NEVER ALONE

Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

Scotland, UK

September 9h

2022 A.D.

Hugo was snoring loudly. He seemed to have inherited several of Ron's little knick knacks and being a loud sleeper was one of them. One of the others was drooling and mumbling. Every once in a while he'd gargle something about chocolate syrup and breasts.

"Hugo...," A sweet voice said quietly.

"Huggo...," Hugo drooled between snores.

"Hugo...," The same sweet voice said again.

"Ice cream?" Hugo's flickered open. It took him a second to focus before he realized someone was standing over him. He was about to yell out in panic when a gag was slammed over him mouth, followed by a black blindfold over his eyes. He thrashed and fought but his attack was way stronger than him. His arms were tied with tight rope.

He was yanked out of his bed and dragged across the floor. He was suddenly lifted into the air and thrown over someones shoulder. He continued to try and yell out but the gag muffled his voice. Fear made his whole body feel cold and twitchy.

He was jolted about as he was taken down a flight of stairs. After a few seconds of being carried around, he was slammed down onto a hard surface that felt like a wooden chair. The gag was removed from his mouth but the blindfold stayed on.

"Hi Hugo," His fear was replaced by anger as he heard Aurora's voice. This was part of her so called training!

"What the Frisbee is this?!" Hugo mis-sweared.

"This is your wake up call Hugo," She said sweetly.

"I've got a bloody alarm clock!"

"That doesn't have quite the same effect does it?" She said. He was pretty sure that she was smiling. "So what can you tell me about what just happened?"

"I thought that would be bloody obvious! I was just abducted from my bed!"

"My, you are sharp aren't you," Aurora teased. "I mean, what can you tell me about your attacker, where you are at the moment and why you didn't put up more of a fight?"

"How the hell should I know where I am?! I'm blindfolded!"

"And that is your only sense is it?"

Hugo mumbled something to himself in anger. "I know it was Amelia that grabbed me because it's not hard to tell some one with superhuman strength! I know we're somewhere on the 6th floor because I was only taken down one flight of stairs and I'd guess that we're in the Arithmancy Classroom because the place stinks of old parchment," He scathed.

After a second or so, the blindfold was removed from his eyes. Aurora was stood in front of him with her arms crossed and looking quite smug. Next to him was Amelia who also looked very pleased with herself and after looking around for a moment, he realized that he actually was inside the Arithmancy classroom.

"Not bad Hugo," Aurora smiled.

Amelia waved her wand causing the ropes to disappear from his hands. She and Aurora exited the classroom, leaving Hugo to sit a stew about what had just happened. He quickly realized that sunlight was creeping through the windows and that they had probably only woken him up about 30 minutes before his alarm would have gone off.

After returning to his dorm, he got dressed, knowing that he'd never be able to get back to sleep after what had just happened to him. He decided to trudge his way down to the great hall for the first early breakfast that he'd ever had.

On his way down he heard a loud Bang and saw pieces of parchment fly through the air. Smoke was coming out of the library entrance. After a few seconds, Rose emerged from the entrance, coughing from the smoke. She was only recognizable by her long fluffy red hair because the rest of her was covered head to toe in what looked like strawberry yogurt. He saw the look of madness on her face.

"I am going to kill that woman!" Rose hissed.

Hugo burst into laughter as he realized that Rose had just fallen prey to one of Aurora's traps. "She got you too?"

"Shut up Hugo!" Rose stormed off down the corridor with her teeth gritted and leaving a trail of yogurt behind her.

Within an hour, Hugo realized that he and his sister weren't the only ones to have fallen victim to the increase in training. Henry Hammings entered the great hall with his hair sticking up on end, like he'd been electrocuted. Apparently a certain number of toilet seats had been jinxed to give off electrical discharges when they were sat on. Shortly after, Violet walked in looking very sore after she had been attacked by her own shoes. No one, not even her friends were immune to the traps.

He looked over at the Ravenclaw table where Aurora was stuffing her face with enough food to feed 3 people. She smiled at him deviously. "Constant Vigilance,"

The White House

Washington D.C., USA

September 9th

2022 A.D.

Several Secret Service agents escorted president Greenwood through the corridors of the famed house. He was a balding man that had recently been told he was looking a little overweight on TV. He was joined by the Chief of Staff, Michael Kits, Secretary of Defense, Ryan Philis, Secretary of State, Senna Walsh and Vice President, Amy Hodgkins.

