I loved the reviews- absolutely amazing as always! Thank you everyone for reading. Now, on to the story...

Chapter Four

Harry's smile grew fixed as he listened to the man's droning. He was anxious to get on with the tour, but all this political crap was boring him to death. Neville was lucky, he didn't have to stand and listen to this stuff. Neville was probably checking out the classrooms now. They were in Chicago. They'd spent most of their time here holed up in a hotel room, because it was freezing out.

They'd gotten a letter from Luna and Draco this morning, asking them to return. Harry got the feeling something else was going on, something that they didn't mention. Which was why he was so anxious. He'd told Neville about the letter, but the boy pointed out that they hadn't finished their trip, and the ICW was going to make a note of it. Part of Harry really wanted to go back to the UK and see what the problem was, but another part of him wanted to finish the trip out.

Maybe they could move their schedule up a bit. Christmas was right around the corner, and the schools would be closed anyways. No one would blame them for wanting to go back for the holidays. Perhaps they could return?

So far, Chicago was very interesting- like many of the U.S schools, they had integrated the magical and muggle communities. Their technologies weren't exactly up to the same standards as SIM, but from what he'd heard, only one other group was doing what they were- and they were in San Francisco.

"Well, what did they say?" Luna asked Draco, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. Their things were half packed, and they were getting ready to move out of the Manor. Draco was happy to move out of the Manor, even if that meant 'roughing it' on the Hogwarts grounds. Luna didn't have to do too much convincing.

"Neville says that they're going to go ahead of schedule. They're only going to spend a couple of days in Santa Fe and move on to San Francisco, because that's what they really want to see anyways. He says that they'll be back for Yule."

"Thank goodness!" Luna exclaimed. "The centaurs are getting worried. And when the centaurs are worried, we've got a problem on our hands." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. It had slowly been growing back from her haircut, and it brushed just past her shoulders now.

Draco sat at his desk, frowning slightly. "Harry says here that they've asked him to work over there again. This time, it was in Chicago. You...don't think he'd really do that...would you?"

Luna shook her head. "No. I very much doubt he would leave the Forest permanently. You know how he feels about it."

The floo flared up, and Severus stepped through. He glanced Luna's way, and spoke to Draco.

"Draco, we've got a problem."

"I would say so! What are you doing here?" Draco stood, frowning. He and Severus hadn't spoken in some time- the man had been busy with the new school being rebuilt.

"The Ministry is demanding that they be allowed use of the property, or they will open it for auction to the public."

Draco raised a brow. "They can't do that. Hogwart's Charter-"

"That land is no longer Hogwarts. The new school in Bristol is Hogwarts." Severus sat down on the sofa, frowning. "They are saying that the Charter is now voided, now that the school no longer exists."

"What...what are they planning on doing with all that land, then?" Draco asked.

"Splitting it up, I suppose. Selling it off. I don't know who would buy it, since no one has enough money."

"Except for us." Luna said, looking thoughtful. She turned to Draco. "We need to write Harry and Neville. Tell them to come home, as soon as they can. Neville might...have to play his wildcard."

"Wildcard?" Severus questioned.

Luna and Draco exchanged a look.

Harry frowned at the letter in his hands. It was their second day in Santa Fe.

"Neville, we've got a problem." He handed the letter over to the man. They were sitting at the breakfast table with Cheif Runningbear, his daughter Rosalie, and some of the Professors at the University.

Neville's eyes scanned the letter, and he cursed. "Shit."

Harry spoke up, setting his napkin down on the table. "We've got an emergency over at the scho- I mean back home. I'm sorry we've got to cut our time short."

The Chief and the others stood, as Harry and Neville stood.

"May I ask what is going on?" The Chief asked.

Neville handed the letter back to Harry, who slipped it into his pocket. "The Ministry is taking over the land that Hogwarts used to be on. They're going to sell it off, I suppose, even though it's a sanctuary for Magical wildlife."

The Chief frowned. "I see."

"We must be going. I'm so sorry. I hope that we can schedule another trip."

