It felt like something was wrong, all across the world. At least, it did to a large number of children.

What was wrong with their parents? The Wizarding world was still recovering from the whole end of Voldemort's violent reign, it should have been a time of reconstruction, celebration, mourning.

Some of the kids had lost siblings, some parents, some uncles and aunts. Everyone - everyone - lost someone. The schools of magic around the world reverberated with sobs and heartache: Hogwarts had been all but destroyed and along with it, so many dreams. But it would be rebuilt in time. Scattered to the smaller schools, and with the intent to change how things were done in them, students were sent to continue or complete their education under the strict watch of many Ministry of Magic wizards.

So why did it all slip under their noses? It had a strange feel, and on looking back many would say they hadn't even noticed it themselves, until more than one of them spoke up about it. Everyone knew someone who was the picked-on kid in their family, or had a drunkard parent... But this was different.

Why, when a student with top scores came home only to find that they were snubbed by their mother, all but rushed into their room and even once beaten into submission for even asking 'who are you speaking to?'

Why, if a Muggleborn wizard or witch had little else to return home to, could only hope to escape their terrifying family and hide out with friends?

Why, when it was obvious to some - even the youngest among them - that there was Dark magic being worked, did nothing get done to stop it?

***

They met in the Ministry of Magic's lobby. It was a bustling place, but it seemed tired, wary, damaged. The statues were still being rebuilt, the walls patched. But it wasn't just that. The people there - all of them, from janitorial staff up to the Minister himself - were jittery and distracted. Rushed, even more than they normally would be when confronted by a seemingly endless group of young people.

"Why are all these children here?" One of the sub-magistrates sighed, audibly, from the elevator. She glared out from under her wide-brimmed hat, as the metal mesh doors closed.

Plenty of children had come and gone that day. Some had trickled in during the prior few weeks, but now it was as though every family with a young witch or wizard in training wanted to send them on a field day to the Ministry!

Mostly, the wizards at the Ministry were soft-spoken and kindly, even if all they offered was a faintly annoyed pshaw and a 'come back when you're older'.

And mostly, it wasn't the parents sending their children on holiday from their studies. It was the kids themselves, mobilizing in a way that they knew was supposed to be their outlet but was failing them miserably.

"It might not just be that they're tired of rebuilding," one young man said, his weirdly shiny green afro had dust on it from the construction in the doorway beyond. A small group of teens sat listlessly, they'd been shuffled around and shunted in and out of offices for the last couple days now, and it seemed there was no end to it. No end, unless they gave up.

They weren't about to do that.

"I remember you from Hogwarts," said a black haired girl looking toward a slightly younger tan-skinned asian boy. "Your parents could afford to tutor you, couldn't they?"

Though normally Tashi would have snorted an given her some flippant answer, nothing was the same now - and Slytherin was disgraced, many of his House had tried to get out of it, his parents at least were okay with that. "Yeah, I'm Tashi, you were in Griffindor."

"At least you know each other," said another girl, brown-skinned as well as haired, "my family fled when Durmstrang started being overtaken by the Darkness," the others perked up at that, they hadn't heard of anything specific out there. "So I'm here alone, really alone now, do your families care about you?"

Each one shook their head. The red-headed boy (who was not related to the Weasleys, yes, he had to say that a lot) frowned and said, "'least your folks probably believe in magic... Mine still don't, and they're acting weirder than usual."

Thus this small group bonded suddenly, out of desperation more than anything else. They soon realized that they couldn't risk actually sitting around chatting in the Ministry - something that both Yona and Kala asserted together. So they left the place that was meant to be their sanctuary, their representation... And headed outside. It was less dusty out there in the London streets, but it was no less oppressive to them. They had to find somewhere, a place without adults at least, and they needed to find it soon so they could just settle things about themselves, let alone discuss what they could do about this situation they found themselves in.

It was Todd the redhead who realized he had the key to this problem: he had a penchant for mapping. So they went to the nearest area where there was sand, a sand lot with a broken swing set would do, and he drew with his wand into the shallow grains a map. The group as little dots poked into the sand and then a landmark - the Ministry building nearby - to guide them. The map instantly began drawing itself, which impressed the older pair.

"That's some good magic there," Faraji nodded.

"Yeah it's ... I've always had this, I like it, it's ... well it's better than the other magic I've always had, that's for sure." He didn't say more, though. The others, while they were curious, were more intent on knowing where they were going to find a safe haven, and it needed to be sooner than later, since Faraji's disillusionment spells would only last so long. Muggles and Wizards alike seemed intent on scrutinizing teens and kids, and even here in this play park, it was no different. Passers by glared at them, unkindly, though none so far approached.

"There, we're going there," Todd asserted and against all conventional wisdom, held his wand up and jiggled it a little. A trail of magical sparks appeared, faintly in the air and drifted in the direction located on the map in the sand. They could see it, but they were sure that Muggles could not.

