Andromeda

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," I said out loud, slowing down to round a corner, then picking up full speed again. I danced around moon lit puddles and trash lying in the ally. Footsteps behind me kept me pumping my hardest while I cursed myself for being so stupid. "You just had to put them back in, didn't you, Andy?" I mentally yelled at myself. I hurdled over a fallen shopping cart and chanced a look back. Four humans were following me now, some with their swords drawn. A shadow brought my attention upward and saw two Celaenos flying above.

The Celaenos's bat like wings casted eerie shadows on the filthy street and made me run faster. Their hooks on the end of their wing bones taunted me to slow down because I was going nowhere and they were catching up.

"You're screwed, Andy, truly and royally," I told myself. "Gotta take cover or they'll catch you." I looked desperately around the ally looking for a way out. There was a door further up and to the right, but I couldn't chance it. Just in case it was locked, I didn't want to start running again, although my lungs and heart screamed at me to slow down and try. "Gotta run," I panted, "Gotta keep running."

An object whizzed past my ear, probably a throwing knife_I couldn't tell in the darkness_and I took a left down a deserted ally, which turned out to be a dead end. Great. My only way out was to release them, but it hadn't been three hours since I had put them in and I was going to deplete what energy I had left. My choices: live or die? I chose to live and called my wings to rip out, there was no time to take it slowly. Although slowly it didn't hurt like a thousand bee stings following a bear claw attack. They ruptured from my back and through the slits I had made on the back of my costume. I spread my wings wide and took off about ten feet before one of the Celaenos crashed into me.

I rolled on the ground and tucked my wings in; the Celaeno came to the ground with a sickening thud, out cold. I drew up to a crouch and whipped out my katana just in time to block an attack from the other Celaeno. I brought one of my wings around and knocked him off his feet. His head hit the dirty pavement first and it was lights out. "Sleep tight," I whispered.

Movement to the right brought my head up and my wings up out of reflex, blocking a sword attack slashing down. Damn I loved my impenetrable wings. While the attacker's momentum was still in the downward swing I brought my sword from underneath my wing and drove it upward to find his tender and, oh, so painful man place. The slower runners finally reached me and threw themselves at me.

My energy was nearly gone as my fingers left the hilt of my sword still shish kebab-ed in the poor human. Launching a threat, one guy came to straddle my waist with one hand on my right shoulder and a dagger in the other, rearing to strike. The other two sat themselves on top of my right wing holding me down; my left was pinned underneath me. They started to rip out my feathers in tufts and that felt just as good as ripping out my wings in a hurry. I managed to grab the wrist of the guy sitting on me just as he was bringing the dagger down and reached up with my free hand and grabbed his throat, crushing his esophagus. His dagger hand became slack and I brought his face down to mine, brought his lips to mine, and breathed in, sucking out his energy. The human fell sideways to the left off me, allowing me access to my pinned wing. The ripping of my feathers stopped and I mentally thanked the end of pain as I tried to roll off my wing, but it only stopped so that one of the humans could focus his attention on my face.

He used no weapons only his fists and it took me by surprise. But the new energy was running through me and I had the will to fight back. I reached up and felt his face, felt his ear, his cheek, and his eye. He dismissed my hand because nothing bad could come with me groping his face, right? Wrong. I shoved my thumb in his eye socket until I felt his eye give way. He leapt off me screaming, clutching his face as clear ooze and blood ran between his fingers. The guy still on my wing rolled off and drew his sword, standing ready to fight, but shaking.

I stood up hastily not wanting him to rush me while I was half up and drew both one-handed swords. I stood there in my fighting stance trying to ignore the pitiful screams of the one-eyed man, but couldn't. He was staggering everywhere trying to get his footing. He came closer to me and I whipped around bringing the sword in my right hand with me. If it had been my katana I might have cut off his head, but just slicing his throat was fine with me too. At least the screams were gone, only gurgling remained; gurgling I could handle. The sounds of footsteps brought my attention back to the other man. How stupid could I be? Leaving an armed man out of my sight and mind. I was taught better. I looked around to see him fleeing, arms thrown wide showing me he was unarmed. He was hoping I wouldn't chase after him and attack. How cute.

As much as I would have loved to rip that man a new ass hole I had to leave. Back up would be on its way. I put the single-handed swords back into their custom-made thigh sheaths and went to un-shish kebab the human. I wiped off the blood on his shirt, he was unconscious so I didn't think he would object, and put my sword back into its hip scabbard, just a normal, standard one.

