Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 11:- What Will Come
When Harry woke up on Tuesday morning to find Ron so deep in sleep that he was hanging half out of his bed and didn't appear to notice, he could only laugh and roll him back onto the covers before he hurt himself. But when Ron woke up and quietly recounted the story of his encounter with the strange man last night, making sure the rest of the dorm couldn't hear him, the Boy-Who-Lived was, just as they'd predicted, annoyed that they hadn't woken up to tell him about it immediately.
"This isn't like in the summer when Dumbledore was telling us not to tell you anything, mate," Ron protested under Harry's angry glare. "I told you just now didn't I? But after what we learned, waking you up in the middle of the night wouldn't have made any difference."
Harry was still annoyed, but he'd calmed down a little by the time they joined Hermione in the Common Room and they were all walking down to breakfast together. "Well, I suppose its good to know that Dumbledore's at least taking extra steps to make sure that the school's kept safe, but why didn't he mention these extra security people at the welcoming feast like he normally would?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione asked. "It's most likely that the Ministry doesn't know about these extra security people. After all they refuse to believe that You-Know-Who is back at all so if they learned that Dumbledore was hiring men to protect the castle they might think that was an attempt to secure Dumbledore's grip on the school. Fudge already thinks he might be trying to turn the students into an army. The idea of extra security guards being part of an army isn't a far leap from that."
"Though its a far leap from sanity to come up with an idea like that in the first place," Ron shook his head. "And I thought Fudge used to be pretty decent. Now he's gone barmy."
"And he's got Umbridge toadying to his every whim here now," Harry growled slightly. "I suppose she doesn't know about these guys either."
"Dumbledore definitely couldn't announce that he was taking precautions against You-Know-Who in front of her, certainly," Hermione agreed.
"There's still things that really don't make sense though," Ron voiced. "I was thinking about it and… there's a lot of stuff that just doesn't add up. Like all the stuff that guy said. Demanding where this Wendy girl was, for instance. Why would a security guard charge in and demand to know where a certain girl was?"
"Maybe Wendy's his daughter?" Harry shrugged.
"I dunno man. The way he was talking it sounded like Wendy wasn't a student. And I remembered something last night - he said she had blue hair. Blue hair! When was the last time you saw a girl with blue hair at Hogwarts?"
"…Maybe he was drunk?" Harry asked as they started to cross the Entrance Hall.
"He seemed damn sober to me," Ron shook his head.
"Ron, you also saw his arm turned into a sword thanks to the Makumura plant pollen, remember? It really is entirely possible that all this stuff about a blue haired girl called Wendy was part of the hallucination that the pollen caused," Hermione pointed out.
"You think?"
"Do you have a better explanation?"
"Only that maybe Dumbledore's lying and this guy isn't extra security. But Dumbledore wouldn't do that… would he?"
Harry's face suddenly went a little dark, and now all three of them looked doubtful. They all knew it was true that Dumbledore and the Order were keeping them in the dark about certain things. Not only had he refused to let Harry have any information over the summer but the entire Order were refusing to tell him things about their secret operations, despite his protests and his wishes to become more involved. Was this something else they were trying to keep him from learning about? If the guy was on their side why would they feel the need to lie about him? Was he on their side at all?
"We should talk about this later when there aren't other people around," Hermione whispered. "In fact, we really should discuss that kind of thing in the hallway where anyone can hear us anyway. We need to keep things under wraps a little more."
"Fine," Harry murmured. "What have we got for first period again?"
"Double Charms. And then Double Transfiguration before lunch," Hermione replied instantly.
"Well, that's something at least. Definitely better than Monday," Ron yawned.
Breakfast was a rather sour affair for Harry, poking holes in his bacon as he brooded over his current situation. Why couldn't people just let him be more involved in combatting Voldemort? Surely he of all people had a right to know what was happening. He couldn't help but feel bitter. It was bad enough that most of the Wizarding World thought he was some kind of attention-seeking loony, but having those who didn't think he was a loony treat him like a child irked him to no end. Even if, technically, he was still a child.
And this latest development, learning about extra security people being hired for the school, made him wonder what else he didn't know.
"Something up, Harry?" said a voice, and suddenly Fred was sitting next to him, grinning merrily as he usually did.
"Course something's up, Fred," George settled into the seat opposite his twin and next to Ron. "Something's always up these days - Harry walks around with a face so long that at one point I saw him and thought that our family ghoul had escaped and come to the school."
"Har har har…" Harry rolled his eyes, but felt a slight smile tug at his lips. Fred and George Weasley were, at the very least, always able to lift the mood somewhat even when Harry felt at his most down. He'd been right when he'd given them his Triwizard Winnings last year - the world did need more laughs right now and the twins certainly knew how to provide them. "No, its probably nothing important."
"Detentions with Umbridge getting you down?" Fred asked. "If ever you need a couple of Puking Pastilles to foul it up for Toadface then we'll let you have a couple free of charge."
