Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

by Fergus Flamacron

Six years after the attack by Acnologia, a catastrophic event leads the entire island of Tenroujima and everyone on it to be flung headfirst into another world. A world with different people, different magic and different threats. What happens when Dragon Slayers meet with the Boy Who Lived? Pairings mostly, but not entirely, the same as canon. DISCONTINUED

42. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 42:- Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

---

"So we're seriously going to just sit back and trust them all?" Zacharias Smith glowered in the Hufflepuff Common Room that evening. "We're not even going to question all of this?"

"Seems to me like you've already done plenty of questioning of it," Ernie replied with a distasteful expression. He and the rest of the Hufflepuff DA members had congregated together in one corner to converse in hushed tones about the overwhelming amount of information that had been dumped on them earlier. Each one of them was still having difficulty processing it all, with the possible exception of Susan Bones who just had to contend with the fact that Sirius Black was apparently innocent.

"I'm just saying," Smith snorted. "We still don't have any actual solid proof that what they're saying is true."

"Other than the fact we all just had a lovely conversation with them?" Hannah shook her head. "No, I believe what Harry's saying. I believe that they're not the enemy."

"It's naive to just trust them based on first impressions," Zacharias countered. "Sure they seemed friendly enough but we've got to take everything we hear with a pinch of salt. They just brought in Sirius Black for crying out loud. What if he decides to murder all of us in our beds?"

"Well for starters how would he get into our Common Room?" Ernie asked.

"Hello? He's in the freaking Room of Requirement. They could probably make a tunnel from there to here and utterly bypass the password-protected entrance if they wanted to."

"Hey, that's a good idea," Justin said. "Let's suggest that to Harry in the morning - it would save us having to sneak around the castle to get to the next DA meeting if we could do that."

"What's your problem anyway, Zach?" Susan glared at him sternly, almost mimicking her aunt with her demeanour. "Why are you so determined to believe the worst of Harry and his friends? You don't believe anything they say to you and all they're doing is trying to prepare us for what's out there. You should be grateful to Harry, not sneering at him all the time and questioning his every move."

"All the papers say he's a liar," Zacharias pointed out.

"All the papers say that Fairy Tail are maniacal lunatics with god complexes," Ernie chided him. "But that's not what I saw today - I saw a bunch of people that are very grounded considering the power that they wield. Not a single one of them I spoke to was even slightly arrogant about how much stronger they were than us. And besides, I seem to recall the papers saying that Cedric Diggory died in a tragic accident, but we all know that's not true, is it? You all saw his body when Harry appeared with it last year - he was a bit bruised and battered but he didn't have a single injury that could have been fatal. It had to be a Killing Curse that killed him. There's no other explanation."

That quietened down the whole group, even Zacharias' face falling at the memory of their fallen House Champion. All of them had resented Harry for getting into the Triwizard Tournament, believing he was trying to take the attention away from their house. Now that they knew Harry had been forced into competing with the aim of bringing Voldemort back, most of them felt extremely guilty for doing so.

"…But how do we know that Potter wasn't the one who cast the Killing Curse?" Zacharias suddenly said.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Justin shouted, loud enough to draw the attention of most of the room. He had to wait until they'd gone back to what they were doing before he continued. "Look, you suspicious idiot, I seem to recall there was a time where pretty much everyone in the school thought that Harry was evil. Especially me when he spoke in Parseltongue to that snake coming towards me. But we know it wasn't him now. He killed the Basilisk that almost killed me. He fought off over one-hundred Dementors. He stopped You-Know-Who from getting the Philosopher's Stone. He's done heroic things you can only daydream about doing yourself and you still think this badly of him?"

"I just think its a pretty big coincidence that he only ever seems to do this stuff when nobody else is around to see it," Zacharias glowered as he stood up and walked away without saying another word. The other four watched him go sourly, each of them wondering how such a nasty prick had ended up in Hufflepuff and not Slytherin.

"We're going to have to keep an eye on him," Susan said. "I think most of the DA is willing to listen to reason and keep their promises not to tell anybody but of all of us, he's probably the biggest risk."

"Agreed," Ernie said, puffing out his chest a little importantly. "Justin and I will make sure he stays quiet. And if it looks like he's going to blab… we'll think of something."

"Maybe we should start learning how to do Memory Charms," Hannah suggested. "Just in case we need to make him forget all about the DA and Fairy Tail."

"Good idea," Susan nodded, before she suddenly grinned. "But on another note… who else is looking forward to our next DA meeting?"

"Definitely me," Hannah beamed. "I want to see what Fairy Tail can do."

"Don't we all?" Justin laughed.

---

The DA members of the Ravenclaw common room were having a similar discussion, though there were slightly more of them and they were accompanied by Pantherlily, who was taking up his usual vigil alongside Luna. Mavis had altered the illusion around him now so that all DA members could also see him for what he really looked like as opposed to normal looking grizzled black cat that everyone else saw.

"It's just so fascinating isn't it?" Padma Patil was saying. "A whole other universe out there that nobody's ever heard of until recently and we're among the very first people on our world to get a chance to talk one-on-one with people from it."

"We're still quite far down the list though," Terry pointed out. "There's got to be at least… twenty to thirty people that got a chance to speak with them before us."

"Well yeah but considering how many people there are in our world, that's high up the list from my perspective," Padma shrugged.

"Can you imagine how cool it would be to explore their world?" Anthony Goldstein grinned. "I mean, it might not be unexplored territory for the local but it would be for people in our world. It'd be like… a jungle expedition where there are still people who've never seen a white man, except in their world we'd probably be able to blend in with a crowd pretty well."

"Perhaps you'd be interested to know," Pantherlily chuckled in a low voice. "That I'm not actually from the same universe as Fairy Tail. I'm from yet another one."

"You are!?" Michael Corner gasped. "But I thought you came to this world with Fairy Tail."

"I did. I live in their world, but I'm not from there. Exceed aren't native to their Earthland. We come from a place called Edolas."

"No way!" Anthony beamed. "You have to tell us about it! Everything that you can, please do tell us."

"Well there's quite a lot to tell," Lily shrugged. "Where would you like me to begin?"

"Perhaps you could start by telling us about its animals," Luna smiled. "My father would be very interested to hear about what kinds of exotic fauna could be found in another world. If there are humans in your worlds too then are there perhaps any Crumple Horned Snorkacks?"

"…Not that I'm aware of but I can tell you about Legions. Huge, winged creatures that look like crosses between small dragons and massive bats."

It seemed that the natural curiosity of Ravenclaws was enough to overwhelm any suspicions they might have for the group. With one notable exception - Marietta Edgecombe was still looking at Pantherlily like he was an alien… which he kinda was. Not a dangerous alien per se… it was more like she had just met E.T. for the first time and wasn't really sure what the heck to make of him.

She was particularly mindful of the fact this cat had apparently spent the evening terrifying Umbridge and that frightened her in turn.

A fact that Cho Chang was easily able to pick up on.

"What are you thinking, Marietta?" she asked. "Are you still worried about your mother?"

"Well, how can I not be?" Marietta fretted, loudly enough to draw the attention of the rest of the group. "What am I supposed to do? Umbridge could end my mother's career in an instant. What would happen if she somehow found out that I knew what this invisible werewolf that's stalking her really is and I said nothing to her?"

"You shouldn't worry too much about possibilities," Luna said vaguely. "There are so many of them that we'd never get anywhere if we tried to think through them all. We should just do what we feel needs to be done."

"What do you know?" Marietta snapped at her.

"My father posts articles in his magazine that he knows will make many people judge him," Luna said simply. "That they might think he's crazy or delusional… but he publishes them anyway because he thinks people deserve to know things that the Daily Prophet won't tell them. He does what he thinks is right. Regardless of the consequences."

The Ravenclaws stared at Luna in surprise. Most of things Luna said and did were often… a bit strange, to say the least. And they'd all read The Quibbler at least once so they were well aware it was usually full of complete baloney, or sometimes things that had a grain of truth but were hopelessly misinformed. And they were all well aware of the fact that Luna believed in a lot of things which… just weren't true.

But in spite of all that, she was actually quite insightful when she wanted to be.

"She's right," Cho said, looking to her friend and placing a hand over the top of Marietta's own. "We have to do this, Mari. We have to because… because…" a lump appeared in her throat and she stopped talking. Like the Hufflepuffs, she was remembered Cedric at this moment, and the fact Umbridge and the Ministry were not willing to admit the truth behind his death filled her with bile.

"Think of it this way, Miss Edgecombe," Pantherlily said. "Power is a dangerous thing in the hands of the wrong people… and this Umbridge definitely counts at the wrong people. If our plan works we may be able to unseat her from her power and if that happens she will no longer hold any sway over your mother. But that's only if she doesn't learn the truth about the invisible werewolf. You want to help your mother? That's good. You can start by helping me."

Marietta was silent for a good minute, under the watchful eyes of the rest of the group.

"You really think that you can bring her down just by haunting her?" she eventually said.

"It's a work in progress, but I believe this is the first stage, yes."

"What's the second stage?"

"Probably pushing her into making some serious, and preferably public, mistakes. I'll tell you when we come up with it, but everything relies on her not finding out about what we're doing. Or about Fairy Tail's alliance with the Order and the DA. Are you okay with that?"

"…I still don't like it," Marietta whispered. "But… I agree. She is a horrible… evil woman."

"Anyone who could do that thing to Harry's hand… or anyone's hand… is evil," Cho agreed.

"If you really think that you can get her out of office…" Marietta whispered. "Then… I promise I won't say anything. But please… get her out of here as fast as you can."

