Misty-eyed, she turned to Niki, the girl's remark still echoing in her mind, "Niki-san, had I used the Kossawa Priori Incantatem, we all would have been imprisoned in the sheer power of this wand. *Our* Priori Incantatem is different, so different, it has no regard for power and it takes so much out of the wizard who cast the spells..."

Her wand was still shaking slightly in her grip, humming with the surge of magical energy from Raphael's wand. She vaguely wondered why she could still stand so steadily. "Gods, had I cast Priori Incantatem, but no...*But* there was still so much taken out of him..."

She scrambled over to where she saw Raphael fall. He was face first into the mud. "Levo," she said clearly, using her wand to lift him gently off the ground. Another wave of the wand cleared all the mud off him. "Raphael-san. Speak to me."

She looked over her shoulder at Zidane. "Zidane-san. I believe he needs our help. His wand is no ordinary wand and I have to see if Professor McGonagall has anything to say about it."

The burst of magical energy was very strong. It was like a slap on the face. Its strength was somehow /familiar/, something from the past. Luis' thoughts quickly fell on his duffel bag, safely stored in the Slytherin dorm and wrapped with seven sealing spells. He was as paranoid as the best of them but it was all necessary.

The /source/ of magical energy was the thing that seemed familiar to him. It was like being back in Mexico, being in those three years of hell. He had better find out right now what it was.

Luis ran towards the side of the lake as fast he could, long black hair flying. As he ran, he retrieved his wand from his back pocket and gripped it tightly. Paranoia was good at a time like this. It kept his blood flowing.

There were four people. The American at the Sorting last night, Niki from Slytherin House, and Shinrei, who seemed to be taking control. A dark-haired boy was floating strangely in mid-hair.

Obviously not a nice picture, overall. "What's going on?" he barked, sounding very much like Snape. His wand was still held out, as if he was ready to duel.

Zidane did not know the boy with the long black hair who had decided to join them just now. He noticed the Limp Bizkit T-shirt with slight amusement.

He instinctively stepped between the boy's wand and the rest of the group gathered around the levitated Raphael.

"The wand of my housemate was just a little too excited when Shinrei did a recall trick on it," he answered calmly. "Who are you, anyway? You a student here, too? I'm Zidane Summers, Fourth Year Ravenclaw."

So this was the Zidane person that Sarah had mentioned. The Torch guy. The American 'tude was definitely there, with the way he strutted forward as if he had every right in the whole world. Another of Shinrei's fans and definitely showing off.

Luis sneered. He lowered the wand from its duelling position but proceeded to tap it menacingly against his palm. "Luis Verga of Slytherin. Fourth Year."

He focused his eyes on Raphael, then Shinrei. "More excitement so early in the day, no? Was it not only last night when we had ourselves a most interesting forest encounter? And now /this/."

He turned to address the group as a whole, twirling his wand with mocking ease. "Anyone care to tell me what happened? Maybe I'll just ask Professor Snape for advice on what to do next..?"

Marvo had decided to take a little walk and check out the Quidditch field before his meeting with Dumbledore. Of course he wasn't trying to avoid Branwen, no no. Not at all!

Quidditch! Why oh why was everybody so interested in it! Such a waste of time as far as he was concerned. Time that could be spent, well, having fun without hitting people!

He saw the group of students up ahead and saw a spell being cast. Not one he recognised. His eye glowed red a moment.

"Most peculiar" He said to himself. Not a spell he could find at all! Were these students experimenting in making their own spells! Worthy of investigation! He approached "What's going on here?"

Nathaniel was in a mellow mood as he and Sarah strolled out of the woods, arm in arm. The mostly black kitten looked back over his shoulder as though promising to return later and kick up who knew how much fuss.

They were walking towards the Quidditch field when Nathaniel lifted a hand to his left cheek and said suddenly, "Raphael."

He dropped Sarah's arm, not meaning to offend but needing to .. know better... Stalks by Night leapt up into Sarah's arms.

Something old danced in Nathaniel's green eyes, something older than him that had seen more of life than he had. Nathaniel turned his back on the Quidditch field and ran back towards the lake.

His eyes saw the levitating Raphael and then saw Raphael's wand in Shinrei's hand. What had been going on here? A faint ravens feather rustle in the corner of his eye.

Bleeding edges tore in his head, and something that was Nathaniel and yet was not Nathaniel looked out through his eyes. Just for a moment.

Without further ado, he took the wand out of Shinrei's hand. "Don't mess with his wand." he snapped. "Respect other people's belongings as you would have them respect yours."

Anger in his face, barely concealed. He looked from Raphael to Luis. "Can you get him down?"

Something inside Luis snapped upon Nathaniel's sudden reappearance in their midst. It was a very stupid move, as far as he was concerned. Nathaniel did not even know what was going on. Such children.