Harry grinned, but carefully moved his hand to make sure the twins didn't notice the fresh scars on the back of it from last night, though Hermione looked like she was torn between scowling at the idea of the Pastilles or wondering if Harry should actually try using one to avoid the horrendous detentions. But she just sighed and said, "It wouldn't do any good. You know her. She has it out for Harry - she might make him do extra just for being forced to miss one, even if she thought he was genuinely ill."
"You may be right. Speaking of her Royal Pinkness though, I heard that Professor Trelawney had a rough time in her inspection of your class yesterday," George voiced.
"Yeah, I almost felt sorry for the old bat," Ron agreed.
"Looks like she's feeling rather sorry for herself too, look," George nodded up towards the Staff Table. The others looked over too and their curiosity piqued when they saw Trelawney and Umbridge engrossed in a quiet conversation. Though 'conversation' might not be the right word because Trelawney was quite evidently rather distressed and appeared to be stumbling over whatever she was trying to say and flinching whenever Umbridge replied.
"Wow, its rare to see Trelawney anywhere but up in her stuffy tower," Ron murmured. "What do you think she's doing?"
"Probably trying to convince Umbridge that she's not the fraud that she probably made herself look like yesterday… and is," Hermione scoffed, turning back to her Daily Prophet. "Honestly, I don't know which one of those two disgusts me more."
"…Really, Hermione?" Harry gave her a pointed look.
Hermione hesitated before she sighed and murmured, "Alright, alright, Umbridge disgusts me more but Trelawney disgusts me too. Oh, look at this!" She splayed the paper across the table. "There's a report on some kind of… giant bird attack down in Hampshire. They reckon someone's been illegally experimenting on animals to create a new species."
The others craned their heads to get a look at the paper, blissfully unaware of the fact that the newspaper had actually failed to mention the presence of three young people with unusual magic at the scene since the Aurors were trying to hush it up until they had more information. But even as she scanned the article, Fred nudged Harry in the chest and murmured, "Watch out, mate. Here comes the thunderstorm."
Harry blinked, but a split second later he found out what Fred meant when suddenly Angelina descended on him, furiously screaming at him at pretty much the top of her lungs about how he'd managed to land himself in detention with Umbridge and therefore miss Quidditch practice for yet another week! Harry feebly tried to protest against Angelina's verbal bombardment but fortunately she was quickly hushed by McGonagall as the Head of their House hurried over from the staff table, deducting five points from Gryffindor.
But she too grew angry when she heard the reason behind Angelina's shouting. "Did you take in a single word of what I said last week about controlling your temper, Potter? Another five points from…"
"The dance of the Fairies has begun!"
Practically everyone in the entire room jumped at the sudden rasping voice that seemed to echo around the entire Hall, coming from almost every angle at once. Most of them were looking wildly around for the source, but Harry's eyes swivelled towards the staff table like laser beams. He knew that voice. He'd heard it once before in his third year, right after an appalling Divination exam.
Just as he suspected, Professor Trelawney had gone stiff as a plank, her mouth looking almost unhinged and her eyes behind her thick glasses rolling around and making her look eerily like a zombie. Umbridge had drawn away from her in shock as Trelawney continued speaking, slowly gaining the attention of the rest of the room as they realised where the voice was coming from.
"It will begin with the lowering of the fifth Sphere. As darkness gathers, the Fairies will converge to join the fight of the Wizarding World. But the fight will not be an easy path, for they shall be met with fear and the darkness will rise to greater heights than ever to oppose them. Magic, new and old, modern and ancient, will clash together. Doorways will open. Old battles will be rekindled. Bygone evil will be unleashed - thirsting for revenge against that which imprisoned it. Alliances will rise on both sides. The skies will burn with the fire of Dragons and the land echo with the cries of beasts, devils and the dead. The war will begin… when the fifth Sphere diminishes."
The silence of the Great Hall when Trelawney was so thick you could have used it is butter on the toast. The Diviniation teacher slowly seemed to regain her senses, shaking her head in slightly bewilderment before noticing that every eye in the room was on her and shrilly demanding, "What!? Do I have something on my face?" Before suddenly hurrying away from the table in a fluster and storming across the hall and out, probably to head back to her lonely tower.
Almost as soon as she was out of sight the entire room broke into fevered whispers. McGonagall, who looked rather pale, murmured, "Look, all of you… just keep the noise down, alright," before she hurried over towards Dumbledore.
Fred whistled slightly. "Well, I have to hand it to Trelawney, when she gets desperate she really goes all out. She never did anything like that when she made fake predictions in our Divination classes."
"Lucky break for you, eh, Harry?" George grinned. "She interrupted McGonagall before she could finish docking points off you."
"Honestly, what was all that about anyway?" Hermione huffed. "I admit that was an impressive piece of theatre but we all know she's a fraud. And of course she couldn't keep all the death and doom out of it, could she?"
"Hermione…" Harry said slowly. "I don't think that was fake. I think… that was a real prediction. Right then, she was acting just like she was when I heard her predict Wormtail's return to Voldemort's side. Exactly the same."
