Disclaimer: I own nothing at all. Not even my own sanity, as evidenced in the fact that I'm actually writing a cross-over.
As Sakura was looking over her schedule on the first morning of classes, Professor Sprout moved over to her table. The cheerful Hufflepuff teacher smiled warmly and stopped in front of the two foreign students.
"Miss Kinomoto, Miss Daidouji, I do hope you are settling in well. I'm sorry that I didn't speak with you last night, but some very important matters came up." She frowned worriedly for a moment.
"No, it is alright." Sakura rushed to reassure the professor. "We are very happy to be here."
Tomoyo smiled calmly. "The older students were very helpful. Everyone has been very nice to us.
"How wonderful," Professor Sprout beamed at them. "We do have some marvelous people in Hufflepuff and I'm very happy to welcome you to our House. Now, Miss Kinomoto, your familiar—Cerberus, the paper from the Ministry said? The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and the History professor would like to examine it at some point. They're very curious about it."
Sakura peered over at Kero, who was still preening under the attention of the other students. "Yes, I think that would be well. Ah, I was wondering, what should he do while I am in class? He is bored very easily and I do not wish him to cause trouble for anyone."
Professor Sprout smiled benevolently. "The Headmaster has decided that it may be allowed to go anywhere that the students are allowed to go, as long as it doesn't cause any trouble. I'm afraid it might be too much of a distraction in class, although I might allow you to bring it in one time to see."
At that moment, Kero let out an outraged screech from further down the table.
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By the time breakfast at the hotel was over, Sakura and Kero were determinedly not talking to each other. If she was honest with herself, Sakura wasn't entirely sure what they were fighting about. She had woken up feeling out of sorts and suddenly everything about Kero simply seemed to irritate her.
Sakura hadn't slept well. She had dreamed of the ravens from the Tower, their black eyes glittering at her with alien emotions, their harsh cries rending her senses until she cried blood. She stumbled in the snow trying to escape the echoing sound and tearing her skin on burning cold shards of ice. The great birds watched her dispassionately, hunched together on a large dead tree. The dreams, disjointed and nightmarish had continued throughout the night and Sakura had woken trembling more than once.
Kero adamantly refused to be left in the hotel again, and Tomoyo offered to let him ride in her purse. Sakura ignored the small creature as best she could. The Japanese group was going to Kew Gardens, where they would have lunch before joining Meiling and Li again for a trip to Diagon Alley.
It was an awkward ride to the Gardens, with Kero fuming and Sakura in an unusually quiet mood. Tomoyo was worried for her friend and Sonomi even cut off a phone call from Japan to ask if the subdued girl was alright. Kero stuck his head out of Tomoyo's bag surreptitiously.
Sakura quickly smiled. "I'm alright. I just didn't sleep well last night. Thank you, but please don't worry." She made an effort to banish the dream-images that had been haunting her to the back of her mind. "I'm lucky to have such caring people around me! Oh look! There they are!"
The Royal Botanical Gardens were beautiful. Huge green lawns were dotted with exotic trees and carefully maintained flowerbeds. After a couple of hours wandering along the paths and through some of the greenhouses, Sonomi led the girls to a small brick house that the map labeled as toilets. Inside, they turned away from the restrooms and down a small, dark hall that ended at a door with a sign that said only "Authorized Personnel Only."
For the first time in the trip, Sonomi pulled out a wand. Sakura blinked in surprise; although she had known that Tomoyo's mother owned a wand, she hadn't really thought of the woman as ever needing to use it. Over the summer, Sonomi had shown the girls a few family charms, but none of them had required a European style wand. Sakura's own wand was in the bottom of her backpack, along with the Cards. The Key was, as always, safely around her neck, in case of any emergency. Absent-midedly, she started to run her finger over the pendent.
However, Sonomi simply tapped her wand on the door handle, and then put it back into her briefcase before opening the door. Sakura sighed in relief, and then gasped in amazement the door opened out and she saw out into the Wizarding section of Kew Gardens. The view was dominated by a huge tree reaching up in the sky, higher and higher, until the trunk finally disappeared into the clouds. Sakura could see a beautiful Victorian-styled building on one of the larger branches. Perched on the wood were a number of small tables and chairs with robed witches and wizards chatting over tea and sandwiches. A long spiral staircase circled the outside of the tree from the ground up to the café.