"Will do," Pantherlily smirked. "Now… I believe I was telling you all about Legions."

---

The fighting that had broken out in the Room of Requirement had actually been one of the longer ones. After all, some of the Fairy Tail members had a few week's worth of punching and kicking at each other to make up for. But eventually it had died down and despite a few large bruises and welts across their skin, none of them looked too worse for wear. Nothing a little of Wendy's healing magic couldn't fix up instantly.

Now they were starting to make themselves more at home in their new quarters. Some of the girls had gone to have a bath - which hadn't been that easy at Grimmauld Place given there was only one bath and a large number of people to share it with whereas here there was a much more communal tub like the one from Fairy Hills. Some of the guys had gone to select their beds, which almost led to another fight breaking out between Gray and Gajeel as they both wanted the one on the far side. In the end it was rendered pointless because both of them decided they'd be staying the night elsewhere anyway.

Lucy lamented that there were no windows anywhere in this place, but that was hardly surprising. They needed a place where nobody could find them after all, and if there was a window then there was a risk, however small, that someone on a broomstick might be able to spot them through it.

But for the other Gryffindors it was getting late. It was almost time for them to head to bed but before they left… they had one more surprise in store when suddenly Dumbledore strode into the room, flanked by Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape.

"Ah, quite marvellous. Quite marvellous indeed," Dumbledore smiled brightly as he looked around the room. "I hope that this castle never ceases to amaze me with its newfound secrets. My time as Headmaster would be made considerably more dull if my school building happened to be the same every day."

"Professor," Hermione squeaked. "What… what are you doing here?"

"I invited them," Sirius said. "Soon as I heard about the Room I thought it would be good for them to come and see it for themselves."

"He is after all the Head of the Order and this school both," Lupin pointed out. "If Fairy Tail is to stay here then he ought to know."

"But… what about…?" Hermione fretted, a clear terror grasping her heart at the thought of what the Headmaster would make of their illegal Defence Against the Dark Arts group.

"I refuse to believe that any of my students could know about this room," Dumbledore gave Hermione a poignant stare, a slightly mischievous glint at the back of his pupils. "It is a complete coincidence that happened upon this room and I am certain I will forget all about it once I leave. Old age does start to affect the memory after all."

"…Thanks…" Harry said dumbly, a collective sigh of relief passing through the group.

"I'll be honest here, Mr. Potter," McGonagall walked up to him sternly. "I am not sure what to make of this. It is a serious breach of the rules and I ought to give you a detention every night for the rest of the year… and I have to admit… I'm rather proud all the same. Do keep me informed on the progress of your students if you can."

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said, his legs feeling a bit like jelly.

"Let us hope…" Snape said slowly, peering down his nose at Harry. "That this illicit activity doesn't… subject you to the supposed curse placed upon the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. It would be… a travesty… if something were to happen to you, Mr. Potter. Truly it would."

Harry scowled, unimpressed by Snape's attempt to rattle him even though it worked ever so slightly. He'd never even considered that. To be honest he didn't really believe it was cursed but that would seriously suck if it did. Though then again, if that got Umbridge out by the end of the year then he wouldn't need to keep teaching into the next one.

"Then we have your permission to stay here, Headmaster?" Erza asked, taking up a mantle of leadership amongst the Fairies despite the fact she'd already requipped into her her pyjamas.

"You do," Dumbledore nodded warmly. "I can't say I condone your decision to let a bunch of my students know about you… and most especially about you, Sirius," he turned and gave the Animagus a stare that could have melted wood for a moment. "But, as I told Mavis some time ago, I will not presume to try and control you. The decisions on how Fairy Tail conducts its business are entirely your own as long as they do not end up being detrimental to the Order, which I hope will not be the case here. However… that is not the main reason I came here. Harry?"

"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked quickly.

Now Dumbledore's tone became much more serious, a grave look falling over his face that made him look even older than usual. "Tell me everything you can about that dream you had last night."

"Dream?" Ginny blinked. "What dream?"

"Did it happen again?" Ron pressed with immediate interest. "Did you see what You-Know-Who was doing? And hey, why didn't you mention it before?"

"'Cause I didn't want you to worry until after the first meeting," Harry murmured. "Yeah… I saw Voldemort. I saw his Death Eaters. But I also saw… or rather heard… a lot more than that."

By the time he'd finished telling them about Voldemort's altercation with Morgana, Ron had gone as white as chalk. As had Ginny and both the Weasley twins. Hermione and Snape both looked sceptical but very alarmed, while McGonagall just looked alarmed. Dumbledore himself gave nothing away, standing back and taking a deep breath. He didn't question whether Harry was sure he'd heard the name right. He had every confidence that Harry had made no mistake.

"Morgana Pendragon," he said slowly. "That's a name that I never thought would cause concerns in my future."

"But she can't be alive," McGonagall swallowed. "It's impossible… she died over one and a half thousand years ago - nobody lives for that long."

"We know someone who's been alive for at least four hundred years," Erza stated sombrely. "If Zeref's reign had been one and a half thousand years ago in our world, perhaps he would still be alive after that too. Who's to say this Morgana isn't the same."

"And an explanation was given as to how she could still be alive in the dream itself," Dumbledore murmured.

"But… but Morgan Le Fay?" Ron gasped, his throat constricting slightly and feeling uncomfortably dry. "THE Morgan Le Fay? The same woman who briefly managed to overthrow the King and unleashed all kinds of horrors upon the entire country?"

"Is she really all that bad?" Natsu asked from where he was sitting on the floor nearby.

"She's worse," Ginny replied. "Every witch and wizard born into a magical family grows up on stories of her. There isn't a child in a Pureblood family who doesn't lie away at night sometimes, staring at the door as if expecting her to come through it at any moment. If the Ministry doesn't want to admit that Voldemort's returned, what are they going to think if they're told Morgana Pendragon might be alive too?"

"I think it's fair to say that people are more afraid of Voldemort than Morgana in this time period," Sirius said. "But that's only because Voldemort is a much more recent threat. If Morgana really did return… people might actually start using Voldemort's name again just so they can refer to her as You-Know-Who instead."

"But how do you know she's so terrible anyway?" Natsu pressed. "If all you've got is stories… how can you be sure she's that much of a threat?"

"He's got a point," Gray nodded. "In our world we still have physical proof of how strong Zeref was even four-hundred years later. The demons he made still sometimes break loose and tear through towns and villages alike. Does Morgana have anything like that still around today?"

"…Well… no…" McGonagall murmured. "She does not."

"Then how can you know for certain?" Gray asked.

"Yeah. Besides, when I met Zeref… the guy was weird," Natsu murmured. "He didn't… seem… like the bad guy everyone was always telling me he was."

"Aye… he cried and ran away after killing a bunch of trees with his magic," Happy agreed. "He didn't really look evil at all."

"But in my dream," Harry said. "That guy Rustyrose told Voldemort that he'd appeared on their ship just before the dragon attack and murdered this… Master Hades, I think it was… in an instant flat."

"Wha…!?" Natsu gaped in alarm, as did most of the other Fairies there. "Master Hades…? He's dead?"

"That's what I heard," Harry shrugged.

"A man that powerful… killed instantly…" Erza whispered. "We were barely able to defeat him even with the help of a few lucky turns of events and the combined efforts of myself, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Wendy and Laxus, all of us using all the power we had. Granted he was quite beaten up when Zeref came across him but still to die so fast…"

There was a solemn silence throughout the room as the Fairies digested this news. Hovering nearby, Mavis bit her lip and turned to stare blankly at the wall, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes but quickly wiping them away before anyone could see them.

"Anyway, like I was saying," Natsu shook his head. "We know how powerful Zeref is. Are you certain that Morgana is as strong as all the stories say?"

"We really do only have stories, many of which may not even be true," Moody conceded. "But if some of them are… they claim she was the most powerful sorceress to ever live in our world by a considerable margin."

"And that is true."

Everyone turned to look at Lisanna, who had been the one to speak having emerged from the bathroom with a towel a few minutes ago in preparation to head to the bath (which the girls felt comfortable using even with all the boys there because the boys couldn't actually open the door - they'd made them try).

"Excuse me?" McGonagall stared at her.

"It's true that Morgana is the most powerful sorceress from this world ever," Lisanna repeated.

"And how would you know this?" Snape asked her sceptically.

"Kilgharrah," Lisanna replied. "The dragon who gave me my Dragon Soul. He was around in the time of Merlin and Morgana - he told me he knew Merlin personally. And he told me that while most of the stories about Morgana are not true, such as the one about her having a child with King Arthur - apparently that never happened, she was definitely the most powerful sorceress ever."

This wasn't actually true - Kilgharrah had never even mentioned Morgana when Lisanna had spoken to him. But Lisanna had just been told a few minutes ago by Igneel. Her telepathy was not strong enough to reach Kilgharrah wherever he was, but the dragons themselves were still in contact with him and exchanging information which they were passing on to her now.

Kilgharrah also says that Merlin did indeed banish her from time and space within the Crystal Cave after the Battle of Camlann when King Arthur died despite his insistence that he should kill her and be done with it, Igneel reported to her. And he can sense a stirring within the Old Religion. A stirring which indicates that Morgana may definitely be close to retuning.

Bloody evil nemesises, Metalicana grunted. Acnologia, Zeref, this Morgana woman, that Voldemort guy… no matter what universe they're from they just refuse to die, don't they?

Technically the plural for nemesis is nemeses, Grandine said.

Really? You're correcting my grammar now?

Lisanna didn't report this part, unable to think of a way of saying it that wouldn't sound suspicious as to how she knew so much, but her words had an impact on her audience nevertheless.

