Hotaru muttered.
"Fascinating," Slughorn said, sipping his wine. "Dumbledore told me a bit about her – he was quite good to tell me about all the newer professors when I signed on – And he claimed she could master a subject in no time at all."
"Well she does have those special doors." Lavender giggled as all the senshi and Hermione looked uncomfortably between each other. "I think I make my best predictions in class there."
"And it's no wonder she knows so much," Parvati said. "She spends all her time working." She sighed. "I can't believe someone as pretty as her doesn't have a boyfriend."
Chibiusa covered her face with her hand, to keep from laughing, and Hotaru crossed her arms and ducked her head to hide her blush. This was not a discussion about her mother she wanted any part of.
Slughorn though seemed perfectly happy with the avenue of conversation. He tisked. "Spending all her time working, well that wont do." he smiled jovially at Parvati and Lavender. "I supposed I understand now why she said she was busy tonight. You know I think we should all ask if she'll make time for the next one of these dinners, Don't you think it'd be good for her to take a break, Hotaru?"
"She doesn't like parties," Hotaru said, giving Slughorn a hard stare. "So, no."
He seemed not to recognize her warning look though. He waved a dismissive hand "Oh perhaps just one. Why I have been hosting dinners like this for the students and faculty for decades. And I've found in all my years here that those who work their days away are often those who could benefit from parties and companionship the most."
"You seem quite interested in her, Professor," Parvati giggled. And around the table, varied looks of disgust were shared between the senshi: from Ami's slight grimace to Hotaru turning green.
Horace Slughorn, rather than deny it, merely smiled as he took a long sip of his wine, causing Lavender and Parvati to exchange delighted looks and stifle giggles.
"Well," Slughorn said at last. "I am interested in getting to know any person who is so exceptional."
"You know she's not my only mom," Hotaru blurted out. "I've got three," she said with a pointed look at Slughorn. "They all raise me together."
"Oh... oh well how delightful," Slughorn chuckled. "That's lovely that your step-mother has such good friends to help her care for you."
Hotaru sighed, slumping backwards in her chair.
~SMH~
While Hotaru was wishing desperately for an excuse to leave Slughorn's stupid dinner, Setsuna was sequestered away in her office in the northern most wing of the castle. And she had a perfectly good reason for turning down Slughorn's invitation. He had more than understood her excuse of having papers to grade.
Though that was not her reason for skipping the dinner. Rather, it was the future, which clearly showed she was expecting a visit from someone else who had passed up the dinner party.
She was setting aside the fourth year Muggle Studies assignments and had just transitioned over to the fifth years when there was a soft knock at her office door and it was pushed open. The tall, thin first year Ravenclaw slipped through and trained her startling red eyes on Setsuna.
"Hi," Megumi said, clasping her hands behind her. "I'm sorry I haven't been to see you earlier."
"Well you've had a very busy first week of classes, it's understandable," Setsuna said. She twirled her pen between her fingers as she looked at Megumi. "I've been very curious what's brought you all here – especially given the risk of so many variables coming back in time."
"It's not ideal," Megumi agreed. "But I did not think I could do this independently. Chibiusa's experience is especially valuable."
"And what do you need to do?" Setsuna asked, tilting her head to the side.
"This timeline is very volatile," Megumi said. "And there is a danger that your timeline will split from ours." Setsuna's eyes widened as Megumi continued. "I'm here to try and prevent that."
Setsuna set down her pen. "Because my sight is limited – And I've spared barely a thought for Crystal Tokyo how foolish – How much can you see here?" Setsuna asked.
Megumi looked down towards her shoes, thinking for a few moments. Finally she said. "I can see the path we are on vaguely… but the magic here is making it a lot harder to see changes or details."
"It was that way for us all last year," Setsuna said. "There is a potion – I can have Professor Snape brew it for you. It brings back one's sight to a certain degree. It isn't perfect but…"
"That'd be really good," Megumi said quickly, nodding her head several times.
