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

43. Turns and Returns

I've received a suggestion to give Lucy more Spirits that represent the Chinese Zodiac twice now. Not sure if it was from the same person or not but I'm afraid to say that's not going to happen. It's a lovely idea but Chinese astrology is quite different from the Western astrology that the Spirits are based on. I feel that in order to do that they would have to come from a second Spirit world, and I don't particularly want to do that I'm afraid. But that's not to say Lucy won't get an extra Spirit or two. You'll just have to wait and see.

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Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix

Chapter 43:- Turns and Returns

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October rolled into November and of course that meant Hogwarts school congregated for the Halloween feast on the very last day of the month. Several of the members of Fairy Tail were disappointed to miss out on the festivities, especially Natsu. He practically broke down and cried at the thought of all that delicious food that he wasn't going to be allowed to get his hands on, especially since Happy very smugly reminded his partner that he would be attending the feast in his illusionary disguise and would be able to chow down as much as he wanted provided he didn't eat with his hands.

In the end though, Fairy Tail did get a feast of their own. When they'd first moved into the Room they had started to be provided with food by a joint effort from Aberforth, Mrs. Weasley and Fred and George, the latter two doing so by sneaking down to the Hogwarts kitchens and smuggling food up whenever they could. And all of them did their best to provide Fairy Tail with a whole host of delicious treats for the occasion, even though nobody in Fairy Tail had the slightest idea what Halloween was in the first place.

But more importantly, the arrival of November meant something else was upon them. The first weekend of November was when the annual Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin was held and despite everything that had been happening, Harry had really been putting as much effort as he could into practicing for the event, helped by Angelina's insistence that they play every single day whenever they could wrest the pitch away from the Slytherin team (it seemed the fact both of them were in the Order didn't stop the rivalry between McGonagall and Snape on the Quidditch pitch for an instant). Harry had quite a bit of lost time to make up after all considering the amount of practices he'd missed under the ruthless, stubby thumb of Umbridge. But his Seeking skills were definitely still up to speed, leaving him confident he could best Malfoy in the upcoming match.

The same could not be said for Ron.

The youngest Weasley boy had made some improvements over the month once he'd gotten over his initial jitters and when he was on form he was actually a great Keeper, which was saying something considering how much of a well-oiled machine the three Gryffindor Chasers were. But if he made just one mistake he was quite quick to fall apart and it took him a while to get his head back into the game. But as the big day approached he'd becoming increasingly jittery at practices, not helped by the relentless jeering and taunts from practically everyone in Slytherin whenever they saw him, and was thus letting in more and more goals.

When the big day dawned, Ron wouldn't touch his breakfast. Which reminded Harry very much of his own first day in a Hogwarts Quidditch match - he'd lost his appetite that morning too. But Ron looked like he was going to be sick in his cereal bowl, and the tide of well wishes from the rest of Gryffindor were really not helping.

"Ron, you'll be fine," Hermione was saying, waving a piece of toast in front of his nose like she was trying to hypnotise him with it. "Come on, just eat something. You'll need your energy."

"I thought you said I'd be fine," Ron muttered, looking away. "Harry, I don't know if I can do this. I… I'm no good at this. I'm just… rubbish."

"Hermione's right," Harry assured him. "You'll be fine. Look, Angelina wouldn't have picked you for the team if she didn't think that you could do the job and she's right. You're a good Keeper, Ron. Whether you believe it or not, you are. Just… go out there and show everyone else, yeah?"

"…Suppose," Ron muttered, slowly taking the toast out of Hermione's hand and nibbling on it. "Thanks, 'Mione."

"You're welcome," Hermione said, but she still glanced towards Harry with obvious concern written all over her face. A concern that Harry shared - Ron's nerves were his bane on the pitch and today he looked more nervous than ever. He had skill and they both knew it, yet for some reason he still looked like he'd just been told he had two days to live.

But there was no time to build up his confidence… today was the day.

Although they did get a brief respite from their thoughts when they saw the ridiculous lion-hat that Luna had made for herself… and the fact she'd dressed Pantherlily in a full lion's mane that practically obscured his small body.

"Don't ask," he said quietly. "It was all I could do to convince her not to change the colour of my fur."

---

The Quidditch Pitch was absolutely packed when the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams strode out from opposite sides. Angelina had given them all the classic captain's pep talk beforehand, speaking with the exact same fiery passion and determination that their previous captain Oliver Wood had once used… in fact it had quite possibly been even more so! Not that Harry could blame her. This was going to be her only game against Slytherin in which she was the team captain. From her perspective, today just had to go smoothly.

Which did nothing at all to help Ron, who looked like he was really regretting eating that toast already.

Hermione pushed her way through the crowds in the Gryffindor stands in search of a good place to stand and watch. She eventually spotted Neville with Parvati and Lavender and shoved her way over to them.

"Morning," she huffed as she finally got over to them.

"Hey, Hermione," Neville said, leaning out over the railings to try and get a good look at the teams. "How was Ron?"

"Not too good," Hermione bit her lip. "It looked like he was just one step away from having a complete panic attack. I have to admit, I'm a little bit worried."

"Well he better perform well," Parvati whispered in her ear. "I wouldn't want him to give Fairy Tail a bad impression of our house."

"What?" Hermione blinked. "I really don't think that Fairy Tail are going to care very much about this match."

"Oh really?" Lavender raised a brow, before she looked back towards the back of the stands. Hermione frowned and followed her gaze but at first she could see nothing out of the ordinary… until she spotted what looked suspiciously like a bunch of cards stuck to the woodwork at the back of the stands, above the heads of the cheering Gryffindor students.

"What!?" she gasped. "Are they…?"

"Yeah," Lavender giggled. "Some of them really wanted to see what it was all about so we cooked this up with Cana. We sneaked down here this morning to sort it out. Now they can all watch the match and nobody will notice them because they'll be too involved in the game."

"I noticed them!" pointed out Hermione.

"You were looking for something suspicious," Parvati rolled her eyes. "Nobody else is. Besides, we wanted to show them a bit more of our culture."

"…I don't know about this," Hermione bit her lip.

"Lighten up, Hermione. Nobody else can even see those cards anyway," Lavender patted her on the back.

"Why not?"

"Because of me," said Mavis from where she was suddenly sitting next to her, several Gryffindor students looking straight through her as if she wasn't even there. Hermione jumped but managed to make herself not look directly at the ghostly First Master of the guild.

"You're… using your illusion magic?" she whispered.

"That's right, to disguise the cards from everyone except those I know and trust," Mavis giggled. "I don't have enough power in this form to disguise everyone at their full size, but a deck of cards is much easier to hide. Now let's watch some Quinnitch!"

"Quidditch," Hermione corrected her. She was still uncomfortable but was satisfied enough not to object any further.

"Go on, Harry!" Natsu was cheering from inside his card, pounding on the outer edge in his excitement. "Smash them to pieces!"

"Natsu, keep your voice down," Erza chided him from several cards over to the left. "We may be hidden from sight but not from sound. We don't want these other people to hear us."

"I'm pretty sure that they won't distinguish our voices from the rest of the cheering crowd," Lucy pointed out. "But it's probably better to be on the safe side."

"This is kinda exciting isn't it?" Levy said as she pushed her face right up against the edge of her pocket dimension in a bid to get a better view. "I've never been that interested in sports but to see a whole new kind should be quite the experience."

"Flying broomsticks sounds like a Man to me!" Elfman pounded his fists together.

"If you tried to fly on a broomstick the poor thing probably wouldn't be able to lift you," Evergreen rolled her eyes.

"Ssh, it's about to start!" Mira said, and everyone quietened down as the elevated voice of Lee Jordan broke out across the pitch.

"Welcome to the first annual Quidditch match of the year between the proud lions of Gryffindor and the sneaky little snakes of… sorry, Professor… I mean between Gryffindor and Slytherin. It's sure to be quite an interesting match as Gryffindor have received a new captain for the first time in four years, last year's captain Oliver Wood being replaced by the lovely Angelina Johnson in leadership and Ron Weasley for his position on the field as keeper. Most of Mr. Weasley's older brothers have been doing this team proud for years, including the two current Beaters, Fred and George… so we're sure to expect great things from him."

"Unngh…" Ron almost vomited right then and there.

"And speaking of Beaters, the Slytherin team's received two new ones after Derrick and Bole left last year… good riddance to them… yeah, yeah, sorry Professor I'll stop now… they'd been replaced by Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, better known as the two lackeys of the team's Seeker Draco Malfoy. We all know they love to hit things but they might find that the Bludgers are a little harder to hit than a trembling first year so we'll have to see how they do. And of course their new Captain is Montague after Marcus Flint left two years ago, replaced on the team in his capacity as a Chaser by Adrian Pucey, returning after a couple of years off and who's name always makes me laugh, I have to tell you."