"Well… looks like we might have a whole bucketload of new problems to look forward to," Tonks said dryly.

"Yes…" Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Finding Voldemort has become more important than ever. If we can find him then perhaps we can find a way to stop Morgana, if she is indeed about to rise once more. Which seems unfortunately likely… given how accurate Harry's dreams have been so far."

He gave Harry a bizarre look as if he was trying to look inside him. It was a look that made Harry extraordinarily uncomfortable and raised a question he hadn't really been asking that hard until now? Why did he have dreams of what Voldemort was doing? He'd taken it pretty much for granted for a while… after all there had to be some magical reason and it was certainly a useful skill to have… but why?

He had a feeling that he was not going to like the answer.

---

Needless to say, the destruction of Azkaban and the escape of Sirius and ten high security Death Eaters did not go over well in the wider Wizarding World. Mass hysteria was beginning to break out all over the place, with people wondering if their houses would be the next on Fairy Tail's list of targets after the Malfoy Manor… and whether they'd be as lucky as the Malfoys when it came to escaping with their lives.

It was felt to a much lesser extent at Hogwarts, where most of the students still felt relatively safe behind the wards, but people were still jumpy and they usually only travelled together in large groups as if that would somehow help them if a Death Eater appeared around the corner. The grounds were empty when they would normally be filled with students attempting to enjoy the last of the sunshine before the winter set in. And students tore into their letters the next morning, desperate to hear that their families were safe for another day.

The effects were felt a little more at the Ministry. A huge crowd of scared witches and wizards amassed in the Atrium, demanding to see Fudge and hear what he was planning to do about all this. The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes were working double time across the country to sort out incidents where an unfortunate Muggle had been hit with a nasty hex because they'd been mistaken for a Death Eater or Fairy Tail mage by a panicked wizard or witch. And the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was also kept busy dealing with a few duels that broke out across the country and a few nasty counterfeit protective items that had sprung up out of nowhere, con artists being very quick to take advantage of everyone's fear.

For that reason, Scrimgeour was unable to attend to the meeting he'd asked for Kingsley and Tonks to arrange between himself, Dumbledore and someone from Fairy Tail until a couple of days later. When he could finally break away he brought Gawain Robards with him. But Dumbledore had not been keen on the idea of letting the Head of the Auror Office into Grimmauld Place just yet so Kingsley had arranged for the meeting to take place at the Hog's Head.

When Scrimgeour arrived he was met by Dumbledore and McGonagall, as well as Lucy and Levy. These two girls were the ones that Scrimgeour had had the most communication with so it made sense for them to be there. Gildarts was also standing in the corner, and when Gawain spotted him he immediately bowed his head in respect.

"I never got a chance to properly thank you for saving my life," he said gruffly. "That monster you fought killed my team. If it hadn't been for you I would probably be rotting at the bottom of the ocean by now."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for your team," Gildarts replied sombrely. "But I least I could be there for one of you. But that monster is still out there somewhere… and I'll make sure he's held accountable for his actions, sooner or later."

"There are many monsters out there which are being overlooked in favour of needlessly pursuing you lot," Scrimgeour sighed. "Sadly the public are very much under the belief that you are the enemy and Fudge really isn't handling this well. At the very least he should be making sure the press think he's got everything under control rather than simply scaring them."

"To be fair, I'm not entirely certain how he could convince anyone that he has anything under control whatsoever while still portraying Fairy Tail as the enemy," McGonagall noted. "Tuesday's events must have seemed quite catastrophic from his perspective. And nobody would think anything was under control at all so soon after that."

"Good point," Scrimgeour grunted. "But I, at the very least, am willing to admit that I made a mistake when I went along with the scaremongering. At least there are people like you in the world, Dumbledore, who have some sense about them."

"I would not say I had any more sense than the average wizard," Dumbledore smiled. "I would simply say that I am more willing than most to stop and listen before judging other people or what they are doing. I must admit, had I learned about Fairy Tail in another way I too might have suspected they were alien invaders for a time. I was fortunate to have met a frightened young girl first in that regard."

"The Minister met a frightened young girl too," Scrimgeour pointed out, turning his gaze upon Levy. "And he still treated you like a threat. I must sincerely apologise to you, Miss McGarden."

"That's okay," Levy said quickly, waving her hands earnestly. "It wasn't you who gave the order to set those things on me."

"But I did not object to it either. And yet, without you to open my eyes, perhaps I would still believe that you and your comrades were malicious invaders."

"That's our Levy-chan," Lucy patting the bookworm on the back, causing the bluenette to blush slightly. "It seems she has a knack for winning people over. That's the second time it's happened."

"What was the first time?" Levy asked in bemusement.

"Gajeel of course," Lucy leaned down and smirked into her ear. "Don't think I haven't noticed the way you bring him out of his shell."

"Wha…! What's are you…?" Levy stuttered - why the hell did everyone insist on teasing her about her friendship with Gajeel like this? She shook her head violently, getting rid of the errant thoughts that had started running through and blotting out Lucy's laughter.

"Anyway," Scrimgeour cleared his throat. "I thought I'd like to learn more about what you've been doing from your own mouths. Clearly there are many things going on and the Ministry's intelligence on it is sorely lacking. Shacklebolt and Tonks have filled me in on much of the details, such as the remaining Fairy Spheres dotted about the place. But if the Aurors are going to work around you we need to know all the information you have with regards to our real enemy."

"It seems, rather unfortunately that we're adding to our ever-growing list of enemies," Dumbledore replied. "We've gained some mighty allies in Fairy Tail. But we're gaining some mighty foes as well."

"Tell me everything," Scrimgeour replied. "Let's start with this Grimoire Heart. What do you know about them?"

For the next half hour they talked back and forth, Gawain making notes as Lucy, Levy and Gildarts took turns describing what they knew of the remaining Grimoire Heart members. The three of them had, between them, encountered all the main members that remained given that Zancrow and Hades were dead, Azuma had become a tree and from what Gray and Juvia had said Ultear had defected from their side and Meredy had probably done the same. Gildarts explained in detail everything that he had seen Bluenote do both times that he had encountered the Gravity Mage. Lucy told them about Kain Hikaru, who according to Harry's dream would most likely be showing up at some point in the future. And Levy told them everything she knew about Rustyrose, but she also mentioned the two lieutenants that she and Gajeel had fought against, Yomazu and Kawazu.

"I have no idea if its likely those two will be showing up," she said when she finished. "But they were strong, almost strong enough to make it into the Seven Kin of Purgatory, so we should probably still be on the lookout for them."

"…I'm sorry, can you say that again?" Gawain asked incredulously. "One of our enemies might be a chicken-man who can fire eggs from his beak?"

"…He's tougher than that makes it sound," Levy muttered defensively. "But yes. It's a possibility."

"Regardless of how tough this chicken-man may be," Dumbledore said, "I'm afraid there may be a possibility that Voldemort and Grimoire Heart are not the only enemies we will have to face. Recent… evidence… has come to light that indicates another threat may be about to rise. One from our own world, as a matter of fact."

"…What do you mean?" Scrimgeour asked suspiciously.

So Dumbledore told him.

And the news sent Scrimgeour reeling with a mixture of shock and incredulity.

"Morgana!" he gasped. "Morgana Pendragon! You can't be serious, Dumbledore! You expect me to believe that an ancient sorceress from a century and a half ago is still alive and could rise again at any time?"

"Have I lied to you so far?" Dumbledore pointed out, a question which stopped Scrimgeour in his tracks. "I told you the truth about Voldemort. I am telling you the truth about Fairy Tail. And I am telling you what I know now. I do not say it is fact. The only thing we have to base this on is a dream of Harry's after all. But Harry has been known to have startlingly accurate dreams in the past. As I told you before, I am willing to listen and consider the possibilities, so while I cannot say for certain that Morgana will return I will not be quick to dismiss it entirely. And neither should you."

Leaning back in his chair, Scrimgeour let out one long, slow breath - like he lapsed into momentary meditation in order to digest this news. "I suppose you're right," he conceded. "But Morgana Pendragon… I hope to any God in heaven, to Merlin himself, that what you say isn't true."

"A sentiment everyone familiar with Morgana shares," McGonagall agreed.

"But if it is the case," Gawain said. "Then surely it'll be more important than ever to finally put aside this unnecessary witch-hunt for Fairy Tail. So that we can all work together in fighting the real enemy rather than each other."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Gildarts asked. "I think in the last few weeks we've managed to trash just about all of the most important Wizarding places in this entire country. The Government… twice… the Bank, the Prison… only the School hasn't fallen victim to us yet."

"Not quite true," Dumbledore chuckled. "Wendy did manage to wreck part of our Quidditch stadium when she arrived on our campus. Though we certainly did get off lightly compared to the other places."

"We really haven't been painting a very good picture of ourselves from an outsider's perspective, have we?" Lucy murmured embarrassedly.

"To be fair we… really haven't been doing anything that we don't do in our own world," Levy coughed. "It's a wonder more people there don't resent us for the amount of damage most of us usually leave behind them. The Council there hate us and they're already familiar with guild systems. How are we supposed to ingratiate ourselves to a government that doesn't understand us at all after everything that's happened?"

"I guess the only way is for someone to meet with the Minister and the Wizengamot and make them understand somehow," Scrimgeour replied.

"Yeah, one slight problem with that," Gildarts raised his hand. "If one of us were to meet with the Minister he'd try and arrest us pretty much straight away. And based on prior encounters with him, that is not going to end well for anyone."

