Chapter 9: Friends Reunited

The smoke from Merlin's departure had cleared, leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy alone in the center of the Hall, surrounded by a stunned student body.

"Looks like we have all the help we need," Sora said, looking down at the empowered gems on the table.

"Yea, ah-hyuck. We're buildin' our own little army."

"Yea," Sora responded before crossing his arms and furrowing his brow in thought.

"What's wrong Sora?" Donald asked.

"It's just, if Maleficent is going around trying to build her army again, where's Pete? It's been on my mind since Halloween."

"Hey, yea, we haven't seen Pete since he and Maleficent took the Queen hostage," Goofy said.

"What?! She took Queen Minnie hostage?!"

"Yea," Donald added. "You were in the sleeping worlds. Maleficent wanted the data from Jiminy's journal, so she and Pete invaded the castle and took the Queen hostage. Goofy, the King, and I tried to stop her. But we got a little help."

"What do you mean?"

"It was that Axel feller, or is it Lea…oh—I'm confused. What's his name again Donald?"

"Lea. Got it memorized?" Donald snickered at his own impression.

"Huh. I never would've guessed," Sora said with a small smile on his face.

By now, Sora looked around the Great Hall, remembering that the rest of the school had been looking on during the last half hour or so. Looking back at the gems, Sora turned to his friends, "Guys, I think it's time for introductions."

Donald looked at Sora, then at the gems, then back at Sora. His eyes grew wide when he made sense of Sora's statement. "No Sora! You heard what Merlin said. We can only bring them if we need them."

"Oh come on Donald, they deserve to meet our friends. After all, if they're going to be in the castle, I think they deserve to know who they are."

"Sora's right, Donald," Goofy added.

"Oh what do you know, ya big palooka."

"Well, I don't see and problems with it. Besides, I think Professor Dumbledore would love to meet our friends." Goofy said, gesturing towards the Headmaster.

For the first time all evening, Dumbledore strolled to the center of the Hall. "Indeed I would. After all, it has been such a long time since Merlin's magic was seen by any of the wizarding world. I'm sure the staff and students would love to see your accompaniment."

"Well, go ahead Sora, summon 'em."

Donald could only cross his arms and tap his feet in defeat. Sora shrugged his shoulders at the mage then turned to the gems. He summoned his Keyblade and pointed it towards the gems. "Give me strength!" His shout was heard throughout the Hall.

There was a blinding flash of light and a howl of wind. The whole school drew up arms to shield their eyes, save for Sora, who held his ground with the Keyblade still aimed strong. After what felt like minutes, the wind died and the light dissipated.

Standing where the gems once sat were eight beings, two of which were familiar to the students and staff.

Harry, much like his fellow peers, could only stand in awe and shock. He had learned that there were other worlds from the three new teachers, and that they defend those worlds. Were these beings from other worlds? In Astronomy, he learned that the stars were thousands of light-years away, and if other worlds did exist, then they were just as far. How could one person simply bring beings from so far away into the Great Hall, even with magic as powerful as Merlin's? It made about as much sense as the Malfoy's being Muggle-born.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by the reunion taking place in front of him.

"Hey Sora, long time no see." The voice came from a young boy in what looked like a green tunic, complete with matching hat. What's more is that the boy seemed to be floating in mid-air.

"Hey Peter, where's—," Sora started, but was interrupted by a small glittering orb that flew right up to the bridge of his nose.

"There you are Tink," Sora said, cross-eyed, as he smiled down at the orb. The students could only hear a ringing sound in response from the orb.

"Is that…a fairy?" The question had come from Hermione.

"Uh, yea. Meet Tinker Bell."

The light around the orb died down, and surrounded in glittering gold, was a small fairy with blond hair wrapped in a green leafy dress.

"Alright, alright, where are they? Time to kick some bad guy butt." The students were looking around for source of another voice, but Sora had bent down to the ground immediately.

"Sorry Mushu, nothing here yet, we just brought you guys to introduce you to some of our friends."

Mushu climbed up Sora's arm and onto his shoulder. Sora stood up so Mushu could look around. He saw the entire student body surrounding them.

"You call this a 'few'?"

"Hey Sora," came Donald. "Hurry up will ya."

"Right. Well, guys, Professors, these are some of the friends that have helped us on our journey." He turned to the newly arrived group. "Well, first, there's-,"

"Please, Sora, leave the intros to the professionals." It was the blue man, who Sora had said was named Genie.

"You're looking at the one and only 'Genie of the…"

In a poof of smoke the Genie shrunk down to a normal sized man in a suit reading a piece of paper. "…former lamp, which by clause number three was free from captivity by one client, 'Aladdin', and is said to be his own master." Genie finished at the bottom of the page and rearranged the glasses that had appeared in front of his eyes. In another crack of smoke he was quite large again and leaning on Sora's shoulders with somewhat of a smirk.

"Oh brother," sighed Donald.

"Right, well you all know Bambi already," Sora gestured towards the deer as he climbed out from under Genie. "This is Peter Pan and Tink," he said motioning to the boy and his fairy. "Dumbo," the elephant with giant ears was busy staring wide-eyed a few Hufflepuffs, who were shying away from the large pachyderm. "You all met Mushu."

"That's right," started the tiny dragon. "And as I'm on official family guardian business, I don't want any disrespect from—," "Anyway," Sora interrupted.

"Is that a-a lion?" Sora turned his head to the questioner who had been Ron.

"Oh yea," Goofy said. "That's Simba. Don't worry, he won't bite."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy gave a bow to the King of the Pride Lands, who in turn, bowed back.

"Right, and finally," Sora started, looking around for the two smaller members of the group.

"Sora!" To the staff, it was strange to see a chicken in shorts and a shirt, wearing overly large spectacles. But he ran up to Sora, who didn't seem too surprised at all.

"Meet Chicken Little."

"Ah hahahahahahahahaha!" The loud, sticky laugh came from the ceiling as a blue furry creature dropped into Sora's arms and began licking his face, drawing some rather disgusted looks from the students.

"Guys, meet Stitch."

With a stretched out arm, the alien struggled a "Hiyeeee," out of his mouth.

"So Sora, what's story?" Genie asked.

"Well, Merlin helped with some of his magic, so you guys will be able to fight as long as we need you. I just brought you guys here now to introduce you to the school."

"This is a school?" Mushu asked, looking up to the enchanted ceiling.

"Yes Mushu. For wizards. But now, I have to send you guys back to your own worlds. Merlin said to only bring you guys as long as I needed."

"Right, right. Well, you owe me one for disrupting my duties as guardian," came Mushu.

"But Mushu, are you even a real family guardian yet?" Goofy asked.

"Well, uh, let's not get technical about all this, uh..."

"Don't worry about it Mushu. It's time to say goodbye for now. Remember, when we need you guys, we'll come calling." The group nodded to Sora, and in a flash of light, they were all gone, returned to their home worlds.

Don't worry, we'll have some suspenseful action soon enough. I'm really winging this story which probably isn't the way to go, but oh well. Please read and review.

By the way, did any of you catch the trailer for Kingdom Hearts III from E3? I almost shed a tear from the words "Now in Development."