Serenity Silverwing & The Hogwarts Five

Chapter Seven

Buses, Trains, Airplanes and Tons of Rain

Last Seen, Serenity saw a softer side of Fred and Fred saw the darker side of Serenity. Now, it's off to the Airport but what misadventures will she have on her way there?

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"Come on!!!" I urge, "Diana's plane gets here at five and we need to be there a half-hour before!"

"Hold on, Serenity." Arthur says, trying to calm me down, "It's only three."

"Yes, but it'll take an hour, by bus, to get to London and we'll need every minute of the remaining half-hour to get from the bus stop to the airport! Did I forget to mention that it takes another half-hour to get through the security?" I explain.

Then I heard Fred ask Arthur, "How does she know all this?" to which Arthur shrugs and stands.

"Better do as she says. She's the current muggle expert in this house." Arthur sighs, going off to get his coat.

I have mixed feelings about being the 'muggle expert' because Arthur always corners me and asks how this or that works or why or how it was invented. Percy, who'd thankfully left just last week, had been in that position, except for when Harry was here before our Second year. It was my turn for now.

I run over the directions once more in my head. Get on the 94 bus at Sealty Avenue, get off at Waterway Street, walk four blocks north, and six to the west. Gate 72a is on the white concourse three from the end on the left. Yes, that will get us there with enough time to spare then grab dinner at the Leaky Cauldron and come back by Floo powder.

I sigh; six days ago, I told Fred about the hell I went through in Slytherin and five days ago, George and Ron had finally shut up about getting me to talk with Harry. Not to mention that Percy had come for a visit. He had a surprise waiting for him with the gravy boat. It's amazing the things you can do with a bit of cellophane tape and a long invisible string that the twins happened to have in their stores. Needless to say, Percy had to go change immediately thereafter.

"All right? Let's go." Arthur says and walks out the door with Fred and myself on his heels.

"Why do you need to come, Fred?" I ask as we walk past Tartain Parkway, curiosity getting the better of me finally.

"Well, if your sister is anything like you, I definitely want to keep on her good side so I'll make a good first impression by coming with you to the airport to pick her up." Fred reasons, smiling at me.

"Fred!" I exclaim but inwardly I laugh. Fred, sometimes you can be just too sweet... but only sometimes. I think with grin then suddenly panic. The bus was leaving!!!

"Wait!!!" I yell with the hopes of the driver hearing me and take off at a run down the pavement with Fred and Arthur on my heels.

"Blast, sear and scorch it!!!" I exclaim as the bus drives down the road and out of sight. I go to check the timetable for the bus and the next one wouldn't come for a half-hour.

"Great. Just great." I mutter sarcastically. "Now we're going to be late no matter what'll we... Wait! If we can come back by Floo powder, then why not leave by it too?"

"Problem, Serenity. The whole reason for going to Diagon Alley was to get more." Fred says with the most "I'm-trying-not-to-laugh-but-I'm-failing-miserably" expression I've ever seen, let alone on his face.

"Peachy." I mutter. "Okay, we're waiting for the next bus." I say plopping down onto the bench. "Could someone tell me if things could get worse?" I ask no one in particular.

Suddenly, it starts raining and Fred says, sitting down beside me, "You challenge Worse, it'll get Worse."

"I know, I know!" I exclaim in growing misery, hunching my shoulders and crossing my arms over my damp chest as rain begins to pour off my hair, down my face and down my shirt in rivulets.

I spend the first fifteen minutes in a skipping stones contest with Fred, but we have to stop because Fred's last stone has gone a little too high and hit a man, who just happened to be a constable in casual clothes, on the leg. Great! I am not going to challenge worse though!

For the last fifteen minutes, I'm bored silly. This is worse than a History of Magic class. At least there I had the droning Professor Binns's voice to ignore.

I heard the bus pull up so I glanced at my ancient watch. Wow, five minutes early. I think, Maybe we will be on time after all. I add sarcastically.

We get on and sit down at the back of the bus. I take out the book that I have in my skirt pocket only to find it as soaking wet as my skirt and totally unreadable.

