Excuse the delay again everyone but I caught a minor bug that kept my from writing for a couple of days. Despite my uni lectures I pulled out the stops these last couple of evenings to try and make up for it and here you go. Please enjoy.

Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 15:- Prophecy Problems

Tonks sighed as she did her best to help with fixing a broken wall. It was probably going to take quite a while to get everyone from Magical Maintenance back into the Ministry - most of them had fled when the fighting broke out and for good reason. She'd known that the Fairy Tail members were powerful, but she hadn't counted on quite how destructive they could be. When she'd seen Gray, Juvia and Lisanna fighting in Brockendale they'd managed to keep themselves from breaking anything. This time… it was like they'd never heard of restraint.

Fortunately though nobody had noticed her stunning two of her fellow Aurors from behind in the final escape to assist Happy and Charla. That would have been a little difficult to explain. She could have always used the excuse that she'd been aiming for the Exceed and missed, but while she was extremely clumsy in most walks of life, when it came to spell casting she was a dead-shot. Most of them wouldn't have believed that excuse.

Still, about a quarter of the Ministry seemed to be a total wreck and if it hadn't been for Mavis telling them where they needed to go, they probably would have trashed a lot more of it before they got loose.

Speaking of Kingsley, he stepped up close to Tonks and murmured, "I assume you know what exactly is going to be happening tonight."

"Big meeting, yeah, yeah, I know," Tonk muttered as she levitated a couple of bricks into place and used Reparo to fix them up. "Something tells me that this one's going to be a doozy."

"Yes… I'd say that it is," Kingsley nodded.

"After all… there's no way that the Ministry's going to be able to cover this up," Tonks muttered. "The entire Wizarding Populace is going to know about this tomorrow… or at least that the Ministry was attacked even if they don't find out exactly who did it…"

"Indeed, but that's not the only reason why this meeting is going to be quite significant," Kingsley agreed. "Still, we can't talk so until tonight."

"You think we'll get some Fairies in attendance?"

"Well… this does concern them… so I would hope so."

"And where's our esteemed Minister Useless?"

"Nymphadora…" Kingsley raised a brow warningly, not just because it wouldn't do for anyone to hear her calling him that but also because he was her superior.

"Sorry… but well… by all accounts he handled the knowledge that they were from another universe with different magic very poorly indeed."

"It certainly could have been handled better, but you know, I cannot entirely blame him for over-reacting. It's a fact of all human life that when faced with something dangerous and above all something we don't understand that we tend to act rashly. Minister Fudge received a dramatic information overload in the space of a couple of minutes and instantly went on the defensive."

"But I didn't react like that when I found out about them. And neither did you or the rest of the Order."

"Yes, but the difference is that you were convinced that they were not dangerous people before you were told the information. And the rest of the Order were given ample warning about who Fairy Tail were before we met them and I'll be honest, even I thought for a while that trusting them might not be the best of ideas when we knew so little about them. The fact that Dumbledore had put his trust in them first greatly helped to assuage my own misgivings. Minister Fudge had no such forewarning. All he saw were powerful intruders in his Ministry which was filled with innocent people… being a Minister and looking out for the well-being of those people is an enormous responsibility. You'd have to be a very calm-headed Minister not to panic under such circumstances."

"…I guess that's true. Maybe I can cut him a little slack then, even though I still think calling in Dementors like that was a bonkers idea," Tonks shrugged. "And even though his paranoia about Dumbledore is still beyond ludicrous… Anyway, like I asked before, where is he? Haven't seen him for a while."

"Well, you pretty much answered your own question," Kingsley chuckled wryly. "He's following up a little more on his paranoia about Dumbledore…"

"Oh… I wish I could see how that goes."

"Admit it, Dumbledore. You had something to do with this, didn't you? It's no good lying to me, you know."

Albus Dumbledore interlaced his fingers and stared calmly at the rapidly colouring Minister now standing in his office. Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour was also there, standing at the door with another Auror and looking rather disgruntled about all this, and Dolores Umbridge was now at the Minister's side, her eyes washing over Dumbledore up and down as if probing him for signs of weakness, while McGonagall was standing off to the side and looking very much like she wanted to intervene, but was barely restraining herself from doing so.

"I am afraid you still have yet to fully enlighten me as to what happened at the Ministry today," Dumbledore replied. "And I assure you that I have had no business there whatsoever. Its almost as though I'm not welcome there anymore."

"Don't play games with me. You know what happened."

"I know that the Ministry was attacked today certainly, as you told me so yourself when you first stormed into my office to begin this pleasant conversation. But I'm afraid I don't know who by, who if I were to hazard a guess, would I be correct in thinking that they were black-robed men with skull-like masks perhaps."

"Ha! You are already fully aware that they were not! They were a total rabble… a collection of men and women of various ages, some of them with oddly coloured hair. They had talking, flying cats with them! And they claimed to have come from another universe and used ridiculous, wandless magic the like of which not one of us has ever seen before."