"Ohhhh." Sakura exclaimed. "It's so big!"
Sonomi chuckled indulgently. "Oh yes, bigger than most people can imagine. The British say it is one of the First Trees—an Oak, and the ancestor of all oak trees. Historians tell us that every tree in the world can be traced back to a First Tree, born in the Beginning and living on, growing bigger and bigger, until the end of the world. They are magnificent to look at."
"How amazing." Tomoyo smiled as she slowly tilted her camera up to see where the thick trunk of the tree disappeared into the clouds, then swung back down to catch Sakura's awed expression. Kero, peeking out of the bag with sad eyes, stayed quiet.
The Old Café was not the only structure on the branches of the First Oak. On various branches there were raised gardens in stone-lined beds, greenhouses, and a gallery of famous Herbologists and Potion Masters. Sonomi recommended a visit to the tropical greenhouse and Sakura wanted to see the famous moving hedge maze. They all agreed to stop briefly by the café on their way down to the ground gardens.
The hedge maze reminded Sakura of when they had captured the Maze Card, especially when one hedge popped up between her and Tomoyo. It took the three of them ten minutes of calling back and forth while walking around to find a way meet up again. After that, they agreed to hold hands on their way through the maze, since the bushes where charmed not to move in a way that would hurt any visitors. They skipped out of the maze, giggling happily even though they hadn't managed to find the central plaza, which was said to have a magical fountain that contained the favorite drink of anyone who approached it. Sakura was a little disappointed, but since they were on something of a schedule, she decided it was better to see more of the gardens then to spend the whole day lost in the maze.
They rushed through the greenhouse, admiring the man-eating orchids and the carefully tended night-blooming lunar flowers equally. At the café, they talked about Sonomi's business and Tomoyo's last choir performance over hot cocoa. Tomoyo ordered an extra cup for Kero, who sipped at it quietly. A little worried even now, though still vaguely irritated with him, Sakura asked if anything was wrong. Kero just shook his head and floated off to stare over the edge of the branch, leaving his chocolate unfinished.
"I wonder…" Tomoyo murmured, staring after the small creature.
Sakura tilted her head curiously. "Hmmm?"
"Oh." Tomoyo smiled sadly. "I was just wondering if being here in London was making Kero-chan think of Clow Reed-san."
Sakura blinked in surprise. She knew the two Clow guardians missed their creator very much, but it hadn't occurred to her that being in England might make Kero sad because of that. She bit her lip worriedly, but decided to leave her companion alone for a while. Sometimes, she knew, it was good to have some quiet time to remember your loved ones. When Kero was ready to talk to her, he would.
Glancing at the suddenly melancholy girls and beast, Sonomi decided it was time to move on. She ushered the small group back to the stairs, chattering about how late it was getting, and how they had better hurry up and see a little more before they had to leave.
They wandered through a magical rose garden, over a pond filled with grey-green gillyweed and large glowing lotuses, through the Tea Garden and into a small stand of trees. A sign near the beginning of the grove said that it was a wand orchard, and that all of the trees there were sometimes used in the making of wands for witches and wizards. Sonomi told the girls that wands could only be made from living wood. Sakura wondered if it hurt the trees, having branches torn off to make wands.
As they wandered through the grove, they saw that each tree had a small plaque attached to it, that declared what kind of tree it was and magical properties the wood added to a wand. Sonomi read a few out loud to the girls, who still struggled with written English. "Oak—a tree connected to the gods Odin, Jupiter, Lugh, and Brigid. The sovereign tree of England, the oak is connected to the sun, lightening, and the force of Truth. The wood offers gifts of stability and strength. Merlin and the Magus John Dee wielded oaken staves and wands. Hmmm. Of course, they don't mention any of the Asian mythological connections, only European. Oh well."
"This one's an Elm—a Border Tree associated with death and rebirth. In Norse mythology, Ask and Embla (Ash and Elm) were the two trees that the gods breathed life into and made the first humans from. Elm wood protects against danger from unknown directions and shadows the user against discovery. In medieval times, elm wands were used to deadly affect by many famous warrior wizards." Sakura was curious to hear that elms were connected to the ash tree, which her own wand was made from. She wondered what ash wood was connected to, according to the English wizards.
