Jakeroo123: Ha ha Candice is an awesome Choice

Dark at Noon: Such an awesome Choice. The books are by one of my favorite authors!

To everyone else! Thanks for sticking with me! I've a lot going on so I haven't had much time to write, so thanks again for sticking with me! 3 you guys rock! Ps keep review with a favorite female character! And she will make an appearance towards the end :D

Chapter six

The Calm before the Storm

Harry, Ron and the rest of Gryffindor boys returning to Hogwarts for their eighth year, sat silently during the sorting hat ceremony. It seemed so trivial. It made them feel old. And slightly stupid. The train ride to Hogwarts they tried to enjoy themselves, but Ron voiced the little thought that was in all of their heads. The entire way Ron kept repeating the same phrase over and over again.

"No one has ever repeated a year in Hogwarts. We're the bloody first! I should of just gone to work for my dad." At first it was easy to argue with the phrase. They were heroes. Why would it anyone disapprove a hero taking a year off from school to save the world. Harry pointed out that Hermione could probably name someone who repeated a year. Seamus argued that he and Neville had actually gone to school but just hid out in the room of requirements for the majority of the year. Neville said his grandma told him that there was no shame in finishing your education.

But the Weasley boy had just one word that countered every single argument that came his way. Malfoy. Heroes, Education, and Hermione facts aside, the fact that Draco Malfoy sat in the same train as them tarnished their return to Hogwarts. They tried to brush it aside, act as if Draco's presence meant nothing. But it did. It really did.

And sitting in the great hall during the sorting ceremony that thought nagged at them. During the Hat's shouts and house cheers it was all they could focus on.

Harry leaned against his hand and stared out at the Slytherin table. A round of applause was rippling through the notoriously dark house. Draco was half heartedly patting a newcomer on the back, but the white haired boy's focused quickly returned the goblet before him. There was no spark, no fierce burning fire of arrogance and arsery left in the boy. Draco was just a shell.

Harry was just about let it drop, forget about Draco, and just focus on his final year of schooling when his scar prickled. And there it was, that arrogance look. That spark. That flame. All of it in one vicious expression. Everything he hated about Malfoy in one gaze. But it wasn't from Draco. Harry took off his glassed and rubbed them clean. Once they were in their proper place, Harry gazed back at the intense eyes. They belonged to a girl, a new girl. The hat mentioned something about her transferring from a magic school in China.

She could have been pretty. Harry couldn't help but notice that. She would have been pretty perhaps, if she wasn't underage. She had full lips, with a natural red tint to them. A nice creamy white skin with almond undertones. Thick raven hair. Her Asian-like eyes slanted upwards, elegantly framing her golden eyes. But those eyes. They ruined her. Everything about her was overshadowed by the air of danger she sent off. Harry's scar sent a violent splash of pain down the jagged length of its shape. And then he passed out.

Mai's finger snaked around her boyfriend's neck, pulling him close to her. He felt ridged in her arms, despite the comforts of the place. Slowly she rubbed circles into his skin, trying to sooth Zuko, but the Fire Lord remained stony.

"Relax Zuko." She whispered into his ear, tucking a strand of raven hair that had escaped from his royal head piece behind his ear, "We haven't found a trace of Azula. Maybe she just wanted her freedom and she's going to live out her life far far away from us."

Zuko's head swung towards her in disbelief, "Do you honestly believe that, how long have you known her, Mai? Azula never stays away for long. Power is what she love the most. And she can't have power without eliminated Aang and I."

Mai's lips parted in protest, but she knew it was the truth. Her cheeks flushed slightly with the knowledge she had set free the one person who do anything in her power to destroy the man she loved with her entire heart. And she had done it to save her relationship.

Zuko slumped down onto a pile of pillows. He reached up and unpinned his royal head piece and let his hair free. He was more comfortable that way. Not that he didn't like being Fire Lord. He loved it. He loved his people, and leading them to the way of peace and love and respect that land once lacked. The crown however was pain in the ass.

But it didn't matter. With his sister lingering in the world somewhere he couldn't even focus on his people. He couldn't lead them like they deserved to be led. He was failing as a leader.

"You don't become great young lord by walking on flat land. You must scale mountains first." The scent of cinnamon chai tea wafted into the room, followed by Iroh. The old man placed a hand onto his nephew's back and offered him a cup of tea. Mai noted the way that Zuko's shoulders slopped down, and his spine slouched against Iroh's palm. Mai envied the way the tea maker had a relaxing effect on what should be hers. Rationally she knew it was because Iroh was Zuko's parental figure. But her heart panged with jealous from her lack of ability to comfort her boyfriend. She wouldn't even need to comfort her boyfriend if it weren't for Azula.

"Would you like some tea, Mai?" Iroh set one of the palace's jade tea cups before her. He spooned in some sugar into her tea, and smiled, "Something sweet for a bitter girl."

He laughed and Zuko smiled, but Mai's eyebrows furled, "Whats that suppose to mean?" The two men exchanged glances, confused by her words. Iroh had said them thousands of times during the lunches they often had together. Mai use to like those lunches. They were arranged by Zuko so the two people he loved the most could get to know one another. But lately…

Mai took in Iroh's expression. He remained calm despite her outburst, but his eyes probed into her, sensing there was something wrong with her. It was only a matter of time before he found out about her role in Azula's plan.