"Um...Mr. Weasley?" I say to get his attention then lower my voice to a whisper. "You wouldn't happen to have a drying charm on hand, would you???"

He tries to stifle a laugh as he sees realization cross my face, but only just succeeds as I mentally slap myself. Duh! HOW ON EARTH DID HE FIGURE WE'D GET INTO DIAGON ALLEY WITHOUT A WAND??? MAGIC??? Wait a minute... Ah!!! I yell in my head and then slap my hand to my forehead. We were all being so muggley that none of us brought our wands. Me? I grew up as a muggle shamaness. I could only do naturistic magic without a wand.

As I was groaning in agony and Mr. Weasley is desperately holding his sides over the joke he figured I had just made and trying not to let Fred know (I'll NEVER hear the end of it if he finds out!). I hear Fred ask Mr. Weasley, "Why does she keep clutching her forehead like that?" To which he replies vaguely, "I think she's hitting herself for forgetting something."

I look up quickly to see if he is teasing or if Fred has figured it out.

The bus ride took the hour I thought it would to get to Waterway Street in London. We were a half-hour behind schedule and sopping wet without a drying charm in sight.

Diana probably had enough sense to bring an umbrella... she always was smart about those practical things. I think desperately while trying to figure out which way is north.

"I think north is that way, Serenity." Fred says pointing down the street to the right.

"I don't know, Fred. I think it's that way." I reply pointing to the left. "Here. Let's pick a number between one and ten. If Fred's closest to the number I've picked, then we go right but if Mr. Weasley is closer than Fred, then we go left. Agreed?" I suggest, picking a number in my head. Six.

"Three." Mr. Weasley says without hesitation. I look at Fred who looks thoughtful then says, "Six."

"Okay." I answer, slightly disappointed. "We go right."

As we wander along, Mr. Weasley kept pointing out perfectly normal things in windows to Fred and muttering things like 'I had to deal with a singing one of those once'.

The road that we were walking along ended abruptly three blocks away from the bus stop where we had gotten off.

"This can't be good." I mutter looking around. "Heathrow should be that way but one block further north. Where's a good Four-Point Charm when you need one?"

"At home, with all our wands." Fred replies, coming up beside me.

"Figures. It's still raining, we're lost in muggle London and there's not a wand in sight for blocks. Can this get worse? I think not." I mutter sarcastically.

A car suddenly turned the corner sharply and sped through a puddle near us, spraying our little party with dirty street water.

"You challenged worse again, Serenity." Fred says, doing his best to start ringing out his shirt.

"Don't remind me." I grumble.

We walk down the street; Fred and Mr. Weasley still talking between them and I just wonder where in all of London we were. All I know is that we're totally lost and soaking wet while walking down Arcing Avenue and it was still raining.

After walking four blocks, I'm pretty sure, east, we take a break at a bus station.

Actually, while I was trying to figure out how to get us to Heathrow, Fred and Mr. Weasley parked themselves on the bench, making good use, in their opinion, of the break.

"Excuse me, sir? Could you tell me how to get to Heathrow?" I ask the man that was the conductor on the bus that had just pulled to the stop.

"Certainly, ma'am. You just nip down those stairs," he answers pointing at the stairwell to the Underground, "You go through the turnstile, then take a left, a right, then another left and it's Route Seventeen on Track Five. That'll take you straight to Heathrow."

"Thank you, sir!" I exclaim happily.

"Not a problem, ma'am. Glad to help." he replies and I slip off to tell Fred and Mr. Weasley.

"Guys, c'mon. I can get us to the airport now!" I say, literally jumping up and down to leave.

"All right, all right. We're coming." Fred says, exhaustion solidly covering his voice as he stands up.

"Follow me." I urge, walking quickly towards the stairs to the Underground.

Down the steps, and up to the turnstile. I think, memorizing the man's directions. Once we get in, go left, and then right, then left again and the train on Track Five for Route Seventeen'll take us to Heathrow.

With one hand lightly touching the rail in the middle of the stairwell, I could have flown down those steps and not a soul could have told the difference.

I came to an abrupt halt about twenty steps from the turnstile. There was man in a ticket booth right before the turnstiles to the station beyond.