Todd obliterated the map with a shuffling swipe of his foot, then indicated they should follow the sparkling trail.

They made it look more like they weren't together, though Tashi and Yona walked together because of their shared Hogwarts history. Todd trailed behind, because he wasn't sure whether his sparkly guide would vanish if he were in front. They managed to avoid crowds and harsh eyes, and finally were led to what looked like a blank alley wall. It was under two tall and slender but very old buildings, and Yona glanced it over.

"This is an entrance to somewhere else," she said quietly. Her own specialty of being adept with transportation spells came into play, while the others casually blocked any sight of the area by unwanted eyes. She tapped bricks, gently, she looked behind a dustbin, and finally squinted into the air just above where the wall topped off. "Ah. A moment," she muttered and waved her wand, and then an archway briefly glimmered into sight below the center of the wall.

They scurried into it, aware that this could be anywhere in the world, or another, but anywhere was better than here.

***

It wasn't just the change from day to night, or at least light into darkness, that caught them off guard. As the portal closed behind them, the fivesome realized that there was a distinctly different air here.

"Where are we?" Tashi asked.

"A forest, looks like," Faraji said, glancing around and letting his eyes adjust. "But I don't know that it's on earth... ours anyway."

"It might be a fairy land," Yona said, "there are still some portals left into the fey lands."

"Well that's not as safe as I wanted it," Todd muttered.

"It'll do," Kala smiled at him, "we're not where anyone at the Ministry could find us, anyway."

"From the looks of that portal," Yona said, "no one's used it in a long time. Maybe decades, maybe centuries."

"Aren't we special?" Faraji chuckled and the group finally had a chance to laugh a bit. It took the edge off their fear, but more it was that the location they'd moved to did that as well. It was peaceful, shadowed, it smelled fresh of leaves and grass, dirt and loam, there was the sound of a stream nearby. It put them at ease, but didn't make them sleepy or forgetful. They had a purpose to be here, after all, so they once more set about looking for a place where they could rest and talk. They didn't want to do it under the trees, exposed like that, there must be some kind of habitation nearby.

They were in luck, there was what looked like an abandoned shack - little more than a lean-to with some further structure to it. A hunting blind perhaps. It was roomy, though with five of them inside it did get a little hard to navigate. So now that they had their safe place, they had to figure out what was wrong with the world.

That wasn't nearly as easy at it might seem - though they were all quite bright, they were still outside of the effects, like all children were. They compared notes, they discussed what each had seen and done. It did turn out that both the girls Yona and Kala were adamant that they 'felt something' was wrong. Even young wizards knew not to ignore such warnings, particularly not when more than one person felt it in the same way.

"So it's an unnatural feeling," Yona said. "It's dark," and Kala nodded.

"It's dark, but I don't think it started in Durmstrang. I believe it was affected strongly there, because well.. you know. Durmstrang and the Dark Arts go hand in hand."

"I wonder if it affected schools first, or last?" Faraji said, "I mean, I remember being okay with things while some of my other friends weren't having such a good time."

"Bigger schools, then little ones," Todd said, mulling this over.

"I suspect that big institutes of any kind were affected first, since this seems to be hitting adults - and where are they usually?" Yona said. "Banks, the Ministry, businesses, industries... then schools, then individuals." She related a brief story about a little coffee house, where most of the staff were reasonably young, and the only time it felt 'wiggy' to her was when their boss, an older gentleman, came to check on things. "He outright fired the one barrista, she was the youngest there, I believe."

"But is this a curse, if it is it's a huge one, I've never heard of such a thing affecting people in so many places." Kala said. "If it's not a curse, then... I don't know what to call it."

After a pause, Tashi asked, "do you feel it here?"

The two girls looked at each other and then did a similar glance around them, but not looking at the boys or the hut. Yona said, "I don't, but... then I don't even know where here is, so that might be part of it." Kala echoed her a moment later.

"Well if this is a fey realm," Faraji said, "it's logical that it would affect things differently. No humans, right?"

"That's assuming that it only affects humans," Todd said, but then shrugged. "I guess it's a safe bet, though I'm not ... always human."

The others looked at him oddly until he said, "I'm a ... a were-fox, not a wolf, not a wolf..."

"Oh I didn't realize that there were such things!" Kala said with a grin. "Can you change at will?"

Todd shook his head, "no, but I don't hurt what I don't want to hurt, when I'm changed. It's funny, because... well my family are Muggles. But they've always had this curse on them - I guess it's not really so much of a curse, since a fox doesn't get all that attention like the werewolves do."

"I'd guess that your family descended from squib wizards, then," Yona said, and Todd nodded.

"Probably. I mean, nomal Muggles don't get curses put on them like that, that last generations, right?"

"But you're still essentially human," Faraji said. "So maybe we need to find a native here, and find out if they've noticed anything."

That would be after some rest. It'd been a long, frustrating day after all. And now, the closeness of the lean-to pressed them together even further. They were warm, not frisky with one another, and slept reasonably well, even if Tashi snored a bit loudly.