Dumbledore's expression did momentarily slip into one of surprise, causing him to blink a few times, before he recovered his composure. "How fascinating. And you believe these claims do you?"

"They were given under influence of Veritaserum!"

"I see. Then surely, if Veritaserum was given to one of these intruders, you would have asked them whether or not I was involved, would you not?"

"I did not get the opportunity. Because shortly after that revelation we were invaded by several more intruders that helped to break the original ones out."

"And every one of them claimed that they were from another universe?"

"We didn't get the chance to question each of them but the things they did, Dumbledore… they could only have been from another world. There's nothing like them in this one. But how could they have known that we had some of them in our custody unless somebody told them that we did? These people have been causing chaos on different sides of Britain until yesterday when they're suddenly all in one place. And one of them happened to attack a Muggle settlement not far away from this very school. Can you still deny after all that that you are involved?"

"I can certainly deny that I had anything to do with this break-in at the Ministry, Cornelius," Dumbledore nodded calmly. "What would I have to gain from such an action in the first place?"

"Power, of course. I know you desire it, Dumbledore. Everyone with any sense knows that you are trying to scare your way into the Minister's Chair with all those ridiculous allegations of yours."

"And what ridiculous allegations would those be?"

"That He-Know-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned of course!"

"While I continue to assert that that is far from ridiculous, you have already hit the proverbial nail on the head, Minister. I have been telling you for months now that Lord Voldemort has indeed returned, and I still maintain that it is true now. Sadly most people seem to refuse to heed my warning but can you not see how organising an attack on the Ministry such as this would accomplish nothing for me even if I did want your seat?"

"You aim to spread panic and fear, to get people to rally behind you to oppose this new threat."

"I fear that you are now grasping at straws, Minister. Even in the face of a new threat, as you put it, your attempts to ridicule me would surely ensure that nobody would turn to me for help. After all, these people, whoever they may be, have nothing to do with Voldemort. So, logically, people would still view me as the old man spreading lies in attempts to scare them. Not exactly a figure to rally behind, is it?"

"Well… no… but that doesn't mean you didn't try…" Fudge pressed on, though there was some slight doubt in his voice now.

"I fear that much of my credibility has now gone in the eyes of the public, and I very much doubt I will get it back until you realise that Voldemort truly has returned."

"He is not back!"

"Is that really so difficult to believe? You are willing to believe in people from another universe but are unwilling to believe that a man people thought to be dead can turn out not to be?"

"There is no magic that can raise the dead!"

"Correct. But he was never dead in the first place."

"That's enough… we're getting off topic. This isn't a talk about You-Know-Who, it's about these interlopers."

"Quite right. Go on. You were saying that they couldn't have organised such an attack without help from the inside?"

"Exactly!"

"And yet you also maintain that they must be from another world because they did things that nobody in this world could have?"

"Yes!"

"Well, there you are then. If they truly are from a different world and can do things we can't, how can you be absolutely sure that they did have help from the inside? We certainly don't know everything about them, do we? Is it entirely without the bounds of possibility that they might be able to do something else that would enable such a thing? Telepathy perhaps? Some kind of magical way of finding people that they know? Who can say but themselves as to what they are capable of?"

Fudge's look wavered, and now he looked like he'd swallowed a frog. "Erm… then you maintain that you had nothing to do with this?"

"Certainly not. But of course if you wish, I would be more than willing to help you track down these people who claim to be from another reality."

"Do you really take us for fools, Dumbledore?" Umbridge suddenly chipped in to the conversation, her wide mouth upturned in a smirk. "What of the prophecy that you made that fraudulent Divination teacher of yours give this morning?"

"Prophecy? What prophecy?" Fudge asked sharply.

"The one that spoke of the Fairies joining the fight of the Wizarding World? Clashing magic? Bygone evil being unleashed? Made it sound like the apocalypse was coming. Honestly, she still thinks she can keep her place in this school with such a ridiculous foretelling?"

"As I told you this morning, Professor Umbridge, that was a genuine prophecy. I had no more to do with organising that than the attack on the Ministry, and when prophecies such as that are foretold, we would all do well to listen to it."

"The… Fairies… did you say?" Fudge asked.

"Yes, exactly," Umbridge nodded. "A ridiculous notion obviously. Fairies are useless in a fight of any kind."

"Perhaps real fairies are… but Fairy Tail on the other hand…! That is what the intruders from another universe referred to themselves as! A wizard guild called Fairy Tail! And do you still claim after that that you truly had nothing to do with this assault on our government, Dumbledore?"

"I assuredly do, Minister. I certainly have no more control over a prophecy than you do. But if you want my honest opinion, I think that it would be a mistake to hunt these people down."

"A mistake, Dumbledore? Don't be absurd. They levelled parts of the Ministry! Whole rooms demolished, panic spread throughout the populace. One of them even destroyed a bunch of Dementors! Dementors, Dumbledore! Vaporised like they were nothing. The newspapers will be reporting on this tomorrow and the people will expect me to take action."

