01. Children of Magic - Part B

Author's Notes: So, some of you already wonder/predict/assume to know what pairings this story has *smirks*. It's always fun to read such predictions, and it's even more fun to see people fall for my red herrings. Well, since the first cycle is mostly plot-driven, it could be called a genfic anyway, but romances, while not the main focus of the story, will occur. I should warn you that AD has het, slash, and femmeslash couples, so don't read on if you have a major problem with any of them.

Oh, and one little request to German readers, who decided to read the English version. Please don't use any spoilers in your reviews. I know it's hard, you're watching the English-speaking readers struggle with all these red herrings, and you're bursting to say, what's really going on. Please don't. People like to figure out stuff for themselves and it wouldn't be fair to take that away from them.

Amicus Draconis - 1st Cycle: Cycle of the Badger - Episode 1: Children of Magic

"I wonder, I wonder, do you know what I wonder?"

"No idea."

"What's this?"

"Hello, dumb brother? This is the eye catch!"

"Right. We survived the alpha part of the first episode. And Sirius did, too."

"Good for him, considering he's not even in this chapter. So stay tuned for the beta part!"

"Beta sounds good. Reminds me of something we have to do."

"Ladihoh! Praise our wonderful beta readers, bravely plunging their way through the dark and gruesome swamps of Yamato's writing."

"Praised be the betas, praise them, praise to them! May the light forever shine on Saint Ellie, Adorable Ann, Angelic Arsinyk and not so saintly, still saintly Notsosaintly!"

"Stay tuned. Coming up next on AD: New Hogwarts, a secret hideout and lots and lots of questions."

Amicus Draconis - 1.Zyklus: Zyklus des Dachses - Folge 1: Die Kinder der Zauberkraft

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Amicus Draconis

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First Cycle: Cycle of the Badger

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Episode 1: Children of Magic - Part B

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Like a startled flock of birds, the broomsticks raced up and away. To Ophelia it felt as if they were going in circles; they changed direction every so often. Again and again, the boys and girls doubled back to make sure they weren't being followed.

"We can't let them find our hideout," explained the bushy-haired girl, as she turned round to Ophelia. Then, she addressed the little boy in front. "Don't get scared now; I need to make sure they didn't jinx the broom. I'll need my wand to do that, so I'll have to let go of you with one arm. Are you holding on tight?"

The boy nodded.

"All right."

She flicked her wand, but nothing happened. "We're OK," she reassured the children. "They didn't have enough time anyway. Also, they aren't the brightest!

"By the way, my name's Hermione Granger," she introduced herself.

Ophelia and the little boy gave their names as well. He was Thomas Krueger from Greenwich, and he was four years old. "Are you taking us home?" he asked with a shaky voice.

Hermione sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, Thomas, I can't. They would simply kidnap you again, and all would have been for nothing."

"What do these people want with us? Why can't they just leave us alone?"

"That's a very long story," Hermione answered. "And it will sound like a fairy tale, but every word of it is true. I suppose I best start at the very beginning...."

"Is that a school uniform you're wearing?" Thomas interrupted. "What kind of school do you go to?"

Ophelia took a look around and saw that all of their rescuers were wearing school uniforms: white shirts, striped ties, V-shaped jumpers in grey, with trousers for the boys and skirts of the same colour for the girls. Only one thing was different from a regular uniform; there were no blazers. Instead, they wore long black robes lined with different colours. Stitched on the left side of their chest was a symbol, obviously the school's crest.

The crest on Hermione's robe was a mighty golden lion on red background. She also wore a golden badge that spelled "Head Girl." So, she was the head girl of her school, but what kind of school might that be?

"Actually, I'm not attending any school right now," explained Hermione. "If things had gone normally, I would have graduated this summer. But something came up, or I should say someone: Voldemort!" She spoke the name with a shudder of both fear and contempt.

"Is he the one they call the Imperial Wizard or the Dark Lord?" Ophelia wanted to know. "They said he is the supreme ruler of all witches and wizards."

"This wizard is pure evil. He has seized power over our world, spreading terror everywhere. He destroyed our government, our laws and our society! He is...." She broke off. "Oh dear, I'm starting to sound like Ron...."

"You're fighting against this Voldemort guy, aren't you?" Thomas asked with an excited sparkle in his eyes. "You are brave heroes saving the world! Just like on TV!"

