Prophecy

Prophecy, 2^nd Year

Chapter Two

James and Tiffany were very busy for the rest of the night. James had plans for the Manticores that would be looking for them involving a great number of pranks. Since he didn't want to get any students just wandering around, he tied all the disks he laid out to the Manticore links. Anytime someone with a link came in range of the disks, the disk would activate. James was busily strewing the disks in everyplace he thought a Manticore would search for them tomorrow.

Tiffany was outside, at the top of the North tower. She was placing a strange 'Do-hickey' (Tiffany grinned; she'd found that word in James's memories and it was just too funny.) that James thought of as a "Three-dimensional Holographic Image Inducer", and looking up all the different words and terms had kept Tiffany busy for more than an hour.

It was a simple toy really. You took a wizard picture, in this case, one of James and Tiffany flying, put it in the holder, and set the activation wards. When the wards went off, the picture would be recreated at pre-assigned places, and look like the real thing. The image would seem to come out from one place, fly around a bit, and go behind another building. James had already planted one in the main stairwell in Hogwarts.

The 'Do-hickey' had been created by one of Cumulus's businesses for advertising, but James and Rose had seen the prank potential instantly. Tiffany was looking up more things in James's head. He had set the one inside to mirror a Muggle cartoon he'd seen. The images of James and Tiffany, (Walking this time.) would come out of a door, go down a hallway or staircase, and go in a door. When the pursuers got to the door, the images went in, the images would come out of another door somewhere else and do it again. Tiffany saw 'Bugs bunny' and 'Elmer Fudd' doing it in one of the cartoons James remembered. That led Tiffany to other cartoons, and one that James only dimly remembered. "James, could we make a disk of these cartoons?"

James was running around still setting traps. He looked at what she was seeing, and the picture in Tiffany's imagination. "That's a wonderful idea, but we can't use it as a Green Flower prank."

"Why not? It is not like most Wizard born would recognize them, and the few Muggle born would think it's funny." James sighed and began trying to explain 'copyrights', 'trademark infringement' and various other things to Tiffany, when he barely understood them himself.

By 0100 in the morning, the traps were set and James and Tiffany went down to the kitchens to have a word with Dobby about the coffee for Lisa. The pair hated going to the kitchens. Somehow, the House-elves could see the Soulbond. They would gather around the two, staring at them wide-eyed and silent. Having a hundred House-elves staring silently at you was very unnerving. On the plus side, when they could get one of them to stop staring and listen, the House-elves couldn't do enough for the 'One in Two' as they called James and Tiffany. Having made the deal with Dobby for coffee and spoken to the senior House elf about finding an unattached Elf to use in Manticore Hall, they got a bit of sleep before the game began.

Dawn found James and Tiffany in their first hiding spot. They had four more in case the Manticores actually found them, but James was counting on the simplicity of the site to keep them safe. He had actually given Sonya two clues last night, but James was certain they had gone unnoticed.

Of course, if Rose remembered reading 'The Purloined Letter' last year, when the twins had gone though a brief mystery reading phase, then they were in trouble. All of the hiding places were based on that idea.

Breakfast found Rose giving instructions to the Team leaders in the Hall. Rose and Adam had been up late into the night, making plans for today. They had broken the teams up, so that they had ten groups of people searching. The team leaders stayed with Rose, and each group of searchers had at least one linked person, so they had commo with the control group. Each group was instructed to find, and maintain contact without losing the two until the other groups arrived.

Rose and Chimera had shielded the links to the Soulbonded pair while they laid out their plans, and when they were finished, Rose opened her shields looking for James. The tidal wave of emotions pouring through the link nearly floored her before she got her shields back up. She lightened the shields, examining the surge that beat on her shields. "Don't open to them," she warned Chimera, "They're in the rapport, and wide open." Melissa tried her Empathy, but it was just as bad, if not worse.

Adam was not surprised. "I knew they'd have something in mind to block the links. Set the teams to looking."

Rose was looking at Lisa, who was not only awake at an hour she hated, but alert. "Why are you so cheerful this morning?" she demanded.

Lisa smiled, an event that had never happened before 1000. "That darling Dobby brought me a whole pot of coffee this morning. I nearly kissed him."

Rose tried not to picture that, even as Chimera made notes to do nice things for Dobby as long as he kept bringing Lisa the coffee.

With everything in place, the team left on their assigned missions and the hunt was on. Every inch of Hogwarts was searched, and then searched again. The early reports of the couple being seen in the stairwell were optimistic, until three different groups reported seeing them in three different places at the same time. Rose took the command group to the stairways, and since she suspected what she'd find, the 'Do-hickey' was quickly found.

Along the way, the Manticores also found the traps James had laid everywhere last night. Soon there were multi-colored and shaped Manticores running around everywhere. Some had strange odors rising from them, and a few were actually glowing.