"When you can see clearly, I need you to tell me something," Setsuna said. "Whether you can see a Bellatrix Lestrange."
Megumi frowned. "There's… someone you can't see?"
Setsuna shook her head. "Her timeline appears normal, except that it does not account for any of the decisions she has made in the last thirty-five days."
"Lestrange…" Megumi muttered. Goosebumps rose on the back of Setsuna's neck as Megumi bit her lip and made the same face Setsuna knew she did when she was thinking hard about something. "I'll look for her," Megumi nodded at last.
Setsuna stood slowly from her desk, staring at the child who continued to be unnervingly similar to herself. It is still impossible, she persistently thought. She was the Eternal Guardian of Time and yet this girl…
"Who are you?" Setsuna whispered.
Megumi looked up at her. Setsuna'd never realized her own eye color looked that serious. "I'm a Guardian of Time," Megumi said after a minute.
"And there can only ever be one Guardian of Time," Setsuna repeated as she often had this week, a fact she'd known for as long as she'd existed. "So I can infer that in your time, I no longer exist."
"That is the conclusion Hotaru has reached as well," Megumi said.
Little One… Setsuna clenched her hands into fists, hanging her head and staring at an empty spot on her desk. Of course she would realize it. Hotaru'd questioned Setsuna about her duty enough to know it as well as she did. How could I not think to check on her. To learn this – especially after her father. She shook her head. "I'll speak with her." Setsuna said, looking back at Megumi, whom, she realized, had dodged her question. "Still… I do not understand: You look quite similar to me."
Megumi nodded her head. "It is…" she hesitated, "as coincidental as anything. The forces in the universe that create the Guardian of Time made us both from the same elements. Technically," Megumi smiled. "It is actually quite accurate to call us cousins." Setsuna nodded as well, and her gaze settled on one of the stacks of papers on her desk, she stared at the purple "E" she'd just written across the top-most essay.
After a while, she looked back up at Megumi. She had to be sure. "Then you are not my daughter?"
Megumi shook her head. And (unseen by Setsuna) crossed two fingers behind her back.
~SMH~
By Monday at lunch, Rei was still not speaking to Minako, and there was a new consensus between Hotaru and her sixth year friends that Horace Slughorn was far, far too interested in Setsuna. Hotaru herself seemed to have made keeping the two apart her personal mission. She intercepted Slughorn's attempts to sit next to her at breakfast and lunch on Monday: at breakfast by getting Luna to help her block his route up the aisle until the seats beside Setsuna were taken, and at lunch by casting a rudimentary cutting charm at the legs of Slughorn's chair. The second had failed to work. Slughorn had simply repaired the chair.
And worse: her mother had noticed.
"I don't know what you have against him," Setsuna told her, smiling brightly as they walked out onto the sunny grounds after lunch. "He's fairly over-eager at times, and quite curious. But he's a wonderful teacher. Even Mcgonagall says so."
"But he's,"
"What?" Setsuna asked, still smiling.
"Interested in you," Hotaru insisted.
Setsuna chuckled. "That's not it at all, Hotaru, I promise," she said. "He's merely very academically curious."
Hotaru pouted, watching Setsuna's bright smile. "You're happy," she observed. "Did you see something good?"
"I saw something very good," Setsuna told her. She'd spent the last day and a half in the Time Dimension experimenting with the Wix divining techniques and it had heartily paid off early this morning. "It's information for the meeting," she told Hotaru. By now they could both see the four sixth year senshi standing on top of a grassy slope. It was a perfect view of the open field where Madam Hooch was conducting the first years' first flying lesson.
"How are they doing?" Setsuna asked, standing beside Makoto.
"Chibiusa got it in three tries," Usagi beamed, pointing her out between the Carrow twins, who were still trying to yell their broomsticks off the ground. Chibiusa was holding hers in both hands, bouncing on her toes in excitement the same way Usagi was doing now.
"Sora got it in two seconds," Mina said.
"Hooch has already gone up to her twice to tell her not to try flying yet," Ami chuckled.
