Well, sorry about that folks but considering I was on holiday I'm sure you can let me off for not uploading last week. So, let's just consider last week a week off and I'm back to the schedule as planned today. So, here we are with my next chapter and now the number of chapters is in double digits. And the fun can truly start to begin soon.

Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 10:- Redfox, Red Hair

"Do we really have to do this?" Ron muttered as he trudged down the corridor, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to keep them open. "All the teachers are always telling us how much we need to work hard and pay attention for our OWLs this year and surely a decent way of doing that is to actually get a good night's sleep."

"It's our duty as Prefects, Ron," Hermione chided him. "You should consider it part of the privilege. Prefects help the staff by patrolling the corridors to ensure the younger students obey the curfew - that's the way its been since the concept was introduced to the school."

"I know, I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for being a prefect but it's just… I dunno… I feel like I could do without this part. I'm tired and I don't reckon anyone else is out of bed anyway."

"Says a boy who has snuck out of the dormitory at night many times for various reasons."

"Well, yeah, but never for any bad ones, right?"

"Well… I suppose not, surprisingly. But just because you and I never disobeyed that particular rule without a cause doesn't mean that everyone else will. And that means we have to help uphold the rules."

"Yeah, I suppose," Ron sighed. "But is it weird that I still feel like I should be creeping around so that I don't run into Filch or something while I'm out here? Speaking of which, when does Filch get any sleep anyway? He's always patrolling the castle at night. What does he do - take naps every now and then during the day?"

Hermione laughed slightly, but shook her head. "You really shouldn't say things like that in a place where Filch could be around the corner and hear you."

"I guess, but its not like he could do anything. I reckon the guy knows that none of the students like him anyway - he doesn't seem to care what they think. Wish we'd brought the Marauder's Map with us though. We could see where… hey, there's an idea! Maybe we should ask Harry if we can bring it with us next time we have to do this. That way if anyone's sneaking around out here we can just head straight to where they are and lynch them or something."

"That's… actually a pretty good idea," Hermione ran a hand through her hair. "Why didn't I think of that? It could be a really useful tool. Though I can just imagine the look on Sirius' face if he ever found out that we were using the mischief making tool of the Marauders to catch mischief makers."

"He'd be horrified," Ron grinned. "Bet Lupin would approve though. He was a Prefect wasn't he? I wonder if he ever used it for that reason."

"He might have tried, but I imagine Sirius and Harry's dad might have tried to stop him if he did. But then again, they were probably the ones breaking the curfew anyway so I don't know."

"Maybe we should ask him next time. Wonder what he would have done if he ever caught them?"

"What will you do if we happen to catch Fred and George out here?"

"Um… side with you?" Ron said uncomfortably, making it sound more like a question than a statement.

"I bet you will," Hermione rolled her eyes slightly. "Anyway, we should probably split up a little now so we can cover more ground. You want to head out and check around the Entrance Hall and the greenhouses or do you want to search around the first and second floors?"

"I'll take the greenhouses," Ron yawned. "Maybe a little fresh air will wake me up. I still can't believe we have to do this until bloody two in the morning."

"I really don't know what you're complaining about since you probably caught up on all the sleep you're missing in History of Magic this morning."

"…True but still…"

"Like I said, Ron. All part of the privilege. Meet back here later, okay?"

"Yeah, alright. Um… what do I do if I do catch anyone out of bed again?"

"Deduct points off them and send them back to their dormitories off course."

"But what if they're from Gryffindor?"

"Deduct points off them anyway?"

"Seriously, you want me to deduct points off our own house? Isn't that just like… punishing myself as well as the ones disobeying the rules?"

"It's what Prefects do, Ron. You wouldn't hesitate to deduct points from other houses so you can't hesitate to deduct points off your own."

"Yeah, yeah, I guess so. But still, if I do catch anyone I hope they're from Slytherin. Anyway, see you later."

Gajeel had to admit that he was seriously impressed by this place. The closer he got the more real it seemed to get, and he found himself standing at the edge of a large sports field of some description, though what in the world they played here with those strange hoops he couldn't even begin to guess. But Wendy's scent, while a little faint, was definitely here.

The only trouble was, it didn't seem to lead anywhere.

"Gajeel, what's taking us so long?" Charla wrung her paws together.

"Look, I'm doing my best, alright?" Gajeel snapped, a little more angrily than necessary. He hadn't been able to smell Wendy around the front doors so instead of marching right in the a building that could have anyone or anything inside he'd headed down to the lake to try and pick up where Wendy could have got out, and indeed he had found Wendy's scent by the boathouse and followed it up here with no trouble at all. Except that her scent had now seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"Look, the girl's scent moves around the pitch a little bit, and I can definitely smell her clearly wherever she went, but it doesn't go anywhere. The only scent trail there is is the one she used to get up here from the lake. It's just… gone cold."

"But it can't just go cold, surely," Charla protested. "It has to go somewhere."

"Well, I'm telling you it stops here. And there's no other scent of anything I can pick up that indicated she could have flown away or something. The scent just stops."

"There was some kind of fight here," Mavis suddenly said. "Recently."

"Fight?" Happy turned to look at the ghost. "What kind of fight?"

"I'm not sure. But certainly some kind of scuffle. Look - there are marks in the turf that look very much like something crashed into it dotted around the place. And that's not forgetting the fact that those stands up there seem to have been damaged somewhat. It seems its mostly been repaired now but from the look of it I'd say the damage was quite extensive when it was made. And rather recently too."

"You… you think Wendy was attacked?" Charla's paws clapped over her mouth.

"What kind of coward would attack a lost and confused young girl without provocation?" Lily bristled angrily.

