Serenity Silverwing & The Hogwarts Five

Chapter Eleven

Power Spikes

Last Seen: The Weasleys, avec Serenity, Diana, Liz, Harry and Hermione, got the World Cup. (Yes, I changed the teams that were competing but so what? This is MY story!) Nocta made another appearance, only this time with Draco. Again, my apologies to any British readers and whoever knows what `bugger´ means. Looks like America won (who´d´ve thunk?). I know y´all were expecting some big play-by-play for the Cup but that would have gotten too long and drawn out...*remembers Chapter Eight* Anyways, we´re back to the Burrow now so... Enjoy!!! Don´t forget to R! E! V! I! E! W! (What´s that spell?) REVIEW!!! Tah now!

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"Serenity?" Fred calls, walking out into the garden. The tall rowan tree, with all its perches hidden by foliage, was where Serenity usually hid to do her schoolwork when she wasn´t in the attic.

"Unless you have something to say about the founding of the Ministry for Magic, I don´t want to hear it, Fred!" Serenity yells crossly from somewhere in the tree. He quickly makes his way to the base of the old rowan. Fred peers up through the dense branches, catching only a glimpse of Serenity´s black Hogwarts uniform in the upper branches.

"Say, how´d you get the ghoul to stop banging around?" Fred asks, trying to get her to come down, or at least talk to him.

"I told you before, Fred!" Serenity calls down, sounding annoyed.

"But it doesn´t make any sense!" Fred calls back, adding a whining note in hopes of drawing her out further. "If it wanted music, why didn´t it come out and ask us?"

He barely had time to dart out of the way as he saw Serenity´s carry sack of books drop to the ground. Soon after, Serenity stepped casually off her perch.

She didn´t plummet like she should have; she appeared to float quickly and safely down like a black angel, which was Fred and George´s nickname for her between themselves.

She looks down her nose at Fred. No slight feat, when one considers that Fred is at least three inches taller that her.

"He said `decent music. Music finely crafted by hand and not´ I quote, `something mass produced with wands by wizards and witches with no imagination whatsoever´." Serenity says, acting like a disdainful queen. `It´s almost scary how she can go all Slytherin in a flash of silver hair.´ Fred thinks.

"Did you learn to do that in Slytherin?" Fred asks, his mouth working faster than his brain. He quickly regrets asking, as Serenity seems to draw a black aura of power.

"Among other things, from the Malfoys in particular." She responds, her usually musical voice as cold as ice. She pauses there, tilting her head to one side, almost thoughtfully. "Like how to listen to warnings!" Serenity adds, clenching her fists.

Fred didn´t have time to blink before he found himself in the old garden shed, with various tools falling on and around him. Serenity had vanished faster than anyone could´ve followed.

Those inside come rushing out to see what the commotion was and find a dazed and bleeding Fred in the remains of the old tool shed. Mrs. Weasley quickly aids the oldest son she had living at home out of the pile of splintered wood and garden tools.

"Wha´ happened? I didn´ do anythin´..." Fred slurs dazedly as he was assisted into the house.

"What did your sister do?" George asks Diana, eyes wide.

"I have an idea but I´ll have to hear Fred´s story before I know for sure." Diana answers and follows Mrs. Weasley and Fred into the house.

"All I was doing was talking to her... About the ghoul... and music and... Ow! That stings, mum!" Fred explains, snapping out of his daze as Molly placed a cloth over a few of his many cuts.

"Good. It´s supposed to. Diana, dear, would you go get Serenity?" Molly asks, continuing to tend to Fred´s injuries.

Diana shrugs and walks over to the stairs. She pauses at the food of the stairwell, sighing. Then she inhales, and goes pale as a sheet.

She sniffs the air questioningly. A distinct scent that Diana´d always associated with attempts to calm down in extreme cases tickled her senses and made her a blotchy tan color.

"Uh-uh! Oh no! I´m not going up there! You can´t make me!" Diana rants, backing away from the stairs and scrambling under the wooden kitchen table.

"Diana, what´s going on? What´s wrong?" Ginny asks, leaning over to peer at the only girl in the house younger than her.

"I´m not going up there. Not in a thousand lifetimes." Diana raves, wrapped firmly around one of the table legs.

"Why?" Marcus asks, leaning over as well.

"White sage and cedar." Diana snaps. "Can´t you use that knob in the middle of your face!? Serenity´s using her incense and I´m not going up there!"

"What´ve white cedar and sage got to do with anything?" Ron asks ignorantly.

"White sage and cedar, Ron. She only uses that when she´s trying to calm down in an extreme case." Diana spits, resisting Ginny´s valiant attempts to loosen her grip on the table leg. "The backyard is not lined with pillows this time so I am not going up there!"

Molly glares accusingly at Fred, who was also the subject of other stares.

"What? I´m the one who got hurt!" Fred exclaims.

