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Chapter 116 -Snakes, Goddesses And Girls

In the weeks following Minister Bones election and the defeat of Fudge and Umbridge, things were probably best

described as balanced.

As regards Voldemort, they had heard very little of what he was up to, which could be interpreted at good or bad

news. On the definite plus side though, Charlie had managed to sway quite a few of the dragon reserves to their

side, they now had around one hundred and fifty dragons on their side consisting of Welsh Greens, Hebridean

Black's, Chinese Fireballs and Antipodean Opaleye's. Unfortunately not the most dangerous or the largest breeds

of dragon, but it was that or nothing, they at least had the advantage of numbers.

At Hogwarts there had been another mass spell incident, this time the result was either Envy or Pride, it was

difficult to tell as almost all of those involved ended up in punch ups either way, there had been no major

injuries this time, other than a couple of broken noses.

As regards the mated trio, Adam had as yet made no progress with his potion, but they had managed to make

things slightly easier by creating another feelings sphere for Dawn and adding to the feelings inside the other

two spheres so that there was a bit of the other two in each, it allowed them when holding the spheres against

their skin to stay apart for several hours and probably longer if they could find a way of easily maintain the

skin contact for extended periods of time.

In an effort to cheer everyone up, Dumbledore had arranged another Yule Ball, to be held on Friday the 21st, two

days before the students left for Christmas, allowing them a day to recover. Other than the latest mass spell

things had returning, almost to normal around Hogwarts.

And that meant it was a guarantee that something was about to go wrong.
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 1375 - Earth
Date: 1st December 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Corridors
Time: Afternoon

It had been two weeks since the Scoobies returned to Sunnydale; Christmas was on the horizon and very few

students were planning to return home, their parents obviously did not want them to leave the protections of

Hogwarts, Dumbledore and the Aurors.

It was a Saturday and the Gryffindor's and Dawn (who had been made an honorary Gryffindor as to fit in her

training with the others) had just finished classes for the day and were heading back to the Common Room to

relax after Potions. Dawn had said she needed to make a quick stop somewhere else first and would meet them

there.

At that moment she was waiting nervously outside the hospital wing, pacing up and down. She was so focused on

what she was doing that she didn't noticed when the doors opened, causing her to jump when Madam Pomfrey spoke.

"Are you going to come in or where you planning on staying out here all evening?"

"How did you know I was here?" asked Dawn, heavily breathing.

"One of the portraits told me," She explained, before opening the door to allow her passed. "Shall we?"

Nervously entering Dawn moved to the centre of the room and waited for Madam Pomfrey to join her.

The nurse waited patiently for over a minute, waiting for her to say something before clearing her throat.

"If you don't tell me what's wrong, I can't help fix it."

Dawn sighed reluctantly and started to speak.

"Can anything I discuss with you remain private?"

"Technically, I should tell your sister if it's something serious, but if you really want to I can keep anything

we say confidential."

Dawn nodded nervously before continuing.

"We have all been so busy of late that I hardly noticed. I'm hoping that it's just stress related or something

magical and not what I think it is."

"Go on," Instructed Madam Pomfrey.

"A certain someone who should have visited me a couple of weeks ago- didn't. Now I'm starting to wonder if..."

"Ah, I see," nodded the nurse, understanding. "Lay down on a bed while I scan you."

A few minutes and several different spells later she obviously came to a conclusion as she put her wand away.

"You suspicions were correct my dear, congratulations. You are as you suspected- pregnant."
________________________________________________________________________

As Dawn reached the Common Room she did what she could to calm herself before she entered, trying to act as

though nothing was wrong. It had been hard enough earlier when she had found out from Pomfrey and panicked. She

had had to try to convince Harry and Fleur mentally that nothing was wrong, whilst trying to hide the

information in question from their worried thoughts. She was not very good at the mental thing; she was sure

they knew she was hiding something, but had luckily neither decided to press the issue.

Taking a deep breath she spoke the password and stepped into the room.

It was still early so there were not many people occupying the room. Other than Harry and company, only Ginny

and a few fifth years occupied the room; most people took longer to return to the Common Room after class. The

others were sitting in their preferred seats by the fireplace.

"You know I'm sure those Potion Lessons get longer every week," complained Ron, from his seat on a sofa, next to

Hermione and a pile of books. "It feels like we have been in that dungeon all day."