Despite the collective flinch at the name, Hermione blustered, "But Harry, really, come on. The woman's been predicting your death for the last two years and you're still alive. You know you can't take what she says seriously…"
"Look, Hermione!" Harry growled, shutting Hermione up with his tone of voice alone. "I know you don't like her, but I know what I heard her say that day. Everything she said came true. It wasn't just some crap that she said to make herself look all mystical. Even Dumbledore agreed with me when I told him about it. And she just gave another one, right there and now in front of us. Everything she just said… it was a real prediction."
A deathly hush fell over the table at his words, Hermione looking somewhat stricken, while Ron looked he was torn between being annoyed at Harry for snapping at her and worried about what the consequences of Trelawney's words might be. Harry caught his slightly accusatory stare and sighed. McGonagall was right - he really did need to reign in his temper.
"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that. But it's true."
Hermione slowly nodded her head before nervously voicing, "But… if that prediction was a real one… all those terrible things she said would happen…"
"I didn't get half of it but… holy crap it sounded bad," Ron agreed. "All that stuff about dragons and beasts and bygone evil… what kind of hell is the Wizarding World going to come to. And what was up with all that stuff about fairies rising up to fight. You've got to admit that part is mental - fairies are useless at everything except looking pretty. That can't even fight each other properly."
"I don't know what it means," Harry muttered, clenching his fist and the cuts on the back of his hand going white. "But how much worth is school education going to be if half that stuff comes true? I should be out there! Doing something. Not sitting here at breakfast getting ready to go and learn how to make a cat howl like a wolf or whatever Flitwick will be teaching us today."
There was another brief silence amongst the group, before Fred murmured, "Looks like Dumbledore's taking it rather seriously too." And indeed McGonagall and Dumbledore were holding some sort of whispered conference.
"I bet the Order will be hearing about this before the day is out," agreed George.
"Be that as it may, Harry, we don't really know what the future holds for us," Hermione noted. "Maybe learning a new Charm isn't as important as saving the world, but right now that is what our future definitely holds. So come on… let's finish breakfast and get going."
Harry nodded slightly bitterly. But he knew he wasn't going to enjoy today. Trelawney's words were going to weigh far too heavily on his mind for that.
"Why the hell do I have to do this!?"
"I'm not having freeloaders living under my roof doing nothing but gulping their way through my food and drink. Don't pull so hard - you'll hurt her!"
"If the bloody thing tries to bite me again then I swear to all the gods out there that I'll chuck it through the nearest window!"
"You will do no such thing! Stop pulling so hard and she'll stop biting!"
"Sure she will. HEY GUH! OH, SHE DID THAT ON PURPOSE!"
"Well that's what happens if you pull too hard - you make them panic. Haven't you ever tried being gentle?"
"I'm the Iron Dragon Slayer! I don't do gentle!"
Wendy did her very best not to laugh as she watched Aberforth and Gajeel arguing as the elderly man tried to teach the reluctant mage how to milk a goat. And the goat had just panicked and bucked around, stamping its hoof right into the bucket of milk that Gajeel had already made and splashing the milk all over Gajeel's front.
"I can hardly believe I'm seeing this," Happy snickered. "Gajeel, of all people, milking goats. I just wish Natsu could see this."
"Though I have to admit, I am a little concerned for the goat's safety," Lily remarked.
"You could get over here and help me, you know," Gajeel griped as he glared at his Exceed partner.
"But my hands aren't built for milking a goat in this form. And my other form would just scare the poor girls," Lily grinned.
"Bastard," Gajeel muttered. Lily laughed.
"Amusing as this is, what exactly are we meant to do today?" Charla asked as she folded her arms. "Just sit around like a family of lobsters waiting for something to happen?"
"There's not much else we can do, Charla," Wendy pointed out. "Dumbledore-san said that he was going to try and think of a way for the Ministry to find out about us and not have them think we're a threat."
"Which might be hard to do considering the trouble we've already caused," Happy noted.
"Nevertheless, if it can be done, it should be," Lily agreed. "We'll have a much easier time if the official governing body of this world is on our side than if we have to skulk about in the shadows all the time. Besides… I may not have been in this guild long but I definitely got the impression that skulking is generally something most of us do very badly."
"Very true," Charla accepted. "But so is sitting still. It really does feel like we should be doing something more than just…" she suddenly stopped and looked up sharply, her pupils shrinking into dots as her eyes gained a rather vacant look.
A sudden flurry of images seemed to blur their way rapidly and unbidden through the white Exceed's mind:-
Some kind of massive explosion as men and women in long cloaks and pointy hats went running all over the place.
A woman with long dark hair and wearing chains that she didn't know grinning maniacally as the door to what looked like a cell was ripped off its hinges.
Natsu barrelling down a brightly lit hall of some kind with Gajeel and Wendy both right behind him, using their magic to sweep several startled, squat humanoid creatures aside and their faces all absolutely livid.
A young boy with dark hair and glasses angrily throwing throwing a red flash of light from his wand right at an ugly woman with a toad-like face dressed all in pink.
Juvia collapsing to the floor and thrashing about in what looked like unbearable agony while Gray, Tonks and Lucy looked on in horror.