As they entered the waiting room outside of the Oval Office, Colonel Gates and Skip Tyler stood and saluted.

"Mr. President," They said together.

"Morning Gentlemen. Step inside," The President said. The secret service agents waited outside as the officials entered the room.

"Have a seat," The President said as he walked over to his desk. He pushed the intercom button on his phone. "Becky, could you have the kitchen send up a Stake Sandwich please,"

"Yes, Mr. President," A voice said back.

"Err, Mr. President," The Vice President gave him a weary look. The President sigh and pushed the button again.

"And a salad please Becky,"

"Yes, Mr. President," While the Vice President looked on happily.

"So, Colonel Gates, Ryan tells me that we might have a problem with security aboard our subs?"

"Yes, Sir. From what we've managed to gather, the sub was deliberately sent off course," He informed. "why it was sent off course, we don't know. We've used radio bottom scans and side looking sonar to detect radiation readings from the nukes. They're all there so it looks like the sub was sent off course for a different reason,"

"And how exactly could someone do that without our authorization codes?" Kits asked.

"This is Skip Tylar, he's an annalist at Washington Naval Security Station,"

Skip looked extremely nervous to be speaking to the senior staff of the White House. "It looks possible that a foreign signal was transmitted through the EAM system that effected the subs navigation systems.

"I was under the impression that that was impossible," The President said.

"So were we sir," Skip said gravely.

"So, who do we have to thank for this?"

"Whoever managed to access the EAM signal also managed to corrupt all the data banks leaving no trace of where the signal came from,"

"So your saying that you have no idea," The president spelled out.

Colonel Gates looked guilty. "No, we don't,"

"Actually, we might," Ryan said causing all eyes in the room to turn to him. "a few days ago, the CIA was in the middle of a snatch and grab Op in Calgary, Canada. They had finally managed to track down the...Anomaly, that put to of their agents in hospital. While following her, they observed her use an ATM without a credit card,"

"What do you mean?"

"By touching it, she managed to transfer 300 dollars from the main income holdings of Starbucks into an ATM machine is Calgary. It's called Techokenesis," Ryan explained. "The Ability to manipulate technology,"

Everyone in the room looked shocked. The fact that there was a girl out there that could simply override every computer, firewall and safety system in the world was a scary one.

"Your saying she sent the sub off course?" Kits asked.

"I'm saying that she certainly has the means to do something like that,"

"Where is she now?" The President asked.

"That's the real problem. During the Op, the agents were ambushed and attacked by...The Colossus," He said gravely.

The President's mouth dropped open. That was an even scarier thought. "Jesus, why the hell wasn't I told about this?!"

"Plausible deniability. In case he blamed you for detaining one of his kind,"

"He could be dealing with her himself. He may have found out about the sub and decided to police his own kind?" Colonel Gates offered.

"Wouldn't he just ask us to hand her over? I mean we know he's been working with MI6," The Vice President wondered.

"Maybe he wasn't there to capture her. Maybe he's protecting her," Ryan said gravely.

"Why would he do that?"

"I don't know but we can't stop looking for the prime suspect in the destruction of a nuclear submarine just because she is in the company of a very powerful Anomaly," The President sighed. "Is there anyway to contact him?"

"Not that we know of. He's always initiated contact with MI6," Ryan said.

"Alright. I'm not going to outright accuse any one of anything until we know for sure. Ryan, get our best people on this. Find her, find the Colossus! Maybe we can come to some kind of agreement," President Greenwood ordered. "I don't want the press to find out about either!"

"Yes sir,"

"Yes Mr. President," They all agreed.

A few minutes later the meeting was over and the staff had left the Oval Office. Most of them split off into different directions of the house while The Secretary of Defense and the Vice President were escorted outside by the Secret Service and into a limousine that probably had bulletproof windows.

"Well that went well," The Vice President said casually.

"As well as expected. Anything new?" He asked.

"Not yet. They haven't shown up at Hogwarts," She said.

"What about the girlfriend?"