"If he tries to arrest us we'll either be forced to resist him and escape, thus causing more damage and lowering our reputation even further," Lucy held up one finger. "Or we turn ourselves in and we'll probably be subjected to any Dementor that's still skulking around the Ministry." She held up another finger.

"I wouldn't recommend that," Scrimgeour shook his head. "The Minister is now talking about subjecting all Fairy Tail members to the Dementor's Kiss upon capture rather than imprisoning you."

"He's what!?" McGonagall cried. "He can't do that, surely!"

"He can. The majority of the Wizengamot is behind him and the terrified populace are calling for it too. Azkaban was our best prison and it was completely demolished. We have no facilities capable of holding your more powerful members since we can't just render you harmless by confiscating a wand like we do with everyone else. They think this is the only way to deal with you now."

"Great," Levy facepalmed in exasperation. "Just great. So what do we do?"

"I have a suggestion, but I'm not sure how well it could work," Scrimgeour said. "What do you know about… what was it…?" he clicked his fingers as he struggled to recall a memory. "The… the world of the… Celestial Spirits? Yeah, that was it."

"The Spirit World?" Lucy asked sharply. "What about it?"

"Oh, so you're familiar with it. Well yes, you must have heard about the way Sirius Black escaped. I'm fully aware that he's innocent now thanks to Shacklebolt and Tonks but he was broken out by a third party that knew he was innocent, and knew you were as well. These… beings from this Spirit World that could appear out of nowhere…"

"Er… let me stop you there," Lucy held up a hand sheepishly. "Sirius Black actually was rescued by Fairy Tail. I guess Kingsley and Tonks forgot to mention this part but the Celestial Spirits are actually my allies."

"Your allies?"

"Yes. I was there that day, in disguise." Lucy held up her pouch of golden and silver keys. "My magic allows me to summon beings from the Spirit World to come and fight at my side. It's an alliance that's been in my world for thousands of years. Celestial Spirit Mages form contracts with the Spirits and the Spirits come to help them when needed. So when Sirius was being rescued, I was surreptitiously summoning them to help out with these keys."

"…Of course!" Scrimgeour gasped. "How did I not realise that? I saw you summon that bull and that girl with the ram horns on Mount Cairngorm. How did I not put two and two together there?"

"Well… I didn't use either of them at the Ministry," Lucy pointed out. "And Loke was careful to tell everyone he wasn't one of us. We didn't want to be implicated because that would give the Ministry another reason to think we're bad guys… though what happened at Azkaban kinda ruined that."

"Loke… he was the one with the cat-like ears who fired light from his hands?"

"That's the one. He's the leader of the Twelve Zodiac Spirits, based on the twelve constellations. His real name is Leo the lion, but he prefers to be called Loke nowadays."

"Well, your attempt not to set the Ministry any more against you there may not have worked but you may have accomplished something else. His statements that You-Know-Who and Pettigrew were alive and that Sirius and Fairy Tail were innocent were heard by a great many people. I don't think anybody really believed him but they still heard him. I'm thinking that if Fairy Tail lays low for a while, he and his fellow Spirits could continue to act as emissaries and insist upon their message. I thought that perhaps their ability to appear out of and disappear into think air regardless of wards would make them ideal candidates as they could escape instantly if the Minister tried to apprehend them, with no need for a fight."

"Do you know, I rather like that idea," Dumbledore mused. "Some of them have powers akin to you mages. Perhaps being presented with friendly faces who do not use violence and present reasonable arguments, who are doing this with no visible benefit to themselves, could get more of the Ministry thinking instead of taking what they're seeing at face value."

"It's a lovely idea but it's not that simple," Lucy bit her lip. "The Spirits can't just show up wherever they want to. They have to appear within the vicinity of their key. The key is their anchor point to this world through which they open their gate."

"…I see…" Scrimgeour mused. "And only you can summon them?"

"Only a Celestial Spirit Mage can yes," Lucy nodded. "Although Loke and Virgo can open their gates under their own power. The other Spirits can't as far as I know but those two can."

"Well then, there's your answer," Scrimgeour said. "If you give their keys to me then I can smuggle them into the Ministry and then those two can appear there to do their emissary work."

Lucy's hand immediately clapped over her keys and she held them close to her chest. "No," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry… but these keys are precious to me. They're the doorways to many of my dearest friends. I don't like giving them out to anyone."

"But this could help your cause. Could help us all if the Spirits can sway the Wizengamot…"

"If the Spirit keys go somewhere then I go with them," Lucy insisted. "I formed a contract with them and I promised to keep their keys safe. I won't risk losing them in the heart of the Ministry."

"…It'll be a lot harder to smuggle you into the Ministry whenever one of them needs to appear there," Scrimgeour pointed out.

"Perhaps you don't need to," Levy tapped her lip. "You could always get the Spirits into the Ministry in the same way you smuggled yourself in last time, Lucy."

"Oh yes!" Lucy brightened immediately. "Of course! Then the keys wouldn't even have to go into the Ministry at all."

"Sorry, what are you talking about?" Scrimgeour asked.

"One of the Spirits, Gemini, has the ability to take on the shape of anyone they touch," Lucy explained. "Unless the person they are trying to copy is more powerful than the mage they have a contract with. In this case, me. When they do successfully copy someone they gain access to all their abilities. And they can transform into the two most recent people they've become any time they like afterwards. So if I was to summon Gemini outside the Ministry, they could transform into a Ministry employee and infiltrate the place, then find somewhere to hide and turn into me, and then they'd be able to summon other Spirits within the Ministry. Then if they need to flee, Gemini could pop back to the Spirit World in an instant just like the other Spirits."

"An ingenious strategy," Dumbledore smiled. "I remember you saying that this particular Spirit can also gain access to all the memories of those they transform into which allows them to play the part perfectly."

"It sounds like it could definitely work," Scrimgeour nodded, tapping his chin in thought.

"The only problem is that I can only summon one Spirit at a time," Lucy said. "Which means that Gemini will also be able to summon only one Spirit at a time so the Wizengamot would only receive single emissaries. That might not be a big deal, but it also means I won't be able to summon any more to help me out if I get into trouble while they're in there."

"Well then," Levy grinned. "I guess you've just got yourself a little more incentive to train yourself to the point where you can open at least two gates at the same time."

"I suppose I have," Lucy clenched her fists, as if pumping herself up to begin training right away. "I'll get stronger, just like everyone else. That I promise you."

"Let's hope that the Spirits can help to pave the way to peace," said Dumbledore.

---

Things began to settle into more of a routine after that. Voldemort and Grimoire Heart were evidently keeping close to the ground just as much as the Fairies. There was no news about them, not even from Snape as the Potion's Master had yet to be contacted again by the Dark Lord, which meant at present nobody could confirm or deny whether the two groups were even still together.

A couple of days after moving into the Room of Requirement, the Portkey cage that had been stolen from the Ministry was used to transport the Fairy Sphere that had been rescued from the Malfoy Manor into the stadium-room. They figured it was a good place to keep it. Certainly better than keeping it outside where they'd have to assign someone to keep an eye on it at all times.

And most importantly of all, things began to get back to normal at Hogwarts as well. Or at least normal as things could be under the circumstances. Everyone from the DA kept quiet about Fairy Tail, though it clearly wasn't easy for some of them, particularly gossips like Parvati and Lavender, but they managed to keep things under wraps.

Dean Thomas was perhaps having the hardest time of hushing it up. He ended up having many conversations about Fairy Tail with Seamus Finnegan, who was still avoiding Harry like the plague but seemed to find the Fairies a particularly fascinating topic. He was constantly wondering what kind of things they could do, what kind of magic they had. And it was frustratingly hard for Dean not to tell him exactly how he could find out for himself.

"Can we not just let him in on the secret?" he asked Harry plaintively one day before breakfast after Seamus had already left the dormitory. "I'm sure he can keep his mouth shut about them too."

But Harry had been obstinate, not to mention grumpy. "Seamus still thinks I'm a liar and that anyone who supports me is mental. What if he finds out I'm being backed by Fairy Tail and takes that as proof as to everything the Daily Prophet's been saying about me and them. What would we do with him then? We shouldn't risk it until he's willing to see the truth for what it is."

Dean had looked strained but finally nodded and let it slide for now.

There were a few other notable differences in the place now. And one of the biggest was Malfoy. He was no longer strutting about the castle like he owned it. In fact, he was rather subdued ever since he found out his house had been wrecked. Hermione theorised that he might actually be worried that Fairy Tail might go after his family again. The Malfoys had many faults but they weren't a dysfunctional family - they did care about each other. It was almost enough to make both Harry and Ron feel sorry for him… but considering the crap he'd put them through since day one they both still felt he'd just been dealt some serious karma.

Apparently Lucius and Narcissa were temporarily staying with Minister Fudge himself. A deal which nobody in the Order or the DA liked the sound of. The last thing they needed was Lucius whispering into Fudge's ear and making him more stubborn than ever.

Another notable change was Umbridge. Just like Malfoy, she wasn't striding about smarmily anymore. But she was much more jumpy, as if expecting something to come charging round the corridor at her at any moment. This was an amusing site to everyone in the DA who knew what was going on - even Zacharias Smith wasn't a fan of hers. Only Marietta seemed worried about it, but she still said nothing.

But even the other students who were not in the DA were picking up on her behaviour and were acting accordingly, occasionally making a loud noise when she was nearby and watching her leap a foot into the air, pretending they'd fallen over or hurt their hand or something like that when she snapped at them for causing a disturbance. Peeves the poltergeist was having immense fun tormenting her and at one point even Professor Sprout pretended she'd pricked her finger on the thorns of a Rupturing Rose just to startle the High Inquisitor during an inspection of one of her lessons.

