Harry Potter and the Silver Millennium

Harry Potter and the Silver Millennium

by Winnie Matthews

* * *

Chapter Four

Harry let out a moan as he raised his head, rubbing the back of it as he opened his eyes. "Man, that hurt," he muttered as he spotted Hermione squatted beside him, looking concerned. "Hermione? What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, smiling at him. She had been instructed by both Anna and Luna--and later Artemis, who showed up after the fighting--not to say anything about it.

"Most people," Anna had told her calmly. "Can't understand about the Sailor Scouts or Negamonsters and dismiss the incident as a nightmare. It never occurs to them that it might be real. If people do think it was real, don't reveal to them that you were part of the fighting. The Negaverse will catch up with you and might know your true identity."

"That--that monster," Harry reminded her, shaking his head as if to clear it. "And that girl . . . Sailor Moon."

Hermione sighed. She'd known that Harry wouldn't dismiss it as a dream. He was too smart for that and had been through too much. Thank goodness that he wouldn't have to be part of this mess.

"Sailor Moon defeated the monster," she explained with a shrug. "Don't worry about it, Harry. It won't be coming back." Holding out her hand, Hermione helped Harry to his feet just as McGonagall came running in, followed by Ron.

"What happened here?" she asked Hermione sharply, who looked around at the rising students.

"Some kind of weird monster," Hermione said automatically. "It came and attacked all the students and then this girl named Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury saved us."

Sailor Mercury . . . her true identity that she had never been aware of. Anna, Luna, and Artemis hadn't had long to explain things, but from what they told her, the Sailor Scouts had been attacked by evil forces on the Moon and escaped them. They were reborn on Earth but had no memory of their previous lives. But the real mission, Luna had explained, besides helping to defeat the Negaverse, was to find the Moon Princess and to protect her.

Hermione shivered as she looked around her at the damage the monster had done. If Voldemort had sent this monster, she thought, I'd hate to think of what other monster he had up his sleeve.

* * *

"Jedite!" Voldemort roared and a blond man in a general's uniform knelt down in front of the Dark Lord, bowing his head. "Congratulations, that moon brat has followed you and your slaves here to Britain! And now she has another one of her Sailor friends! That Sailor girl was enough trouble just by herself! Another one of them could prove dangerous! She's already managed to outwit you several times. So what are you going to do about this?"

"Don't worry, my lord," Jedite assured his master. "They won't be a problem. I have a new plan which will ensure that both Sailor girls will be out of the way and we can gather new energy."

Voldemort studied the young general, his red eyes glaring at him. "You had better be right, General," he replied in a tone not to be tampered with. "I need the energy of those wizards to release the Negaverse and take over the universe. And don't forget about the Emperium Silver Crystal. We need that to take over. But heed my warning, Jedite. I do not want to hear of any more failures. Enlighten me of your new plan to gather energy."

"Well, I have heard that these pathetic wizards use a great deal of energy on an emotion called love," Jedite said, waving his hand. A picture of boys and girls dancing and laughing appeared. "And mostly they will do anything for it. My plan is to sell love charms in Hogsmeade that are possessed with dark energy to steal those who buy them."

Laughing a cruel laugh that made the Death Eaters around them cringe, Voldemort nodded. "It's a well conceived plan, Jedite," he replied. "Death Eaters, I want you to alert your children to spread the word of these new love charms at the school. Proceed, Jedite, with your plan. And you had better hope that that it works. Because believe me when I say that this is your last chance of defeating that Sailor girl. If you don't, than you will be destroyed and another will take your place. So this had better work."

"Don't worry," Jedite replied with a bow. "It will."

* * *

Anna was walking down the corridor to go outside when she heard someone call her name. Turning around, she saw Harry running towards her.

"Oh, hi," she said, smiling at him. Beside her, Luna and Artemis were studying the boy who lived carefully. "Are you okay?"

"What makes you think that something's wrong?" Harry asked, his brows narrowing slightly.

Gulping slightly and praying he wouldn't hear her heart beating so fast, Anna said hurriedly, "Oh, you know, Hermione told me that you got knocked out by some kind of psycho monster."

"Hermione told you that?" Harry asked, rubbing the back of his head and wincing.

Anna hesitated to say yes to that question but nodded. That was the best answer that she could come up with. After all, she couldn't let him know her true identity.

"Speaking of which, why didn't you come and help? We could've used you," Harry asked her.

"Look, Harry, you did not need my help," Anna mumbled, looking at her feet. "Trust me, Harry, you really would've done fine without me and worse if I was there. I'm not very good at Defence, anyway. And not very good as a swordsman."

Harry looked at her in surprise. "Oh, is that why you didn't come?" he asked. Anna decided the best thing to do was not answer. "If you need some help with Defence, I can help you with that."

"Really?" Anna asked, looking at him. "Because I do need some help with the spells . . . and my aim . . . and my--"

"Okay, okay," Harry said, laughing. "I get the picture." Both of them stared at each other with an awkward silence until Harry said, "Look, last year we started this D.A. thing. A Defence group. And Hermione thinks it's a good idea to keep up with it, since Voldemort now decided to send wacko monster after us. So if you need help, you can come and learn with the others."

Anna frowned slightly, glancing down at her cats carefully. Harry followed her gaze and grinned. "These must be the psycho cats that Hermione told me about," he said with a laugh, stroking Luna and Artemis. "'Course she took it back later, but still . . ."

"Psycho cats?" Anna repeated, rolling her eyes. Luna scowled at her but Anna ignored it. "Yeah, I think that the Defence group sounds like a good idea. What time does it meet?"

"It varies," Harry explained with a shrug. "I have Hermione tell you the schedule, all right? She's usually pretty good about the schedule."

"She seems like the kind of girl who would be," Anna muttered. Harry grinned and shoved his hands into his pockets, looking unnerved.

"So, uh, where were you going before I interrupted you?" he asked and Anna sighed. She and Hermione and Luna and Artemis would never be able to get talking about Sailor business with all these interruptions.

"Just for a walk around the lake," she answered with a shrug. "It's a quiet place to think about things."

Harry nodded, understanding. "Well, I won't keep you," he said and Anna looked at him. "I'll see you around, all right?"

Anna nodded as he walked in the other direction, towards the Gryffindor common room. Shivering slightly as her heartbeat reluctantly returned to normal, she hurried outside to meet Hermione for their first official Sailor Scout meeting, where they could explain things to Hermione.

The only place that the guardians had found to meet was on the other side of the lake. Anna knew that it would take a while to get there, but it was far off from being overheard or interrupted.