Erza falling to her knees and clutching her head, wailing in what appeared to be utter horror and despair, tears streaming down her face and shaking violently as Cana and Sirius tried desperately to hold something back but not looking much better off.
A village of some description that had been practically levelled with smoke still rising from the buildings, the area littered with the bodies of the dead while a couple of dark figures she couldn't see moving away from the carnage through the smoke.
Several dozen men riding broomsticks and casting spells at each other madly before Laxus blitzed in and added his lightning to the mix, closely followed by all three members of the Raijinshuu, throwing the entire area into chaos.
A man with a pale face, slitted nostrils and red eyes laughing as he fired flashes of green light at a furiously dodging Elfman before Mirajane appeared in front of the man and threw a punch at him only for the man to vanish into thin air before she could hit him.
Lisanna pinned to the floor by some kind of giant, clawed foot and staring up in fear as what looked like the two oldest Weasley brothers and a woman with silvery hair she didn't know fired on whatever it was that had her pinned down.
A group of children in black robes fleeing down a hallway as several adults pursued them angrily before McGonagall suddenly lurched out of a door nearby and angrily started hexing at the adults.
And finally another vision of a woman with long dark hair she didn't know, but a different one this time and garbed in what appeared to be a long, black dress kneeling on stone and staring into a crystal, a smirk growing wide on her face as she looked up and seemed to stare straight at Charla herself. After this last one, the visions broke off and Charla fell back with a gasp and almost fell off the table, panting for breath and looking decidedly frightened.
"Oh… oh my gosh…" she whispered hoarsely to herself. "That was… that was…"
"Was that a vision?" Wendy asked hurriedly. "A premonition of the future?"
"What did you see?" Happy asked. "Did you see Natsu?"
"Yes I… yes, I saw him," Charla nodded slowly. "But not just him… I saw… I saw… oh gods… why do I get the feeling that all the stuff I saw then… was just the beginning?"
"This place… it's fantastic…" Charlie Weasley breathed as he drank in the sights around him. "Now this is a place where I'm sure I could quite happily settle down. And that tree! Man, if Professor Sprout got a load of that tree, she's probably die happy on the spot."
"Best not bring her out here then," Mavis smiled as she hovered nearby, looking out fondly across the island. "Though Sirius seems to be enjoying himself."
"He would be," Remus grimaced lightly as he watched the dog running around snapping lightly at each other's tails nearby. "After months of being cooped up in a house full of unpleasant memories, anyone would be."
When the group at Grimmauld Place had woken up that morning, Mavis had started talking with some of the remaining members about some of the more short-term plans for both Fairy Tail and the Order Lisanna had, naturally, been very quick to bring up the rescue of the Clipper birds from the Ministry. Though the Order remained adamant that probably the best way of getting the birds free was to try and befriend the Ministry somehow instead of doing something that would only make Fairy Tail look worse in their government's eyes, they had agreed to do their best to make sure the birds got back to their island safe and sound.
And in lieu of that, Mavis had volunteered to take a group to Tenroujima so they could see the place for themselves, which is where they were now. Mavis had been able to point out the island's exact location on a map she was shown despite the fact she couldn't pick out any of the other places they'd visited, and the group comprised of Remus, Charlie and Alastor Moody, all of whom were available. But since there was no chance of being recognised by anyone here, Sirius had been eager to come and this time nobody had denied him, which was why he and Lisanna was currently playing together.
"It's impressive, I grant you," Moody clunked over the stones, his eye spinning in his head to look up at the tree while the rest of him focused on Mavis. "But are you certain there's no chance of someone stumbling on this island by accident. That tree doesn't exactly strike me as something people won't notice."
"That is true, but there are spells woven around the island, raised by myself while I was still alive and held in place by the Tenrou Tree. Special magical filters ward people away unless they specifically intend on going there and if they do come in sight of it they usually don't notice it. They see it of course, but the magic keeps their minds from registering its presence."
"The principal sounds a little similar to a Fidelius," noted Moody. "But can anyone give the location of the island away to an enemy?"
"Yes, that they can."
"Well, perhaps its not as precise as a Fidelius then, in which only one person can give the location away effectively, unless of course that person is killed."
Sirius bounded back over and reverted back to his human shape, stretching his arms wide and grinning like a lunatic. "Oh, now this is nice. Wish this place had been around when I'd been on the run without using my lovely old family home. I'm pretty sure I could live here."
"Well, this is a place where all animals and all people with good hearts are welcome," Mavis smiled. "Which means that my answer is yes. Should the need ever arise, I give you permission to use this island as a base for the Order. There's no buildings here anymore though so you'll have to use a cave or construct something it you want a roof over your head but you may indeed use it."
"We appreciate it," Remus nodded. "But hopefully it will never get to that stage. Astonishing as this island is, it is rather out of the way, whereas Grimmauld Place is right in the middle of London, which means its more ideally located to responding to any Death Eater threats. But should Grimmauld Place ever become unusable for whatever reason, this will make a good back-up."