"And my Little's got hers too," Makoto boasted.
"She's helping everyone else get theirs." Rei (who was standing several paces away from Mina) said. She nodded towards Akira who was currently coaching a red-faced Ravenclaw boy through summoning the broom. "Because she's a considerate person." She glared at Mina. "Clearly she's not yours."
Mina sighed, "When will I be forgiven for this?"
"Not quickly," Rei retorted.
"But… what was I supposed to think?" Mina sputtered.
"Something other than that I would cheat on you."
"But – oh come on!" She glanced around at the others. "Guys…you thought the same thing."
"I was confused," Makoto said, smirking at her. "You're the only one who jumped to infidelity."
"It seemed entirely out of character for Rei," Ami agreed.
"Yeah – she'd have broken up with you way before she cheated," Usagi threw in. "I think you need to trust her more, Mina – Mamo-chan would trust me."
Mina's shoulders slumped. She glanced at Rei. "Of course I trust you," she said. "It's just that you're incredible, and I got scared I wouldn't be enough for you. Plus you're beautiful – Everyone wants to date you. You could take your pick!"
Rei's blush was perfectly clear on the rare sunny day. "Of course I could have whomever I want," she said, brushing her hair over her shoulder and glancing sideways at Mina. She smiled, holding out her hand. "But I love you."
The other inner senshi grinned and Usagi squeaked as Mina and Rei clasped hands.
"And," Rei said. "Why the hell would I be stupid enough to cheat on the Goddess of Love?" She smirked. "I'm not giving you up for anything."
Mina's smile turned mischievous and she wagged her eyebrows at Rei. "Really."
"Speaking of," Rei whispered in Minako's ear (considerate of Hotaru's presence though she hardly cared about the rest of their friends' blushes). "There's much better ways you could be apologizing to me."
Mina brought Rei's hand to her mouth and kissed it. "What'd you have in mind?"
"Guys!" Usagi whined.
"Oh like you're won't be just the same when you get Mamoru back," Rei retorted, turning back towards the flying practice. Hooch had just given the go ahead for all the first years to mount their brooms.
Mina waited until Hooch had all the first years hovering a safe three feet off the ground, before starting out their meeting. "To start with," she said. "Something happened in detention last week." And she relayed to them the entire episode of the invisible person she'd caught stealing from the storeroom.
"Did you have any luck determining what they took?" Ami asked.
But Mina shook her head, eyes on the first years as Hooch coached them through how to control their ascent. "There was too much information to go through in those books. And I don't have a complete inventory of the potions storeroom."
"Then perhaps it'd be best to ask Horace what rare ingredients he keeps," Setsuna said. "Ones not easily ordered."
All the senshi nodded. "Any luck with Lestrange?" Mina asked her
"As a matter a fact," Setsuna began to say when a sharp movement from the flying class caught their attention – Megumi had just shot up fifty feet in the air, and was pressed against her broom as it continued to climb. Setsuna stiffened, hand going to her wand. Hooch was already streaming up towards the first year when a sharp, highland wind blew past and knocked her from the broom.
Setsuna whipped her wand out, about to halt her descent, when a streak of turquoise and then maroon broke free of the group of first years, Sora dove after Megumi, catching her by the wrist, and Akira zoomed up after the errant broom, chasing and retrieving it before it could disappear over the forbidden forest.
Setsuna and the others sighed in relief.
"Do you think they'll try for Quidditch?" Makoto asked the others.
While they debated (Mina insistent that the Gryffindor team remain Sora-free for her own sanity) Setsuna tried to regain her composure. Megumi was safely on the ground now. And from the look of it, Madam Hooch had told her she could sit out the rest of the lesson.
You're being ridiculous. Setsuna chastised herself as she pulled the flask from her belt and uncorked it, gulping down some of the steaming liquid inside.
Hotaru wrinkled her nose, glancing up at Setsuna. "What is that?"
"Pepper-up potion." Setsuna told her. "I need it after this weekend."
"What did you do?" Mina asked.
