Hi guys welcome to welcome to another lovely chapter. This one is gonna be most of Zens view of things, since she is the cause of thing happening different then the book. Thank you to all who keep reading or following. I try to get better and could always use advice. Enjoy. :)
Chapter 3: That Rat
Zen was the first to wake out of the four of them. It was early, around 630 a.m. an hour before breakfast. The girl gave a yawn while stretching. Her hand reached Fred's forehead and gently bumped it. Unfamiliar of to what it was made her eyes gazed over to see him. "Huh?" The teen was sleeping peacefully. A small giggle came about while the preteen sat and took in her surroundings.
The room was the same, except the sun shined in. Aeri was sleeping on her bed and it had seemed like George had finally decided to join her; more then likely it was because Fred had fallen asleep over by Zen.
A new question hit the girl how had fred wound up in hers? She thought for a moment then remembered. They were watching the night stars from the ceiling windows. They had talked about which legends were their favorite. Zen then asked if he would ever want to go to a far away planet. At first the boy just laughed and said there was no such thing as space travel. When he learned muggles had, his face had been quite surprised and declared they were all grabbing a ship one day.
If Zen could guess Fred was dreaming about space travel and many adventures. Quietly, the girl slipped off the bed and went to her trunk. She then started putting them into a wardrobe nearby for easier access and set her school supplies on top of the trunk. The girl even wondered why they hadn't said anything about getting science, math or other subjects. While magic was fun to learn weren't core things needed too? Even at the temple made the children do school work. Subsequently there was the parchment thing. Way too expensive when paper was so easily accessible. She would have to ask the head of house about this.
She stretched and then changed into a loose blue gi, before walking over to the room with the statue. "Ah good morning young Zen. Interesting outfit. I am assuming you are looking for somewhere to exercise and train a bit." Zen bowed a bit
"Yes please." The statue pointed to the right.
"A bit down the hall, there is a small Dojo equipped with human and Asgardian weapons. Please be cautious dear, some of them have magic attached. I would read the books placed in there before they are used." The girl gave a small bow.
"Thank you." She then walked over to the Dojon. Just like everything in hogwarts it was quite extravagant. The walls resembled an Armory with several weapons. A lot of them were recognizable, others had runes. Others resembled human ones, but had runes etched on to them. Lastly there were magical scepters and other interesting objects. A magical waterfall divided in them in the center The flooring was mostly made of wood, resembling areas for practice and meditation. The middle had a pit of sand for harder practice. The sides were decorated with asian and mythical statues, bonsais and small Zen Gardens. It mad the girl laugh thinking about the thing she had been named after.
"Well if this is her small, gotta wonder what her version of big is." She walked over and viewed the weapons, debating which ones to work with for a small work out. Finally her hand came across a bo staff with a tigers design wrapped around.
"So pretty." Zen picked it up and examined it closer. It was extremely light, but the balance was adequate. She spun it around a couple times. First in the center, then right and left side. The staff was quick to spin and quick to stop. Suddenly a feeling of burns came from her hands. "Ouch" The preteen hollard out and dropped the weapon.
She looked to her right hand to see they were red on her palms on the other side the tiger appeared. They looked at each other for a moment, before it gave a small pure and walked up to the bicep. It yawned and fell asleep. "Well that was unexpected" Ahe traced the tattoo looking siberian tiger who smiled. "A Mystical object here?" The tiger nodded as the bow flung back to her hand and matching leather wrapps appeared over her hands.
"Cool, may I practice?" It nodded yes. "Thank you." She walked over to the practice area and stretched a bit to warm up. Once that was done, she begun to grab it, but it merely flew to her hand. "Neat." Zen, then initiated a kata, that to others would seem like a dance to others. The staff even began to glow white and blue as it swung. To say the least, the child found her new favorite weapon and played with it for over an hour.
"Oih there you are."
"Whoa Fred she's really good with that." Zen stopped, hearing the twins compliment.
"What are you wearing? It's very pretty and matches your weapon."
"Are you some kind of martial artist?" The twins began to bombard her with questions as Aeri looked around in amazement.
"Thanks." Zen's face reddened from Fred's compliments. "And yes, been training since I was old enough to walk."
"Bet its "
"Good for "
"tricks" Zen laughed.