Harry glared across the field at Malfoy, who was indeed being flanked by his two usual lackeys. Malfoy glared right back, but for some reason there didn't seem to be as much smugness in his stare as usual, which left Harry mildly surprised.

But a minute later the game had begun after Madam Hooch forced Angelina and Montague to shake hands, and suddenly they were all up in the air, Harry quickly locking his focus on finding the snitch. Ron and the Slytherin Keeper, Miles Bletchley, arced off towards their appropriate goalposts and the game began in earnest as Angelina snagged the Quaffle from the air and the players zipped in and out of each like rampaging hummingbirds.

"Whoa, we've got to get us some of those!" Gray beamed as he watched them go. "Look how fast they're going. Would sure beat riding a train."

"Ghhngghhmm…" Natsu clapped his hand over his mouth, his cheeks bulging as he watched the broomsticks racing all about. "Cana… what'll happen if I throw up in here?"

"DON'T YOU DARE, DRAGNEEL! DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE!"

"Quit being a wimp, Salamander," Gajeel rolled his eyes. "You're not the one actually riding those things! Now shaddup, we're trying to watch here!"

"And Angelina slings it to Alicia who passes it straight back to bypass Pukey… I mean, Pucey… and oh, that was a nice dodge there from Angelina - that Bludger came flying out of nowhere - but now she's dropped the Quaffle down to Katie Bell who's zinging her way up, side-stepping Montague there… is stepping the right word for a game played in the air… and she's honing in towards the goal. Bletchley moving out to intercept and oh, what's this!? Warrington almost crashes straight into Katie but she's tossed the Quaffle over her shoulder to Alicia… she swings around… and YES! SHE SCORES! TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! Hey, can we get ten points for the House Cup too for that? No? Ah well, never mind."

Harry laughed to himself as he swept low around the Slytherin goalposts, straining his eyes for the slightest hint of a golden blur anywhere on the pitch. Lee Jordan always had a way of making the commentary amusing despite his obvious bias against Slytherin during any game they played - he was usually able to keep it neutral in all the others, even the ones Gryffindor were in. But a goal right off the bat was a good thing, perhaps this would help boost Ron's confidence in the team and therefore in his own.

"Miles passes the Quaffle out to Pucey and he's streaking along the pitch now like he's on a mission - Katie moving to intercept but he's passed it onto Montague, who passes it like a hot potato off to Warrington. The Gryffindor Chasers are all behind now, but OH OUCH! OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH! I'm pretty sure that was George Weasley who smacked that Bludger right into the Quaffle itself, smacking the red ball straight into Warrington's face. Now the Quaffle's falling but it's Alicia that picks it up and lobs it straight to Katie. That same Bludger moving in but Fred Weasley… that is Fred, right - smacks it aside and cuts off Pucey before he can get in close to Katie. Katie passes it onto Angelina but… oh, I have to admit that was a pretty good move from Montague there, snatching the Quaffle moments before Angelina can grab it, but she zooms right back in and pops it out of his hands before he can get a grip! And wow, the crowd's loving this aren't they? Listen to that singing!"

Up until this point, Harry hadn't really been aware that the crowd were singing, but now that Lee said it he could definitely hear it rising above the din. He paused for a moment so he could hear the lyrics… and when he did, his blood ran cold.

"Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King!"

"Oh crap…" he muttered to himself, looking back at Ron who was staring in abject horror at the singing Slytherin's, not even looking at what the Chasers were doing in that moment and his face a mouldy grey colour, like he'd been sculpted out of clay. And the Slytherins appeared to have noticed, all of them jabbing their fingers up at him to the beat of their song.

"Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why Slytherins all sing:
Weasley is our King!

"Weasley was born in a bin,
He always let's the Quaffle in,
Weasley will make sure we win,
Weasley is our King!"

"RON!" Harry shouted, sweeping off towards the goalposts and looping round them, shouting at the ashen-faced Keeper as the Slytherin Chasers closed in on his position, the Gryffindor Chasers frantically trying to intercept but despite the fact they were clearly better Chasers the Slytherin team still had faster brooms which evened things out. "GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!"

Ron was started out of his reverie as if he'd been shocked with electricity and looked panicked as he saw Montague approaching with the Quaffle. Lee Jordan was now trying to cover up the lyrics of the song with his hard and fast commentating, all joking gone from his voice. "Johnson moves to block Montague but he swerves around her, incoming Bludger but Montague's passed to Warrington, Warrington to Pucey, Pucey streaking up the inside towards the lowest goal hoop. Come on, Ron, you can do this! He's going to shoot!"

Ron swerved frantically as Pucey hurled the Quaffle but it was such a wild movement that he completely overdid it and his fingers just missed the Quaffle, which streaked past his hands and popped straight through the goal hoop, making the score ten to ten. Harry's stomach lurched… there was the one mistake Ron needed before falling apart and right on his first try too… this was not going to end well.

"WEASLEY IS OUR KING!
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!
HE ALWAYS LET'S THE QUAFFLE IN!
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"

"Well not to worry, not to worry!" Lee was saying as Ron retrieved the Quaffle and tossed it to Alicia, though it was a very haphazard throw and Alicia only just managed to catch it. "Score's still even now and Alicia passes it to Katie, to Angelina, to Katie, to Angelina, to Alicia… blimey these Chasers are going fast but oh no, two Bludgers have converged on Alicia now courtesy of Crabbe and Goyle but Fred Weasley streaks in and blocks one, but now Alicia's dropped the Quaffle. Warrington scoops it up and passes it to Pucey, who throws it to Warrington and now he's got a clear pathway to the goal with only Ron in the way…"

"COME ON, RON!" Harry and Hermione ended up shouting at the same time but their voices were smothered by:-

"WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN!
HE ALWAYS LET'S THE QUAFFLE IN!"

"Oh god…" Ron muttered to himself as Montague's grinning face loomed in at him. "Oh god… oh god… oh god…" He arced upwards to try and follow Montague to the middle post but this time Montague feinted and Ron completely overshot, leaving Montague able to toss the Quaffle through the right-hand hoop almost lazily.

"WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN!
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"

"…This is horrible…" Levy whispered, staring across the pitch to the Slytherin end with utter revulsion. "How can they be so cruel to him?"

"Bastards!" Natsu snarled, having completely forgotten to feel ill in the wake of this and pounding his palm with his fist. "I've got a good mind to go over there and kick their asses! Every one!"

"On this occasion, I'd be willing to join in," Lucy growled. "They're disgusting."

"He doesn't look too good," Wendy noted worriedly, looking up at Ron who did indeed look like he was going to pass out. "Oh gosh, I wish there was something we could do to help."

"But we can't," Lisanna bit her lip. "We're relegated to the sidelines… I'm not sure if I even want to watch the rest of this."

"Join the club," Gray said bitterly.

"HARRY, STOP GAWKING AND FIND THAT SNITCH!" Angelina yelled as the game resumed. Harry gasped and got back to work, re-doubling his efforts to find the Snitch but the non-stop singing from the Slytherin side was getting to him. He had a good mind to swerve around the Slytherin side and kick as many of them in the heads as he could get away with. And as he swung by the Gryffindor stands he could see Hermione looking absolutely furious, and that some of the DA members even had their wands out, as if wishing they could use them. And the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sides looked sickened as well.

But the song went on… and on… and on…

"WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING,
HE CANNOT BLOCK A SINGLE RING,
THAT'S WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING,
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"

But as the game got back into full swing and Lee Jordan practically shouted into his microphone above the din, Harry got a look at Malfoy. He expected an infuriatingly superior and smug look upon the blonde boy's face… but there wasn't one. In fact he looked surprisingly… vacant. Distracted… almost perturbed… as if he wasn't even thinking about the game at all.

"What's with him?" Harry wondered to himself, before getting back once again to trying to find the snitch. "He should be loving this. He should be gloating for every Knut that he's worth."

The game continued in this fashion for some time, and the song was a non-stop backdrop even when the Quaffle was nowhere near the Gryffindor goalposts. Harry could see exactly what the three Chasers were all thinking - that they had to work as hard as they possibly could to prevent the Quaffle from reaching the other end of the pitch - they'd already lost faith in Ron's abilities. And to be honest, it seemed pretty well founded for whenever the Slytherin Chasers rushed in to the other end of the goal, Ron looked as though he was about to have a heart attack and they managed to put the Quaffle through one of the hoops almost every time. And whenever they failed it was not due to Ron, but to a quick interception from a Chaser, a swift Bludger from Fred or George or just bad throw that would have missed the hoops anyway.

Harry found himself almost as distracted as Malfoy seemed to be, so much so that at one point the Snitch zinged past the back of his head and he didn't even notice it because he was willing Ron to play the game he knew he was capable of. But as far as he could see any confidence Ron had in himself had been well and truly shattered.

