13

Chapter 10

If you have red the story this far and still don't know that I don't own Avatar or Harry Potter something is wrong with you.

a/n: Okay peeps time for my usual begging for forgiveness for taking so long. But yet again blame my brother he broke my laptop with like three chapters on it and yeah. Happy Fourth. (Like 2 weeks late) Anyway hope you like!

Never forget who you are…Everything for you…I'll never leave you..Zuko…ZUKO!

"Uh! What?" Zuko awoke in a cold sweat with the Avatar and the water tribe peasant standing over his bed like some sort of weird stalkers. What were their names again? Aang and Mokka? What did it matter? As soon as he got back to his uncle he probably wouldn't ever see them ever again anyways.

"What are you doing?" Zuko hissed not happy to be awoken. He was never happy to be woken up. That was the only time Azula was intimidated when she woke him up.

"Do you not remember lunch?" The Mokka whispered back. "I know you're fire nation but you can't be that stupid."

"Watch it boy,"

"Sokka why do you try to start these things?" the Avatar scolded, almost sounded like his mother did when she scolded Azula.

So his name was Sokka. He liked Mokka better, or even better, peasant.

"We're going to the forest to see what brought us here remember?" Mr. Arrow said. He slightly recalled it. He'd fallen asleep in History of Magic which was his class before lunch and the fatigue hadn't totally worn off.

"Fine," Zuko mumbled getting out of the bed and throwing on a shirt. The three then walked down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room where Katara was it? Didn't matter. The obnoxiously colored haired siblings, the girl with the frizzy hair, and the boy with hair that looked liked a rat crawled in top of his head and died: were all waiting.

"Man, Zuko you sleep like a rock. More than Ron." The girl, Ginny? with obnoxiously colored hair said.

"Hey, I resent that!" The sibling whose name was apparently Ron yelled.

"Ronald does the term silence mean anything to you?" Ms. Frizz scolded.

"Fine Hermione, I'll be your little pet and be quiet." He mumbled.

"Thank-you."

"So how are we going to get out of here? Hermione told me this place has a lot of charms to keep people from getting in or coming out."

"Well usually we snuck out under my invisibility cloak, but since they have put on said charms and since eight people can't fit under one cloak we are going out the window." Harry? He thought said. Katara walked over to the window and looked down. Zuko soon followed, along with Mokka and Aang.

Zuko turned and gave the four wizards and witches the look with the cocked eyebrow. The other three soon followed with the same look.

"I don't know about you guys but being a splat on the lawn isn't on the top of my to-do list." Mokka stated. This caused the four original Hogwarts students to hold back laughter.

"What?" The Avatar asked.

"I've got to agree with Aang." Katara said. "This room is at least three stories high. There's no way we could jump." Now Ginny and the frizzy haired girl started giggling.

"What's so funny?" Zuko questioned. Even rat boy and the boy who looked like his hair had been set on fire were starting the let out a small laugh.

"Really!" Aang asked. Zuko was starting to get annoyed. And when Zuko gets annoyed things usually end up as a pile of ashes. He felt the heat from his anger building up. Before he knew it, smoke was starting to come out of his ears.

"What is do damn funny?" he hissed really to make things turn to ashes. They suddenly figured out their joke had been taken far enough. Gathering themselves up, Harry his name really described his hair. He held up something that he and all of the Hogwarts students had. Zuko didn't notice that they were holding them until they held them up. They were all holding brooms. Ones that looked a little too nice for cleaning.

"And those are for?" Mokka asked.

"Flying," Ron said.

"What?" The water tribe girl asked. Despite her attitude and her sibling Zuko had to admit she wasn't half bad looking. Of course Zuko hadn't seen many girls since leaving home so…

"We fly the brooms out the window to the grass and walk into the forest." Zon wait Ron explained like he most likely would a three year old.

"Yet again, humans can't fly!" Mokka yelled, quickly being quieted by his sister. "Except airbenders and Aang is the only airbender." His sister gave him the look. Harry rolled his eyes from under his pieces of glass over his eyes.

"Look just trust us," He said getting on the broom like a five year old. "We'll go two on a broom."

"I am not getting on a piece of wood with straw at the end, and hopping out a window to hope that I won't hit the ground with a splat!" Obnoxious as he was, Mokka had a point.

"Sokka if you're going to be suborn then I'll go and you can stay here!" The water tribe girl said angrily, walking over to Harry almost getting on the broom.