"I dunno," Gajeel thumped a fist into his hand, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "But I'm done snooping around. Now, its really on." And he suddenly barrelled out of the door to the pitch and hurtled across the grounds towards the castle, an angry snarl set across his metal-studded face. Now he was well and truly pissed.

"Gajeel! Wait!" Lily cried as he tried to follow after him but gasped and fell to his knees - his back panging at him painfully.

"I'm with him," Charla whooshed off after the Iron Dragon Slayer. "If they've hurt Wendy, whoever they are…"

"Charla, wait up!" Happy hurtled in her wake while Lily pulled himself back to his feet and started to try and follow when he suddenly found himself gently being lifted up in small arms. He looked up at Mavis, who smiled warmly as she picked him up, carefully avoiding touching his back and motored off after the others.

Gajeel really didn't have a plan of action, but he had rarely ever needed one before. He was just going to bust his way into that castle and rampage through it until he found some answers if that was what it took. It was always what he had done before and usually it worked pretty well for him.

But, as he got closer, his nostrils started picking up another scent - the smell of another human. Another human that just so happened to be walking along past the greenhouses. Gajeel altered his course, homing in on the scent with eyes blazing, a loud roar escaping from behind his teeth as he barrelled in towards the unfortunate soul.

Every muscle in Ron's body stiffened when he heard the terrifying bellow, his imagination immediately conjuring up an image of some massive werewolf or maybe even a dragon as he whirled around, eyes wide and fumbling for his wand. But even as he was dismissing those ideas as ridiculous the stone wall next to him exploded into dust and a viciously snarling humanoid shape burst through it in the same instant, seizing Ron's already reeling body by the front of his cloak and slamming him back against the greenhouse so hard it was a wonder they didn't both go crashing through the glass, although the glass did fracture into thousands of pieces and shower to the floor.

And thanks to the faint light of the greenhouses that was always on even at night, Ron got a very good view of the clenched fangs, twisted snarl, red eyes and wild black hair of the man standing before him.

"Where is the girl!" Gajeel roared into the face of the ginger-haired boy he'd got hold of.

"What the… gah… who are…?" Ron went white as a sheet, his body feeling like it was trying to got stiff as a plank and limp as a sheet at the same time.

"Wrong answer!" Gajeel bellowed and flung Ron sideways to land sprawled on his back on the stonework, thankfully clear of the broken glass. "I'll ask again, where is the girl? What have you people done with Wendy Marvell?"

"Who?! I don't know who that is… who are you?" Ron babbled slightly as he scrambled backwards, Gajeel advancing towards him as he seized his wand and frantically searched for some spell he could try and use - he knew how the Stunning spell worked but he'd never used it before or tried it. Damn, he should have been practicing it alongside Harry last year when Harry had been preparing for the Triwizard Tournament.

"I am the Iron Dragon Slayer!" Gajeel snarled. "And I'm looking for the blue-haired girl that found herself at this castle yesterday - now what have you done with her!"

"I dunno her! I swear!"

"Hoh? Not talking, huh? Well, maybe this will loosen your tongue!" Gajeel raised his arm and suddenly morphed it into his giant, chainsaw-like Iron Dragon Sword - the Tetsuryuuken - and glared menacingly at Ron.

And Ron took one look at the long blade that comprised Gajeel's arm and slumped backwards, eyes rolling into his skull as he fainted dead away. Gajeel grunted in annoyance and stepped forwards to look down at the boy, nudging him with one foot to see if he was faking it. But then he spotted a little badge pinned to the front of the boy's cloak and he bent down to examine it.

"Prefect?" he murmured. "What the bloody hell is that supposed to be?"

"I think you probably could have handled that a bit better," Charla said from where she was standing on the top of the wall with Happy, while Mavis and Lily were just arriving. "That boy looks about fifteen or so. I doubt he's in charge of the place."

"I know he ain't in charge of the the place, but he might know something."

"Sounds like he didn't to me. And you terrified the life out of him," Happy rubbed the back of his head. "That would be enough to get me to talk unless you wanted to know where I keep my stash of fish… wait a minute… it's been six years - MY FISH WILL ALL HAVE ROTTED! NOOOO!"

"Is that all you ever think about?" Lily muttered.

"More to the point, Gajeel - do you smell Wendy anywhere around here?"

"If I did then I would have…" Gajeel started before he suddenly faltered, his studded brows lowering as his nostrils twitched repeatedly. "Wait a minute… I… I think I'm… getting something."

"You smell Wendy?" Charla perked up. "Where? Where's the smell coming from."

"It's faint but its…" Gajeel suddenly stopped when a musical trilling noise filled the air, the clear notes seeming to waft in from all around them and causing them all to turn their heads in several random directions almost comically to try and locate the source.

But it was Happy that quickly gasped and pointed up to the top of the greenhouse. "Look! Look at that!"

All of them swung around to face the same direction and beheld a rather large, red feathered bird standing on the roof above them, its beautiful plumage almost seeming slightly luminous in the half light of the greenhouse. It cocked its head to the side as its gaze seemed to wash over all of them at once and it raised its wings to sing out another greeting.

"What is that?" Lily asked.

"It is not a bird that I am familiar with," Charla replied.

"Nor I," Mavis agreed. "But I sense great benevolence coming off it. Whatever it is, it is definitely intelligent. And, I would wager, friendly."

"And it's where the smell of Wendy is coming from," Gajeel noted, stepping forwards and sucking in a deep breath through his nose. "Yep, definitely the source."

"WENDY TURNED INTO A BIRD!" Happy cried. "I THOUGHT THAT WAS LISANNA'S THING!"

"SHE DIDN'T TURN INTO A BIRD, IDIOT!" Gajeel roared back before forcing himself to regain his composure. "But she did touch this bird. I'd stake my life on it."

"Um… please, Mister Bird - do you know where Wendy is?" Charla asked imploringly, her eyes shining with hope.