And he was right.

'I'm so useless,' Ron was moaning to himself in his head as the score reached 100-40 in favour of Slytherin. 'I'm pathetic. I'm the worst Keeper there ever was. Why did Angelina pick me?'

"COME ON, RON!" Hermione was screaming as hard as the rest of the Gryffindors, all of them trying to patch together the remnants of Ron's current self-worth.

"BEAT THAT RED BALL TO A FREAKING PULP!" Natsu was yelling despite the fact he was supposed to be quiet.

"WEASLEY IS OUR KING!
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!
HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN!
WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"

"I'm going to kill them!" Gray was snarling. "I'm going to bloody kill them!"

"Get in line, Ice Princess," Gajeel agreed.

"This is the most unmanly thing I've ever seen in my entire life!" Elfman protested.

"Come on, Ron-san, pull it together!" Wendy tried to call over the din.

But there was one member of Fairy Tail who was still calm. Mavis had abandoned her seat on the edge of the pitch and was now hovering above the stands, calmly analysing what was going on across the field. She'd already seen the individual playing styles of each of the three Slytherin Chasers and worked out the best strategies Ron could use against each of them, but she knew that she shouldn't share them with him. She was not a Gryffindor student - it would be unfair to share her tactical skill with the team she favoured when it was not her own.

But like the others, she was finding it very hard to watch Ron's mental breakdown… because that was essentially what he was having.

So without warning she hurried forwards, running through empty space as if she was upon solid ground until she was able to stand right in the hoop of the middle goalpost.

"Ron!" she called, making Ron jump so violently that he almost fell off his broom.

"Bloody hell!" he cried, looking back at Mavis with alarm. "What… what are you…?"

"Don't look at me! It'll look suspicious," Mavis instructed, which caused Ron to swing his head back around just as Angelina was closing the gap between herself and the Slytherin goalposts.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked miserably. "Now's really not a good time to talk.

"Now is the best time. I came to ask you a question - why are you panicking like this?"

"Why? Because I'm so lousy at this obviously."

"And?"

"What do you mean, and? Listen to them singing! They're right, I'm the absolute worst! They all think I'm a loser now… nobody's going to let me live this down… I'm letting everyone on the team down and…"

"Stop!" Mavis said quickly. "That's what I was looking for. Your team! Gryffindor House! You want to do right by them, don't you? You want to succeed for their sake, don't you?"

"Well… yeah…"

"Good! Then use that, Ron. Blot out the singing and focus on your teammates… your comrades… your friends! Remember this, Ron. This isn't a game you're playing right now. It's a battle!"

"A battle!?"

"Yes! A battle between your beloved Gryffindor and the despised Slytherin! Your team… your house… your family - their pride is on the line here and you have to play your part in ensuring their victory on this battlefield. What people think of you is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if they think you're the worst Keeper in the world or the best, regardless of what side they're on. Even what you think about yourself doesn't matter here. All that matters is your friends. Do you want to protect your friends, Ron?"

"Yeah, of course I do… but…!"

"Then do it!" Mavis yelled, her hair streaming out behind her as she cried with the fiery passion of her soul. "Don't think about what will happen if you fail! Don't even think about failing at all! It's your family that Slytherin is trying to defeat, whose reputation they're trying to destroy, so don't you dare let them win! Do your duty, Ronald Weasley! And show them how strong your feelings are!"

"My… feelings…?"

"Your feelings for your friends and how much you want to protect them in any way possible! The Quaffle is coming," Mavis pointed, and indeed Warrington was now streaking towards the Gryffindor goalposts with the Quaffle under his arms. "You're all that stands between that ball and your friends' pride. So stop it! Protect your team!"

Ron's eyes were as wide as saucers. He couldn't quite explain why but it was like a small fire had been lit within his gut… a fire that was slowly spreading to the rest of him. His hands had stopped shaking upon the handle of his broom and his eyes had become laser-focused upon the Quaffle… a sort of tunnel vision that blotted out everything on the sidelines. He was vaguely aware that people were singing nearby but all of a sudden he didn't need to know what was being sung.

"I have… to protect… my team…" he whispered, his heart rate lowering just as Warrington feinted to the left and lobbed the ball directly towards the left hoop. Ron saw the Quaffle leave his hand and for a moment, time seemed to stand still.

'I have to stop it…' he thought, his eyes narrowing into determined slits. 'And I will stop it. For Gryffindor!'

And before he knew what he was doing he'd arced to the right, spun his broom around and slammed the bristles straight into the Quaffle like a bat, smacking right back towards the startled Warrington who was struck right in the stomach by the large red Sphere. Dead silence fell over the stadium as Warrington seized his broom and keeled over, winded, the Quaffle dropping straight downwards to thunk into the grass below. And Ron's jaw dropped when he himself realised what had just happened.

"I did it," he whispered aloud. "I saved it."

"You protected the pride of your friends," Mavis smiled as him, stepping away from the posts and striding away across the air. "But you still wouldn't have been able to do that if you didn't have enough talent to be a great Keeper. So keep it up, Ron. And protect your family to the end!"

"…Thanks, Mavis," Ron beamed just as the rest of the stadium realised what had happened and a massive cheer erupted from the Gryffindor stands, with even the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws joining in. Harry was cheering as well, as were the rest of the Gryffindor team as Ron dove down to scoop up the Quaffle from the ground. Ron had a grin like a cheshire cat as he heard whoops and whistles and roaring from Luna's ridiculous hat. Not to mention Lee Jordan bellowing:-

"WHAT A SPECTACULAR SAVE FROM RON WEASLEY THERE! I MEAN REALLY THAT WAS JUST THE KIND OF THING WE'D EXPECT FROM OLIVER WOOD WHEN HE WAS STILL HERE! DOES THIS MEAN THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM! IT CERTAINLY SEEMS THAT THAT COULD BE THE CASE!"

But Ron knew the game wasn't over yet. That was just one goal he'd saved and as Mavis said, it didn't matter what other people thought of him, good or bad. He had to keep going until the game came to an end. So he threw the Quaffle to Katie and play instantly resumed, with Katie shooting past all of the stunned Slytherin Chasers and passing off to Angelina just as Miles Bletchley moved in to intercept, and Angelina instantly put the score up to 100-50. And from there the game began again in earnest and practically became a melee of spinning Bludgers, swooping players and a madly zig-zagging Quaffle.

"YEAH! THAT'S IT! GO GRIFFIN DOORS!" Natsu was screaming as he jumped up and down within his card.

"CHEW 'EM UP AND SPIT 'EM BACK OUT!" Gajeel bellowed.

"KEEP IT UP, RON!" Hermione beat her hand upon the wooden railing with perhaps more excitement than she'd ever had for a Quidditch match before, while the Slytherins started up their offensive song once again, but with noticeably less force than before:-

"Weasley was born in a bin,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley will make sure we win,
Weasley is our King!"

But their song gradually became less and less relevant through the game, for the next time Pucey came streaking in towards the Gryffindor goalposts Ron swept in towards him and practically battered the Quaffle right out of his hands, and the time after that, when Warrington tried fast-passing it to Montague, swept across and physically kicked the ball with the sole of his boot to send it spinning across to Alicia, who caught it and swept across the pitch to pop it straight into the left Slytherin goal. And with every save he made, Ron's confidence in himself grew.

But confidence was irrelevant. Just as Mavis said, it didn't matter what he thought of himself as long as he did the job.

He didn't save every goal from that point on - the Slytherin team were still able to get some through, but Ron's sudden improvement had thrown them off pace and the Gryffindor Chasers were rapidly catching up. Fred and George were getting in their way too, proving themselves far more effective as chasing Bludgers than Crabbe and Goyle and each with big almost dopey grins across their faces, flashing Ron a thumbs-up sign every time they got near him.

Harry was beaming fit to burst - he didn't know what Mavis had said to Ron back there but now his team was really coming into their own, melding together into the fluid machine they'd been when Oliver had still been Captain. And now the song from the Slytherins had almost completely died from their lips… and was being picked up from the other end of the field but with some very slightly different lyrics.

"Weasley is our King!
Weasley is our King!
He never lets the Quaffle in!
Weasley is our King!

"Weasley can save anything!
He never leaves a single ring!
That's why Gryffindors all sing!
Weasley is our King!

Weasley puts snakes in the bin!
He never lets the Quaffle in!
Weasley will make sure we win!
Weasley is our King!"

Even several of the Fairy Tail members were joining in now - Cana, Natsu, Gray and Gajeel in particular all belting out the song but most of the others joining in with varying degrees of enthusiasm, their voices melding into the crowd so nobody noticed.

"Now this… is far more entertaining," Lisanna chuckled over the ruckus of the singing.

"I've never really liked sport much," Levy agreed. "But I have to admit this is kinda fun. Maybe we should take this game back home. We could organise an inter-guild tournament or something."