And throughout it all the Hogwarts populace moved on, totally unaware that up on the seventh floor, Fairy Tail were working hard to build up their strength.

Natsu and Gray were constantly honing their magical skills, the room providing them with anything they needed from old tyres they could use to tie to their waists and drag behind them as they ran. Natsu worked on improving the destruction power of his attacks by repeatedly seeing how much he could damage the walls before they fixed themselves. Gray was often joined by Juvia, the two of them working together to form water and ice into a myriad of different shapes and push their magic slowly and steadily every time. Though Gray usually had to contend with Juvia practically swooning at how well their magic went together and glomping him part way through the session.

Gajeel and Erza would frequently duel with one another, or with Pantherlily whenever he came to visit, each of them determined to get faster and put more power into their blows. Inevitably Erza was usually the winner of their bouts, but every once in a while the other two would catch her off guard and be able to alter the swing of the fight in their favour for a bit before Erza swung it back again.

There was very little that Elfman could do to expand his own magical repertoire, given that the room couldn't exactly provide him with new Beasts to use his Take-Over magic on, so he compensated by working on bulking up his muscles. The room could certainly provide him with weights and training machines which he worked to the max, often doing so in his Beast form so that he could try expanding his magical power at the same time. He claimed he wasn't going to stop until he had arm muscles as thick as basketballs.

Lucy quickly got to work on expanding her own magical potential as promised, summoning Capricorn from the Spirit World to help tutor her as he had apparently done with her mother. She spent most of her time meditating, breathing deeply and letting her magic rise to the surface, pushing at it and releasing it into the air. It was quite exhausting and it frequently left her drained, but even after a couple of days anyone watching could notice a difference, as she was able to hold it for longer.

For others it wasn't so simple. Wendy and Evergreen were both keen to learn more spells that their magic could accomplish but with no books to teach them, and while a mage often learned many new spells based on pure instinct alone a training environment was not the best one for having to rely upon instinct.

Wendy managed to overcome this by tagging along frequently with either Natsu or Gajeel, watching them using their own attacks and then trying to emulate them with her own Sky Dragon spin on it. Gajeel's attacks seemed mostly to be quite specific to the fact he was an Iron Dragon, but she thought that some of Natsu's could probably work well with wind. So she started trying to practice a Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang - Tenryuu no Saiga - hoping that that would work if she practiced it enough.

And Evergreen received a personal tutor in the form of Mavis.

"Do you know much about Fairy Magic?" Evergreen asked when Mavis offered to help her.

"I know a fair amount," Mavis smiled. "I wanted to learn how to use it myself but by the time I found the books on the subject I already learned a different kind of magic so I never got round to it before… well…" she smiled sadly and shook her head. "But never mind. I do know a good deal about various different kinds of fairies from folklore and tales. And from what I know, each prominent Fairy Magic spell ever created allows for a different manipulation of the fairy dust you produce based on a particular aspect of those fairies."

"I currently have two main ones," Evergreen related. "The Fairy Bomb, Gremlin. And the Fairy Machine Gun, Leprechaun."

"Indeed. Gremlins have long been associated with aircraft which is why they have a bomb-based spell. And the bullets produced by the Machine Gun attack are supposed to look like a shower of golden coins, of which the Leprechaun is known for. But there are many other kinds of Fairies out there, all with their own form of attack. For instance, have you ever heard of an Undine?"

"I have," Evergreen nodded. "They're elemental fairies that are associated with water. They're practically all female and supposedly they have no souls but can acquire one by marrying a human man."

"Correct, that's the folklore. But what's most important here is their water attribute. For that reason, the Fairy Spell of the Undine is based around creating a torpedo of dust. A large projectile that can be fired through air or water to explode upon impact. It has less range than the Machine Gun spell, but more power. It's less accurate than the Fairy Bomb spell but works better at range."

"That sounds handy," Evergreen smirked, shrugging off her coat. "So… where do we start?"

---

"Ugh!" Cana cast down her cards in frustration and fell back against the wall, bumping the back of her head against it repeatedly in clear irritation. "Well done, Cana," she muttered. "Well done. You've gone and set yourself an almost impossible task. Develop a new kind of Card Magic, my ass… I need a drink."

"I think that when you're trying to create a new magical type, you really ought to keep your head as clear as possible," Erza said, walking over to stand above the irked brunette. "No Butterbeer for you."

"Ah, come on Erza," Cana pushed herself to her feet. "Just one drink. What would you do if someone tried to cut off your supply of strawberry cake?"

"They wouldn't dare," Erza said immediately, her hand going to her sword as if someone actually was going to try and suggest that. "…Ahem… anyway… have you had any thoughts of any kind?"

"I can have a thousand thoughts but none of them matter without some way of physically transforming the kind of magic I use into something else. Fact is I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I'm not some kind of… magical guru."

"…Hmmm…" Erza tapped her lip thoughtfully. "Well, you've got the Fairy Glitter now. Couldn't you use that as some kind of power source to… transform your magic?"

"I already thought about that, but I don't think that would do very much. At best it would add a light element to all of the spells I already have and make them more powerful, but that would also be very wearing on my body and Mavis told me not to use the spell too much. And it's too specific a spell to really… change… what I'm able to do. It would just add to it really."

"Why exactly do you want to change your Card Magic so much anyway?"

"Because up until this point I've mostly been fighting by throwing out elemental attacks that someone else in Fairy Tail can do better except for a few nifty additional tricks I've got. And I'm through with that. I need to find a way to stand out more besides useful trick every now and then. I need something that'll make me more useful on the front lines."

"I suppose that makes sense… Well then I'm sorry but I really don't know what to do. However," the redhead smirked. "On the subject of nifty tricks, I do have one thing you could try."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Well I wouldn't know how to teach it to you, but I know of a Card based spell which I've never seen you use before. One of my old friends, Shou… he used it on me and on a bunch of other people and it allowed him to… suck an individual person into one of his cards."

"Suck them in?"

"Yes. I suppose it's a little like my Requip magic in that he stored the people inside pocket dimensions, except those pocket dimensions were built within the cards. He could have carried as many people as he had cards around in his pocket if he'd wanted to."

"Huh. You're right, that's not what I'm currently going for but it might be useful," Cana mused, bending down to pick up one card and examining it carefully, turning it over and imagining what it might be like to be trapped inside such a two-dimensional space. "Alright then, I'll set this new branch of magic aside for now and see if I can learn how to do that. Could be useful for sneaking a large group of people into places without being noticed or something like that."

"Indeed," Erza nodded, patting Cana's shoulder. "Learning a new kind of magic is all well and good, but never forget a nifty trick in the right situation can be a lifesaver. So even if you do learn a new kind of magic, don't forget what you already know now because of it."

Cana smiled and nodded, sitting back down and focusing on the card. "So, can I have that Butterbeer now?" she asked.

"No," Erza chuckled and walked away.

---

As with everyone else, Lisanna was trying to learn as much as she could about her own new magic. But for her that didn't mean practicing out the spells right away. The Room had provided her with a number of books about the Old Religion that she could tap into in her Kilgharrah form and she was determined to know as much as she could about it. Not just to help her out but because Morgana was a practitioner of the Old Religion herself, and if she really was at risk of coming back it would do well to learn everything they could about her powers.

It was a sentiment shared by Levy, who was flicking through the books rapidly next to her but still taking more time than usual on each page just to make sure she understood everything. Occasionally she would even read a passage aloud:-

"The High Priestesses of the Old Religion are the main servants of the Triple Goddess, she who presides over all, sees all and knows all. The centre of the Old Religion was upon the Isle of the Blessed, located near the Great Seas of Meredor. This Isle was once a haven for all magical people, who would come from far and wide to receive protection and blessings from the Priestesses during times of need. Many magical artefacts of great power were forged upon the island and kept under the protection of the Priestesses, who in turn were protected by the Blood Guard - warrior Priests sworn to defend them."

"Maybe I should go to this place," Lisanna murmured as she looked up from her own book. "It sounds like learning magic like this is tough. This book's telling me all about how it often took years of study and practice before most got any good with their magic."

"Yeah, but you won't have that problem," Levy pointed out. "You've taken on the shape of a creature naturally gifted with these powers and you've already proven you can use them quite well without any study whatsoever."

"I know but… you know… on some level this almost feels wrong to me," Lisanna sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"This magic, this Old Religion… nobody in this world has practiced it in centuries with the exceptions of a couple of dragons as far as I know. Now somebody is finally learning the art again after thousands of years and its an outsider from another world rather than someone like Harry or Dumbledore. I feel like I'm… almost intruding on their culture. On their history."

"Really? I don't see it that way at all," Levy said brightly. "It's not an intrusion. You're shining a light on an ancient history that even most magic users in this world have forgotten about. Look at this book," she hefted up the thick tome she was reading. "I wonder how many people have read this over the last millennium. Not many I'd bet."

"Well, I suppose that's true," Lisanna conceded.

"If you ever need to remember that, just imagine how excited Charlie was when you told him Kilgharrah was real and still alive," Levy beamed. "One day he may meet Kilgharrah himself. And one day, because of you, perhaps magical people in this world will be able to start learning this magic again for themselves. And if you hadn't come along and met Kilgharrah, that might never have happened."