A frightening thought surfaced in my mind. If Mr. Weasley forgot his wand, then did he bring any muggle money? Fred wouldn't have.

I hear Fred and Mr. Weasley come to a stop. I turn around to see them both panting and leaning on the rail. I smile and shake my head.

As soon as Mr. Weasley caught his breath, I took him off to one side.

"Mr. Weasley, we have a slight problem. How are we supposed to buy tickets for the Underground without any 'normal' money?" I ask in a hurried, panicked whisper.

Mr. Weasley reached inside his jacket pocket, that I had had to show Mrs. Weasley where to get it in the town, and brought out a roll of many denominations of pound notes.

"Why... How?" I sputter.

"I had to get some for the World Cup anyway. Campsites aren't free, you know?" Mr. Weasley replies, smiling.

"Just one problem..." Mr. Weasley adds. I nearly slap myself.

"What?" I ask, a note of exasperation ringing clear in my voice.

"I have absolutely no clue whatsoever of what note is which." Mr. Weasley answers. This time, I do slap myself.

"Here. I'll handle it." I say, holding my hand out.

Mr. Weasley places the roll in my hand with both of his and clasps my hand between his in a way that looked like he was grateful to someone other than me.

"I'll be back." I mutter to Mr. Weasley and turn to the ticket window.

"Uh... Trois, sil vous plait?" I ask in fluent French. I'd learned French out of necessity for my home in the states was trilingual and not all conversations were carried out in English.

The man in the ticket booth rattles off a number that I pretend to not understand.

"Je ne comprende ou parle pas anglais." I reply, shaking my head. I hold the roll of money out, point to it and shake my head again, trying to say that I didn't know what to do with it. I honestly didn't. I'd only handled wizarding money and American money.

The man nods. He holds up one finger on one hand and five on the other. I guess he was trying to tell me to get one five-pound note out of the roll.

I pull one out and hold it up questioningly. He nods again and holds up one finger on the hand that had shown five and two on the other. Using my previous experience, I pulled out two one-pound notes.

He nods and takes the small pile of notes, places them in his till, and pulls out a fair amount of change.

The man hands me the change and three ticket stubs. I nod and say, "Merci beaucoup." I nod my head again to the man in the ticket booth and gesture to Mr. Weasley and Fred to follow.

Then Fred blew it. "Thanks!" he says as he passes the booth promptly followed by stuttering and a loud thump that I must assume was the poor man's head landing on the counter.

"Fred!" I exclaim, putting a thick French accent over my American/British one, "Can not you do anything right?"

Fred grins maliciously.

I sigh heavily and shake my head. "Okay. Now we need to turn left as soon as we can." I say, dropping the accent and start down the hall.

We walk in silence, turning left first and then taking the first right in that hall then headed straight, looking for a fork that turned left.

The silence broken when Fred clears his throat. "I thought you knew where we were going Serenity." Fred states irritably.

"I do know, Fred. The next turn is supposed to be a left." I reply, just as irritated. I didn't feel like admitting that we'd been walking for five minutes with no sign of a fork.

The hall we're in at the moment was very dimly lit, the electric lights only on every twenty or so feet, and very cold, considering that I was still wet.

After another two minutes of walking in renewed silence, I hear a large crowd up ahead. There's a bend in the hall that we're in and I peer around it.

There, in front of me, was a stairwell like the one at Arcing Avenue and it was full of people heading up the stairs.

Fred, Mr. Weasley, who had been extraordinarily quiet, and I head towards the stairs since we had nowhere else to go except the way we came.

When we reached the stairs, Fred and Mr. Weasley head to the right so to go up the stairs. I yank them back by their collars.

"Not that way! The man I spoke with said to the left and that means we go down the stairs." I explain, dragging them behind me.

"Okay, okay! Let go now!" Mr. Weasley manages to choke out.

"Oops... Sorry." I apologize with a grin and let him and Fred go. They turn around, since they were being dragged backwards, and follow me down the steps.

There seemed to be another station at the bottom of the steps. I look around when I reach the bottom of the stairwell but couldn't see over the many heads of muggle commuters.

"Fred? Mr. Weasley? Look around for Track Five, Route Seventeen." I order, still standing on tiptoe, trying to see over the crowd.

