"Nice day, isn't it?" Neville remarked casually as he, Luna, Ron, Hermione and Ginny walked down to Hogsmeade.
"It is, but remember: anything can happen. Voldemort's out there and we all know what he's capable of..." Hermione reminded them.
"Gotcha." Ginny patted her trouser leg, where she'd strapped her wand against her leg. "Anyway, I'm going to meet some of the other girls in my year down at the Three Broomsticks. Any of you headed that way?"
"I thought you'd be out here with Dean. What became of him?" Ron raised an eyebrow.
"We broke up. Nothing much. Just wasn't working out." Ginny shrugged.
Ron, Hermione and Neville looked at one another, but quickly shook it off.
"Luna and I don't really have any plans so we'll just be going for a walk around until we decide what to do..." Neville said.
"Yeah, same for us both. All of you still have the Coins from last year, right?" Hermione asked.
"I never got rid of mine." Luna fished in her pocket and held hers up.
"Neither did I..." Neville patted his pocket. Ginny nodded as well.
"Good. Doesn't hurt to be prepared. Anyway, we'll see you lot later. Meet back here to head up to the castle again?" Ron asked.
"Sounds like a plan. See you!" Ginny ran off towards the Three Broomsticks and Neville and Luna walked off.
"Well... Time to head for the Cave and finally solve the mystery behind who's behind these mysterious bracelets..." Hermione fiddled with her bracelet.
"It's been driving you bonkers, hasn't it?" Ron chuckled knowingly.
"I just can't figure out how it works! Is it Runes, Charms? Transfiguration? How was it created and what fuels it? How does it link to our magic and only our magic?" Hermione wondered, somewhat frustrated.
"Well, you'll get to ask all those questions and more when we get to the Cave. Let's go..." Ron took her hand and they walked away.
"You'll like Ron and Hermione, I'm sure." Harry reassured Roxy.
"It's not that I'm worried about. Will they like me?" Roxy fretted.
"Calm down Roxy! Since when have you cared what people think of you?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"After all the things you've told me that you went through with your best friends... That's a lot to go through together since you were eleven..."
"Well, as your gift helped them to survive in that battle in Diagon Alley, I'm pretty sure they won't hate you." Harry touched Hedwig lightly as she flew past them and decided to land in a tree ahead of them, giving shade to a park bench.
"Well, here we are. They should call us any minute now." Harry rummaged in his pocket for his mirror as Roxy let Artu off his leash and rubbed his belly for a bit.
The mirror buzzed just as she sat a little way away from him on the bench.
"Here goes!" Harry tapped the mirror and it glowed slightly before the image of Ron and Hermione appeared in it.
"Hi Harry! How are you?" Hermione asked.
"I'm good. How are you two?" Harry smiled.
"We're surviving. Sixth Year is officially over. We've all passed our exams even though Hermione was unnecessarily stressing herself out over them. She passed everything with flying colours and got the top spot overall again. As usual..." Ron rolled his eyes.
"Same old Hermione, even after everything..." Harry laughed. "Anyway, do you want to meet the maker of those bracelets or not?"
"Of course!" Ron and Hermione exclaimed in unison.
Harry motioned for Roxy to move closer to him.
"Hi!" She exclaimed cheerfully.
Ron and Hermione looked at one another, then at Roxy, then Harry, and then repeated the motions at least twice.
"Wait... Is that... Is that... Princess Roxanne of Tir Nan Og with you?" Ron sputtered.
"I prefer Roxy. And you can drop the Princess part. You're Ronald Weasley, aren't you?" Roxy giggled at their reactions.
"Yes... But call me Ron. Harry... You're in Magix then? The Daily Prophet said in an interview with Queen Nebula that Roxy was attending Alfea College for Fairies in Magix and..." Ron trailed off.
"Yes, Ron. The big mystery has finally been revealed. I've been in Magix this whole time." Harry smiled.
Hermione finally found her voice. "So... what are you doing over there? You've been learning new magic ever since you left Hogwarts, actually... since we saw you do that stuff back in the attack on Diagon Alley..."
"I'm at Red Fountain here. Learning pretty interesting stuff. I never knew Potions could actually be fun, for instance. Turns out once you have a teacher that doesn't constantly sneer at you it's not so bad..." Harry shrugged.
