"Hailey," Percy requested.
"Wing-change witch," Melody tells him. "She is half-harpy, so she was born with wings that she can magically change into the wings of any animal or magical creature."
"Sofia," Cedric was the next to request.
"She's an animal shapeshifting mage," Krinos says. "Her magic allows her to change into any animal that has ever existed. Other shapeshifters can only change into objects or people. Never have all three types of shapeshifting existed in a single witch or wizard before."
"What about Abby," Fred asked.
"And her brother Kryo," George asked.
"Both are Enchanted Sapphire mages," Harry said. "It is one of ten gem-based magical powers that combine crystals with elemental magic. Sapphire is the gemstone of ice. So when they give you the cold shoulder, it's quite literal."
"The other nine are similar, but all unique in their own ways," Krinos says. "Ruby is for fire, pearl for water, emerald is earth, amethyst is for air, opal is sound/music, diamond for light, rose-quartz is for nature, tourmaline is for electricity, and tiger-eye for animals."
"What about Auror Shacklebolt's son, the one you said you go to school with," Neville asked.
"T'challa is a jungle cat wizard," Harry tells them. "He has the power to channel jungle cats. It works as him shapeshifting into their forms, channeling enchanted versions of them into his body, and even turning into cat creature versions of them."
"Wow," Cedric gasped. "And your friend Lily that you've mentioned."
"She's like me, a little," Krinos says. "Lily has Nature's Enchantment magic. She can combine plants with enchantments in order to use her spells."
The trio smiled as their friends were so curious about their lives as mystic souls. They've been going like this for a while now. Their friends asking about the friends that they had back in Greece. Asking about what their powers were since they were curious about what other types of mystic souls they are around when at Crystal Rose. Luna did not ask any questions, but she always smiled when she would add her own little bits here and there when she knew something about a mystic soul power or ability. They had since put their amulets back around their necks since they had finished showing them their powers.
The English wizards were probably the most shocked at Luna also being a mystic soul. She was always a unique witch, but not even the Weasleys knew about her powers and she lived close to them their whole lives. But it seemed that Luna was an expert secret keeper.
"You guys took a really big risk when you agreed to attend Hogwarts, you know," Percy looks at the trio. "The ministry is known to hate anything that isn't a 'good, hardworking, pureblood.' Coming here risks your lives."
"Honoring Harry's birth parents is worth the risk," Melody says.
"But with the dementors on the grounds, the basilisk in the basement, the giant spiders in the forest, and a psycho murderer somewhere in the castle, we might be regretting coming here," Harry stated. "And that is coming from the one who's birth parents we are honoring."
"We've been reading up on some things and are willing to change our plans," Krinos said.
"What do you mean," Cedric asked.
"We can not simply drop out of Hogwarts and go back to Crystal Rose full time," Melody says. "If we tried, your ministry would come to snap our wands since we have to attend this school until we take our OWLs. It is the law and we have to follow it since we did agree to attend Hogwarts. Magical contracts are no joke."
"But you guys don't even need wands," Neville was confused.
"We know, but without wands, your ministry will think we are helpless kids," Harry said. "And even with all the proof that Olivia gave them after our first year, they will try and control me as they tried back then. They will try to place me back with those horrible mundanes that they had me with after my birth parents were first murdered."
"If they try that, we might have no choice but to fight back," Krinos crossed his arms. "We will do anything to protect our family. As anyone should do. Family of blood or family that is chosen, one should always do everything they can to protect it."
"Our amulets are magical, but we can only do so much that we can fake as amulet magic," Melody said. "The politicians in the country are stupid, but not even they can be that stupid if proof is literally right in front of their eyes."
"And even if they are, we are not risking our lives on 'if," Harry crosses his arms as well.
"I may live here, but even I know that I will be leaving before I am found out," Luna sounded serious even with her dreamy tone. "I am not ashamed of being British, but I am ashamed of our British magical leaders."
"I think we all are," Fred agreed.
"Especially with how they treat our dad," George said.
"Um... nothing against your dad, but I know for a fact that he has been offered better positions," Cedric says. "My dad even offered to make him his deputy department head since he does have the right as the head of his department. Your father refuses all offers."
"We love our dad, but he needs to stop being so obsessed with muggles," Percy sighed. "We get that he wants to work around something he loves, but he needs to focus more on the family as a whole and not just what he wants. Bill and Charlie send us money from their jobs because of how little that dad is paid. Any other position he is offered has to be worth more than the minimum wage Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department."