"I see something about Route Five on Track Seventeen." Mr. Weasley says, looking off to the left.

"I can't see anything except for Tracks Four, Six, and Eight." Fred says searching to the right.

I sigh heavily and roll my head back to look upward. There was a sign. It read, 'Track Five: Outgoing| Route Thirty-four; Incoming| Route Seventeen'.

"Argh." I exclaim, slapping my forehead, nearly toppling over in the process.

"What?" Fred and Mr. Weasley ask at the same time.

"I just found our train." I say, pointing to the empty track in front of us.

"Huh?" Fred asks. Thoroughly confused, too, I think, judging by the tone of his voice.

"Route Seventeen'll be coming in the station soon so stay sharp." I clarify.

"Oh." Fred states, his freckled face flushing a light pink.

I smile.

Luckily, we didn't have long to wait. Two minutes after I told my two tag-alongs to stay sharp, the Route Seventeen train pulls in and opens its doors to let people on or off.

I grab Fred's shirtsleeve and tap Mr. Weasley on the shoulder to get his attention for he was staring in wonder at the trains coming and going.

"Wha? Oh." Mr. Weasley jerks slightly and follows Fred and I on to the train, or 'tube' as the English muggles called it.

We found some moderately dry seats and settle ourselves. Fred tilts his head backward against the window while Mr. Weasley kept whirling about, trying to take everything in. I pull out my book again. I sigh because it's still soaked and unreadable. Man, the pages are going to be totally wrinkled.

Fred occasionally leans forward to see whatever Mr. Weasley was currently looking at. Mr. Weasley was only too happy to tell Fred about what he was looking at and probably a not-quite-humorous story about one of his misadventures with a similar item.

I lean my head back against the window, like Fred had done, and lightly closed my eyes. It was getting unbearably hot. Wet clothes, normally, would make me feel cold but not in a windless train with a bunch of other bodies surrounding me.

The image of a pitch-black hawk with pure, silver tipped feathers on the wings appears before my closed eyes.

'Silverwing' I think. My guardian animal spirit.

'Yes, Serenity' Silverwing responds, 'I've only a short while. Don't be afraid to buckle under the pressure. The moon will always be there.'

'What?' I ask but it was too late. Silverwing had gone.

"Serenity? This is our stop if I heard right." Mr. Weasley says, sounding fascinated by the Public Announcement system on the train.

"Next stop, Heathrow." the announcer calls over the P.A. system.

"No, next stop is." I answer, leaning forward again.

Pressure? Moon? What's that supposed to mean?' I ask myself, wondering what Silverwing could have meant.

I'm not pressured except for the homework that I still have to do. I reason. 'The moon will always there'? Of course it would unless some astronomical disaster trashed it and either sends it plummeting to wipe out planetary life as we know it or flies off into space.

Unless 'the moon' is Diana. Her last name is Featheredmoon. I wonder if that's what Silverwing meant. If that was what he meant, then of course she'd be there.

"Heathrow. This stop: Heathrow." calls the P.A. system.

"Time to get off." I announce, standing up.

We disembark the train and follow the crowd for the most part until we get to the stairs. Again, the two wizards decided to go with the crowd, which was the wrong way.

"Fred!" I shout over the furor of the crowd.

Fred and Mr. Weasley stop and turn around to look at me. I cross my arms and tap my foot impatiently.

"We're at Heathrow. We don't want to go further down into the Underground unless you feel like getting lost again and keeping Diana waiting even longer." I reason. They nod sheepishly and follow me up the stairs.

I dash up the steps, the same speed as I'd flown down the ones on Arcing Avenue, only to crash headlong into a lady at the top of the stairwell.

"Sorry, ma'am. I'm just in a hurry to... DIA!!!" I exclaim, noticing that I had run right into my sister.

"Yeah, you'd better have been in a hurry. I've been waiting a half-hour!" Diana complains loudly.

"Oh hush, Tickles!" I order, using her not-too-well-liked-by-her nickname, as Fred and Mr. Weasley emerge from the stairwell.

"Tickles?" Fred asks, "I thought we were going to get a Diana?"