"Oh, well..." Since Hermione took her time to answer, things were probably a little more complicated than that. "Actually, we're just a bunch of children who want to see their parents again. But I'm afraid you're right: it means saving the world. As long as Voldemort rules, nothing will ever be the same again."

"But there's one thing I still don't understand," Ophelia wondered. "What's all of this got to do with us?"

"You two and all the others are children with the ability to use magic. Although your parents are Muggles – that means entirely non-magical people – you, Ophelia, are a little witch and you, Thomas, are a little wizard. And the Dark Lord fears you. He wants to have power over all witches and wizards so that no one can prove a danger to him."

"Even the children?" Ophelia asked, catching her breath as she took this in.

"Especially the children," Hermione answered her. "You see, it was a child who defeated Voldemort a long time ago ... seventeen years ago, to be exact. And this child was much younger than you or Thomas. He was only a baby at the time."

She smiled mischievously. "You'll get to meet him soon enough. Harry Potter is our leader."

* * *

Above a great lake, its borders lost in the nocturnal darkness, the brooms finally came to a halt.

"You'll get food and rest very soon," Hermione assured the children. "We're almost there: only one tiny obstacle is still in our way." She pointed to the black, glittering surface of the water. "Our hideout is down at the bottom of this lake."

A pudgy girl with a friendly, round face and two blond plaits flowing over her shoulders flew from one person to the other, handing out something. Ophelia saw that her school uniform was different from Hermione's; it was lined in yellow instead of red, and the school crest on her robe showed a badger instead of a lion. As she came closer, Ophelia could also see what she held in her hand; it was some strange, green plant with slimy, tentacle-like leaves.

It smelt like seaweed, and the blond girl didn't seem to like the taste either. "We really should think of something to make it taste better," she suggested to Hermione.

"No, Hannah, we really shouldn't. We can't afford to waste any of it," Hermione protested brusquely. "You need to chew the Gillyweed very carefully," she explained to Thomas and Ophelia. "It'll make you grow gills to breathe under water. Don't be scared. It won't hurt at all, and they'll be gone again soon."

And so, it happened that only a few minutes later, Ophelia felt a strange tickling on both sides of her neck, and when she touched it, there were strange slits behind her ears. "Hold on tight, you two," Hermione warned. "And don't be scared of the water; you can breathe it just like air!"

Down and down the broomsticks raced, finally breaking through the surface of the water. Ophelia shuddered as she felt her clothes getting soaked in the cold water; she closed her eyes tightly and held her breath. Hopefully, this would be over soon. She didn't dare to breathe underwater; it was much too scary. This just couldn't work.

However, she wouldn't be able to hold her breath for a long time.

She heard a bubbling sound when Thomas started to cough desperately, and a moment later, she couldn't hear anything anymore for she was coughing and bubbling herself. As wonderful fresh oxygen filled her body, she felt her panic disappear and the cold along with it.

Carefully, she opened her eyes. Like a swarm of fishes, the broomsticks were gilding between rocks, sea plants and coral reefs.

Darker and darker it became around her, until soon, there was no more starlight glinting through the surface of the black water. But the tips of the many wands shone like candles, a shimmering ribbon leading downwards into nothingness.

It couldn't take them that much longer to reach the bottom of the lake....

Shadows were gliding around them, giant fish the size of humans. But what if they really were humans? Glowing eyes. Glistening scales. A flow of dark green hair almost brushing her face. Or had it been seaweed, and she was just imagining things?

Ophelia tightened her grip on the broomstick and the soft fabric of Hermione's robes, yet she resisted the temptation to close her eyes. This new world was much too fascinating to shut it out. Although she was hurt and tired, for the very first time she felt she was a small part of a big adventure. And who could know how it would end?

When they finally came to a halt, everything was dark around them, so dark that they were probably inside an underwater cave. One of the boys was hovering just above the ground; Ophelia could make out his dark silhouette reflecting against the soft light of his wand. But all she could see was a robe with a head on top and on top of the head, a mass of ruffled black hair. There was so much hair surrounding that head, it would have been enough for another three heads.

With the tip of his wand, the boy touched the ground below him. Probably he was using some kind of incantation as well, but being underwater, she couldn't understand any of it. All she could hear was a bubbling sound.