"…Wow, Levy, you really know how to perk someone up," Lisanna grinned. "You're absolutely right. Let's remind the people of this world exactly what they've forgotten." She flipped a page and locked onto a particular word, before her body shifted into its newest form, wings unfolding from her back as she opened her palm and whispered, "Forbearnen…"

Levy noticed that Lisanna's eyes momentarily glowed golden before a small fire popped into existence on her palm. Lisanna smiled and focused upon the flame, making it do little loop-da-loops above her hand and flitting between her fingers before it finally morphed into a tiny fiery dragon's head just above her index finger and poofed back into nothingness.

"How does it feel when you use it?" Levy asked curiously.

"I hadn't really thought about it but… it doesn't actually feel much different to when I use my Take-Over. It may me magic born of another world… it may be an entirely different branch of magic from ours that most people from my world would never be able to learn… but its still magic. The mechanics of the magic between our worlds are different but its essence is still the same… a powerful force of nature, woven into the very fabric of the world. So yeah, it really doesn't feel any different at all."

"Well then I have every confidence that you're going to be a quick student, Lisanna," Levy said. "Now… let's get to the more practical side of things for a bit. According to this book, since this magic is the essence of nature you should be able to use all four of the elements as they are the most basic aspects of the natural world. Which would you like to start with? Fire?"

"Kilgharrah can breathe fire so it does seem like the logical choice," Lisanna nodded. "Let's do this."

---

Of course the Fairies were not the only ones training. It took a few days to organise something but DA members continued to come up to Harry over the course of the next few days, eagerly asking when the next meeting was going to be, which was in no small part due to the fact they wanted to meet some of the Fairy Tail members again. Harry hadn't initially been planning to come back for another meeting for at least a week but in the end he settled on meeting up again the following Saturday.

Hermione was quick to create some special magical coins which she passed out to each of the members and would tell them when the next scheduled meeting was to take place. But Harry was himself enthused at everyone's eagerness to continue and announced as the meeting began:-

"Remember, we don't necessarily have to find a time we can all meet up at once. If we did that then we'd be a lot more limited because of scheduling conflicts with Quidditch practices and stuff. So if you ever want to come down here and practice some of the spells that we've learned already then by all means come along. Just make sure that nobody sees you entering the Room when you do 'cause this place can only be a secret meeting place if nobody else knows about it."

"Do you think Umbridge could get in if she saw us walking in?" Michael asked nervously.

"I don't think she could get in unless she knows exactly what we're doing in here," Hermione shook her head. "Which she might have done if we were just a Defence Against the Dark Arts group but with Fairy Tail living in here too now she won't know the full extent of the Room unless someone tells her."

"But it would still be better if she didn't know about this place at all so everyone make sure you keep your traps shut," Ron said. "Or I might just let my brothers use you as test subjects for their next inventions."

"You would look the other way in your Prefect duties, little brother!" Fred faux-gasped in horror.

"You astonish and appall us," George grinned.

Nevertheless they all got to work and set about practicing the Disarming Charm once again, as they had done last week before they were interrupted. Harry had to admit he was seeing some marked improvement. Most of them didn't know about Morgana yet but the threat of Voldemort was really spurring them on… and there was probably just a little bit of an extra motive in there to do with potentially impressing Fairy Tail.

It wasn't long before Erza and Mirajane walked into the room through the stadium doors to watch. Harry wandered amongst the group, correcting their stances and demonstrating how to improve their wand movements for those who were falling behind, occasionally ducking a rogue wand that went spinning across the room but apparently not fazed by it in the slightest. And the students took his instructions to heart and sharpened their focus.

"He does seem to have the air of a natural born leader," Erza noted, as she watched Harry kneeling down next to Dennis Creevey and talking him through how to get better, as both the Creevey brothers were still running around like their heads were on fire in their excitement. "And he certainly commands respect from his comrades."

"He's not unlike yourself in that way, Erza," Mira patted her arm lightly.

Erza smiled, but didn't reply, watching as Harry went over to Lavender Brown and gently nudged her foot outwards with his own to give her a wider stance and make her more steady.

Eventually, after about half an hour of spellwork, Harry turned to look at his guests thoughtfully. "Hey," he called, hurrying over to them. "I was wondering, if you could help me out with something."

"Oh? What with?" Mira asked.

"Well, I was just thinking," Harry said as he looked out at the group. "It's all well and good that they learn how to use the spells but we should probably hold some proper duelling situations as well… some exercises that might prepare them for a real fight."

"A good idea," Erza nodded. "In real conflict, the enemy will not just be standing still and letting themselves get fired upon. There will be a lot more movement and activity involved. Learning the spell techniques alone will not prepare them for that."

"Exactly. Do you think you could do me a favour and… I dunno… be the enemy sometimes?" Harry shrugged. "We'll practice amongst ourselves sometimes but you guys are fighters. From what I understand you've been in many battles, just like the Death Eaters have so you might make better practice adversaries."

"I have just the thing," Erza said, and sudden a pair of swords flashed into her hand. Harry stepped back in sudden alarm but Erza chuckled and said, "Don't worry, these won't hurt you. I haven't had to call these out for a while but these are known as ghost swords - ideal for training those with no experience in swordplay. If they hit other metal objects they get blocked," she demonstrated by clashing the razor-sharp looking blades together in a shower of sparks. "But if they hit a body…"

Before Harry could stop her she'd reversed her grip on one of the swords and plunged it straight into her own abdomen. But it didn't puncture the skin - instead the blade seemed to pass through her as if it was an illusion, and Erza withdrew it and clashed them together for good measure.

"These will be our weapons," she said, tossing one to Mira. "They have to try and disarm them from us, but if we hit one of them with these, they're out."

"That sounds great!" Harry said and hurried off to organise the event. Soon enough the DA was crowding the walls and the first group of six were lined up to take Erza and Mira on - Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Fred, George and Lee Jordan, all with wands raised and the spells on their lips. They were a little nervous, but all determined to do their best.

"Everybody ready?" Hermione called. "Then… begin!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" all six of the seventh years cried at the same way but their spells impacted harmlessly against the wall. Erza and Mira had sprung away in different directions, one morphing into her Soaring Armour and the other into her usual Satan Soul form. Both of them blitzed straight past the startled teens and Erza whipped around to sweep her sword straight through Lee Jordan even as he was turning around.

"OUT!" she cried.

"…What!?" Lee gaped, looking down at his intact torso as if expecting it to be cleaved in half. But the other five members of the group were instantly on the move, dashing in all different directions as Erza and Mira rushed between them at high speed.

"Expelliarmus!" Angelina shouted, flashing her wand in Mira's direction but the white-haired demoness sprouted wings and flew upwards so the spell shot underneath her and hit Alicia instead, her wand sent flying out of her hand. The suddenly defenceless witch gasped as she saw Mira dropping towards her with blade raised and dodged backwards just quickly enough to avoid being struck, but Mira motored in towards her to sweep the phantom sword through her chest a second later.

"OUT!" she echoed, upending herself and twisting back towards Angelina who was forced to dive sideways to avoid being struck herself.

Fred and George were working together, twisting around each other and firing spell after spell towards Erza, but she easily flipped and spun from side to side to easily avoid them all. But then a sword sprouted from Fred's chest and he gasped, looking down at the impaling shadow blade that would have gone straight through his heart if it was a real blade.

"OUT!" Mira said behind him as she withdrew the blade and George gasped and leapt away only Erza to shoot in towards him with another cry of "OUT!" as her sword slipped across George's waist.

In a matter of seconds the group of six had been reduced to two, and Angelina and Katie quickly fired their spells and split up, running pell-mell as Erza and Mirajane rushed in towards them at high speed. Angelina ducked under Erza's swing and spun around to fire another Disarming Charm at Erza's back but Erza took her by surprise by dropping into a perfect split so the spell flew over her head and then somersaulting onto her hands with her legs sweeping out above her to kick Angelina's wand out of her hand and spring onto her feet, driving her blade deep into Angelina's navel.

"OUT!" she shouted.

Katie yelped as Mira plunged in towards her and narrowly avoided a slash to her abdomen with a desperate roll to the side. Mira whipped around on a penny but Katie had pointed her wand at the floor and suddenly smoke billowed from the tip, engulfing her within the black smog. Mira swept into it only to emerge on the other side with Katie gone.

Then…

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Katie shouted from off to the side and the sword suddenly flew out of Mira's hand for Katie to snatch the hilt in her own. "YES!" Katie cheered. "YES, I AAGH!" her victory was short-lived as Mira dove at her and seized her hand, spinning her around and wresting the sword from her grip before plunging it deep into her chest.

"Out," she smiled as Katie dropped to the floor, heaving for breath and, as with everyone before her, inspecting the place where the sword had gone through her just to make sure there was no physical wound. All in all, that had taken about fifteen seconds to unfold and the entire DA was left rather shocked at how quickly and efficiently Mira and Erza had demolished the older students.

"Hey… that wasn't fair," Ernie protested after the stunned silence. "You didn't hold back on any of them."

"We've never been good at holding back," Erza said seriously. "And if you were facing a real enemy they wouldn't be holding back either."

"That wasn't even a proper duel though," Zacharias complained. "The Death Eaters won't move and attack like you do. And they're nowhere near as fast as what you were doing."

"Aren't they? When I fought that Voldemort guy, he was disappearing and re-appearing all over the place," Mira stated. "And there were quite a few things that you can hopefully take away from that. Harry, do you know what they could have done to improve things there?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Harry, who looked a little awestruck but nervous. "Yeah," he said. "I think so. Um… for instance," he looked to Alicia and Angelina. "Never stand on opposite sides of an opponent otherwise you risk hitting each other if they manage to dodge you.

"Never focus on just one opponent," he then pointed to Fred and George. "Always make sure that you've got an eye on every angle possible for incoming attacks.