Emma's well-known fearlessness was working against her this morning. She'd triggered at least nine different booby-traps, and was currently an orange and pink striped ape with purple polka dots. The facts that she smelled like roast turkey and was only one meter tall was not improving her mood any.

By 0900, the whole school was aware of the game, and groups of students were everywhere, watching the fun. When the searchers that went outside first saw the flying images, they were annoyed enough to pursue the images. The next team found them stuck fast to the ground, dressed only in diapers, while an image of James lectured them on self-control and the dangers of chasing a fleeing enemy. It took nearly two hours to find that image inducer, and by the time it was found, almost every Manticore had triggered at least one trap.

Sonya Gebbs and Ron Stone were the only ones that had not been caught yet. The Manticores broke for lunch, although Rose and Adam didn't eat much. They were busy refining the search plans in light of the traps and what they'd covered already.

Halfway through lunch, Rose felt James pushing at the shields over their twinbond. She opened them carefully. "Heya Sister mine, how goes your day?" James' voice was cheerful. Rose's answer was short, and not nearly as cheerful. She felt his laughter, and his next comment made her swear again. "Anyway, we just thought you'd like to know that that we're moving, and you'll have to start all over again."

Rose's verbal reply soured her milk, caused the Manticores to back away from her, and a portrait that spoke Lakota to faint. At the head table, Albus Dumbledore was very glad that no people in the school could understand what Rose was saying. The Headmaster spells that allowed him to listen to anything said in a public area of Hogwarts also translated it into the native tongue of the Headmaster. He recognized some of what Rose was saying as having a Borderer's feel, and concluded that the twins must have learned to curse from Alexander. He winced slightly at one phrase, implying that James was a homosexual necrophilic with bestiality tendencies. He decided he'd have a quiet word with Rose about her language, even if only he could understand her.

At the Gryffindor table, Lisa was staring at Rose in confusion. This was a James type outburst, and not at all like the quieter Rose. Acting on a hunch, she pulled her wand and cast a 'finite incanteum' at Rose. Rose stopped cursing abruptly. She blinked, and then gave a short curse, with was more her style. She started feeling around her chair, and came up with a disk, marked with the winged flame. She turned it over, and read the markings on the other side. "It's an 'Emotional Overload' prank. It intensifies whatever emotion you're feeling when it activates."

The Manticores relaxed, as they realized that Rose was not going to suddenly explode on them. Some of them nearly exploded though, after Rose relayed her conversation with James.

Adam was cursing now. "We should have thought of that, and left sentries. We could have taken turns coming to lunch."

After lunch, an angry and very determined group of Manticores set to searching with revenge in their hearts. The laughter from the other students didn't help any, and the various plans in their heads would have made Voldemort run away in fear. With those attitudes, it's probably a good thing that Manticore didn't find the duo before the sun went down.

They went to dinner, sourly anticipating James and Tiffany's remarks and jokes. In the main Hall, the two had not shown up by the time the dinner started and Rose lightened her shields again, trying to attract James's attention. The rapport was so heavy that she had to rebuild her shields. She lightened them slightly, feeling the rapport beating on her shields as she tried to touch James. When nothing worked, she realized what had happened. James and Tiffany had sunk so deeply into the rapport that they couldn't break out of it.

"James and Tiffany are lost in the loop," she reported to Chimera. "Melissa, get the Marauder's Map from our room, and meet me in Manticore Hall." The two girls left the table, while the rest of Chimera passed the news to the Manticores.

At the head table, Dumbledore had already noted the absence of the hidden pair. Rose and Melissa's sudden departure, and the speed at which they were moving told him something was wrong. What happened next confirmed that. After they passed the news to the rest of Manticore, Chimera got up, moving just barely slower than the girls had been. A second later, Mercy followed, and Phoenix followed her. Hydra and Sphinx got up, and that was the end, as the rest of Manticore followed them. In just under two minutes, all the Manticores were gone.

Albus turned the Main Hall over to Professor McGonagall, and followed them up to Manticore Hall. When he got there, he took a minute to look around. He had not been in here since he created Rose's window for her, and he was mildly surprised at the amount of work that had been done.

The main room had bookcases along three walls, with just three gaps, where the Lab and bathroom doors were. The last wall, was covered with charts and formulas, some of them Wizard stuff, like the fifty basic magical herbs, and others being some sort of Muggle things he wasn't familiar with.