I checked my mask to see if it was still secure and it was. My mask is black and covers the top half of my face, but leaves my nose bare. On the right side my mask sticks out to fan out like a wing; it spreads out from just above my head to just below my earlobe. The tips are silver mimicking my left wing. My wings are black except for at the very bottom of my left wing; it looked like someone ran out of black feathers and stuck silver in, hoping no one would notice. No one has so far.

Once every thing was secure I stole the rest of the energy on the guy I had unmanned and headed off into the sky toward safety. I didn't steel the energy from the Celaenos because you can't take the energy of your kind even if you are on the light side and they are on the dark side. My flying was more than a little off thanks to the patch of secondaries and coverts feathers missing, but I managed to get where I was going.

The night air on my wing was chilling as I circled my block and made sure there were no stragglers taking an early walk or an early morning fly. Dawn was coming and most of my neighbors were health freaks and flew almost all the time. I live in a special community made just for my kind: the Ocypetes.

When no one was around I glided to my best friend's and my brother's balcony and went inside, though it was locked. One of the other occupants of this house went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry so he knew how to make the doors open to a distinct persons touch.

Alecto "Alex" Mure stood up from sitting on his bed and took one look at me.

When I was seven I would go out to play with my friend, Alecto, who lived in a park because no one would take him in. After struggling to find out why no one would take him in he showed me his wings. I understood then. One wing was silver and the other was gold. He was not perfect up to Ocypete standards. Perfection is having two solid color wings, white, gold, silver, or cream, and having internal magic to any degree. But I was not perfect either and I showed him that day in the park by bringing out my black wings.

He just said, "I'm more perfect than you." I took him home with me that day and mom welcomed him into our home, like I thought she would. He took our last name and bam; I had a new sibling.

When we went to school my _ I mean our _mom made up excuses as to why we couldn't do flying lessons. She told them we had a hard time trying to get the wings to come out, but they didn't care, as long as we at least had wings was a good enough excuse to excuse us. So instead we took extra defense classes; we were the best fighters in school. When it came to graduation at the age of sixteen everyone that wanted to graduate had to have his or her wings out for the ceremony. Mom went ballistic over me. Alex's was easy enough to hide; just die one wing the other color, we decided gold. But black was a very hard color to dye, a very hard color. For two days I had my wings out and for two days my mom dyed and redyed my wings silver with our kind of dye and human hair dye. My wings turned out a yucky gray-creamy color, but if anyone noticed, no one said anything.

Now that we have Strat, if Alex or I have to go somewhere public, with our wings out and with out our masks on, he does a quick spell and our wings look "perfect." It is a whole lot easier that way because I don't have to wait for flipping eternity to molt all the dyed feathers away.

"Geez, Andy, what happened to you?" he asked coming to stand in from of me. His light brown hair fell from behind his ears and framed his face. He had sharp features and there was nothing feminine about his face. When he smiled he had a dimple on one side. Just one. I've seen girls swoon over his smile.

"I got attacked," I said unfolding my rightwing to show him the missing patch.

He took the edge of my wing and held it still while he pocked my bald spot. "Does it hurt," he asked, pulling his pointer away flaked with dried blood.

"Not so much as it did before I flew. The air kind of dried the blood."

"I'll say...Strat can probably heal you." Strat was the nickname for Blake Stratman; he doesn't like his name so he insists on Strat or Stratman. He is the one who went to Hogwarts and that's kind of the reason he lives here. He is different like Alex, Missy, and I.

With our kind, Quintescease, specifically the Ocypetes (the light side), perfection is everything. Naturally our bodies can create internal magic some more than others, but there are a few of us who are born without it. Usually those who are born without internal magic don't have wings they can control so they go on to live with the humans.

Strat is different; he has wings (that are up to standard), but no internal magic. When he turned eleven he received a letter from Hogwarts and was pleased to find out that he could be a wizard. When he came back his first year Alex and I pestered him to do magic, but he said he couldn't because it wasn't allowed. He told us all about his fun times and the teachers and all. He told us that what our kind considered him to be was the equivalent to the wizard's squib and that our internal magic was considered powerful in the wizarding world. That magic with out a stick, a wand he called it, was rare because it took more control and a lot of people didn't have that kind of control.

My brother and I listened to all the different types of spells he could use with awe. Our magic is nothing really useful, you know, only for show, like changing hair color and eye color, but never wing color. Though if you need to it could be used as a weapon, like a lightning bolt. Strat continued with stories about sneaking out at night, pictures that moved, and different houses; he said he was in Gryffindor or something; I can't remember. But when he finally graduated and got a job he showed us everything we wanted to see, healed us when we were hurt, and after my mother died he became the income to buy us food.