"As far as I'm concerned, Grimmauld Place is already unusable," Sirius scoffed.
"Unpleasant perhaps, but not unusable," Remus chuckled pointedly.
"What I wouldn't give to have a home like this though," Sirius murmured. "I dunno how the heck you'd be able to transport yourselves and this entire island back into your own universe, Mavis, but I'm half tempted to ask if I can come with. In fact, I probably would if there weren't still a few very important things to keep me here."
"Like Harry?" Mavis asked. She'd not met the boy but she'd already heard much about him.
"Like Harry," Sirius confirmed.
"Family is very important," Mavis looked up at the tree, smiling fondly as she felt nostalgia wash over her, remembering well the seven years that she'd spent living here with Zeira. "Even if that family is not yours by blood."
"Got that right," Charlie agreed. "Anyway, we should probably head back. We now know where we need to take the birds - now we just need to figure out a way of transporting them all here. Assuming we can find a way to get them out of the Ministry. Let's just hope that we can get that sorted soon. We should go - Kingsley will be waiting to escort you into the Department of Mysteries to get a look at that Sphere."
"Damn, this place gives me the willies," Gray murmured as he walked down one of the halls of Grimmauld Place, staring at the slightly macabre decorations on the walls, or rather doing his absolute best not to.
"Juvia doesn't think that Sirius-san was exaggerating when he spoke of how horrible his family was," Juvia shivered. "Sirius-san must have had a horrible childhood growing up in a place like this."
"I'm astonished anyone could grow up in a place like this at all. Or at the very least grow up and not become as twisted as the rest of the family," Gray muttered, pausing and grimacing as he belt a row of small and decidedly non-human heads on spikes nearby. "I don't even know what those are but whoever thought that would be a nice thing to put in the hall has to have gone round the twist."
"Those poor creatures," Juvia agreed.
"Shows what she knows," a grumbling voice from nearby made them both jump, and they turned to see a small, wrinkled… thing… with large and drooping bat-like ears and a long pointed nose just like row of heads. "Think they can come swanning in here, all talk of another universe and use my poor Mistress' house like a free hotel. Oh, that nasty brat's done us shame bringing in all these Mudbloods and blood traitors already but now he brings people who don't even belong in this world. People who desecrate the house even more and even freeze my Mistress' portrait. Slimy, foul alien scum tainting our very world with their unnatural magic…"
"Who the heck are you?" Gray demanded, glaring at the small thing as it continued its grumbling tirade.
"Oh, now its talking to Kreacher, poisoning his ears with the very noises it makes. Oh, it cannot go on. What other atrocities will they be bringing in next? What have they not brought in already?"
Juvia shivered slightly, under the sunken glare of this little creature, but she reasoned that he must be a resident of this house so she decided it might be best to try and get along. She knelt down in front of him and, smiling openly, she said, "Juvia is delighted to meet you, Kreacher-san. That is your name, isn't it? Juvia is sorry for intruding upon your house but Juvia is sure that if you get to know us…"
But Kreacher was bristling angrily and hissing slightly, "It thinks it can come into Kreacher's own house and mock him! Filthy water woman! Kreacher hopes it dies horribly from drowning - that would be ironic."
Juvia pulled back in shock, stung by Kreacher's words, and Gray immediately flared up and stepped up next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder and glaring down at the small humanoid thing. "How dare you talk to her like that! You call us filthy!? That's rich coming from something that doesn't look like its had a bath in decades!"
Feeling Gray's comforting hand there and having him come to her defence would normally send Juvia into a maelstrom of romantic fantasising but she was too shocked by Kreacher's violent reaction to attempting to befriend him to fully register it. "Ju… Juvia is sorry if she's offended you. Is there anything Juvia can to to make up for it!?"
"It's apology is still a mockery! What has old Kreacher done to deserve being derided by some blue-haired wench from another world!"
Gray snarled. "If you don't shut that mouth of yours right now I swear I'll…!"
"What's going on here?" Mrs. Weasley's voice broke across him as she hurried up the hallway.
"This thing keeps insulting us!" Gray growled. "I thought we'd had enough of that when we'd left that Jarvey behind."
"To be fair to the Jarvey, Juvia doesn't think that his insults were attempts to be mean… like Kreacher-san's."
"Who does she think she is, coming in here where Kreacher has lived his whole life and making fun of him, and then complaining to blood traitors when Kreacher defends himself," Kreacher muttered to himself. "Vermin and wizarding wastes, every one of them."
Mrs. Weasley sighed and said, "Just leave him. He won't listen to me if I tell him to stop. Come on dears, come down to lunch. I hope you're hungry because after all you've been through you deserve a good meal."
"But why did he get so angry at Juvia?" Juvia asked as they complied and followed her towards the stairs. "Juvia was only trying to be nice."
"I think… he may have thought you were making fun of the way he talks," Mrs. Weasley ventured. "Kreacher's a House Elf, you see. Many House Elves speak in the third person and I must say its rather unusual for a human to do the same, like you do, dearie. Out of curiosity, why do you choose to talk like that? Is it how you were raised perhaps?"