There was also Rose's window in that wall, near the corner, and right above Chimera's table. Dumbledore smiled faintly at the window. Unless she was writing, Rose preferred to sit in a windowsill. Manticore Hall however, was an interior room, with no windows. James had approached Professor Dumbledore the year before, and the result was a window overlooking the Forbidden Forest. Since it was a magical view, the fact that the Forbidden Forest was on the other side of the castle didn't matter. When James had moved the tapestry that he'd covered it with, and Rose had first seen the window, she'd stared at it for a minute. Then she'd absently kissed Professor Dumbledore's cheek without a word. A minute later, a number of cushions had appeared in the sill, and Rose was happily fluffing them.

"Sir, would you care to join us?" While the Headmaster had been looking around, Rose had seen him, and was now standing at his elbow. She offered him a chair and swept the maps and lists that were left over from the day's hunt off their table.

Every team had their own table, although Phoenix actually had two, and Chimera's was big enough for fifteen people. Melissa came in the Hall about then, and laid a battered scroll on the table. Dumbledore recognized the Marauder's Map. Rose touched it with her wand, and muttered the charm that activated it. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." She watched the Map for a minute and then looked up. "According to the Map," she announced, "They're in this room right now."

A murmur started in the Hall, and everyone was looking around. Professor Dumbledore looked around again. The only things in the Hall were the bookcases and the tables. He didn't see anyplace for a Niffler to hide, let alone two people.

Rose still had her wand in her hand after using it on the Marauder's Map, and she looked up suddenly. She pointed her wand at the highest part of the ceiling and cast the "Finite Incanteum" spell twice. As the Manticores and Professor Dumbledore watched, a curious sight was revealed.

High above the floor, just below the ceiling, hovered two stationary Broomsticks with some sort of netting strung between them. James and Tiffany were lying face to face in the netting, and James's upper hand was running a brush through Tiffany's hair in an automatic motion.

Rose sighed as she looked at the twosome. "You know," she said in a conversational tone that did nothing to disguise her relief, "We could leave them there." The Manticores turned to stare at her in surprise. "Think about it," she explained. "We spent all day looking for them, and they've been in the Hall all along. James is not going to let us forget that for at least a year." She looked at the pair hovering at least five meters off the floor. "Does anyone have a Broomstick in the Hall right now?"

There were several Broomsticks in the Hall, and Rose had Lucy Berger, a fifth year Hufflepuff from the Unicorn team, fly up there. "Just take the brush from James's hand, and see if that works." Rose advised. Lucy manoeuvred into position and took the brush. Nothing happened for a minute, as James's hand continued its repetitious motions, and then it stopped moving. James and Tiffany stretched.

The Manticores watched quietly, and Professor Dumbledore could nearly feel the amusement in the room. James and Tiffany had been lying face to face, and now James spoke, his voice heavy with the pleasure they had been experiencing. "I think I dropped the brush again."

Tiffany's voice was equally languorous. "That's ok, we'll just improvise." They smiled at each other, and snuggled closer together, totally unaware of their audience. James was stroking Tiffany's hair when Rose interrupted them.

"Jeez, James. Will you two get a room?"

James looked down through the netting, which Rose recognized as a hammock. He surveyed the Manticores, raised an eyebrow to see the Headmaster, and finally focused on Rose. Tiffany had taken one look at their audience, and was now hiding her face in James's robes, and he could feel the heat of her blush.

"Why? As you should be able to tell by now, this works just fine." James and Tiffany began separating, and descended from the ceiling as the older Manticores were eyeing the hammock and broomsticks with great interest.

James O'Neill, a fifth year Ravenclaw in the Sphinx team, spoke up first. "James, I'll forget every prank you've ever played for a copy of the spell that holds the Broomsticks still, and for one of those things you were lying on." Carrie Newton, another fifth year Ravenclaw in Phoenix blushed. The two of them had been going out for over a year, and they'd been caught snogging at least a dozen times.

James grinned as he landed. "Why would you need to do that, when the spell is part of Manticore's training?" His voice slipped into his lecturing tone. "I keep telling you. The successful warrior thinks outside the box, improvises, adapts and overcomes obstacles in his or her path."

Emily Kitchen looked up from her ever-present book. "It's the "Consisto" spell isn't it? The one we'll be using next year to hold still during ambushes." (A/N: Consisto = Standstill, be at a. Source: Oxford Latin minidictionary, 1997)

James bowed in her direction. "Correct. I'm glad to see somebody is studying."

The Headmaster sighed, as he pictured thirty Manticorian couples hanging from the ceiling of Hogwarts like invisible bats. "Since everyone seems to be in good health, I suggest you return to dinner." That suggestion was met with enthusiasm, and the Manticores were headed back downstairs nearly as quickly as they came up.

Professor Dumbledore came up to Chimera in time to hear the end of a conversation between Rose and James. "Fair enough sister mine. You don't mention that we got lost in the rapport, and I won't mention that we spent the whole day literally in the room with you, and you couldn't find us." Making sure the rest of Manticore was gone, Chimera got ready to go.