"I can heal what?" came a voice from the doorway.

Alex moved to the side and pointed to my bald spot. "This," he said.

"How did you get that, Andy?" Strat asked coming into room pulling out his stick thingy. Strat wasn't as masculine as Alex, but was more handsome. Don't get me wrong Alex is handsome, but in a quarterback-from-the-football-team-who-threw-the-winning-point-and-whom-everyone-knows kind of way. He's has his moments, but he is just the normal bring home to meet your parents guy.

Strat is handsome. His deep chocolate brown hair is longer than Alex's and falls to the top of his shoulders. He constantly runs a hand through it, giving it fluff. The first time Missy or I had seen him our hands itched to run through his hair, but now I'm over it. I guess the fact that he knows he is sexy makes him less beautiful, but I can't help but once in a while get caught in his green eyes.

A couple years back after our mother had died I got caught up in his eyes. He had come over from work to see if Alex and I were all right and I guess I was desperate. I guess I wanted to be held because I walked into his arms and when he kissed me I kissed back. It started going further than the kissing. We had gotten pretty far when I came to my sense. We were both only in our undergarment and Strat was on top of me kissing his way down my body. I sat up and pushed him off me cursing myself for falling into his green gaze. The fact that he and I both had been enjoying it worried me along with the fact that he was hard and ready.

Strat apologized, dressed, and left to the guest bedroom that would soon be his. I walked into my room and cried myself to sleep. For the next couple of days looking at Strat was hard not only because I was embarrassed, but also I couldn't help my body from wanting him. After Missy arrived my mind dismissed him and focused on her and her mental stability.

"I don't want to tell you guys unless Missy is in here because I won't have time to tell it a second time before I fall asleep," I said.

Alex just stared at me. "How much energy did you borrow?" His blue eyes that usually softened his features were hard and cold.

Borrow, that was a nice name for it. You would think that what I could do, stealing energy, would be a bad thing, something that the Celaenos would use. But it is almost like a trademark for the light, for the Ocypete, the good guys. The only problem is compensating for the energy you borrow. Depending on how much you take you could be sleeping for days. It's really annoying when you have to borrow energy and then have to sleep through your next days plan. One year I missed my birthday.

"Not much," I said. "Alex, why don't you get Missy while Strat heals me, then I can tell you guys what happened before I fall asleep."

"Andy," Alex said expectantly.

"What?"

"Tell me, Andy."

"I didn't take that much, now go get Missy," I said.

"Andy."

"I didn't take a lot."

"Andromeda Mure."

Oh shit, he used my full name. I am in trouble. I took a strand of my long silver hair and twisted it around a finger, thinking if I should lie or not. "Two guys," I said reluctantly.

"I am going to go get Missy," Strat called backing out of the room, "I'll be back to fix that." Smart move, getting out while you still could.

I felt very aware that I was only a tiny girl, 5'5", compared to my brother's 6'2", after Strat left. He was looming over me and I bet he meant to too. Quick think of something to say, the silence is deafening.

"I took their energy after I hurt them, so it wasn't a lot, so you don't have to get mad or nothing, I won't sleep that long," I rambled.

"What made you need to take the energy, Andromeda?"

At least he didn't use my whole name; it's an improvement. I crossed my arms under my breasts and tried not to shiver under my brother's icy glare. My costume was warm enough that I suppressed it. "Promise you won't get mad?" I asked trying to sound as innocent as I could and failing miserably. It sounded like I was pleading for forgiveness, which I kind of was.

"Tell me, Andy."

Nickname! Woohoo! Maybe there is a chance after all. "I put my wings back during the meeting."

"What?!" Alex screamed.

I'm screwed. I saw Missy and Strat's shadows outside the door; they had been trying to eavesdrop. Now they didn't have to try, I am sure the whole neighborhood could here my brother's shrieks.

"I thought you were taught better!"

"He didn't have a chair like we use so I thought I was being polite..."

