Serenity Silverwing & The Hogwarts Five

Chapter Eight

Mission: Rescue Lightning (Impossible)

Last Seen: Serenity finally got to the airport and picked up her sister. Now she´s helping the Weasleys rescue Harry. What could go wrong? As you´ll find out, a lot can. Especially when Serenity can´t seem to stop challenging Worse.

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"Clipboard?" I ask, reading from a list on a scrap of parchment.

"Check." Diana answers, holding up the clipboard.

It´d taken me a day to get all the items that I needed to pull off Harry´s rescue and Mrs. Weasley had insisted on coming with Diana and I into town and bought the rest of the Weasleys muggle clothing.

"Pen and forms?"

"Check `n´ check."

"Hat?"

"Check."

The reason for getting the hat was that, from what I´ve been told, the Dursleys didn´t like anything out of the ordinary. Silver tipped black hair? I´m sorry but my hair is not ordinary and it would definitely raise some suspicions.

"Okay. That´s everything." I say, putting down the parchment. Diana was in her red and orange Artene uniform that clashed wildly with my blue and green one. At least we would look presentable.

"I´ll go tell Mr. Weasley." Diana pipes and dashes off, out the kitchen.

Having just finished breakfast, I sat at the kitchen counter with my supplies spread out in front of me.

"The portkey´s ready, Serenity." Diana says, dashing back into the kitchen.

"Okay. Let´s get my hair up and we´ll be off." I answer, turning around in my chair and handing the hat to Diana.

"You are so lucky that I brought a hair binder." Diana mutters, twisting my hair into a makeshift bun on top of my head and fastening it with the hair binder.

"Yeah, yeah. You only said that a thousand times. Now let´s go." I reply, placing the wide-brimmed straw hat on my head, effectively hiding any trace of silver hair.

Diana and I walk out to the garden and to the grouping of Weasley boys.

"Ready?" Mr. Weasley asks, and holds out a can of Pepsi.

"WAIT! Serenity! Don´t leave yet!!!" I whirl around in time to see Bluemoon zoom into a nearby tree, a fairly large package tied to her legs.

"Bluemoon!" I exclaim. "One minute Mr. Weasley."

"Here. It´s your birthday present from Lauren and Archie, who´s still recovering from my latest attack," Bluemoon explains; I grin; "and Diana has a gift from them too."

"Come on, bird. I need to get moving. I´ll have Diana open it when we get where were going. Besides, you might come in useful." I say, waving her to the ground.

"All right." Bluemoon answers, fluttering down from the tree.

"Okay! Let´s go!" I say, returning to the group with Bluemoon on my shoulder.

"I hate riding on shoulders..." she grumbles in my ear. I merely smile.

"One - Two - Three!" Mr. Weasley counts. On three, our little party touches the Pepsi can. Like when Mrs. Weasley had come to Hogwarts to take me home with her, I felt a little tug just behind my navel. We were lifted off the ground and the sensation of traveling very fast filled my mind.

As the blur of color surrounds us, I felt slightly sick but not enough to not notice that Diana was turning slightly green.

The portkey drops us, literally, in a wood in a park, Mr. Weasley Fred and George were the only ones standing. I assume that this must be the park near the Dursleys that Liz had told me about.

"Okay, Diana. Take the package. Let´s see what we got." I say, handing her the package. Diana rips it open and gasps slightly.

I lean over the box to see what was there and I, also, inhale sharply.

Inside was a white rose with a silver clip that made it look like it was a hair decoration, an armband of ivy with gold entwining itself around the leaves, two blue marbles the size of tennis balls and a letter.

I take the letter out and open it carefully.

`Dear Nity & Di,

These were supposed to be for you when you were both older but under the present circumstances, well... Anyway, the rose is for Serenity, and the ivy armband is for Diana.

One of these days, I´ll tell you two how your family made them but not right now and here. I wish I could see you girls off to Hogwarts but I´m stuck at the Ministry for a while. Archie sends his love and wishes he could be there too. That bungling British Minister for Magic seems to think that Sirius Black might have skipped out of Great Britain.

Love you lots, Witchgirls!

Lauren Blacksun

P.S.

The Communicorbs are to be considered your birthday presents. Just state the exact address and name of the person you want to talk with - as long as they have a Communicorb too. Oh! If the Weasleys need paying for taking you on, have Molly call back. Please don´t forget about the time change. I don´t want to wake up at one AM to answer a Communicorb-call.´

"Here, Diana. Read this then give it to Mr. Weasley. He only needs to read the postscript. The armband and one of the blue balls are yours." I say, handing the letter to Diana.