"A tournament between guilds? That'd take a hell of a lot of organising. I wonder who'd take charge of that," Gildarts noted, and back off in the Fairy Tail's own dimension, a short King who liked to dress as a pumpkin sneezed.

Gryffindor were pulling back with a vengeance, and were now already down a mere twenty points with the score becoming 110-130. And with Ron unlikely to fall apart again anytime soon, Harry's concentration was free to resume the search for the Snitch.

But then his heart stopped in his chest when he saw that Malfoy had suddenly upended himself and was streaking down towards the Gryffindor goalposts… and yes! There it was - a tiny fleck of gold flitting in an out of the poles. Harry swung himself around and fired across the pitch like a true firebolt - a red streak shooting past Crabbe and Goyle and making Goyle drop his bat with surprise as he homed in on Malfoy's position. The Snitch abruptly changed direction and zinged its way straight upwards, forcing Malfoy to pull himself upwards, but Harry was still in clear line of sight of his prize, both of them blasting in on a collision course.

All singing had ceased, everyone in the stadium was holding their breath… and Harry tucked himself down on his broom to make himself as streamlined as possible, aiming himself just a little above where he predicted the Snitch would be when he got there. At the last possible second he spun himself upside down, gripping the broom tightly with his legs as his hand lashed out and seized the golden ball from the air, shooting out of the way a microsecond before Malfoy got a face full of twigs.

Grinning like a lunatic, Harry swung around and pumping his fist into the air, cheering erupting from three quarters of the stadium when they realised what had happened.

"AND HE'S DONE IT!" Lee Jordan was bellowing. "GRYFFINDOR RECEIVES 150 POINTS FOR POTTER'S MAGNIFICENT CATCH, ENDING THE GAME AND TAKING THE FINAL SCORE UP TO 260-130 IN FAVOUR OF THE LIONS! WHAT A MATCH! WHAT A MATCH! WHAT… A… MATCH!"

The Gryffindor team immediately converged on Harry's position as Harry rose into the air, but Ron was the closest to him so he reached Harry first. And on pure instinct, Harry grabbed Ron's fist in his own, trapping the Snitch between his palm and the back of Ron's hand, and hoisting Ron's arm straight up into the air with his own. If anything the cheering got even wilder after that, and the other team members seemed to agree with his sentiment. Ron looked stunned, like he couldn't believe this had actually happened, but in that moment he looked as thought even one-hundred Dementors combined couldn't leech away all his happiness. He grinned at Harry, and Harry grinned right back because something told him that when the next Quidditch match arrived, Ron wouldn't be quite so nervous anymore.

"OH, WE'RE DEFINITELY TAKING THIS GAME BACK HOME!" Natsu was whooping. "I COULD PLAY THE PART OF ONE OF THOSE BLACK BALLS THAT TRIED TO HIT EVERYONE!"

"He would make a good Bludger wouldn't he?" Lucy laughed.

"Yeah, but he'd probably keep destroying the brooms," Evergreen snorted, a sentiment to which everyone agreed with.

But as the Gryffindor team descended to the ground amidst much fist-bumping, back-patting and the occasional kiss on the cheek from the excited girls, Malfoy landed nearby. Harry noticed him through the throng of red-suited players… and in his experience after a Slytherin loss like that Malfoy should have been furious or at the very least trying to get even in some way with some kind of derogatory comments to try and ruin the occasion for them, like maybe gloating about how effective the song had been at the start - Harry didn't believe for a second that Malfoy hadn't at least been partially involved in composing that horrendous piece.

But that wasn't the case. He didn't even look upset. The blond-haired boy just tossed his broom over his shoulder, his face etched in what appeared to be anxiety as he trudged his way back towards the changing rooms. For a moment Harry wondered whether someone else on the Slytherin team had threatened to beat him up if he didn't get the Snitch… but that seemed kinda unlikely.

'Okay, something's definitely wrong with him,' he thought, before he and Ron were both hoisted up on the shoulders of the other players and he was suitably distracted by the festivities.

---

And there was a lot of that. A full party was going on in the Gryffindor Common Room that night, with just about everyone there coming up to congratulate each of the players as much as possible. Even the ones who thought that Harry was an attention-seeking lunatic, aka Seamus, came up to him and heartily shook his hand.

"Really nice catch there, Harry," he said. "Shame you're not Irish - you'd probably make a great fit on the Irish Quidditch team after school if you were."

"Er… thanks Seamus," Harry said. Seamus was like Ron in that he was very much a Quidditch enthusiast so as far as Harry was concerned that was quite the compliment. He watched Seamus go over towards Fred and George briefly and wondered if he should re-think bringing Seamus into the fold. He was the only boy in their dormitory who didn't attend DA meetings and since they were meeting up much more regularly than Harry had initially anticipated, Seamus might eventually start to get suspicious of where they were all going.

He'd have to think about that.

Ron was sitting at a table nearby, still looking half-stunned. It was like everyone had forgotten about his initially abysmal performance in light of his spectacular turnaround, but Ron made no attempt to pretend that hadn't happened.

"I just… had to dig deep into my gut I guess," he was saying to a couple of enthralled third-years. "It was like there was a… a voice in the back of my mind telling me, Ron! You have to do this! You have to protect your house's reputation and you have to pull through… for your team. Who cares what the Slytherin's think of you? Heck, who cares what your own team thinks of you? You just have to knuckle down, sort yourself out, and get the bloody job done."

Harry grinned, as did Hermione as she had just come back in through the portrait after making sure Fairy Tail were all safely hidden back in the Room of Requirement. They both knew whose voice Ron was alluding to since he couldn't tell everyone exactly what had happened, but Harry knew he'd have to find a way to thank Mavis for this later. She'd thought to do what nobody else had by appealing to Ron's desire to do right for the team rather than to do right for himself. Fighting for their friends was a big part of the Fairy Tail spirit… and it seemed Ron, and indeed the rest of the team, had been channelling it that day.

'We may not be able to learn their magic but it looks like we can learn more from them than I thought,' Harry mused to himself, taking another swig of Butterbeer.

For this evening at the very least, nobody in Gryffindor gave much thought to Voldemort or Morgana, or even Fairy Tail for those who still didn't know they were friends. But eventually the festivities grew a little quieter and Harry found himself sitting with his usual cluster of friends in the corner, just relaxing.

"What a day," Ron said, leaning back in his chair contentedly. "I think it started out as one of the lousiest I've ever had before turning into one of the best. Quite a turnabout, right? I love how we managed to turn Slytherin's own demoralising song around like that. I wish I could have seen Malfoy's face at the end of the game. He must have been a right picture."

"To be honest, he wasn't," Harry said, and quickly related how he'd noticed Malfoy seemed distracted through most of the game despite the fact he'd been the first to spot the Snitch.

"…Huh… that's odd," Ron agreed with Harry's summation. "I mean yeah, Malfoy lost his house a few weeks ago but he always bounces back to his usual sneering self quickly after things like that happen. Look how fast he was taunting us again after he was attacked by Buckbeak in our third year."

"That's what I thought," Harry nodded. "So what's bothering him so much?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione asked, raising her brow slightly. "I would have thought it should have been, especially to you Ron."

"Er… no, I'm drawing a blank," Ron shrugged.

"Well the answer's a simple one. He's worried. About his family."

"He is?" Harry blinked.

"Honestly, you two," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I know you view Malfoy as an snotty little brat who holds nothing but contempt for everyone around him, and to a certain extent you're right. But he still cares about his family. He loves his mother, as most sons do. And while I'm not sure how much he loves his father he still has great admiration and respect for him. He doesn't just keep throwing his father's name at people that he thinks are wronging him to scare them, you know."

"…I suppose," Ron frowned uncomfortably. "Blimey… it is hard to imagine someone like Malfoy caring about anyone but…"

"…if ever there was anyone, his family would probably be at the top of the list," Harry finished. "And he knows things about his father's dealings with Voldemort. He taunted us about Sirius when he came to the station with us, remember?"

"Exactly. Which means he probably also knows that Fairy Tail, the very same people who just obliterated his entire mansion, have sided with Dumbledore and the Order against Voldemort and his followers… including his parents. And he knows how powerful Fairy Tail are but he probably doesn't know that Fairy Tail aren't ruthless killers - after all, they did rip his entire house to shreds."

"Damn," Harry whispered. "So as far as he knows, his parents have just become the targets of some of the most powerful people in our world. And he probably thinks they're out there right now, trying to hunt You-Know-Who and all his cronies down."

"…Yeah… I can only imagine how I'd be feeling if our Mum and Dad were on Fairy Tail's hitlist," Ron looked queasy. "Especially if I didn't know what they were really like."