"I am Diana. Thanks! Thanks a lot, Tips!" Diana says, using my less-than-liked nickname.

"Tips?" Mr. Weasley asks, also confused.

"If you know what's good for you, you won't call me that." Diana and I chorus. I sigh.

"Mr. Weasley, Fred, this is my sister, Diana Featheredmoon. Dia, this is Mr. Arthur Weasley and Fred. He's the one I told you about that warned me about the trap he and his twin set up in the Charms corridor in my Second year. The one that caught Draco instead." I introduce both parties.

Diana nods in understanding.

Mr. Weasley glares at Fred, who says, "Thanks a lot Tips- ah! Serenity!"

I whirl around to face Fred. A nervous smile spreads across his face as I stare at him.

"Dia, I do believe he tempted fate." I say sweetly to Diana. She just nods; covering the smirk that I'm sure is under her hand.

"Dad?" I hear Fred ask his dad in a nervous whisper.

"Not me! You're on your own!" Mr. Weasley says, backing away quickly from Fred.

"Not fair!" Fred cries.

"All's fair when it comes to witches." Mr. Weasley replies, holding out his hands helplessly. I smirk.

"Fred. I'm not mad..." I start when I've come up behind him. "I'm utterly amazed that you, of all people..." Fred went rigid, waiting for the blow. He knew me all too well.

I twist a lock of his medium length hair around my finger and yank. "Can totally ignore a warning that was given not two minutes ago!"

Diana was visibly struggling to hide her laughter but her shaking shoulders gave her away. Even Mr. Weasley was smirking underneath a hand.

"Come on, ma souer. Let's get the bags. I left 'em back at Check in. I brought your guitar and ten of your too-many-to-count music books." Diana says, heading off.

"Wait! If my guitar is out of tune, a certain someone won't live to see Hogwarts!" I call and take off after my sister, leaving Fred and Mr. Weasley at the stairwell.

Fred groans and takes off after us, quickly followed by Mr. Weasley.

I grab my guitar and music books and Diana gets her flute and music books along with her suitcase. Mr. Weasley looks suspiciously at the suitcase.

"It's a small trunk, okay?" I snap, sighing in the back of my head.

"Yeah. But Aunt Lauren did something to it. You should have seen the guys at Customs. They kept digging through all my clothes and stuff until they got half the stuff out. Then they just gave up and stamped it."

Diana, Fred and Mr. Weasley laugh and I have to admit that seeing the people at Customs going through an almost bottomless suitcase would be interesting to see.

"We go to the Leaky Cauldron now, right?" I ask.

"We should. We could probably even catch dinner." Mr. Weasley replies.

"Perfect!" Diana exclaims. "I was hoping I could go there sooner than when I have to get my school stuff."

"Problem, Diana." Fred says sullenly, all trace of the usually prank-pulling teen gone from his face.

"What problem?" Diana says, looking up at me pitifully.

"Fred got us lost." I reply, smirking at Fred.

"I did not!" Fred protests.

"Yes you did. If you hadn't insisted on going south, we would have gone the right way and been here on time." I snap back.

"I didn't insist! You made me pick a number!" Fred argues.

"Serenity! You know you pick the same number every time!" Diana scolds.

"What number does she pick?" Mr. Weasley asks Diana.

"Six." Diana answers, sighing.

"Fred? Mr. Weasley? Serenity?" asks a voice out of nowhere.

"What?" we chorus, looking towards the speaker. The speaker just happened to be Hermione Granger with, I can assume, her parents behind her.

"Hermione? What are you doing here?" Fred and I chorus.

"Would you stop doing that?" Diana and Hermione complain in unison.

Needless to say, the group of us crack up laughing.

"Hermione? Do you think you could get us to Diagon Alley? Fred got us lost - " I plead.

"I did not." Fred interrupts.

" - and I don't know muggle London that well. I was always out in the country." I continue, ignoring Fred's interruption.

"Sure, Serenity. It's on our way anyway." Hermione replies, also ignoring Fred.

"Great." Mr. Weasley, Diana, Fred and I chorus then exclaim, "AH! We're doing it again!"