"She's still trying to turn a bunch of kids into an army," The Vice President smirked. "we can be ready to grab her if we need to,"

"That's probably not a good idea. The last time she got involved it sent Albus into a frenzy. There's no need to cause that kind of chaos again, beside we need him alive," Ryan said.

"I understand that, but why he would want electro-girl alive is beyond me,"

"Maybe he's got plans to use her against the muggles, who knows. We have orders. He wants her alive, he gets her alive," Ryan reminded.

"Well, our inside man will contact us as soon as they arrive at the school. At least then we'll know where they are,"

"What about the Cleric's? Anything new on them?" Ryan asked.

"They're keeping a low profile for now. Probably waiting for the right time to use they're little fire starter against the Colossus,"

"That should be interesting," Ryan smirked.

The Vice President stared out of the window, looking at the passing buildings and people. "We've waited so long for this," She sounded almost sad. "you think they'll recognize a God when they finally get to see one?"

"Ha, no!" Ryan laughed. "muggles are idiots. 95% of the entire world believes in a supreme being in some form or another but I know they simply won't be able to grasp actually being ruled by one,"

"Well, there an answer to that too,"

St. Mungo's Hospital

London, England

September 9th

2022 A.D.

The hospital had undergone quite a change over the last few months. It was now completely visible to muggles and the damage it had sustained at the hands of Jack Daggra and Albus Potter had been repaired but it was now busier than ever before. After a news report that informed the muggles of the medical advancements made by the magical community people had been lining up to get treatment there. Any illness or injury that couldn't be treated by normal medicine was now sitting in the waiting room.

War veterans that had lost limbs had arrived to see if they could have them magically grown back. Terminally ill people had arrived seeing if the wizarding world had some kind of potion or remedy for their sickness and then of course there were the actually wizards and witches that had been injured.

All in all, Draco barely had a moment off. He walked quickly through the busy corridors on his way to his next patient.

"Healer Malfoy!" A Medi-witch rushed over to him.

"This better be important," Draco sighed.

"There's a girl here that wants to talk to you," The witch said quickly. "she won't give her name and says she'll only talk to you. Swears a lot too," She mumbled the last part.

"Look I'm too busy, tell her to speak with -"

"She said you helped a friend of hers when he was attack by clergy...or something,"

That made Draco pause. Lots of people knew about the attempt of Albus and Aurora's lives in Venice but almost no one knew that Draco had tended to both of them afterwards.

"Bring her up to my office," Draco said quickly.

A few minutes Later, the young girl with dirty blond hair entered his office.

"You Malfoy?" She asked taking a seat in front of him.

"Healer Malfoy," Draco knew instantly that she was much like him self at that age. "what can I do for you?"

"I need to get to Hogwarts. Albus told me that he trusts you," She said.

"Did he? And why do you need to get to Hogwarts?"

"I want to see the sights!" She scathed. "Can you get me there or not?"

Draco laughed. "You just show up here claiming that you know Albus and expect me to do exactly as you ask? You haven't even told me your name!"

"My name doesn't matter! Albus wanted me to get to Hogwarts!" She hissed.

"How do I know that you even know Albus?" Draco asked with raised eyebrows.

"Your just going to have to trust me,"

"Sorry, I'm not really the trusting type," Draco chimed.

Athena's eyes narrowed as she glared at him. "It is very important that I get to Hogwarts!"

"Then why didn't he take you?" Draco shot back.

"LOOK!" Suddenly a flash of blue lightning shot from her hand onto the desk in front of her, setting fire to several pieces of parchment. Draco quickly pulled his wand and shot water from it's tip.

"I'm sorry," She mumbled quietly.

"You're an Anomaly," Draco breathed. He was looking at her with a mixture of shock and worry.

"I really need to get to Hogwarts," She said again, this time sounding scared. "I think someones following me,"

"Followed? By who?"

"I don't know!" She threated. "Albus said I'd be safe at Hogwarts so please...help me,"

"Listen, it's not that simple. They are anti-disapparation wards all over the place, it's a minimum of 10 years in prison for making an unauthorized port key and all the direct floo connections to Hogwarts have been shut down," Draco said quickly.