Rosalie spoke up. "Do you think I could accompany you? I might be able to help. Let me just floo some of my friends." She looked pleadingly to her Father. The Chief furrowed his brow.

"Rosalie, what are you-"

"Please Father, let me help them. You're always saying I should get out more, well I am now- I can help them, I know it!"

The man sighed, shaking his head. "I cannot stop you. You're grown."

Harry and Neville left the table, with Rosalie following them. Rosalie spoke quickly, and quietly. "I'm going to floo some of my friends. We all worked together ages ago, but I know that they would be happy to help- and they're always looking for something new to do."

"Are you sure? I mean, your Father is here-"

The girl shook her head. "I can floo back if I need to. I've got a Pass. Come on, let's go save that land!"

Rosalie's eyes went round as Luna tackled Harry to the ground. They were in the foyer of Malfoy Manor. Draco was hugging Neville with a broad grin, and the two boys helped Harry back up to his feet.

"Nice to see you Kit." Draco said, hugging Harry tightly. He looked to the others. "Who are they?"

Harry motioned to Rosalie.

"This is Rosalie Runningbear- her Father is the Chief of the Magical Native American Nation. These are her friends, Summer Hayes-" A girl with sandy blonde hair waved at them. "Demetri Johnson-" A black boy shook Draco's hand. "And Zoe Whitehawk." A girl with long dark red hair greeted them with a smile.

Rosalie spoke up. "I think we can help you. I don't think they'll try anything with me around- they'll know I can go straight to my father. It'll create an international political disaster if they do." She said with a wry grin. She motioned to the others. "Summer's Father is an ICW representative, and she's a student over at Berkley, and she's working in the labs at San Francisco-"

Harry and Neville grinned at this.

"And Demetri here actually has experience working with Contracts and things, as the whole lot of his muggle family are lawyers. He'd be one too, but he's too busy taking care of his plants."

"You're a herbologist?" Neville asked interestedly. Demetri nodded.

"I mostly focus on tropical plants, but yeah, I got my Masters last year." Demetri said. He had a really low voice, which was unexpected from such a short guy.

"And Zoe is good at...lots of things." Rosalie said with a smile, and Zoe laughed.

"I went to school with Rosalie, and I've been right there with her when we protested over the harvesting of some of the redwoods, and development in some of our ancient grounds. Me and Rosalie went to school for Politics, but we hate politicians, for the most part. We just want to be able to work around them, you know?"

Harry nodded, with a grin. "You know what, I think we need to get some of our friends together too."

"Done, and Done." Luna said, hugging Harry again. They had been gone far too long. "Hermoine, Daphne, Susan, the Twins, and the Creevey brothers are all on standby. We're going to get everyone together tomorrow, and we'll head to Hogwarts-"

Draco shook his head. "It's not Hogwarts anymore." He said quietly. "We have to call it something else."

The group was quiet for a moment.

"Um...where are we anyways?" Zoe finally asked.

Draco cleared his throat. "Oh, how rude of me. Welcome to Malfoy Manor, my family's traditional home." He waved about to it. "Not that I've been here that often in the past few years." He led them out of the foyer. "We've set you up with a couple of rooms, but don't get too comfortable- we'll be heading to the Grounds tomorrow, and we might need to stay there."

Harry raised a brow. "Um...we're going to be staying on the Grounds? Will the centaurs be okay with that?"

"Centaurs?" Demetri, Zoe, and Summer all exclaimed in unison. It was extremely rare to see a centaur, even in the wizarding world.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, there's a whole herd of them that live in the forest."

Rosalie didn't look too surprised for some reason, but the others were gobsmacked.

"If it's Centaur land, they would be mad to take it away from them!" Summer exclaimed. "The Centaurs are a magically protected Creature, they should-"

"Tell that to the Minister." Harry cut in darkly, and Draco motioned to a corridor.

"Your rooms. Dinner will be ready in an hour. We'll talk about other details with the Forest."