"They're more than welcome to put my family on their hitlist," Harry muttered darkly, thinking about the Dursleys. But the thought of Sirius or the Weasleys being hunted by people who could tear the Ministry apart was frankly terrifying. "No wonder Malfoy's been so distracted recently."

"Precisely," Hermione nodded. "And its not like his parents can just ditch Voldemort and try to get out of Fairy Tail's firing line either, is it? If they did that, then Voldemort would be the one to hunt them down, which isn't a lot better."

"Ugh… now I actually feel bad for laughing at him when he read that his house went kablooie," Ron ran a hand over his face. "I never thought I'd feel bad for laughing at Malfoy."

"Neither did I," Harry sighed. For a moment, he was actually wondering now if there was something he could do to assure Malfoy that even though his family was enemies with Fairy Tail, they were very unlikely to be killed by them.

But that was the moment when Charla hopped up onto their table, followed by Crookshanks who rubbed his flank against her, followed by Happy who looked decidedly unhappy about it.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt whatever you're talking about," Charla said, keeping her voice down so people wouldn't pick it out over the noise of the crowd. "But I thought you should know… didn't you say that you have a friend who lives in the hut next to the forest?"

"Yeah, we do. Hagrid, the groundskeeper," Harry nodded. "But he's away at the moment."

"Then who's the really big man currently walking around outside the hut?" Happy asked.

Instantly all three of the trio were on their feet and hurried over to the window to look outside. And sure enough, though he appeared small from all the way up in the tower, there was no mistaking the thick moleskin overcoat or the huge shaggy mane of hair around the head of the man below, who appeared to be playing a long overdue game of fetch with a very large hoarhound in the snow which had started falling an hour ago.

"HAGRID!" all three of them beamed at the same time, and in a rush they were running up the stairs to Harry's dormitory in order to retrieve Harry's Invisibility Cloak.

---

"Hagrid! It's us!" Harry pounded on the door half an hour later. "Open up!"

"Shoulda known," a familiar chuckling came from the other side, to the accompaniment of loud barking and scrabbling at the door. "Only been back 'alf a minute an' already yer comin' down to say 'ello. Down, Fang. Down, ya ruddy dog."

Harry, Ron and Hermione were filled with delight at the sound of Hagrid's voice… but the same could not be said when they got a look at his face. Hermione actually screamed at the sight of the bruises and cuts blotching their way up and down his face, particularly on the left hand side. But the enormous man was quick to hush them and usher them inside, where they whipped off the cloak and immediately began questioning him.

"It's nothin' fer you to worry abou'," Hagrid constantly assured them, even as he held a piece of dragon meat against his face to try and reduce the swelling. "I'm fine. More importantly, I want ter hear all abou' what's been going on since I was away."

"And we want to hear about what the heck you were doing that got you like this," Ron insisted. "Some of those cuts look like they were only made today!"

"Well they weren't," Hagrid said bluntly. "I'm just a slow healer is all. It's not important 'ow I got like this and what I was doing while I was away was top secret mind, so don't you go pokin' yer noses into it. And… huh…" he blinked as he looked up towards the window. "I don't remember ever seein' those cats around 'ere. Must belong to new students I guess."

The trio turned around to see Happy, Charla and Pantherlily were all standing on the outside windowsill, the two Exceed from the Gryffindor Common Room having popped over to Ravenclaw to fetch the third before following them down here.

"Ah… uh… Hagrid…?" Hermione asked tentatively. "Can I ask you something?"

"Long as it's no' a repeat of any of the questions you've already asked me, shoot."

"How much do you know about… about Fairy Tail?"

"…Yeh mean children's stories?" Hagrid frowned.

"No, we mean about… the group known as Fairy Tail."

"The who now?"

"You haven't heard of them?" Ron gasped in astonishment.

"Should I 'ave?"

"But they've been all over the news recently. Seriously, they've been all over it for over a month now."

"Well I 'aven't exactly been keeping up to date with current events," Hagrid pointed out. "Was on a top secret mission wasn' I? Didn't want ruddy owls with newspapers followin' me all over the place where I was goin'. Not that that means I'm gonna tell yeh, mind," he added hastily. "So then… what's Fairy Tail?"

"…How about we make a deal, Hagrid?" Harry said slowly as Hermione crossed over to the window and let the Exceed in. "We'll tell you all about the mages from another dimension and you tell us all about your journey to find the giants."

"Giants!?" Hagrid looked suddenly alarmed. "Wha' are yeh talkin' about? I weren't nowhere near any giants or anything like… wait…" his black beetle eyes narrowed in confusion. "Did you say mages… from another dimension?"

"Did I say that?" Harry grinned enigmatically. "I guess I must have said that, yes."

"Yeh've lost me," Hagrid shook his head. "Yeh can't have met from another dimension. That's impossible. And Hermione, what're yeh doing? You want those cats to be eaten? Fang'll have 'em yeh know, if he has a mind to."

Indeed, Fang was looking with rigid attention at the three cats as they hopped in onto the floor. And as Pantherlily alighted upon the ground he was up out of his bed, tremendous barks rocking the cabin as he flung himself at them. But the dog, and indeed Hagrid, was very suddenly taken by surprise when Pantherlily sprouted into his battle form and seized the startled boarhound by the collar.

"SIT!" Lily roared, and Fang instantly obeyed utterly bewildered.

"WHAT THE SAM HECK!" Hagrid cried, shooting to his feet and gasping as he clutched his bruised ribs. "Harry, Ron, get back! You too Hermione!"

"Hagrid, it's okay," Ron said quickly with great amusement. "These cats are from the other dimension too. They're part of the Fairy Tail group."

"Aye, and don't worry, we're friends with anyone who's friends with Dumbledore!" Happy waved and to Hagrid's astonishment the illusion that disguised all three of them lifted, automatically receding from tricking Hagrid's eyes and leaving the Exceed very much visible to him.

"Talkin' cats?" he blinked several times, picking up the piece of meat from where he'd dropped it and sitting down heavily. "Must be hallucinatin'… if talking cats existed I'd know about it surely."

"What about sphinxes?" Charla pointed out.

"Nah, they don' count… got human heads, them," Hagrid murmured, staring at each of the cats in turn. "You lot are all cat… and yeh're talkin'…"

"Yeah, they are," Hermione smiled as she slipped over to Hagrid's side, unable to keep the grin off her face as she loudly whispered, "And in the world they're from, all the dragons talk too."

"WHA…!?" Hagrid was almost on his feet again. "Yeh're not serious!? This isn't all just some elaborate prank yeh've been planning since yeh got back to school, is it, cos if it is that's extraordinarily mean of you."

"It's no joke," Happy said as Lily shrank back down into his little form once more while Fang stared at the three cats in apparent bemusement. "There's lots of amazing things in our world that yours doesn't have."

"And vice versa of course," Charla agreed. "For instance I don't believe ours has hippogriffs. But we certainly have talking dragons."

"And flying cats! See!" Happy grinned as he lifted off from the ground, sprouting his wings and doing laps around the cabin. Hagrid's jaw was hanging open with disbelief, while Fang appeared to be trying to follow Happy's progress with his head all while sitting in the same spot Lily had told him to.

"I don't believe it…" Hagrid whispered. "I don't… believe it… Harry," he turned to face the young boy he'd rescued from his non-magical family over four years ago. "I'm gonna ask yeh one last time… are you pullin' my leg?"

"No, Hagrid. I'm really not. There's a lot of stuff been going on since you've been a way. Trust me… a lot."

Hagrid sat there, momentarily lost for words. But then his eyes lit up like a child who'd just been told there would be four Christmas celebrations throughout next year. "By crikey, I never thought… I never even imagined… yeh've got to tell me all about it," he leaned over the table as much as he dared with his injuries. "I want to know it all, every detail about yeh're word. What kind of creatures do they 'ave there? What's the magic like? Do yeh have a magical school like this one? I can't believe I'm actually talking to cats from another world!"

"And we'll be sure to tell you everything we can in time," Lily said, sprouting back into his battle form again and raising his hand, which Hagrid shook eagerly. Harry, Ron and Hermione all winced - knowing from experience how tight Hagrid's grip could be when he got excited, but Lily didn't even flinch. "But first I want to say it's a pleasure to meet you at last, Hagrid. We've been told quite a bit about you. And I do believe, based on what we've heard, you're going to be very popular with the rest of our group."

"Who are all human by the way," Charla coughed as she hopped up onto the table. "We three are the only non-humans that have traversed from our world to yours. But may I say," she looked up, up and up until she could see into Hagrid's beaming and bruised face. "I've been to three different worlds… and you're still the biggest man I've ever seen without some temporary magical growth."

That just seemed to make Hagrid even happier.

"Well where are the rest of yeh're group then? I want teh meet 'em all!"