Fawkes the phoenix trilled again and lifted himself into the air without even flapping his wings, curving over the heads of his audience, turning around and bobbing his head.

"Well, if that's not an indication to follow him then I don't know what is," Lily noted.

"Come on then. Let's move!" Gajeel bolted after the bird, the others close behind. Happy zipped downwards to grab Gajeel and hoist him up into the air in pursuit of their new companion. Fawkes wheeled around and swooped low to the ground, flapping just ahead of the party and leading them back over the greenhouses and out towards the lake again, leaving the unconscious Ron groaning on the ground, just starting to regain his senses.

And it was at this point that Hermione arrived on the scene, having heard some kind of commotion going on from the first floor and, deciding Ron might need some help, hurrying out to see what was happening. When she spotted the youngest Weasley brother lying prone on the ground not far from some shattered glass and a smashed wall, she gasped and darted over to him.

"Ron! Ron, are you okay?! Wake up! Wake up, Ronald!"

"H'mi'ny?" Ron mumbled as he blearily opened his eyes, before he suddenly remembered exactly why he had fainted and yelled, bolting upright and seizing his wand, looking around wildly for his attacker.

"Ron! Ron, what happened?" Hermione gasped. "Why were you lying on the ground?"

"Hermione… there was… there was… long black hair… like some kind of demon… the scariest… he… his arm… sword… arm turn sword… he… he just… out of nowhere…"

"Ron, calm down! Tell me, what happened!"

"Didn't you see him?" Ron cried wildly. "Didn't you… there was a man… and he… Hermione… his arm… it turned into a sword!"

Hermione blinked. "Ron, this really isn't the time for a joke."

"I'm not joking! He smashed through that wall and started screaming at me about some girl and then his arm… where did he go?"

"Ron, are you sure you weren't… dreaming…?" Hermione questioned.

"Dreaming? Hermione, do you think I dreamed someone smashing that wall in? That one, right there, that's been smashed?"

"I'm not saying that something didn't happen but… Ron, why would someone turn his own arm into a sword? If he wanted to threaten you or something, all he would have to do is threaten to use the Cruciatus Curse or something and transfiguring your own body is extremely complicated and dangerous and…"

"Hermione, you don't get it," Ron said earnestly. "He didn't even use a wand. His arm just… switched from being an arm to being a sword. Just like that, right in front of me. No incantation or anything."

"But… what… that's impossible, Ron. No magic like that exists."

"I know what I saw!"

"I… I'm sure you do. And I'm not saying I don't believe you but… there must be some explanation. Some hallucinogenic magic maybe or… well, I don't know. But the point is I'm sure it wasn't what it looked like."

"That was no hallucination," Ron shook his head stubbornly. He grabbed me by the cloak, he smashed me against the bloody glass. That guy was real. Through and through. I know it."

Hermione bit her lip - none of what Ron was saying made any logistical sense to her at all. So she simply sighed and said, "Well… regardless of what happened or didn't happen we should find a Professor and report this. At the very least some act of vandalism happened here."

"And at the very worst, which it is, there's a sword-wielding maniac running around here!" Ron agreed as they hurried back towards the castle. "You should have seen the guy, Hermione. He was huge, muscled… covered in metal studs… his eyes were red. Just like Harry said You-Know-Who's were…"

Hermione looked across at Ron sharply. "You're saying that you saw…"

"No! No, not that. It wasn't him. But… I don't know what it means… that guy was not a normal wizard, whoever he was, Hermione."

"Well, whatever the case, you were definitely attacked by something," Hermione murmured, looking ahead and focusing on the path to the front doors once more.

"I don't get it. Where's he taking us?" Charla was practically whimpering as they swept low over the surface of the lake, looking back over her shoulder at the castle that they were notably getting further and further away from. "Isn't Wendy in that place?"

"We don't know for sure," Mavis pointed out. "Remember, her scent disappeared. It's entirely possible she was magically transported somewhere else."

Fawkes keened musically at this, almost as if he was replying in the affirmative.

"But you know where she is, do ye, Flame-bird?" Gajeel asked, to which Fawkes looked back at him and chirruped, but distinctly nodded his head.

"Flame-bird?" Happy asked. "Why would you call him that?"

"He smells like fire. A little bit like the Salamander."

"Oh… I… I wonder where Natsu is right now. If it took us this long to find Wendy even after Wendy was part of our group at the start…"

"Oi, none of that, blue cat! Salamander will be fine. He'll bull his way through any situation that he faces without thinking his way through it in the first place like he usually does. He don't need you to be fretting about him, alright?"

"Yeah… yeah, I know… wow, I'm hungry, I wonder how many tasty fishies there are in this lake…"

"AND DEFINITELY NONE OF THAT! YOU TRY AND CATCH A FISH WHILE YOU ARE CARRYING ME AND YOU ARE DEAD!"

"AYE SIR!" Happy squeaked. Mavis laughed, knowing Gajeel wasn't serious but now unable to stop herself from picturing him being dunked into the water. She also decided not to mention that they had actually passed through the wards around the castle again, but it had let them all out just fine. It seemed they were mostly one-way wards designed only to keep people from getting in easily.

"Wait…" Gajeel suddenly lifted his head, nose twitching again. "This… this smell… yes…"

"Is it Wendy…? You smell her again?" Charla asked immediately.

"Believe it, white cat! And it's getting stronger!"

"Look, there's buildings across the lake," Lily pointed ahead. "Some kind of village I think."

"Then that's where we're going," Gajeel grinned.

Fawkes led them down over the street of Hogsmeade, the scent getting stronger in Gajeel's nose with every passing second. Most of the windows in the village were dark - all the businesses having closed for the night and most people having gone to bed. Even the Three Broomsticks was quiet. But there was one business that was, for the moment, still open.