Athena looked worried. She had come to London with the idea that she could simply use her abilities to get around muggle security but she hadn't counted on the magical security measures being a lot more difficult to break.

Draco thought for a second. He felt a light bulb inside his head pop on. "Come with me," He said leading her out of the office.

He took her back to the ground floor towards the Floo access points. As soon as they arrived he pulled out his wand and pointed it towards the ground. A white mist erupted from the tip and formed into a ghostly white fox. Athena took a few steps back and looked at it with caution.

"This is Healer Draco Malfoy at St. Mungo's, I need an emergency Floo connection to Hogsmead village to transport a critically wounded patient," As soon as he finished speaking the white fox shot off, disappearing through a wall.

"What was that?"

"A Patronus message," Draco said quickly. "don't worry, it only takes a few moment," He realized that Athena only had a very basic knowledge of the wizarding world, probably from what she'd heard on the muggle TV.

"Thank you," She smiled.

"Look, if you are who I think you are, then you need to get out of here right now. St. Mungo's isn't nearly as secure as Hogwarts. I also need you to tell me the truth...why aren't you with Albus?"

Athena looked at the floor with guilt. "He's...he's not very well. I'm trying to help him!"

"You mean you ran away?"

Athena nodded without looking at him. "What is it with you Anomalies as running away?" Draco mumbled.

"What?!" Athena snapped looking insulted.

"Albus did the same thing once," Draco said.

"He did?"

Suddenly a Patronus that resembled a golden retriever jumped through the wall and landed in front of Draco. It's mouth opened and a return message came out. "Floo connection to the Three Broomsticks now active," It said before fading into nothing.

"Alright," Draco grabbed a handful of Floo powder. "Do exactly as I do. Don't worry, it's completely safe," He stepped into the fireplace. "Three Broomsticks," He exploded into nothing with a blast of green flame.

Athena almost pissed her self. "That is not fucking safe!" She yelled at nobody. She sighed and climbed into the fire place. "Oh shit!" She grabbed a handful of floo powder. "Three Broomsticks!"

She clenched her eyes shut as the green flames engulfed her body. Oddly enough, she felt as if she had just been hit with a cold breeze.

"Hey, it's okay," Draco voice said.

She opened her eyes to see him in front of her. Around them was a next to empty and very old pub. He helped her out of the fireplace while she looked back in complete shock.

"It's like Star Trek! Transporters!" She was amazed.

"What?"

"You know, Star Trek. Beam me up Scotty, Warp 5, live long and prosper?"

"I have not idea what your talking about. Never mind, this way," He led her out of the pub and into Hogsmead Village. They walked up the street quickly, walking past the Hogsmead Weasley Wizard Wheezes branch and continuing towards the train station.

"There, you see it," Draco pointed into the distance where the massive outline of Hogwarts Castle was.

"It's bigger than it looks on TV," She said absently.

"Alright, you see that pathway there," He pointed to a muddy pathway that went off in the direction of the castle. "that'll take you all the way up to the main entrance. Once you get inside, find someone and tell them that you need to speak to Headmaster Tannis. He's a good friend of Albus's so don't worry, you can trust him. I can't go with you, I have to get back to the hospital,"

"Alright. Thank you,"

"My pleasure. Go quickly and don't touch anything once your inside," He smiled and started walking back towards the Three Broomsticks.

Athena took a deep breath and headed up the pathway. Eventually she reached a massive pair of metal gates which were luckily unlocked. She continued through them and up towards the castle. She passed Hagrid's Hut where she could have sworn that she saw a horse with wings sitting just behind it.

She reached the gigantic double doors of the main entrance that were likewise open wide. She very cautiously went inside. Straightly enough, the place was completely empty although she could hear sounds of classes in progress from down the corridor.

She started walking towards the noise.

"Shouldn't you be in uniform young lady?" Athena shrieked and jumped backwards. A spark of electricity shot off her hands and hit the floor. One of the portraits was looking straight at her suspiciously. She rushed down the corridor, away from the possessed picture as quickly as she could.

Suddenly, the corridor was rocked by what sounded like an explosion came from one of the class rooms. The door burst open and smoke poured out of the room followed by a few dozen coughing students.

"Well done Lily!" One of them growled.

"Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry," A girl with dark red hair said quickly.

