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Chapter 19

"How the hell did they find us?" Lennox asked, turning to Remus. "You said you placed wards up!"

"I did." Remus said. He waved his wand. "The wards are down. I don't know how. I can't understand it. It was as if someone removed them."

Everyone turned to the new arrivals. Madam Bones turned to the others. "Alright, I want to know, if any of you is responsible. And I want to know now."

One auror stepped forward. "I would be responsible, Madam Bones. I just wanted everything over with."

"There are children her! You idiot!" Madam Bones shrieked, her maternal instincts flaring. "And we weren't even prepared! Someone could have died! As it is, we were lucky, I can't see anyone who's dead, but that could still change. But did you not take note of those here that are underage, ones who can't defend themselves? Look at that child there!" Bones pointed to a boy of three. "He doesn't even know what's going on! He's three! THREE! Your actions could have gotten him killed! Had he or anyone else died, it would have been because of you. How irresponsible are you?" She carried on yelling at the Auror for a full thirty minutes, everyone else watching in stunned silence as she berated the Auror for recklessness and irresponsibility.

When she was finished, the Autobots finally remembered Starscream, they all turned on him, intent on finding out where he stood on the threat scale.

"The sparklings were human!" He said. "One of them was the one to kill Megatron."

"Yes. But when they're sparklings, they are fully Cybertronian. At some point they will no longer be able to change back to human forms, but currently, it's similar to an Alt form." Ratchet said.

"Right, well, my programming prevents me from hurting them, especially since they are Seekers, but I couldn't hurt any sparkling." Starscream said. The Autobots relaxed slightly, but he was still an enemy. Starscream looked at the two sparkling seekers, the recharging femme being held by Barricade, and the mech being held by Ratchet, and was straining to get a good look at the femme. Starscream sighed. He knew that he couldn't join the Autobots, but he couldn't be their enemy either. While the Deceptacons wouldn't hurt the Sparklings, they would do anything to get their servos on them. And that included killing anyone standing in their way, and that would hurt the sparklings, but not physically. "Prime, I request neutrality status."

Everyone else was shocked. "Why?" Optimus asked him.

"I can't just switch sides, but I can't allow any harm to come to the sparklings. So I want to be neutral in this war from now on. And, that way, I can teach them about being Seekers. Who else could teach them? The others will be convinced that the best place for them would be with other Seekers- all of whom are Deceptacons- and then, the sparklings will be hurt, because of the connections they have with you. No, the best place for them is her, however much I loathe to admit it. But you can't teach them how to fly. I can. And if I'm neutral, that's one less Deceptacon for you to worry about."

"Barricade, what do you think?" Optimus asked the ex-Deceptacon. He would be able to read him the best.

Barricade didn't take his optics off Starscream as he spoke carefully. "Starscream would never hurt a sparkling. So Bladewing and Snakestrike are safe from him. Whether he is willing to be neutral, is yet to be seen. But he did help, I'll admit he's done some good. He killed a fair few Death Eaters. I suggest we keep a close eye on him."

"And give him a chance?" Jazz asked. "I'm not sure man."

"They'll have to learn on their own otherwise." Bumblebee pointed out.

"I'm not sure Bumblebee. Trial and error sound better than misplaced trust." Ironhide said, unwilling to risk his sparkling, even if Barricade was willing to give Starscream a chance.

"I swear on my spark, that I will not betray your trust and will remain neutral." Starscream said.

"Perhaps we could try it out." Ratchet said. "He could help with Snakestrike and Bladewing when it comes to being seekers. You have to admit, it's a good opportunity, and we can teach them anything else they need to know."

Ironhide shifted. He could see where Ratchet was coming from. He nodded. "But if anything happens to my sparkling, or Ratchets, I'll tear you apart, Starscream, and nothing will be able to save you."

"Then it's settled, Starscream can teach Snakestrike and Bladewing what he knows about being a seeker." Optimus said. "But we will do everything in our power to protect them both. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly." Starscream said.

"Barricade, pass her here. I have a carrying hold that I had installed at the start of the war." Ironhide said, opening the hold once more. Barricade handed Bladewing to Ironhide who gently placed the recharging sparkling inside, before closing it. If anything happened, she'd be well protected.

"Well, we'd better start getting this place cleaned up." Lennox said, looking round. The place was covered in blood, and a lot of the Death Eaters were half gone. It was mostly the top halves of their bodies that had been blasted so well that they were totally gone.

Most got to work, starting with the major clean up, and Optimus walked to Sam. He crouched down, and held his hand out. Sam stepped onto his hand, and soon found himself on Optimus' shoulder, as the Autobot's leader left the hanger.

"I heard Bladewing before Voldemort and the Death Eaters turned up, Samuel." He said.

"Ah, right."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks." Sam said. "I don't blame her."

"That's good to know, but I don't think that she'll believe for a while. She believes that a lot of things are her fault, but that's not what I'm worried about right now. I'm worried about how you are."

"Still in shock. Leave the news sink in, and I'll get back to you."

"You are welcome to stay with us, Samuel."

