It was a couple of hours after waking up to find themselves in this otherworldly predicament that Wendy and her company of Exceed left Tenroujima behind. Lily had caught some fish as he promised and they'd eaten a surprisingly hearty breakfast considering the circumstances. Even Charla had eaten well considering she hated fish, but she had managed to find some of her favourite Darjeeling tea in the rubble of the former campsite they'd set up on the island to help wash it down with.
They were rather surprised when their new companion Mavis sampled a little of their fish and smiled in approval. Lily had commented that surely a ghost didn't need to eat or drink, but Wendy had pointed out that her old ghost Master Roubaul used to drink a lot of milk. Often straight from the jug even after he poured some into a cup, and often forgetting he was drinking it and trying to speak before swallowing.
Mavis nodded, saying that while she didn't actually need food or drink, she was quite capable of eating it even now. Though if she did, she would need to go to the little girl's room later.
"Oh for Edolas, where things made sense to me," Lily had shook his head with a faint chuckle. "I'm still trying to get to grips with what happens in my own new home world and I bet there's going to be a lot more surprising things from this one to come."
But there was one other thing that Happy in particular noticed before they left the island.
"Where are all the animals?"
Mavis especially was stunned she had not realised this earlier, but the island was completely and utterly devoid of animal life. It had not just been the Fairy Tail members that had been on the island when Grimoire Heart and Acnologia attacked it. There had been deer, wolves and waterfowl, along with several giant monsters that looked like giant lizards, huge pigs, carnivorous birds and a multitude of other creatures, some too weird to give a simple description to.
And yet now there were none at all.
"Oh dear," Mavis rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "It looks like the rest of the guild members are not the only things that were scattered across the land of this world. When I condensed the Fairy Sphere I was seeking out all the life-forms on the island. I didn't want an single one of them to die. And now every one of them is gone."
"Well… that's probably going to give someone a bit of a shock," Charla observed dryly.
Mavis giggled a little sheepishly. "I guess it can't be helped now. But if we find any of them we should probably try and figure out a way to return them to the island. Perhaps you could call them my responsibility."
"We'll add it to the list," Wendy mused. "I hope nobody gets hurt by them though."
There was really nothing else that anyone could say on this subject so they had focused on preparing themselves, gathering what supplies they could find. And, eventually, with three sets of wings shining into life, the three Exceed took off from the island and headed out across the great salt sea. Charla insisted on carrying Wendy despite offers from both the guys, while Mavis hovered alongside them with her wind wafting behind her in the wind. Mavis floated forwards rather oddly - her body neither vertical nor horizontal but almost exactly halfway in between. Being horizontal would of course reduce drag, but Wendy guessed that Mavis simply was not affected by such things.
How strange the First Master really was? Some of her attributes, such as her weightlessness, were like the traditional kind of ghost told in the stories, while others just seemed to go against everything Wendy would associate with being a ghost. But then again, she'd never once guessed her old Master was a ghost so… what did she know really?
"Do we know which way we're going?" Charla asked after about half an hour of flying.
"Judging by the position of the sun I would guess that we're heading southeast," Lily glanced around at the sun behind and to their right. "But that's assuming that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west in this world. For all we know it could be the other way around here."
"That doesn't really help build up my confidence," Happy shivered. "I really don't want to end up any more lost than we are."
"Would you like to explain to me how it would be possible to be more lost than thrown into another world like this?" Charla asked pointedly.
"We could be on our own," Happy pointed out.
"… That isn't really more lost than we are now but I take your point," Charla grimaced.
"Maybe we should play 'I Spy' to pass the time?" suggested Happy.
"Please, just no," Charla rolled her eyes slightly.
"There's not exactly much around here that could work for that game anyway," Lily noted.
"That's not true… waves, ocean, sea, blue, sky, cloud… wings, cats, ghosts, Dragon Slayers…"
"Yes, we get the point."
Mavis snorted slightly, catching Wendy's attention. The young Sky Dragon looked across to her and asked, "First Master? Is something the matter?"
"Oh its nothing," Mavis smiled over at her. "I was just thinking of how much I've been missing company like this. I'd always been content with my peaceful and quiet unlife on Tenroujima but… I guess there was some part of me that craved a little companionship. And now that I have it again… I'm beginning to wonder how I ever coped without it."
