Chapter 24: Ax
My name is Aximili.
By the moment that the Yeerks' sensors would have been capable of detecting us again, we had already succeeded in returning to the mainland. Max knew of a town twenty four point seven miles South of Azkaban and docked the boat in the harbour. Many of the freed people showed signs of wishing to run from there, however, Harry Potter and his friends convinced them to stay and accept the help an organisation known as the Order of the Phoenix could provide them. Normally Prince Jake, Marco and myself would oppose such a suggestion with the understanding that some of these witches and wizards were likely to be Controllers, however, in this case too many people needed medical, nutritional and psychological help. Without access to hospitals or their currency, they would never survive long without help.
While Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley helped lead the group to a less noticeable location, Erek met our group further down at rock pools separating the harbour from the beach. The others, particularly Neville, Anthony, Ginny and Ernie, were particularly happy to see him carrying towels and their artificial skins. Turning our vision elsewhere, we let each of our riders exit the water and grab two towels each first before demorphing and following after. One towel was wrapped around the usually covered areas of the human body, starting from the chest for females and from the waist for males, while the other was being used to dry their hair and still exposed sections of their bodies. Personally, I thought it was wasteful. They only needed to dry themselves. I will never understand the human's need to hide their bodies. Seamus was the only human I had ever met that didn't care about hiding his form and even he conceded to doing so when the others pestered him to do so.
"So, what happens to the prisoners from here?" Jake asked through chattering teeth as he accepted a towel of his own and used it to attack his hair. "Will they be ok?"
"The Order will have to work fast with the children's Tracers responding to their healing spells and other magic, but yes, they should be fine." Ginny explained as she grabbed her black outer skin from the pile, putting it on and holding it close of her bump ridden skin. An unattractive response human bodies have to the cold. "They'll put a lot of them in safe houses with heavy wards, most of which were set up by Dumbledore before he died, while the others will flee the country. Once you get out of the United Kingdom and onto the mainland, the Dark Lord has little chance of ever getting you. The English Ministry only has power over the countries of the United Kingdom, not anywhere else."
"As long as their mental states get better soon, there shouldn't be many problems." Neville agreed as Cassie, the last to join us due to the whale's bulk keeping her deeper in the water, joined us on land and gratefully began drying off. "The question is, what do we do now?" He added, growing a lot more worried. "We've definitely been gone too long. The Carrows will already be planning our detention and it's going to be brutal. Our excuse won't cover this kind of time."
"As long as we're back before the sun's up and there isn't some great army banging on Hogwarts' door, they can't peg much on us, just a broken curfew." Ernie shrugged, though I believe it was the kind that humans do when they're faking nonchalance. "It won't be much more than usual, if it's worse at all."
"And you call the Cruciatus Curse pleasant?" Seamus exclaimed as he ditched his towels and started throwing on his clothes, uncaring of the embarrassed and shocked looks and cries of the others. "Or how about the time Nev was hung by his wrists from the ceiling for a full day and open to whoever wanted to curse him?"
"I never said it would be fun, only that we've gone through it before. Well, most of us." Ernie replied, his eyes lingering worriedly to where Anthony was shivering. "Besides, it can't be helped now, and it is worth it. No point worrying about what's almost guaranteed until it happens."
"Give us a minute to relax and we'll take you all back." Prince Jake said tiredly, resting on the ground. "Then I want to find a nice, quiet place and sleep for twenty hours."
"Then go back to the Grimauld place before flying home." Ginny suggested, nodding thankfully to Seamus as he handed her all of her artificial skin. The boys were already in the process of putting on what I believe is known as boxers on while ensuring their...robes I think it was, continued prevent anyone from seeing their bodies. "Harry and the others will be fine with it, there's plenty of room and it's safe."
"Sounds perfect. But let's extend the time to sleeping for a week." Marco muttered raggedly, only holding himself up from the ground due to the uncomfortable and sharp rocks surrounding us. "I'm pooped and I don't want to have to do that geography report that's due in four days."