"Stop complaining," said Harry, as Dawn reached them and slid, slightly more slowly than normal, into his lap,

while sliding her hands around his neck as his arms came around her. They had come to accept that they had to be

in contact as much as possible and the more time they were in contact while they were awake, the less close they

would have to be when they were asleep which was preferable as it meant Dawn could just sleep in the same bed as

them while Harry and Fleur remained in contact, they had been getting progressively more relaxed about it,

though they were still uncomfortable with the situation, but this evening Harry could tell, for some reason Dawn

was more distracted than she had been before they left class. "Look on the bright side; at least you haven't got

Potions again until Thursday."

"Oh thanks. That's really something to look forward to. Why couldn't you have thought of something fun?"

"I've got a few suggestions," Hermione said, as she got up from her seat (which was surrounded by now complete

Homework) and slid into Ron's lap as Dawn had done, though they moved closer together and a little more relaxed

about it. Dawn and Fleur had obviously had an influence on Hermione; she was a lot more flirtatious than she

used to be (though Ron wasn't complaining) though such things still came second to her school work. It made some

of them wonder what Dawn, Fleur or worse Colette trait she would start picking up next.

Ron raised an eyebrow at the brunette sitting in his lap. "Would you care to give me an example?"

"Certainly," she purred, leaning up to kiss him, ignoring the looks of jealousy sent their way by a lot of the

Common Room.

The romance however was shattered a moment later by the sound of stone cracking and collapsing, an ear splitting

scream and the sound of breaking wood.

The group spun around, jumping about a meter in the air because of the shock of what they saw.

Most of the rest of the Common Room had been smashed, Ginny (who had screamed) and the group of other 5th years

were pinned against the opposing wall, all looking decidedly scared by the body of a Basilisk that was

protruding out of a hole in the wall in front of them

The four drew their wands.

The basilisk spun around sending its Death glare in their direction.

Harry, Hermione and Ron immediately shielded their eyes to avoid the dreaded glare, Harry attempted to spin Dawn

round as well but wasn't fast enough.

The Basilisks eyes were turned on her.

"DAWN!!" Harry cried.

But she did not fall.

She did not drop down dead.

She remained standing.

The others turned back, the Basilisks eyes had no effect on them either.

"What the- "

It roared raising its head to strike.

The four fired aimed spells.

"INCENDIO!"

The fire erupted from their wands creating a screen of flame in front of them.

The Basilisk screamed as its partially open mouth caught part of Hermione's large flame, Hermione tried to

remember everything Adam had taught her, calling on her new Wiccan powers.

She raised her hand towards the fifth years.

"Come."

The fifth years flew from behind the monster and landed rather heavily behind the 6th years, the effort making

Hermione slump slightly.

Harry transferred his wand to his left hand, reigniting his flame (albeit not as strongly) before reaching onto

his back for his sword.

The Basilisk was beginning to look increasingly angry and was now attempting to smash into them with its body.

"You better do something quick Harry," Dawn cried, only Hermione noticed that Dawn's flame spell was green and

almost as large as her own, the others were rather preoccupied with the Basilisk.

To her left Harry cut his flame and fired off a Patronus.

"Expecto Patronum!" he roared, as his stag launched itself at the Basilisk, knocking it of balance, which in

hindsight they realised should not have worked as Patroni should only work on Dementor's and other dark creature

or beings. A basilisk was just an animal.

Before the Basilisk could recover Harry nudged Hermione, gestured towards his sword, then to the beasts head.

Nodding her understanding Hermione was ready for Harry's jump. Using her Wiccan magic she increased his speed

and distance of flight so that he landed on the Basilisks head.

The creature reared, if Harry had not lost his balance and slipped onto the side of its head as it did so, he

would have been instantly crushed as it smashed its head against the ceiling, the others gasped and ducked for

cover in the shower of rubble and splinters as the creature continued to thrash around in an attempt to dislodge

its passenger.

"Come on, Harry," she urged.

Only lucky twist of its head saw Harry land back on top of the creature's skill, aiming his wand he got in a

lucky shot, his blasting hex smashing into the snakes eye, sending the contents spraying around the room, a

large portion hitting Harry.

"That has got to be the most disgusting thing he has ever done," Ron groaned, as pieces of the eye and flesh

that had hit him dripped off his clothes.

"Lovely," agreed Dawn, grimacing.

The Basilisk wailed, throwing its head about in pain. Harry only stayed mounted by plunging his sword through

the now empty eye socket.

As the sword penetrated its brain the creature bucked wildly, sending Harry flying. By some pure fluke he landed

on the sofa by the fire.

Dawn ran to his side just in time as the dying Basilisks head crashed down into the place where she had been

standing.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so, nothing broken," he replied, heaving himself of the sofa. Looking down he saw that his clothes were

coated with blood and bits of Basilisk eye and brain. "But I don't think I like this new look."