"And if anything, mundanes should simply be kept away from magic as much as possible," Krinos says. "If magic was ever exposed, they'd massacre us."
"Humans fear what they do not understand," Melody says. "And what they fear, they try to destroy. It's usually their first reaction. Which is why most first-generation mages are abused by their families. Because they have gifts that they do not understand."
"So you guys want to leave after you finish your OWLs," Percy summed up what they were talking about.
They all nodded.
"We don't want to leave you guys, but this country is just getting too dangerous for us," Harry said. "Just look at last year. Krinos got petrified, Melody and I had to face a seventy-foot-long basilisk, and all three of us were attacked by giant spiders. We may constantly be at war with demons, but somehow this school puts us more in danger than actual beings of the Underworld have."
"There are many things we are willing to do, but purposely risk our lives and our people by staying here is not one of them," Melody says. "Plenty of mystic souls have met their end in this country because they were terrified of our powers."
"We can't stay here," Krinos agreed with his siblings. "We would never have agreed to be here in the first place if it wasn't for Harry's legacy as a Potter. I have felt so much terror and pain since coming here."
"Yeah, me too," Harry said.
The brothers rubbed their upper arms, which was a nervous twitch that Gardna's shared like their hair and eyes. They would rub their upper arms whenever they were nervous or were experiencing a lot of stress. While they were all usually tough as nails, there were some things that even their amount of power could not help ease their minds. And that was the amount of horror that the British magical community inflicted upon non-wand-users.
"What do you mean," Percy asked.
"Our powers let us do many things," Krinos says. "My powers over nature let me see through the 'eyes' of plants and trees whenever I desire to."
"The same can be said for me and the animal kingdom," Harry said. "I feel their emotions, I can look through their eyes, I can see into their souls."
"But when you feel and see so much, not all of it is good," Melody added. "There is more horror in the world than what most people would ever care to admit."
"I can feel the pain in nature," Krinos hugged himself. "I have seen wizards hunting down magical creatures for sport, taking their territories simply because they can. I feel their pain as they burn down forests just to make room for houses that did not need to be there in the first place. I have felt the terror and the pain of the creatures as they flee their homes but are hunted down and killed anyway. The plants and trees have never given my soul such pain before. It's like there is a hand over my heart and it's squeezing tighter with every magical life taken because wand-users believe that they are better than others."
"The animals are terrified," Harry had tears in his eyes. "I have seen them scattering as spells are flying around them as they are forced to abandon their homes as countless of their numbers are cut down in front of them. Magical and normal animals alike have fallen because the wizards of this horrible country do not see them as worthy of the same air that they breathe. They believe that animals are nothing but rabid beasts that need to be put down. I have seen through the eyes of thunderbirds blasted from the sky, of unicorn herds scattering through forests as they flee from those seeking their blood, of the hippocampus never looking above sea level because they are killed nearly every time they do so. I have felt their pain, their anger, their fear, and their grief. This country is a death sentence for magical creatures."
"The only reason it is not worse is because of Dumbledore," Melody says. "It's only because of him that the centaurs, unicorns, and merpeople can live peacefully on this land. It's because only he has the rights as headmaster for anything to be done to the Forbbidon Forest."
The English wizards looked at their friends with worry and fear. They could see that they were not making this up at all. They were used to all their jokes, their sarcasm, their sass, and Krinos dumping potatoes on people. Seeing them this scared and serious was completely different from their usual selves.
But the pain they saw was real. The fear they felt was also very very real. They never had any idea that other wizards in their own country did these things to magical creature habituates that they come across. But there were those like Percy and Cedric that have heard a lot of complaints from their fathers about Dolores Umbridge. She was basically leading any and all charges against creatures and anything that even has the tiniest bit of creature influence to it. She was pretty much hated by everyone in the ministry except for Fudge.
The group could not help but go over and hug the trio. The trio felt great that there were those that would be on their side even if they were mystic souls. That was worth a lot more than anything they could ever want.
*****
Eventually, they all had to separate again after they left the abandoned classroom. They all had homework, Quidditch practice, or head boy duties to perform. But as they all got moments to themselves, some of them started remembering weird things that had happened in the past. Things that had been put on the back burner and waved off as accidental magic but they were now questioning what it might have really been. Especially now that they knew that Charlie and Luna were mystic souls even when they were born in magical Britain, a place known to be against them.