"Oh, drama queen. Don't be so lazy." Rachel retorted, though she sounded rather drowsy herself. "Besides, we can't the others back home high and dry that long. Most of them don't even know we left."
"Knock it off guys, I'm too tired to deal with your back and forth." Jake groaned, forcing himself to his feet as the last of the artificial skin was put back in place on our new allies before turning to Erek. "Can you let Tobias and Harry know of our plans and meet us there?"
"Of course. Have a nice flight." Erek nodded, regathering my friends' artificial skin again and heading back to the ship.
We only spared a few more minutes before concentrating on our newest morphs once again. It took a little longer to get each wizard Animorph onto us than last time, particularly Seamus who was made to share a ride with Ernie due to being particularly exhausted, and we had to fly at a slower pace, but we still made it back to Hogwarts in decent time. Taking care not to fly into the wards surrounding the castle, we swooped low over the forest and landed as gently as we could.
"Are you guys going to be able to make it back to London?" Neville asked as the five of us returned to our natural states and immediately sunk to the ground. Decent timing or not, we would never make it back to London before our time in morph was complete. In the presence of our new allies was the safest location to rest our overly exhausted bodies. "We could just sneak you into the Room of Requirement for a nap."
"No,...going into the castle's to...to risky." Cassie yawned, her eyes not even half open as she rested against a tree. "Don't want Slytherins or Death Eaters finding us again."
"And you guys are in enough trouble already." Rachel grumbled under her breath, slouching over a groaning Prince Jake. "Just head on to bed. We'll be fine."
"If you're sure." Neville sighed, conceding defeat. Shaking his head at the issue, he crouched down in front of Prince Jake and raised his open hand in a human greeting they call a handshake. "Thank you for all you guys have done for us, or rather, our world. We'll have to repay you when our war is over."
"You're welcome." Prince Jake grinned, taking the offered hand in his own and shaking it up and down. Looking up, he let his gaze travel over all of our new allies. "Good luck here guys. Hopefully, the next time we meet will be in more pleasant circumstances. That being said, feel free to call us if you ever really need us."
"Right back at you." Ernie nodded with a grin. We waited only long enough for everyone to shake hands and offer best wishes before we started morphing Thestrals once more. Giving them one final goodbye, and the location of Tobias' meadow in case they ever needed to contact us, we flew back up and into the night.
...
In comparison to our original journey to Hogwarts, our final departure from the mysterious, illogical and utterly befuddling castle was quite pleasant. There was none of the issue of time that all of our previous travels had beared either, so we were able to go at a much more relaxed pace. That being said, the moment that we had joined the others at the hidden residence, none of us were able to move a single step after demorphing. Fortunately, Erek and Max were waiting outside and carried us in.
I believe that humans say that they will sleep for a week in this scenario. That is preposterous of course, the body will not allow that, nor is it truly necessary to sleep for a whole human week. However, at this particular moment, I could understand where humans are coming from with this phrase. I too felt the urge to do this impossible act.
...
A week might have been preposterous, however, a day and a half was not. I did not sleep quite that long, merely twenty six human hours, but my human teammates were much more determined to stay in what they call a bed. By the time Marco, the last to rise, had come down the stairs to us, a rather unusual, small creature was already preparing a meal humans call dinner. Harry Potter called him Kreacher, a House Elf. They are apparently a species of sentient, intelligent, magical creatures that are naturally driven to serve people. They are willing slaves to wizards and to free one is taken as a disgrace to them. Ronald Weasley enjoys having him around. Hermione Granger is rather open with her dislike of the creatures living a life of slavery, but cannot assist Kreacher without insulting him. It was rather peculiar for an entire race of creatures to wish to be unpaid servants, forced to serve every order given them by their masters until they die or their master frees and disgraces them. I believe that there is a genetic mental condition being passed throughout the race.
"What smells so good and is it ready yet?" Marco groaned as he walked into the living room, his hair wildly misplaced and missing a sock.