"Thanks Optimus. I think I'll take you up on that offer." Sam said. "I'm just glad that whoever did it's not going to harm anyone else. The chances are they were some of the attackers."

"That is likely." Optimus agreed. "But should you ever need to talk, you know where to find me. I know what it's like to loose much that you care for."

"Thank you Optimus. I really appreciate it. We'd better head back; I want to help with the clean up."

"Alright Sam." Optimus said, turning back round.

Ironhide's sensors informed him the moment Bladewing started coming out of her recharge. He opened his carrying hold and pulled her out and cradled her as she slowly woke up.

Bladewing blinked a few times, before looking round. The hanger was clean, and all the others were still in recharge.

"Papa, what's Starscream doing here?" She asked, looking up at the mech.

"He's requested neutral status. He's also offered to teach you and Snakestrike about being seekers. Is that alright with you?"

"I'll make a judgement later." She said.

Ironhide nodded. Her decision was a good one. He placed her on his shoulder, and stood, before heading outside. The sun was just rising, and Bladewing smiled and her wings came out.

"Happy, Bladewing?" Ironhide asked, chuckling.

"Yes. It's over."

"Yes. You don't have to worry about them anymore. You can leave all that behind."

"What happened after I went into recharge?"

"Well, it turns out one of the Aurors brought down the wards, and for half an hour he was lectured by Madam Bones. I think Bumblebee caught it all on camera."

"So I get to see it? Good. I'll watch it along with the pranks on Galloway. I want to see them from another perspective."

Ironhide laughed. "Whatever relaxes you, you need to relax, after everything that's happened."

"How's Sam?"

"He's decided to live on base. He's currently still in shock over the news, or he was last night."

"It was my fault."

"No it wasn't. Don't think like that."

"It's is. It's my fault Ron and Judy are dead. It's my fault that my birth parents are dead, that Cedric's dead. That Sirius fell through the veil, and was here alone, when he could have had a life in his home."

"Bladewing, you listen to me. The fault lies with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. They are the ones who started the war. You didn't start it, you ended it. And that saved a lot of people. Sam doesn't blame you. No one else blames you. You shouldn't blame yourself either."

Bladewing sighed. "But it's hard. When I found out how my parents really died, the Dursley's told me it was all my fault. It's hard not to believe."

Ironhide looked at his sparkling. Her shoulders were slumped, and her wings even seemed to droop. He picked her off his shoulder, and cradled her in one arm, stroking her wing span with the other. "They lied. And if the veil was still open, I'd ask someone to send me through so I could go and tear them apart. But they were wrong to blame you. None of this was your fault. Alright?"

Bladewing nodded. But it was going to take a lot of time for her to come to terms with the concept of not being the one to blame.

Ironhide turned, and started back to the hanger. Ratchet should have woken up by now, and he wanted Bladewing checked over, to see there were no side affects of the killing curse.

"What did you mean that as long as Voldemort was alive you couldn't be killed?"

"When Malfoy's killing curse hit me, I went to the cross roads, I guess you could call it. I met Sirius there. He told me that when Voldemort used my blood in forth year, he created a link between us. That link meant that he anchored me to life, but I could choose to come back. It's easy to see what I chose."

"It is obvious." Ironhide said. "Now, let's see if Ratchet's awake."

"Aw hell no." Bladewing said, before trying to clime out of his arms. Ironhide laughed and wrapped a hand round her waist, and carried her to the Med Bay, where Ratchet was working on something and Snakestrike was watching him. Ironhide placed Bladewing on the examination table.

"I've brought you a patient." Ironhide said.

"Papa!" Bladewing whined. "Do I have too?"

"Yes." Three voices answered.

All the time that Ratchet was examining Bladewing she was angrily muttering under her breath.

"Everything's fine." Ratchet announced, finally. He walked to a cupboard and pulled out a cube filled with blue liquid. He handed it to Bladewing. "Snakestrike's already had some. It's enerjon. Drink up."

Bladewing downed the enerjon, and was relieved when she was allowed to leave the bay.

Later on that day, she and Snakestrike began training with Starscream. The first thing on the agenda was activating their jets, to be able to actually fly, but even as humans the two had been born to fly. The air was their element, and they both found out how to activate their jets and were flying in no time. It took Starscream a considerably longer time to get them back on track, however. By the end of the day, he was definitely ready to recharge. Who'd have guessed that a couple of sparklings could be such hard work? And they still had a hell of a lot of energy in them!

After training, Bladewing hunted Sam down. He was in the Rec room, with Mikayla. They were the only ones there.

"Hey Sam." She said, tentatively. "Mikayla."

"Oh, hey Bladewing." Sam said, smiling weakly at her. There were tear tracks down his face.

"How are you?"

"I'll be fine. Apparently the funeral is in two weeks."

"Is it alright if I come?"

"Of course it is." Sam said. "I don't blame you, Bladewing. Honestly, I don't."

"Thanks Sam. I just wish it was as Easy for me not to blame myself."

A/N: What do you think? Please review!