Fred and George thought that what had happened was just another part of them being magical twins. They had been about five-years-old and it had not been long after they had turned Ron's teddy bear into a spider. They had not cared about how much their mother yelled at them since they figured that it was perfect payback for Ron being such a brat at the time.
But they had been de-gnoming the garden as part of their punishment when they came across a very mean and tricky gnome. It had pretty much attacked them after it saw them throwing other gnomes out of the garden. They had acted out of pure instinct and reflex when the gnome had attacked them. George's hands seemed to gain a bubble around them. It had popped in order to push the creature off of him. Which caused it to try and move onto Fred, but his hands seemed to heat up and burned the gnome on contact. When they had joined their hands, some type of blue lightning had formed and the gnome was blasted clear out of the garden. Bill and Charlie had seen what had happened, but none of them knew exactly what had happened so they just blamed accidental magic and left it at that.
Percy just thought that he was forgetful and had not had enough sleep during that time. It was his first Yule break after being sorted into Ravenclaw and he had locked himself in his room to get away from the constant snide comments of Ron saying how much better Gryffindor was and his mum's constantly trying to convince him to get a re-sort back into the house that she wanted him to be in. It was driving him crazy, so he had decided to do what he does best and get himself lost in a good book.
What had happened was that while he was reading, his mind seemed to have wandered off somewhere as he drifted away from thoughts of his prejudiced family members and focused on his books and homework. He tried to multitask his homework and research for it all at once as he tried to ignore his mother calling for him and more of Ron and Ginny's complaining. But when he had looked up, he saw that his left hand seemed to have been typing on some type of floating keyboard. He had seen a keyboard in his father's shack of muggle stuff. But the keyboard that he had absentmindedly been typing on was made from gold energy that also came with a matching screen right over it. But it vanished right after he saw it. He thought he had been working too hard and not getting enough sleep, so he went to sleep early and forgot about what had happened.
Neville had always known that Herbology was his strongest subject, even with his gran trying to shove his father's best subject, Transfiguration, down his throat. But from what he could remember of times that he had escaped to his greenhouse back at Longbottom Hall, plant and the earth had always been most relaxed when he was around instead of the house-elves or any other member of his family.
He had especially hidden away there after his Uncle Algie had dropped him out of a window and he had literally bounced down the front yard. He might have been happy that they were proud of him, but that did not take away the terror that he had felt when he was dangling out of a three-story window and then dropped from it. He had hardly noticed when his hands had glowed a slight green light as he ran his hands over the pots of some of his plants. The soil had also looked to have glowed slightly and shook a little after he had touched them. After that happened, the plants seemed to have gotten healthier and almost looked more magical than they already were. He also could have sworn that he had heard the cry of an adult mandrake and it had not affected him at all.
Cedric was probably the only one that had no memories or incidences that could be said to be mystic soul magic. But now he was starting to think he needed to look at others around him and see if they were either with or against those like his friends. He might be a little more paranoid from now on.
As for the trio, they felt like a weight had been lifted off of their shoulders. All of their secrets and frustrations had been said and they were now not keeping anything from their friends anymore. Now all they had to deal with was the dementors that were surrounding Hogwarts. Since their amulets could not handle a lot of them, they needed another way to deal with them. Melody had read about a charm that can be used against them. So they were on their way to Flitwick in order for him to teach them the Patronus charm.
He explained to them that they needed to think of the happiest memory they ever had in order to produce a corporeal Patronus. He showed them his own, which turned out to be an amazing eagle Patronus.
After their mini-lesson, Krinos wanted to check in on Wolf and their other familiars. Harry could sense that they were fine, but Krinos preferred to see his familiar since he could not sense the emotions of animals. His powers could only do so much for him.
He walked onto the grounds, near the tree that he had heard would attack anyone and everything that ever went near it. The Whomping Willow. Krinos could never think of any reason why there would be a tree like that in the world. It made no sense to him. The only trees that he ever created like that were, what he called, Alarm Trees that he used for protection. But they had to be activated and did not act on their own.
He was petting Wolf when his familiar started growling.
"What is it, Wolf," he asked the white wolf.
Seeing that he was looking behind him, he turned around. That was when he came face to face with Sirius Black.
"The brother of Harry Potter that I have heard so much about," he said.
"It's Potter-Gardna," Krinos was almost automatic when he said that.
Black raised a wand, aiming it right at Krinos.
"Crud," Krinos swore. "Nature's..."
"Stupefy," Sirius cast.
Krinos was knocked out by the stun spell before he could cast anything himself. Wolf growled as the fugitive walked toward the nature mage.