"It will be shortly, don't worry." Harry smiled amusedly as Marco scratched his belly. It was understandable, of all the Animorphs, Marco's appearance was definitely the most untidy. Rachel had come down looking like her usual, well kept self. Cassie was left with only a few wrinkles in her artificial skin and Prince Jake had a couple of strands of hair sticking out randomly. Marco however, best resembled a porcupine from his shoulders up.
"That gives you just enough time to find a mirror." Rachel added with a smirk from her place next to Ron. They were playing a Wizarding version of chess. It was exactly the same, only the pieces moved by themselves and complained at Rachel when she put them in danger often. Not that they bothered Rachel much, she merely told them to shut up. "You look like you jammed your finger into a power socket."
"No, I've seen that. They look a lot better." Justin Finch-Fletchley called cheekily, looking up from the book on magical creatures he was showing Cassie with a mirth filled smile. He was the only one of the prisoners to stay with Harry. He was apparently a friend of theirs, one of Harry's partners in Herbology and a member of the DA. He was a Hufflepuff too and Ernie's best friend to boot, meaning that his level of loyalty was quite high. It was understandable that he would stay by Harry's side, as Harry was the most targeted person of all, both by the Dark Lord and the Yeerks. He had only left long enough for Ronald to take him to a Bill Weasley to safely remove the shackles from his wrists.
A decent sleep and a few good meals already had him looking much better. Hermione told us that a nutrient potion she brewed and gave him will have helped as well, but it was mostly due to him not being a captive for very long. And despite being caught, he was quite proud of how many enemies he managed to incapacitate before being knocked unconscious.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll make myself look pretty again after I've ingested a horse." Marco merely grumbled in response, throwing himself into a seat next to Prince Jake and Harry at the table. Hermione, Tobias and the Chee sat opposite them and I stood at the end of the table. We had been telling Harry and Hermione all we knew about Yeerk methods and trying to determine what kinds of weapons, technology and hosts would be used in the more heavily magical areas, such as the Ministry of Magic. The variety of spells that could be used and the interference magic caused for all technology made such places tricky to determine. Both were needed for the Yeerks to operate in such areas, so both would always be factors to consider.
"So just that we're clear, Taxxons and Hork-Bajir are the only alien hosts that we have to worry about?" Hermione asked, looking up from the parchment and feather she called a quill she was using to write everything down. "There aren't any others to worry about?"
/You might find some Gedds as well./ I answered. /But you will not have anything to fear from them in battle. They are the first hosts of the Yeerks. They come from the same home world and are willing hosts. However, this is because their bodies are disproportionate and their minds are extremely primitive. Without a Yeerk, they have difficulty moving properly, let alone surviving./
"They're basically monkey-like creatures with the arm and leg on one side of their bodies longer the other." Prince Jake added with a shrug. "Unless they see you when you don't want to be seen, they're nothing to even consider worrying about. Mostly they stay down in the Yeerk pool or on the bigger ships and are used to clean."
/Other than that, there's only Visser Three./ Tobias finished as cleaned his feathers.
"Though there's no guarantee that it will stay that way." Erek warned us darkly, a fact that I could not have agreed on more. If the current hosts were declared insufficient for the capture of this world, they would bring in more unique species. Hork-Bajir were the Yeerks' best shock troops and Taxxons were superior diggers and horribly dangerous with their appetite, but there were plenty of other kinds of hosts being used by the Yeerks and they were always finding more. They were all declared dangerous in their own ways. "Of course, that being said, even then you probably won't see much of them, if at all. The Wizarding world's too full of other interesting creatures they can take and is too mindful of the creatures running around it. if they want to stay unnoticed, then they'll have to keep the level of irregularities to a minimum."
/Plus, I doubt they'd do too well against magic anyway./ Tobias added nonchalantly.
"Ok, then what about other locations?" Harry asked, turning from me and Prince Jake to Max and Erek. "Surely they have more than three places to invade around here?"