"Polite gets you killed Andy!" he screamed grabbing my arms and shaking me. "Polite gets you killed," he repeated in a softer yell. "Polite gets you killed." This time in a normal voice. "Polite gets you killed." Now he was whispering. He hugged me and I was shocked, I expected him to do anything but hug me. He kept repeating his words on top of my head rocking slowly back and forth. He had my wings in on this hug and the tips of feathers were tickling my ankles. I shifted my feet and he loosened the hug, I slipped my wings out and he slid his arms around my waist. I encircled him with my wings completely from head to toe. The tops of my wings are about a foot above my head so when I stand next to my brother with wings out and him without wings I technically am taller. My brother hardly has his wings out in the house because his tops scrape the ceiling, since he is so much taller, and not to mention a guy, his wings are huge.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you," Alex whispered. "I'm so sorry."

I muttered, "It's alright."

Missy and Strat walked in clearing their throats together. I pulled away but my right wings stuck to the back of Alex's shirt. I pulled away quickly and I hissed in pain. Alex's shirt was sticky with almost dried blood and my bald spot started to bleed again. Strat muttered a few spells and in no time my bald spot was healed, cleaned, and feathery.

"Now," Missy yawned, "what happened?"

Missy is different like us. Her father is a Celaeno. Her mother was raped and had always wanted a child so she did not get rid of the mistake or accident she called Missy. Missy Conver has internal magic and two solid white wings, the only problem is that they're featherless. She took her mom's coloration, but her father's wings. They are leathery and bat looking. She thankfully didn't get the hooks at the end of her wing bones like the Celaenos have. Her mother glued feathers on her skin when she was a child in hopes that she wouldn't get shunned or something. It worked out pretty well for a while, but Missy got tired of being made fun of for having "weird" looking wings and was tired of her teacher's constant poking and prodding to her tender wings, so she ran away. She tried to hide her wings, you know within her body, forever, but there comes a point where your wings become restless when they haven't been out in a while.

And one day Alex saw a girl with her wings ripped out of her and saw the "imperfection" that made her want to hide them and took pity. He brought her over to our place and she's lived here every since. Missy is much younger than the 27 years of Alex, Strat, and me; she's 19.

"Speak up," she said.

I shook my head trying to shake off the sleep for a while longer; Alex's arms were comfy. I brought over one of our chairs, with the long two by four as the back as to put my wings on either side, and sat in it, because my wings could not go in for another 2 hours and 19 minutes, might as well be comfortable. Although I probably won't call them into my body until I wake up. Everyone else sat on the edge of Alex's bed, waiting.

I took a deep breath and began. "Mr. Thrice and I met exactly where he wanted to and he offered me a chair. I had just flown there and he didn't have a chair like our kind so I pulled my wings in." They all closed their eyes concentrating on how stupid of me that was to do. I continued. "All was going to plan, we talked about his jewels that he wanted protected in two days time and planned on how to do it. We were going to fly above the already armed truck and stuff. We had everything set up, including the money and when I went to shake his pudgy little hand I saw a Celaeno out of the corner of my eye. Mr. Thrice then grabbed my hand and pulled out a dagger. I yanked my hand back and ran. I got to a dead end a ripped out my wings," everyone flinched. It truly was no fun having that happen, slowly is always the key. "Two Celaenos came from the sky and tackled me ten feet off the ground. I took care of them and the four humans on foot. I even got to shish kebab on of the guy's manhood," I said with a smile. Alex and Strat sucked in air and turned their heads as if turning from a mental picture. Missy high-fived me.

I yawned widely and felt like fifty-pound weights attached themselves to my eyelids. "We'll need to find out about this Thrice guy and try to figure out why he tried to kill his muscle for hire." They nodded and I got up off the chair.

I took off my mask and changed my eyes back to their normal dark charcoal gray. I only use the silver eyes, when I wear my mask, to match the tips of it, the tips of my wings, and my hair, which I change to watch my eyes. I normally have black hair, but I always change it when I am working, when I am my alias: Shade. I don't want people to recognize me on the street or on the job as the other me. I have two completely different lives, as do Alex, Missy, and sometimes Strat. Strat actually has a real job at the Ministry of Magic and only helps out with the muscle for hire if we absolutely need a fourth person.

I changed my eyes and hair back to normal, and unstrapped myself of any and every weapon I had on me and with a little directional steering from Missy, managed to get into my room, fall on top of my bed, and pass out. My costume could wait until I woke up and so could the shower.

***

I woke up slowly, blinking against the midday's sun poking through the threads of my curtains. I wonder how many days I've slept. I lift myself up off my gray comforter, which I had not gotten under in the haste to get to sleep, and noted I would have to wash off the grime that came off my costume. I backed off my bed, so my wings could stretch without pushing any covers off my bed. It felt wonderful. I shimmied over to the spot in my room that if I spread out my wing form one corner to the other I could get the full range. I stretched and waited a while before putting my wings back.

