Harry Potter
and the
Feathers of Freedom
Chapter Four
Unexpected Saviour
"Alright, pair up with your foxes!" Aletheia motioned to them with her hands. On cue, the students settled into the field and silently waited for their partners. Today was Friday afternoon, and the last class of the day. They were all tired and were glad to have the weekend arrive.
Draco sat and immediately Obsidian jumped into his arms. Draco smiled slightly, actually happy to see his small friend, "Hello."
"Young Master Draco, how are you feeling today?" Obsidian questioned.
"I'm fine." Draco answered, "And you?"
"Just great."
"Your lovely wife?"
"Spinel is fine, thought I must remember to tell her you asked about her."
"Whatever for?"
"You're a most polite young man. A fine scholar indeed." Draco scoffed disbelievingly. Obsidian turned his head to the side in confusion, "Why do you mock yourself?"
Draco looked sad for a moment before an expressionless look masked him, "I'm no great scholar. All the teachers here at this school hate me, except maybe Professor Snape, and I definitely know most of the students either want to kill me or worship me. I'd like neither, thank you. I'm not a good student. The teachers are always sending me to detention, and sometimes it's not even my fault."
"Aletheia has not sent you to detention now have she?" Obsidian questioned.
"Now but she will. For the same reason everyone else does: I'm a Slytherin, and the other student doesn't have to get into trouble because it's obviously the Slytherin's fault. It's always our fault."
"Draco!" A small voice called to him.
Draco stood and turned, Obsidian on his shoulder. He faced Chaele, who was inside the pen with Hagrid, the other first year Hufflepuffs, and the Unicorns.
"Hey!" Chaele waved friendlily at him.
"Hello, Chaele." Draco said in a questioning voice.
"Miss Fortunata, come back to class!" Hagrid's voice boomed.
"Oh, coming!" Chaele shouted back. "I've gotta go, Draco, but it was nice seeing you again. Cute fox!" In the next moment Chaele was gone.
"Sweet girl." Obsidian said.
"Yeah." Draco stated.
"Remember, students," Aletheia brought Draco back to reality, "You must be gathering information on your fox, any information really, but mostly on the magical properties of your fox. You may continue."
"Faelan!" A boy dressed in silver and green reprimanded his friend. The boy was thirteen, had short black hair and amber brown eyes. He was clearly a Slytherin.
"What, Cereus?" Faelan asked. Faelan was a brown haired thirteen year old, it long and tied back into a ponytail. His eyes were brown as well, but extremely light brown. His hair was a natural grey, dappled with whites and browns like an owl.
"It's bad enough that you succeeded in convincing me to skip class with you, but do you have to use that owl!?"
Both Faelan and Cereus were in the Owlery. Faelan was tying a letter, a rather long and thick one at that, to an old barn owls leg. The barn owl was old and looked in need of retirement.
"What's wrong with this owl?"
"That one flies too low. It droops. He could crash into something. Can't you pick another one?"
"All the other ones are out."
"Or they don't like students who skip class." Verity, Ziba's sixth year Gryffindor friend, stood in the owlery doorway.
"Verity!" Faelan gulped.
"Who's she?" Cereus questioned, peering at her questioningly.
Faelan rolled his eyes, "An annoying lady who won't stop annoying me."
"Yes, that may be so, but at least I don't skip class."
"And exactly what're you doing now, hm?"
"I've got to send a letter for my teacher." Verity answered.
Verity lightly clicked three times and a silvery owl came to her. She expertly tied the note on her leg and let her fly out the window.
"You need to get back to class." Verity said, "The both of you."
"Yeah but…" Faelan looked forlorn.
Verity raised an eyebrow to him, "What's up, Faelan?"
"This is a letter to my Mom and Dad!" Faelan said "They're fighting on the forefronts against the Dark Side! Nobody knows it, but it's getting really dangerous out there. I wanted to see if they were alright."
Verity sighed, "Okay. Send your letter."