"Sure we can get him down. But first--" He pointed his wand at Nathaniel and said softly, in his best Snape imitation, "Expelliarmus." The wand flew off the boy's hand and Luis caught it easily in the air.

"Now. Since I'm apparently the oldest around here, lemme get this straight. Don't you people /look/ at me like that. I'm seventeen."

"Nat. Do me a favour, right? Speak like that to Shinrei again and I'll conveniently forget I'm at Hogwarts."

"Sarah, you and Nat and Summers take this housemate of yours to the Infirmary. Between the three of you, one of you is bound to know how to do a 'levo' spell."

"You Ward?" He turned to the boy who had just arrived. "You're /very/ popular in Slytherin. I'm Luis Verga. Since you have a little bit of, ah, experience in these sorts of things, maybe you should ask Shinrei here about what just happened. She seems to have witnessed it all, haven't you, chiquita?"

Luis almost carelessly tossed the wand in Marvo's direction. "Your evidence of whatever crime happened here."

"Crime?" Nathaniel looked evenly at Luis. "Chiquita?" He looked at Shinrei, and remembered what Sarah had said in the woods. "Ah I see. My mistake."

"Oh I know who you are Luis Verga. Probably more than you do" The illusion of a normal hand had disappeared and Marvo's left hand now looks like a lump of scares, welded to a black wand.

"And perhaps if you acted your age rather than your shoes size you'd realise that Slytherin or not asking for trouble is never a good idea" Marvo was not in a good mood, Kat had seemed slightly distant at Breakfast, and with the situation with Branwen... well. Luis was unfortunate getting the backlash.

"Now will someone explain what I'm seeing here?"

Nathaniel glanced at Marvo. "Shinrei had Raphael's wand in her hand. Maybe you should ask her what happened, yes. Be careful with the wand. It's as unpredictable as Raph."

Now, what was a levo spell? Damn it... He caught Raphael as he sank downwards, and supported him.

"Hey kid." he said softly, touching Raphael's left wrist. "You in there?"

Sarah had followed Nathaniel back in the direction of the lake. The mostly black kitten had decided to travel on her shoulder obviously watching the unfolding scene intently. Sarah had been shocked when he'd strode up to Shinrei and taken Raphael's wand back.

After that things moved very quickly. She was deeply concerned about Raphael - what on earth had happened while they'd been gone! She stood back observing close to Niki, hardly mindful of the fact they were very close to the lakeside's edge.

Raphael, for the moment, was somewhere else, and floating easily in the grip of Shinrei's magic, his shut eyes burned icy blue.

He could hear it, almost, be one with it... music that was drifting in the winds of his mind. Drifting through a doorway. He remembered for a second, an ornate temple built around a rose... but that was long ago, and here things were already radically different. The doorway through which he saw through Zephyr's eyes was always there, now - but Zephyr was somewhere else.

Symphony - web, pulse, beat, dark, light, curved, twisted, falling, climbing

Zephyr was in a forest, somewhere. The music was overwhelming, almost - burning, relaxing, painful and harsh but natural and beautiful. As constant as sunshine - always present, even if he was in shadow sometimes. There were places Zephyr couldn't follow him. Inside...

Symphony - mirror, age, dark, obtuse, spiral-growing-inward, SPIRAL-GROWING-INWARD

He withdrew, for a second, the music was too loud, too... too intense. But even as he did he knew what the angel was referring to - was experiencing.

Symphony - crouched, squashed, inward, fiery, twisted, power, gentle, fear, fear of... ...what... why did he see... as...?

Symphony - burning, time, mirror, power, mirror, light, circle, spinning, creation, CREATION, touch, and then... angel symphony

... Raphael knew... knew what it meant... he knew... it made his heart crush inward... it was right... but it crushed him. He gave up, and so he returned.

"Ug," he mumbled incoherently. The ground seemed to be... er... not there. That was rather odd. In fact, the ground didn't usually have a habit of going away... when he fell over, it had a habit of usually being rather present. So this situation was rather... odd. He looked over. A Slytherin from the night before... one of the older ones...? was standing there, as was Zidane and Niki and Shinrei, still. How bizarre. Raphael wondered what was going on.

The wand was gone from his hand. That turning into a quarterstave was cool, although... well, his was was rather... floppy... "Hi?" he hazarded, then, as though his position in mid air was nothing to worry about. Still, do something about it...?

"Hello," he said kindly to the group around him, "could you please put me down? I like flying but generally I like to know about when I'm about to fall. And not being in control is kinda scary. Um. Why am I in the air?"

Then Nathaniel caught him. Raphael grinned at him and pulled himself upright. "Hi everyone. What's going on?"