Professor Dumbledore walked with them. "I don't suppose you'd discourage the use of that spell, would you?" he asked James, but Tiffany answered.

"No, he won't. I won't let him." Tiffany blushed furiously at the Professor's look, but held her ground. "We're taking a big part of their lives, Sir, and they deserve whatever happiness they find along the way. Some of them aren't going to survive to find any afterward." She paused, and thought. "If it becomes a problem with a couple, we will naturally talk to them."

Professor Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling again. "I hope, Miss Potter, that you do not have cause to regret those words."

All of Chimera felt the glee that rose in Tiffany. She smiled hugely, and said, "Calculated Risk, Professor." She giggled, and confided to the air. "I've been waiting months to be able to say that." Chimera was laughing as they entered the Main Hall, and even the Headmaster smiled to hear James's favourite expression from Tiffany.

They made dinner in time for almost all to eat their fill, although Hangeld was still a little hungry. Being half-Giant, and a growing boy, he was nearly always hungry, and Emma swore he had a bottomless pit for a stomach. James took pity on him, and handed him two Muggle things.

Hangeld inspected them curiously. "What exactly is a 'Snickers', and why are they 'King-sized?" he asked as he tried to figure out how to open them.

James shrugged as he showed Hangeld how to open the wrappers. "I don't know why they are called Snickers, but they're king-sized because they are twice the size of a normal Snickers."

Hangeld took a bite of one, and chewed it. "Not bad. I was afraid I'd have to eat the last of father's rock candy tonight."

The rest of the group laughed. Hagrid's rock candy had been known to break real rocks, and could be used as a doorstop, since it was impervious to weather. Eating it was a Gryffindor secret. They used it to get out of a class they weren't ready for, as eating it usually meant a trip to the Mediwing to have teeth fixed.

Late that night, after everyone else was in bed, James and Tiffany were sitting in the Gryffindor common room. Tiffany was reading, and James was watching her. They had been Soulbonded for a year and a day now. They were twelve by the calendar, but the aging had their bodies at fourteen, and both of them were beginning to feel the pull of puberty's hormones.

James was watching Tiffany; something about her face was becoming fascinating to him, and he could sit and watch her for hours at a time. An idle thought crossed his mind. He looked at Tiffany again, and was wondering how people kept from bumping noses when they kissed. He was trying to picture the two of them kissing, when "Do you mind?" came across the Soulbond.

James blushed a deep red as he realized that he'd been daydreaming about kissing, and well, maybe a bit more than kissing Tiffany, and she could hear every thought. "Sorry Greeneyes, I didn't mean to do that."

"Mother was right, that is all boys think about."

James grinned at her. "No it's not, or you wouldn't be complaining about my dreams."

Tiffany blushed as he reminded her of the latest problem they were finding with the Soulbond. Tiffany was definitely not ready for the sexually explicit dreams of a boy going through puberty. "You can't say anything, you have a bigger reaction to that thing."

James shuddered. Tiffany had reached puberty over the summer, and began bleeding. She'd had two of them so far, and the whole feeling of bleeding, the side affects and the pads had James freaking out. "Greeneyes, we're going to have to talk to somebody about this. Melissa means well, but she just doesn't know enough yet."

"I know, but who? It's not like anybody has ever done this before you know." Tiffany was blushing still, and with his thoughts turned towards the 'Monthly Thing', as James called it, his face was matching hers. "So whom would we talk to?"

James shrugged and smiled at Tiffany. "I thought I'd let you find out. Melissa is an Xavier after all, she should know somebody who can help, or know somebody who knows somebody at least." Tiffany had to concede that James had a point. The Xavier clan had been Mediwizards and Healers for sixteen hundred years. Widely acknowledged as the finest medical experts in the Wizard world, even their Squibs were sent to Muggle medical colleges, so they could bring back new information for the vast pool of clan knowledge.

Tiffany nodded as she followed his thinking. "I'll talk to her tomorrow."

The next morning found all the Manticores out doing PT before breakfast. PT would be six days a week, just like anything else, with only the mandatory day off that had been decreed the year before. They exercised as teams, and there was a friendly, but fierce competition to be the best in the monthly PT tests. Hangeld usually took the strength part of the test, but he was too slow in the run to take the over all standings. The rest of Chimera was still to young to compete against the fully developed muscles of the older students, and Arthur Weasley, Patrick Cornwell and Alex Grunnion usually swapped the Honors for the men, depending on who had the better day that month.

Honors for the women had gone to the same girl every time so far, Michele Flint. She was a seventh year Hufflepuff in the Dragon team, and was a Muggle born. She had been into exercise before James and Rose had come, and had a large head start physically on the rest of the women. Debra Valentine and Ariel Fairstone, of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor though, were catching up quickly.