"Yes you may very well´ve warranted it." Molly says, tossing the soiled cloth she´d been using at him.

"Wait a minute... If she was outside when she did whatever to Fred, and she´s already inside, burning incense, did anyone see or hear her come in?" Hermione asks, walking into the kitchen from the living room where she´d been working on her homework. There was a general chorus of negatives.

"HOLY HER - Ow!" Diana shouts as she springs upward from her hiding spot before getting a painful reminder that she was under the table.

"Ow..." Diana groans, crawling out from underneath the table and starts rummaging in her pockets for her Communicorb.

Finding it, she brings it level with her face and says clearly, "North America, United States, Kansas, Southern Kansas Cherokee Reservation, Lauren Blacksun."

The blue glass tennis ball swirled white, emitted a few piercing tones before an image of Lauren, Diana and Serenity´s aunt, appears.

"What is it, Sneakers?" Lauren asks irritated.

"Auntie L! Serenity´s done that blast back-n-away trick! TWICE!" Diana exclaims at the Communicorb. Lauren looked slightly shocked but quickly recovers.

"How? Why?" Lauren queries. Diana looks over at Fred then back at the Communicorb.

"Um... She was doing homework up in a tree. Fred said something. She got down from the top of the tree, some how, and then Fred said something else. That´s when she blasted him into the old tool shed and did the same thing again to get her to our room." Diana says, guessing at some parts of the story.

"Spirits above and beyond! What on earth did he say?" Lauren asks.

"I dunno. I´ll hand it over to Fred so he can tell you." Diana replies, and quickly tosses the ball to Fred.

"All right Fred. Just tell me exactly what happened." Lauren says, her face a mask of collected coolness.

And so he did. Lauren took it all in with a minimum of shock. After, Lauren asked to talk to Diana again.

"Yes?" Diana asks.

"What´s Serenity burning? Fred said something about incense."

"Er... You´ll hit the roof when you hear but... White sage and -" Diana starts to answer only to be cut off.

"Cedar!" Lauren proclaims, pouncing on the word.

Marcus, who´d run off somewhere, comes pelting back into the room.

"Diana, does that weird thingy you´re going on about include calling a book from a tree?" Marcus asks breathlessly. Diana relayed the question to her aunt.

"It would be, yes. Oh spirits! ARCHIE!!!"

The Communicorb´s image was blanked out but didn´t return to the blue that meant that the call had ended. Those near Diana could hear mutterings that varied in volume and pitch from high and loud to low and quiet. After roughly three minutes, Lauren´s image reappears in the orb.

"Sneakers, here´s what we´re going to do." Lauren starts. "I´ll be sending Sunsmear with some of my headache tea. In the meantime, I´m looking for a shaman near to you to re-evaluate Serenity´s powers. No ordinary shaman or shamaness could be able to do that trick three times in a day at any sort of power. Get me Molly. I need to tell her what we´re doing and what she needs to do as well."

"You´re not borrowing any of my clothes, Fred." George says as Fred attempts to clean himself up. "All it´ll do is cause problems."

"Oh please!" Diana snaps at the twins. "She´s always been able to tell you two apart."

"How?" Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Harry, Hermione and Marcus ask as one voice..

"I dunno. She just has." Diana shrugs.

"All right, Laurie. Thanks for your help." Molly says. Lauren made a response then the orb reverted to its inactive blue. Molly hands Diana her Communicorb and turns to Fred.

"You," Molly starts, pointing an accusatory finger at Fred, "are leaving for a while. Do you know of anyone that would accept you as a last minute visitor for a few days."

"There´s always Lee´s place." George answers, cutting Fred off. "Standing invitation, remember, Fred?"

"Good. Fred, grab your things. You need to be out of Serenity´s sight until Lauren can figure out what´s going on with her." Molly says, taking the bit of cloth away from and tossing it into a waste receptacle.

"Alright... Is it really that bad?" Fred asks, unsure of how he´d gotten Serenity that mad.

"Yes!" Molly and Diana reply exuberantly.

"Perfect... Silverwing gets mad and she´s not even yelled at for causing bodily harm to Fred. Then our lives get flipped upside down and inside out just to keep her from getting mad again." Ron grouses as Fred darts up the stairs.

"You don´t understand Ron." Diana says calmly.

"No I don´t. Enlighten me." Ron replies tersely.

"Let´s see... Where to start? Er... Serenity´s a powerful shaman, no mistake, but even the greatest shaman has only used the power that she used once a day. Today, she used it three times. If she over stretches her abilities while still comparatively young, she could lose them all together." Diana explains, fumbling a bit.

"Oh now there´d be a real loss." Ron states drolly.

"Ron!" Molly snaps with a glare, slightly surprised that her youngest son could be so vindictive.

"Sunsmear!" Diana exclaims, darting to the kitchen window.