"That's the thing, Hagrid," Harry said insistently. "You have to keep quiet about them okay? Nobody can know that you've been in contact with Fairy Tail, except for the Order members and a few select students."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Let's just say most people haven't exactly been greeting them with open arms," Hermione sighed. And they quickly outlined to Hagrid everything they could think to tell him, including how the Ministry had branded them as threats and how the Wizarding nation was so gripped with fear at their phenomenal powers that few were willing to even consider Fairy Tail might not be enemies. As well as how Fairy Tail's actions hadn't really been helping to convince them otherwise for the most part.

"THEY SANK AZKABAN!?" Hagrid bellowed, this piece of news in particular catching his attention. "Blimey… good riddance to the place but… blimey, where're they gonna put all the convicts now."

"I heard that the Ministry was trying to co-operate with the Ministry of Germany to use the prison of Nurmengard for a while until they can build a new prison somewhere," Hermione said.

"Whoa," Hagrid breathed, leaning back in his chair, apparently deep in thought. Nobody in the cabin spoke for a while, waiting to hear his verdict. But eventually he smiled and said. "Well, if Dumbledore trusts this Fairy Tail lot then so do I. And even if that weren't the case, you lot rescued a bunch o' dragons from the cruel lash of the goblins. That automatically makes you alrigh' in my book. Was never sure if there really were any dragons in Gringott's but I was always sure tha' if there were, they wouldn' be having much a life cooped up underground like that, so good on yeh."

"We thought you'd like that," chuckled Ron. "But just wait until you meet the rest of them. Anyway, now you have to tell us about the giants, Hagrid…"

But before he could get any further there was a knock at the door.

---

The encounter with Umbridge was a thoroughly sickening. Her contempt for Hagrid was extremely clear and Harry could tell right off the bat that she was looking for any kind of excuse to get rid of him as soon as possible. Even if Hagrid wasn't a half-breed, which she apparently loathed, his loyalty to Dumbledore was very well known and that made him even more of a target in her book. And she seemed to suspect that Hagrid wasn't telling the truth about going to the south of France anymore than Harry and the others did.

But eventually she left and Harry and the others were left with Hagrid to discuss his plans for his classes, which Umbridge would definitely be inspecting soon, possibly as early as Tuesday morning which was when they had their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the week. So worried were they about Hagrid's potential career prospects that for the moment they forgot about the giants and indeed about Fairy Tail, which allowed the three Exceed to slip off unnoticed and fly back towards the castle.

"Hagrid, are you absolutely sure that nobody will be in any danger?" Hermione was eventually asking, frustrated by Hagrid's refusal to tell them his plans for their lessons. "The evil hag will be looking for even the slightest thing she can use against you so any lesson she inspects has to be completely airtight."

"There's nothin' for yeh to worry about, Hermione," Hagrid assured her. "Now… what were we talking abou' before she interrupted us?"

"We were talking about… er… where'd the cats go?" Ron asked, his head swivelling in bemusement. The others did the same until quite suddenly there was a knock… on the wall.

"Huh?" Hagrid blinked, looking at a section of wall that was next to his fireplace - about the only wallspace that didn't have something jammed up against it in the entire hut. "That's odd… why would anyone be knocking there?"

"I think I have a theory," Hermione said as she eased herself out of the chair and hurried over to the wall. She tapped on it lightly and ran her hand across it until she found a groove in the wood and pulled on it. It jutted outwards like a door handle and the entire panel of the wall swung away, to reveal a small blue-haired girl standing in a large dark hallway beyond, along with three smiling cats.

"Hello, Hermione-san," Wendy said with a smile.

"Hi Wendy," Hermione grinned, stepping past to let her shuffle into the hut.

"Wha…?" Hagrid's mind appeared to be being blown yet again. "I've got three doors in my hut? Where the heck did that passageway come from.

"Wow… you're very big," Wendy observed, her eyes widening at the size of the humongous man before her. "Um… I mean…" she added quickly, bowing her head. "It's very nice to meet you, Hagrid-san!"

"This is Wendy," Hermione introduced her. "The youngest human member of Fairy Tail."

"…Right…" Hagrid stumbled, still trying to wrap his mind around the extra door.

"Oh, and she was raised by a dragon apparently," Harry snickered.

Hagrid sprang to his feet so fast he almost fell over, clutching at his ribs and the piece of meat going flying across the room to land on the fire. "Raised by a… you're bleeding kidding me! Aahhn…"

"You're hurt!" Wendy gasped and hurried towards him, raising her small hands and placing them gingerly on his massive chest, a greenish glow emanating from her palms. Hagrid sat back, gasping in surprise as he felt a soothing aura pass through his torso and his ribs began to crack painlessly back into place.

"Blimey…" he whispered. "That's… tha's amazing."

"Unfortunately Umbridge has already seen him though, Wendy," Hermione pointed out. "You'll have to leave his visible injuries there otherwise she might get suspicious later."

"Okay," Wendy grimaced unhappily, but she understood the necessity. She eventually lowered her hands and Hagrid was able to stand up and swing his arms from side to side experimentally, forcing Ron and Harry to duck under the table to avoid being accidentally clubbed across the head with his huge hands.

"No pain at all," Hagrid beamed in amazement. "Even Madame Pomfrey couldn't have done better than that. Thank yeh very much, little one. Thank yeh very much indeed."

"…I'm really, really little next to you," Wendy murmured.

"Now yeh've got to tell me all abou' this dragon that raised yeh," Hagrid said eagerly. "It was the other way round fer me - I raised a dragon myself in this very hut for a while. Norbert was 'is name. Lovely little blighter he was, until I was forced to give 'im up." He looked momentarily crestfallen, still upset even after all these years that his beloved Norwegian Ridgeback had been taken away from him. But he perked up quickly and said, "What was your dragon's name?"

"Perhaps it would be best if we were to continue this conversation at the other end of this corridor," Charla offered. "There's a great many more people for you to meet, Hagrid. Including two others with dragon parents and another who can actually turn into a dragon."

"…LEAD THE WAY!" Hagrid roared so loudly everyone clapped their hands over their ears tightly. But they smiled at his enthusiasm and led him into the dark corridor, which was easily large for him to step into without having to stoop. Fang lolloped in after them and Hermione carefully closed the door behind them before they all hurried along it.

And sure enough, the other side led to the Room of Requirement - most specifically the stadium room where Fairy Tail spent their time practicing. And every one of them was there now, waiting for Wendy to turn with the new friend from the Order they'd heard about. And clearly every one of them was impressed by Hagrid's size when he emerged at last.

"Dang… and I was really enjoying being the tallest person around," Gildarts muttered.

"So… so yeh're them?" Hagrid looked out at the amassed group excitedly. "Yeh're all the people from the other world? Fairy Tail?"

"Indeed," Erza nodded, baring her arm to him and tapping her blue guild mark. "If you possess this mark, you're one of the Fairy Tail guild. And a great pleasure it is to meet you, Hagrid-dono."

"…I can't help think that I've met someone who could win a wrestling match with Taurus," Lucy breathed.

"Are we sure he doesn't have Titan magic?" Levy giggled.

"Now you…" Elfman said as he stepped forward to grip Hagrid's hand and shake it firmly, looking up into Hagrid's eyes and unused to feeling quite so dwarfed. "You look like a real Man indeed."

Hagrid looked like he was in the world's best candy store in that moment, wading into the crowd of Fairies and introducing himself left and right. There was no way he was going to remember the long list of names he was hearing immediately but he didn't care. He was just enthused about everything and every time one of the mages gave him a little demonstration of the kind of magic they could do, he looked like he was about to wet himself with excitement. Harry could understand why Hagrid in particular would be so intrigued by it since he could no longer practice magic because he'd been accused of a crime he hadn't committed. There must have been a part of him that was wondering if he could learn something like this, which was a bit unfortunate as the answer was no. They'd have to find a way of letting him down gently about that.

The groundskeeper also proved himself to be very popular among the Fairies very quickly, no doubt because of his extremely openly friendly exterior and the fact that he wasn't regarding them with any degree of suspicion at all, which they had grown accustomed to in this world. He ended up having a quick talk with Lucy about each of her Spirits, asking to meet Sagittarius who was his own Zodiac sign, lamented that he didn't have anything like Elfman's Beast Form to show to people in his classes and ended up promising Cana several dozen rounds the next time they were both in the Hog's Head.

But it didn't take him long to remember what most excited and he called out, "So… which of yeh were raised by dragons?"

"That would be me," Natsu pounded his chest.

"And me," Gajeel grinned.

"Um… well you already know about me, Hagrid-san," Wendy said.

"I want to know it all!" Hagrid cried. "Everythin' about these dragons, what they taught yeh, how the behaved. I love dragons - if things had gone different when I was younger I might be ou' in Romania with Ron's brother right now workin' on the dragon reserve."