Gray raised a brow at this question. Despite having known Juvia for almost six months now that was a question that he'd never asked her or even thought to ask. He'd just taken it as a personality quirk, like Elfman's constant repetition of the word 'man' and not brought it up. But now he found himself rather curious to know the answer.
Juvia rubbed her arm lightly and said, "Well… Juvia… I mean, I never had any friends when she… I… was a child. Nobody ever wanted to be friends with J… me… because… I… couldn't control my magic for most of my life. Wherever I was, it was always raining. Twenty-four hours idea, seven days a week, for seventeen years. I never saw a blue sky. Nobody ever wanted me around, and those that tried to be my friend mostly gave up quite quickly, always sick of the rain I brought with me. Only Gajeel-kun ever tolerated me but he wasn't really close with anyone back then. It's possible even my parents gave me up because of it - I have no memory of them. I grew up in several orphanages, and was always being shunted from one to another because both the other kids and the staff wanted the sun to come back."
Mrs. Weasley had stopped walking and was staring at Juvia in abject horror. "Oh my goodness… you poor girl… that's… that's one of the most horrible things I've ever heard in my life."
"It's… it's okay… Juvia has… I have control of it now," Juvia smiled slightly. "And I have more friends than I ever thought anyone could have. But it was lonely those seventeen years, where I only had dolls for permanent company. With my dolls I could pretend that I was somebody else and that all the loneliness was happening to another girl. So I started referring to myself in the third person even when not playing with dolls to try and keep up the pretence. It didn't really work but… Juvia guesses the habit stuck. Even now, when she's happy with Fairy Tail."
Gray was staring at Juvia with something akin to admiration. He'd had a traumatic past himself to say the least, but his troubles had been more based around several specific events that caused him great pain to remember. But terrible as they were, he had dozens of happy memories to go with them. For Juvia to spend seventeen years living through the rain and the fact that most everyone hated her for it… he was amazed she'd had the strength to keep going all that time and still be able to become the cheerful and exuberant girl she was now.
Her character was stronger than he'd been giving her credit for.
Mrs. Weasley though quickly hurried forwards and wrapped her arms around Juvia, pulling her into a tight hug. She was shorter than Juvia so the water woman had to look down in surprise, but the redheaded woman murmured, "Even so, no child should have to go through what you have, without the love of family or friends. And let me tell you… I may not be your mother… but I can try my best to be one for you. If you want. There's always room for one more in the Weasley family."
Juvia gasped slightly, her heart swelling in her chest at Mrs. Weasley's kind words. She could feel tears pricking at her eyes as she slowly wrapped her arms around the shorter woman to hold her close. "Th…thank you… Mrs. Weasley. Juvia thinks that… she would like that."
Gray couldn't help but smile at the touching moment, waiting patiently for them to them to break apart so they could head down to eat again. His stomach, however, was not so patient and loudly rumbled. Mrs. Weasley and Juvia both laughed and broke apart, the former smiling while the latter wiped her eyes and sniffed happily.
"Come on, let's get going," Mrs. Weasley said. "Though Gray, I recommend you put your shirt back on."
"GOD DAMNIT!"
The Weasley mother shook her head slightly as Gray scrambled to put his shirt back on before she added, "Where's Lisanna? I'm sure she must be hungry too."
"She's probably still exploring the house," Gray replied. "I saw her heading upstairs towards the attic earlier."
"Towards the… oh gosh!" Mrs. Weasley gasped. "Oh my goodness, how could we forget to tell you!?"
"What? Tell us what?" Gray cried sharply but Mrs. Weasley was already hurrying back the way they'd come and up the stairs. Confused, the two Fairy Tail mages followed quickly behind her, racing up the stairs hard on their heels until they came to the wooden staircase that lead up to the very top floor. Mrs. Weasley bolted up it and threw the door open…
Lisanna looked up from where she was sitting on the floor and said, "Wow, you made me jump there. Is everything okay?"
Gray and Juvia moved in so they could see what was happening and blanched when they saw what Lisanna was sitting next to. They had thought the Clippers were big, but this bird was absolutely massive - the size of a horse easily. In fact… its entire back half seemed to be that of a horse, while its front half looked like some kind of giant, fierce-eyed eagle with grey feathers and a viciously hooked beak. It was currently lying down on it stomach, and allowing Lisanna to run her fingers through its feathers but as it beheld these strangers that had suddenly entered its room, it tensed and cawed at them, eying them beadily.
"Easy, easy," Lisanna murmured slightly, scratching him lightly beneath one wing. "They're friends."
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright," Mrs. Weasley sighed in relief. "I'm so sorry we forgot to tell you about Buckbeak. Good thing you knew how to approach a hippogriff."
"A hippogriff, huh? Is that what he is? I've never heard of them before," Lisanna smiled as Buckbeak lowered his large head down towards her and allowed her to stroke his beak, closing his eyes contentedly.
"You haven't?" blinked Mrs. Weasley. "But then… how did you know the procedure?"
"Procedure? What procedure?" Lisanna frowned.
