I actually updated, guys! This chapter is short compared to the average for this chapter, but I'm going to be making up for it in the next few updates anyway!
Also, shoutout to LoveLoveLovix and her new rewrite of Fly or Fall! It's shaping up to be even better than the old one, so go read it!
Also, check out my newest story, Fairy of the Mafia, featuring an AU!Bloom raised in New York as the daughter of a Mafia Boss!
"Who dared to... you!" Icy shrieked as she turned around to see Harry there in a battle stance and everyone else around him adopting a similar stance.
"Yeah, I don't believe we've met. Harry Potter here, at your service. You know, the wizard that your new friend wants to kill? Yeah, that's me." Harry never relaxed his stance.
Darcy and Icy looked to the pink-haired fairy standing next to him, hands alight and ready to cast a spell.
"And this must be the Princess of the Earth Fairies that we heard so much about." Darcy said smoothly.
Everyone else either went off to fight other monsters or were nearby, watching.
"Yeah, that's me. The name's Roxy, by the way. Now, I've always wanted to come to the U.K., but never like this..." Roxy launched an energy sphere at Darcy, but she blocked it with a shield.
"Roxy! We'll deal with the Trix! Why don't you and Harry go help out with the villagers?" Bloom flew in front of the pair just in time to block a retaliatory spell from Icy.
Harry and Roxy shared a glance and nodded.
"Let's go help the others. The Winx know these Trix better than we do, after all!" Harry exclaimed as he ran and Roxy flew alongside him.
"This all feels like a really weird dream..." Ron commented as he ran nearby, shooting a blasting spell at a ghoul as he went.
"It felt like a really weird dream when I first found myself in Magix as well..." Harry used his sword to slice at a creature flying at him.
"You use swords now?!" Ginny asked in surprise.
"Swords, guns, throwing knives... whatever's available!" Harry blasted one creature with his wand and sliced at another.
"We should focus on getting people to safety. Fighting the creatures is important too, but since most of you here don't know how to deal with them..." Harry trailed off.
"He's right. We can't win like this. Let the Magix people and the more experienced witches and wizards handle things for once!" Neville agreed.
They managed to duck into an alley and Roxy, Athena, Anahita and Rainer created a shield over them all.
"Okay then. What's your plan, Harry?" Luna asked, not seemingly bothered by the chaos around them.
"Hold on. Where's your friend Hermione?" Roxy suddenly asked.
"We... we don't know. We kinda got separated in the chaos..." Ron grimaced.
"I'll go look for her." Harry started to move, but Roxy put a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll go with you." Roxy looked him in the eye.
"So will I." Lucas said.
"Me too." Rainer agreed.
"I'll go with you guys. You could always use an extra wand on hand, right?" Ron asked.
"Always." Harry smiled at his friend.
"And the rest of us?" Neville asked.
"You, Ginny and Luna know Hogsmeade well. Perhaps you could divide up between Athena, Anahita and Krystal into three groups, Darian, Aki, you go with whichever groups have less numbers." Harry commanded,
"Aye-aye, Captain Potter!" Aki grinned and saluted.
Harry rolled his eyes before turning away. "Oh shut up..."
"I'll fry you alive, you little brat!" Stormy snarled as she sent bolt after bolt of lighting at Hermione.
Hermione countered every single attack by levitating objects between them, firing back hexes/jinxes of her own and using shield spells.
"No thanks. I like not being shocked by lighting..." The expression on Hermione's face was one of sheer determination.
If anybody had said that Hermione was not scary, they would take back their words on seeing her somehow manage to hold her own against the storm witch. A witch who was older and more experienced; whose magic was totally foreign to her, yet she was somehow managing to combat it.
Stormy was getting more and more frustrated with Hermione and as a result, her attacks were getting wilder and wilder, with more power being put into each one.
Hermione's shield was beginning to crack, despite her best efforts.
"No, no, no... Come on, Hermione. Don't let the shield fail. You can hold it out and still cast spells at Stormy..." a flicker of worry appeared briefly on her face as she noticed the increasing amount of cracks in her shield, but she shook it off.
At last, it cracked, forcing her to dodge out of the way of another lightning spell which narrowly missed where her head had been seconds earlier.
"Got you now, you little twerp!" Stormy snarled, sending an energy blast.
"Like hell you do!" Hermione snarled back, sending an orange coloured hex at the storm witch.
Stormy's spell hit Hermione, briefly electrocuting her while Hermione's spell caused her to break out in painful boils all over her body.
"Gotcha now, you worm!" Stormy raised her hands to cast an especially large lightning blast at Hermione, but it was cut off by a pair of ice blue and light green shields surrounding the downed witch at the same time.
"What the... Hey! What are fairies doing here?!" Stormy looked at Roxy and Rainer.
"Helping to kick you into the next century is what!" Rainer quipped.
While Stormy was distracted by the fairies, Hermione took the opportunity to run over to Harry and Ron.
"Harry! Why does it only seem that we see you when somewhere is under attack?" Hermione breathed as she leaned against Ron, exhausted.
"I don't know, but I'd rather not make a habit out of it..." Harry jumped out of the way of a stray bolt of lightning from Stormy.
In the distance, they could see and hear the sights and sounds of another ferocious battle happening.
Blasts of various coloured light, the figures of several fairies, Magix witches and people on broomsticks in the air...
Stormy turned to look to, and in that moment, they attacked.