After breakfast, Manticore went to work. James talked to Jerrick about May-ling and Drake, and Jerrick was hard at work in minutes. Tiffany set Emily to researching eaves dropping spells, and sat down for a quiet talk with Melissa. James was reading a book on tactics and looked up to find an hour had passed. He looked around the Hall, and stopped when he saw Melissa sitting in Rose's windowsill. He looked at Rose, and she was writing something at the table, right by the sill. She looked up at Melissa and laughed at something Melissa had sent over a private link.

Rose had caught one of the Finnigan twins in her sill about a month before the end of last year, and for the next month, since neither of them would admit to being the one she caught, she had hexed both of them every time she saw them. Finally, they had come to James, to ask her to stop. She had never given them a chance to apologize, and there was a rumour going through Manticore that she was researching a person-to-pillow transfiguration that would be permanent. Chimera were the only people who knew that Rose had started that rumour because she felt they'd learned their lesson.

Since then, it had been accepted that only James and Rose could sit in her windowsill. James frowned as he remembered a line from the Prophecy. Tiffany caught his thought, and sent a message down the bond. "Don't worry about it Yank. It will happen or it won't, but it won't be soon in any case. They're still a couple of years from those decisions."

"Maybe so, but given the way people are, if it does happen, we need to be prepared." James was worrying again, Tiffany saw.

"Dude, like totally take a chill pill. It's like way not cool." James winced, but had to laugh as Tiffany tried to imitate the California Surfer accent and slang she'd found in his head.

"I say. Your words are quite improper for an educational society. I think we should be right to exclude you." It was Tiffany's turn to laugh, as James mangled an upper class British accent as badly as Tiffany had the surfer one.

James got up, and was walking around the Hall to stretch stiff muscles when he heard some of the Manticores talking about the new Winged Flame signature he and Tiffany were using. He joined them, explaining how combining two signatures meant a couple, unlike the side-by-side signatures that meant people working together. The Jade Rose and Blue Eagle of the twins was an example. There were soon a large group of people talking about it, and James had an idea. He called his owl, and when Tammarrion arrived, sent her off with a note and a small jingling bag.

He entered the lab, and paused to watch the potions area. The lab was a long rectangular room with the door in the center of one long wall. There was a two-meter wide walkway there, so that you could more along the whole room without entering each area's wards. There were six separate areas in the lab. From left to right they were the Potions lab, the Charms/Wards area, the Armory, the War Wizard area, (Which was empty still; they would not start getting that stuff until next year.) the Transfigurations area and the Library. Each area had its own Wards, keeping any accidents or mishaps in that area from spilling over to the next.

Looking into the Potions lab, James was quite glad the wards were there. "Do you need help, or can you take care of this yourselves?"

One of the human shaped shrubs in the Potions lab turned to look at him, or at least he thought it did. There were four human shaped shrubs standing in the Potions lab. The one looking at him was covered in multi-colored Hyacinths, and the large Hangeld sized mass was a rose bush, although nature had never created such colors for her handiwork. James didn't recognize the ivy bush or the orchids. "No, we've got the antidote brewing already. Thank you for asking." came Emma's voice through the link. James grinned at her, and asked for a bit of the potion and the antidote. Emma agreed, and James entered the Charms area of the lab.

James did some quick work, going to the Library once to consult a Pendragon book. He wrote out the two spells he was using, and posted them on the wall of the Charms lab. Returning the Pendragon book to the Library, he noted with some amusement that some joker had labelled Emily's favorite chair with her name. Emily had nearly drooled when she found out about Manticore's restricted section of the Library, safely hidden from the rest of the school in the lab area. She had spent so much time in here reading the books that James had been forced to limit her reading hours, as she had started ignoring her schoolwork.

Robert and Mary Evans had spared no expense in setting up Manticore with the very best of everything. All seventeen volumes of the Pendragon spell books were here, along with the Evans clan books, an Auror spell book, and the guides to training War Wizards from both America and Europe. They shared space with more than twenty other books that James was fairly certain private citizens shouldn't have. He frowned at the thought of books you shouldn't have, and made a mental note to check the wards around the Codex again tonight.

James went back into Manticore Hall and wandered from table to table talking to the Manticores until Tammarrion returned from Hogsmeade. He took the pouch she was carrying and looked inside. He grinned and looked over at the Chimera table where Tiffany was sitting. She knew what he was doing of course, but let him do it his way.

James spent a minute with Tammarrion, and sent her off to the Owlery where Rose's owl Athena was. He went to the Chimera table, and sat with Tiffany. Sonya Gebbs and Debra Valentine were there talking to Rose and Mercy, and that was exactly what James wanted. "I have a couple of things for you, Greeneyes." He reached into the pouch and pulled out a silver charm bracelet. Placing it around her wrist, James told her, "This one is not a romantic gift, merely a friendship thing." On the bracelet, he placed a small charm, of his blue eagle signature. When he was done, he smiled at her, and spoke a bit more softly.

