AN: You don't have to read my alternamorphs story to understand this one, but it is connected VERY loosely. The alternamorph character, Warren, is mentioned in passing once or twice, but doesn't have a part in this story. It's set just after book 23 for animorphs and in book 7 for Harry.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot. If I did, this wouldn't be here

Chapter 1: Jake

My name is Jake.

If you're reading this, then I don't have to tell you much about the invasion that I fight against by now. See our previous adventures if you don't know the terms Yeerk, Andelite, Chee and so on. Sorry, but it seems pointless to write about them at the beginning of every adventure.

I was actually enjoying my day completely morph free for once. Now that's something that usually doesn't happen. Usually I've morphed at least once by now and I have to admit that it was nice staying in my own skin. We'd had a lot of big and tiring missions right after the other lately. We had to protect the rediscovered morphing cube and deal with a new Animorph that went off the deep end while saving six of the world leaders from the Yeerks in a place that's security made Fort Knox look like a public park before Visser Three discovered that Tobias was Elfangor's son and tried to see if he was connected to the 'Andelite Bandits' at the same time we had to save a young Hork-Bajir before the Yeerks could find the Valley he'd come from. Oh, and in the middle of this our old ally, Warren, returned and our new, mentally unstable/sociopathic member took off with his freed parents to the outskirts of the next town over and was currently getting help from both them and Warren in restabilising his mind.

So, naturally, I jumped on the first bit of free time I got. And what better way is there then wiping the floor with Marco in a game of basketball?

"And Marco comes in for the shot. Look at those moves, look at that style, look-"

"At how easy Jake steals the ball." I smirked, knocking the ball away right as he was in the middle of showing off. Throwing my body in between him and the ball as he tried to take it back, I took a shot and cheered as it sailed right into the net above the garage door. "Yeah, that makes ten points for Jake and two points for Marco."

"Aww, how did you talk me into this again?" Marco groaned, grabbing the ball as it rolled away. "I mean, it's a beautiful day! Can't we spend it inside playing video games?" He grinned.

"Oh yeah, that's a great way to spend the best day in over a week." I snorted, giving him a smirk. "Besides, you only wanna do that because you kick my butt at video games as well as I kick yours on the basketball field, you little game freak."

"Oh, now you're bringing my height into it?" He cried, dropping the ball and crossing his arms in mock anger. "Low blow, dumb jock."He added, turning his head away from me, his nose held high.

"I'll give you dumb jock!" I cried dramatically, leaping at him. he had just enough time to move his arms up and grasp at mine before I collided with him and shoved him onto the grass. We couldn't help the laughter coming from our mouths as we rolled around, trying to one up each other. Marco was quick thinking and used the momentum of our fall to roll on top of me, but my height and strength advantage easily allowed me to switch our positions. He twisted his arms out of my grip and shoved my shoulders in an attempt to dislodge me, nearly succeeding too, but I just sat down on his stomach and grabbed his wrists, forcing them on the ground by his head. "I win." I said smugly, my grin only growing as he tried vainly to wiggle his way free.

"Actually, I think I do." A cocky voice called from the door to my house. Marco and I whipped our heads around just in time to see Tom with a camera in hand before it flashed. "Nice shot." He commented, checking his work as I jumped off Marco. "A very suggestive picture. I wonder how many comments I'll get when I put it up on the internet?"

"Don't you dare." I growled, stomping right over to him. "Or I'll put up bath time Tommy photos. And there's not a thing covering you in them." I added, smirking as my brother's face turned annoyed.

"What, does it hit a nerve?" He asked, trying to get back in control. "Is there more truth to this shot than I thought?"

"You're suggesting that I have a crush on Jake?" Marco cried, waving his arms wildly in the air as a mischievous smile grew on his face. "No way! I'd never dream of pulling him away from the love of his life, the beautiful, kind, poop and overalls clad Cassie. What kind of guy wouldn't want a girl like that? Cute and gross at the same time. The perfect picture of heaven. Now if they'd just hurry up and kiss instead of just pulling kissy faces." I just rolled my eyes and sighed as Marco puckered his lips and made kissing noises and pretended that I wasn't blushing bright red at his comments.

"Whatever!" Tom sighed, shrugging as he head down the lane. Even before that slimy Yeerk got into his head, he didn't like it when I won these little games. "I have a Sharing Meeting to go to. But don't worry baby brother, I'll keep the photo to myself. Of course, if someone at the meeting happens to pick up my camera while it happens to be displaying the picture, well that's life." He laughed just as one of his friends arrived in his car. Before I could make a single response, Tom had already jumped into the vehicle and was driving away.

"Meh, he's going to a Sharing meeting. Like the Yeerks care about an embarrassing photo." Marco shrugged uncaringly, grabbing my ball again. "So are you going to keep torturing me with the ball and hoop or are we gonna go inside and play a real game?"

"Ok, ok, we'll go..." I started as I turned away from the street, only to stop short as I noticed a brown haired boy walking very quickly towards us from down the street. After a second, I quickly recognised him as Erek King, our robotic friend and spy. And I almost groaned, disappointment and irritation bubbling in my gut as I noticed the worried look on his face. "See what has Erek so freaked." I sighed exasperatedly. Following my line of vision, Marco couldn't stop himself from letting out an angry growl as Erek reached my driveway.