"Oh no!" He yelled running over to his sister. "No sister of mine is going to go flying with some older guy in the middle of the night without me! I'm coming!"

"I have a girlfriend," Harry said rather bluntly looking over at Ginny who was slightly turning red.

"Um guys we've been yelling and stuff so how come no one's heard and come down?" The Avatar asked.

"Most of the people who came back this year know what we do and try to just ignore us." Hermione -was it-said.

"SO anyways," Harry said. Zuko could tell he was starting to get impatient. "One of you guys will ride with one of us."

"Fine," Mokka mumbled.

As Zuko got onto the back of Ginny's broom he felt the glare of Rat man and obnoxious hair boy staring at him. It wasn't his fault he was riding on the back of a stick with the one guy's girlfriend and the other's little sister. He didn't choose who he rode with. The Avatar rode with Hermione, Mokka rode with Ron (although Zuko preferred obnoxious hair guy), and Katara rode with Harry. And what was this? Since when do older brothers care about what happens to their sisters? If it was his sister he'd be hopping she fell off into a pit of spikes. Reluctantly Zuko climbed onto the windowsill with Ginny in front of him. Taking a deep breath Zuko gripped the broom under him with all his might. His knuckles turned a pearly white. This was not how he preferred to ride, but he figured if they're giving him dirty looks just for riding 20 ft on a broom with her, then he didn't want to imagine what they would do if he tried putting his hands on her shoulders.

"You ready?" The girl asked. Zuko didn't really have a chance to answer. Soon after asking she jumped off the sill and into the night air.

The air caught in Zuko's lungs as they started plummeting to earth. Life started flashing before his eyes. Oxygen tried to enter his lungs but it wouldn't work. He saw the ground steadily becoming closer. I'm going to die! Zuko thought franticly. Suddenly he felt himself being lifted into the air. They had stopped falling and had actually started flying. Zuko looked down and saw the Hogwart's grounds zooming by under them. He'd never actually been airborne, and it was an amazing feeling. The warm late summer air swept through his raven hair. A cornucopia of aromas filled his lungs; soft grass, the cool lake, the dark forest with it's hundreds of forms of life from trees and bushes to unicorns and giant spiders. And just as soon as it started they made a soft land at the edge of the forest.

"Sorry if I kinda freaked you out some," Ginny apologized getting off. "I kind of need to practice my dives for-" she stopped suddenly as if realizing something.

"What?" Zuko asked.

"It's just that… I was going to say for Quidditch, but McGonagall said there aren't enough people for it."

"Oh," Zuko replied trying to sound some what polite as a thank-you for not smashing him into the ground. He really had no idea what the heck Quidditch was, but he figured it had to be something people died a lot in.

Soon after they landed, the others followed. All the others looked like they were used to flying all the time. Then again, they were always on the flying fluff ball. Once they were all off their brooms the eight teens walked into the forest. The broom owners all hid their brooms behind the bush close to the edge. And they started on their journey into the dark forest.

"I still think the castle looks like a shack of a house." Mokka mumbled as they were walking.

"So what are we looking for?" Ron asked as they were looking around the dark woods not seeing a thing.

"Well looking would work if you could see," Hermione said saying something and all of a sudden her stick, wait wand, that's what wizards and witches called their sticks, wands. It lit up. All of the other students did the same with their wands. Zuko on the other hand created a small flame in the palm of his hand.333

"I need to learn how to do that," Aang said excitedly. Zuko chose to not respond to that for various reasons.

"So where did you guys come from?" Ginny asked lighting her way through the dense brush.

"I think over there," Katara said pointing over to a small clearing. They walked over to the clearing. Zuko and he would imagine everyone else immediately noticed that this clearing was different from the rest of the forest. It had a certain glow about it. Walking into the clearing you just felt warmer and safe, like nothing could hurt you. Everything seemed brighter. In the middle of the clearing was a tree. It was a large oak that looked like it didn't belong. All of the normal trees had leafs that were starting to turn vibrant colors of red, orange, and yellow. This tree, its leaves were still a healthy, vibrant green.

"So tell us what happened." Harry told them. Katara was the only one who really remembered what happened so she told the story.