"The one to approach a Hippogriff? You're supposed to bow to a Hippogriff and then if it bows back you're meant to approach it very slowly. If you don't do it right they usually attack. You mean to tell me you… didn't do that?"
"No. No, I didn't. I came forward cautiously of course but I didn't bow. I didn't know you should," Lisanna shook her head.
"But then… why didn't he…?"
Gray chuckled. "Lisanna's just got a way with animals. Always has. Most of the time they just naturally seem to like her. Takes a very aggressive creature to try and attack her."
"But why is he shut away in this house?" Juvia asked. "Shouldn't a big bird like him be out in the sky, stretching his wings?"
"That would be ideal yes, but poor Buckbeak here was labelled dangerous by the Ministry after he attacked a student at Hogwarts school. He was scheduled to be executed, before Sirius made his escape on him and now he lives here, where the Ministry can't find him."
"Labelled dangerous? Scheduled to be executed?" Lisanna looked up with wide eyes. "But then… what about the Clippers? What if they get labelled as dangerous?"
Mrs. Weasley gasped when she realised she probably shouldn't have said that, quickly remedying, "Well, I gather the student in question ignored the warnings of the teacher and deliberately provoked him. And I also gather he's a rather unpleasant boy who disliked the teacher but has a father who's very influential in the Ministry. I think it was his father who pushed the Ministry to act in such a manner. He has no grudge against the Clippers though so I don't think he'd intervene."
Lisanna grimaced. "But… if they do label them as dangerous…"
Mrs. Weasley hesitated before she sighed and murmured, "They will probably kill them, yes."
There were grimaces on Gray and Juvia's faces too now, before the former said, "And what about our friends still locked in that Sphere? What if they're labelled too dangerous?"
"…I really don't know. I wish I did."
"…We've got the get them out of there…" Lisanna murmured. "All of them - friends and birds. One way or another… we have to get the out of there. And if I ever meet the father of that boy… I swear I will punch him in the face."
"Blimey," Gray murmured. "You've got to be a bad person if you can make Lisanna angry."
Speaking of the father of said boy, Kingsley Shacklebolt was currently doing his best to ignore Lucius Malfoy. The long, blonde-haired man was standing not far away from him with his usual superior smirk, looking down his nose slightly at everyone else in the room as if he knew, with one-hundred percent surety, that he was better than them. And whenever he chipped in to make a comment, it was usually something that grated on Kingsley's nerves. Really, it was so frustrating to have the man - a known Death Eater - standing right there in the room and be unable to do anything about it.
Because when Lucius Malfoy appeared in the Ministry, he was rarely ever seen outside the company of the Minister himself. And said Minister was blindly refusing to believe that the Death Eaters were even in operation, let alone a threat.
And where were they right now? They were both with Cornelius Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour in the Department of Mysteries, in the exact same room as the golden Fairy Sphere that had been found a few days ago, surrounded by several Unspeakables and a few more Aurors. Tonks would probably have been here too had she not been given the day off to catch up on her rest.
But there was another being in the room. Mavis was hovering just behind the tall Auror, her eyes locked on the Sphere shining in front of her. But of course Kingsley was the only one that could see her - she'd made sure of that. After they'd finished their business at Tenroujima, Charlie had escorted her into the Ministry on the pretence of going to visit his father, and then Arthur had taken her to meet up with Kingsley afterwards, and he, in turn had been able to bring her down here with the other Aurors.
"Can't you tell me anything more about all this?" Fudge asked as he twiddled his bowler hat in his hands slightly anxiously. "I need to know what these attacks mean and what this thing is supposed to be. If this keeps happening how long do you think we're going to be able to keep the information from leaking out. And how many people do you think will be angry with me for keeping that information concealed."
"We're doing our level best to track these people down, whoever they are," Scrimgeour promised. "All we know so far is that these strange occurrences seem to have begun after that meteor shower a few days ago. A meteor shower that resulted in this… orb. And a couple of my Aurors have reported that they saw that self-same mark," he pointed to the Fairy Tail symbol etched into the side of the sphere, "tattooed on the one of the strangers in Brockenhurst. There is a link between them. We just don't know what it is."
"Well, he's right about that," Mavis said, which made Kingsley have to try very hard not to flinch and make sure nobody had heard her because Mavis could scream at the top of her lungs and nobody but him in the room would hear her. "That is definitely one of my Spheres. And I sense… there are two life-forms inside it. Both human."
Kingsley couldn't answer her for obvious reasons, but he slowly inclined his head to show that he'd understood.
"Well, then what is this thing?" Fudge pressed.
"We've been running magical tests on it," said an Unspeakable. "But nothing we've done has made any impact on it. We even threw a combined Bludgeoning Hex at it and it simply took the blow without any sign of damage."
"Of course it didn't," Mavis grinned smugly. "The Three Great Fairy Magics are not to be trifled with."
The Unspeakable continued. "All we know is that its a powerful shield and that there is, in fact, something inside it. Something that is very definitely still alive. We can't tell what it is… but its there."