The sands parted, revealing a trap door in the ground. A tiny trap door, no bigger than a cat flap, but Ophelia didn't have much time to wonder how they were going to get through. Everything started to grow around her, but maybe it was because she was shrinking. So did the broom, Thomas and Hermione.

The broomsticks formed a line, speeding through the trap door. Hermione's broom was last to disappear in the strange darkness before them. As soon as they had flown through, Hermione turned the broom around, reached for a tiny golden key inside her robes and stuck it into a keyhole on the inside of the door. The door vanished again...no, wait, it was transforming. It was transforming into a cloud.

A cloud?

They were underwater no longer. Instead, they were hovering in a picture-perfect blue sky above a group of houses, which were made of wood and pastel-coloured paper. Huddled closely together, the buildings were surrounded by a beautiful garden: delicate stone pathways winding around blooming shrubs and unknown miniature trees proudly raising their branches into the air. Tiny streams and trickles of water made their way between flowers and strangely shaped rocks, all leading to a large pond covered in water lilies.

There seemed to be a plank leading from the shore to the middle of the pond, but when they flew closer, she saw that it was actually a set of wooden squares with different heights. To get across them, you had to jump from one to the other, and that was exactly what a group of playing children were doing down there. More children and teenagers could be seen everywhere in the garden, walking, playing, socializing or testing magic spells with their wands. When they saw the newcomers up in the air, they started to smile and wave at them, shouting out greetings.

"This is sooo beautiful..." Ophelia sighed, gazing in awe at her surroundings. Little Thomas almost forgot to shut his mouth.

Hermione smiled at the children, pride shining on her face. "Welcome to New Hogwarts."

* * *

When Ophelia opened her eyes, she didn't have any idea where she was or how she'd got there. She wasn't lying in her bed at home, but on a soft tatami mat inside a strange room that she couldn't remember ever having seen before.

Around her, there were more of the mats serving as bedsteads for the other children. Most of her roommates, including little Thomas, were still sleeping soundly, but some lay awake, staring glassy-eyed at the ceiling. Others had sat up, drinking something hot and steamy from the big round tea bowls they were holding in their hands.

Slowly and gradually, Ophelia started to remember the strange dream she had had last night. Scary people in red and black robes, wands, flying broomsticks ... Harry Potter....

"Are you feeling all right?" asked an unknown voice.

She turned around to see two young girls walking from bed to bed, handing out tea bowls to the children. The tea bowls were floating in front of the girls like a flock of birds. The strange thing about those girls was that they looked both exactly the same: long dark braided hair, olive-brown skin, oval faces. Only their school uniforms differed; one wore the same as Hermione, and the other one was clad in blue-lined robes, which showed the crest of a bronze eagle.

"My name's Parvati Patil and that's my twin sister Padma. She's a Ravenclaw; I'm a Gryffindor," one of the girls explained. Obviously, she had noticed Ophelia taking a good look at the different school uniforms.

Gryffindor? Ravenclaw? She was still wondering about those strange words when Parvati continued: "We're just making sure you lot are OK."

"Are you doctors?" Ophelia wanted to know.

The girls smiled nervously. "Well, not really, but we're trying to specialise in healing spells," Padma explained. "We don't have any teachers right now, but we're trying our best..."

"But don't worry, we've never bewitched anyone to grow a third kidney," Parvati joked as she seemed to sense Ophelia's uneasiness.

"So, when we're all well again, can we go home?" the small boy on the mat next to Ophelia's asked eagerly.

The sisters exchanged a silent glance, neither of them wanting to speak the answer aloud.

* * *

A few hours later, all the children were awake. They had had something to eat and to drink; it seemed that all the food consisted of plants and animals from the outside lake. Their injuries had been taken care of; wounds and strained muscles had been treated with spells and healing potions. Also, they had received school uniforms, even the ones who were too young for school.

"You don't have to wear them if you don't like them," Parvati assured them. "If you prefer your normal clothes, that's totally OK. We wear these uniforms because for us, they represent a strong bond with our old school. However, since you have never been to that school, it's probably not important for you. If circumstances were normal, you would also attend a school for witches and wizards... but everything is sort of complicated right now...."

"What do the animals on the robes mean?" Ophelia wanted to know. She had noticed that the children's uniforms did not have the different colours and there were no animal crests on the robes.