"After we'd fallen to the ground, which I really don't know where we fell from but, after we fell, Zuko walked over to the edge of the woods a little out of the clearing, we all followed and then we were chased by a large hoard of huge spiders." The obnoxious haired guy cringed at the last part. Zuko was listening to Katara tell what happened when he heard the Avatar yell.

"Hey guys come look at this!" Zuko turned his head and saw that Arrowhead was looking at some thing on the tree. They all crowed around the tree. There was something inscribed in it that wasn't there before.

"What does it say?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," A voice behind Zuko said. Ginny was on his right and it didn't sound like Mokka's sister so he assumed it was Hermione. "It's some ancient inscription, I can't read it."

Zuko saw the inscriptions on the tree and recognized them. It was a dead language that he had been taut back when he still lived in the fire nation. He hadn't seen it in a long time, but it was readable.

"I can read it." Zuko declared stepping forward.

"Well what does it say?"

"Quiet Mokka!" Crap! Even though Zuko couldn't see it he knew everyone else around the tree was giving each other the confused look.

"MOKKA!" The all questioned.

"My name is SOKKA!" Mokka who now wants to be known as Sokka yelled. "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET MOKKA? DO I LOOK LIKE A MOKKA? DO I SOUND LIKE A MOKKA? SOME…" Zuko tried to zone out on Sokka but it was proving difficult. Finally he understood the inscription.

This magical place

There used to be

Your way back home

Near more trees

But sadly there is

A power here

That threatens this world

Loved so dear

So you will stay

Until you find

A way to destroy this evil

That is so blind

Once life is

Restored to peace

Your way home will reappear

To your lease

So take this information

Do with it what you will

Just remember your only way home

Is going uphill

Zuko read and reread the poem. The last part didn't make much sense. Did it mean that they would have to work?

"So what does it say?" Katara asked looking over his shoulder. Zuko told them what the tree said.

"What does that mean?" Sokka asked.

"I don't know," Hermione answered. "The last part doesn't make much sense."

"Maybe it's a riddle," Ginny suggested.

"It's the strangest riddle I've ever heard," Ron said.

"Hey, Katara you know when you said that we ran away from the spiders around here?" Aang asked shakily.

"Yeah Aang why," Katara turned to see where the Avatar was looking. Zuko knew why and assumed she knew.

The entire clearing was surrounded by their old friends the giant spiders of doom. Zuko felt sweat form on his forehead. His heart sped up a couple hundred beats. They were being stared at by thousands of eyes. On his right Ron was squirming and looking like he was about to cough up his dinner. Before anyone else could do anything Hermione stepped forward.

"Why is your family so close to the edge of the woods?" She asked her voice shaking a little. One spider stepped forward.

"The tree told us to guard it. To make sure no one tries to destroy it." Zuko just about passed out. Since when do spiders talk? Since when do people talk to spiders? Ron spoke up.

"Well we aren't going to do anything to the tree we like nature you see so we'll be on our way." Ron said faster than an auctioneer could ever hope to. He tried walking out of the clearing only to be stopped by one of the spiders.

"Now even if you aren't a threat to the tree, my family still needs to eat." Zuko felt his stomach lurch into his throat. He did not want to be some bug's midnight snack and he was sure everyone else felt the same way.

The other spiders moved in. Hogwarts students got their wands ready. Zuko along with everyone else got into a fighting stance ready to fight for their life's, and not for the first time either. Before Zuko got a chance to attack, the Avatar on his left started glowing. His arrows along with his eyes turned a bright eerie blue. This stopped the spiders in their tracks.

"What's happening?" Harry asked.

"He's in the Avatar state." Katara answered in awe. "He's at his most powerful." Even the spiders were staring in awe and whispering amongst themselves. The head spider spoke again.

"The Avatar, my sincerest apologizes. The tree instructed us to leave the Avatar and his comrades in peace. I'm terribly sorry." Everyone just stared in confusion as all the spiders scurried off. Ron breathed a sigh of relief and Aang came out of the Avatar state.

"What happened?" The young Avatar asked still in a daze.

"You just saved your butts mate!" Ron yelled gleefully. He looked like he was about ready to do a happy dance.

"Wow," Hermione said. "I've never seen the spiders scared off by anything."

"Hehehe woops." Aang said innocently rubbing his bald head.

A/N: Wow that took forever to write. And the entire time my brother is bugging me to let him on the frik'n computer! I hope you guys liked it. And I won't update for at least ten day cause I'm going out of town. LATER PEEPS!