***

"Maybe you should try using that map trick again," Yona suggested to Todd, "it might make things go more easily. And between you and me we could get us where we're going."

"Sounds like a plan," Todd said. They were all in considerably better spirits in the morning. And it was morning: the sky lightened though the forest was still only dimly lit due to the heavy canopy of trees. Things might have felt different if the world they'd gotten to was eternally night.

Kala provided a Lumos spell, they cleared off the leaves and such from the dirt floor. Todd did his magic, and once more they saw lines appearing where he hadn't drawn them. This time they were led through the dense trees around bushes and large boulders. The air was clean, crisp, but they were getting hungry as well, so by the time they reached what appeared to be their destination their stomachs were loudly competing for attention.

"What is that?" Kala said, "it... looks like a broken chest of drawers!"

"What's it doing out here?" Tashi said, tilting his head.

"It's a port key," Yona said, confidently. She waggled her fingers toward the others, and said, "hold my hand, and I'll touch it."

It was clear that not everyone had used a port key, by their stunned reactions - however, this trip wasn't just through the woods or over to a town. This trip lasted a long while, in weirdly dark places... through what seemed to be an endless dark chamber, where their breath echoed closely though to their eyes there was nothing surrounding them. Then through a briefly bright place, to the Muggle born it looked greatly like the static of a television set. Uneven bumps of light and dark grey, here and there forming bits of half-shaped items like window panes and car bumpers. And then, they dropped heavily onto the floor of a very cramped, very dusty room.

"Honey! Someone's in the closet!" Came a woman's voice. It was an adult but cheery, and when she opened the door the kids fell out of it along with several pieces of furniture and boxes of clothing. "Oh dear, Honey it's a group of kids! What should I do with them!?" She raised her voice but turned her head away. She was a pretty blonde woman, young but not their age, perhaps in her early thirties by the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled at them.

"He'll be here shortly. He's kind of busy, but he always comes when there's a visitor." The woman grasped at the group, finding an elbow here and a shoulder there. "So you must be wizards," she said with a grin. "We don't get very many visitors through that closet any more. I wonder why."

The group paused, and then Faraji said, "there's a problem in the Wizarding world where we're from," he paused and glanced at his new friends. "We're trying to find a way to fix it."

"Kelly, are you serious, visitors now?" A man's voice came from what appeared to be a hallway nearby, as his shadow darkened the wall. It was reasonably clear that he was older than she was, but though the group expected him to be angry instead as he came through he smiled broadly. "I'll have you know I'm entertaining the Japanese envoy," he moved his eyes away from Kelly and the kids, "but he's asleep just now."

"Aslee--! Piers you put him back into his right mind immediately," the woman, Kelly, snapped with a mischievious swat at him.

He waved her off, and sent her back in his stead. Then this man appraised the kids, as they were looking him over as well. He was tall and skinny, not bony but certainly not a burly man. His blond hair was cropped in an attractive way, straight, and he wore a suit but it was colored a bit oddly - black with a burgandy trim in satin. The suit might have looked more official if he hadn't rolled up the sleeves a bit, and definitely if he took off the fingerless leather gloves from his hands he may have even pulled off a good Ministry look. He reached for Faraji's hand, "I'm Piers Hoarfrost. And I'm guessing that since you came through that portal," he nodded behind them at the closet which was even now reassembling itself by magic, "that you don't know me."

"Your accent is... American?" Yona said, and he nodded.

"Yes, I'm the President of the United States. But... not too likely your United States. You've managed to wander into my Summer home from elsewhere. There must be some kind of issue, Kelly seemed to think so."

They hurriedly explained their situation and instead of getting yelled at or scoffed - as they all expected a man of any age or certainly his importance - his expression changed to one of a muted shame.

"That's... unexpected," he said. "Come with me. The Envoy can wait, this is more important than import car restrictions."

It felt liberating to all five kids, to suddenly be treated as though their issue were real. There was still a bit of worry, just a tinge of reservation. What if it turned out he was fooling them, what if he wasn't who he said he was? It was true they'd never heard of the name Hoarfrost as the President, even they weren't all that closed off from the Muggle world! Kala appeared to think he was being honest, echoed by Yona when she nudged the older girl and nodded toward him. Between them they knew he meant no harm.

He led them to a wide, airy and sunlit room with rows of bookshelves lining every wall that didn't have a door or tall window on it. There he bid them to wait, while he went out presumably to do something about his Japanese visitor, and perhaps - they hoped - to get them something to eat.

"I've never heard of this guy," Tashi said as they sat in the semi-circle of comfortable sofas. "Do you think he's serious, or maybe just some nutter?"

"He's serious," Kelly said from another door, and with her was a tall and dangerous looking... demon. "But don't worry - Piers has a certain soft spot for children."