"Don't forget that even though you're meant to be disarming them you can use other spells to reach that goal. Only one of you did that," Harry nodded to Katie. "But you celebrated too early. Always make sure your opponent is down before you congratulate yourself on a victory or they might still get the better of you.

"And never assume that your attack is going to hit even if you aim it at someone from behind," he finally said to Angelina. "If you'd thrown more than one attack at Erza, at multiple angles, you might have hit her there."

"All correct answers," Erza nodded in approval.

"And think of it this way," Ron pointed out. "What they just did there was bloody impressive if you ask me. If we can figure out how to combat them in an effective way while they're doing that, well, the Death Eaters won't know what hit them, will they?"

"Is there any way I can convince you two to come down and help us practice Quidditch?" Angelina said. "You'd certainly keep us all on our toes."

"Maybe one day," Mira chuckled. "Now… who's next?"

---

Over the course of the next week, the DA took Harry's words to heart and showed up whenever they felt they had nothing to do and had the opportunity to sneak away, practicing disarming each other and occasionally getting the chance to watch Fairy Tail training themselves. And the more they interacted with them the more comfortable they became in their presence. Not to mention the more awed they became at watching them practising their magic. It reached the point where even Zacharias had little negative to say about them, and Cho Chang could watch with a smile as Marietta sat with Levy and Lisanna, discussing the Old Religion with some of the typical Ravenclaw enthusiasm for learning.

There was still very little word on Voldemort though. Harry had no more dreams about his doings and the Order's attempts to dig up his location bore no fruit whatsoever. They even conducted surreptitious raids on the houses of a couple of other known Death Eaters, with a little help from Scrimgeour and his Aurors. But they found nothing. Wherever he was laying low, it didn't seem like he was ready to pop his head up out of the ground for a while yet.

Perhaps because of this, the Order members also found themselves coming in through the Hog's Head passageway to do a little training in their downtime. Sirius passed in and out on an almost daily basis, claiming that this was a much more homely place to spend his time than his actual home. Mrs. Weasley was there frequently too and at first she tried to convince every member of her family that the DA was a terrible idea and that they would all be more than safe as long as they stayed at the school but if they were caught they would have their education ended for sure. When nobody listened to her she grudgingly gave her consent after some heavy coaxing from Mr. Weasley, on the condition that none of them used the passageway to sneak into Hogsmeade for any reason. They all had to stay safely within the wards.

This was a sentiment that everyone else wholeheartedly agreed with, especially the Professors. They were willing to turn a blind eye to what they were doing in defiance of Umbridge, but at the end of the day they were still students and were supposed to be under their protection so Aberforth was left with strict instructions to turn any of them right back around if they tried to sneak out through his bar.

But other than that, one or two of them would occasionally filter in whenever they got the chance and practice or or two of their spells and even have a few mock duels with each other. Such as the one Lupin and Tonks were currently in the midst of.

"You're pretty quick on your feet for an older fella," Tonks grinned as she dove sideways to avoid the Stunning Spell that came rocketing towards her from Remus' wand and dashed across the room, firing half a dozen red hexes of her own as she ran. Lupin ducked and swept his wand out to form a Shield Charm that sent most of them rebounding backwards towards her and followed up with a couple of hexes that Tonks couldn't even begin to guess at.

"Are you sure you're the same woman that keeps tripping over the umbrella stand?" Lupin chuckled as he watched her nimbly dodge most of the projectiles and flick another aside with a sweep of her wand to send it rebounding off the wall.

"You're the one who'll be tripping up in a minute," Tonks grinned and sent three flashes of red out from her wand. Lupin raised another shield but as soon as the spells hit it they exploded into bright flashes of light that seared at his eyes, forcing him to close them. Stumbling backwards, he heard the rush of another incoming spell and threw himself sideways, rolling across the floor and pushing himself upwards in a whirl of shabby coats. His wand came shooting up and he let loose none other than his Patronus. Tonks blinked in surprise as the wolf bore down on her, knowing it couldn't hurt her. But it did jump up on her and dematerialise upon impact her, swirling about her like a silvery mist that she could barely see through.

"That's new," she conceded, but she fired a beam of yellow light straight up from her wand that hit the ceiling and stuck to it like a grappling hook, literally heaving her into the air by her wand as the beam contracted and allowing her to swing over Lupin's follow-up shots which came in from the left. She swung herself out of the mist and let go of the spell, firing off a spell in mid-air. Lupin displayed astonishing reflexes as he twisted away with startling speed, Tonks' spell hitting a target and morphing it into a white stork which flapping and squawked about in confusion. But Lupin ignored it and dashed forwards as Tonks landed squarely on the ground, the two of them whirling around to fire off Stunners at the same time that collided squarely with each other in a blast of red that sent them both stumbling backwards a little.

But Lupin was the first to recover and he let loose a volley of jinxes that left Tonks diving for cover, summoning one of the targets to her to use it as a shield before throwing it straight at Lupin, who turned it into a tennis ball and caught it in one hand before physically throwing it back and hitting it with another spell that enlarged it to the size of an exercise ball. Tonks dove under it and suddenly jammed her wand against her own throat, grinning slightly… then…

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Her magically enhanced voice blasted across Lupin's hearing, which was slightly more acute than most people thanks to his lycanthropy even in his human form. He staggered back with his hands over his ears and it left him more than open to Tonks' rapid follow up spell - Tarentallegra. As soon as it hit Lupin his legs were sent jerking about in all directions, sending him collapsing back to the floor just in time for Tonks to summon his wand to her in a quick disarming spell.

"Looks like I win," she grinned.

"So it does," Lupin smiled good-naturedly even as his legs continued to spasm erratically. Tonks was quick to cancel out the spell and let him slump to the floor in relief. "Well it seems there's a reason you're considered one of the better Aurors even in spite of your young age, Miss Tonks."

"You're not so bad yourself," Tonks grinned, striding over towards him as he began to get to his feet. "Almost wish I had you for a teacher while I was here at the ACK!"

In her victory she'd completely forgotten about the giant tennis ball which had just rolled into her back and sent her stumbling forwards. Lupin surged up instantly to grab her shoulder and waist in his arms, swinging her around and hefting her back up before she could go crashing to the floor.

"Now that would have been a bit of a faceplant," he chuckled as he retrieved his wand from the slightly reeling Tonks' hand.

"…Yeah…" Tonks laughed. "Makes me glad that wasn't a giant Bludger now," she chuckled.

And then she became very promptly aware of how close she was standing to Lupin. So close in fact that their bodies were almost touching. She stepped back quickly, coughing into the back of her hand and saying, "Well, anyway, if you ever want to get your ass kicked again then you know who to come to."

"I'll bear that in mind," Lupin chuckled. He had noticed the mild embarrassment that flashed across Tonks' face there but he decided not to comment on it. "I need to get going anyway. Dumbledore's given me another mission this evening… not particularly looking forward to it though, that I have to admit. Bye for now."

"See ya," Tonks waved.

But as soon as Lupin had left through the passageway door…

"Aaaw, that was quite romantic, Tonks-san."

"Juvia!" Tonks gasped, almost falling over again as she whirled around to see the Water Mage standing beside the door to the stadium, smiling at her with her hands on her cheeks.

"Aaah, if only Gray-sama would catch me like that if I fell," she cooed. "To feel his arms around me… it would be like such a dream come true."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tonks spluttered. "Come on, it's not like that. Lupin's just a chivalrous guy who helped keep a girl from bruising her own face, that's all. There's nothing romantic about it."

"Well, maybe not yet," Juvia smiled. "But you never know where you might find the love of your life, Tonks-san. I never expected I would meet mine on the opposite side of a war between my guild and his own after all, yet I did."

Tonks snorted. "Yeah, like I'd want a romance to start after a trip and fall scene like that. I'd really rather my life didn't play out like some cheesy gag-worthy romance novel thank you very much."

Juvia pouted slightly. "Well, why couldn't it start like that? Don't you think Lupin-san is a handsome man? …Oh gods, did Gray-sama hear me say that?" she panicked and whipped around but there was nobody there but them.

"Well… yeah sure he's handsome, in a way," Tonks shrugged. "He's a bit shabby but then again he can't be blamed for that. And those scars make him look a little… rugged… I suppose…" she frowned, examining Lupin's face in her mind's eye for a moment and… realising that actually he was quite a handsome man under the constantly tired look he gave off.

But she quickly shook her head and said, "Anyway, it wasn't romantic. There's nothing between me and Remus and I highly doubt there ever will be."

"Is there a special man in Tonks-san's life then?"

"Well no. No, I haven't had a boyfriend since I was at Hogwarts myself actually."

"Then never say never," Juvia smiled warmly. "Sooner or later, Tonks-san is going to meet someone who you find yourself wanting to be with as often as you can. Someone who makes you feel warm and whole inside when you're in his presence. Whether that man will be Lupin-san for you, or someone else entirely, Juvia can't say. But Juvia wouldn't write Lupin-san off the list entirely. Or anyone else for that matter. Except for Gray-sama!" she narrowed her eyes slightly. "Gray-sama is definitely off your list, understand!?"

"I understand completely," Tonks laughed, joining as they wondered back into the stadium room. Still, she couldn't help but mull over Juvia's words. She hadn't had much time to think about a boyfriend since she'd started studying to become an Auror. Was it maybe time to start thinking about it again?

Maybe… but even if she did, Lupin wouldn't really be on her list…

…or would he?

And rather annoyingly, Tonks couldn't get the thought out of her head for several hours.