"It does."
"Teach us, please." The boys begged and and fell to their knees pleadingly.
"Well, I don't see why not, especially since you to are suppose to be our 'guards'. You too Aeri." Aeri pulled away from a phoenix staff, before having the chance to touch it and looked to Zen.
"Huh?"
"It will be good for your confidence and self defence. Wouldn't hurt to learn, but if I teach you three, I have rules." The boys grumbled a bit.
"I know, I know. Rules stink but necessary. First don't go about to everyone, that I am teaching or say you know how to fight for bragging rights. That loses the upper hand in battle or the teachers might force us to stop. Don't go looking for fights. That is not what this is about or running stupidly into battle. Pranks are okay, getting killed in a fight unprepared for is not. Lastly no going around touching these weapons without me giving the okay. Not all are human made, nor toys. This tiger artifact is an example.."
"But It's cute" The boys shouted in excitement. "We should find some of our own!" Zen gave a facepalm.
"Just please let me look into this one first. Now It won't be all fun and games and will take a lot of training. More than likely you'll hate me for what I put you through, but after you'll love the results. Is this a path you three want?"
"Yes!" The boys replied without a second thought. Aeri was a bit more quiet and took a moment to think. She was always being bullied at home or beaten by her uncle. It would let her flee from Dudley faster when he did his huntings. Heaven forbid she ever hit him or used it against her uncle though. The punishment would be far worse, but maybe she would be able to retaliate in different ways. Like Zen had said training might boost her confidence more.
"I would like to." Zen nodded.
"Right then, we start after classes then. When they let out, I suggest we go scout out the castle and grounds. While this is a good place to practice, it lacks fresh air. We'll need that for after a long day of sitting. You two should be able to find the best spots easier right?"
"Indeed we do." They replied in unison.
"Then let's go get ready for the day."
The four entered the dining hall just as breakfast started. Not many were in there yet. Well there were a lot of Ravenclaws, but of course that was to be expected. The other tables were pretty empty. "Was beginning to wonder where you guys were." Hermione stated as she moved over to them.
"Getting ready for the day." Zen replied while lightly filling her plate.
"I searched all over for your rooms though. It's like you two just disappeared last night." The four gave a small snicker.
"How could we disappear out of the blue? Never left it till we came here." Aeri replied continuing the inside joke.
"Anyways, are you guys excited for class today." The boys gave begrudging looks.
"Depends on the first class we get."
"I am." Aeri replied while toying with her food.
"It'll be interesting to see the difference." A few more minutes later Ron came trudging along tiredly.
"About time you got up. Finally found them, no thanks to you." Ron merly frowned and began to plunder his plate with food. Zen felt a bit sick seeing that. She then looked elsewhere, seeing Aeri didn't fill her plate up much.
"What, I told you they'd show up. Not everyone gets up so bloody early."
"Language Ron." Hermione lectured.
"Yeah, language Ron." The twins teased, causing the young boy to grumble. Owls flooded the hall, dropping off letters and the news.
"Mails here!" Ron shouted excitedly. News papers dropped between the twins one for Ron and Hermione.
"What's that?" Aeri asked as they opened them.
"Daily prophet. Tells the wizarding world news. Blimey, somebody tried to break into Gringotts." Ron shouted out of surprisement. Aeri took interest and looked over to his for a moment.
"That's weird. Hagrid and I visited that vault on the same day. We left with the item."
"First time in history someone managed to not get caught." Scabbers ran up to the table and took a piece of smelled a whiff again and looked over to the rat. She had been around them before, but they had never smelled like a man who had not bathed in a very long time. Something was not right. Before anything could be said, Professor Mcgonagall came by with there time table. The girl looked to hers and liked she had been wondering nothing about standard muggle classes.
"Excuse me professor Mcgonagall, how come there is none for math, science or writing." The teacher looked stumped for a moment.
"Ah, muggle teachings. That isn't really important in the wizarding world dear." The muggle raised three's jaws dropped at the comment.
"Of course it is. How are you supposed to advance without knowing the basics, especially these days. How can you add anything without math."
"Well third years and up can learn arithmancy. Basics for potions and such. Dwarves handle everything else."
"So you really on others to do things. What if your being shorted. Wait is this why nobody can figure out the technology problem?"