Hermione and her parents laugh and lead us off.

"So, who's the Hermione look-alike?" Hermione's mother asks nodding to Diana.

"Hermione look-alike?" I ask then I realize that Hermione's mother did have a point.

They both have brown hair, if my sister's hair weren't straight, and both have ginger brown eyes. Freaky how these things happen.

"Oh! You mean Diana. She's my sister." I answer with a smile.

"Sister? You certainly don't look like sisters. Tell the truth, I think that your Diana; that's her name right; looks more like she related to Hermione. Doesn't she, Ivy?" Hermione's dad asks her mother.

"She certainly does, Chris, but let's not give her any ideas." Mrs. Granger replies in a hushed tone.

"I'm perfectly happy with being an only child!"

"I'm perfectly happy with being Seraye's sister!"

The two being compared scold the elder Grangers at the same time with almost the same sentence.

"You're doing it again!" the elder Grangers, Mr. Weasley, Fred, and I scold the two look-alikes.

Hermione and Diana both scowl at us. It was funny how the scowls were similar.

We walk for several blocks then we came across the familiar Music shop.

"Right up here, Diana." I say, pointing to the shabby Leaky Cauldron.

"That's the Leaky Cauldron that you told me you stayed at for the Easter Holidays?" Diana asks, incredulous.

"Yep. That's what I said when I saw it for the first time with You-know only without the Easter Holidays thing." I say.

"You-know? This wouldn't be any relation to You-know-who?" Fred asks, a distinct timber of fear hovering in his voice.

I look at Mr. Weasley. We say, entirely in unison, "I thought you told - but you said - AGH!"

"You tell him!" I sigh, exasperated.

"All right. They can't say their grandparents' -" Diana and I flinch, "or her parents' - " We flinch again, "titles or names. I assume she was talking about Stephan Starrefeather." Mr. Weasley explains, Diana and I flinching for the third time.

"But why?" Fred and Hermione ask.

"Cherokee tradition." Diana and I answer.

"Why does that name sound familiar? Ah yes! He created the Communicorbs and the Remembralls!" Hermione says excitedly.

"Don't get too thrilled Hermione. He told me that the Communicorbs would be expensive." I say dully.

"That reminds me, Seraye. Lauren's taking over Lunar Eclipse and Jemz and Archie's taking over at the metal shop and the 'wizarding tinker toys' as Lauren put it. Lauren said that she'd get Archie to send some Communicorbs over for us." Diana says. "I'm hungry. Can we eat now?"

"I think we could manage that." Mr. Weasley says, entering the shabby pub.

"Hi Tom!" I call to the toothless old man behind the bar.

"'Ello Serenity. This that sister you were gabbin' on about? Watch out for 'er, Arthur. She right near talked me earless." Tom teases. I grin.

"We'll need a table Tom?" Mr. Weasley prompts.

"Ah, yes! How many? Seven, I see. Right. This way." Tom leads our little party off to a table near a window.

"Fred, Hermione? Can I speak with you a moment?" I ask, standing just out of earshot of my sister.

"Sure." Fred replies, closely followed by Hermione's "All right."

"Promise me you won't hint or tell Diana anything about what happened to me in Slytherin." I say, right off the bat, not allowing Hermione or Fred to ask what I wanted.

"But why Serenity? She's your sister." Hermione asks. "You two seem close enough that you could share anything."

"Not this. I don't want her to know about this." I say, shaking my head.

"Serenity, you saw how much good it did you with George and Ron. How long do you think you'll hold out with your own sister?" Fred asks. Figured he'd be a voice of reason right when I didn't want him to question me.

"Just don't please. I'll tell her when I can take it too." I answer, and sit down at the table. Mr. Weasley was already telling all about our little misadventures on the streets of London.

"And so she says that she does know where she's going and we needed to turn left as soon as possible. She was following directions a man gave her at the bus depot that we stopped at." Mr. Weasley explains.

"Then these two decided that they wanted to follow the crowd and head up the stairs and I had to drag them back by their collars." I add in with a laugh.

"If you were kind at all, Serenity, you would have left that out." Mr. Weasley says sourly. I merely grin.