"What you are seeing here?" asked Raphael, standing with the help of Nathaniel and clicking his neck back in place from hitting the floor so spectacularly... again... He wandered over to Marvo, and looked carefully at the wand. Laurel. His wand. He'd bought a...

Raphael looked disquieted for a moment. Then, retrieving a black feather from his pocket, he walked slowly towards Marvo very carefully touched his laurel wand, slowly moving the feather back and forth. - It had the desired effect.

The wand exploded out to its five-foot length with something that sounded suspiciously like a giggle. Then, as if it was looking around after revealing itself with all the wizards around, it went instantly floppy for a second and hit the ground, and then sucked with a pop back in to be it's floppy 12 inch state.

Raphael looked up at Marvo and grinned. "It's a trick wand!" he announced happily. "I bought a trick wand! I wonder if it turns into a rubber chicken...," he said to himself, moving back from the Gryffindor student and shoving the - raven...? - feather in his left pocket.

"You brought a ... " Nathaniel stared at Raphael who seemed back to himself again.

For a long minute he just stared at Raphael and then he let the lines of anger and concern in his face just ease away. He put his hand into his pocket and took out a thin black hairband, with which he tied his long black hair into a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

"Come on, you two, we're going to miss Quidditch." He turned and extended his hand towards Sarah.

Sarah walked over to join the small group at Nathaniel's invitation. "Hey, Raphael did you ever get your rose petals dried out? I guess we can sort something out if you didn't" she came up close to him and whispered, "Sorry I was so moody earlier - thanks for sending Nat and Stalks to find me."

She stepped back and addressed the group, "Yes, we should get a move on. Once that broomshed is opened there will be a run on the good ones so anyone without their own broom will need to be there as soon as possible."

She turned to Shinrei, "Can't wait to see that Rakurai of yours in action."

Niki was looking extremely confused and not a little annoyed at Shinrei's supercilious manner and Marvo's sudden appearance. She was not fond of the Junior Auror, considering him to be extremely patronising.

While she may have been the *height* of one, Niki resented being treated like a small child. "I think we're all right here without sp--Aurors. We're going to play Quidditch. If memory serves, that's still legal--although I'm not sure about certain *Japanese spells*..."

Shinrei breathed deeply, trying to clearly and coherently absorb the events going on around her. She felt relieved when Sarah, Nathaniel and Raphael began to get ready to take their leave.

She managed to give the blond girl a smile in return. "Of course, Sarah-san. It would be my honour to show you my Rakurai later on."

She turned to Nathaniel, then to Raphael. The wand was no trick wand. It was a very special, dangerous wand and she would be telling Marvo Ward all that she had seen the moment the others were out of earshot.

"Good day, gentlemen," she said formally, her facial expression and tone of voice giving nothing of her suspicions and apprehensions away.

Zidane felt as if he was in an X-men episode for sure. Too many people showing the promise of power. The guy with the wand attached to his hand looked rather formidable.

He watched his fellow Ravenclaws turn to leave. He wanted to go with them and watch Quidditch. But the real excitement was //here//. Besides, he had watched the entire Raphael episode himself and had to agree the wand was no plaything.

He approached the boy with the wand attached to his hand. "Hi. Zidane Summers, new Fourth Year Ravenclaw. Sorted only last night. I saw the whole thing, too. I was with Shinrei the whole time."

Niki tapped her foot impatiently. "Quidditch?" she asked quietly. "I don't want to miss it!" She glanced irritably at Shinrei and Zidane, then at the Ravenclaws who were leaving unsure who to stay with.

"Coming Niki?" asked Sarah. Sarah always felt slightly nervous around Marvo even if he was Kat's boyfriend. He tended to give her one of his special 'I'm watching you' looks at every opportunity. Resisting the temptation to stick her tongue out at him, she waited for the others to start walking.

Was he likely to fall under Shinrei's power would he and Luis fight? Would he try to douse Zidane if he turned all fiery again? It was exciting but could just fizzle out as easily. She'd undoubtedly hear from someone what happened later.

It was apparent to Luis that Marvo Ward was in a bad mood. The temperament that the "kids" could have sometimes. He sighed inwardly, wishing to the heavens that he was in seventh year, where he belonged.

The best thing that could happen right now was to get the wand affair straightened out. He was very sure the power was not one from a petty trick wand that could be bought in shops like Zonko's. If he would be forced to admit it...he would: the energy he felt was very much like that of--

He could not think of /that/ right now. Once more, his thoughts settled on his securely sealed duffel bag, and what it held.

Summers had said that Shinrei had attempted to do a "recall" trick on the Ravenclaw's wand. It was most likely Priori Incantatem.