And it just happened to be the building that Fawkes stopped in front of.

"This is it!" Gajeel growled as Happy set him down. "She's in there!" And without another word he thundered to the door and slammed it off its hinges with a single blow, sending it flying into the room to crash against a table, and a couple of witches within shrieked and fell over.

"WHERE IS SHE!?" Gajeel bellowed at the top of his lungs, glaring at the few customers and the astonished barman. "TELL ME WHERE SHE IS OR I SWEAR I'LL BEAT YOU ALL BLOODY!"

"Where who is!?" cried one of the witches.

"Who do you think you are!?" cried the other.

"You wanna tell me what I want to know!?" Gajeel growled warningly, preparing to morph his arm into a club. "For the sake of your health, I highly recommend it."

"Get out!" Aberforth rounded the bar angrily. "Get out of my pub now, you halfwit! Or I'll throw you out!"

"Oh, you will, huh?" Gajeel's furious glare settled on the aged barman. "Well… we'll see about that, shall we?"

But even as he took a step closer, his intimidating entrance was suddenly ruined when Wendy suddenly hurried into the room from the back, took one look at the situation and screamed, "GAJEEL-SAN!" before dashing over and throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. "Gajeel-san! You found me! You came to find me!"

"Uh…" Gajeel looked down at her awkwardly, arms spread wide as if afraid of touching and breaking her somehow. "Yeah… yeah girlie, we sure did."

"It's so good to see you, Gajeel-san!" Wendy looked up at him, smile wide and eyes shining, evidence of tears pricking at the corners. "I mean I knew you were in this world somewhere but I was sure it would take longer before anyone found me."

"Don't underestimate a Dragon Slayer's nose, kid," Gajeel shrugged, patting her head a little but then looking even more awkward for it. "Though you left me a confusing trail sure enough. Anyway, got someone here that might want to see you. Just guessing, but I think she was worried about you."

"WENDY!" Charla seemed unable to contain herself any longer and whooshed in through the door, her glowing wings flaring as she made a beeline straight for the Sky Dragon Slayer tears streaming down her furry cheeks and her eyes round as saucers.

"CHARLA!" Wendy gasped and immediately seized her in her arms, spinning her round in circles a couple of times at arm's length before pulling her in tightly to her chest and holding her as if her life depended on it. "Charla… you made it. You made it!"

"Wendy, you're okay," Charla bawled into Wendy's dress. "Oh thank the gods you're okay. When that dragon knocked you off the cliff and you vanished from sight, I thought… I thought you… I was so scared that you might be…"

"Don't say it, Charla, don't say it. I'm fine," Wendy hiccoughed, now not even trying to stop tears of relief and happiness beginning to flow. "But I was so worried too… I didn't know what had happened after I fell off the cliff and I thought… maybe if… oh Charla, I'm so sorry. I was stupid, I was…"

"No, Wendy, you weren't," Charla sniffled earnestly, looking up at her. "If I'd been raised by a dragon I wouldn't want to believe it either. But that's not important. None of that's important. What is important is that you're safe and we're… we're together again… I feared sometimes that… we might have lost you."

"I'm not going anywhere, Charla," Wendy pulled the cat even closer. "And don't… don't you dare go anywhere either."

"I… I promise I won't. And I promise… I'll try harder to look after you. I promised I would and I… seem to keep failing."

"No, you don't. Don't you ever say that, Charla. You're the best guardian I could hope for. It's always me doing the childish and naive things that gets me in trouble, not you."

Charla chuckled and tried to hold back a happy sob at the same time. "You Wendy have got to be one of the least childish people your age ever. In any universe."

"Aye, that I definitely agree with," Happy piped up from where he and Lily were standing in the door, Mavis hovering over them.

"It must have been a horrendous shock to you to see the dragons acting like that after all," Lily nodded.

"Happy! Lily!" Wendy cried. "So good to see you too, and you Master Mavis though I thought you'd be alright for sure," she sniffed with a grin.

"We would have still been looking for you if we hadn't bumped into Gajeel," Happy grinned. "It was his nose that tracked you down after all."

"Thank you, Gajeel-san," Wendy beamed up at the much taller Dragon Slayer before bowing her head slightly. "I'll never forget this."

"Yeah, well," Gajeel shrugged. "If you really want to show thanks then you can start by healing Lily's back. Apparently real dragon fire isn't quite as easy to shrug off even for a tough Exceed like him."

"Oh gosh!" Wendy gasped and immediately hurried over to Lily, placing Charla down on the floor and staring in horror at the slowly healing burns over Lily's guild mark. She quickly held her hands up and began the healing process and Lily felt relief from the throbbing pain beginning to fade very quickly and he sighed in relief.

"Don't exert yourself, Wendy. They were already on their way to healing."

"No, it's okay. I easily have enough magic for this," Wendy assured him. "I'm amazed you kept going from such a blast though. It must have washed right over you."

"Takes more than that to bring me down, I assure you," Lily grinned a little lopsidedly.

"I think it would take less than that to bring me down," Happy murmured, a little despondently.

"Geehee! That's my cat! Toughest on the block," Gajeel grinned.

"So…" Aberforth Dumbledore suddenly announced in a slightly clipped, reminding everyone that he and the two witches were still actually present in the room and had witnessed all of that. "I take it that this lot are your friends… Wendy. One of them appears to have knocked my door down."

Wendy smiled sheepishly. "I'm surprised that's all he knocked down, Aberforth-san."

"Meaning what exactly?" Gajeel raised a brow.

"Gajeel, I think you know exactly what it means, and I think you can't really argue with it," Lily chided him.

"…True…"

"Anyway, yes, Aberforth-san, these are some of my friends from Fairy Tail. This is my closest friend and partner Charla, and the other two Exceed, Happy and Pantherlily. And this is Gajeel Redfox, my fellow Dragon Slayer. And this is Master Mavis."