"They're delicious," the demon chuckled as the kids' eyes widened and they pressed into the soft couches in fear, but then he placed trays of sandwiches and fruits onto the wide, octagonal table in the middle of the room and added, "the sandwiches, that is." The kids didn't hesitate for a moment to relax and dive in, even the demon didn't make them particularly scared. He was big, twice Kelly's size if not height, and looked quite typically demonic with the red skin and short sharp horns... But they just didn't get any kind of bad vibe from him. To them, Kelly seemed to be somewhat oblivious, but not entirely air-headed.

"Ah, Numek, thanks," Piers said as he reentered the room and found himself a seat as well as his own apple to munch on. Kelly and Numek the demon left the room shortly, and Piers dedicated his attention to the five kids. "Now... in order for you to understand why I'm going to help you, you have to understand ... what happened here."

Piers explained his own history - he was hardly as young as he looked, well over a century old in fact. But as a Prime Wizard, he was able to do such magic that age didn't really matter. He'd thrown off a curse that had been placed on the children of this very world - a curse that if they performed magic, it would kill them. Many died, mostly by accident and some by purposefully trying to break the curse. It took everything he could do, and then some, but managed to take the curse from all the magical children in the world and put it onto himself, before then 'breaking' it from himself, at quite a cost to his health.

"But... in my taking on of that curse in order to break it, I think... I may have merely moved it. Curses are like that, if you didn't cast them yourself." He sighed, pained. "I moved it from them to me, apparently, to your world... through time perhaps, this was more than a decade ago."

"Yes, that's true of our world, too about the curses," Yona said. "But this sounded like something ... terrible."

"It was," Piers said, and his eyes became haunted. "So many children, forced to take an oath not to perform magic. But now... from what you've described, this curse isn't upon any individual people - it's ... covering everyone. Or maybe just the adults, somehow..."

Yona and Faraji glanced at each other, wondering whether they should accuse him of doing this horrible thing - he was responsible, most likely, for a world's worth of woes, but... It looked as though Piers knew this too. They said nothing, Piers ground his jaw around staring at the floor.

"And if it's the same curse, moved around," Tashi said, "it's also evolved a bit. Changed. It doesn't stop anyone from doing magic, but it sure makes adults hate their kids."

"Well if it moved across universes, yes it must have been altered, perhaps it's even been festering there, what with that Voldemort villain you spoke of, it may even be possible he had something to do with it's changes..." Piers said. His face was grim, but determined. "I'll have to go to your home, find out what I can do if anything. And... it's possible we might have to merely move it again, it is a powerful curse and was made by men I killed a decade ago."

"Make it into someone else's problem?" Kala said, "that's not right." Her stomach churned, he'd killed the curse-makers? And he was the president?

"I realize that," the President said, "but it may be the only option. At least it hasn't outright killed anyone, that you know of, right?"

"It hasn't killed anyone - not like Voldemort's people did," Faraji said, "but maybe we were all just ignoring it until he was gone, it moved in when he was destroyed."

The kids nodded, "though it's made life hardly worth living for some," Todd said.

"And for that I apologize," Piers said quietly. "It isn't often that I find myself needing to apologize to anyone, particularly not for having caused something like this." He furrowed his brows, "so I have to make this right, and with your help I think I will."

***

"What... is ... that!?" Kala gasped, as a blackness moved around the edge of the room. The kids had bedded down for the night in two large guest rooms, given showers and had their clothing washed (the old fashioned way, by hand, not by magic, so they smelled of laundry dust and anti-static sheets, which made them perk up and feel even fresher), fed again in the evening and morning... But now there was a darkness slinking through the place.

All of them suddenly became wary, and then Piers could be heard laughing in the room up the hall. "Cedanuachoth, stop scaring those kids!"

The shadow became more a shape, with multiple wings and a long neck... a dragon!

You will not be going anywhere without me, he thought into their minds, mostly to get the point across that he was hardly some kind of scary thing.

"That is absolutely correct," Piers said, beckoning the children toward him, and leading them outside. The black dragon kept getting longer and bigger, until they were out on the lawn of this Summer home, which looked altogether smaller on the outside than it had been inside. "Because you're going to be flying them, while I show you where to go."

"I cannot even imagine how we'd stay on with those wings," Todd muttered.

"Not to worry, that's why he has this," Piers held up a small item, which the dragon then took into his claws, slipped it over his long neck. It became a sort of cage - growing in size the same way that the dragon had done between inside and out of the house. It dangled and he secured it, Piers looked it over and decided that would work. "Go ahead and step in, I'll join you in a moment."

It was then that they hesitated. Piers was looking into the sky, gazing around - he was looking for the ley lines he'd need. Having found them, he turned back around to find the five children still standing there outside of the dragon's neck-born cage.

"Ah." Piers said. "Well, I would guess you have been hurt pretty badly emotionally by all those things happening there, then," he stepped toward the cage himself, and opened the grate door. It looked a little like an extra-wide hotel lift, the old-old kind. It probably was, given what else he'd stored in that musty closet space of his. From inside it, then, Piers said, "it's safe, and I won't lead you anywhere you don't want to go. If any harm came to you ... or any other children pretty much anywhere, I'd feel terrible about it. So please, get in, and let's head back to your London, shall we?"