"I was going to say that you're acting remarkably like he was when he learned about the dragons of our world," Lisanna smiled as she stepped up between Natsu and Gajeel. "So just by way of experimentation, what would you say if I told you that Natsu and me… we met an ancient talking dragon from… this world."

"Yeah, some old geezer of a dragon named Kilgharrah," Natsu chuckled.

"Hey, I was there too. Don't forget me!" Happy cried.

Harry was now sure that Hagrid really had wet himself just a little bit there. "Yeh… Yeh're saying…?" his voice was barely above a whisper.

"And he taught Lisanna how to do this!" Natsu pointed to her and hopped about on the balls of his feet. "Go on, Lisanna. Show him. Show him, show him quick."

Lisanna rolled her eyes at Natsu's enthusiasm for her new ability, which hadn't abated even after two weeks with it. But she obliged him nevertheless and flashed yellow, morphing into her newest Take-Over form once again and spreading her wings out behind Natsu and Gajeel respectively.

Hagrid took five seconds of staring at her before he actually fainted, keeling over backwards and crashing straight to the floor with a colossal thud, even though both Natsu and Gajeel jumped forward to grab his arms and arrest his fall a little.

Wow, I wonder what would happen if we told him that we were in here, Lisanna heard Igneel say in her head.

Is it possible for someone to die of excitement? Cos I think there's a possibility he would do, Metalicana agreed.

---

It took half an hour for Hagrid to wake up and when he did he was eager to hear more but his questioning was quickly arrested by Harry. "Hagrid, can you tell us about the giants now please?"

"…Why're you so sure that I went teh see giants anyway, Harry?" Hagrid asked, fidgeting slightly. "I'm tellin' yeh I was nowhere near…"

"It's alright, Hagrid," Gildarts said reassuringly. "We're pretty tight with the Order - they told us about where you'd gone. Somewhere up in the mountains of… Europe, I think its called… to look for giants and try to sway them away from joining Voldemort, right?"

"They told yeh?" Hagrid blinked.

"We're practically members of the Order as it is," Erza explained. "And we've joined the fight against Voldemort. It's natural they'd tell us what you were doing."

"And we're quite fascinated to hear about what you've been up to," Mirajane agreed. "Please do tell us."

Hagrid looked uncomfortable, but his trust in Harry and Dumbledore's decision to befriend Fairy Tail was enough to loosen his tongue. "Well," he took a deep breath before beginning. "It took us a while to get there cos we was travelling on foot see… couldn't risk magical transportation until we'd manage to lose the Ministry officials tailin' us cos I'm not really supposed to be doin' any magic. But eventually we managed to get to the mountains and began our climb in search o' the giants…"

He had the rapt attention of his entire audience as he unveiled his tale of his journey with Madame Maxime, interrupted only once in a while when someone asked a clarifying question or when someone got a bit excited, like Natsu did when he heard about the ever-burning flames that had been given to the Gurg of the giants as a gift.

Reminds me of my old buddy, Atlas Flame, Igneel chuckled wistfully. You know, I think he actually went on to found a village of giants if my memory serves me well.

Guess ever-burning flames are very popular among giants from either world then, Metalicana chuckled.

Sssh, this story is interesting, Grandine chided her male companions in Lisanna's head as Hagrid continued on. It had not gone very well for them overall, and the collective faces of the group fell almost in synchrony as Hagrid told of how their initial attempts were totally ruined when a new Gurg took over and killed the old one and how the new one, Golgomath, didn't want anything to do with Dumbledore and how Hagrid and Maxime were forced to flee for their lives. And the story didn't improve when Hagrid related how Walden McNair and a couple of other Death Eaters were getting the giant's attention, and any who were still thinking about siding with Dumbledore were quickly put in their place by those loyal to the Gurg.

"That's awful," Lucy whispered.

"And utterly brutal," Juvia shivered. "Juvia doesn't know much about the giants from our world but from what she's heard they're pretty civilised. Much like humans except quite a bit larger."

"No' really the case with the ones we 'ave in our world," Hagrid sighed. "They're really not meant teh be cooped up together like they are, but humans just keep drivin' 'em back and pushin' 'em away from all forms of human settlements, killing 'em off whenever they go to places they're not wanted. Giants have always been rough with each other but there was times when they could wander around wherever they wanted to and while they was never peaceable they was a lot more placid back them from what I recall. I mean granted you'd get one or two that'd step on a human just for amusement but usually if yeh gave them a wide berth they just ignored yeh."

"But of course that wouldn't stop people from seeing them as nothing more than a threat anyway," Lisanna sighed. "It happens all too often - things that are potentially dangerous get persecuted."

"Well, to be fair," Ron said. "Giants have always been a problem for keeping up the Statute of Secrecy to keep us hidden from the Muggles. Not that I'm saying they should have been pushed back like that," he added quickly. "But it does make sense for them to stay in the mountains at the very least."

"Yeah but I wouldn't bet on them staying in those mountains much longer," Hagrid said darkly. "I don't rightly know if they did decide to side with You-Know-Who in the end, but its looking very likely that they did with tha' Golgomath in charge."

"So that's yet another enemy we may have to end up facing," Gray mused. "I wonder how our magic's going to stack up against a giant. How big did you say they were again, Hagrid?"

"The biggest of 'em usually grew to abou' twenty-five feet or so."

"How big are the giants in our world anyway?" Evergreen asked.

"I've read a bit about them," Levy said to nobody's surprise. "And I read that they were ten times taller than humans in our world. If that's true then our giants would be the larger race but I wasn't given precise measurements so I can't say for certain."

"Well I dunno abou' your giants but I know that our giants are generally highly resistant to magic," Hagrid said. "It's one of the reasons why people were so afraid of 'em cos if they decided to come and sit on their house there wasn't much that could be done about it."

"Well they haven't run into our magic yet, so we'll just have to see how that compares if they come looking for a fight!" Natsu grinned savagely. "I've never fought a proper giant before. Sounds fun."

"Still, our enemies continue to stack up against us," Erza said grimly. "And the addition of a dying race to the ranks of our adversaries… is rather sad."

"So we make sure that we don't kill any of them," Cana said. "We can beat them up but no killing, pretty much like we do with every foe we face, right? We'll overcome, no matter what this universe throws at us, we'll find a way to overcome."

"But Hagrid-san," Wendy raised her hand. "You still haven't explained how you got all those cuts and bruises. They can't have come from the giants could they? It must have taken you a while to get back and injuries from them would have healed a bit by then…"

"Tha's really not important," Hagrid replied evasively. "I'm fine anyway now, thanks to you," his eyes glittered eagerly as his former train of thought started up again. "Which reminds me, yeh were gonna tell me about yeh're dragon parents right?"

"There's quite a lot to tell on that score," Gajeel chuckled.

You don't know the half of it, Lisanna thought to herself.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked to each other with tired smiles. Despite Hagrid's bad news it was good to see him back home again, and integrating well with their newest group of friends. And they had a feeling that their beloved groundskeeper had just made three friends for life with the Dragon Slayers, whom he was now eagerly swapping stories with about raising and being raised by a dragon.

Now they just had to make sure that Umbridge didn't succeed in tearing Hagrid away from where he belonged, as she was surely going to try and do.

But quite suddenly, Harry gasped and his hand flew to his forehead. His scar had suddenly seared at him and he'd felt a sudden rush of disbelief running through him, a feeling that came out of absolutely nowhere.

And he wasn't the only one who reacted. Ron, Hermione and Hagrid all suddenly stood up straight, their spines tingling and their eyes widening for reasons they didn't quite understand. And Lisanna, still in her dragon form, spun around with eyes as round as tennis balls, and about as wide too.

"What… what was that?" she whispered, to the bemusement of the rest of the the Fairy Tail members.

But she had a horrible feeling she already knew the answer.

---

Five minutes earlier…

The sun was now beginning to brush the horizon, and Voldemort's slitted nostrils were flaring. He was not used to being kept waiting. In fact he was not used to following somebody else's instructions. He hadn't done anything of the kind since his days working at Borgin and Burke's. After his time working there, he'd been the one who gave out all of the orders.

And yet here he was… standing on the outskirts of Bristol at the base of a hill, flanked by numerous Death Eaters and… waiting. Just waiting, and he wasn't even sure what for. If he ended up looking like a fool for this, he was going to be furious beyond measure!

Ever since he'd been forced to regroup, that woman's voice in his head had returned every so often, whispering to him and regaling him with stories about ancient Arthurian times. Voldemort was still unsure whether it was really Morgana speaking to him - he still held a very high degree of scepticism. But whoever it was, she was clearly powerful to be able to invade his Occlumency barriers and talk to him directly with such ease. But whenever Voldemort tried to question her about her intentions she would fall silent, enigmatically whispering that he would find out soon enough.

