"He's planning something. I know it," Roxy thought as she walked through the Alfea gates with the other fairies who had yet to earn Enchantix in her year.
Rainer, of course, was the only one aside from her in their little group that had yet to earn the coveted fairy form, but at least Idelle and her friends (who were standing some distance away) hadn't gotten theirs either...
They were probably too selfish to even think of sacrificing themselves for someone else...
Roxy's mind wandered back to the more important thought occupying her mind as of late.
"Harry is making a major play in the fight against Voldemort and he doesn't want me to help!" she thought, annoyed.
Her annoyance must have shown on her face when Rainer began to question her.
"Roxy, you okay? Why do you look like you've drifted off to Dreamland again?" Rainer looked at her, concerned. "I thought that was Krystal's thing?"
Roy shook her head to clear it.
"I'm fine. Just been a bit distracted lately, is all."
Rainer was going to say something else, but was cut off when they arrived at their destination- a large clearing in the forest- by Griselda starting to instruct the group in their exercise, the first instruction of which was to transform.
"Now ladies, I don't want you to feel discouraged by the fact that unlike some of your classmates you have yet to earn your own Enchantix powers. While we do try to help and encourage all of our students to earn it by the end of this year, it doesn't always happen. You can still graduate without it." the stern teacher said, pacing up and down in front of them.
"If it is to come to you, it will come in time. We have had instances in the past where students tried to engineer situations that would earn them Enchantix. To varying degrees, those escapades never ended well, so would advise you to try nothing of the sort.."
The strict teacher narrowed her eyes as her gaze swept across the gathered fairies, some of whom actually took a step back in fear.
"With that being said, let's begin today's lesson, shall we?"
Roxy temporarily forgot about her "problem" with Harry, with the more pressing matter (at the moment) of not having to face Griselda's wrath turned personally on her.
Harry pulled on the reins of Freida's harness, directing the dragon to slow down as she came in for a landing out in the mountains that he and the other Red Fountain students had taken to for their latest exercise.
"That was a good flight there, Freida. Best one we've had yet." Harry complimented the dragon as he checked her over. "I reckon we've improved quite a bit in our time together..."
Freida snorted, a seemingly pleased expression forming on the dragon's face.
"Talking to dragons now? A bit pathetic, isn't it?" Tony snarked as he walked past them.
Freida snorted angrily, a small flame emitting from her nostrils as she did, setting a small patch of grass on fire.
Harry quickly drew his wand and put it out with an Aguamenti, before replying to his fellow student.
"Isn't it pathetic that after such a long time, none of the dragons that our school has seem to like you?" Harry's tone was completely unbothered, having dealt with people like him- usually in the form of Draco Malfoy- during his time at Hogwarts.
And those people were much worse.
Besides, he had more important matters to deal with.
The planned Gringotts infiltration (Hermione had refused to call it a break-in or a robbery) was rapidly approaching and he found himself growing nervous about with each passing day, despite the fact that the small group who was in the know about it was planning for every eventuality.
He well knew from experience that things didn't always go as planned.
Particularly with some of his more dangerous adventures.
And this one was definitely on top of the list.
So with that task ahead of him, he found himself with little time for people like Tony and was quick to dismiss him.
Indignant, Tony walked away in a huff at which Harry allowed himself a small chuckle.
"I've got bigger things to worry about, girl. Much bigger fish to fry than him. Calm yourself." he tried calming down the large creature, who slowly, but eventually, did.
Once he'd finished checking her over, he led her into the carrier that transported the dragons there, then went off to find his squad mates amongst the crowd.
"Hey, Harry. How did yours treat you?" Aki found him first.
"Eh... Freida's fine. She's improved quite a bit in our time together. She still has a bit of a short temper though. Tony said something to me a while ago and I guess she picked up on the vibe, since she started snorting fire when he did..." Harry shrugged.
Aki snorted. "Who can blame her? I'm seriously surprised that that dragon assigned to him hasn't burnt him to a crisp yet..."
"So am I. I've met bigger, scarier people than Tony though, so he doesn't bother me." Harry rolled his eyes.
"I really do like watching when he tries to needle you. It's like watching him trying to poke a hole in a piece of titanium with a pipe cleaner. Even his cronies have backed off you, but him?"
"Alright, men! Time to get onto your ships and get back to home base!" Cordatorta's voice boomed over the crowd of students.
As they walked back to the ship they had shared with a few other squads for this exercise, their conversation changed tone.
"How's your fight against the big baddie in your home world going?" he asked in a hushed tone, mindful of everyone around them.
"It's... pretty bad back there. I already told you all that he managed to overtake the government there, but he's also been trying to crush any opposition to him, using the same puppet government to do it. The Muggle-Borns there have to register, accused of stealing magic, my former school has been turned into a refugee camp- and the only reason they haven't tried taking that is because Dumbledore's still there... basically it's all gone to hell there." Harry sighed. "I just want it to end soon..."
"Well, you do know that if you need some backup, Darian, Lucas and I would be more than happy to help, right?" Aki said. "We're doing well in the training to handle these kinds of things and we're almost done with it anyway, so we might as well put it to good use. We did that for the De L'Ors, but I'm pretty sure that we could handle something like this too..."