"Well, I want that shield to be disabled as soon as possible," Fudge huffed. "If whatever's in there is capable of speaking English then I have some questions I want to ask them. I want this whole mess cleared up quickly. Do you realise how much of a fool I will look if the public hears of these people with unusual magic running amuck and I am powerless to do anything about it? The people want a Minister who can ensure that they are safe."
"If I might dare to venture a suggestion, Minister," Lucius Malfoy suddenly spoke up for the first time in his typical slow and superior drawl. "I won't even begin to pretend I know what's happening either but all this… perhaps it is part of some elaborate scheme to specifically make you look like a fool in front of the people."
"Scheme?" Fudge asked sharply. "Who by?"
"Well, like I said I don't even know that this is true," Lucius shrugged smarmily. "But these attacks, these unexplained phenomena… they could be orchestrated by someone seeking to gain power. Someone… who wishes to take your seat at the top. Someone… who seems to want the public believe that there is a cause for fear. Someone… powerful enough to potentially know spells we can only ever dream about."
Kingsley bristled slightly, seeing exactly where Lucius was going with this but unable to intervene. Unfortunately, Fudge seemed to understand what Lucius was implying too and his eyes widened as he breathed, "…Dumbledore."
"Well, it's only a suggestion of course," Lucius seemed unable to keep the smirk out of his voice. "But has he not been spreading the lie that the Dark Lord has returned to power for the whole summer. You know as well as I do, Minister, that were the people to believe that story they might rally to Dumbledore in the hope he would protect them from a threat that didn't even exist. But you've been doing such an excellent job at exposing his lies to the world that perhaps he thought he needed to take things a step further. Perhaps he though… he needed to find of way of making sure the public really thought there was a threat… by making one."
Fudge gasped at the though, but Scrimgeour frowned. "I don't know. That doesn't sound like something Dumbledore would do. And more to the point these strange happenings don't sound like the kind of things the Dark Lord would do, and does not Dumbledore's story rest on the fact the Dark Lord is back? Even if he introduced a brand new threat, which I doubt, why would he make it so very different from the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters?"
"Who can work out the mind of such a man?" Lucius pointed out. "He is, I shall grudgingly admit, quite brilliant. Perhaps he has his reasons."
"Or perhaps everything you're implying is utter rubbish," Scrimgeour replied coolly, and Kingsley fought the urge to smile. Scrimgeour might not really believe Voldemort was back either but at least he didn't believe Dumbledore really was trying to gain power, it seemed."
"Enough," Fudge called out. "You have both… given me a lot to think about. I suppose we should adjourn for now but I want to be alerted the very instant that that Sphere…" he continued speaking, blissfully unaware of the fact that Mavis had just gasped, her eyes widening.
"What is it?" Kingsley dared to whisper through the corner of his mouth.
"The Sphere," Mavis whispered back. "It's power levels are dropping. Rapidly… it's time has come."
Right as she started speaking the Sphere suddenly flashed, drawing everyone's eyes. There were several more flashes, before the surface of the Sphere seemed to burn brighter and ripple like the surface of some strange orb of water… before it suddenly faded out of existence from the top down.
"It vanished!" Fudge acknowledged.
"Wands at the ready!" Scrimgeour cried immediately as all the Aurors, including Kingsley just because he had to, drew their wands and pointed them en masse at the space where the Sphere had been, which was still glowing with a brightish but slowly diminishing light. Everyone in the room was on tenterhooks, straining their eyes to see what had been inside when the light faded.
"I didn't expect this to happen," Mavis bit her lip as she strained to look as well. "What are we going to do now?"
What they eventually saw were two human forms lying on the ground, apparently unconscious - one of them male and the other female. But even as they all slowly began to lower their wands, the girl stirred, prompting them to raise them back up again.
"Nnnghhh…" Levy McGarden moaned as she pushed herself up slightly and massaged her forehead with one hand. "Whuthhapnnd? M'sure I wuz jrrsstt…" she rubbed her eyes slightly and looked up, blinking to try and clear both her vision and her mind, but at first only able to make out several tall silhouettes standing in front of her. "Guys?" she asked. "Gajeel? 'Zat you?"
And then everything swam into focus and she saw the multitude of strangers all pointing their wands at her. Immediately she snapped out of her haze and gasped, rolling onto her backside and scrambling backwards slightly, wide-eyed like a deer in the headlights.
"Who are you?" Scrimgeour demanded.
"What? What's happening?" Levy gasped, looking around at them all in shock. "Where am I? Who are you people? What happened to Acnologia and all my friends?"
"Those are all very good questions, Levy," the man suddenly said as he pushed himself upwards, recovering quite a bit quicker than the bluenette had. "And another good one is why are they all looking like they're about to attack us at any moment."
As the man pushed himself to his feet, several of the Aurors couldn't help but take a step back as they took a good look at him, taking in his long brown cloak, his heavily bandaged and scarred torso, his artificial left arm and leg and the sheer aura of power he seemed to exude.
"And I'd like to hear the answer to every one of them rather quickly," scowled Gildarts Clive.