"Thanks." Faelan and Cereus went to the window and looked at the grounds below. They saw so many people, and the beautiful graceful glow of the Unicorns. "Please don't fall." With that, Faelan let the owl fly.
The owl flew, but it began to drop. It fell right into the Unicorn pens, flying low to the ground, scaring them half to death. They began to stampede!
The students inside the Unicorn pen screamed, running about. "Alright, students!" Hagrid shouted, "Over to that side of the pen while I round them up!"
Unicorns ran around the pen in a stampede, looking for a way to escape the "monstrous" owl that was "attacking" them. Hagrid chased after them, but they were so quick that he lagged behind the Unicorns. There was only one student left on the field. She was Chaele, chasing after the old owl. Everyone had forgotten about him, and he was going to be trampled if Chaele didn't shoo him forwards. But the Unicorns were behind her!
"What on Earth?" Aletheia, from her observing hill, peered at the chaotic pen. Bewildered, Aletheia watched an owl flap its wings tiredly, with a girl chasing after it that looked exactly like Chaele, followed by a herd of Unicorns, followed by a lumbering black bush that looked a lot like Hagrid. "Sister!?"
"Is this some strange human sport I should know about?" Spinel questioned, cocking her head to the side.
A little ways away, the other students had begun to take notice as well. Among them, Ziba stood up from her red fox. Her eyes were wide, shouting, "Chaele!"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione, too, had noticed. "What's going on?" Hermione said.
"The Unicorns are stampeding!" Ron exclaimed.
"Chaele'll be trampled!" Harry shouted.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood at attention, leaping forwards towards the gates.
"Look!" Blaise exclaimed.
Fluorspar turned to attention. Her eyes widened.
"Chaele…" Draco dropped Obsidian and moved to action.
"Next time fly higher!" Chaele waved goodbye to the old owl, forgetting about the Unicorns behind her.
"Chaele!" Ziba screamed, "Behind you!!"
Chaele, confused, turned. The Unicorns bore right down on her. Her eyes widened, her mouth open in shock, and she froze in fear.
"Chaele!!" Six different people screamed, trying to get her to move.
The next moment, Chaele felt herself flying to the side, with an impact a lot softer than that of a Unicorn's hooves. Chaele never hit the ground, but instead had landed on something soft. The Unicorns' ran past her.
Chaele pulled back to find that Draco had saved her.
"Chaele!" Ziba, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were about to jump over the fence when Aletheia stopped them.
"All students report to the far side of the pen, away from the Care of Magical Creatures' pen!" Aletheia shouted. When the four ignored her, Aletheia added, "All of you, including you four. No exceptions."
Aletheia crossed over the gates and walked to the Care of Magical Creatures class. The Unicorns were still running, but they'd calmed a bit and were inclined to stay away from the class.
"What happened!?" Aletheia demanded from Hagrid.
"Well…I…Uh…"
"You know what, never mind." Aletheia turned from Hagrid and walked over to where Draco was helping Chaele up. "Are you alright, Miss Fortunata?"
Chaele looked surprised at the formality but recovered quickly, "I'm alright…Professor. Um, Mister Malfoy was able to save me."
"Good. Please return to your class."
"Yes." Chaele turned to Draco and said, "Thank you." Chaele then left to join her fellow Hufflepuffs.
"Are you hurt?" Aletheia inquired at Draco.
Draco looked at her and answered, "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
Draco nodded.
"Okay, then get back to the class. Further addressing of the class will be taken in a short while. Please tell your classmates that as well."
Draco raised a questioning brow and then turned to go back to the Sixth Year pen.
Aletheia breathed in deeply and turned back to Hagrid, "Professor Hagrid, I would like to talk to you a moment."
"Um, sure." Hagrid trundled over.
"Okay," Aletheia spoke in a low tone so that no one else could hear them, "I don't even want to know what happened. Please, just don't let it happen again. If you're going to have a class with large animals, please limit the amount of animals you use. It's endangering of students."