"But - the Muggles!" Tashi said, "they'll see him, for sure!"

"Oh, no, no they won't," Piers smiled widely, licked his lips, and when they were all in the cage and clinging to whatever they could find, Cedanuachoth took off into the air. They all felt a strange lurch - very similar to the port key's motion. But it was much quicker, and thankfully didn't leave them wondering where they had gone. For shortly they arrived over London, its familiar buildings and foggy streets seemed desolate at this time of night. They really were around the world from things, at his Summer home!

Cedanuachoth was still visible, but black as night indeed. Yona considered using her invisibility spell, but it didn't seem to be needed. Piers had him fly over to where the Ministry entrance was, and they got out of the cage. "Choth, shrink down, I'd like you with us."

With ease, the dragon became a slinky shadow again, not more than a tenth of his original length (which was sizeable still!). They entered the Ministry though it was clearly after hours and Piers began gazing around again. Both girls recognized that look - they would do it too.

"Sir are you an Auror?" Kala asked. Piers shook his head.

"No, not really, though I do know what you mean by it... oh - ah, I know this world. I wonder... Why didn't Zora say anything to me about this?"

"Who's Zora?" Faraji asked.

"Zora... Domina? Of House Domina?" Piers said, "she teaches at Carramba High as well - as I do when I'm in the mood... but ... oh I see."

The five kids just watched him, he was obviously off his rocker in his own little world. He continued to look around, feeling at the air with magical senses that the girls could only faintly detect.

"This isn't where she's from... I hadn't been aware there were this many duplicate worlds." Piers' voice echoed gently over the marble walls, and then another sound became apparent. The tapping of feet, many of them, hurrying along. "Defend," Piers said abruptly, and even before the kids adopted defensive poses, the black dragon resumed his full size and swept into the hall between the children and -- their attackers.

A dozen masked wizards wearing long dark tattered robes - Voldemort's last remnants perhaps - had their wands out and were readying curses to fly.

"Stupefy!" Faraji yelled, aiming at the central man, who flew backwards in surprise more than anything the boy cast. The others similarly drew their wands, but then watched as the dragon batted the attackers around like a cat would toy with a mouse.

"This is just weird," Piers said, "I thought you said that moldy-wart was defeated?" He cast a shimmering shield around the group, as they caught their breath.

"He was, but there are still some ... followers," Yona glanced over his shoulder, and saw a handful more of the masked people. It appeared that they weren't followers of Voldemort so much as merely using the scare tactics to aid their attacks. Those attacks hit the shield and fizzled, but with each one, they could sense it was wearing down. Even Piers' magic had limits. And there were so many! Dozens of them now, finally Cedanuachoth nudged his rider and gathered the children into his neck-cage, and Piers teleported them back out of there.

They came out from this teleport near a castle, a small one anyway, nothing like Hogwarts had been. But also... not on that world. How many different places were there? Places with magic that were like but not the same as their own home? Piers gave the kids a quick rundown. Apparently, their world bore superficial similarities to his own: there was magic and there were mundanes. Their world and this 'Zora' person's, were closer - there, they called the non-magical folk Muggles and had Wizarding schools like Hogwarts and fought the man Voldemort. But Zora wasn't present on their world. She would be here, in this little keep-turned-school.

"What about this other thing, you mentioned she teaches and you do too?" Kala asked, and Piers smiled.

"Yes, there's a world called Twoarth, it's... a bit more complicated than just a world with Muggles and Wizards. There are those things - but superheroes, aliens, dragons, furries... everyone. It's called a Nexus world. Carramba High is a great school, plenty of graduates from there go on to do amazing things in many different worlds. That's why it attracted me, and Zora I would guess. Choth, would you go tell Zora we're waiting?"

The dragon flew over the castle, and suddenly the dim and dark air was filled with noises. Other dragons - they weren't like the ones that these kids knew of! These were elegant, smart, vocal but not dangerous - well they were dangerous if you got in their way, but they didn't seem intent on harming anyone! A big fluffy gold one came swooping overhead, and landed next to Cedanuachoth, as he settled as well by his rider. Then shortly from the wide double-doors of the keep, came an assortment of adults. One among them wore greens and oranges, her hair matching both. She sprang into the air and then bounced over to Piers, and he obliged her with a massive hug.

"Have you brought me students?" She asked, obviously this was Zora Domina. She looked to be the same age as he, though that could mean she was anywhere between thirty and two hundred. She wore a smile that was broad and honest. It fell as Piers spoke.

"No, the situation is... a little odder than that," Piers said. They walked off together and the kids were then attended by several others their own age along with people who must have been professors and staff at this little school.