"And take action you should, but not by making them into enemies. You should extend the hand of friendship, make them feel welcome in this world. Surely it would be better to have such powerful people on your side than against you?"

"You think there will be negotiation with these people? Even if they were willing to accept it, which frankly I doubt, the public won't want anything like them to be walking the streets. And if they wanted peace they wouldn't have charged in to attack us like that in the first place."

"Yet you claimed to have two of them in custody. This sounds more like a rescue mission to me than anything else. Can people who would throw themselves into potential danger to rescue a couple of their friends be all that bad?"

"Well…" Fudge hesitated again.

But again, Umbridge intervened. "Oh you'd like that wouldn't you? All part of your big plan I suppose. Get powerful people like them close to our beloved Minister and then when you want to make your move, you'd have incredibly strong allies just waiting in position to help you take control."

Fudge's eyes widened. "Is that what you're thinking, Dumbledore?"

"I am certainly thinking that you could do with powerful people like them by your side in the near future. But more as added protection against another threat…"

"I do not have any need for added protection against the Dark Lord when there is no Dark Lord to need protection against!" Fudge snapped. "You still deny any connection to these Fairy Tail people?"

"I swear to you by the names of the Founders of Hogwarts themselves that I had nothing to do with what happened today," Dumbledore replied.

Fudge stood there and pursed his lips for a second. He couldn't take Dumbledore in for questioning when he had no actual proof that Dumbledore was behind this attack and Dumbledore had not given him any. Yet he remained convinced that Dumbledore was involved in all this somehow.

"This is getting us nowhere," Fudge replied. "I will be in touch, Dumbledore. In the meantime though, I need to begin the manhunt for these people. Whoever they may be, they must be stopped before they, at the very least, render the Statute of Secrecy nothing but history."

"You must do what you feel is best, of course," Dumbledore nodded.

"I'll see myself out," Fudge turned and swept from the room, Umbridge waddling along beside him. Moments before Scrimegeour followed him out, he gave the Headmaster a disgruntled look as if to say that this whole thing seemed stupid to him but that if Fudge was correct he had better watch himself at the same time, before he too followed the Minister down the stairs.

"This whole thing is getting quite out of hand, Headmaster," McGonagall eventually said when she was sure they were out of earshot. "Even if by some miracle he sees sense and extends the hand of friendship to Fairy Tail, what will happen when he finds out that you actually did know who they were, even if you had nothing to do with their actions today. They're fugitives now, after all."

"True, Minerva. But in case you've forgotten we're already harbouring a fugitive. And one who Fudge believes to be a mass murderer. Near as I can tell nobody was killed during that attack from Fairy Tail earlier today. If there was, he would have mentioned it. It is a bridge we must cross when we come to it. For now, we will need to keep Fairy Tail as far away from the Ministry as possible. Especially since we may soon be needing them."

"What makes you say that?"

"Sybil's prophecy. The one she foretold this morning. It has already begun. The fifth Sphere has now lowered and that is when she said the war would begin."

"The fifth Sphere, Headmaster? But there have only been four groups of Fairy Tail that have been found so far."

"You are correct, but you are forgetting that there was another Sphere involved. The one containing Wendy and the Exceed was first. Gajeel's was second. Gray, Juvia and Lisanna's was the third, but Gildarts and Levy did not come out of the fourth Sphere."

"…The Clippers. Those birds. They came out of the fourth," McGonagall gasped.

"Indeed. They may not be Fairy Tail members but they were still in a Sphere. And that means the events today are probably about to kickstart this war. And they have been met with fear, just as Sybil said that they would."

"Well… at least we know that these Fairy Tail members can hold their own in a fight. Even You-Know-Who will surely have a hard time getting the better of them."

"That may be. But something tells me that Voldemort and his followers… may not be the only threat that we will have to face."

"What makes you say that?"

"Some of the other things that Sybil foretold in her Prophecy… Things about doorways… and bygone evil, old battles and devils, and ancient magic… Many of those things could potentially apply to Voldemort, so it could be assumed that Sybil was talking about him. But… I am not so sure that she was. I think she may have been referring to other things too. There is no denying, that even with Fairy Tail with us in this fight, Voldemort is still a major threat to us all. But… there may be more to contend with than just him."

"Like what?" McGonagall wrung her hands together slightly. "What else could there be out there besides him?"

"I couldn't tell you. It is, as they say, a hunch. But as you know… my hunches have been known to be rather disturbingly accurate many times before."

"There's eleven of us now, if you count our ghostly First Master," Gildarts noted as he stood on the beach of Tenroujima with his arms folded, the rest of the group gathered together in a circle on the sand around. "And that means we now total exactly half of our original number, again if you count Master Mavis amongst that number."

"And the third Master is amongst that number," Levy agreed. "I wonder where he is now."

"I wonder where all of them are now," Lisanna sighed. "Natsu, my brother and sister, Erza, Lucy, Cana, Laxus and the Raijinshuu… all of them are still out there somewhere, hidden away in their respective Spheres. And all of them unaware of the new situation they're in."