After they were put back, slowly, I got up and found my mask hanging from my bedpost, my swords on the floor, and put them into my secret compartment in my closet. My costume would go next, but I had to clean it after I took a shower. I unbuttoned the buttons that ran across my shoulders and the black leather sighed with relief. I undid the zipper down my right side, from armpit to hip and the leather vest fell away. The vest formed to my shape and had lines running down the sides to give the illusion I was thinner, not that I wasn't to begin with. The vest had two parallel slots an inch from the top of the vest down to an inch from the bottom for my wings. I was left in my normal black cotton shirt, that I had made the wings holes myself; I had many of these so I wasn't going to waste energy on cleaning it.

I bent down and undid the buckles of my black leather combat boots and found a dagger I had missed. My feet thanked me for the fresh air, and I wiggled my toes as I took off my black socks. My pants were black jean with a spell from Strat to never fade. I, at first, tried leather pants, but it was almost impossible to fight it without bustin' a seam. The jeans fit me just right and accented my butt very nicely. After the pants, shirt, bra, and panties were gone I got into a steaming hot shower. My natural black hair that fell just below my shoulders needed the most care. When I had ripped out my wings blood splattered onto the, then, silver hair and caked it.

I walked down stairs smelling like passion fruit and found Missy watching her soaps. She insisted we get a television in the house, so we got her one for her birthday. The money we made from our muscle for hire gig could pay all the bills tenfold, but we kept what we didn't need in a human savings account. Our muscle for hire business (the Wind Riders) came to be when Strat set up a human post office box under the name Charles Boon. He told a person wanting some muscle men the address and it soon became a hit. Strat has it so that he could empty the box without having to go there. His magic is very good and he has a protective spell on the box so no tracking devices, human or magic, will survive; we don't want them to know who we are. We have a specific no-helping-the-humans-who-don't-know-what-we-are rule. Mr. Thrice seemed to understand our kind, said he grew up around us, so we were more than willing to help him if he dished out the dough. Almost had the money until he tried to kill me. Minor technicality.

"Morning," Strat called from the kitchen. Missy turned around confused then smiled when she saw me.

"How long did I sleep?" I asked, moving toward a chair.

"You only slept one and a half days, Andy," she said coming into the kitchen with me.

"A new record," I said.

Strat poked his head out of a cupboard he was digging through and asked, "Are you sure you slept long enough?"

"Yep...I feel great. What did you find out about Mr. Thrice?"

Alex came around the corner holding a bad of chips. He answered, "Nothing, but we've got a new assignment I think you'll like."

I sat in a normal human chair, curious. "Oh yeah? What is it?"

"Read for yourself. The note is in front of you," Alex said.

I picked up a letter and noticed a crest upon it and found it to be Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "Hogwarts?" I asked excited. I've always wanted to see that school, since Strat talks so fondly of it.

To the Wind Riders,

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a young student by the name of Harry Potter is in danger. A dark wizard named Voldemort has been trying to kill this child ever since he was a year old. I am requesting that your group come to Hogwarts and look after the child when the teachers cannot. On arrival you will be welcomed and we could discuss the plans. I am well aware of your prices and will pay you extra as needed. This job has no specified time limit so if you come we could organize everything together including board and I will brief you on the situation.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

I folded the letter back up and looked at Alex. "Can we go?"

He chuckled. "I knew you'd like it. And most definitely we are going."

"Inquisitive head turn," I said, tilting my head.

Alex smiled and the one dimple showed up. "Strat told me about this Voldemort dude and it looks like any help to this kid is necessary."

"Good! When do we leave?" I asked. "Tonight?"

Alex and Missy nodded. I bounced up and down. "What about you Strat, You coming with?"

Stratman shook his head. "I can't. The job has no specific time limit and I can't quit my job."

"Sorry, Strat," I said.

"No worries. I'll probably one day head over as Mode and look around a bit." Mode was Strat's alias. It's short for a la mode because after a very cold ice cream war, Strat was covered from head to toe in three different kinds of ice cream and Alex remarked, "Strat a la mode." It stuck ever since.

"That's great, Strat." I said.

"You guys better eat and rest up, because you have a long way to fly," Strat said.

"How long?" Missy asked.

"It will take you all night and probably to midday the next day. But don't worry about flying in the light because I am sure you'll be over wizarding land and you won't have to worry about muggles."

"Muggles are humans, right?" Missy asked. Strat nodded.

"Let's go prepare," Alex said.