"Sorry." Mai said with little feeling behind the word, "I'm just upset. About Azula."

Zuko reached for her hand, giving it a little, understanding squeeze, "we all are. Uncle, do you have any news?"

"I visited Ran and Shaw with other members of the White Lotus," the tea maker said, referring to the ancient dragons living with the Sun Warriors. "I thought they might impart some wisdom upon me."

"Did they?" Zuko asked.

"They told me this nephew, that our bloodline is a double edge sword. That your sister has the capability to destroy many worlds, just as you have the capability to heal them. They also told me they have a gift for you." The old man existed the room and returned with a giant, golden, oval-shaped stone.

The Fire Lord gently lifted the stone from his uncles arms, and sat it on his lap, "The sun stone? Why would they give me the sun stone?" Iroh smiled and gave his nephew's should an affectionate squeeze.

"Zuko!" came a shout from the outside the comfy tea room the trio sat in. A blast of wind burst into the room, furniture skidding against the floor, the tea cups flying, and curtains ripped out of the wall. Appa's furry head poked in from the open doors leading to the terrace. Aang slid into the room followed by Sokka, Katara, Toph, Ty Lee, and Suki.

"Zuko!" Sokka shouted with enthusiasm, "We saw a giant turtle lion that was an island! It was awesome! It was all 'why have you come, young ones?' and Aang was all 'we have come to seek your wisdom! Hey nice sun stone!'"

His sister, who had been on a separate trip with the other girls looked at Sokka curiously and asked "Did the Lion turtle tell you anything useful?"

"Not at all." Sokka replied picking up the golden stone from beside the Fire Lord and giving it a shake, "Did you guys have any luck with June?"

"That Shirshu couldn't sniff its way out of a sack," Toph snorted while her index finger buried its way into her ear canal, collecting ear wax under her dirty fingernail, "It did the same thing it did when we asked it about Aang. It must be broken."

"Toph," Suki said laying a hand on the earth bender's shoulder, "Nyla couldn't find Aang because his scent was masked by the Lion Turtle scent. He's been all over the world so he smells like the Earth itself."

Zuko leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees, "If June's shirshu couldn't find my sister, she wasn't on the Lion Turtle, and the dragons had no idea, we're doomed. We've exhausted all our options. Right now Azula is plotting revenge on us, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and we have nothing. We're sitting turtle-ducks. She's going to hit us, and its going to hurt." His words caused the air to thicken with dread and worry. Fear was creeping slowly into their minds.

Iroh placed his hand on the arms of his chair and lifted himself up, collecting the chipped cups of tea that Appa's arrival had knocked into a state of disarray. He placed them on a golden tray and carried them to the doorway, "all of you have become a family to Zuko and I. Each of you has a place in my heart. I know all you will find the answer, all you have to do is look at the information you've received. I will go brew some saffron tea to simulate our brains."

After he left Sokka stared up ceiling, "Can tea actually stimulate your brain. I mean it's just hot leaf juice. I'm pretty sure my brain doesn't like hot leaf juice."

"Don't let uncle hear you say that," Zuko said with a hint of humor, "but that's not what we should be focusing on."

Appa yawned as time ticked on, the sun lowering in the sky. Toph had stretched out on a couch by herself in the corner, snoring softly. Ty Lee walked around on her hands, insisting that that it helped her think. Everyone else sat around a slightly elongated table, empty tea cups and plates of half eaten roast duck sitting before them.

"Let's go over it from the top," Sokka said as everyone groaned, "What do we know."

"June wasn't able to locate Azula," Katara offered up, "But she wasn't on the one place that would mask her scent."

"And?" Sokka asked.

"None of the White Lotus masters have heard anything from her." Suki said, "So she's not in any major cities."

"Maybe she's in Ba Sing Se, she could easily hide out in all of the tunnels under that city," Ty Lee replied walking into the center of the room upright, "I bet the scent of all the people there could hid hers, and those creepy earth benders of hers a probably treating her like a queen."

"I don't think that's possible." Aang replied, "I received a letter from Smeller Bee and Long Shot saying they've turned those tunnels into a place for orphans from the war to go. I'm pretty sure they would have told us if they saw anything suspicious."

Sokka rubbed his chin as the wheels in his head turned rapidly. He thought about Azula, and everything that had happened with her. Zuko's visit. Her escape. Her missing from the world. His eyes widened and he stood up.

"Aang you're the bridge between worlds!" The water tribe boy said grasping Aangs shoulder and giving him a good shake.

"Uh, yeah, I thought you knew that Sokka."

"No! Well yeah, I knew that, but it's not what I was referring too." Excitedly Sokka ran out of the room onto the terrace to dig through on one of the bags on Appa's back.

"What's with all of the noise?" Toph asked groggily as she lifted her head off a silk pillow, her hair sticking to the side of her face. She brushed it off and up, "and why is Sokka's wearing stupid hat?" Sure enough Sokka returned with his detective hat on as well as his bubble pipe.