"That includes all of our S-Class Mages except you, Gildarts," said Gray. "Does that make you our leader now?"

"Your leader?" Gildarts snorted. "Trust me, I'd never assume to take the place of the First Master herself. Or any Master, come to that. I'm not exactly… Master material, I don't think?"

"You do realise that you're the one that Master Makarov will most likely pick to be his successor right?" Gray raised a brow.

"It might not be his decision to make anymore," Gildarts shrugged. "In all likelihood Fairy Tail has a Fourth Master now. One of the ones left behind in our world will have had to pick up the mantle."

"Dear gosh… can you imagine how horrible it must be for them?" Lisanna gasped. "And we think we've got it rough here in this world when they're the ones who must surely think we've all been dead for the last six years."

"Juvia wonders what the guild is like now," Juvia murmured, drawing little patterns in the sand with her fingers.

"And who took up the mantle of Master," Levy mused. "Macao and Wakaba are the oldest remaining guild members I think, so they might be the most likely candidates."

"Thinking about them at this time probably isn't going to help us very much," Pantherlily interjected. "We need to focus more on what exactly we are going to do. Even if we are staying here to help out our new companions we should probably still be thinking of a way to get home."

"Maybe if we could do some research we could find something from this world capable of dimension travel that could help us…" Levy tapped her chin before sighing. "Too bad those Ministry people took away my Gale-Force Reading Glasses. They would have been helpful for that."

"Oh, of course!" Gildarts suddenly clapped a hand to his forehead and stuck the other inside his coat, before he pulled out a familiar pair of red-rimmed glasses and a light pen. "These look familiar to you, Levy?"

"Those are… how did you get hold of those?" Levy gasped as Gildarts tossed them back to her.

"They were in a box on the outside of our cell," Gildarts chuckled. "When I blew my way out I knocked the box over and I spotted them on the ground so I picked them up before I rushed off to get you."

"Gildarts, you're the best," Levy grinned, perching the glasses on her nose and smiling widely.

"Even so," Wendy raised her hand as if she was in a classroom. "Dumbledore-san thinks that dimension travel has never happened in this world before. If that's true then there might not be anything for us to find about it here."

"I see… that is rather disappointing," Gildarts murmured.

"What about you, Lily?" Happy suddenly turned to his fellow Exceed. "Do you think that you could do something?"

"What makes you think I can do anything, Happy?"

"Well… you worked with the Anima from Edolas, didn't you? That was something that could transport things from one world to another. Do you think we could build something similar to that?"

"That's not actually a bad idea, Happy," Charla blinked, and she wasn't the only one surprised that Happy had come up with an idea that wasn't totally ludicrous. "Maybe with that, we could transfer the entire island of Tenroujima back home with us to."

"It's a nice thought, certainly," Pantherlily scratched his arm. "But a rather distant one I'm afraid. It was the humans who constructed the Anima from our world. I knew very little about how it worked. Maybe if the Prince was here… Mystogan… he might know how to duplicate it. But sadly he is not. And I remain clueless."

"Well… good try anyway, Happy," Lisanna placed a hand on the disappointed blue cat's head and ruffled between his ears lightly.

"So we've come up stuck?" Gajeel asked, grumpily.

"For now, yes," Mavis said from where she was perched on a rock nearby. "But as the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way. And that saying is especially true of those with magical ability. I'm sure somewhere along the line we will be able to return home. But that is not our first priority right now either. Finding and securing our missing comrades is. That, and helping our newer friends with their own struggles. Speaking of which, I calculate there is a seventy-three percent probability that one of them will Apparate to our location within the next five seconds."

There was a brief pause before suddenly there was a loud crack and none other than Sirius appeared not far away with a rather lop-sided grin on his face. Another crack saw Remus Lupin arrive alongside him, the man looking a little more haggard than even just that morning.

"Well now," Sirius grinned as he strode towards them. "Looks like I may have been replaced at the top of the Ministry's Most Wanted list if even half the stuff we've been hearing is true. You lot really went and made a mess, didn't you?"

"It's practically our calling card," Lisanna tapped her fingers together sheepishly. "Sometimes I get the feeling most of us feel that if we don't make a mess we're not doing it right."

"Well no complaints from me," Sirius laughed. "Except maybe for the fact I wasn't there to see Fudge's face when it happened."

"But you might be hearing quite a lot of complaints from everyone else," Lupin added. "Anyway… where are my manners? It's a pleasure to meet two new members of your group and to see you're both looking well, though of course I'd rather the circumstances were rather different."

"The pleasure's ours," Gildarts nodded with a smirk. "I gather you're more members of this Order we've been hearing so much about."

"And I gather you're the one who almost tossed Kingsley through a wall," Sirius snorted. "And you also vaporised a few Dementors? I would give… practically anything… to have witnessed that, believe me."

"Not fond of them, I take it?" Gildarts asked dryly.