But on the whole, while the Order, the DA and Fairy Tail had all been preparing for an upcoming battle, Voldemort and his followers had been doing comparatively little, except licking their wounds and trying to pull themselves together after what had happened. In the last couple of days, Voldemort had started sending out forays to try and try and find some of the Dementors that had fled Azkaban upon its destruction, and a couple of emissaries to talk to a few werewolves and try to get back to recruiting, but mostly he'd been puzzling over what to do next.

As had the two Grimoire Heart mages. Rustyrose and Bluenote were still with them for the time being, having reflected on Voldemort's words and deciding he might have had a point - they did need help if they wanted to get far in this new world they knew almost nothing about. And when Voldemort had told them what he'd heard about the location of their comrades, they'd decided to stick around to see if he was right.

On the whole, the two sides hadn't interacted much. The Death Eaters gave Grimoire Heart a very wide berth, and the mages were more than happy to let them. They'd been recovering their strength well, proving the resilience of the people of their world, but after two weeks the both of them were getting restless. Voldemort had forbade them not to go out and cause trouble, but Bluenote had been very quick to glower at him and crush a wooden chair into splinters with a glance, just to make his point.

"Never forget, Dark Lord," he said with lip curled. "We are not your subordinates. We do not have to answer to you and if you try to make us then you may find yourself in the same position as that chair."

Nevertheless they had managed to reign themselves in, while Voldemort seethed. He was not used to people treating him without respect. Sometimes he would come across someone who did not fear him but even Dumbledore and Harry respected him in their own ways. Perhaps not in what he did but they at least respected the fact he was a powerful wizard. These two… there was nothing of the sort. They merely viewed him and his followers with complete contempt.

Nevertheless, Voldemort was determined to show them somehow that he was a person that they should be respecting. And yet he still couldn't come up with an answer on how to oppose Fairy Tail. Not one that would be feasible anyway.

But there was still a degree of hope left as far as he was concerned. If the woman speaking to him really was Morgana… well… he'd heard the stories. And for the first time in a long time, Voldemort was very much looking forward to the prospect of meeting someone as renowned and powerful as she.

And that's why he was here now, at this hillside just off the coast. Because the woman's voice had come to him not an hour earlier and told him to come to this exact spot.

"Bring your followers," she had instructed. "And those two from the other world. Every one of them is going to want to see this."

And so he had… and so he waited… and waited… and waited…

"I am rapidly losing patience, baldie," Rustyrose yawned, stuffing his hands in his pockets and reclining against a rock. "Tell me if this surprise of yours is coming anytime soon, will you? Your answer will determine whether I walk away or stay put for a few more minutes and then walk away."

"You DARE!?" Bellatrix snarled at him, lurching forwards and having to be held back by Rodolphus and Rabastan. "You DARE mock the Dark Lord in such a disgraceful manner? I'll have your head! I'll have it mounted on a wall!"

"And do something to bring your lady friend to heel," Rustyrose chuckled. "She seems quite feral to me."

"Just hold a little while longer," Voldemort insisted quietly, though the truth was he was beginning to lose patience himself. "We will most likely not want to miss it when it happens."

"When what happens, my Lord?" Dolohov asked bemusedly. "What are we waiting for exactly?"

But Voldemort did not answer. Instead he just kept waiting… and as soon as Rodolphus had managed to calm the fuming Bellatrix down, silence reigned over the hillside…

…for about two minutes.

Then…

*WHA-HAM!*

All of a sudden something huge crashed down into the surf about a hundred metres off to the right of the amassed group, impacting in the shallow water of the channel with a huge plume of spray as if whatever it was had just dropped out the sky like a falling meteor, even though it had actually appeared out of thin air a few metres above the surface of the water. It's sudden appearance made most of the Death Eaters jump right out of their skins, especially since the sound of its impact was like a cannon going off.

But when the spray cleared enough for them to make out what the object was, Rustyrose and Bluenote were quite to recognise it.

"That's the airship of Grimoire Heart," Rustyrose cried, and indeed it was. Battered and busted up from the fighting that had taken place on it six years prior and missing most of its roof, but still relatively intact under the circumstances.

The two Grimoire Heart mages hurried towards the surf, followed more warily by the rest of the group, but as they approached something relatively large lurched up to the edge of the ship's top deck and tipped outwards, falling through one of the large holes in the wall and plunging downwards to crash heavily into the water and actually displacing much of it to crash down against the bottom. "Woo-weeeeeeee!" it cried, as it impacted face-first before water washed in all around it and left it glubbing and thrashing about in confusion.

"Ah, so the fat one is here then," Bluenote muttered.

"Hikaru!" Rustyrose called out to the thrashing lump. "I honestly never thought I'd be this glad to see you."

"Uhh… uhhnngff…" the figure managed to struggle to its feet, revealing it to be a very large man, at least seven feet in height and more than a little overweight, who looked like he would do very well in a sumo wrestling match. He didn't appear to wear much clothing other than large black pants, boots, wristbands, a pair of brown belts that crossed over his torso in an X and robe that was blue on the inside but yellow on the outside, and he had thick and rather shaggy black hair, which contrasted starkly against his extremely white complexion. "Rusty? Is that you?" he blubbered in confusion, looking around in alarm. "Whh… woo-wee… where in the world are we?"

"That's not even the right question to be asking at the moment to be honest," Rustyrose sighed, pushing his sunglasses over his nose and turning back to Voldemort and the Death Eaters. "This is Kain Hikaru, another member of Grimoire Heart's Seven Kin of Purgatory, much like myself. He's a bit slow but he's strong in both magic and body so I would warn you not to take him lightly either. Looks like he managed to cling onto our airship while being pulled through that vortex, unlike myself."

Bluenote grunted to himself as Kain hobbled his way to the shore, stepping duck-footedly due to the water in his boots. If the ace was honest, of all the members of the Seven Kin he'd rather had made it through to this world, Kain was at the bottom of the list. Not because he wasn't strong but because Bluenote personally found him to be extremely annoying. But at this point he'd take any familiar face he could find.

"Who… who are all these guys?" Kain asked as he made it to the sure, shaking his head and spraying water out of his hair. "And seriously isn't anyone going to tell me where we are? Gosh, I'm hungry… woo-wee… and that guy is freaking me out a little," he pointed at Voldemort as if he was an interesting wax figurine rather than an actual person who could see exactly what he was doing.

But Voldemort was quite a bit more interested in the airship. He could tell without being told that it was designed to be some kind of transportation but he couldn't have guessed exactly how it worked. But nevertheless, such a creation could potentially be rather useful to him despite the fact it was looking a little wrecked at the moment.

Still, was that the entire reason he'd been called out here by the woman's voice.

As it turned out… no…

The air was thrumming behind the group now, and Kain's questions went completely unanswered as everyone turned to look back at the hill behind them. A golden light had appeared on the side of it, and the whole hill was shaking and juddering like it had been caught in a miniature earthquake, though nobody could feel any vibrations in the ground. The Death Eaters backed away from it slowly, many of them readying their wands for a quick Disapparation if necessary. The light intensified and several of them wandered if the entire hill was going to explode. But then the light seemed to plunge inwards and dissipated… revealing the mouth of a cave set in the hillside.

For a moment, nobody moved. Nobody dared to speak. Voldemort slowly moved forwards to the front of the group, the Death Eaters falling back to let him past and all of them waiting with bated breath. Voldemort had told them all about the visions he'd been having (which he had described as such because visions sounded better than hearing a voice in his head) but none of them were sure what to think. Could it be true? It seemed so impossible… and yet…

The place was so quiet that the sound of soft footsteps emanating from inside the cave sounded almost loud in the still evening air. And into the light of the setting sun emerged a single figure, garbed in a long, elegant black dress which trailed slightly across the floor, dipped low to reveal a little of her cleavage and had thin sleeves ornately decorated with criss-crossing patterns that almost looked like a spider's web. Her hair was long, black and flowing and her lips were twisted into a combination of a superior smirk and a grin of elation.

And they could feel her power. Everyone there could sense the deep, ancient magic condensed within her body. And in that moment, all doubts Voldemort had about the identity of this woman was disappeared.

"Hello again, Albion," Morgana Pendragon took a deep breath and purred with delight. "Your Queen has returned."

---

"She's back," Lisanna whispered, turning to face the rest of her friends with her expression as grave as death. "I just felt a spike in the Old Religion. And so did you," she nodded to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hagrid. "There's no mistaking it. Morgana is back."

---

Just as Lisanna had felt something stir, the dragon who had shared his abilities with her sensed it too. Kilgharrah opened his golden eyes, glowing in the darkness as the sun finally sank below the horizon.

"It seems the day has finally arrived," he sighed. "The one you were hoping would never come, young warlock. Morgana is free again at long last."

"I know," the wizened old man next to him whispered. "I sensed it too. And I can sense something else as well… she's grown even stronger."