Harry and Ron cast an energy blast spell and a stunner respectively, Rainer fired off a powerful blast of water, Lucas fired his guns and Roxy used her Wolf Claw spell.
The combined effects of those attacks sent her careening through the air towards the centre of the action.
"Let's pause for a moment," said Ron. "I need to fix the look Stormy had on her face when the spells hit her. It was bloody hilarious..." Ron smiled.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on. We need to get to the castle. Hermione was hit by Stormy's lightning bolts, remember?" He moved to support Hermione on her other side, while Ron readjusted his hold on her.
"Yeah, but I don't know how much Madame Pomfrey can help with injuries like this..." Ron's expression turned to that of worry.
Many of Hogwarts' students were still milling about on the Hogwarts grounds, restless.
Many of them looked worn, with some sporting various injuries or helping their injured friends into the castle.
When the gates swung open and the procession of Harry, Ron and Hermione, flanked by Lucas walking alongside them, guns firmly grasped and Roxy and Rainer flying overhead, they all stopped in their tracks.
The group paid them no mind, however, and continued to make their way to the castle itself.
Once inside, those students- and even some staff present stared at them.
"Don't you girls know that staring is rude?" Rainer spoke to a group of fourth year girls, who squeaked and ran away.
At last, they made it to the Hospital Wing.
Most of the beds were already occupied, with a hassled looking Madame Pomfrey darting between them, checking on her patients.
She glanced up from where she was tending to an unconscious Hufflepuff second year with a deep gash on his forehead and blinked.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley with an unconscious Hermione Granger supported between them.
With a strange male dressed in the same sort of uniform as Harry and two fairies- one of whom was Princess Roxy- flying above them.
She shook her head to clear it and finished tending to her current patient before fixing her attention on the new arrivals.
"Potter, you and your friends can help Miss Granger over here..." she moved over to a vacant bed near the back of the infirmary.
"What's wrong with Miss Granger?" the healer asked.
"Hit by magic lightning. Can you help her?" Ron looked worried.
"I'll try my best, Mr. Weasley. Do you and your friends need help as well?" Madame Pomfrey looked them up and down, as if determined to find something wrong with them.
"Nothing that a little rest couldn't cure..." Harry grabbed a chair and sat on one side of Hermione while Ron sat on the other.
"This feels way too much like second year and the Chamber of Secrets incident..." Ron muttered.
"You're telling me..." Harry agreed. "But at least she's not petrified by a giant Basilisk hiding in the plumbing this time..."
Roxy, Rainer and Lucas watched the exchange between the two wizards with great interest.
"Because being hit by magic lightning is so much more of an improvement..." Ron rolled his eyes.
The doors to the Hospital Wing swung open and they all looked up at the new arrival.
McGonagall walked in, her usually neat bun messy, a gash across her forehead and a slight limp.
"Hello, Potter. I heard that you and your..." McGonagall looked Roxy, Rainer and Lucas up and down, somehow unnerving the three. "...guests were seen headed in this direction..."
"Hello, Professor McGonagall..." Harry stood up and walked over to her.
"As you can imagine, the entry of yourself and your... other worldly friends here is causing quite a stir." her lips twitched slightly with the ghost of a smile.
"I never go a year without causing a stir, Professor." Harry smiled slightly.
"Why don't you introduce me to your friends?" McGonagall inclined her head towards his 'guests'.
"Sure. Professor McGonagall, this is Lucas, Rainer and of course, Princess Roxy of Tir Nan Og." He gestured to each as he spoke and they nodded in acknowledgement.
"Introduce me last, huh?" Roxy joked.
"Just saving the best for last..." Harry squeezed her hand lightly.
"Smooth bloke..." Ron muttered under his breath.
McGonagall raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if you would like to, you can take your friends with you to Gryffindor Tower to rest a while until we get things under control and eventually serve dinner for everyone who is up to it. There are a few extra dorms in the tower that can serve as their accommodation. The password is: Jobberknoll." McGonagall sat on the edge of a vacant bed and let Madame Pomfrey tend to the gash on her forehead.
"Harry, take your friends and go. I can come up there later..." Ron looked between Harry and Hermione.
"I... Fine. Might as well go face the music. This should be fun." Harry muttered.
"And I feel beat..." Roxy finally de-transformed, as did Rainer.
"And Mr Potter?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"I am glad to see that you are well and that you weren't slacking off..."
"You were not kidding when you said that the Gryffindor Tower was far..." Rainer panted as they walked up the last set of stairs to the tower. "Damn. Who needs exercise programmes or a gym when you live in this castle?!"
"Alfea Castle isn't that much smaller, Rainer..." Roxy pointed out.
"Yeah, but there weren't so many damned stairs in there..." Rainer grumbled. "Wish we could have teleported up here..."
"You can't teleport in the hallways or common areas at Alfea either."
"Can't or shouldn't?" Rainer smirked.
"I'm waiting for the day that Griselda catches you..."
"Roxy... Rainer..." the two fairies broke from their discussion to look at Harry.
He gestured to the portrait of the Fat Lady, who was watching the quartet with great interest. "We're here."
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Harry Potter. Back to Hogwarts again, are we?" She smiled at him.
"Just for this unplanned visit. I found another school much better suited to my needs." He gave the portrait the password and she swung open.
"Either way, welcome back, Potter." She spoke as he gestured in the other three and then followed.