---

It only took a mere couple of weeks for advances to be seen on all sides.

Evergreen had managed to learn not one, but two new Fairy Magic spells and still had several more in the pipeline. And she was demonstrating them to great effect - having joined in the frequent one on one duels that Fairy Tail were having with each other, each one of them sparring with a different partner every time. She even managed to momentarily catch Gray off guard when she fired a glowing torpedo of Fairy dust at him, which exploded on contact with Gray's hastily erected ice shield with a titanic blast that sent him crashing back into the wall hard enough to dent it.

Cana had managed to take everyone by surprise a few days ago when quite abruptly they had all been warped into flatness, unable to see anything except for what was directly in front of them but for black lines and whiteness. Even Gildarts had been warped into one of the cards, which Cana had picked up from the floor and smirked at.

"Maybe now I can keep an eye on you. Keep you from philandering any more women," she chuckled.

Gildarts chuckled and raised his hand, before suddenly the card in Cana's hand was ripped to shreds and he exploded out of it, landing on his feet right in front of her.

"Nice try," he said. "This is quite a powerful spell but it can be broken by those with the right power."

"Ah well, it's still a useful technique," Cana shrugged. But despite her success in this area she still hadn't had much luck coming up with a new type of Card Magic. Not yet anyway.

Similarly Lucy had not quite reached the threshold where she could summon two Spirits at once yet, but she had still improved her magic power significantly and she was sure she was getting close. Maybe another week of training and she'd finally break through that barrier. Wendy had successfully learned the Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang and was on her way to learning the Talon attack as well.

LIsanna was making a marked improvement with her magic as well. Considering Kilgharrah was a creature of the Old Religion she had a natural aptitude for it. All that was really required was learning the spells and with Levy's help she'd already amassed many new ones. She'd also joined in with the sparring, often duelling with Mirajane to practice using her wings and tail effectively, and occasionally chasing the Exceed around the room to improve her aerodynamic ability, with visible results. She could now almost catch them when she tried.

Elfman was already beginning to bulk out a little, with almost every part of his body from the arms to the chest down to the legs increasing in size the more he trained, even in his human form. He was also allowing his white hair to grow out a little more, claiming it made him look more manly.

Improvements were also being seen in everyone else amongst the Fairies, each of them able to unleash their attacks with greater power than before and for longer as well. But they were far from the only ones. The DA were getting better as well, each of them rapidly mastering the Disarming Charm and moving quickly onto the Stunning Spell. Harry was now overseeing full-scale duels every time he was around to watch them, and they were clearly doing a lot better - every one of them. They still hadn't reached the point where they could really get the better of Erza or Mira, who trained with them with the ghost swords frequently, but everyone one of them was faster, more agile, working better in teams and making it much harder for the girls to pull one over on them.

The most astonishing improvement of all was Neville, who appeared to be putting more effort into it than anyone. Which was hardly surprising to Harry considering the recent escape from Azkaban but he was still remarkably impressed. In fact, Neville was one of the only two who actually managed to stun Erza during one of the training sessions before he was rendered out two seconds later by Mira.

Harry couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this happy on a regular basis. But seeing the DA at work, seeing how they were getting better, it just put him in a near constant state of good cheer. One which he had to hide from Umbridge of course but still… as far as he was concerned this was the first true sign of a happy ending in the future. Or at the very least it was the first sign of a future in which half of his friends didn't end up getting murdered. In fact, he was having to put increasing effort into training himself up in these sessions as well as teaching everyone else. Ron and Hermione getting increasingly close to being able to hold their own against him when they duelled and at the rate everyone was going they were going to surpass him. Which was not a thought that bothered Harry but he knew he couldn't let himself fall behind just because he was teaching his friends.

And yet through it all, they still found the time for the occasional respite of their training to do something that made them temporarily forget the impending threats of Voldemort, Grimoire Heart and Morgana. One such example came one Wednesday on October 26th, when a majestic looking screech owl landed in front of Luna at breakfast to deliver a copy of The Quibbler and a rather flamboyant looking envelope.

"Oh, my father remembered my birthday," Luna said with a vacant smile, which made Pantherlily look up with a start. "That's nice of him."

Lily looked around to make sure nobody was listening, but Luna was sitting by herself that morning so he felt it would alright to whisper, "It's your birthday? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Oh, I didn't feel the need," Luna replied as she opened the envelope and pulled a card that looked very much like it was homemade and had a creature on the front that Lily couldn't even begin to name. "Nobody ever celebrates my birthday here so I don't really remind people about it."

Lily grimaced - sometimes Luna could say such depressing things without sounding in the least bit depressed. The fact that Luna didn't seem to have any friends in her house who cared enough about her to remember or at least celebrate her birthday was dreadful. And the black Exceed knew right away that he wasn't going to let that stand.

Which was why Luna got quite the surprise when she came to the DA meeting that evening.

This time it wasn't a DA meeting at all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LUNA!

The was what the banner across the far side of the room screamed and it was what everyone in the room at the time roared as soon as Luna had closed the door. The blonde-haired Ravenclaw was uncharacteristically taken aback, almost falling over as a wall of noise rolled over the top of her and blinking several times as if trying to confirm what she was seeing was real.

And it unequivocally was.

DA and Fairy Tail members were mixed together, sipping on tankards of Butterbeer and downing various confections that Fred and George had managed to smuggle in somehow. Natsu seemed to be particularly delighted by the Canary Creams, puffing into the shape of a large bird approximately once every twenty seconds, Cana was astonishing everyone from the DA with how much Firewhiskey she was able to down, and Ginny muscled her way through the crowd to grab Luna by the hand and urge her forwards.

"Come on," she grinned. "Everyone's here to celebrate your day - get stuck in with the rest of us."

"But… but why…?" Luna looked around in utter bewilderment. "Nobody has done anything for my birthday since the first year I was here. Why is everyone suddenly…?"

"PARTIES ARE FOR MEN!" Elfman shouted over the din, simultaneously lifting Parvati and Padma Patil up off the floor in each hand and using them as weights, much to the amusement of everyone around him.

"Which is his way of saying that we never really need much of an excuse to throw a party," Gray chuckled from his seat nearby, raising his drink to Luna as she passed by. "If often feels like there's one every week at our guild back home. At least."

"And Pantherlily told us about what you said," Ginny said, looking mildly sheepish. "About nobody celebrating your birthday. I… have to say I didn't even know when your birthday was and I wanted to apologise for that so… we arranged this."

"It seemed like the decent thing to do," Lily said as he stepped up next to her - he was currently in his battle form as he'd been in the middle of an arm-wrestling match with Gajeel a few moments ago. "Consider this making up for it all. I pulled the rest of the Ravenclaw DA members together to help Ginny out."

"I… really don't know what to say," Luna whispered. "I feel like a Wrackspurt has taken over my mind."

Pantherlily chuckled. "You don't have to say anything, Luna. All you need to know is that you have friends now. And I say that its long overdue."

"But everyone thinks I'm… Loony."

"Look at us," Lily placed one large paw on Luna's shoulder and gestured out to that various Fairies around the room. "Most of us are a little loony in our own unique ways but we're still all friends for life here. A kind, gentle girl such as yourself should have had many friends a long time ago, but I think you became more comfortable in your solitude and stopped trying to find some. I've seen it, Luna. You don't look bothered when someone calls you Loony but I think it it does, deep down. But who cares if you're loony or not? You should be appreciated for exactly who you are - which is an eccentric, sweet and unique young girl who's a lot cleverer than most people give her credit for."

Luna stared up at Lily in astonishment, and to her own complete surprise her eyes began to water. Before she knew what she was doing she'd thrown herself at the big cat, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head in his chest. "Thank you, Lily," she mumbled. "Thank you."

Lily smiled and patted her back, and when he looked up to the rest of the room he could see most of them were looking his way. Ginny beamed at the big Exceed and held up her hand for a high-five which Lily was more than happy to oblige. Both of them got the distinct feeling that after tonight, the amount of people who could potentially tease and taunt Luna would drop rather significantly. Or at the very least the number of people willing to stick up for her would rise.

But the moment was quickly broken when Gajeel stood up and yelled, "Oi! Girl! Are you trying to steal my cat!?"

Luna pulled away from Lily and smiled over at the Iron Dragon Slayer with shining eyes. "It's tempting, Gajeel-san," she said, using the same honorific she knew Wendy usually applied to him. "But I'm afraid the Nargles in my dad's backyard aren't particularly fond of cats. Perhaps I would have better luck with a dog."

Laughter consumed the room and Luna spent the rest of the evening mingling with fellow students and mages alike, telling anyone who would listen about the various extraordinary animals she hoped to see one day. Not a single one of them believed that most of them existed but they humoured her anyway. Even Hermione managed to swallow her factual mind and had a rather animated conversation with Luna about Dabberblimps.

Harry found himself wondering how he hadn't really noticed Luna before now. Even based solely on her reputation as a slightly strange girl he felt like he ought to have known her better. It struck him how little he'd really known about the other people in his school, both in the rest of his year and and in others. But the DA was really turning things around and Harry had to admit, he'd never felt as much a part of a community as he did now with all of them.

Natsu had been right. It was like they were a little guild of their own. The members were mingling a lot more, and he could see them building up bonds with each other that actually emulated those that Fairy Tail shared between them - the avid celebration of a girl that most considered weird tonight was proof of that. And that spirit wouldn't even be broken in just over a week's time when the first Quidditch match of the year was due. After all, every one of them there wanted Gryffindor to beat Slytherin in that game.

But little did any of them know… it would be shortly after that that all hell was going to break loose.