"I... wow. So..." Hermione turned to look at Roxy. "You're the one who helped Harry with those bracelets, aren't you? Am I also correct in assuming that you somehow engineered his escape from St Mungo's?"
"That's correct, Hermione. I have to say that it's actually nice to be able to talk to you. Harry's told me so much about your adventures together. Apparently you were the brains behind all those?" Roxy asked.
"Well, I wouldn't say that... I mean, Ron and Harry all played their parts too..." Hermione brushed it off.
"Nonsense, Hermione! You helped us in First Year, figuring out how to get past most of those traps to get the Philosopher's Stone. You even managed to help us when you were Petrified in Second Year and many other incidents before and after that, Hermione. Stop trying to downplay your brilliance!" Harry exclaimed.
"Hermione's been dying to ask this and quite frankly, so have I. How did you make these things like this?" Ron held up the wrist with his bracelet on.
"It was part of a class assignment that I had. One of my roommates, Athena and I worked on them. It got full marks, by the way. Harry mentioned going to see you for Christmas and getting gifts for you and I offered to make two more." Roxy shrugged.
"Bloody well saved our lives it did. Thanks, Roxy..." Ron murmured.
"You're quite welcome. So... What is it like at Hogwarts? Sounds like an interesting place..." Roxy said.
"Oh it has been quite interesting..." Hermione started.
"...if you count all the dangers we've been through here collectively since First Year, it's definitely been too interesting..." Ron continued.
"Ah. I might be the Fairy of Animals and have a dog as a Familiar, but I think the Cerebrus would have gotten to me too..." Roxy shuddered at the thought.
"The food here is amazing though. Absolutely amazing." Ron smiled dreamily.
"So I've been told. Harry bemoans the fact that we can only find one place about here that sells Treacle Tart..." Roxy chortled.
Harry rolled his eyes at this.
"I've never been to any part of what you call Muggle Britain, far less Wizarding Britain. Overall, what's the culture like? Maybe someday after you kick Voldemort's butt, I can come see..." Roxy said.
"I'd be glad to be a tour guide for you! Of us three, I know Muggle Britain the most and Ron knows Wizarding Britain, so he might be good for that..." Hermione turned to Ron, who nodded.
"I would. Could be fun. Me, Hermione, you and Harry... Plus we've got to include Neville, Luna and Ginny, of course..."
"Those are some characters I'd like to meet too. Harry told me about the incident at the Ministry around this time last year..."
"Uh-huh... That was..." Ron trailed off.
Harry noticed the expression that his red-haired friend had was similar to Hermione's.
"Ron... Hermione, is there a problem?" he asked.
"The coins... we gave the D.A. last year... we told Neville, Ginny and Luna to only activate them if there was trouble..." Hermione looked worried.
Both yelled out in surprise as the cave shook.
A horse Patronus trotted into the cave.
"It's not Death Eaters exactly, but it's someone that we know were freed from prison by them. The Trix are here in Hogsmeade!" Ginny's voice came from the horse's mouth.
"WHAT?" Harry, Roxy, Hermione and Ron exclaimed in unison as the Patronus faded away.
"The Trix. What the hell would they be doing in Hogsmeade?" Roxy wondered.
"We've got to go and help somehow!" Hermione exclaimed.
"See you, Harry. I've got to make sure that my sister and the others are okay!" Ron got up.
"Not to mention as Prefects and members of... our little group, we owe it to Hogwarts to help the other students!" Hermione got up as well and the connection broke.
"Surely we can do something too, right?" Roxy asked him worriedly.
"I'll head back to Red Fountain. You go back to Alfea." Harry stood up.
Roxy nodded and the two went their separate ways, their respective pets following them.
"This is fun!" Stormy exclaimed as she sent a lightning bolt towards some hapless third year Hufflepuff girl, who ran away screaming.
"I'll say. I haven't had this much fun in years..." Darcy slammed a shop attendant who'd come running out of Zonko's into the ground, where he remained, not moving.
The Trix had also created some monsters, that swarmed the village- attacking students, inhabitants, shopkeepers and other visitors alike.