"That's one way of putting it," Sirius growled slightly. "I'm not normally one that would call for something to be hunted to extinction but… if there was every anything…"

"I think the chatting can wait until we're back in Grimmauld Place," Lupin placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder consolingly. "As you can probably tell we've been sent to come and collect you."

"More Side-Along Apparition, you mean?" Gray asked.

"That's the stuff," Sirius wrinkled his nose. "Sorry to tell you first timers but its really not the most pleasant experience. I'll be one-hundred Galleons that you'll both fall over when you reach the end."

"That's not exactly the best way of inspiring confidence I've ever heard," Levy face faulted slightly.

"Er… there might be a slight problem with that, if that's the case," Gildarts rubbed the back of his head a little. "When I hit things rather hard I have a tendency to… smash it to pieces. And that includes walls, floors and sometimes… entire buildings. It might be difficult for me to, erm… contain myself."

A brief beat of silence.

Then…

"You mean you might break Grimmauld Place!? Well no arguments from me!"

"You would say that," Remus heaved a sigh.

Eventually though they did manage to get Gildarts into Grimmauld Place by Apparating him into a side-alley instead of onto the front step of the building as normal. Gildarts did indeed stumble and obliterate an old dustbin and everything in it, which would leave on of the tenants of the street rather puzzled with they came out to throw something else away tomorrow, but Sirius and Remus managed to intrust them with the secret of the Fidelius Charm and get them to walk into the door, where Mrs. Weasley immediately insisted on feeding them up, especially Levy, who had had the most trying experience of the day.

It was a few hours after that that the planned meeting of the Order was called to full attendance and as the members gathered around the table, each of the eleven Fairy Tail members stood at the head beside Dumbledore. There was quite a different atmosphere in the room to last time. Last time there'd been mostly awe and respect, but this time there was a slight edge. Every one of them had been fully updated of the damage that had been inflicted, and while they'd all known Fairy Tail had powerful abilities before… now they had an idea of just how powerful.

"Its certainly rare that we have to call together more than one meeting of this size in such a short space of time, but these are, as you will all know, exceptional circumstances," Dumbledore replied. "You're all aware now that any attempt to help Fairy Tail make peace with the Ministry will most likely now not end well."

"That's an understatement," Hestia Jones piped up. "For all the damage they did, you'd think a dragon had gone storming through the Ministry."

"Geehee! Thank you," Gajeel grinned savagely at that, and even Wendy looked a little proud, despite her embarrassment.

"They certainly are the very definition of loose cannons," nodded Emmeline Vance. "How are we supposed to be able to trust you to help us against You-Know-Who when you go off and do your own thing like that, trashing even our governmental building?"

"It's called a rescue mission," Gray raised a brow. "Perhaps you've heard of it."

"That's right!" Happy raised a paw into the end. "We were just doing what we needed to do for our friends."

"Besides, the fault doesn't entirely lie with them," Tonks turned and gave Mad-Eye Moody a sharp, reproachful glare. "After all, some of us may have hoped that they actually were going to get in there and tear the Ministry apart, it seems."

"Yes… I have heard about this. Care to explain the reason for your course of action, Alastor?" Dumbledore swivelled his face around to gaze upon the war torn Ex-Auror.

"I say that this is actually good for us," Moody grunted, his eyes whizzing around from one Fairy Tail member to another and giving most of them a slight shiver or to. "Least now the Ministry is alert, isn't it? Soon as they've finished the repairs they'll be working round the clock to fortify the place and keep up a long vigil. They'll want to stave off as many magical threats as they can. And not just Fairy Tail. Now You-Know-Who's going to have a harder time than before getting into the Ministry."

"That is true, Alastor," Dumbledore agreed. "Though in future, please run it by me first if you're planning on getting somewhere practically levelled. I would have preferred it if they were on the alert for Voldemort and not our new friends."

"At least they're on the alert for something now, and that's going to be a real sting in the Dark Lord's tail, to say the least," Mad-Eye humphed with satisfaction, not looking in the least bit ashamed.

"Yes, well speaking of the Dark Lord," Snape interrupted fluidly. "I'm hope everyone here realises that now that Fairy Tail have introduced themselves so… spectacularly… to our magical world, it won't be long before he finds out about them either. I'd be surprised if he hasn't already, in fact."

"Yes… Lucius Malfoy was one of the ones who first saw them come out of the Sphere," Kingsley agreed.

There was a slight groan from around the table, before Dedalus Diggle threw in, "Well… sounds like we've lost a great element of surprise there. If it had come to battle it would have been wonderful for him and his Death Eaters to run across them without any idea what they were facing."

"Oh, I wouldn't say you've lost the element of surprise entirely," Gildarts suddenly grinned, attracting everyone's attention to the man who stood taller than any one of them there. "I won't pretend this isn't all a bit overwhelming a situation to be thrust into and I'm still coming to grips with this whole other world and other war thing, but I'd say we have a surprise or two left in us. After all, we didn't exactly show everything that we're capable of back at the Ministry, believe me."