Wendy and the three cats smiled back. "Well, we're grateful for everything you've done for us," Wendy replied earnestly. "You were watching over us the whole time and we didn't even know you were there."
"You truly saved our butts," Happy agreed.
"Hopefully we continue to prove worthy of your company," Lily nodded.
"Worthy?" Mavis shook her head. "It's not a question of worthiness. I may have created Fairy Tail but really I'm no more or less important to the guild than any of its other members, past, present or future. That's the point of this guild - all comrades together. Despite personal rank within the guild we are equal in every other way, no matter who we were before we joined the guild. Boundaries should not matter when it comes to who your friends are. And they shouldn't matter now. And they don't. Three cats, a child and a ghost. How much more diverse can it get than that? But all that matters here is that we are friends. Right? That's what I'd like to be with all of you."
Wendy beamed. "Well, that sounds great to me." She stretched out her hand across the gap. "I don't think I'll ever say no to making new friends. No matter who they are."
"And that's exactly the sort of attitude that belongs in a true member of Fairy Tail," Mavis beamed back, reaching out to grip Wendy's fingers in her own briefly. The two girls shared a warm smile with one another before Happy interrupted the moment.
"Hey, everyone! I think I can see land ahead."
"Yes. So can I," Lily nodded. "That's definitely land. Still a fair distance away but we should be there before nightfall I imagine."
All attention was diverted to the greyish lump that stretched across the horizon in the distance. "Well, at least we have a destination now," Charla murmured. Wendy noted she was breathing a little heavier than usual after carrying her for so long but it was as if the sight of land gave them all a new purpose and they winged their way on.
...
"I mean honestly!" the loud voice of Molly Weasley rippled through the kitchen on Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. "I had seriously hoped that now that he was back at school they'd just leave him alone. Is it not too much to ask just to let him enjoy this vital period of his education?"
She tossed down the latest issue of the Daily Prophet onto the table and huffed, fussing over a dishcloth as she moved over to wipe a plate with it. She could have used magic but she preferred to keep herself busy at times like this in a vain attempt to distract herself from everything that seemed to be going wrong with the Wizarding World recently.
Especially the Ministry's attempts to constantly find ways to discredit Harry. There were references to him in literally every issue of the newspaper now and none of it was remotely positive - little tidbits that painted him as some narcissistic, egotistical brat that craved the limelight and adulation of the Wizarding World as if it was some addictive drug and he was the junky, when in reality he was nothing but a stressed, desperate teenage boy looking for answers in an unfair world and not getting them.
"Well, if half the things that are being said in this article are true, he's not exactly helping himself," Remus Lupin murmured as he dragged the paper over to re-read it himself:-
BOY-WHO-LIVED SEEKS TO TERRIFY FELLOW CHILDREN
Essentially it was a report about how Harry was spinning nonsense stories about the return of He Who Must Not Be Named to his fellow Hogwarts stories, seeking to convince the younger generation to look up to him as some type of messiah and turn them against responsible adults who were trying to help them.
There were a few statements from the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts and Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Dolores Umbridge, about how Potter had angrily rebelled against her authority, insisting that the students should be learning how to throw dangerous curses at each other effectively rather than learn defence in a safe, secure environment and how he'd attempted to spread discord amongst the class with more lies about the Dark Lord and his return.
"He should be trying to keep his head down," Lupin murmured through tight lips. "He knows as well as any of us what the Ministry is doing, and he should know that simply getting angry at a Ministry official is only going to intensify their distrust of him. If he keeps this up I wonder how long it will be before the Ministry starts stating he might be trying to become the next Dark Lord."
"Oh, do you really think they would go that far, Remus?" Molly fretted slightly, turning around with wide eyes.
"These days, I wouldn't put it past them," Lupin grimaced, flicking the paper across the table, not wishing to see it any more. "At least Professor McGonagall's had a word with him about it. Hopefully he should dial it down now."
"Well, I don't know about you, Remus, but I'm proud of him," the current owner of the house and godfather to the boy in question, Sirius Black, strolled into the room with a sack covered in bloodstains.
"Finished feeding Buckbeak, I see," Lupin noted.
"What this?" Sirius raised the bag. "Nah. I thought I'd pop out and buy you a little something meaty to chew on next week."
...
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