"This one though, is not about being friends." He took a gold chain from the bag, and placed their signature, the winged flame one on it. He put it around her neck while the other girls watched. Debra and Sonya were telling their links about it, and by the time Tiffany was wearing both of the gifts, most of Manticore was watching.

James grinned at Tiffany. "Would you care to do the honors with the next one?"

Tiffany smiled back and held out her hand for the pouch. She turned to Mercy. "We have something for you, and I think you'll be able to tell who gave them to you." She gave Mercy a charm bracelet, and in short order, Mercy had a blue eagle, a crimson flame and a jade rose on her bracelet.

James had consulted with Tiffany and Rose while he was in the Charms lab, and now the two girls gave a bracelet to each of the women in Chimera, except Rose, who got hers from James, as well as Sonya. All of the bracelets had the trio's charms, and Adam threw a biscuit at James. "Great. Not everybody has money to be buying a bazillion charms you prat."

James smirked at him. "Well, if you had to buy them, I might be worried. Since they're spells though, and posted in the Charms area, I'm not. Your only excuse for not giving any person you like a charm is laziness."

Somebody from the back of the crowd spoke up. "Not everyone has a signature either."

James looked up and shrugged. "So? Pick one. The rules are simple. One emblem, one color. If you and somebody else have the same emblem, they have to be different colors. You can't use House symbols or Team animals and that's it."

"What's the bracelet thing?" came another question from the rear.

"A bracelet charm is a friendship gift, nothing more. The necklace should be reserved for more intimate friends, as it only holds one charm, and I would assume that the ladies would prefer a combined signature there." James listened to something Rose was saying in the link, and nodded. "A team can also give a team signature to a person, but every team member has to agree."

Already, some people were heading for the charms lab, and James watched the Manticores discussing the signatures and charms happily. "Mission accomplished, James?" asked Tiffany.

"Not yet Greeneyes. Giving them a personal signature was only half the game, as you know." James needed a personal signature from each Manticore for a project he was working on. "Rose, what was the name of that Magicrystal dealer, the one father got that quad set from?" James asked her.

James waited while Rose thought. "Finchly, Jacob Finchly," she sent. "Why?"

James explained what he had in mind. Rose agreed it would be a good thing, but sent a warning. "This is going to take a huge bite out of our funds you know."

James grimaced. "I know, but unless you can find me sixty good radios that work around magic, it's the only thing I can think of."

Rose shrugged and began writing a letter to their parents. She outlined what they were doing and what they needed. She planned to let their father buy the Magicrystals, certain that he could get a better deal and get them quicker. She thought about what James wanted to do and winced. This one deal was going to cost more than all of their first year's expenses together.

With Manticore pleasantly occupied picking signatures, or making charms, James went to the team leaders and told them that he would need a list of everyone's signature. When he was done, he picked up a book about the Voldemort War and began reading. The book detailed some of the survivor's accounts of how they escaped Voldemort, and the writing was quite graphic. The Death Eaters had never been known for restraint and the stories of torture and pain were incredible.

"James will you put that away? It's disgusting." Tiffany was talking to Melissa about that problem again, and she had enough on her mind without James pouring tales of blood and pain into her head.

James grinned as he put the book down. "And what would my Lady prefer? Telepathic horses, Vampire citizens or intelligent empathetic Dragons?"

Tiffany giggled down the Soulbond at him. "Vampire citizens, please."

Not all of the books in the Hall were Prophecy related. There was one whole section of Wizard written novels, and a large collection of something Muggles called 'Fantasy' and the Wizard born called humour. Tales of Vampires as tax-paying citizens, Magical telepathic horses and intelligent Dragons with Empathy could keep any Wizard laughing for hours. Adam had nearly disappeared for a week when a complete set of Louis L'Amour and Max Brand showed up. There was also a small, but growing section called 'Science Fiction' and its followers were very avid about it.

Lisa had quietly quashed their plans to built a magically powered moon rocket, pointing out they'd have to take all of the people in each of their links. She was still watching that group, as they were very intense about their obsession.

There were also a large number of books that nobody was ever seen reading, but that were being worn out anyway. These books had pictures of muscular, virile men holding women who couldn't seem to stay completely dressed. James, Rose and Tiffany had been working on a prank with those books, but Melissa had found out about it.

Melissa had calmly informed the trio that if her hands turned red, she would introduce the three of them to a Muggle medical technique called suppositories with the book in question, and then left. Rose had looked up the medical technique, and they had dropped that prank.

