Sakura and Eriol walked a ways from the scene of the battle. She willed her staff to shrink back down into it's key form.

"First off, Sakura, well done." He clapped her on the shoulder. "That was some fine magic."

Sakura shrugged. "The cards do the work. I just provide them energy, right?"

Eriol shook his head. "No, you also provide them guidance. The cards are intelligent, yes, but they need their castor to help. You are getting much better at that assistance."

She smiled. "Thank you, Eriol. So, what brings you back to Tomoeda?"

"I'm here for you, actually." He smiled. "Now you are eleven, it is time for you to begin your formal magical instruction."

She started to ask more questions but he raised his hand. "Hold on. I don't want to explain all of this twice. Let's go and see Yukito, Cerberus, and Tomoyo before we talk."

She nodded, biting back her questions. "I already sent Ruby and Spinel to collect the others. They should be gathered at my home. I was going to sell it but had not gotten around to it yet." He explained. "It has been a busy summer, not that you would have heard."

"What happened?" Sakura asked. "A powerful dark magic user was defeated at last. I am glad I did not have to step in, I was sure I was going to have to. Power like ours, Sakura, is rare in this day in age. Even with my power split with your father, I only know of three other magicians that can even count themselves as our equals. One is of course, my dear descendent Syaoran."

"Clow's descendent." Sakura said with a smile. "You may have his memories, but you're Eriol now. Though given you and my dad split from him, I'm surprised you didn't take the same last name."

He chuckled. "I considered it." That was all he said. Eriol could still be so mysterious at times. Then again, his memories and magical abilities far out stripped that of someone his age. Biologically speaking, he was as old as her father. In his mind, she had no idea how old he truly was.

They arrived at Clow's old house and walked in. Eriol had her sit in Clow's old chair, taking a different one for himself. She sat in it a bit stiffly.

"Does it help if you think of Clow as a sort of Grandfather, with me and Fujitaka as his sons?" Eriol asked as the others chuckled.

"No," She blushed. "He is still the strongest magician in history. To think about claiming to share is blood is scary."

"But you do, Sakura." Nakuru purred as she clung to Yukito. "As does your brother."

A sharp pain went through Sakura as she remembered her brother giving up his powers to Yue. He might never recover them or the process of giving them up.

Yukito smiled gently. "No tears, Sakura. That's not what Touya would want. He would want you to smile."

She smiled and then closed her eyes. "I know, everything will be alright." She recited her invincible spell to herself.

"Too right," Eriol nodded. "Now we are gathered, it is time to talk about Sakura's further magical education. As Cerberus and Yue know, Clow was a student at Hogwarts in addition to learning from his powerful parents. I think it best Sakura follow the same path. A full seven years at Hogwarts followed by an apprenticeship to myself. Does that sound acceptable to you, Sakura?"

She looked at Kero but he shook his head. "Nah, kiddo. I cannot make this decision for you. You need to decide our path. You may not want to be our master, but you are the only mortal one among our little trio. It's your lifespan, so you call the shots on how we will proceed."

Sakura closed her eyes and pondered the choice before her. She opened her eyes and looked at Eriol. "Yes, I think that sounds good."

Eriol nodded. "Let me tell you some about the magical world you will be entering then. First thing to note, most wizards and witches, as they call themselves, do not possess much magical power at all. Most only have the faintest spark of magic."

Tomoyo was being strangely quiet, Sakura noticed. She decided to ask the question lingering in the air. "If that have that little power, how do they do magic?"

Eriol reached into his pocket and pulled out a length of wood. "Through wands. A wand has a magical core that provides the power behind a witch or wizard's spells. This has both an advantage and a disadvantage. Can you tell me why?" He looked at her with expectation.

She pondered this. "Because we use our power to fuel our spells. So, we can make strong and more versatile spells than them. However, we would run out of magical power well before they would?"

He beamed at her. "Exactly. A wand user is able to cast many spells without drying their reserves of magic. You recall how tried you were the first time you converted a Clow card to a Sakura card?"

She nodded. She had slept for far too long after that. "It wore me out."

"Well, using a wand to use magic doesn't result in that, and most witches and wizards use magic pretty much all day. They can even teleport great distances without being drained."

Tomoyo spoke now, with a smile. "So, if Sakura-chan learned to do it, she would be able to fall back on the wand if she was low on her magical power."

Sakura smiled in delight. She had been wondering how she was going to replace technology in her daily life with magic, and this would be a good answer. "I could use my wand for day-to-day magic and use my real powers for protection or other needs."