"Hogwarts was divided into four different houses," Padma explained. "This was because the school was founded by four different witches and wizards. The animals are the crests of the different houses." She pointed to her robe. "The eagle is Ravenclaw's symbol, the lion represents Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff has the badger. The different houses also represent certain virtues that were important to the respective founders, but if I try to explain that, it gets a little complicated...."

"At Hogwarts," Parvati added, "we had the Sorting Hat, a magic hat that sorted the children into the right houses. Here, we have to find a different solution. After a while, when we all know each other better, we can decide together who fits best in which house."

"What if we don't want to be in any house!" a small boy with cropped hair yelled. "I don't care about all this rubbish; I just want to go home!"

Again, the sisters exchanged a nervous glance. "Like Parvati said, you don't have to wear a school uniform," Padma tried to calm him, her voice shaking a little. "You don't have to take part in the lessons or the activities. No one is forced to do anything around here. However, you can't go back to your home. You don't want your family to get hurt, do you?"

The little boy averted his face and clenched his hand to a fist, biting down on it.

A little girl waved her hand, as if she were in school. "Please, Ms. Parvati, I have a question!"

"Yes, of course."

"You said there were four houses in your school. But here, you've only got three. What happened to the fourth one?"

Again, the nervous glance from one sister to the other. By now, Ophelia had figured out that there were things these people did not want to talk about. "Well, you must know ... the whole Slytherin thing is sort of complicated...."

"No, it's not!"

Hermione Granger had entered the room, followed by a group of fellow Gryffindors. "The house of Slytherin chose to be on Voldemort's side without question. Many of the students' parents had been his followers since the first time he came into power."

"It's not like the Slytherins ever had a choice. Not like we did."

At first, Ophelia hadn't noticed the dark-haired boy with the green eyes, but now she recognized him; he was the one who had attacked Steve Pinch, and he had also opened the door to the secret hideout. When Hermione heard him speak, she opened her mouth to argue with him, and all at once, the others gave loud sighs, rolling their eyes at the two of them. It seemed they already knew this argument too well, and the red-haired boy, the one the girls had called 'Ron,' gave a loud howl of protest: "Hermione! Harry! Can't you just shut up, and give it a rest for once? I can't stand this any longer!"

"OK, Ron, just take it easy." While Hermione covered her ears, protecting them from Ron's shouting, Harry grinned apologetically. "We'll just save the fighting for later when you give us another one of your presidential speeches."

He turned to the children, and his face was serious again. Ophelia had to admit that there was something about him, something she could not explain. She saw him joke with his friends, and yet, it seemed that this happiness reached only a part of him. Even when his face smiled, his eyes didn't. A deep sadness lay hidden in those eyes, a dark sorrow she couldn't even begin to understand.

"Actually, I came here to tell you a couple of things. I'm not that good at speeches, but these things just need to be said."

As he walked through the room, his gaze travelling from one child to the next, Ophelia couldn't explain how, but she had the feeling that he wasn't looking at their faces, but directly into their hearts.

And it was to their hearts that he directed his words. "No one gave you a choice whether you wanted to be witches and wizards. You were simply grabbed and ripped out of your normal life, and nothing makes sense anymore. And you keep thinking: 'This isn't fair! This isn't fair at all!'"

Harry Potter paused in his steps, now standing directly in front of the small boy with the cropped hair. "And you're totally right about that. This is the most unfair thing that could happen to any one of us."

The little boy took his hand out of his mouth and raised his head to look at Harry.

"This you can believe: we understand how you feel. Not because we're especially smart or clever people, but because we feel the exact same things in the exact same way. What has happened to you has happened to us as well. And all we want is to go home and be with our families again."

He gave a nod to his friends. "Hermione hasn't seen her parents since last Christmas, and she doesn't dare visit them because she fears to attract the attention of Voldemort's troops. Ron's parents are wizards in another resistance movement, just like his five older brothers, and he has not heard from any of them since Voldemort came to power. He doesn't know if they're hurt or taken captive or even worse. And every one, each and every one of us, misses our families and friends. Just like you, we were grabbed and ripped out of our lives, and nothing makes sense anymore. And sometimes, all we want to do is to hide in some dark corner and cry. And yes, sometimes that's exactly what we do.