"Master Mavis? Who are you pointing at, girl?" Aberforth looked around with a frown.

"He can't see me," whispered Mavis. "Only those with the Fairy Tail mark are currently able to see me."

"Oh."

"Dragon Slayer?" one of the witches scoffed. "You mean to tell me you've both killed dragons?"

Gajeel was about to growl at her and do something he might regret when Aberforth whipped out his wand and cast a spell over the two witches, which caused their eyes to go rather blank. "You two, out, now. Bar is closed," Aberforth instructed and the two witches dazedly turned and left, become lucid once again when they were down the street but not remembering anything that had happened since a moment or two before Gajeel bashed the door in.

Aberforth sighed and strode forwards, levitating the door up and reattaching it into its frame with a flick of his wand and a quick Repairing spell right as Wendy lowered her hands and said, "How's that, Lily?"

Lily flexed his shoulders and suddenly shifted into his battle form, which caused Aberforth to stumble backwards in shock and almost knock the door off again as he crashed into it. Lily lashed out a hand to grab his shoulder and steady him before twisting himself around painlessly. "I feel invigorated. Thank you, Wendy. At the risk of give a pun which I assure you is not intended - you are a marvel."

Wendy blushed and smiled. "It's my pleasure and my job to help."

"If I might interrupt," Aberforth huffed, recovering from his surprise at the sight of the giant cat and watching warily as Gajeel passed him his sword back. "I wasn't exactly expecting any more otherworldly visitors today. What exactly am I supposed to do with all you lot? I don't even remember the last time I bought cat food."

"Cat food? Ugh, repulsive stuff," Charla wrinkled her nose. "I could go for a cup of Darjeeling tea right about now."

"Darjeeling… we don't serve that kind of thing in this place," Aberforth grunted, almost sounding revolted.

"Oh? But they do have it in this universe? Well, that is a relief."

"I want fish!"

"Who's shocked? I'm not," Gajeel rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't mind a couple of kiwi fruits right about now actually," Lily patted his stomach, stowing his sword back on his back.

"…Kiwi fruits?" Aberforth coughed. "Did I just hear that correctly? The enormous, muscled cat creature likes… kiwi fruits?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, it is if you can't eat anything else, though I can't imagine for the life of me why you wouldn't. We don't have kiwi fruits here. Or tea. Or fish. I don't like fish."

"You don't like fish!? WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOOUU!?"

"Happy… need I remind you that I don't like fish either?"

"I TAKE IT BACK, CHARLA! I TAKE IT BACK!"

"Dear God you lot are noisy," Aberforth sighed, before he caught sight of Fawkes perched on a nearby table. "Ah, I see my brother's pet has paid me a visit. Does that mean he knows you're here?"

It was at this precise moment that a whoosh of green flames roared into life in the nearby fireplace and Albus Dumbledore stepped out. It took him but a glance to see that the room not only had his own phoenix, his brother and Wendy, but also the three cats and another of the Dragon Slayers he had seen in Wendy's memories.

"Ah," he said, his face focusing on Gajeel. "Well now. This is a surprise."

"And that answers my question," Aberforth muttered. "He does now."

"Who are you!?" Gajeel growled, taking a defensive stance. "What was that magic you just did."

"Be at peace, Gajeel Redfox - I mean you know harm," Albus raised a steadying hand. "And before you ask, I know what your name is because Wendy has, to put it simply, given me a vivid description of you."

"…Ah…" Gajeel blinked, not entirely sure what to say next.

"Perhaps it would actually be better if you didn't assume that anyone who appears in the room is a possible threat, Gajeel," Mavis rested a ghostly hand on the big man's shoulder. "You already terrified that poor boy back there. Besides, I sense no malice coming from him whatsoever."

"Yeah, yeah," Gajeel muttered.

Dumbledore's eyes rested on Mavis for a moment, which gave the First Master pause for thought. She knew he couldn't see her, but she had the distinct feeling he somehow knew that she was there. Not that that surprised her. She could sense great power and wisdom coming from this man and she winced slightly when she realised he reminded her somewhat of Purehito, before he had become Master Hades of course.

"Dumbledore-san is the one that brought me here to where I would be safe," Wendy explained.

"Then you have our gratitude, Mister," Pantherlily placed a hand on his stomach and degenerated back to his small size. "For looking after one of our own when we were otherwise unable."

"Mine especially," Charla nodded. "Thank you."

"It is both a fascination and a pleasure to assist beings from another universe such as yourselves. But, I am delighted to find that this reunion between you has taken place because I believe I may be able to make it even bigger. Excuse me." He turned back to the fireplace and threw a piece of paper and a little powder into the fireplace and with a whoosh of green light the paper, somehow unburnt, was whisked away.

"What did you just do, Albus?" Aberforth glared irritably.

"Only sent a message to let the Order know that the coast was clear."

"And… who else?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "I see you're still as sharp as ever, my brother," he chuckled before there was a yell from the fireplace and a man without a shirt toppled out and crashed to the floor behind him.

"Damn it, I'm not sure whether I prefer that or that Apparition thing," Gray muttered as he rolled onto his back.

"Gray-san!" Wendy cried.

"Gray!" Happy echoed.

"Hey, it's the Stripper Boy," Gajeel snorted.

"Huh?" Gray looked up, startled. "Wait… Gajeel, you're here too? And all the Exceed? I thought it was just Wendy that…"

"KYAA!" Juvia squealed as she was almost thrust out of the fireplace, her arms windmilling as she tried to stay up before failing and toppling down to land right on top of Gray, just managing to catch herself before their heads clunked together painfully. And the moment Juvia realised where she was and how close her lips were to Gray's she immediately went as stiff as a board, the two of them staring at each other silently for a moment.