"There's so much to take in," Yona said, tiredly. Faraji nodded, and he and Tashi wedged themselves around her, propping her up as though she was faint. The giggling was infectious, the other kids from this school rushed over and chatted them up. Who were they? Oh you're an animagus aren't you? What's it like being a natural at that auror magic? Are you sure you're not going to stay here where it's safer?

And because they were young, they bounced back easily, shooting their own questions at these other students. Why weren't they at Hogwarts? Did they have Quidditch here? How many of them knew there were different places?

It turned out plenty of them knew that last one, mostly because of their dragons. None of them were "from here", there were no Ridgebacks or whatever, they were elegant things from other worlds connected through that 'nexus' that Piers had spoken of. Thus was this school also connected to Carramba High, way on the west coast of the States - and not Piers's states, it was yet another world... It was all so confusing!

"We think," Piers said, when there was a lull in the group's activities and he and Zora could be heard over the din, "that it would be best if you did stay here for a while, as we really do need to figure out what's gone wrong there. And even though I know you mean to help, I think it might be putting you in a very, very dangerous situation if you were to try anything with this curse."

Though the five seemed at first disappointed, or even angry - they shortly realized he was right. The ease with which he used his own magic, teleporting them from not just one part of the world to another, but whole other worlds, without even raising a sweat... Throwing up a defensive spell that kept out nearly fifty death-curses long enough for them to clear out... Piers was a pro. It wasn't just that he was a grown-up trying to make them feel bad, he was trying to help them, without letting them get hurt in the process.

"But what will we do? I mean, there are hundreds, thousands of kids on our world in need of help!" Tashi said. "Wizards kids - I don't even know how many families are going to break up or be hurt because of it, and I don't even know if it's just the Magical world, it might be the Muggle world too!"

"We can't help them all," Zora said, "but what we can do is make sure that you ... well, you get a proper start to defend them yourselves."

She stood purposefully in front of her golden-orange dragon, and waited for them to figure it out.

"Hold on," Todd said, "we can't bring dragons back home, they'll be killed!"

"Only if you're caught," Zora laughed. "After all they're illegal here too - but we manage to have a whole lot of them."

On looking, it was true, there were a dozen in sight, and apparently those were just the ones who belonged to the staff! There were others that the students had bonded and brought home from their distant worlds. And Piers's of course. They knew that this would be one way to even the odds a little, though they didn't yet know how it would lift a curse.

"It won't really," Piers said later over a more private dinner with Zora and the kids, "but with them you'll more easily be able to get away from trouble, sniff it out, and help those you might find in need."

"And you'll be...?" Yona asked.

"I'll be researching. This is ... not the first time this kind of thing has happened, I know, because I know of at least one person who routed something big and nasty from his world, only to have it bite him on the ass when he tried taking over another world."

"How many worlds are there?" Kala asked.

"An infinity of them," Zora said with a grin. "Eat your potato."

"The dragons help move through these worlds," Piers said, "some of them anyway, they're quite good at it. Others not so much. Some can only teleport on their own world if at all, but plenty of these here," he waved his fork, "can move from one universe to the next with ease."

"It's never difficult to find a dragon when you need one," Zora said. "We'll spot you a place soon enough, and you'll learn more about them in the meantime. I'm assuming you won't really be missed at home," she waggled her eyebrows, and the kids nodded, some sadly.

"And not to worry," Piers added, "because well, there are other tricks to the trade, teleporting through space is only one way to do it..."

Within a day or two, Zora had done some looking, while Piers was busy going back and forth between this world and theirs. Zora did find something, a place which she said had been on her list of dragonries to visit anyway, Isla, that had plenty of interesting and very magical dragons on its sands just now.

The kids didn't even pretend to know what she meant by any of that. But what they did know was that they were to study up on riding, health of dragons - their care of magical creatures training would shine - and let the others take care of the curse as best they could.

This Isla place was amazing. It was like a vacation that the young aurors truly needed. The air was bright, it was tropical, and it was filled with both magic and science. They were kept to the one side of the place, because there were plenty of dragon-riding folk who didn't have magic. Just like their world. Somewhat unlike their world, however, there were creatures on this 'Pern' place that they could scarcely have dreamed about!

In the halls of the Genetic program buildings, there were flitter eggs that had been incubated, sometimes altered, and... well, there were plenty of them to go around. Each of the group wound up with one or even two. Faraji with his lovely green and copper Swooper, Tashi had found two tremendously different blues he named Key and Lock, Kala's light-indigo two-toned female Julip enjoyed fighting with Yona's copper colored Bolt, and Todd... well, he'd scored two females - rust colored Vickie and he improbably talkative sandstone Chatter. They easily trained this faire of flitters to move notes through the halls, take away table scraps, and be an early warning system if they were goofing off rather than studying their dragonry paperwork. In other words, they were used exactly the same way any other teens would!

A number of dragons had come together not long before, and now plenty of eggs lay on their sands incubating under the watchful eye of not only their parents, but the scientists who had apparently caused these particular ones to want a partner, rather than to go it alone after hatching. All that was far over the heads of the kids, but they went with it anyway.