I take the white rose and the blue marble out of the box. The moment my fingers touched the rose, it changed from a pure, flawless white to a dark, blackish-blue with white edges. I look sorrowfully at it, rotating the rose in my fingers.

"Dia, you´re going to have to hold on to this for me." I say, holding out the rose to her.

"Why?" Diana asks, handing the letter to Mr. Weasley.

"Color changing roses would be on that long list of unusual things that the Dursleys hate." I answer. Diana reluctantly, but carefully, takes the rose. The instant the rose left my touch, it washed back to the flawless white, with no trace that it had been any other color.

"Come on, guys. We´ve got a hero to save." I say, and walk out of the stand of trees with Diana. Fred, George Ron and Mr. Weasley stop rereading the letter and dash to keep up with us.

Not many of us talked on our way to Privet Drive. Fred, George and Ron were muttering amongst themselves about how different the neighborhood looked in broad daylight. Diana and I were whispering to each other.

"Who´s this Harry kid? Why is he a hero?" Diana asks quietly.

"Harry Potter is a hero because he defeated a dark wizard at the age of one, and currently a pain in my side." I answer quickly.

"Why´s he a pain in your side and if he is, then why are you helping with this rescue?" Diana asks reasonably.

"Because the Weasleys like him and they´ve been nothing but good to me. I´m doing them a favor." I answer, clipping my pen onto the blue ribbon on my hat.

When we got the corner of Privet Drive, I told everyone to wait there and I´d be back in a few minutes, hopefully with Harry. I walked with confidence to the door of Number Four. I knock three times and step back from the door to wait.

After a few moments, a very round boy with blonde hair slicked to his head. It must be that Dudley person Liz had told me about.

"Hi. My name is Sarah Smith and I´d like to speak with a..." I mock a glance at the top of my clipboard, "A Mr. Harry Potter? Is he in?"

A look a horror spread across the tub of lard´s face and he quickly slammed the door in my face.

"Well that´s nice!" I exclaim loudly. No sooner had I done so but the door opens again to reveal a large man with a red face that looked like he´d gotten so angry once that he´d burst all the capillaries in his face.

"Mr. Dursley, I assume? My name is Sarah Smith and I´m taking a survey of students that went to Stonewall Primary. I´d like to speak with Mr. Harry Potter. Is he available?" I ask quickly, rattling off the lie as if it were the truth. I had to act normal or I´d be a dead give-away.

"Why do you need to talk with Harry? Dudley went to Stonewall Primary. Why not talk with him?" Mr. Dursley accosts me, still holding the door open just wide enough to allow him to stick his head out.

"I´m sorry sir but my group divvied up the alphabet and I drew Mu-Q. Diana will be by later to survey your son, I´m sure." I answer calmly, not allowing my nervousness to spill into my voice.

"What´s this survey about?" he asks cautiously. He was going to see if it had any controversial, according to Dursley regulation, questions, like what school is he currently attending.

"`Has what you learned at Stonewall Primary helped you with what you´re doing now?´, `Did you plan to go on to University after Secondary schooling?´ and such. Is Mr. Potter in or not? He isn´t my only stop. I still need to get down to Cherry Lane and survey a whole block." I say, exasperation clear on my voice in an attempt to get him to let me see Harry.

"He´s not here." He says and slams the door.

I scream in frustration and storm off, muttering, still in the ruse of an angry surveyor, incoherencies of talking to the group leader.

When I got to the corner of Privet, Fred, George and Ron affronted me.

"Cool it guys! I wasn´t able to get by Mr. Dursley. That´s okay, though, because I have a Plan B." I exclaim. Truth be honestly told, I´d made up Plan B on my rampage back to the corner.

As I laid out Plan B, furtive glances from the males of our party were cast at Diana, who held the main role of the masquerade; distraction.

"Everyone understands what to do?" I ask when I´d finished and glancing around the group.

When no one said anything, I continue, "Good. Mr. Weasley, and Fred are with me. George, Ron, stay put. Diana, start about three minutes after we leave. My group, move out."

En masse, Mr. Weasley, Fred and I walk down Privet Drive and turn onto the walkway of deserted Number Six.

"Fred, under Harry´s window, quick." I whisper to him once we were all in the overgrown side yard of Number Six.

Fred dashes across the two side yards and stands under a beaten, open window that had definitely seen better summers.