Not all of the Muggle reading was fiction. 'The Art of War', 'The Book of Five Rings' and other classic strategy texts shared space with military manuals like 'FM 7-8: Infantry Platoon and Squad maneuvers' and books on reasoning, logic, traps and ambushes.

Jody Beal, a fifth year Hufflepuff was the Armourer, and responsible for all the weapons and Muggle materials for the Prophecy. Many people worried about Jody. He was entirely too ecstatic about the weapons. Jody had spent the entire summer learning about them, and had magical copies of them that he was forever taking apart and putting back together, usually with his eyes shut.

James was one of the few people that did not worry about Jody's obsession with the weapons. James understood wanting to excel at something, and Jody, although Wizard born was nearly a Squib. He knew the spells, but simply lacked the power to work most of them. Even his 'Winguardium Levosa' only worked if the item he was trying to lift weighed less than five or six Kilos. Jody was hoping to pass the OWLs this year on knowledge.

He was the person people went to when they wanted a particular book from the Muggle world. Since he was ordering texts, and other Muggle things regularly, it was easy for him to include some fiction as well.

The only puzzle was the romances. Nobody would admit to buying them, or bringing them into Manticore Hall, but they were there, and they kept growing in numbers. Adam had once joked that they were actually alive and breeding. Even Emily, who had been known to read anything that would hold still for her to read, had never been seen reading one of them.

James grabbed one of the Vampire Citizen books, and sat down near Tiffany. She shifted enough that they were touching, and James began reading. Adam and Hangeld came over and sat down near the pair.

Hangeld broke the silence. "What sort of prank are you going to pull at the Ball?"

James looked up, confused. "What?" he said, before a vague memory of the headmaster saying something about a Ball for Halloween this year. "Nothing. It's for third years and up, and pranks are just no fun if you can't observe them working."

Hangeld riposted, "But we can be there, if a third year asked you, or you ask a third year. Adam and I have already been informed by a couple of girls that they'd say yes if we asked them."

James and Tiffany looked up, startled. James made a couple of inquiries through the links, as he unconsciously scratched an itch on the back of Tiffany's neck. "Wait, both of you have been approached about going to the dance, and all the girls, except Tiffany. Why hasn't anyone asked Tiffany?" James was mildly upset at this slight to Tiffany, although the thought of her going without him was disturbing.

"Or approached James?" was Tiffany's question as she adjusted something in James's robes that was poking her in the side. She felt the same way about James.

Hangeld and Adam just stared at the duo for a minute. "You're joking, right?" Adam said, still staring at them. "You two scratch each other's itches, and not even being in Potions can keep you two from touching if you can reach each other."

Hangeld chimed in, "You're stuck with each other anyway. Nobody in school wants to face James's anger if he doesn't like them asking Tiffany out."

Emma looked at them from the corner of the table. "Not to mention, the whole idea of asking one of you to do anything without the other one is just too weird."

The two of them thought about that for a few minutes. Tiffany spoke in mock indignation. "You mean I'm stuck with this Yank?"

James protested that. "Hey, I'm the one that has to put up with a Brit that can't speak proper English."

As the two of them started a light-hearted bickering about which of them spoke 'proper' English, Adam caught Hangeld's eye, and made a circling motion at his temple, indicating the couple. Hangeld nodded his complete agreement that the two were nuts, or bonkers depending on your brand of English. The two boys noticed the sudden silence and turned back to James and Tiffany. The two spoke simultaneously.

"Nobody but me calls her nuts."

"Nobody but me calls him bonkers."

They two started reaching for disks, and Adam and Hangeld fled. As the two left the Hall, James and Tiffany grinned at each other, and started looking for new targets. Seeing them with disks in hand, and looking around with their UTS grins, most of Manticore suddenly remembered something else they had to be doing, somewhere else.

In just a few short minutes, there were only five Manticores in the Hall. James and Tiffany crossed to the three remaining people and grinned at them. "How come you three aren't running?"

Rose grinned at James. "I know you, and your habits. If you had really been going to use those disks, nobody would have seen them."

Melissa didn't even look up from whatever she was writing, and James and Tiffany looked at Mercy.

Mercy just smiled at them, then looked at them with big sad eyes. "You wouldn't use them on me, would you?" she said, adding a tear and a quivering lip to her forlorn look.

James covered his eyes with a hand. "Oh stop that," he said.

Tiffany was watching their friend's performance. "Nice work," she congratulated Mercy, "but how do you add the tears on command like that?"

Mercy was airily smug. "It's a gift."

The girls all giggled as James stuck his tongue out at Mercy. They chatted awhile longer and ended the day.

The next few weeks passed quietly, with Manticore falling into a routine. PT, school, Manticore studies, and whatever hobbies the Manticores had. For Chimera, and the other Manticores that were on house teams, there was Quidditch practice as well.