"That is the plan, though I will see you learn to fight with wand magic too. There are a great number of defensive and offensive spells wands are capable of."

Sakura looked down at the key around her neck. "Wait, I must use a wand? I can't work those kinds of spells with my staff?"

Eriol shook his head. "Oh, there is no reason the Star Staff won't be able to cast spells, but Hogwarts will want you to use a wand while your there. I know you've been comfortable with the new staff length, but you'll have to use the same thing as all the other students. Don't worry, I'll personally make your wand."

She smiled. She had used the Clow Staff which had been not much longer than the wand Eriol had shown her.

"Thank you, Uncle Eriol." She replied.

"There is another reason we are doing this now." Eriol said seriously. "Your powers are growing; at a rate I could not have predicted. Even as Clow's blood descendent, your full potential as a magician should not come in until you're closer to adulthood. But your powers are blooming, not unlike your name's sake. There is a chance you will lose control of them if you don't start learning now. In fact, it might already be too late to completely prevent that from happening. If anyone unusual happens, come find me and we can investigate it together."

Sakura nodded. "So, will I be going to Hogwarts alone?"

Eriol laughed. "Oh no. First of all, I will be there as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. You will have public lessons from me on defense magic from the point of view of wands. You have an advantage against your classmates, you are used to using magic already and know it takes hard work to perform spell craft. I suspect Cerberus will also be coming."

Kero pipped up. "Naturally I'll be coming! The Sun will remain at your side, kiddo. Besides, I'm your magical familiar."

Sakura smiled and opened her hands for Kero to land in. "Thank you, Kero."

The guardian beast blushed. "Aw, shucks Sakura."

Eriol looked at Tomoyo who grinned. "Sakura, I also got a letter inviting me to Hogwarts. It arrived this morning along with someone named Professor Flitwick."

Sakura blinked. "Do you have magic then, Tomoyo? I know magic ran on my mother's side of the family too, but we always thought you didn't have any."

Eriol chuckled. "It is true she does not have as much magic power as you, Sakura, but she does have enough to be a Witch, should she desire. Young magic users who don't know how to use their power are at risk of it acting on its own, so it does not build up too much. We call it accidental magic. I suspect her magic just released itself into the nearest vessel able to absorb magic, such as Kero or Yue, which is why there was no sigh up to now. Had you not started on the path as Cardcaptor, you likely could have caused natural disasters with your magic if it had exploded from you without control."

Sakura knew just how vast her reserves of magic had become lately, shivered at the thought. "I would have hurt people without meaning too."

Eriol shook his head. "Don't forget, Clow saw all of this and planned accordingly. He made sure you got the Staff and Kero just in time and your use of the cards expended just enough magic to sate your powers."

She sighed; she was glad that Clow had been so through. "But this means we get to stay together! This is great, Tomoyo!"

Tomoyo grinned. "I already started working on our school uniforms. It said we can buy them, but why when I can just make them myself. The main part is the black robe, but we can wear pretty much anything underneath as long as it meets the requirements. So I'm going to make us uniforms that would be similar to our middle school and high school wear."

Sakura hugged her best friend. "Thank you so much!"

Tomoyo smiled softly. "Tell her the other good news, Eriol."

The young man grinned. "Also Syaoran will be joining us as well."

Sakura froze, her face going to full red in seconds. "Oh… I can't wait!" She exclaimed though she was still embarrassed.

"I suspected that would be the case. I will return for you two in a few weeks to go and get the supplies you will need for school. I will go and talk to your father about the trip, Sakura."

Sakura blinked at the mental image of her kind father and Eriol sitting at the same table. She wondered what would happen, as the two never really had a conversation the last time.

"Come on, Sakura!" Tomoyo grabbed her hands. "Let's get started on measurements."

Sakura let herself be drug off to a side room of Eriol's house to start the uniform making process.

*CCSXHP-Crossover*

Chiharu walked to the park to meet with Takashi, basket in hand. She had called him just a little bit ago, but he was already waiting on the bench. Her mother had warned her to be careful about revealing magic to Takashi, there were laws about keeping magic secret from the public after all.

He smiled as she approached. "Good morning, Chiharu-chan."

"Good morning, Takashi-chan." She sat on the bench next to him and put the basket down between them so they could both reach it. "I have a chance to go to the school my father attended." She confessed after a long moment.

"You've always wanted to know more about your father." Takashi pointed out. "Seems like a good chance."

She nodded. "Yes, but it's a seven-year school program. I'll only be back in Tomoeda for holidays."

He nodded. "I know. Still, if you want to go, you should. I'll still be waiting for you, each holiday."