Sakura wandered farther and farther down the path looking for an ash tree. The trees were getting thicker and the light grew dimmer. Peering curiously into the gloom, Sakura thought she could see an old well in the middle of the clearing. Something about it pulled her, closer and closer, until she could see three figures leaning over the well. Who were they? She wanted to know—had to know, to get closer and see them…
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her shoulder. "Now miss, you don't want to be wandering too much farther." Startled, Sakura whirled around to find a stout man in a dark brown robe staring down at her, his hand still resting on her shoulder. Sonomi and Tomoyo were hurrying down the path from where they had stopped to look at the cherry tree. "That's a dangerous place, that forest over there. You don't want to be going in, it connects to the Forbidden Forest, it does."
"The Forbidden Forest?" Sakura whispered, a little afraid.
"Ayeah. It's an old forest, very magical. There are bits and pieces of it all over the world, and they say it's all connected. All one forest, even though it's all spread out. Some say it's the first forest, like that mother oak out there is a First Tree." His face was filled with shadows and his eyes were dark and unreadable. He squeezed her shoulder gently, then let go and stepped back. "There's strange things out there, miss. Terrible and beautiful, and most of all, very, very old."
Tomoyo reached Sakura first, hurriedly checking over her friend before Sonomi joined them. "Sakura-chan, are you all right?" Sakura quickly reassured them that she was fine and turned to thank the man, but he was already retreating down the path. Sonomi glared suspiciously at his back. She ushered the girls out of the Gardens to meet Li and Meiling before going to Diagon Alley. It was another quiet ride back into London.
Li and Meiling must have sensed the somber atmosphere, but they did not to acknowledge it. Instead Meiling drew Tomoyo into an animated conversation about European fashions while Sonomi led the group into the small pub where they would find the entrance to the famous alley.
Sonomi generously offered to have her bodyguards arrange for all of their purchases to be delivered to their London addresses so that the children wouldn't be burdened with heavy packages on their trip. Although the Japanese girls already had their school-books, Li and Meiling did not, so the group decided to stop by the book shop first. One of the Chinese children's many relatives had apparently placed an order for bilingual Chinese copies of all their textbooks. Sakura wondered aloud why there were Chinese translations when they hadn't been able to find any Japanese ones. Meiling started to smugly say something about the superiority of the language when Li cut her off.
"There are a number of Chinese clans that have family member in London, such as the Li Clan," he told the curious girl. She smiled gratefully at him and he blushed lightly before rushing off to find something else.
After the bookstore, they bought some potion ingredients and cauldrons. They passed by Madame Malkin's before going into the pet store. Sonomi wanted to buy Tomoyo a cat to take with her to Hogwarts. Meiling sniffed at some of the balls of fluff on display and try to steer Tomoyo towards some of the tougher looking alley cats—though she did keep sneaking glances at one particularly adorable looking tabby kitten playing with a ball of yarn in the corner. Li and Sakura had already had their own familiars, Kero and one of the Li family guardian animals.
Sakura was in the middle of trying to guess what kind of animal it could be, when they noticed a large crowd gathering outside the shop.
Curious, the two children stepped outside of the store. Sakura could just barely see a young man in the middle of the crowd, standing on a box and shouting. His voice rose above the murmuring people, strong and clear.
"You hate us? Fear us? What about Grindelwald and his Cleansing Agents? What about Voldemort"—a collective gasp resounded through the crowd—"and his Deatheaters? You think we're so dangerous? Look to yourselves to find evil! Those were wizards, yes and witches too, normal men and women, corrupted by hatred and greed!" Li grabbed Sakura's hand, gripping it almost hard enough to hurt. Sakura glanced at him, worried. His face was grim and his other hand was reaching towards the amulet he hid his sword in.
Someone in the crowd threw a rock at the ragged speaker. He pulled out a stick and deflected it, continuing to shout.
"He's got an illegal wand!" Someone yelled. "Stun him!"
Latin curses flew through the air, too fast and strange for Sakura to understand. People ran haphazardly down the street, pushing and elbowing others out of their way. Sakura and Li were helpless in the crowd, stumbling out of the way until they were lost and stranded in the mass of people. Everyone was shouting and Sakura could see bright flashes of light soaring through the air. She wondered what they were.