"You know what I think we should do?" Missy thought out loud.

"Prepare?" Alex asked.

"Yeah but, have our wings out three hours before we go, that way we'll be fully charged and energized," she said bringing her head up to look at us.

Alex stroked his chin and nodded making his brown locks beat against his forehead. "That is a good idea."

"I probably won't make it. I just put in my wings not to long ago," I said shrugging.

"That's okay," Missy said. "You just won't be as energized as us, plus you don't need to."

"She's right you are the strongest, and a little energy dip won't hurt you," Alex confirmed.

Strat cleared his throat. "Promise me one thing, you guys." We turned and looked at him. "Promise me you won't put your wings back and that you'll always have them out. The ceilings are high enough that all of you can do it," he said eyeing Alecto.

"We promise," we said as one.

"Come on, Andy," Missy said grabbing my hand and leading me towards the stairs. "You gotta help me with my hair." Missy's hair brushed the top of her buttocks. It was a red-ish brown that she changed to white when she was in costume. The white hair didn't make her look pale, like it would to some people, but brought out her natural tan. When she was in costume she wore all white, including her mask. Her mask did an imitation of mine with the right side looking like a wing, but her edges did not appear to be feathers, but the outline of her featherless, bat-like wings. It was all together, her. In costume we were totally different. All black and silver meets all white.

Alex's costume was probably the most unique. He wears all silver, which when he has his wings out draws attention to his gold wing. He wears armor to complete the silver effect. His boots are a white-silver colored leather and steel-toed, which he finishes to a shine. He wears a silver long sleeved shirt and a shiny silver breastplate that goes to the top of his pants with a huge X in the front. Alex's pseudonym is X. The metal is flexible, thanks to Strat, so he doesn't have to stand straight, he can slouch if he wants. On his left knee a sort of metal kneepad that starts from mid thigh ends mid shin, which overlaps his metal shin guards, and has hinges so he may bend his knee. And on both shins are metal plates that strap around. His calves are bare except for the silvery material of his pants. His mask is metal and was custom made for his face. He changes his hair color to silver similar to mine and changes his eye color to a gold. When you look at him you either look at his gold wings or his gold eyes; they are captivating.

Missy and I enter her room and I squint my eyes to the brightness. Every thing in her room is white. White carpet, white walls, white bed, white vanity, white everything. I must say that she has definitely accepted herself once she came here, knowing there were others like her, but perhaps the all white scheme is a little too much. I picked up her brush and begin to brush her hair and divide it into the chunks. I love playing with her hair because it is so soft, and I always hate when I finish braiding her hair.

I needed to get ready myself. So I finished her hair, how ever reluctant and sounded off my things to do: eat, clean the costume, clean weapons, and pack.

At dusk I was standing by the front door feeling like the epitome of darkness. I still hadn't changed my hair or my eyes so the only color was my silver feathers on my left wing and on the edge of my mask. My bag was sitting by my feet, which Strat was going to send over, via magic. Alex came down the stairs shining and carrying his bag. His big X glinted in the hallway lights as well as his swords. X always wears a lot of knives and swords. He stooped when he came to the lower ceiling and his wings still brushed it.

Missy or Monochrome when in costume came down the stairs next with the biggest bag of us all. Her hair was changed to white and her eyes were changed to their gray. White eyes on her looked creepy.

"Change your hair and eyes so we can go, Shade," Mono said. We called her Mono for short.

I changed my black hair and gray eyes to silver, a perfect silver to match my wing.

Strat came around the corner clapping then rubbing his hands. "Okay," he said. "Masks?"

We all raised a hand to our face to feel if our masks were secured. "Check," we all said.

"Hair?"

We looked and said, "Check."

"Eyes?"

We looked at each other and noted silver for me, gray for Missy, gold for Alecto. "Check."

"Weapons?"

We checked. "Check."

"Costume?"

"Check," we all said.

"Names?" Strat asked.

Missy said, "Monochrome."

Alex said, "X."

I said, "Shade."

"Now what are you not going to do?"

"Put our wings back," we chimed.

"Good, now, have fun. And don't change you hair or eyes either."

"Yes mother."

Strat sniffed. "My babies are all grown up." We laughed. "Now follow the directions I gave you, your stuff will arrive there soon, and good luck."

"Bye, Strat," we called out.

We walked out the door and took immediately off into the sky. Don't want anyone to take a second look so best be fast and fly out of sight. The night air was nippy and my wing was glad to be recovered with feathers. Once Mono caught up with us we did our usual triangle formation, with X in front because he knew where we were going. We climbed in elevation until the houses became ant sized.