"Mr. Weasley, directly across from Fred." I order and Mr. Weasley edges, his back against Number Six´s peeling exterior, ten feet to my right.

"Ready, Mr. Weasley?"

* * * * *

"Alohomora." Mr. Weasley whispers, his wand pointing at the lock on the door of Number Four.

George had been sent back to the Burrow with Diana after she´d had an awful encounter with the ugly brute of Dudley. To put it bluntly, she´d been invited to dinner and, when she refused politely, she got kissed. Poor thing. She´ll be scarred for life... if not a few weeks.

The door´s lock clicks silently open and Fred turns the knob quietly. With a stealth developed from running from various higher-ups at Hogwarts, Fred slips through the small open door.

Avoiding getting caught by other Slytherins, Snape and Filch had developed my stealth as well so I slip in after Fred. For some reason, the fact that I hung around Liz immediately put me on Filch´s bad side, although from what I´ve heard, every student´s on his bad side.

I feel Ron slide the door open a little wider to omit him and Mr. Weasley and then he opens it wider so we´d have a clear avenue of escape.

"Fred, Mr. Weasley. Go to that closet and get Harry´s stuff. Ron? You´re with me. Show me where Harry´s room is." I whisper the orders that I had figured out earlier. I wasn´t pleased with the fact that Ron had to be with me but Mr. Weasley had to go with Fred, who was the only one with us that knew where the Dursleys locked Harry´s stuff up, because he was the only one allowed to do magic.

"Skip the bottom stair. Harry said it creaks." Ron warns as we start towards the stairs. I carefully set my foot on the second step up and slowly shift my weight to it. After Ron had gotten to the second stair as well, we proceed up the stairs with increasing stealth.

At the top of the stairs, Ron points to a door with a cat flap. Carefully, I lead the way towards Harry´s bedroom door. Exceedingly quietly, I turn the knob and push the door open slowly, careful just in case the door should creak.

Harry was sitting at his desk when Ron and I entered his room. He gives a small start as he realizes that it´s time to go and then he heads to his bed. Kneeling down, he pulls up a loose floorboard under his bed and retrieves a pillowcase of books, quills, parchment and inkbottles and another looking to be full of food.

"Ron, grab a few shirts and pants." I whisper to Ron. Ron shoots a resentful look at me then goes to Harry´s closet.

"Is there anything else? Harry?" I ask quietly as Harry replaces the floorboard.

"Nothing much. Just my books, food, and clothes up here. The rest is in the cupboard under the stairs." Harry answers, standing up. He picks up the bag of food.

"Fred and Mr. Weasley are getting to that stuff..." I answer then I heard the four taps on the stair rail that meant that they were ready downstairs.

"Ron, you go first." I say looking around. Nothing forgotten?

Ron had quietly slipped out and tapped twice on the railing.

"Harry, you and I go together." Quietly we edged to Harry´s door. We were just about to shut the door when something behind us gave out a loud squawk of outrage.

"Hedwig!" Harry exclaims.

"Run for the corner!" I shout down the hall. Our cover was blown anyways.

I grab Harry by the arm; he had been slipping back into his room. "Go!" I whisper urgently. "If you don´t go now, we might not be able to get you out again!"

"But Hedwig..."

"That ruddy bird!!!" Mr. Dursley bellows from his room. Loud creaking ensued the bellow.

"I´ll get her! Just GO!" I interrupt, shoving Harry towards the stairs.

I dash back into the room, grab Hedwig´s cage and dash out again, practically leaping down the stairs. I hear something that sounded like a hippo crashing around and down the stairs after me.

I was just rounding the corner to the entrance hall when a hand caught me roughly by the elbow.

"Ah!" I exclaim as I whip back around to see the angry purple face of Mr. Dursley.

"Got you!" he exclaims triumphantly.

"Not for long." I reply, grasping for my medicine bag. "Aerio patrona!" I shout and, a loud piercing hawk cry later, I was released and Mr. Dursley clutches at his face, small drips of blood leaking from between his fingers. I quickly run out the door and slam it behind me.

I race for the corner where the remaining Weasleys and Harry were waiting. Still holding Hedwig´s cage, Bluemoon swoops down to my shoulder and taking a firm grip, I touch the port key and say urgently, "Let´s go!"

Mr. Weasley mutters something and we zoomed away from the corner of Privet Drive as Mr. Dursley managed to get to the sidewalk in his pajamas, yelling furiously. I could only grin at what trouble he would get in for waking up the whole neighborhood.