One creature climbed atop the Owl Office and banged on the roof until it smashed, sending all the owls in there flying outside in a panic- as well as the staff.
It was to this scene that Ron and Hermione came down from the cave in the mountains nearby and stood watching for a few seconds, stunned.
It was only when they saw Icy nearly encase Dennis Creevey in a block of ice that they sprung into action.
"Let's go, let's go!" Ron shouted.
"Come on!" Hermione sprung to Dennis' defence.
"Dennis, what happened to Colin?" She asked as her shield bracelet activated, protecting them both from Icy's metre long icicles raining down on them.
"I don't know! We got separated when the Trix made those creature things appear out of nowhere!" Dennis exclaimed, firing off a jinx at an approaching monster.
"We've got to get as many people as we can back up to the castle to safety!" Hermione exclaimed.
"How? They've got the whole of Hogsmeade swarmed! All sorts of creatures I've never seen in any books!" Dennis sent another spell at another creature.
"We've got to try! WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" Hermione pointed her wand at a large block of stone and swung it at the ice witch.
It didn't hit her, but it distracted her enough for Hermione and Dennis to run off towards the Hog's Head- the nearest building.
"Inside, inside, inside!" Aberforth huddled them inside.
Inside, they found several students inside, including a few familiar faces.
"What do we do? We're not prepared to fight their kind of magic!" Lavender panicked.
"We practiced... but not to fight them!" Parvati's tone was similar to Lavender's.
"We've got to get our wits about us and try! Surely we know some spells that would be effective against them and their spells! Heat spells against ice, light spells against darkness... other spells against storms!" Hermione exclaimed.
"But how effective would they be?" Seamus asked.
"Elemental spells! Remember we practiced those? We have to try them! We can't stay holed up in here forever!" Hermione's point was proven when the Hog's Head began to shake, dust and bricks falling loose from the ceiling.
"You bloody well can't!" Aberforth hollered from behind the bar. "I'm not about to let these new-fangled witches ruin my bar and my neighbourhood, regardless of whatever dimension they come from!"
"He's right! We have to try!" Hannah exclaimed from somewhere in the back of the bar.
"But we can't just rush back outside! We need a plan!" Padma reminded them.
"Well make it quick, because this place won't stand for much longer if we don't do something!" Seamus yelped as another chunk of ceiling narrowly missed crushing him.
"Okay! What do we know about the situation so far?" Hermione asked.
Terry Boot spoke up. "They appeared out of nowhere and started summoning these weird monsters and casting those strange spells of theirs! They're just letting all the creatures roam free, attacking random property and people!"
"So we know they don't have a specific target. There's a start. We can't take them on individually, so we might have to form teams. Some of us need to try getting younger students to safety and some are going to have to fight." Ron opined as he ran inside the building, a stream of dark energy narrowly missing his head and obliterating a light fixture.
"Stay between us!" Neville and Luna were fighting off a bunch of ghouls that had surrounded them and a few third years from all the houses.
The pair of them were firing off random hexes and curses at the ghouls, only for them to regenerate and attack again.
Neville looked over his shoulder at Luna, on the other side of the small group of younger students.
He caught her eye and they both nodded.
Raising their wands into the air, fire burst from Neville's wand and wind burst from Luna's as they moved around in a circular motion, obliterating the monsters surrounding them.
"That was bloody awesome!" A Slytherin girl with wavy brown hair cried.
"Astoria! Oh thank Merlin!" Daphne Greengrass ran towards them, long, blonde hair flapping behind her and casting a blasting hex at a ghoul that lunged for her.
She hugged the younger Slytherin girl tightly before glancing at Neville and Luna.
"Thank you so much for keeping her- my sister- safe!" Daphne said sincerely.
"A Slytherin thanking a Gryffindor for something. There's something new..." Neville remarked wryly.
"Oh no you don't! Aguamenti! Glisseo!" Daphne fired a water spell and a freezing charm in rapid succession at something that looked like a demonic dog. "Reducto!" A sharp jab and the frozen creature shattered into pieces.
"Like hell I'm going to get eaten by these freaky creatures today! Come on! I'll get this lot back up to the castle!" Daphne gestured to the frightened youngsters.