I cleared my throat and sang, "One million bottles of human drinks on the wall, one million bottles of human drinks..."

The other two smiled and joined in. "You take one down, you pass it around, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of human drinks on the wall... nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of human drinks on the wall, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of human drinks...you take one down, you pass it around..."

By mid afternoon the next day a castle came in sight on the horizon and we were in negative numbers for the human drinks on the wall. We soared lower and I was finally glad that we were going to be able to rest. We circled the castle and found a group of people down by a hut. We flew down and touched down lightly. The people turned out to be a bunch of kids and they all gasped when we landed by them. Some were hiding behind others.

A booming voice led us to look at a huge man with a bushy beard. "Eh...can I 'elp ye?"

Mono and I came up stand next to X. I spoke, "We have come to speak with the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Can you take us to him?"

"Who are ye?" he asked.

"We are the Wind Riders. I am Shade, this is X, and that is Monochrome," I said pointing to each of us, respectfully.

Alex spoke up. "We are here on some business and have been told to report to him as soon as we arrived." Everyone went quiet.

I looked out into the crowd of kids and saw them staring at our wings and weapons. "Don't you know it's impolite to stare?" I asked putting my left hand on my katana sheath. They all looked away.

The giant man cleared his throat. "Eh yeah. I'm teachin' a class righ' now, but 'arry, Ron, and 'ermione can show ye the way."

"Great," I said. "Then let them lead."

A boy with unruly black hair and glasses stood up followed by a boy with red hair and a girl with bushy brown hair. They walked to the front of the crowd, not as nervous as the others and motioned us to follow. We could hear silence from the other student as we walked away.

When we reached the castle the little girl turned around and asked, "Are you Quintesceases?" The red hair boy hissed, "Hermione."

We nodded. "Are you Ocypetes or Celaenos?" she asked still leading us.

"We are Ocypete," I said.

"Then why are your wings black and her wings look like the Celaenos?"

Both the boys hissed her name. She waved them off.

I extended my left wing and showed her the silver. "They are not all black."

"And what about you?" she asked to Missy.

"My mother was raped by a Celaeno, a dark creature. I am considered a light creature because of the coloring and the absence of hooks," Missy explained.

She gave a small "oh" and turned back to her friends.

The black haired boy looked at us confused. "Excuse me, but what exactly are Quintesa...what ever you are?"

The girl looked back asking permission to explain with her eyes. I said, "Go ahead."

She cleared her throat and we all listened. "Quintesceases are a revolutionized Harpy."

The red haired boy interrupted. "Harpy? Aren't those supposed to be evil?"

"I'll tell you if you let me finish, Ron." Oh, I liked this girl a lot. "Harpies were originally wind spirits, whose initial role was to carry the souls of the dead to Hades. They have evolved from their monstrous state: no longer everything they touch becomes contaminated with an awful smell and no longer do they fear the sound of a brass instrument. They've also evolved from their withered looking state. At one point they all became the perfect picture of purity, hence the root of their name quintessence from Quintescease. The other half of their name, cease, came later when their kin split into two groups and ceased to be pure. One group, the Ocypetes, lived on and kept the feathers while the Celaenos lost their feathers. Their wings are leathery and bat like with hooks on the end of each wing bone and the Celaenos colors are all dark. The only colors acceptable with the Ocypetes are silver, white, gold or cream. They think of it as a way to remain...pure and they frown upon a color different from the four or a combination of two or more colors," the brown haired girl finished throwing a glance at X's wings.

"You are very thorough, young lady," Alex said and she blushed.

The red haired one named Ron rolled his eyes. "She probably memorized it out of a book or something."

"Do you know about the internal magic?" I asked her.

She snapped out of glaring at Ron. "Internal magic? No, I don't. The book didn't mention anything about internal magic."

Ron gave the black haired boy a 'She did memorize it from a book' look and they snickered to themselves. We got to a gargoyle and the black haired boy said, "Sugar quills."

I told the girl about internal magic as we climbed the narrow staircase. "Internal magic is another issue for perfection. The elders don't mind if you are bursting with it or can barely muster one eye to change color, just as long as you have some."

"Internal magic is like wandless magic, right?" She asked stopping to knock on the door.

"Yeah, but don't go thinking we are powerful because we can do magic without one of your little stick thingies. Our magic is for show only like personal glamour."