The charm bracelets became a serious fad among the Manticore ladies, although they never caught on among the men. Mercy was the only person surprised at the number of charms she received. By the Halloween Ball, she was on her fourth bracelet, as each bracelet only held 20 charms. Mercy was a quiet sweet girl, always willing to help anyone, Manticore or not. The Slytherins were the only people that didn't like her, and they simply ignored her, which she said was still a vast improvement over the way they had treated her before James applied what he called 'Direct Action' to her situation.

Emily and Melissa started a joint project that had James and Tiffany feeling like lab rats, as they were documenting the Soulbond, from the beginning. Since neither of the researchers had the slightest shred of modesty about what they asked when researching something, some of the blunt and direct questions about bodily changes and effects of puberty left James and Tiffany blushing for days.

James received his list of Manticorian signatures, as well as several packages from various places, and one Sunday, Chimera kicked everyone out of the Lab, and spent the day in there. Even Jody could feel the amounts of magic they used that day, but hints and even direct questions went unanswered.

Professor Dumbledore didn't let James have a bear, but did allow a wolf. Hagrid was almost impressed with the wolf, as James had enlisted the help of Martin and Alexander. They sent him a huge Timber wolf, standing nearly four feet high at the shoulder, and weighing about two hundred and twenty pounds.

Once all the team names in Manticore became common knowledge, Chimera's plan to hide their pranks went straight out the window. The best they could hope for now was not to be caught planting any pranks.

Two days before the Ball, Dobby brought James two ancient House Elves. They had been thrown out when they could no longer keep the house of their owners. James accepted them, and soon Twiggy and Snarf were familiar sights around the Hall. They could still deal with cleaning the two rooms, and only Rose and Tiffany knew that James would have accepted them even if they couldn't. James wanted to hunt down the people that had thrown them out after a lifetime of service, and 'do things' to them, as he put it, but the two house elves, being a lot smarter than Dobby, wouldn't tell James who the family was. James blood bonded them into Manticore and they became the first non-human Manticores.

James had so many quiet requests from Manticores for the Muggle hammocks that he finally just bought one for everybody. Richard March received his with a sigh. When Rose, who had given it to him asked what was wrong, they found out that Richard was dating a Muggle girl. Since they went to different schools, Richard didn't see himself getting much use out of his hammock. Melissa, when she found out he was dating a Muggle, was full of questions for him. Did her parents know? Did she know? What were they planning on doing if one of their children was a Muggle, and the other a Wizard, and dozens more.

Professor Moody got even with James for the color candy prank by using James to demonstrate a few hexes in class one day. The pictures circulating school after that were priceless, and everyone had a favourite. James as a furry snake with donkey ears was a particular favourite with Chimera.

Professor Snape on the other hand, got his revenge by taking points from James every chance he got. Emma could usually deflect the Professor, as she was the best Potions student in second year. As long as she followed a Potion recipe, Emma made perfect potions. Her continual experiments were fast making her and her usual partner, Hangeld, School legends.

She had an incurable urge to tinker with potions, trying to make them better, stronger or different, much as James did with charm spells. However, if one of James's experiments went wrong, it usually just didn't work. If Emma's experiments had a choice between not working, and blowing up, they invariably blew up, leaving chaos in their wake.

So far, Emma and Hangeld had been flowers, wolves, rocks, and various things less definable. They had been so many colors, shapes and sizes that Madame Potter, the MediWitch since Madame Pomfrey had retired at the beginning of the year, was refusing to change them back unless they didn't have hands to do it themselves.

James was so impressed with her experiments that he kept her in supplies on the condition that she give him anything that might make a good prank.

The Halloween Ball was, in everyone's opinion except Peeves, the biggest disaster since the TriWizard's tournament during Harry's stay at Hogwarts. Chimera, since James and Tiffany weren't going to be there, declined all offers to go, and were in bed, except for James and Tiffany, who were quietly cuddling in Manticore Hall.

With Chimera declining to perform pranks they wouldn't see going off, some twenty-five different Manticores decided to take up the slack, and perform a prank. They planted their pranks, and having all been trained the same way, they all set their pranks to go off at the same time.

Promptly at midnight, twenty-five pranks went off simultaneously. The result of so much magic, and the affects of so many spells created a magical surge that nearly overloaded the Main Hall and even caused the ceiling to flicker. Forty students, including fifteen Manticores were caught in the backlash of magic, and the resulting mess took more than four hours to clean up.

Chimera was alerted by one of the Ghosts, and they spent nearly two hours cleaning up after, and undoing various spells. This event made James give a very long class called 'Coordination'. It stressed the importance of coordinating your activities with the team members around you. What really annoyed James though, was being unable to duplicate the misfiring spell or spells combination that made Professor Snape bald for nearly three months.