"This is even worse than that though," Harry pointed out. "Voldemort is a... I can't even call him a man. He's a humanoid monster that would kill you if you so much as looked at him the wrong way. Many of his Death Eaters are no better. Those kidnappers were simply four people looking to make money- who, while callous, could never truly compare to them..."
Aki paused for a moment. "You're right. Still, if you need the help..."
"I'll be sure to give you a buzz if it ever comes down to that." Harry said, finally relenting.
"Good." Aki nodded. "Another point: Athena's told me that Roxy is trying to get her to get me to find out what you're really up to and relay it back to her so Roxy can finally know what exactly you're planning to do..."
Harry stopped suddenly, frowning.
"That's... surprisingly conniving of her. I didn't truly think that she'd just let it go simply because I asked her to, but to do that... I mean, Hermione had her moments like that admittedly, but still..."
"But Hermione's your best friend, not your girlfriend. And she's more familiar with the threat that Voldemort poses than any of us ever could." Aki surmised. "It's different with her. Plus I'm betting that she's helping you with whatever it is you're up to, right?"
"Exactly." Harry nodded.
They wound down their conversation as they joined the throng of other students boarding the various ships.
"You can just tell Athena that you couldn't get anything out of me." Harry shrugged. "It's true, anyway..."
Lucas and Darian found them just before they boarded the ship and the conversation changed back to the exercise they had just been doing.
"So... everything is ready?" Harry asked as he sat in on a projector phone meeting once again as he sat alone in his dorm one day after classes.
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "We've done all the memorization of the Gringotts information we could, we have all the potions we needed to brew (including healing potions) done, they've been practicing the sorts of spells we'll need to helps us along, especially if anything goes wrong..."
Remus let out a wry chuckle, but didn't comment.
"So why bother putting it off any longer?" Hermione asked.
Harry sighed. "You're right. Why bother putting it off? The sooner we get it done, the better."
"Our allies have been notified that something big may happen within the next few weeks. They're preparing for that as well," Dumbledore spoke up. "Hogwarts is being fortified and we're preparing for an emergency evacuation since my presence here or no, once Voldemort finds out that you've stolen that Horcrux and have destroyed the others..." the old Headmaster trailed off.
"He's not going to give a damn about attacking Hogwarts in retaliation with all those innocent children and their families inside. He's proven multiple times that he doesn't care about children and their families anyway..." Harry said, nodding grimly.
"Plans are in place, you're basically ready to pull this thing off... when are you going to do it?" Moody asked.
"In two weeks time, there's going to be a weeklong break for all the students in Magix. I'll check in with someone on the first day, be with you by the second, then by the third we can finally move to end all this." Harry sat up a bit straighter as he spoke.
All of them looked at one another.
"We have an actual date now. It's the real thing... We've been saying so since this whole thing started, but to know that the end of all this could be so close..." Hermione broke the silence that had ensued.
"I feel you. Ever since we started planning to break in-" Harry looked right back at Hermione, who had started to narrow her eyes at him. "since that's what it is, Hermione. A break in. Since we started planning the break in, I've been telling myself so this entire time, but to have an actual date in mind for this..."
"Are you certain that you're ready?" Remus asked. "You might have been having a lot of training lately and you've more than proven that you can hold your own in an actual fight now, rather than just having sheer luck or someone to help you along..."
"Ready or not, Voldemort's going to be coming for me. I've been putting it off long enough. I can't do it anymore." Harry said. "I've been safe here in Magix, but you lot are still in the line of fire... People keep dying all the time because of him... I can't allow it to go on anymore. It would be a bloody shame to my parents, to Cedric, to Sirius and Ron... among others... if I did."
"And those fairy friends of yours aren't going to be anywhere near this fight?" Moody broke the next moment of silence.
"I certainly don't plan for them to show up. Their war against him is over. They've rescued the one of them that he captured and they've done a great deal of damage to him already in the process, so they've basically done their part to help us against him. That, plus the training I've gotten from Queen Nebula and her sister has significantly improved my fighting skills. And the fact that even without magic, her father would kill me if I let Roxy get anywhere near such a lethal fight and her mum and aunt wouldn't be far behind..." Harry shuddered at the very thought.
Despite themselves, everyone (except Moody) had a little laugh at the idea that Roxy's family could be even scarier to him than Voldemort.
Harry heard the loud voices of Darian and Aki somewhere outside as they made their way into the dorm, with Lucas' significantly less loud, albeit still audible voice joining them shortly afterwards.
"I've got to go. Hermione, I'll check in with you every day this week. Same time I usually do." Harry said.
Hermione nodded, just as the call ended.
Harry got up, stretched his arms and legs and walked out to greet his friends.
"Dude, did you hear?" Darian asked excitedly. "Lucas finally scored a date with Rainer!"
"About damn time!" Aki teased.
"I knew I should not have said anything..." Lucas muttered, but Harry still heard him.
Harry chuckled, appreciating the humour that they brought to his life here in Magix.
Then the grim thought occurred to him that in a few weeks, it was entirely possible that they would never see him again.