"That's my sister for you." Diana says with a grin and a chuckle.

"Oh! By the way, Mr. Weasley, here's the change from the tickets for the Underground." I say, taking the change out of my pocket and handing it to Mr. Weasley.

"Ah! Wonderful!" Mr. Weasley says. "How you muggles manage with this stuff, I'll never know."

"It's easy enough if you've grown up with it. Having three different coins? Now that gets confusing." I say, sipping lightly on my fruit juice.

"Serenity, I don't mean to change the topic but what did Diana mean by 'Lunar Eclipse and Jemz' and 'the metal shop and the wizarding tinker toys'?" Hermione asks leaning forward.

"Um... Our... er... relatives all had their own little businesses - "

"Little? You call the Starre Orbs Corporation 'little'?" Hermione asks incredulously.

"Yes. It was when I left for Hogwarts. Now if you don't mind, I'll continue. Er... Lauren's sister had an apothecary, The Lunar Eclipse, in Independence Lane, which is what Diana meant by 'Lunar Eclipse'. Um... Lauren's brother-in-law had a metal repairs shop next to the apothecary, which is the metal shop. If you never came back there for repairs, the part that he replaced would outlast the rest of the cauldron for example. Lauren's mother had Jemz Ink inc. and that's the inks and Archie is running Starre Orbs." I explain at length.

"Archie can't be his real name, can it?" Hermione asks seriously.

"Actually, it isn't. His name is Archturus. We just called him Archie because he said it sounded more American." I answer.

"You mean he's not American?" Fred joins in on the inquisition.

"Nope. Lauren met him at Hogwarts." Diana says, finally deciding to help me out.

"Then why aren't they living in England?" Fred asks.

"He never really talks about it. He moved to America, Serenity was only one and a few months, because of something like accusations about his little brother." Diana answers, shrugging.

This reminded me of the puzzle I'd been trying to figure out; was Sirius Black related to my uncle Archturus Blacksun?

I had asked him, when I was younger, why had he used Aunt Lauren's name instead of using his own and Lauren changing hers so she had both names. He'd answered, rather vaguely now that I think of it, that their names were so alike that it wouldn't have made any difference to them.

Black was a lot like Blacksun, and Sun isn't really a last name but couldn't there be more Blacks than just Sirius?

"Moon to Silverwing! Moon to Silverwing! Are you there?"

Diana waves her hand frantically in front of my face. I recoil, nearly toppling out of my chair.

"What?" I ask loudly.

"Food's here." Diana sighs.

The rest of dinner went on in silence; save the questions that Mr. Weasley would ask Mr. and Mrs. Granger or Hermione.

Later on, Mr. Weasley went off to get Floo powder and Diana assaulted me with an inquisition of her own about the wizarding world.

"Didn't you read Hogwarts, A History?" I ask, finally sick of all the questions.

"Yeah. I was asking questions based from the skimmed information in it." Diana answers with a lop-sided grin.

"Oy!" I sigh, shaking my head.

"Back!" Mr. Weasley calls from by the fireplace. "Got the Floo powder and we're set to go!"

"Great!" I exclaim, practically leaping from my seat and running to the fireplace.

"Okay. Diana, here's what you do. You throw a pinch of this powder into the fire, you step in and shout 'The Burrow' and you'll be at our house in no time. I'll go last but watch Fred. Go on, Fred." Mr. Weasley explains and offers some of the shimmering powder to Fred.

Fred takes a finger-full and tosses into the fire. He steps in and shouts, "The Burrow" then disappears.

"Bye Hermione. See you later!" I call to the departing Grangers as I take some of the Floo Powder myself and toss it into the fire.

I step in quickly and face Diana. "See you in a few, Dia! The Burrow!"

It was the first time I had used Floo Powder. I feel my dinner rising slightly as I see flashes of other homes as I speed through these 'tunnels'.

I start to slow and a grate appears in front of me looking out on what I recognized as the Weasleys' kitchen. I step out onto the grate then the floor of the kitchen, coughing slightly at the small amount of soot that I had managed to inhale.

I brush the soot off my skirt and shirt, carefully avoiding the creamy white collar of my old Artene uniform.