"Gildarts-san is right," Juvia nodded. "We were holding back a fair amount to keep from harming innocents as much as we could."

"And yet there were many with broken bones after you were done with them…" Tonks muttered.

"Besides, he still doesn't know that we've allied ourselves with you," Gray clenched his fist, Juvia hurriedly picking up his shirt from where it was suddenly on the floor. "All he thinks is that we're a bunch of lost offworlders without a clue."

"That means he won't be expecting us to be his opponents if he does make a move," said Pantherlily.

"Well, that's something, I suppose," Kingsley tapped his chin.

"All of that is true," a low voice drew everyone's attention to Mavis, who was sitting above the fireplace with her eyes closed and apparently in deep thought. "But we must not be so quick to assume that that will give us a total advantage. I know very little about this Dark Lord we are facing, but I calculate that when he learns of our existence he will start taking steps to try and counter us, even if he does not expect to need to soon. And we must not assume that just because we are powerful that it will go all our own way."

"That would be a grave mistake to make, certainly," Gildarts nodded. "You should never underestimate an opponent, even ones that physically look like they couldn't crush a beetle if they stepped on it."

"Yes, but its more than that," Mavis slowly opened her eyes. "One thing I have foreseen of this world's magic is that it is extremely diverse. More so than our own, I would say. We can certainly do many things with out own individual branches of magic, but ultimately we are still limited in what each of us can do. Gray, for instance, may be an expert with Ice Moulding Magic, but our opponents could throw potentially anything at us. And today has proven that their magic does have an effect on you. They succeeded in knocking Gajeel out, after all."

Gajeel grimaced slightly and Levy flinched, a guilty rush passing through her since she knew that had been her fault for distracting him in the middle of a battle.

"It may have taken three of the same spell to actually do it," Mavis went on. "But they still succeeded. And as I said, its likely they'll be trying to prepare for us next time - both the Ministry and the Death Eaters. Are we more powerful? Maybe. But that doesn't mean we should just assume we will win."

"Then do you have an suggestions on how to proceed, Master Mavis?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course," Mavis smiled. "We must learn. The magic of this world may be diverse but any spell of it can be learnt by anyone. Meaning that if we learn all that we can about this world's magic, we will gain a better understanding of what might be used against us. Our magic will remain a mystery to the enemy until we reveal it to them. But the same cannot be said for the other way around."

"Sounds like you're up then, Levy," Lisanna nudged the small bluenette. "You wanted to do some research. This sounds like a good way of putting those glasses of yours to good use."

"I'll get on it straight away," Levy beamed.

"An excellent suggestion," Dumbledore nodded. "And perhaps one or two of us could help out in that regard. Remus, Alastor… I don't suppose either of you would be willing to take up the title of Professor again? Only this time for a select and rather unique group of students.

"I would be delighted," Remus nodded.

Moody shrugged lopsidedly. "Might be good to actually get to do some teaching during the time I possess that title."

"Good," Dumbledore nodded. "Now, onto other matters. Some of you are already aware of this, but a rather specific Prophecy was just invoked by my faithful Divination teacher this morning. One that you may all be most interested in hearing."

When Dumbledore outlined exactly what Trelawney had said, a hush fell over the table. Not one of them liked the sound of any of it. Not in the tiniest bit.

"Well… from the looks of things… it sounds as though we may soon be needing you Fairy Tail members quite soon," Arthur grimaced.

"We sure about that?" a voice none of the Fairy Tail group recognised, and everyone turned to face a man at the corner of the table. A rather unkempt, short man with straggly ginger hair and bloodshot sunken eyes. "Sounds to me like this lot might be more trouble than they're worth."

"Oh? And what do you mean by that, Mundungus?" Dumbledore asked, peering over his glasses at the unshaven man. "Do enlighten us."

"Well, seems to me like how do we know this here Fairy Tail bunch might not turn against us?" Mundungus Fletcher asked. "This new prophecy thingie that only comes about when they arrive in our world? Talk of all this destruction and ancient magic and stuff? Doesn't sound very well like You-Know-Who to me. When he was last active fifteen years ago he had us all cowering in fear under our beds sure but this? Skies burning and all that? Sounds like the bleeding end of the world to me. Sounds more like something Fairy Tail's capable of."

"Are you suggesting that these… most of them are children, Mundungus!" Molly gasped. "You cannot possibly be saying that they would willingly side themselves with the Dark Lord."

"They might do," Mundungus countered. "What if he was to promise them to get them back to their own world or something at the end of it? Everyone has a price after all."

"And you'd know that better than most, wouldn't you?" Molly snapped at him. "You're one to talk about whether we can trust someone or not. He who skips out on his guard duty to buy a bunch of stolen cauldrons."

"Nevertheless," Dumbledore interrupted before the argument could come any more heated. "Mundungus does raise a valid point. Yet I am certain that Fairy Tail will not turn against us willingly. Remember, Mundungus, I have seen more into their lives that you. And I guarantee you, this guild is not the kind that raises bad people."