"Dude, seriously, is it too much to ask for one day off?" He growled the second Erek was in talking distance. "Do the Yeerks know the meaning of words like vacation and downtime?"

"Yeah. But while one part of the Yeerk forces are having downtime, the others are hard at work." Erek responded apologetically, ignoring the lack of a hello. He knows we've been through a lot, even helped us where he could. He understands we're stressed and irritable. "But if it makes you feel better, this time you'll get to expand on your frequent flyer miles and see a few amazing sites while you're saving the world."

"What are they doing, making a pool under the Tower of Pisa? Or have they turned Scotland's Loc into one?" Marco grumbled smartly, just loud enough for us to hear.

"Number two's closer, they're working around England, Scotland and intend to snare Ireland while they're at it. But you're not going to believe me when I tell you what they're after this time." Erek responded calmly, a mixed look on his face. He looked as if he was trying to be serious, but couldn't hold back some amusement. "And since this is a long conversation, I think we better gather the others before we go any further."

"Sure. Why not?" I sighed, my day effectively ruined. "Just another day in the life of an Animorph. Rest and relaxation don't exist."

"I'm calling the union." Erek and I couldn't help but snort at Marco's response.

...

It didn't take long to get us gathered at the barn. Over a year of sudden meetings had us very well exercised in that practice. Well, those of us that had been active the whole time at least.

"Where's Warren?" I asked, looking around as I entered the barn with Erek. Marco, who'd gone to find Tobias and Ax, was already there with them, along with Cassie and Rachel. "Did anyone call him?"

"No, he's out of town." Cassie responded, not looking at me as she fiddled around with a deer, trying to get it to take its medicine. "Ben begged him to go with him when his family decided they were all going to watch Ben's brother in a junior motorbike race. Warren's a bike fanatic himself, even if his passion is actually mountain biking, so he was happy to go along."

"Ok, then Erek can inform him of how we're gonna die when he gets back." Marco responded impatiently. "Now what are the big bad control freaks up to this time?"

"Kind of a dumb question after meeting the Ellimist, but do you guys believe in magic?" Erek asked, grinning sheepishly.

"Well, I believe that's the only thing that describes what the Ellimist does, so yes. Why?" Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well...because there are beings on Earth that are capable of using magic too." Erek answered. That had mixed reactions. I was thoroughly gobsmacked. Rachel's eyes widened in disbelief while Marco raised a sceptic eyebrow. Cassie tensed and whipped around to face him, shocked and slack jawed. Tobias stopped preening himself and stared intensely at Erek. Ax went rigid. I wasn't sure if he was just refusing to believe it or if it was a sign of dislike. Of all of us, Ax has the least like for the Ellimist. With the exception of maybe Rachel.

"They're not nearly as powerful." Erek continued hastily as Rachel and Marco both looked ready to respond. "But they do exist, living in a society hidden within the non-magical one, have done so for centuries. However, they're pretty rare outside of Europe. The witches and wizards anyway."

"Witches and wizards? What else is there, warlocks and sorcerers?" Marco asked sarcastically, crossing his arms and tilting his head.

"No, those are titles witches and wizards can gain." Erek responded amusedly, not bothered by Marco's disbelief. "There are also a huge number of magical creatures in the world, some as sentient and intelligent as humans and some as wild as bears or wolves. The Yeerks intend to infest the witches and wizards and are using the few magical hosts they've already infested to see if any of the other magical creatures are host worthy. But, seeing as they've mostly only infested a few bumbling idiots so far, they don't know much about the others yet."

"Why don't they use those hosts to sneak up and capture smarter ones?" Rachel asked. "Is it really that hard?"

"The Yeerks are hesitant to go after too many magical humans at the moment." Erek answered hesitantly. I felt my stomach clench as his face turned nervous. I knew I wasn't going to like what he said next. "They're only just starting to build Yeerk Pools within their area and it's going slow. Plus, the community they've found is in the middle of a civil war with a dark wizard and his followers. The bad guys have pretty much won, but there still is a strong resistance fighting back and it promises to get ugly sooner or later. If they infest too many hosts now, the Yeerks will be on both sides and too many would be killed while trying to keep their cover. If they wait, then by the time the war ends, the wizards will have done a lot of damage to their world and it'll be easier to conquer, especially with a huge number of powerful hosts having their wills broken by the Wizarding jail."

"What?" Cassie asked, a mixture of confusion and outrage in her voice and eyes.

"The dark wizard, Voldemort, and his followers believe that they are superior to non magical people and that people that come from non magical families don't deserve magic." Erek explained, frowning disgustedly. "When Voldemort took over the area's magical government, he had them tell the world that witches and wizards from non magical families, also known as Muggleborns, stole their magic from another witch or wizard and is throwing them in the Wizarding jail called Azkaban. The jail is on an island and is guarded by horrible, dark creatures called Dementors that feed on your happy thoughts and memories and force you to relive all of your worst ones over and over again. It drives people insane if they're around them for too long."