"And how can numbers fix that kind of problem dear?"Mcgonagall was rather surprised at the young ones questions. She had been asked before, but not like this.
"Those numbers and mathematics is what splirted the technology muggles have and are on the moon." The teachers gave a small laugh, which was very hard to get the stern lady to do, but when she saw the seriousness of all three, the woman stopped.
"What about biology, knowing how genetics tic and not get so sick."
"We have health potions for that dear."
"So, you're sayin it works perfectly for everyone and creatures. What about terminal illnesses. What happens when non of those are around and someone gets hurt. Does anyone know first aid or how to safely bandage a wound?"
"No.."
"What about grammar correction for writing the future."
"Well, we have you write essays."
"So were stuck with only criticism and one language if not taught before we are ten?"
"Muggle schools do that?"
"Yes malm, along with world history and politics. Some even more." She was astonished. Did muggles really know that much? What the girls talked about was intriguing and to her would be very important to learn.
"Do you by chance have any of those, that I may look at?" Zen smiled and had a feeling she was going to like this teacher.
"I brought some from home and can give you the things I studied last year. Looks like your my first lesson for the day would you like me to bring it then?"
"Yes dear, that would be lovely. Hmm five points to gryffindor for educational ethics." They all smiled in excitement as Mcgonagall went on to other students.
"Didn't know you were such a book worm." Fred joked. Zen turned and stuck out her tongue.
"Speaking of which, I'm going to explore the library after classes end today. You guys should.."
"I'll show you why I'm bookworm alright." Zen held up a small bag with a grin. The twins starred at the bag and began to feel nervous.
"Blimey Fred is she about to.."
"Pulls something on her first day?" BANG! Aeri laughed, remembering seeing those ninja things from a movie that Dudley was watching. Zen threw it at fred. Smoke/ dust flew up everywhere , making half the table unable to see. Shrieks from other students could be heard
"Shots fired!" When it finally cleared, Aeri and Zen were gone and Fred was completely covered in white powder. George had been hit too some. They both sat staring in shock as Ron began to laugh.
"Did they just?"
"Yes, yes they did, Fred."
"We just got shown up by.."
"Firsties."
"Our cute adorable firsties."
"This must not go unpunished."
"Agreed."
"Get them!" They shouted in unison, before running off to find the two. Meanwhile, the teachers looked stumped and had no clue what just happened or who did it. All they knew is Fred and George finally just got pay back.
Avengers Tower
Current Time 4 am.
Loki starred out of one of the several windows. The Trickster could not sleep. Ever since a year ago once the Avengers found out he had been possessed and freed him of the curse, something gave him the sense of dread and sorrow. His child and secret wife had been lost to him a decade a go. He lost control of who he strived to be without an anchor. The man did several things, he now regretted and became manipulated enough for his body to becontroled.
It was only when Thor got close enough to notice the colors of his eyes were off and out of anger had revealed what had happened for his brother to see what was going on. Someone had used the Tesseract on him and the void Loki had fallen into had not been any help.
Took weeks and several other people to figure out how to free Loki, but thanks to one Dr. Strange, he was mostly back to sanity. The feeling remained for the most part the man was able to put a bandage on it. Tonight was not one of those nights unfortunately.
Loki sighed and walked to the kitchen to grab a drink. To his surprise Logan was up and had a beer in his hands.
"What, do Asgards not sleep."
"We do, just some of us do not as frequently do as others." Logan could tell this hadn't been the first night the trickster hadn't slept and no doubt exhausted. He wasn't the type to pry though. "And you? Quite late for a human." The man gave half a growl.
"Lived way to long. Seen and done many things I am not proud of. I'd rather not relive them."
"A toast to that." They banged the champagne and beer glass against each others." Thud. The two turned to see Thor smiling with a drunken face. "Ah yes let party!" The Asgardian declared and held up his ale glass. Shortly after letting of of the door post, The God of thunder plummeted to the ground and passed out.
"Oih, so that's your brother."
"Adopted brother."
"Right."