"But if we want to see our families again, if we want to have our lives back, we must fight for them. As long as Voldemort rules over the Magical World, heritage is all that matters in a witch or wizard, and there's no such thing as character. Values such as love, friendship and compassion are stepped on and trod into the ground.

"Wisdom: the wisdom to understand about right and wrong, to make the right choice even in difficult times – that wisdom is represented by the eagle of Ravenclaw.

"Bravery: the bravery to stand up for what is right, no matter how harsh the sacrifices are – that bravery is represented by the lion of Gryffindor.

"Loyalty: the loyalty to always stand with your friends and to never ever turn your back on them – that loyalty is represented by the badger of Hufflepuff.

"We believe in these virtues, and that is the reason we wear them on our robes: So we can always see them right in front of our eyes, especially in those moments when we want to hide in dark corners and cry. We may be desperate at times, but we are never without hope. We know that the day will come when we can be home again."

Harry Potter smiled, and this time, his eyes smiled with his face. "Home with the ones we love."

Tsuzuku (... to be continued)

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Dark night, nothing to see

Invisible hand in front of me

Scared to death there's someone near

Scared to move but you can't stay here

You know me, evil eye

You know me, prepare to die

You know me, the snakebite kiss

Devil's grip, the Iron Fist

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extra Extra EXTRA!!!

"Look, we're on!"

"Look, that's us!"

"Hmh. *clears throat* Welcome, gentle viewers, welcome to Fred and George's radio show. I am Fred and he is George!"

"No, you're totally wrong! You are Fred and I am George. Don't mix it all up again!"

"Whatever. OK, how about we start today's broadcast by answering some of our fan mail. We are very popular, you know, so we get lots and lots of fan mail. If you'd like to send us anything that's not fan mail, like a howler for example, you should send it to Yamato and not to us. He's the bad guy. He kills people off and ships them into strange pairings that would never ever happen in the books."

"So let's have a look at our first letter then. It's by notsosaintly from The City of Petulant Poetesses."

"Poetessessesses...."

"Notsosaintly loves our comical banter. I daresay, dear brother, we have a fan." *blows kiss*

"That is, if Yamato doesn't scare her away with his geekiness. *insert maniacal crackling laughter here* So, this one here is from black colour vision, a native of Bring-on-the-Evil-Secrets-of-German-Fanfiction-City. She likes evil characters that are brought to life."

"Oh, but we can be evil, too." *hopeful glance*

"Yes, we'll be evil for you. We even hit southern_witch_69 from Evanescence City with a tickling charm. That's why she's giggling so much. See? Very evil."

"So, in a joint effort to show you how evil, nasty and mean we can be, we're gonna tell you lot something about Episode Two. Just like Episode One, it will have an A-part, and a B-part. And since we're not only awfully evil, but also awfully smart, we already know what will happen in those ... uhm ... parts."

"In Episode Two, brave, brave Sir Harry and his merry men must hasten to the rescue of poor unfortunate Muggles, which are – oh wait, of course I mean: who are– being held in good old 'Old Hogwarts,' so the students can use them for practising curses. Boy, school has really changed since our days, hasn't it? And later, in the B-part of the episode, our heroes will encounter an old acquaintance, one they are not pleased to meet. But we won't tell you who it is because evil is as evil does."

"So, stay tuned for..."

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Amicus Draconis - 1st Cycle: Cycle of the Badger – Episode 2: Encounter at Hogwarts

Coming soon to a Fanfiction Archive near you

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"Say, Fred?"

"Yeah, George?"

"Are we done yet?"

"Yes. I mean, no. We forgot the tag line!"

"But we don't have any tag line!"

"Then we shall make one! How about: 'I send you the waves of love!'"

"That's the Wedding Peach tag line, dumb brother! Why don't you try: 'The gate of adventures has opened!'?"

"That's Digimon 02, you freak! Oh well, let's just settle for: 'The moonlight carries the message of love!'"

"No, you moron, that's Sailor Moon. We will never get a decent tag line by taking other shows' taglines. I don't want our absolute destiny to be the apocalypse. *sings* Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku!"

"We need something cool...."

"Something wicked...."

"Something Hogwarts...."

"Might as well stick with the classic!"

"OK. *whisper* On three...."

"One, two, two and a half..."

"Two and three quarters.... "

"Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus!"

"Say, Fred?"

"Yeah, George?"

"Are we done yet?"

"Yeah, we'll shut up now!"