"G…G…Gray-sama…" she murmured weakly.

"You can feel free to get off me any time now," Gray coughed pointedly.

Juvia blushed and stuttered, "Um… sorry… Juvia apologises for… for landing on Gray-sama…" but notably did not get up.

However, Gajeel's voice suddenly registering to her when he said, "Jeez, Juvia, at least get a room before you try and pull the moves on the Nudist King," snapped her back to reality and her head shot up, wide-eyed.

"Gajeel-kun! It's you, Gajeel-kun!" she bolted off Gray and ran across the room and Gajeel suddenly found himself swamped in a hug from another blue haired Fairy Tail girl.

Though this time he reacted a little more aggressively and cried, "Gahh! Get off me, ye crazy water woman!"

Juvia smiled and refused to do anything of the sort. "Juvia's happy to see you're okay, Gajeel-kun."

Gajeel tried to pry her off for a moment but Juvia's grip seemed to be more iron than his own in his case, obscurely. So he just breathed heavily through his nose and muttered, "Yeah… it's good to see you too, I guess, rain woman."

Juvia smiled into Gajeel's chest - as her only friend from before she met Fairy Tail, Gajeel was the only one who could call her a rain woman without upsetting her. Well, of course Gray could do it too if he wanted. Gray could call her anything. And despite Gajeel's aversion to anyone showing him affection, she knew how to read him and could tell he was actually greatly relieved she was okay.

And then Lisanna bounded out of the fireplace with considerably more grace than the other two, but she still almost knocked Gray over again because the Ice Mage had only just finished getting back to his feet. "Whoops. Sorry, Gray," she chuckled as she helped steady him. "Didn't mean to hit you. I…" She paused when she suddenly realised who was in the room. "Huh…?"

"Lisanna-san, thank goodness your okay," Wendy clapped her hands together before suddenly Happy whooshed over her shoulder with a cry of:-

"LISAAAANNNAAAAAAAA!"

"Everyone! Happy!" Lisanna exulted as she seized the blue Exceed and held him close, rubbing her cheek against the top of his head as Happy bawled his eyes out. "Thank the heavens, you're okay."

"Wonder what else is going to be thanked before the night is up," Aberforth muttered to himself, but fortunately neither Lisanna nor Happy heard him.

"Lisanna, you're back! You're safe. I was worried that we might lose you for another two years!" Happy cried. "Just after we got you back!"

"I know the feeling Happy," Lisanna smiled as she rubbed between the cat's ears affectionately. "I was having similar thoughts. But it's alright. We're together again now and we can make sure that it doesn't happen again, right?"

"Aye…" Happy sniffled, looking up at her with earnest eyes. "And you can help us find Natsu right? We need to get him back. Him and Lucy and Erza and all the others."

"Natsu's not here then?" Lisanna asked, her face falling slightly as she looked up at the room. All three Exceed were present and Gajeel and Wendy were both clearly here so she'd been hoping the third Dragon Slayer would also be around.

"No. We don't know where he is," Happy whimpered. "We don't know where any of the others are."

"Is this all from your group?" Gajeel asked.

"This is all, yes," Gray nodded. "Professor Dumbledore here told us that Wendy would be here when we came. We weren't expecting the rest of you though. There's nobody else here from the guild?"

"None," Pantherlily confirmed. "All we know is that they're somewhere in this universe."

"Yeah, we know that too, Lily-san," Juvia nodded.

Lisanna smiled sadly and looked down at Happy, holding him closer than even before. "Don't worry, Happy. We'll find him again. I promise. In fact, I'll more than promise. I'll make sure of it."

"Aye… me too," Happy nodded, as Lisanna stood up, still holding him in her arms.

"Well, with all of us here that makes eight Fairy Tail members," Gray noted. "Not even half of the ones that were on Tenroujima accounted for."

"How many of us were there again?" Wendy tried to count on her fingers.

"Twenty-one," Mavis replied instantly. "Twenty-two if you include me."

"Oh, that's right. We haven't introduced you yet," Charla noted.

"Introduced who?" Aberforth asked grumpily. "Is there some reason you're staring into thin air, White Cat?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Unless I am very much mistaken, there is an ghost that you and I, brother, can neither see nor hear hovering right there. And I believe her name would be Mavis Vermilion, would it not?"

"Indeed it would," Charla nodded.

"So, its true," Gray murmured, a look of awe crossing his face. "It really was you who saved us from Acnologia."

"Not merely me," Mavis shook her head. "I activated the spell certainly but I have very little magical power in this form. Certainly not enough to cast a Fairy Sphere big enough to contain the island. I used the bonds of friendship between you and drew on your own shared magical power to activate it."

"Well, regardless, your actions saved our lives," Lisanna smiled. "Who would have thought that even after all this time you'd still be watching Fairy Tail's back?"

"Juvia agrees. And Juvia wants to thank First Mavis for creating Fairy Tail. Without it, Juvia's life might still be miserable."

"More than my pleasure," Mavis said. "But let's see if I can work up what limited magic I do possess so that people besides those with the mark can see me." She extended her hands to the sides, closed her eyes and glowed briefly and suddenly, with a smoky *foof* noise she became visible to both the Dumbledore brothers.

"Ah, there you are," Albus smiled. "The pleasure is all mine, Master Mavis."

"Just how much more crowded is my bar going to get?" Aberforth moaned.

Mavis ignored the younger brother's protest and curtsied in mid-air. "Good evening."

"You are certainly not like any ghost I have ever encountered," Dumbledore noted. "All the ghosts at my school, and indeed every other ghost in this world, are utterly intangible, transparent and colourless."

"You have a school?" Mavis' eyes brightened slightly. "Oh wow. Would that be that castle back across the lake?"