Zen and Aeri sat in class patiently waiting for it to start and the teacher to come in. Zen felt it od though. That cat smelled like Mcgonicall for some reason and not just her pet. Could there be a way to actually turn into animals she wondered and walked up to it. Her hand went out and slowly patted her head. The woman gave a surprised look as Zen giggled and scratched behind her ear. "So the serious woman likes to play tricks. Trying to catch a few late unsuspecting firsties?" The girl whispered, making the cat snicker. Sure enough, the bell rang with Hermione and Ron running in late.
"Told you we should of just gone to class. Hermione lectured and huffed.
"What, the teacher isn't even here yet." Zen gave a smirk and took here seat. Suddenly the cat jumped and turned into the professor with a stern look. "That was brilliant.."
"Thank you Mr. Weasley. Perhaps it would be better if I turn your self or Mrs. Granger into a pocket watch. That way one of you might be in time."
"We got lost."
"Perhaps a map. I trust you don't need one to find your seats." Professor mcgonagall then proceeded to show them the spell to turn a match to needle. The students broke their wands out and started practicing. Rons rat scampered up to the table to watch. Being right in front Zen could smell it and wanted to barf all over the place. Her senses today were going all wonkey and that rat was no help. A thought then occurred, the professor just turned herself into a cat. Could the rat be human. She turned and looked to the both of them. Ron was completely oblivious. No way he could know.
"Say, Ron how old is that rat?" Zen whispered.
"Dunno Percy found him injured with a finger missing over twelve years ago." Zen paled and nodded slowly, before turning back to her match, thinking.
'No way a rat could live so long and it acts so human like. This is a problem. Who knew what it's was up to and if ron slept with that thing.' Shiver crept up her back and once again felt sick. Mcgonagall would know what to do. Slowly the girl stood up and walked over to the professor.
"Do you need help with the spell dear?" The woman glanced at Zen's face.
"Mrs. Howllet, you look ill. Do you need to go to the infirmary."
"Um.. I might be wrong about this, but is there a way to see if an animal is what you did with your cat thing?"
"Yes, but this is not the time for that kind of question, nor part of the lesson." Zen paled further and glanced to Ron's rat.
"Dear, what is the matter?"
"Please do it on scabbers, something isn't right. If I am wrong , I will apologize and take any grief or punishment that follows."
"I wouldn't do that, but might send you out to get looked at."
"Deal, just check it." The professor sighed, before standing up and walked over to the group. Zen followed and moved behind Ron.
"What?"
"Will you place the rat on the book dear. I want to demonstrate something to the class." Ron didn't think twice and did as he asked.
"Revillio." "It was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upwards from the ground; limbs were sprouting; next moment, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands" Once again screams and shrieks sounded that day. This time out of pure fright. Peter went wide eyes and looked around all the students but one and Mcgonagall had fled to the walls.
"Peter?!"The man peered over the shocked but not so pleased face.
"Heh, Professor." The still not use to being human jumped off the table, barreling right on to Zen. The force knocked her over and hit the back of her head against a desk in the process.
"Stupify." The man froze, before toppling over.
"Zen!" Aeri cried out and ran to her side. The pink haired girl looked to Aeri with glazed dilated eyes.
"Anyone get the tag number of that bus?" The girl then passed out.
"Professor!" Mcgonagall proceeded to bind the man with magic rope, then glanced over to Aeri and the knocked out Zen.
"Stay with her" She then looked to Hermione and Ron. "Go get the nearest teacher. Mr. Longbottom, go get Madam Pomfrey. The rest of you. Off to the dorms now." The students obeyed and went to their specific order
Down the hall, the Headmaster and Professor Snape were chatting as they walked what the saw next was unexpected. Students running out of a classroom and two of them running towards them with panic.
"What is the meaning of this? Aren't you supposed to be in class, not acting like a bunch of monkeys. De!"
"Enough, Professor Snape. Let the two explain. They are frightened, obviously something is wrong. Minerva would not let this chaos happen without a good reason."
"Probably just that Potter girl doing a bloody prank."
"Severus, stop. Now for you two take a breath and explain." Hermione nodded and calmed a bit.
"Zen, looked to be ill and we thought she was going up to the professor to get permission to go to the infirmary. Then they both came back over."
"She asked me to put my rat on the table for a demonstration. It was weird, but did as told. She turned it into a man. My.. My rat was an animagus?" Ron's eyes lit up in realization, before pailing as well. The teachers went serious at the allegations.