Athena was starting to think that this entire school was insane. She backed away from the students and moved up against the wall. She was now extremely conflicted about actually talking to one of these people.

"Why are you out of uniform?" This time is was a girl that asked. An Irish girl.

Athena shrieked again and spun around. This time there was no spark, probably because she realized quite quickly that it was an actual woman that ha asked and not a living picture. She was quite beautiful and towered over Athena.

"I...I need to speak to Headmaster Tannis," Athena squeaked quickly.

"Really? Why is that?" She asked suddenly seeming very intimidating.

"Please...,"

Violets eyes softened slightly. "Come with me," She said.

Athena followed her up several staircases that moved around causing her even more panic. They final reached the 7th floor and walked down the corridor towards the gargoyle statues.

"Genome," Violet said.

Athena gasped as the statues leaped aside. She followed Violet up some stairs towards the door to the headmasters office. She knocked loudly before entering. Athena looked around at the dozens of spinning and smoke puffing machines thinking that the office looked more the a mad scientists laboratory then anything to do with a school.

The Headmaster wasn't alone in his office. Sat in front of his desk was a girl about the same height as Violet. She had long flowing black hair and a strange scar next to her left eye.

"Miss Finnigan?" Tannis said.

"Sorry for the interruption sir, this girl says she needs to speak with you,"

Tannis looked at Athena for a second before speaking. "You are not a student here are you?"

Athena shook her head slightly. "Albus Potter said he trusted you," Athena gulped slightly.

Aurora shot out of her chair and walked over to Athena. "You've seen Albus? Where is he?"

"Who are you?" Athena asked automatically.

"Who are you?" Aurora shot back.

"I was about to ask the same thing," Tannis smiled.

Athena hesitated for a moment. "Athena,"

The room went completely silent as everyone looked at her in shock. Eventually Tannis managed to break the uncomfortable moment. "It's very nice to meet you Athena. This is Aurora and Violet. We're friends of Albus's,"

"Your Aurora?" Athena blurted looking up at her.

"Yes,"

"Your beautiful," Athena sighed. She seemed almost sad to admit it.

"Err...thank you," Aurora looked slightly perplexed for a second. "do you know where Albus is?"

"Probably on his way here," Athena admitted.

"He's coming here?!" Aurora breathed in shock.

"Correction," Albus's voice came from the doorway. "Is here,"

Athena went bright red and turned away looking extremely guilty. For a second Albus and Aurora just stared at each other, unable to move. Albus broke, walking up to her quickly. He grabbed her and planted a desperately passionate kiss on her lips, like he hadn't seen her in years. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in tighter. They didn't seem to care that they weren't alone.

Violet grinned happily while Athena looked away, upset.

After a good 30 seconds, Albus and Aurora finally broke the kiss. Albus simply stared into her wolf like eyes as she did the same to him. Suddenly he was caught by a massive punch to the side of his head. He stumbled backwards. "Ow!"

"3 MONTHS! NO PHONE CALLS, NO LETTERS!" Aurora roared, ready to hit him again.

"I've been busy trying to save the world!"

"YOU CAN FLY AT ULTRASONIC SPEEDS! IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU 5 MINUTES TO COME AND SEE ME!"

Albus walked back over to her and tried to hug her but she pushed him away. "Don't think for one second that being away from you didn't kill me!" He tried to hug her again. This time she didn't put up much of a fight.

"You are so lucky that I'm in love with you!" She growled before kissing him again.

"You," He pointed at Athena. "are so grounded!"

"Albus...," She said weakly.

"No! Grounded! Oh, yeah, Aurora, Athena, Athena, Aurora," He said quickly.

"Yeah we've met," Aurora smiled.

"Albus...," Athena tried again.

"No! No buts! You scared the crap out of me, just vanishing in the night! You...," Albus stopped when he noticed that Athena's eyes were glazed over and she was actually swaying on the spot.

"I don't feel well...," She mumbled before collapsing to the ground.

Albus created a gravity field around her managed to stop her from hitting the floor. He ran over and gently laid her down. She was boiling hot and bright red. Suddenly she started shaking uncontrollably.

"She starting her Metamorphosis! Get her to the hospital wing now!"