Aletheia turned around, walking back to the class.
"Varick," A girl, a fourteen year old Ravenclaw, waved a hand in front of the boy.
Varick shook his head, "Wha –? Huh?"
Caelum Stars looked concerned at her friend. Caelum had dark black hair and amber eyes. "What's gotten into you lately? It's not what they said…Is it?"
Varick blinked at her and said, "No, not really. I'm used to it."
"Then what is?" Caelum questioned.
"Hey, you two!" Adira ran up to them. "Ready to go get dinner?"
"Yeah," Varick said, relieved to drop the previous subject, "Let's go find my little sister."
A group of laughing Gryffindors walked by. It was a mixture of two fifth years and two fourth years, two classmates of Varick, Adira, and Caelum's. Ginny was amongst them.
One of the fourth years glanced over at Adira and Varick. A grin played on her face and she leaned over to whisper something to Ginny.
"Lisa!" Ginny said accusingly, but laughed hysterically along with the rest of the group.
Varick turned away from the group. He motioned to leave when Adira stopped him.
"Don't let them get you down."
"I'm not."
"Varick…"
"I'm sick of the rumors, Adira. I've already told you and Caelum why…"
"Just ignore them." Adira continued firmly.
Another loud laugh came from the group, and they began to sing, "Adira and Varick sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage –!"
Caelum, easily the more hot and furious one of the group, turned on them, "Will shut up!? Gods, all of you are at least fourteen and fifteen and you act like you're five years old!"
"Look Ginny," Lisa said, "Maybe Caelum likes Varick too." The group began to laugh and proceeded to chant again, only replacing "Adira and Varick" with "Adira, Varick, and Caelum" this time.
"Is there a problem here?" A handsome boy asked them, seeming to come out of nowhere. His hair was dark black, his eyes a mysterious dark blue black. His skin was a tad pale, and he was tall, intelligent, and had a small air of arrogance.
The Gryffindor girls looked at him, blushing and giggling. Even though he was a fifth year Slytherin, the teenaged girls couldn't help like the stoic and mysterious boy.
The girls crowded on around him, and from over their heads, the boy winked at Varick, Adira, and Caelum. Sighing, they took their cues. Adira and Caelum, like every other girl, rushed over to him, chattering on and on about something.
"Now, now ladies," The boy said, "I feel the need to pick just two of you to sit with today." The boy looked to Adira and Caelum, "How about you two?"
"Oh, no, they can't." Lisa objected.
"Yeah, they're dating Varick Fortunata." Ginny agreed.
"All the same, I like a challenge." The boy looped each arm around one of the two's shoulder and walked away with them. At the loss of the boy, the girls' hearts "broke" and they began to "cry". In the midst of the situation, Varick slipped away to join his friends.
Aecio Cane had long since dropped his arms from the two girls. He smiled as Varick approached them. He looked sheepish and said with a modest blush on his cheeks, "Thanks, Aecio."
"No problem, Varick." Aecio clapped him on the shoulder. "Shall we go have dinner?"
"Uh, let me get Chaele first." Varick said, "You three go on ahead."
"Okay, Varick. Suit yourself. Come on you two."
"Honestly, by now you'd think those idiots back there would've realized that you and Adira can't start going out." Caelum said logically, "You two are siblings, after all."
Aletheia, once again, was on top of the school roof. The stars shined high above, twinkling their merriment down at Aletheia, taunting her, never sharing their merriment with her. Aletheia smiled her forlorn smile as usual. So many looked up at these skies and found hope in them, looked up at the moon and felt a sense of wonder. What she found wasn't hope, but was reminded of the millions she could hurt if she didn't stay in control. The moon didn't fill her with a sense of wonder, but a sense of desperation. Away, on the moon, if she were somehow able to reach it, no one would be around to hurt.
She needed someone or something to give her hope, but there was no one. She needed to stop feeling this way, but there was no one.
She needed a guardian, a Saviour.
To Be Continued...