Luna nodded. "Go. We'll cover for you!"
Daphne nodded back. "Stay close to me! I don't give a damn what house you're in. If you want to get out of Hogsmeade alive, you're going to stick close together and remain with me!" Daphne cast a Protego all around them and moved with them to the castle, firing off the occasional jinx and hex at any monster threatening them.
"Strange what witches from another dimension can do for house unity eh?" Neville raised an eyebrow as he watched the Slytherin sixth year girl lead the younger ones to safety.
"Pity it took that for Gryffindors and Slytherins to put aside their dislike for one another, at least temporarily!" Luna exclaimed as she swept her wand, sending out a wave of fire that incinerated several medium-sized scarlet-coloured creatures with yellow eyes, sharp teeth and fangs.
In another part of Hogsmeade, several of the Aurors that had been stationed in Hogsmeade fought against the creatures alongside some members of the Order of the Phoenix and the Hogwarts professors.
"These Trix's magic is far stronger than I know what to deal with!" one Auror exclaimed.
"It isn't necessarily stronger, it's just that we don't know how to deal with it! We do know that our magic can affect this type though. Otherwise the Death Eaters wouldn't have been able to grab Bixley!" Tonks slashed her wand, cutting a ghoul in half.
They yelled out as a flash of dark lightning from the sky narrowly missed hitting their cluster of people.
"How are we supposed to fight that sort of thing?!" another Auror said, pointing his wand towards the sky, shooting down a flying ghoul.
"We'd better figure it out soon, otherwise we're done." Tonks said as she blasted another ghoul away from herself.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, Colin!" Ginny exclaimed as she and he fought back-to-back against a cluster of monsters that had surrounded them.
"Me either! But we've got to keep on fighting! Harry would have wanted us to!" Colin exclaimed back.
"I wasn't planning on giving up! REDUCTO!" Ginny aimed the curse at a section of wall behind some of the creatures, causing it to crumble and crush them, though that still left many of them around them.
While Colin was focused on one set of creatures, he failed to notice another set sneaking up behind them, at least until they grabbed both him and Ginny and hauled them both high into the air.
They both shrieked out in surprise, barely managing to keep a grip on their wands.
"Let me go, you creep! Let me go now!" Ginny jabbed the creature with her wand, but it had no effect on them.
"I'm not sure you want it to let us go, Ginny!" Colin looked slightly ill at the height the monsters were carrying them at. He might enjoy flying, both on a broomstick and on Muggle means such as airplanes and helicopters but monster air travel was, quite understandably, another matter entirely.
He gulped nervously.
"Come on! Come on! Stupefy. Stupefy!" Ginny shrieked as she pointed her wand at the monster carrying her.
It didn't work.
"Those monsters be much more durable than most, ain't they, Shiona?"
"Indeed, they be, Leslie. Let's get the unfortunate lass and laddie out of their grasps, shall we?"
Out of nowhere, in front of them, two fairies, twins, who appeared to be in their mid-thirties wearing long flowing dresses with silver detailing except one fairy's dress was black and the other's was pale yellow. Their wings looked like stained glass and their black hair was pulled up into buns.
"Sun Bolt!"
"Shadow's Gasp!"
Two powerful surges of magic flashed through the air, temporarily blinding the two Hogwartians and when it cleared, the monsters that had had them in their grasp were gone.
"What the bloody hell just happened?" Colin blinked in surprise as he was engulfed in a black aura controlled by the fairy in black and Ginny was held in a gold aura controlled by the fairy in pale yellow.
"We just saved your hides, didn't we?" the fairy in yellow said.
"Anyway, the rest of the cavalry's coming along to help ye kin and friends here. We were closest so we got here first." the fairy in black said.
"Oh no you don't!" the fairy in yellow blasted a monster that had tried to attack them as the landed.
"Back on the ground at last!" Colin looked as if he could kiss it.
"I much prefer flying on a broom..." Ginny nodded in agreement.
"Leslie, we need to go. Others in the village need our help!" the one in black addressed the one in yellow.
"How right you are, Shiona." the one in gold addressed the one in black in return.
"When this madness be over, we'll back to introduce ourselves properly." Leslie took Shiona's hand and they both disappeared in a flash of light.