"The others are focused more on the Muggle world, but yes." Max nodded grimly. "There is of course, two major Yeerk Pools hidden under the furthest suburbs of London and a couple smaller ones a little closer to the main part of the city. They also have other bases hidden not far outside London, in the non-populated areas like forests. They're mostly storage areas, landing/repair bays for ships and battle towers that will be used when the real war begins."
"How?" Justin asked fearfully, drawing the slightly startled attention of everyone at the table. Shamefully, even I had not noticed his approach.
/The towers will be used mostly to ensure that nobody escapes the city./ I answered neutrally. /More will be made and hidden by holograms until the real war begins and then they will link up force field generators located at each base and the Yeerk Pools to create a dome around the entire city. This will stop all attempts to escaped the Yeerks and prevent any chance of outside rescue. They will all be very well defended with soldiers and sensor weaponry./
"So it's best if we can find and destroy them." Harry summed up as Hermione added all that was said to her notes.
"If I discover any locations, I'll try to let you know, but don't hold your breath." Max said, offering the witch and wizards an apologetic look. "As pacifists, Chee 'Controllers' don't get very far up the Yeerk corporate ladder and rarely are informed of anything that isn't known by every Controller. We sneak in and hack our way to information or eavesdrop when we can, but we can only get so much."
"Thanks Max. We'll appreciate any help we can get." Harry nodded with a smile, though it was a little strained. Understandable, dealing with the Chee's pacifism programming is almost always very frustrating.
"Speaking of which..." Justin started, staring nervously down at his twiddling fingers. Biting his lip and narrowing his eyes, he forced himself to look up and right at Harry. "I probably already made it clear by staying here, but I want to help you guys in any way I can, both with the Yeerks and whatever you're planning to do about the Dark Lord."
"Wha?" Harry gaped, thrown off and a little flustered. "How do you know we're planning something to do with Voldemort?"
"Oh please Harry, the whole DA's known since Dumbledore died that you'd be up to something." Justin responded, losing his nervousness as he rolled his eyes incredulously. "You aren't the type to sit around and do nothing while the jerk's sending us to a life of death and misery. Whether Dumbledore told you something, which a lot of us suspected, or you were just planning to do something brave, bold and stupid, we knew you were going to do something now that Dumbledore couldn't. I wanna help you do it."
"You do realise that all of this will put you in a lot of danger, right?" Harry asked a little desperately. It almost sounded like he was really hoping that Justin would change his mind. judging from the annoyed looks crossing Hermione's and Ron's faces, I assumed that was exactly what he was doing. Denying help is a rather stupid move in my opinion, especially if it is coming from a genuinely trustworthy person.
"Please Harry, I'm already in real danger." Justin snorted, giving Harry a look I have been told translates to 'don't be an idiot'. "You Know Who is out to get me already. You saw the paper yesterday, the entire Ministry is moving hard and heavy to catch every escaped 'Mudblood' and have them horribly punished. And the Yeerks want everyone. It doesn't matter what I do now, so if I'm going to face that high possibility of death and torture, I want to at least be able to fight back. And I want to make sure that my friends and classmates stay as safe and well as I can. I can't do that if I don't come with you."
"We could use the help Harry. And he is right, he has the right to fight and he couldn't really be in much more danger than he already is." Hermione agreed, looking at a troubled Harry a very firmly. "Besides, it's stupid to think that we can handle both of our missions by ourselves. Just one may prove to be too much."
Harry simply sat there annoyedly for a good few human minutes, mulling it all over. I believe his saving people complex was arguing with his common sense. His frown deepened the more he thought it over, it didn't look like he'd come to a decision any time soon.
"He's not fighting for just you either Harry." Ron called over firmly, finally turning from the board to stare piercingly into Harry's eyes. "He's fighting for himself, for us and for everyone else. in case you're forgetting, it takes a lot more than one or two people fighting to get rid of You Know Who or the Yeerks. If you can fight, regardless of who or what you are, why can't he?"