"Indeed it would," Dumbledore nodded, and he didn't fail to notice that Gajeel was suddenly looking rather awkward.

Mavis, on the other hand, immediately beamed and said, "Oh wow, a place of learning. You must have a lot of books there. I like books. I used to read a lot of them when I was a child. I didn't really have much else to do for quite a while. Hey wait… do you have fairies in this world?"

"Yes, indeed we do."

"REALLY!?" Mavis gasped and spun around on the spot several times giddily. "You've seen them?"

"Many times yes."

"Can I see them too? I love fairies."

"Oh I'm sure you'll get the chance. In fact around Christmas time we gather them in the castle and allow them to flit around at their leisure."

"That's amazing! What's Christmas?"

"Oh, you don't have it? Have you perhaps heard of Yule instead?"

"Oh yes, we have that!"

"Well, we also call that time of year Christmas. And if you are still around by then I will ensure that the castle is filled with fairies for the occasion."

"YAY!" Mavis backflipped happily, before then her expression turned much more serious and she asked. "Do they have tails?"

"Ah yes, this was something I gleaned from Wendy - the name of your guild being that nobody knows if fairies in your world have tails because they have never seen them, meaning it is an eternal mystery and adventure. Well, I am sorry to inform you that in our world, they do not have tails. That are very much tailless."

"Oh, how interesting. But then again, magic and dragons between our two worlds are very different so there is no guarantee our fairies are the same as yours."

"Very true. Mister Gajeel, is there something that you want to say?"

"Er… yeah, you own the castle, right? Well… I should mention I think you need to fix your gates. And a wall and some glass. And I reckon one of the people there might need to be treated for shock or something. Heck, I dunno. The point is, I busted in. And then this bird came and brought us here before I started trashing things… more."

"You got in through the wards? Impressive. How did you manage that?"

"I ate through the gates."

"Excuse me, you what?" Aberforth coughed.

"Ah, I see," Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, indeed we didn't have any wards to cover that. Thank you, Gajeel - I will be sure to sort that out. But for now, more explanations may be at hand."

And that was how the the rest of the active Fairy Tail members learned about the existence of Voldemort and about the promise that Gray, Lisanna and Juvia had all made to help in the fight against him for as long as they happened to be in this world.

"That's just typical, isn't it?" Gajeel muttered, rolling his eyes. "You'd think after we got involved in sorting out Edolas we'd at least be able to stick to the problems of our own world but apparently not."

"You don't want to help, Gajeel?" Lily looked up at him.

"I didn't say that. I think it might be fun," Gajeel grinned toothily. "I was just remarking that this guild really does seem to find trouble no matter where the heck we go."

"It certainly seems that way, doesn't it?" Lisanna said wryly.

"Hold on a minute," Charla objected. "We're really considering this? I mean, don't get me wrong I'm extremely grateful for the help of the people of this world, especially in looking after Wendy. But this fight is no business of ours. Why should we put our lives on the line when we should be focusing solely on finding the others and getting home."

"Charla, that's not the way we do it," Wendy knelt down next to her. "After these guys helped us so much how can we not help them in return."

"They're asking us to help them fight a war," Charla shook her head. "If you want to repay a debt there are other things you can do to settle things, rather than throw yourself recklessly into danger."

"But Charla…"

"No buts! I won't have it!" Charla looked up with shimmering eyes. "This isn't the first time I thought I might have lost you, Wendy. And I only just got you back. You're not getting involved in a war. You could be… you could… I won't let it happen. I won't let you put yourself in danger, even for them!"

There was a moment of silence, during which everyone in the room stared at the white cat, who was shaking in barely suppressed fear. But not for herself. Wendy sighed slightly - Charla was never afraid for herself, but was always afraid for Wendy. And she couldn't really blame her. They were in a world they didn't know, facing a threat they didn't yet fully understand and could only rely on strangers to set them on the right course.

It was enough to make anyone worry for those closest to them.

But still…

"Charla… if you want to make sure I never get into any situation where I could maybe get hurt… I think we joined the wrong guild."

"She's right, Charla," Happy murmured. "Fairy Tail looks after its own most of all but we look out for all our other friends too."

"Indeed. And we've made friends here," Lisanna nodded. "To bail out on them now… it would be against everything we stand for."

Charla bit her lip and looked at the floor, saying nothing.

"You know they're right, Charla," Wendy whispered.

"…Yeah… yeah I know…" Charla wiped her eye slightly with a paw. "You're… you're right, I'm sorry. I don't like it but you're right. I guess… there's really nothing else we can do. I guess if we refuse we'll always be looking back, wondering what could have happened if we'd made a different decision."

Mavis smiled. She'd been right. Her guild really had grown into everything she had hoped it would be. Unimaginable levels of pride swelled within her as she looked at these youngsters. Her youngsters. All together because of the dream she'd had when she was younger.

"Well," she said. "It looks like you have yourself a deal, Mister Dumbledore," she smiled. "The Fairies will bring our light down upon these Death Eaters and show them that our world does not take any more kindly to Dark Lords as this one does."

"And it is greatly appreciated," Dumbledore nodded. "Come now though. It seems there are more introductions to be made tonight than I thought. The rest of the Order are waiting for us to return even now. We should probably get back before Miss Tonks falls asleep."

"Oh terrific, we have to go through the fire again," Gray moaned. "Why can't we just use a train or something?"

"We have a train but it would take nine hours to get back on it. And it's currently over there right now so it would take nine hours to get it to us first."

"…The fire it is then."

The rest of the night went rather swiftly for Fairy Tail and the rest of both groups got to meet each other, culminating in the Order calling Gajeel to demonstrate his Iron Dragon Slayer abilities which he did by cutting the entire dining room table in two pieces with a single stroke of his arm. Fortunately they were able to repair it quickly and the new Fairies were fully welcomed. Though Bill Weasley had to physically pull his brother Charlie away from Wendy, since he was over-excitedly plying her with questions about Grandine.