Too early one morning, not even dawn yet, they were roused by the local winged wolf and dragged yawning and stretching down to the hatchery. The colorful dragons had already begun to hatch, many of them were being protected by their mothers wings. At a command, though, they were let loose to explore the area and find their bond.

Five dragonets seemed to be gathering together before moving toward the candidates. After Trevain's green brother joined them, they went straight for the five wizards who had been sent by Zora of House Domina. As the dragonets came closer, they sorted themselves and went straight to their chosen.

"We're here to help," young green Tezcatal said to Tashi .

"In any way we can, Kala ," a dark red from Amriel's clutch said mater-of-factually. Kala nodded, reaching down to hug Nurea's still wet hide.

"But...how do you know what's going on?" Faraji asked as black Zorion came to sit next to him like a shadow. "You just hatched."

A red-black dragonet rolled his eyes before leaning into Todd 's legs. "We can hear in those eggs, you know. We heard whispers." He grinned, tilting his head to the side. "And," he added as he looked up at Todd. "You could use some wings if you really want to make maps, right?" Todd beamed.

Yona looked at Tamesis as the sleek black dragon peered at her. "What?" the black asked. "You doubting my abilities?"

"Only now – but I'm sure you'll change my mind when you're older and bigger."

Tamesis snorted. " A lot bigger," she muttered.

Thus the Young Aurors began their training as dragon riders! It would take them many months to truly get the hang of it all, and their dragons were all significantly different from one another, so what might apply to one, was perhaps a bit different on another. One thing they all agreed upon was that they would make a great team.

At long last, they came back to House Domina, welcomed by the other students and staff, and dragons alike. "I'll tell Piers you're done," Zora said, as they dug into their puddings and dinner pies. Without pause, Piers and Zora reappeared together in the hall, and Piers looked rather pleased with the results of the kids' bonding.

"Have you made any progress on the--" Kala asked, and Piers nodded, but gravely.

"Indeed I have, but it's not very likely I'll be able to really do much about it. What might need to happen is... well, to dilute the curse. I'll tell you later, when you're rested up and your dragons are ready to head back home."

"Speaking of homes," Todd glanced around at his friends, "what... about ours? Where should we stay with our dragons?"

Though none of their dragons were spectacularly large, like Piers' dragon, they did have strength and magic on their side. Plus, they had abilities to create or manipulate matter: and that was where they'd suddenly be able to shine.

Once Todd and Sionn spotted the right place and plotted it on a quickly drawn map, they were able to hollow out and make use of large natural caverns. The others brought things from their 'old' homes. They were saddened to see how the world had changed a bit in their absence. Yona noted that it felt almost as though Voldemort had never left, but there was no single entity to point at causing this. So they snuck around, gathered their belongings, and made their new home in the wilderness of Scotland ... somewhere just off the maps.

Green Tezcatl would generally be their guardian. She reacted very quickly to any threats (such as the wild, local dragon that wandered a bit too close that one time), and could alert the rest of the group while holding her own in any battle she was in. Zorion was absolutely thrilled to be able to set up any and all of the metal works they needed. Pretty quickly, the place had a pair of beautifully balanced doors, hinges and struts and locks made by Zorion, with the wood grown at will by Tamesis. Both of them were proud of their new home, Zorion reinforcing the existing walls with veins of metal, and Tamesis producing a fabulous garden and shelter trees above ground. Todd's Sionn regularly hunted, there was always something cooking and in any form - dragon, human, or fox - Sionn enjoyed providing for his friends. Nurea was often elected to 'do the lights', and enjoyed setting up the candles and torches that made their impromptu castle look even more authentic.

They even had a ghost, an ancient Scotsman who'd fallen in battle and never quite realized he was dead. With nary a traveller around for centuries, he was a bit confused by the newcomers speech, but he saw the children for what they were - outcasts, outsiders in their own homes. He felt bad for them, Nurea and Tamesis both confirmed that he was 'safe' as far as spirits went. He liked the kids, and the dragons. Flickering like their hearth fire, he listened for hours as they talked about their lives both before and after bonding their dragons. And, he applauded their courage in the face of terrible odds. Rather than snubbing them, like the other adults in the world. Being a ghost, apparently, meant that he was ...

"Exempt from the curse!" Yona stood up and exclaimed, abruptly in the middle of dinner one evening. The flitters began squawking in the rafters, and she shushed them with her hand. "Tashi, tell Tezcatl to get Piers, I know how to break the curse!"

Well, she had a good inkling anyway. When Piers (and Zora, and several others from the school's staff) arrived, and Yona blurted out what she'd discovered, there was a strange silence around their big grown-wood table.