The other stared at him, some amused, most annoyed, as the boy began pacing a crossed the room, "you see Azula was unable to be located by any of our best resources, not by June, the Lion Turtle, or even Ran and Shaw."

"We know Sokka, that's what we've been saying for the past few hours." Suki said lying on the couch.

"But here is the interesting part," Sokka said sticking his pipe into his mouth and blew several bubbles, "Did or did not Azula refer to Aang as the bridge between worlds?"

"She did but I don't see what that has to do with anything," Ty Lee replied.

"Azula can't be found in this world," Sokka said, "Therefore, she's in another world." There was no noise in the room. A swan-owl hooted and crickets chirped outside, but there was no noise inside as the digested Sokka's words.

Zuko looked up from the floor where his gaze had been focused for the past hour, "Azula said that my mother wasn't of this world anymore… you don't think she meant my mother traveled to this other world? And Azula traveled to this world too?"

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Sokka said, removing his detective hat setting it on the table, "There is this world, the spirit world, why wouldn't there be other worlds besides those two?"

Aang rubbed his head and gazed toward the moon, "And all we have to do is get there."

Azula brushed her hair from the Slytherin common room. The room resided in a sunken ship, a tad distasteful for such a powerful house. But it didn't matter, she was where she was suppose to be. Lucious Malfoy assured her that power would come to her here at Hogwarts, and after seeing this hidden world, she was sure he was right. Lucious was stupid, that she was sure of, but his money and connections would prove to be useful as time rolled on.

When they met he insisted she follow him. If it weren't for the snake necklace he wore she would have burned him to a crisp for trying to assert power. He knew nothing of her status, her birth rights, her own power. But she found a way to show him. When there were out of the public in the train station's bathroom, she struck something called a house elf with lightening killing the creature instantly. It had stunned him in his tracks, but he recover quickly.

"Interesting," was all that he had said to her before tapping a wall three times with.. with a stick called a wand. Before her eyes the wall transformed into a fireplace. He set a fire, a green fire, and stepped into expecting her to follow. She did. And then she was whisked off to a place called the Ministry of Magic. There she met another man with a snake necklace. The two proceed to talk about things she didn't understand, and she hated that.

But at the end of it she understood this. Her great grandfather Sozin had met someone named Salazar Slytherin and together they made a plan to take over two worlds. Salazar introduced her great grandfather to a woman, a witch who would become his wife, making Azula a witch with powerful blood. She was able to use magic in this new world she was in, that in combination with her fire bending would make her truly powerful. So they sent her to Hogwarts. A teacher there would sew a patch into some magical piece of fabric called a Sorting Hat that would trick the magical fabric think she was suppose to be at the prestigious school. Thus she was put into the house with the best blood.

If it were anyone else, their mind would spin from this information. But since her mind was slightly off to begin with, she handled this information well. She understood there was a sect of the Fire Sages here, that would take care of her every need. In fact they'd be relocating to the town near her new school any day now to help her adjust to the new world and help her focus on her new mission.

A wave rocked the common room and she rolled her eyes. Why was this house associated with water? It was poor choice, even if this world didn't have bending. With a sigh she placed her hair brush on nearby coffee table. Currently she was watching several of her housemates carrying her new things up to the room that she unfortunately shared with several other girls. She could of insisted that she have her own room, but she needed to blend in with the wizarding world. Sharing a stupid room would help her with that. The princess didn't understand everything with in this new world, but her sages would help her do that. She waved over a boy with a box of her things and took a book from him. It was written in her language, with symbols instead of letters. The spell Lucious had placed upon her helped her understand both, but she still preferred her own.

It was a history book. That much was easy to tell, one of the Fire Sages had written it so she's be up to date with the politics of magic. She understood so great evil had been defeated and now the pathetic Salazar Slytherin Society was trying to pick up the pieces and conquer, but that bored her. In the end she'd wind up betraying them of course and ruling two worlds, but she need to know the facts. She flipped few pages in, to see the picture of the person who had triumphed from the wizard war. Some boy with glasses. The picture moved, which rather disturbed her, and the boy raised up his hair revealing what was underneath. A lightening bolt scar. A scar. A scar like her brothers.

Her mind when white, bubbling over with hate and confusion and madness, and she quickly blinked it away. Azula poked her nail into the picture scratching the boys face up. She recognized him from the Sorting Ceremony. He was going to her school. She smiled. That was just plain perfect. Now she could kill him.

N/A: Fun daby doozy, knocked another chapter out of the way. I figured it was time to update with Korra out and all. Sorry I haven't been posting. I suck and my brain hurts. I will try to hurry and update sooner now.

CJwrites- Challenge accepted It will be a one shot and not actually part of the real story though XD

Anywhoozle I think I had some notes to add so here we go, Ran and Shaw are really the names of the the dragons, and the stone in the episode they were in was called the sun stone.

The Slytherin house is actually in a sunken ship I only know this from Pottermore. I'm Slytherin. Don't judge me. Merlin was a Slytherin too...

Thats it.

So till next time!

再见！

Oh yeah! Please please please please with sugar and other sweets on top review with a female character and the name of the show/book she is in, for she will be part of this story!