"Zen, got hurt and passed out."
"With us." The men hurried to the room along with the first years and instantly knew what the children said were true.
"Albus!" Minerva called out with relief. Her hand shaking a bit.
"Is that?"
"Yes, it's Peter Pettigrew." Meanwhile Snape went to the two girls. He glanced over to Aeri who at the moment was crying for the passed out girl. Snape wanted to say something snotty to her, but caught a closer look. Everyone had said she looked like James Potter. He had intended to give the spoiled brat hell through the years for it. To the untrained eye, James would be the father. To him, he knew those looks. Both Loki and Lilly had those eyes. Loki had the hair. She had her mother's complection. The man stared at her for a moment then to the other young girl.
"What happened?"
"I think Zen, tried to stop him from running. Instead, he landed on her and smacked her head against the table. Is she going to be ok? She has to be, right. Please Zen was the first one not to like me for me. Not for some stupid fame. She's my first real friend." Snape looked over the passed out child, before scooping her into his arms.
"More than likely she will be alright. Getting to the infirmary is the first priority. I assume you can walk.
"Yes, sir." She replied while wiping a few tears away.
"I'm taking these four to the hospital wing."
"Right, after inform the aurorers." The five of them left the room.
"I should of listened to her Albus. I thought I had accidently put it in her head all animals could be an animagus. I did it to prove she was safe and to all of the others. Instead, she turned out to be right and even tried to block him Albus. I should've just brought him to you to begin with."
"You didn't know Minevera, nor could you." He then frowned at Peter. This was bad, really bad for him. All his years of planning could go to the wayside, thanks to Peter and that brat.
Three days later
Aeri and the twins sat by the unconscious Zen. They had been watching her for days. George would be comfortingly holding Aeri. Fred would hang out on the other side, chatting with them, telling jokes or trying to wake Zen by threatening to go through that armory. Nothing happened , not even the tiger.
"Come on Zen. Please, you have to wake up. "
"Yeah, we still haven't gotten our revenge." The twins teased and sighed when nothing happened. Pomfrey had told them, by all rights why they first brought the girl in she should of already been dead from the impact. She had fractured her skull and some internal bleeding. The doctor could regrow bones, but the skull was way to dangerous. Moving her anywhere else was too dangerous as well, so St. Mungo's or home was out of the question.
Something was working in the girls favor though. Somehow she was healing at an accelerated rate and from what could be seen, Zen was almost fully healed. Now the question was could her motor skills and brain recover or would the girl for ever be in a coma.
"The doc says you're just sleeping now."
"Yeah lazy bones get up." The twins commanded as Fred began to poke her face.
"We can't go into space without you."
"Or show us that trick.
"I need my friend who likes us for who we are." Aeri sighed as Madam Pomfrey came along.
"Now, now children. That is not going to wake her. She needs rest, just like you three. Curfew will be in affect soon. Off to bed with the lot of you." They began to argue, making Zen's face scrounge and cover her ears a bit.
"Minds keeping it downs." A slurry voice echoed behind them. The three turned to see Zen's eye open a bit "Zen!" They piled on her with tight hugs.
"Ow.. Hey guys easy. What's the big deal. Too tight!" Her words were still slurry and disorientling.
"Get off her now! Or I swear I will ban all three of you from here or better yet experiment my asistance's potions on you." They nervously backed off. "Good, now out and off to bed You can come back after classes tomorrow." The three gave protests as they made their way out.
"Alright dear, now that their gone, let's see how you are." Pomfrey took her wand and began some tests
"I'm fine, just a bit of a headache." Zen replied, trying to wave the woman away.
"That's what you said that time you decided to jump off a forty foot tree." Unexpecting the voice, Pomfrey spun around to see an older man with black and grey hair, green eyes, a blue asian gi and what stood out the most was a red cape.
"Who.. who are you?
"Didn't you get a reply from Master Wong, saying I was coming. Allow me to introduce myself Stephen Strange also known as Dr Strange." The red Cape flew over to the girl and covered her like a blanket A giggle came, before passing out again.
Heh Heh. The doc here to show some people you all enjoyed. I'm kind of on the fence if I should cover what happened those previous few days or just continue the story. Vote in reviews or pm and don't forget to favorite if you liked.