"It... is certainly a novel approach," Lucas said, casting a doubtful look toward his own shapeshifting dragon partner Audeo, and then to his paladin Iris. They all waited for Piers to make a decision about this, however, because even though Lucas was over four hundred years old, and Zora the founder of her own whole school of magic, they all acknowledged Piers as a far superior wizard.

The blond man leaned back, pushing himself into the chair and staring at nothing, somewhere over the middle of the table. The other kids were excited, though Faraji could hardly be called a 'kid' at just over eighteen years old now. He had actually worried, quite vocally, that if he 'became an adult' would the curse extend to him too? Or if there were teen pregnancies out there... would their parents turn on those young infants? This curse had to be stopped... He turned his brown eyes toward Piers as well.

"It will take a lot of effort... Perhaps more than we've got access to - alone." Piers finally said. "But it's definitely something that, well, if anything would work, I can see this being it." Yona beamed with pride. Her friend the Scot Ghost was a bit confused (but when was he not) and she interpreted for him.

"We'll probably need to gather as many powerful wizards from your world as possible," Yona said to Zora, "they know the layout of this world just like we do, only things didn't turn out the same for us. Piers, you'll be doing the spell weaving, correct?" The blond nodded, and his eyes crinkled a little with a smile at how the girl was blossoming as a leader. She'd already done the quick research she needed: she sent out the spirit-sensing pair of dragons to scare up other adult-age ghosts to see if they had the same response. Sure enough, it looked as though the dead or undead weren't affected by the curse.

Which meant... that they might be able to break or lift it if...

"Everyone?" Kelly exclaimed, when they were visiting the Summer home. Piers was already gathering his trustworthy high-level wizards for this effort, while Zora and the others headed back to their world for the same reason. It would mean that the wizards there would have to either ignore the fact that all these dragons were about, or more likely simply have their memories scrambled afterward. It wouldn't do to open up that can of worms, even if it was for the sake of helping an entire world.

Kelly paced around the small open space in the one rather crowded storage room, as Piers and Tashi dug around for certain items.

"I've done it once before," Piers reminded her. "And this time, I'll actually have the cooperation of others to take the burden down." He handed Tashi what looked like a wooden set of salad tongs. "And, since I've dealt with this curse before," he grunted, yanked free a stereo speaker and its dangling wires, tossed it over his shoulder, and went back to digging, "it will be familiar enough that I can filter out any of the worst bits at the very least." Grunting again, he nearly toppled the wardrobe that stood dangerously close to falling already, and unscrewed one of its dresser knobs. On standing back up, he and Tashi saw the uncertainty on Kelly's face.

"It will be fine," Piers assured her.

"But... you have to kill everyone in the world." She said.

"Only momentarily," Piers smiled, and Tashi had to stifle a laugh. It certainly did sound completely mad.

But it would work. It had to. Plus Piers was right: he'd done this kind of thing before, on his own world. With the wizarding network as well as muggle television, he'd be able to simul-cast across the whole planet. And this time, thankfully, he didn't have to take the whole curse into his own body. The wizards from Zora's world as well as his own were strong enough to handle it - they numbered in the thousands. They admitted it might kill some of the truly aged mages, but then even those old gnarled folk waggled their crooked fingers at the younger ones, and proclaimed that at least this would be worth dying for.

In the end... It was.

They lost some seventeen of their number in the process. All of them quite old, though one because she was already ill. The truly terrifying thing was that all the necromancers had to be there to help revive the population with their own spells thrown out through the network of wizards. But the curse - evolved and mixed up and cast off from his own world - obeyed Piers once more. Every adult - contrary to what Kelly said, it was only those who were directly being hit by the curse itself - for a split-second, ceased to live.

Some of them crashed their cars, some wound up dying on operating tables to the dismay of the doctors - who also experienced that very brief moment of darkness. There were casualties, certainly. Piers estimated that several tens of thousands actually never made it back out of the darkness. At this point, he reasoned, that was a fair trade. Perhaps the necromancers or dragons or whoever, could thank them later for their sacrifice.

It was as though the entire world blinked, hiccuped, and realized that it had dozed off for a minute there, what just happened? Things sort of returned to normal. But there were rifts, there were issues that had to be hashed out on an individual basis of course. Words that had been said in anger and under a curse may have come from the heart even still... But for the most part, the children of the world were welcomed once more, things were put right.

***

"So are you going home?" Piers asked of the Aurors.

"No," Faraji replied, "no, we're going to stay here, but we're going to have visitors around more often I think."

"I'd love it if you'd visit me," Zora giggled, from the back of her beautiful golden dragon. "Any time, you know where to find me." They flew off, with the others from her school shortly following.

"Well then that's that," Piers said, oddly subdued. "It's been quite the adventure, hasn't it?"

"It has, sir, and it's been an honor," Yona extended her hand, he shook all of their hands before gathering them all together into a strong, and heartfelt hug.

"The honor is mine, it really is," Piers said. "And, you know where to find me, too. I do hope you'll come to Carramba some day."

"I think we've done enough world-hopping for one lifetime," laughed Kala.