"Got that right," Gildarts chuckled and Mavis practically glowed with pride.

"But, just to assuage suspicions that may have arisen at that accusation, what would you do if Voldemort offered you a way home?" Dumbledore asked.

"Turn him down of course," Lisanna said immediately.

"That's right," Wendy nodded. "We might want to go home but we'd never sell out a single person to do it, let alone an entire world."

"Besides, who would trust a person with the title of Dark Lord to honour their word in the end anyway?" Charla scoffed. "We'd have to be utter idiots."

That generated a few laughs from around the table before Mavis added, "And for those of you concerned that we'll go off and smash our way through something without your consent in the near future, don't worry. We've resolved to work a little more closely with you in the near future rather than swan off to do our own thing. Unless we feel the situation requires immediate intervention with no possible delays of course."

"There. Is everyone satisfied?" Dumbledore asked.

After a little nodding, Kingsley suddenly raised his voice. "Speaking of… prophecies though. There is one other rather important piece of news that we should discuss. And that is that our… guard duty assignments in the corridor outside the Department of Mysteries… is no longer needed."

That set the table abuzz but led to nothing but confused frowns from all of the Fairy Tail members.

"No longer needed?" Bill Weasley asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean… that we needn't bother anymore. The prophecy that we were guarding… isn't there anymore. It was smashed. Along with most of them other prophecies in the entire hall… when Gildarts ploughed his way through the floor and the ceiling in one big go."

Now there was more than a buzz, now there was a hubbub, with many people trying to get their opinions heard at once. But it was Gajeel's voice that rose above the din as he asked, "What the bloody hell are you talking about? How can you smash a prophecy?"

"You can smash a record of a prophecy," replied Dumbledore, who looked rather grave at this news. "Whenever a prophecy is made in this world, a record of it is magically stashed inside a glass ball in a specific room of the Department of Mysteries… one which Gildarts has apparently destroyed. This particular prophecy depicted, shall we say, the potential fall of Lord Voldemort. But Voldemort does not know how the entire prophecy goes, so we were secretly guarding the record, hoping to make sure it stayed out of his hands, for if he learned what it said he might try and find ways to make sure he did not fall."

"Why not just destroy it yourselves?" Gildarts asked.

"I had my reasons for wanting it kept intact. And we could not steal it either because they can only be taken off the shelves by those they are about, such as Lord Voldemort himself in this case. Still, what's done is done and Voldemort can never get his hands on that prophecy."

"He's not going to be happy," Sirius chuckled.

"Sorry…" Gildarts rubbed his arm. "It was not my intent to damage anything valuable."

"I do not blame you for it, yet this changes the situation a little."

"What about that prophecy that was made this morning then?" Juvia asked.

"Good question. It will most likely have already been recorded if there are any intact empty glass balls left in the Halls of Prophecy. But that prophecy is not about Lord Voldemort or any of his followers specifically, so most likely it could only be retrieved by one of you."

"Meaning we don't have to guard that one now," Arthur sighed. "Well, that's a weight off all our minds I'm sure."

"So what did this prophecy say about Voldemort's fall?" Mavis asked.

That caused a hush over the table, as Dumbledore had not told any of the Order members exactly what the prophecy said either.

"That… is something of a delicate matter," Dumbledore replied slowly. "But I can certainly tell you one thing. This new prophecy featuring you Fairy Tail members does not negate the old one. Which means… no matter how much you help, no matter how much you try, none of you will be the ones to finally take Voldemort down. No… that job… remains in the hands of those from our universe."

Or one in particular, Dumbledore thought. With the prophecy record gone, the only way that anyone would learn of its contents was if he told them what it was. That's why he'd wanted to keep the prophecy intact and out of Voldemort's hands - just in case something happened to him and he could not pass on the message to the one who eventually needed to hear it. Because there was one other that would eventually need to know what the prophecy entailed. One other who could have removed it from the shelf.

But… Dumbledore wasn't certain that person was ready for the information just yet.

Harry couldn't sleep. His mind was too full of the events of the day. The prophecy at breakfast that morning had been shock enough, but it hadn't exactly calmed down as the day had gone by. He'd gone and landed himself an extra detention with Umbridge after lashing out in the Care of Magical Creatures inspection at the Slytherins attempts to undermine Hagrid even though the half-giant wasn't even there, though he'd also watched McGonagall put Umbridge firmly in her place in the Transfiguration inspection later.

But it was what had happened that evening that was really keeping him up. Hermione's suggestion.

The one where he, of all people, would teach Defence Against the Dark Arts to other students.

The idea seemed utterly ludicrous to Harry and when both Hermione and Ron had insisted that it was a good idea, he'd gotten angry and lashed out, annoyed that they were both making him sound like some kind of great hero when he was really just an extremely lucky fifth year schoolboy. He'd yelled a lot of things he shouldn't have and now he was annoyed at himself. He seemed to be doing a lot of lashing out recently.