Sunsmear scratches impatiently on the windowpane. Diana leans over the sink and manages only to crack the window open. Sighing in frustration, Diana climbs nimbly up on the counter edge and shoves the window the rest of the way open. Having finished her task, she sits on the counter beside the sink.

Sunsmear flies in and circles over the table, dropping his envelope on said table, which Molly quickly picks up.

"How´d you get here so fast, huh Sunny?" Diana asks, coaxing the bird to land on her outreached wrist. Sunsmear squawks a reply.

"A portkey probably. Lauren was always good at them." Molly answers, setting the refolded letter on the table, and sets about to make tea.

"All right, kid. I´ll let you off, but next time I´ll get Serenity to force it out of you." Diana says to the hawk, giving it a few kind strokes as she turns to let the bird out the window. "Go on back to Auntie L, Sunny."

Sunsmear, now outside, shrieks a reply. Diana smiles, two parts wistful to one part reminiscent, and then curses, jumping down from the counter.

"Molly, when you get a moment." Diana says, turning on the faucet and running her wrist, cut and scratched, under the stream of water. Molly, waiting for the water to boil, nods and walks over to Diana to take care of the scratches.

"I will remember to wear the wrist guards next time." Diana chants under her breath as Molly put some stinging liquid over the small cuts that encircled her wrist.

"Hermione, would you -" Molly starts, wiping away the violet goop, before Hermione responds with, "Um... No. I´m helping Harry and Ron with their homework. C´mon, let´s get back to it, boys." And she was out of the room like a shot with Harry and Ron in tow.

"George?" Molly asks, drying off Diana´s now cut-less wrist.

"I´m not taking a chance of getting blasted." George answers and heads off to his room.

"Marcus?" Molly asks, letting Diana (and her wrist) go.

"Nuh-uh. No way, Aunt Molly." Marcus answers. "I´m grateful for you letting me stay here but I´d sooner de-gnome your garden. Even I know not to get Serenity mad."

"Diana, please. You´re her sister." Molly asks, almost on the verge of begging.

"Exactly why I´d wind up outside in a newly made crater." Diana replies. "That reminds me. Can I sleep on the couch tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well?"

"Oh get out!" Molly sighs in exasperation. "Ginny?"

"Do I have to?" Ginny asks plaintively, planning on using her youngest and only daughter status to spare her.

"Yes." Molly says firmly, handing her the now prepared cup of tea.

"Oh fine. Big brothers? No. I have big babies." Ginny grumbles and heads up the stairs to the attic.

Walking slowly up the steps, Ginny had to wonder how Serenity, someone completely unrelated to the Weasley family, could tell the twins apart when none of them could.

Ginny, having reached the appropriate landing, knocks tentatively on the door.

"Come in." Serenity calls from inside. Ginny takes a breath and opens the door.

"Serenity," Ginny says tentatively, opening the door. "Mum made you some tea your aunt said would help."

Ginny peers around the door to find Serenity sitting on her bed with her History homework spread out in front of her.

"Oh. Give her my thanks." Serenity responds, sparing a fleeting glance up from her homework.

Ginny hesitates at the door, slightly put off by Serenity´s apparently amicable mood.

"Well come in. I´m not angry at you, for goodness sake." Serenity says, her usual manner slipping in.

"Oh!" Ginny steps in, shutting the door behind her, and sets the cup and saucer on the bedside cabinet.

"Thank you." Serenity says, reverting back to the unnerving friendly manner that usually meant she was out to get something.

Ginny fidgets nervously as Serenity sips her tea obliviously. Ginny really wanted to ask how Serenity could tell Fred and George apart but didn´t know how to word it or avoid getting her angry.

"Do you need something?" Serenity asks, deceptively docile.

"Um... Yeah..." Ginny stammers, grateful that Serenity´d brought up the subject.

"You want to know how I can tell Fred and George apart, right?" Serenity asks, stretching almost lazily to work out the kinks that´d developed from hunching over her work.

"Um... Yeah. How´d you guess?" Ginny asks.

"Dear Ginny, I´d be hard pressed not to know, let alone guess, as you were all practically shouting it downstairs." Serenity says, smiling warmly.

"Okay then. How do you do it?"

"Well... Diana may need to clarify this for you. When I meet someone, I hear a distinct musical tone. No two people have the same tone much as no two people are exactly alike. However, with twins like your brothers, I hear a chord. One of the twins, Fred for example, has one half of the chord and George has the other half. When they´re together, the chord is complete. Got it?" Serenity finishes then takes a sip of the tea. Swallowing, Serenity makes a sour face.

"Aunt Lauren´s strengthened the blend. Works well though." Serenity says with a sigh. "Tell your mother I will be down for dinner."

"All right." Ginny says and darts out the door, unwilling to press her luck further.

Serenity finishes the cup of tea with one last gulp. She gags on the taste and tries to clear the taste from her mouth. Sour face in place, Serenity turns back to her History essay.