We walked in following the three children and were greeted by an elderly man with a long white beard and half moon spectacles. He shook our hands and took out his wand to conjure up three of "our" kind of chairs. The two by four back was padded and felt nice against my back. The three children turned to leave when Mr. Dumbledore stopped them and told them to have a seat.

He turned to us and spoke. "Welcome to Hogwarts, I am the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. You must be X," he said looking at Alex. He gave the old wizard a sharp nod. He turned to Missy and asked, "And you must be Monochrome, right?" She nodded. "And by process of elimination that makes you Shade." I nodded.

"This is the reason you are here," he said waving a hand at the dark haired boy. "Harry Potter." The boy looked just as confused if not more scared than his friends. We all looked at him and he squirmed under our gaze. "These are his friends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Now that we all know each other we should get down to business."

Mr. Dumbledore went around his desk and sat in his chair. "I want one of you to be with Mr. Potter during his class and the passing period. You don't have to be close to him just having an eye out. The Gryffindor common room and dorms are all warded so you need not to worry when he is in there. During meals you can sit at the high table with the staff if you wish."

I chanced a glance at this Harry Potter and his face went through a flurry of emotions. First surprise, then confusion, then anger, an epiphany look followed, understanding, worry, then acceptance. He leaned back into his chair giving in to our protection.

"These three will show you your sleeping quarters and here is the password," Mr. Dumbledore said handing us an envelope. He turned to look at the children. "It is the picture of Godric Gryffindor in the Gryffindor tower."

"Which one," Harry asked.

"The biggest one." They all nodded in understanding. "Show them the castle, you have the rest of the day off." Ron whooped, but the Hermione girl sniffed, saddened. "Dinner is at six thirty, but if you cannot wait that long, you are welcome to the kitchen." He stared over his glasses at the three and they blushed. He glanced back at us. "You start tomorrow, any questions you have are welcomed any time of the day, just come to my office."

After standing up and taking turns in shaking his hands we left and realized we were more tired than hungry and ordered to kids to lead us to out quarters.

"You do not want to see the castle," Hermione asked?

"We do, but after flying for nearly 12 hours, the castle can wait, the bed cannot," Missy said rubbing her eyes through her mask.

"Aren't you hungry?" Ron asked.

Alex answered, "Famished, but we need to sleep." He turned to Hermione. "You probably know that right?"

She nodded and led us up a couple flights of stairs and we turned a corner to face a portrait of a man from ceiling to floor. Godric Gryffindor stared at us in his black robes and asked, "Password?"

All three of us drew our swords and brought one of out wings around to hide behind. We stared at the picture and it stared back amused. The kids looked at our swords with frightened eyes. Harry cleared his throat. "He...uh...just wants to know the password."

"Mode told us they talked," Alex said referring to Strat, "but I didn't believe him."

"Neither did I," I said putting my wing back. The others followed, but we kept the swords out.

"You put your wing up like a shield," Hermione said wide eyed. "I read that they were impenetrable, but I didn't believe it."

X swung his sword too quick for the eye to see, but I knew it was coming. I put up a wing just in the knick of time and blocked his attack. "You better believe they are impenetrable," he said.

Missy rolled her eyes. "Thank you Mr. Theatrics."

"And thank you evolution," I said tucking my wing back while X sheathed his sword. The kids looked horrified, but shook it off.

"Listen, we are going to go to bed, but we are famished, if you could just tell us where the kitchen is we would appreciate it for a midnight run," Alex said.

"Second floor, picture of a bowl of fruit, tickle the pear, pull the handle," the red haired one said, voice shaking.

"Got it. Now," X said pulling out the envelope Mr. Dumbledore gave us, "we just tell him whatever is on the paper and that gets us in?" They nodded.

"When do we start tomorrow?"

They looked at each other wondering if they should tell the big bad Quintesceases. The Hermione girl spoke up first. "Breakfast starts at 7:00, but we usually don't get there until 7:30ish."

"Great," I said, "we'll be waiting outside this portrait for you guys. Don't skip out on us, because we don't know where the mess hall is."

They nodded and left us standing in front of Godric Gryffindor who lost his amused smile. "Password?" he asked again and we had to remind ourselves not to take out our swords, though mine was still in my hand. I put it away as Alex opened the envelope.

"Ziz," Alex said then chuckled as the portrait swung open. "The old man has a sense of humor, who knew?"

We walked into the room where a fire was roaring casting flickering shadows. We really didn't look at the room, just saw three beds and plopped down on them. The only thing I took off was my mask, as to not bend it. The weapons stayed on because we were to damn tired.