But now he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Hermione was right about many things. Umbridge wasn't helping them to prepare for the fight in the way they desperately needed to, and they definitely needed to do something to make sure her attempts to sabotage their learning were circumvented. Especially in light of that prophecy and the stuff that was apparently on the horizon. Harry couldn't even remember half of it and what he could remember made no sense but… yeah… it sounded bad.

But him… teach Defence Against the Dark Arts? It was just… mental… wasn't it? It was certainly true that he knew more about it than most beginning fifth year students because he'd had to learn fast for the Triwizard Tournament last year but still… what would he do? What would he say? How the hell would he go about it? He wasn't qualified to teach anything to anyone and yet both Ron and Hermione seemed to think he didn't need to be.

He just couldn't make up his mind.

Still, eventually tiredness won out and despite his overwhelming thoughts, Ron's snoring and the throbbing in the back of his hand from yet another painful session with Umbridge, he eventually drifted off…

"WHAT!?" Harry screeched in a cold voice that practically split his own ears. "Say… that… again, Lucius…"

He was standing in a darkened room, illuminated only by the eerie flickering of multiple candles and he was slowly striding forwards. The familiar long, blond-haired figure of Lucius Malfoy was backing away from him as he advanced, stuttering out his next words.

"I… it… it was unfortunate, my Lord," he stammered. "But there was nothing I, or anyone, could have done to prevent it."

"The prophecy was destroyed, you say?" Harry hissed. "You realise what that means, Lucius? You remember, don't you, how eager I was to get my hands on it. To finally learn all its secrets. Secrets which are now forever lost to me if what you say is true."

"I am sorry for your loss, my Lord, truly I am, but it was not my doing."

"Oh, I believe you," Harry swept around him, slowly circling the slightly trembling man and slowly drawing out a wand from the sleeve of his dark robe, clutching one end in his long-fingered, almost skeletal hand. "I know that you would never be foolish enough to break such a thing even if I had not wanted it. Oh no… but tell my Lucius, if it was not you, then who was it?"

"It… it was a stranger, my lord. A man that I've never encountered before. A man like nothing anyone has ever encountered before."

"What are you saying?" Harry hissed. "You have better start making sense soon, Lucius, or I might just… lose… my… patience."

"But my lord… if I tell you… you will likely not believe me."

"…Is that so?" Harry whipped around until he was standing right in front of Lucius, fixing his eyes with the Malfoy father's own and almost seeming to transfix him on the spot, staring at him in the face like a terrified rabbit standing in front of onrushing car headlights. "Well then… if whatever you have to say is so fantastical, then I suppose I'll take the direct route to finding out shall I?"

Lucius screamed as Harry almost seemed to dive at him, his conscious plunging right into Lucius head… no… into his mind. And suddenly a blur of images flashed by his consciousness at once. Images of a bright sphere fading away, and a tall cloaked man and a blue-haired girl emerging and claiming to be from a guild called Fairy Tail. Images of the girl claiming under Veritaserum that she was from another world with different magic. Images of the man smashing an entire wall in as if it was nothing to rescue the girl from Dementors and pull her out of there. And images of the devastation the man had left in his wake, and of Lucius receiving the news that more people with strange magic had broken into the Ministry to help them escape.

And then, suddenly, Harry was back in his own body and Lucius was on his hands and knees, gasping for breath and clutching at his head. Harry was silent for a few moments before he murmured, "…Interesting."

"You… saw all you need to see, my Lord?" Lucius wheezed.

"Indeed… and you are right, Lucius. Had you told me of that beforehand I would have assumed you had lost your senses. But… people from another world? With such powerful magic at their disposal… how intriguing…"

"And it was them that destroyed the entire Prophecy room, my lord," Lucius said as he scrambled to his feet, looking extremely dishevelled.

Another spike of anger seemed to pierce its way through Harry's brain. "Indeed," he growled. "A severe blow. Now I may likely never know the full contents of the prophecy. But there is nothing that can be done about that now. We must now alter our plans. And this… Fairy Tail… may have added an interesting new aspect to the game."

"What do you mean, my Lord?" Lucius asked as Harry strode out the room, the Malfoy patriarch scurrying along behind him like an obedient House Elf.

"Perhaps. Just perhaps, we can use this Fairy Tail to our advantage," Harry smiled, more to himself than to Lucius as they walked down a short corridor and made their way into another, larger room, from which a faint glow was emanating. "After all… it seems as though I already have a couple of their pieces on my board."

And both he and Lucius stared upon the two, glowing Spheres emblazoned with the Fairy Tail mark that lay just beyond the door…

Harry shot up so fast that he fell right off the side of the bed, almost ripping the curtains off the four-poster and landing on the floor with a loud whump that caused Ron to snort and turn over in his sleep and what sounded like Dean to murmur, "Huh… whuzzhapnnin?"

But Harry didn't care… all he could do was sit there, panting for breath and eyes wide, wondering what the hell it was exactly that he had just seen.