Arrangements were made for where they would stay and to most people's surprise, Wendy volunteered to stay with Aberforth at the Hog's Head. She said that, "He's a bit grouchy but I think he's a nice old man at heart and… I don't know… I feel like he could do with a bit of company. And I'll only be a… fireplace… away… wow, I never thought I'd say that."

Naturally Charla immediately wanted to stay where Wendy was and Happy wanted to stay where Charla was - a fact which made Lisanna giggle slightly. But everyone else was rather surprised when Gajeel also immediately volunteered to stay with Wendy, swiftly claiming it was because he thought the Dragon Slayers and their Exceed partners should stay together because "it makes sense that way." What he actually meant was that he was not about to leave Wendy without another Fairy Tail member watching over her. Only Juvia caught that subtext though, and she smiled, pleased at how Gajeel was coming to care more despite his extreme reluctance to let people know about it.

Aberforth had complained of course, but Gajeel's glare had quickly told him that either he was going to stay at the Hog's Head, or he would find a way to make Aberforth live at Grimmauld Place so that Wendy would stay too, possibly by destroying the Hog's Head entirely.

Mavis decided she would take turns staying at different places, but would stay at Grimmauld Place for now as she wanted to get to know the other three from her guild a little more for the time being.

But even as Fairy Tail were beginning to settle into bed at about half two in the morning and the rest of the Order began to head home with an information overload preventing them from getting much sleep, except Tonks, who was out like a light, Ron Weasley was still up, sitting in an armchair in the Gryffindor Common Room and still looking rather wide-eyed.

After his unfortunate incident with his unknown assailant earlier that night, they'd hurriedly found and reported what had happened to Professor Sprout, who had been rather angry at the damage to the greenhouse and had hastily fixed the damage before hailing the other teachers still on campus to conduct a search of the grounds for anyone dangerous, before sending Ron and Hermione back to the Common Room since that was one of the safest places they could be.

Hermione had given up trying to convince Ron to just go to bed a while ago, but had refused to wake Harry up to give him the news. Doubtless he'd be angry about that in the morning but goodness knows he needed all the sleep he could get.

"Look, I'm not denying that you were attacked by something but are you absolutely sure that you saw what you saw?"

"Oh yeah," Ron nodded. "I really don't see how it could have been a trick."

"There are certain spells that can cause hallucinogenic effects that aren't even felt when they hit you. Or maybe you could have been caught in the pollen of a Makumura plant. You were next to greenhouse four and that was the glass you smashed through as soon as you were attacked."

"Does that cause hallucinations?" Ron asked.

"It does, yes. We should be covering them at some point this year I think, but Professor Sprout always has to cast spells on days where the plant releases its pollen to stop people from getting affected when they go in. Maybe today was one of those days."

"…I dunno… if that was a hallucination it was a bloody real one," Ron shivered. "Okay, so maybe the whole arm turning into a sword thing might not have really happened but there's no way I imagined that guy."

"But how did he get through the Hogwarts wards?" Hermione murmured.

"Do you think he got in through the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack?"

"Ron, Dumbledore knows that You-Know-Who knows about that tunnel. Peter Pettigrew would have told him. I bet that tunnel will be heavily protected by now."

"Good point."

"But he was screaming about a girl, you said?"

"Yeah, he kept asking me where 'the girl' was. For a moment I thought he might mean you because he'd seen us both patrolling earlier and then attacked only to find me alone. But then he used a name… can't remember what it was… Wendy something… Are there any Wendy's in this school?"

"I think there's one in the second year Hufflepuff house, but I'm not sure. I can't remember everyone's names."

"He sounded like he thought we'd done something to her."

"You think this man thought we were the bad guys?"

"I dunno what the heck he thought. All I know is I'm not gonna sleep tonight after all."

Hermione opened her mouth to say more before there was a sudden flash of fire over the table, which made them both yelp and almost fall backwards. But suddenly there was a piece of paper and a long red feather lying on the table. A feather that both of them recognised as belonging to a phoenix, giving them a clear message as to who sent it.

Hermione picked up the paper and read aloud from it, "Mister Weasley. I am terribly sorry for the misunderstanding that occurred outside today. I'm afraid that the man who accosted you outside the greenhouses was actually one of a few that I hired for extra security to the school this year as I am sure you know we may need. I can assure you this will not happen again, but I would appreciate it if this story did not become public knowledge."

"That Dumbledore's writing?" Ron asked.

"Definitely," Hermione sighed in relief. "Looks like there's nothing to worry about after all though. Extra security. That's a relief."

"Not so much of a relief when the security attacks the bloody students," Ron muttered. "And that still doesn't explain why he attacked me and why his arm became a sword."

"I maintain it was probably the Makumura plant pollen that made that last one happen. But if Dumbledore says its alright then I think it's alright, don't you?"

"Yeah, I guess. Still… I hope I don't run into him again. I'm telling you, this guy was a nutcase. Dunno what Dumbledore's thinking… but then again, he did have a giant three-headed dog guarding the Philosopher's Stone. Wonder what happened to Fluffy anyway."

"Well, the point is that everything's fine," Hermione sighed. "Still…" she turned to look out of the window and the moon shining high above - just gone full a few days ago and the cycle beginning again. "Extra security might not be enough one day. One day an attack like that might be from a real threat. And we're not learning how to defend ourselves thanks to that… I refuse to call her a teacher."

Ron grinned widely, before his face became more sombre. "But what can we do? She won't let us practice spells."

"Maybe. But I'm beginning to think… we should… start taking matters into our own hands."