"Wait, so you're saying that not only do you have a herd of over 150 centaurs in this forest, there's also a herd of almost 100 Unicorns, a ton of Acromantula, some amazingly rare plantlife, a Threstral herd so large that no one has any idea how big it is, and a Fairy Mound!" Zoe exclaimed, her food abandoned. No one was eating their dinner much- they'd gotten carried away with their conversation. They had, after all, just found out that this forest had one of the largest herds in the magical world of Unicorns and Centaurs- who knew about the others.

Summer whispered to Zoe. "I didn't know there were such a thing as Fairies." Harry hid a smile. Come spring, they'd see.

Draco sighed. "Exactly. The thing is, most of these people are unaware of what's in the Forest. It's always been forbidden for people to go inside, unstandably because it's dangerous, however-"

"However we've been exploring it since we were all kids." Harry cut in. "We, along with Hagrid, know that Forest better than anyone. We are the only ones that are actually welcomed there. The Ministry doesn't care about all these amazing creatures- they just want to use the property for..." He trailed off, and Luna put it best with one word.

"Harvesting."

The group collectively shivered.

"Well, there are a lot of things we can do. You can either buy the land yourself, or somehow prove that you are the only ones suitable to care for the land. Perhaps you can strike a deal with the Ministry?" Demetri asked.

Harry made a face at the thought of making a deal with the Ministry.

That night, after the others settled into their rooms for the evening, Harry and Neville followed Draco and Luna to their room. Instantly, they were on each other, snogging like mad. Draco was stripping Harry, while Neville had pinned Luna up against the wall. Harry laughed as Draco carried him over to the bed.

"It's been far too long. Don't leave us like that again." Draco murmured, kissing him soundly.

"Not planning on it." Harry breathed as soon as they came up for air. Draco stripped off his own clothes, and Neville dragged Luna over to the bed. It wasn't too long before they were all naked and groping each other, snogging pretty heavily.

Neville tugged Harry close by his collar, and kissed him, while Draco went down on Harry. Luna watched with a widening grin as Neville plundered Harry's mouth.

"Something's different about you two." She murmured, reaching forward to pet Harry's hair. "What changed?"

Harry smiled, and Neville gave a feral grin to the girl. "What do you two know about D/s?"

Luna cocked her head. "What's that?"

"Let me show you." Neville murmured, kissing Harry again. He glanced down to Draco. "Draco, are you too busy to watch?"

Draco grinned, pulling away from what he was doing. "Never."

"Peewee Longbottom?" The Minister asked incredulously, staring at Neville's family tree. "This has to be a fake. Gryffindor's name couldn't possibly-"

"It's true. You know that this form cannot be forged." Luna cut in. The Minister and his entourage, along with the Headmaster and several of the staff members stood at the Front gates of the 'old' Hogwarts grounds. Hagrid stood off to the side, along with the centaurs, blocking their path inside. Hermione was looking particularly nervous at standing up to the Minister and the Headmaster. The twins and the Creevey brothers were brimming with excitement at being a part of something important, even though they were all standing in a foot of snow. Everyone looked completely shocked at Neville's revelation- it was their last defense.

They'd argued everything else, from protecting magical species and plantlife, to harvesting rights. They'd been here two hours already, and no one was budging.

Those who'd come all the way from Santa Fe were freezing in their boots- warming charms didn't quite do the trick in this weather.

Snape took the form, and tested it with a number of spells. "It's genuine, Minister."

The man glared at him. "And why should I trust-"

Dumbledore cut in. "Now really, there's no need to argue." He turned to Neville. "If what you say is true, why not come forward sooner?"

Neville tried his best not to look nervous. He was about to lie blatantly to the Headmaster's face. "We just did this potion. Harry thought it might be a good idea, just in case. He pointed out that all of us had long family histories, and we wanted to know if there was another way of...keeping the land out of the Ministry's hands."

"Well, this is certainly a way." The Headmaster said, looking thoughtfully at the page. "Legally, this land is yours, Mr. Longbottom, since there are no other known heirs of the Four Founders." He peered at Harry. "And all of you took the test?"

Harry cursed internally. The Headmaster would be very interested to know about his family history. If it came out, the papers well...well, Draco and Luna owned all the newspapers and magazines now. They wouldn't say a thing. But still, the Headmaster could find out.