Diana soon steps out of the fireplace as well and starts brushing her clothes, also avoiding the collar.

"Don't worry, dear. If you get a stain, there are spells to remove them." says the gentle voice of Mrs. Weasley.

"Serenity! You're as soaked as Fred was. Go upstairs and change into a pair of your school robes. You're other change of muggle clothing is being mended." Mrs. Weasley scolds.

Just then, Mr. Weasley appears on the grate.

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley exclaims taking in the state of his clothes. "You change to! Off with you both. Serenity, take your sister to your room and show her around when you're done."

I nod and grab Diana's suitcase and her hand then start up the rickety stairs. "C'mon Dia. You'll love it in the room!"

As we passed the various room doors, I told her which ones were who's.

"That one was Percy's but now their going to change it to a guest room. And this one here is Fred and George's. Don't go in there if you value your health. This one was Ginny's but now Ron's in here and we're in Ron's room."

A slam of the door and receding loud stamping on the stairs, told me that Ron had heard my spiel.

"Oh well, this one is ours!" I say, finally reaching the second-to-the-top landing, and open the door to the room I'd been living in for the past two weeks.

"This is cool!" Diana says.

"Turn around, midget, so I can change. If I don't Molly'll have my hide nailed to the wall." I say, opening my Hogwarts trunk and grabbing one of the robes.

"So what have you been up to?" Diana asks after turning around to look out the window.

"Nothing much really. Doing my summer assignments in the garden or up in the attic with the ghoul." I answer, my voice slightly muffled because of the robe I'm putting on.

"There's a ghoul here?!" Diana asks, nearly spinning around as I get my robes on right.

"Yes. There's a ghoul here." I answer, sighing and brushing off imaginary dust from my robes. "Whaddaya think? Hogwarts uniform."

"Not as colorful as Artene's uniforms but... I guess it'll have to do." Diana sighs, smiling. I shove her playfully.

"C'mon. I'll introduce you to George, Ron, and Ginny." I say and head towards the door. Diana quick steps to catch up with me and we head down the stairs.

"That won't work again. Harry nearly wasn't able to come and we don't have a flying car to hijack."

The voice of George floats into the kitchen where Diana and I were. I could only glimpse Fred, Ron, George and Mr. Weasley sitting at the dinner table before Fred answered.

"But if we don't get him out of there soon, Harry'll starve on the piddling diet those Dursleys have got 'im on. Mum's sent him enough food to last him a while but that was almost a week ago."

"We could try approaching the Dursleys directly." Mr. Weasley suggests.

"Yeah, dad. We'll just stroll up to their front door and say 'Hi! We're friends of Harry's and we'd like him to stay at our place for the rest of the summer.'" Ron replies sharply.

I was in the doorway between the kitchen and the dinning room now but the four Weasley boys hadn't noticed me yet.

"That could almost work." Fred says thoughtfully. I chose that moment to step in.

"Fred's right. If you alter that slightly and add a distinctive feminine touch to it and you'll get Harry out of there, no problem. The Dursleys probably wouldn't notice him gone until they needed someone to do something nasty."

"Geez, Serenity! At least give us some warning when you decide to join the conversation!" George exclaims at the same time as Ron snaps, "This isn't any of your business, Serenity, so keep your nose out of it."

"Ron!" Mr. Weasley scolds.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Weasley. If you don't want my help, then I'll just go find Ginny." I assure Mr. Weasley and turn to leave. "C'mon Dia. It's obvious that we're not wanted here."

"No! Wait!" the twins plead. I smirk slightly and turn back around.

"I'm not going to help if one of you won't cooperate."

I glare at Ron. He was being such a jerk. I guess he thinks that I put-down his best friend and, on top of it all, I'm a Slytherin and he's a Gryffindor.

Fred, George and Mr. Weasley had taken to glaring at Ron as well. He threw up his hands in surrender.

"Fine! Serenity can help but I won't like it one - little - bit."

"Diana, go find Mrs. Weasley. She'll introduce you to Ginny. Stay with her. I'll fill you in later." I say and sit at the table.

Once Diana had gotten out of earshot, I say, "Okay. Here's what we do."