"I agree." Hermione nodded, drawing Harry's attention and staring at him challengingly. Between them and Justin biting his lip nervously, but still staring determinedly, Harry simply gave a sigh in defeat.
"You're all right of course. We could use the help. Thanks Justin." He admitted, still irritated, but smiling welcomingly anyway and getting a huge smile in return.
"Not a problem." Justin said cheerfully, all his nerves gone in an instant. It was strange that he was such a happy person, especially considering where he was and what he was going through not forty eight human hours ago. Though, he did still have some jumpy habits and negative flickers in his eye now and then. Maybe he was hiding his strife. Either way, he was dealing with it very well.
"Well, if that's the case..."Prince Jake started slowly, drawing everyone's attention as he bit his lip thoughtfully. "And since he knows too much already anyway..." He added, nodding to himself. Seeming to have come to a decision, he sat up and walked over to a cupboard along the wall. Where Erek and Max had places the Escafil device.
"I thought I said no more of that." Marco grumbled irritably under his breath. However, he made no move to stop Prince Jake as he picked it up. The rest of us simply nodded in acceptance as he turned and came back to us. He stopped right in front of Justin and held it up, the wizard simply staring at it curiously in response.
"If you're going to help them, then you'll need the help this offers you." My Prince stated, smiling encouragingly. "This has many names, but the most accurate in my opinion is the morphing cube. It's Andalite tech. Simply place your palm flat on one side and it will give you our power to morph into any animal you touch."
"Seriously? Any animal I want? And it's painless, right?" Justin asked excitedly, already placing his hand on the cube. This boy was much less hesitant and much more trusting than most of the other witches and wizards were, maybe even more so than all of them. Then again, he has already been through what my friends call hell. Perhaps that has made him less afraid of anything else. Either way, his face still lit up with wonder as the cube performed its duty, marvelling at the sensation. "Wow, it tingles."
"Yep. Now you've got it." Cassie grinned, gently pull his hand away from the cube. "And yes, any animal, no matter how big or small, magical or not, and it's completely painless. You feel it happening, but it's more uncomfortable than anything else."
"And creepy to watch and hear." Rachel added brightly as she and Ron joined the group. "Congratulations our new Animorph."
"Thank you so much for this." Justin cried excitedly, looking almost ready to bounce around. "This is so amazing. I can't wait to try it out."
"Just remember to follow the rules. And remember how amazing it is when you fall victim to the bad side of morphing." Marco responded, dropping his chin onto his crossed arms and looking up at the excited teenager. "Wouldn't want a magical guy cursing any of our names after all." He added, his lips starting to form his usual sly grin.
"Just tell me all I need to know." He grinned, taking a seat. Before we could however, Kreacher entered the room and, with a snap of his fingers, filled the side of the table in use with food Marco claimed was worthy of a five star restaurant. The humans quickly started eating, particularly my non-magical friends as it had been so long since they ate, and filled Justin in on all he needed to know between mouthfuls. The Chee stuck around too, but Tobias and I went outside. Tobias preferred to catch his own dinner and I simply chose to go graze.
That evening brought all we needed to do in England to an end. The new allies were in place, a major plan was foiled and our side had successfully added chaos to our enemies' plans. It was about time for us to go home. After all, the Yeerks have not slowed down back at my friends' home since we left and those we left behind are incapable to handle them on their own.
Prince Jake had already decided. We would go back on the first flight tomorrow.
AN: Well, everyone's relatively safe, the mission was a success and no doubt, Voldebutt and Visser slime ball are probably causing thunder and lightning somewhere in super nova temper tantrums.
What do you think of Justin joining the team? He was partly introduced to make the full team a less Gryffindor dominated affair and his situation opens the story up for a lost more potential in the emotional and psychological aspects. Admittedly, I was going to use the Muggleborn Ravenclaw in their year, Kevin, but chose against it partly because he had no contact previously with Harry's group and the whole team only had one Hufflepuff. Justin was the better, more likely choice.