"Yes, we did. Like we said, Headmaster, we wanted to see what our options were." Luna wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulders as the Headmaster continued to look at Harry knowingly.

"Mr. Potter, may I ask what you found? After all, your friend's lineages are fairly well known, with the exception of Mr. Longbottom's...development. However, your Mother..."

Harry's eyes fell to the ground. "Was a muggleborn, and her entire line was full of muggles."

"Hmm. I see." The Headmaster did not sound convinced. He motioned to the staff. "Well, I daresay we've wasted some of our time today. Back to the school, then." He turned to the friends casually. "May I ask what you are going to do to the land now?"

Luna piped up. "It's going to continue being a sanctuary!"

The Headmaster gave the girl a twinkling smile, and turned to walk back into Hogsmeade. The Minister and his cronies followed like Puppies, complaining all the way about secretive teenagers.

Harry turned to Rosalie. "Thanks for being there. I think they would have made a bigger fuss if you lot hadn't been here."

Rosalie waved it off. "No problem. So, what do we do now?"

"Set up tents." Neville said.

Harry approached Firenze, and the Centaur thanked the boy. "Thank you Mr. Potter, for your assistance. If you had not interviened, we would have had blood spilt on this land."

Harry shivered at the thought. "Your Father said that he wanted us to live here permanently?"

"You and yours." Firenze motioned to Neville, Luna, and Draco. "No other humans."

Harry bit his lip, and glanced to the others. He interrupted Neville's talks of getting the tents set up.

"Guys, you are going to have to stay in Hogsmeade or something while we get this sorted out. Only the Four of us are allowed to stay." He motioned to himself, Neville, Luna, and Draco.

Hermoine raised a brow, while the Twins spoke up.

"We can stay at our shop, no big deal."

Colin cleared his throat. "Um...we left school. For this. Dumbledore will undoubtedly interrogate us as soon as we get back."

Harry sighed. "Go back to school, Colin. If he asks you anything, tell him that you don't know anything. You too, Dennis. We'll keep you in the loop, but I don't want you two getting in trouble."

"But we want to help!" Dennis cried.

"And you will."

Neville turned to the others. "I guess you lot can stay in one of our Houses until then-"

Susan and Daphne shook their heads. "We've got a flat in London." Susan said, with a small smile. "Just let us know when you need us." The girls joined hands.

Hermoine studiously avoided looking at their hands. "And I'm staying in Hogsmeade, so I won't be too far away. I've got a job as an assistant in the Ministry, but I don't think it will last long, considering I just stood up to my boss." She sighed.

Luna gave an understanding look to the girl. "Then you can work with us. You've got a brilliant mind, you've just got to put it to good use. I'm going to need your help contacting some newspapers."

Hermoine's eyes sparked, and she grinned. Rosalie spoke up. "We can help with that too!"

Hagrid spoke up, grinning at Harry. "So you lot will be stayin' here?"

Harry nodded, and the big man hugged Harry tight. "Great!" He glanced at Firenze, setting Harry down. "Not that I don't mind your company, you lot aren't much for talkin', you know?"

"And you guys can stay at the Manor- might as well get some use." Draco offered. He'd just have to make sure to keep certain rooms warded.

"What are we doing here, standing out in the snow- let's get going!" Demetri

Check out this video- it's a really pretty song, and I kind of imagine the band sounding a bit like this, except a bit more rock-ish. Check out her other stuff too, it's wicked cool.

youtube .com/watch?v=bjDbTwWxA5A&feature=related

My 'Canon' Details: These places are mentioned several times throughout my first story, and this sequel.

There were seven secondary magical institutions they could go to, and four Universities. The secondary schools were in Salem, New York, Savannah, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Santa Fe, and Berkley. Their Universities were in Salem, Berkley, Santa Fe, and St. Louis, and Providence. There are also labs in Salem, and San Francisco.

Each school even had their own websites, and for muggle employers, diplomas and resumes were only slightly forged to represent muggle schools.

There are a number of schools abroad, obviously, but I will include more details next time!