Colin looked at Ginny in amazement. "That was... really bloody weird..."
"I couldn't agree more." Ginny nodded fervently.
They were both drawn back to reality by the screams of their fellow students.
"Back to the fight, Colin! We need to show these Trix what's what!" Ginny vowed.
"Indeed. I'd quite like to survive this and get my OWL results this summer..."
"Now there's something potentially more scary than this..."
The members of the Militia had spread out in the village, most helping to get students and villagers to safety along with the others, but several remained behind to fight the Trix and their monsters, now joined by several Hogwarts teachers.
Tonks and Lupin fought back-to-back against several Hunter Trolls.
"You know, this is kind of fun!" Tonks said as she slammed one troll into another using the Wingardium Leviosa spell.
Lupin looked at her incredulously. "Are you insane?"
"Nope! These creatures seem much easier to take down than the other ones we have to fight though!" Tonks exclaimed.
"They seem smarter than the trolls we know, but still stupid nevertheless!" Lupin shielded himself from being hit by a club that one of the trolls swung out.
"Taking out stupid things has always been fun!"
"Now if only we could take out the stupid Death Eaters!"
"I couldn't agree more!"
"Well, well, well. Hermione Granger. I've heard a lot about you..." Hermione's eyes widened as she found herself staring down the storm witch of the Trix's trio, alone.
When the members of Potter's Milita had left the Hog's Head, they'd all gone to cover several areas of the village. She and Ron had intended to go out together, but had been separated by a flurry of spells.
"And you're Stormy of the infamous Trix. I've heard a lot about you too. I never knew I'd meet another witch with hair as awfully uncontrollable as mine can be most of the time..." Hermione said coolly, schooling her features into a more neutral expression.
"Hermione!" the Patil twins cried out from the distance, running to help her.
"NO YOU DON'T!" Stormy sent lightning bolts in their direction, sending them scampering for cover.
"I haven't had the chance to beat the crap out of someone in years and I hear you're supposed to be pretty smart. I hate know-it-alls! It'll be good to bring you down a peg!" She shot a lightning bolt at the Gryffindor witch, whose shield bracelet immediately activated.
Hermione snarled and fired a bright yellow spell at the storm witch, who it narrowly scraped on the arm.
This only served to enrage her and soon the two different types of witches were in a heated duel.
Some of the people in the area who'd managed to hide watched in amazement as Hermione managed to take on this witch with the strange type of magic and was actually holding her own.
"Come on! A little wimp like you shouldn't be that hard to crush!" Stormy growled.
"I may be a bookworm, but that doesn't mean I can't fight if I need to!" Hermione said as she fired a curse at the storm witch that made her break out in hives.
"Why you-" If it were possible, Stormy became even more furious.
Icy and Darcy meanwhile, were fighting against, Ron, Neville, Luna, Ginny and a few other Potter's Militia members, who had managed to reunite.
"What's the matter, little babies? Can't handle this stronger magic?" Darcy asked tauntingly.
"Such weaklings!" Icy said.
"This is almost boring!" they exclaimed in unison.
"Then how about us livening things up? FIRE ARROW!"
"Huh?" Icy and Darcy whipped around to see the Winx there in their Enchantix forms, as Bloom launched her attack.
Icy narrowly threw up a shield to block it.
"What the hell?!" she exclaimed.
"Better give it up, you two. The British Fairies and a few others from our parts are here too!" Stella said.
"NEVER! We're having way too much fun here!" Icy snapped.
"And we're sure as hell not going back to jail!" Darcy declared.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that...!"
The two Trix were blasted, screaming out of the air by a blast of bright red light.
When Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna turned to see who it was that cast the spell- and it clicked as to who exactly it was that they were seeing- he had changed quite a bit in appearance after all, they screamed out in shock.
"HARRY!"
Harry stood next to Roxy, in front of a small crowd, consisting of his dorm mates, Roxy's roommates and a few other students from Alfea, Red Fountain and Cloud Tower.
"Hello everyone. I'm back." He twirled one of his swords in one hand and his wand in the other, which was still smoking from the energy blast spell it had just cast.
The next few chapters... are fun. The two worlds have officially collided at last, hehehehe...