Setsuna smirked. "I discovered that Lestrange has not covered her tracks nearly as well as she thinks. I caught a glimpse of her this morning."
"You didn't work all weekend did you?" Usagi worried.
Setsuna though brushed off her concerns. "I won't need to anymore as long as it's possible to see her. And," she took another sip of the potion. "I expect we'll see at least one of her hiding places overturned by the weekend."
~SMH~
The evidence of some action came on Wednesday, with the arrival of the Daily Prophet:
"ANCIENT PUREBLOOD PROPERTY RANSACKED" the headline said. Setsuna read through the description of the destroyed and looted manor house in Cornwall with growing satisfaction. The dark objects in the house had been confiscated or destroyed, and two Death Eaters had even been apprehended by vigilantes whose description perfectly matched Sailors Uranus and Neptune. But Setsuna frowned when she reached the end of the article. She read it over again. And then again, a third time.
Everything was exactly as her vision of Lestrange had predicted except the paper said nothing about recovered hostages.
She looked to the Hufflepuff table. Any minute now, the large barn owl with her brother's letter would arrive for Hannah Abbott, telling her he was alright, safe, would write to her again soon. Setsuna waited all through breakfast.
But the owl never came. Hannah continued staring despondently at her breakfast.
They should have found him, Setsuna thought, summoning the Time Doors the second she could excuse herself from breakfast. I saw it.
But the sands of time only revealed the same timeline Lestrange had had when she'd glimpsed her future on Monday – no new decisions taken into account. And Timothy Abbott was as hidden from her sight as he had been when he'd gone missing the week before. Not even employing the technique with a crystal ball which she had resorted to Monday showed her anything different.
Setsuna clenched her fists. Lestrange had predicted her attack. And somehow, between now and Monday, had slipped back out of Setsuna's reach.
~SMH~
Something had happened, the senshi determined as their second week at Hogwarts continued. They barely saw Setsuna all of Wednesday through Saturday morning. Uranus and Neptune had had some mission, and from the paper it appeared to have been a successful one too. But the sullen and broody mood they'd glimpsed on Setsuna's face the few times they saw her that week said otherwise.
They weren't sure at first if they would see her Saturday either. But she'd promised Hotaru that she would be there for her Quidditch try outs. And she made good on that promise. Hotaru spotted her in the teacher's box with Hooch and Mcgonagall as she and her sixth and fifth year friends made their way out of the castle and across the dewy grounds.
As the large group that included the senshi and their Gryffindor cohorts approached the Quidditch pitch, they could make out many students – even several in Slytherin green – already out in the stands, all of them eager to watch, and there were surely just as many hidden within the bounds of the pitch ready to try their luck at making the house teams.
"Suppose they're here to watch or to spy?" Ron asked, glaring towards one stand that had only Slytherin students.
"Bit of both, I bet," Mina muttered.
"Let'em spy then," Makoto said, smirking. "We're gonna scare'em right off their brooms."
"Yeah!" Ginny said, holding out her hand to give Makoto a high five.
Harry'd been staring up at the Slytherin stands as well, and so was the first to spot the dark spec when it appeared below the grey clouds. He stopped short, drawing his wand. "Heads up."
All through the cluster of students, wands and one glaive were pointed towards the sky.
"It's only a broomstick," Mina determined after a minute, though they all kept their wands pointed towards the rider.
Or rather, they could see as the broom approached the pitch: two riders sharing the same broom.
"They don't look like Death Eaters," Neville commented. And it was clear to the rest of them too as the broomstick circled lower, gradually nearing the ground. The rider on the front of the broom was wearing muggle jeans that no Death Eater would be caught dead in. And the second rider, pressed against their back, had bright turquoise hair whipping behind her.
Hotaru gasped, vanishing her glaive as the two riders landed softly in front of the pitch. She sprinted away from the group towards the two women. The blond knelt as soon as she saw her, holding out both arms for Hotaru to run into them.
"Haruka! Mama!"
~I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good~