From the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Li pull out his sword and she reached for her Key. If she could put up Shield to protect them from stray hexes, then maybe she could use Jump or Fly to look for the others.
Suddenly, her view of the crowd was blocked by a man's back. He muttered a few words and Sakura saw the air around them shimmer slightly. One of the bolts of light flying around hit the shimmer and bounced off in the other direction.
The man turned to the children. His face was kind, though lined with weariness, and Sakura instantly felt like she could trust him. Li glared at the man hostilely.
A smile creased the man's worn face. His light brown hair was sprinkled with grey and lines gathered around his eyes and mouth. His clothes were patched and worn, but very clean. "A very exciting day we're having. Perhaps we should go somewhere quieter—and safer." He gestured towards a small shop. Sakura decided to follow him in, Li trailing unhappily behind them, mumbling about trusting strangers.
"Arigato gozaimasu," Sakura bowed, then jumped up, flustered. "I mean, thank you very much, sir." The man smiled. Li scowled and ground out "We have to find the others."
"Oh, of course!" Sakura blinked. She explained to the man that they had left their friends in the pet shop and they would be worried.
The man chuckled and, after speaking to the woman running the shop, led the children out the back door to a small, deserted street. "Luckily, there are back ways between most of the shops in case of emergencies. We wouldn't want to get caught in that crowd again."
Reuniting with their very worried friends, Sakura and Li were pressed to recount their short adventure. Starting to explain how the man had saved them, Sakura suddenly realized she had completely forgotten to introduce herself to him. Blushing furiously, she apologized and told him her name, along with those of the rest of her group. She even introduced Kero, who had rushed over when she first arrived, scolding her, and attached himself to her shoulder.
The man turned out to be Remus Lupin, and he was a teacher at Hogwarts. Sonomi thanked him for protecting the children and offered to buy everyone ice cream to give them time to get over the scare. Outside, the melee had calmed down quite a bit, and they moved over to the ice cream shop, chattering about the riot, Tomoyo's new cat, and Hogwarts.
Taking a moment out of her conversation with Tomoyo to concentrate on enjoying her strawberry sundae—she had been tempted by some of the stranger dishes but ended up with something she could recognize—Sakura looked over her friends. Sonomi and Professor Lupin were discussing some of the political goings-on in Britain in hushed voices. Li was brooding and glaring at the teacher and Meiling… Meiling looked pensive.
Sakura scooted her chair closer to her friend. "Is something wrong, Meiling-chan?"
The other girl shook her head. "No. I don't think so. I don't know." She frowned. "It's just, do you think there's something strange about that guy?"
Sakura looked at Professor Lupin. Catching her watching, he smiled and winked at her. She smiled back and turned to Meiling again. "No, I like him very much. He seems very nice."
Meiling started kicking the table. "Yeah. He does. I guess."
Meiling refused to continue the conversation so Sakura eventually gave up and started to admire Tomoyo's new cat. Still, every once in a while, she glanced over at the quiet Chinese girl, who was glaring at the floor, the table, or every once in a while at the man across from her. Her eyes were filled with strange and complicated emotions, and Sakura thought she saw something like fear, but mixed with affection and something that she would almost call regret.
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"They say he's a werewolf!"
The other Hufflepuffs had started telling the first years about their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. He wasn't at the staff table for breakfast that morning. Sakura thought he had probably been at the Sorting, but she hadn't really noticed, as excited and tired as she had been that night.
Apparently, he was the first teacher to stay in decades to keep the DADA position for more than a year. Sakura wasn't sure why it had been a problem for other teachers; her English wasn't quite good enough to catch everything when everyone kept talking over each other.
"My mom says Fenrir Greyback himself turned him!" One awed boy whispered loudly.
Another girl shuddered and looked frightened. "Are you sure he's, you know, safe? I mean…"
"Don't be stupid. They wouldn't let him teach at Hogwarts if he wasn't safe." A boy said scornfully.
"Well, anyways, he's plenty exciting. He's just so handsome!" An older girl on the other side of the table sighed happily.
"Hmmph. If you say so. I think he just looks so old, myself."