"That was very brave, Harry," Dawn smiled. "You would have to be to throw yourself at a giant snake."

"Do I get a reward?" Harry asked jokingly.

"Not after coating all of us in snake's eye," she laughed, temporarily forgetting the scary revelation that she

had discovered earlier, several tons of angry snake made for an excellent distraction.

"Of all the creature attacks so far, that has got to have been the most difficult to solve," Harry groaned,

casting a rough cleaning charm on his clothes removing most of the bits and just leaving him blood soaked.

"Oh, I don't know. From what I heard I heard, Fluffy caused quite a song and dance."

Grinning back at her, the pair walked over to where Hermione and Ron were tending to the fifth years and in

particular a shaking Ginny, one of the fifth years had gone to get Dumbledore, Pomfrey and the others.

"Ginny, it's ok, it's gone," Harry comforted, kneeling in front of the shaking Weasley.

Ginny continues to shake.

"I'm really sorry Harry, I should have helped," she whispered. "But you know what I'm like with snakes."

"Don't worry about it Ginny. Hermione can you take her to the hospital wing, you'll probably meet Madam Pomfrey

half way."

"Ok Harry," she replied, helping Ginny up with help from the remaining fifth years and Ron.

After they had passed through the portal Harry turned to retrieve his sword from the Basilisks head, as he

leaned forward to remove the sword the Basilisk began to shrink allowing the sword to fall to the floor.

"Oh this can't be good," he groaned, as the snake's skin began to change from scales to flesh covered fabric.

"Almost certainly n-" started Dawn, before recognising the woman that the snake was turning into.

She was just shorter than Harry's height, appeared to be in her early to mid twenties, was wearing a tight

fitting dress and her hair was long, blond and curly.

Feeling the bond flare with fear Harry turned and saw that Dawn had backed up into the sofa with a terrified

look on her face, Harry moved to her side, summoning the sword to him and drawing his wand.

The woman's eyes turned to Harry before moving on to Dawn.

She smiled.

"Hey sweaty, guess who's back."

Looking briefly into Dawn's mind Harry found the information he needed. He now knew who this was; he had talked

to Dawn about her past and he knew this was the person she feared above all others.

Glory.

"I wondered where my little green key had got to. Now it looks like I can take it for myself."

Harry stepped forward brandishing his sword dangerously.

"Well lookee here, you got some muscles helping you now. He's a bit skinny though, you could have got someone

who at least looks a bit dangerous."

She moved forward.

"Protego," Harry cried, raising a shield in front of them.

Glory bounced of the shield.

"That was rude. Did no one ever teach you manners."

Glory punched the shield, causing it to collapse and Harry to recoil; his wand arm felt like someone had just

slammed a sledge hammer into it.

Harry swung his sword, but Glory caught the blade in mid swing and threw it and Harry across the room to land on

the upper floor in front of the dormitory, before she turned and began closing in on Dawn.

"Don't worry sweaty, it won't hurt much."

She reached down to grab Dawn.

"Repel!!"

Glory flew across the room as Tara's spell hit her as Hermione rushed into the room behind the Wiccan.

"Hey you crazy witch, have you lost your mind?...Oh wait, I lost if for you."

Glory ran at Dawn at super human speed before Hermione could reach her. Picking her up, she positioning her as a

shield against further attacks.

"Would you like to try that again crazy girl, because I don't think my little key here would survive it."

Anne ran into the room and moved next to Hermione and Tara who were standing in front of the door.

"Oh, everyone stuck now, cause I think-"

"Waddiwasi!!"

The sofa flew through the air towards Glory and Dawn.

"Accio Dawn!!"

Dawn flew up out of the goddesses grasp; to be caught by Harry's arms as the sofa collided with Glory.

"Thanks," she panted, through her shaking and laboured breathing.

"You'll pay for that boy, I'll-"

She trailed of as she- it was changing again.

She got smaller, retaining a roughly human shape before solidifying as a girl of about seventeen/eighteen. She

had long, black, wavy hair and wearing a long, old fashioned dress from two or three centuries before. As women

go she was very quite beautiful.

She looked around until she saw the group in the doorway.

She smiled pleasantly; it was one of those smiles that illuminated the room.

"Hello," she greeted, cheerfully.

No one answered. They had got a Basilisk and a Hell God; they had no idea who she was, but they were not going

to be deceived by appearances.

She started to walk calmly towards them; she stopped suddenly as she began to fade.

She looked at them again. "Looks like I have got to go. Tell him I was here."

She was almost totally gone.

"Wait," called Hermione. "Who are you?"

"Cossette."