She blushed, she had been unsure if this would be a nail in the coffin of their relationship. It still might. "I can't really tell you what we'll be doing there. Not yet anyways. I promise that I'll tell you everything when I can."

He smiled. "I would usually give some silly analogy, but I'll save it for when you return. I'll miss having you at my side this year, Chiharu-chan, but you have always wanted to be closer to your father and this is your path. I'll support you on every step of it, as best I can."

He could be so serious sometimes. It surprised even her when her goofy childhood friend turned boyfriend got like this.

"Yeah, you better be back to your usual self when I return."

Takashi laughed. "I'll do my best. At least I'll still have some of our old friends to hang out with."

Chiharu nodded. "Like Sakura-chan."

Takashi frowned. "I'm not so sure about that. Sometimes it seems like she is going somewhere we can't follow. She's been acting strangely since all those weird things started occurring over town."

Chiharu remembered. Surely those things were magical, now she was in the know of the existence of such things. Could Sakura really have been tied up in them? It had seemed that many of the strange occurring happened around her. She recalled the school play where she had briefly been pulled into a dark world. She had seen Li-kun and Sakura-chan briefly before being expelled from the darkness. Li had been right after her, calling for Sakura-chan.

"Maybe. It's so hard to believe Sakura who is scared of anything supernatural as anything more than the bubbly girl we have always known."

He nodded. "When do you leave?"

"We leave September 1st."

"Well, why don't we make the most of what time we have until then? I guess you will be out of school for awhile to prepare."

She smiled. "Well, more like time to adjust. You could come over and we could study together until I have to leave."

"Did you know about study groups…"

She gently slapped the back of his head. "Just couldn't resist, could you?"

*CCSXHP-Crossover*

It was nearly dinner time when Sakura and Eriol arrived at her house. Tomoyo had promised to come over later so they could talk about Hogwarts together. Sakura was nervous as the approached the door. She opened it and called out.

"Onii-chan, Dad, I'm home." She called out.

Her father poked his head around the door. "Sakura-san. I see you have Eriol with you." Her dad looked at his sort-of brother and smiled.

"Hello again, Fujitaka, I hope I am not intruding."

"No, not at all. Even if we grew up apart, we are still family after a fashion. Come in, I'll have Touya set out an extra plate. Is Yukito with you, Sakura-san?"

She shook her head. "He said he had work to get to."

Fujitaka laughed. "He works way too hard, just like your brother. Come into the kitchen."

Touya was glaring at her as they came in. "It was your turn to cook tonight, little monster. That's ok, you can take over my next two turns to make up for it."

She kicked him in the shin as she passed him. "I'm not a monster." She growled as he yelped in pain.

"Such loving siblings." Eriol chuckled.

"I agree." Fujitaka smiled. "If our roles had changed, perhaps they would have been your children."

Touya glared at Eriol. Belatedly, Sakura recalled her brother did not know all the details of their father's relationship with the seemingly younger man. Her brother just shrugged and took off the apron he was wearing.

"I got to go to work, but I expect some answers on all this later."

"Of course, be safe Touya." Her father waved at him as he departed.

"Do the dishes, monster." She heard called from the door. Sakura growled but he was already gone.

"Did you have something you wished to speak about, Eriol?" Her father asked.

*CCSXHP-Crossover*

Sakura and Tomoyo sat in her room, enjoying their desserts. Sakura was surprised her dad had been accepting of her going to the magical school. Yes, he had seemed a bit sad for her to go so far away but he had just looked at her with those kind eyes and said.

"Whatever you want to do, I support Sakura. Besides, you will have Eriol nearby. If I cannot trust my other self, who can I trust?"

Sakura had been given a letter for Hogwarts by Eriol and she and Tomoyo reviewed the information inside. She would not be attending the same Middle School as everyone else next year. She sighed as Tomoyo continued to sketch designs for their new uniforms. Still, she wondered what adventures waited for her in the magical world.

"It's your destiny, Sakura." Kero floated next to her head. "You belong in the magical world most of all. After all, you are the most powerful person in the world."

She hoped that would not come back to bite her. She dreaded the day her powers would go out of control as Eriol had predicted.

*CCSXHP-Crossover*

A/N: And another chapter done after so long. Sorry it's been a while, the manga threw a curve ball at me I am trying to figure out how to handle. No spoilers for now, of course. I'll try to get back to monthly updates in the meantime.

Next time: Sakura and Diagon Alley. Say it with me! Release!

Remember, we each have an invincible spell. Everything will be alright.