Luis addressed Niki, the girl who was hovering at the edge of the "party" and appeared like she wanted out. The less people to settle things with, the better. "Niki, isn't it?" He gave a bow and a charming smile in her direction. "I wouldn't mind if you leave me to the mercy of these, well, non-Slytherin ones."

Luis had been one of those who were up early and had passed through the Slytherin Common Room to see her and LaGrand...asleep there. Those moments had been most interesting.

"I suppose I'll be having a chat with our classmates here and I'll be occupied for a while. It's best you go ahead to the more exciting pursuits, no?" He winked. "I'm sure LaGrand will be wondering where you are now. I'll bet they'll all be gathered at the Quidditch field at this very moment."

Marvo stood waiting, his wand still visible.

He smiled at Zidane as he introduced himself. "Hello Zidane, yes I heard about your sorting, congratulation, you have a wonderful prefect" He looked the boy up and down a moment. There was something about him.

He did not respond to Niki, unless you call a glare and raised eyebrow a response.

Then as Raphael approached and 'tickled' the wand he stepped back slightly, surprised by the result! He did however regain his composure.

" A wand with a built in elongation spell? how..... useful. I bet you'll be popular with the girls" Instantly he regretted saying that and blushed!

*Oh why did I have to read them ALL! If only I hadn't had the upgrade and could cast a forget spell on myself!* he thought to himself.

"Er,...< cough > Very well then. I.. I suggest you all go off to your Quidditch 'thing' And I'll say no more. Shinrei? Perhaps we could walk together and I could have a.. word with you?"

He looked over to Luis. "Privately"

"Can I have my wand back, then?" asked Raphael flippantly. To be honest... all he wanted to do was have a go with it, see if it worked... and if Marvo...?

"Wand back?" Said Marvo absentmindedly. "Oh. Yes, yes of course. And I should remind you it's sometimes considered bad etiquette to touch another wand without permission"

*PLEASE all go AWAY* He screamed in his head.

"Of course, Ward-san," Shinrei replied to Marvo's request of having a word with her. "I will always have the time to speak with you."

As she walked closer to him, she saw that Marvo looked as if he'd rather be somewhere else. He looked drawn and tired somehow. She hesitantly touched his shoulder. "Ward-san? Are you all right?"

***********

Raphael strolled off then in search of the broom shed, trying to remember that he wasn't meant to know where it was. His head was buzzing, still... he walked away ahead of Sarah and Nathaniel, giving himself a minute or two to try... and think about things.

Being a teenager was such a drag. If the others caught up, then... mebbe he'd just... Zephyr had to have been... right. Didn't he? It was... but why had Zephyr seen...? Too many questions!

He decided to fill in the space imagining the brooms. It was a nice image. Flying last night... in the air... was easy, so free. Okay, so, he didn't know how to play Quidditch and Nathaniel was brilliant on a broom in comparison to him, but... somehow he felt more at home in the air. The broom didn't matter... but to be soaring among the starts... to feel firsthand what he'd felt so often during the last six months...

He was on his way to the broom shed. Remembering what Sarah'd said... he had the petals in his pocket, fat lot of good... and he was determined to not look back to see if anyone was trying to catch up.

Sarah had stifled her laugher when Marvo had made his wand comment. He did seem to be 'loosening up' somewhat! However, she was in danger of needing to get changed if she didn't put her mind on other things.

As Raphael headed off in the direction of the Quidditch field, she turned to Nathaniel.

"I have to go get my broom. I'll be very quick and see the two of you out at the field." she produced the filigree silver ball. "Thank you again for such a treasure...." - she gave his hand a quick squeeze and then dashed off.

Nathaniel caught up with Raphael halfway to the broomshed. "Hey kid." he said brightly. "You doing okay now?"

Raphael looked at Nathaniel as he caught up, just a quick glance over to his right. He wanted to say something - anything - just to relieve the pressure that was building up in his head. Anything to be able to get rid of thoughts of what he'd seen through Zephyr's eyes. He started to say something, stopping and turning around to Nathaniel, but then it translated itself into a slight smile, and a shrug.

Instantly he regretted stopping. Instantly he regretted the whole... wildflower... thing. Instantly he regretted sending Nathaniel into the forest, and then instantly he hated himself for thinking that. She'd be... He shook his head angrily at himself and started walking again, double speed.

Broom stick, find a broomstick. Any broomstick would do. Well... mebbe not... as he arrived at the outskirts of the Quidditch field, Raphael went directly to the shed, and tried not to think about the fact that Nathaniel was probably right behind him.

**********

A few minutes later Sarah reached the Ravenclaw Dorm.

"Feeee-ooonnnna" she called wondering if Fee was about.

She grabbed her broom and also a small box in which to place the petals if Raphael still had them. He hadn't answered her and she was mentally kicking herself for not being more sensitive to his feelings.