/That's despicable!/ Tobias shouted, screeching with his beak at the same time. /Who the hell do these people think they are putting people, innocents especially, through that? I wouldn't even putt Visser Three through something like that. It's completely inhuman./

I had to nod in agreement with that. I completely agreed with Tobias. I was absolutely disgusted with these people. I was seriously tempted to find these guys and tear them to shreds. Who cares if it wasn't my fight, no one should be able to get away with that. Looking around, seeing their raging and paling faces, it was clear we all agreed. Ax looked a little less appalled, but I think that had more to do with being willing to put Visser Three through that than anything else.

"The Ministry originally put them there to guard real criminals because they couldn't kill them and it was the only way to stop them from attacking everything they came across." Erek continued quickly, not liking it when our dark looks turned back to him. It almost sounded like he was defending the idea of using them, even if it was only on slime balls. "Otherwise they'd do more. They'd use what's called the Dementor's kiss on innocents. They suck your soul out of your body through your mouth into there's. Once that happens, your soul is trapped in its belly and is tortured relentlessly until the day it dies while your body goes on living as a soulless zombie. Voldemort's a lot more willing to let them do their thing and attack everywhere they want, so they joined forces with him before the Ministry even fell. The Yeerks intend to get them as allies when the war's over, though they don't know if they could infest them, not that they want to even if they could. They're too afraid that the Dementor's power will still affect them while they're in their heads."

"So the Yeerks are just watching the world now and thinking about how to take it later?" I asked, deciding to move away from hellish creatures and back to the main topic. "Then why is it such a big problem now?"

"Because unless we manage to throw a wrench into their plans, the week this war is over more than half the wizards remaining in the area will be controllers." Erek answered gravely. "I told you that this was all happening around England, Scotland and Ireland. Between the three of them is the largest concentration of wizards in the world by far. After that, it will be easy to get the rest of them and the magical creatures either infested or turned into attack dogs for them before moving on to the rest of the magical world. Once that's done, they'll release them on the non magical, or Muggle world, and we won't stand a chance. Technology tends to get disrupted by magic. In fact, if you went to a Wizarding stronghold, the magic in the air would be so thick that even I'd short-circuit. Maybe even blow up."

"Which means even Yeerk and Andelite technology would be useless where magic is frequently used." Cassie muttered confusedly, nibbling on her lip. "So how would a Yeerk Pool operate there? The Kandrona would never work."

"They intend to make the pools deep underground where magic is significantly fainter." Erek answered. "They're making two pools at the moment. One underneath the Ministry of Magic and one underneath an ancient castle called Hogwarts. It's a boarding school for witches and wizards. They've already infested a few people within each to get access and begin construction. Plus, they have a ship loaded with Hork-Bajir near Azkaban, keeping an eye on the gathering prisoners. They're keeping an eye on them in case something happens and will capture and infest them just as soon as Voldemort's taken care of, either by losing the war or being infested."

"Why not just get them now and have a powerful army?" I asked raising an eyebrow, from the sounds of it, they were defenceless, physically and mentally. It didn't make sense to just ignore such easy and powerful hosts.

/Because this Voldemort would stop at nothing to put them back in Azkaban./ Ax answered patiently. /Until he is taken care of, infesting them would just cause unnecessary issues./

"Well, that only leaves two questions." Rachel stated confidently, a wicked grin growing on her face. "How do we help and when do we leave?"

"Are you insane?" I almost cracked up right there. I was wondering how far we'd get before Marco said that. "If we go to deal with this we'll have to stay there. The Yeerks will just keep trying. And if we stay there and save the magical world, our world will just be taken and then used to take the magical one anyway."

"But if we ignore it, the magical world will be infested and we won't stand a chance." Cassie groaned, rubbing her temples. "Either way, we lose."

"Now you see why I had to come to you quickly." Erek said apologetically, offering me a small grin. "This completely changes the game board. At the moment it's subtle, but if we ignore it..."

"It's going to equal check mate for us." Marco huffed, glaring at the ground. "And no matter what crisis we try to avert, the other will eventually be completed and move on to undo our work. We can't deal with both situations at once, we can't really handle one. How are we supposed to handle this?"

/The answer to that is simple./ Tobias stated hesitantly, drawing our attention to him. /Though pulling it off may be difficult and we may not all agree with it./

"What do you mean Tobias?" I asked impatiently. "What are you thinking?"

/When you need to fight on more fronts than you are capable, and giving up any one spells disaster, the most obvious move is to call in reinforcements./ He answered matter-of-factly.

"We need more Animorphs." Cassie said softly, nodding up at the hawk. "Ones that can blend into this Wizarding world and know how it operates well enough to predict how the Yeerks will set themselves up."

"WHAT?" Marco cried, staring incredulously back and forth between Tobias and Cassie as he turned as stiff as a board. "You want to give absolute strangers the power to morph AGAIN? And of all people, you choose people who already have powers. They'd be more powerful than us! If it was given to the wrong character or one of the controllers we'll all be toast."

"We'll take precautions." I responded, looking around the group. "We'll start with people at that boarding school. They'll be the easiest to watch for three days straight and I'd like to ensure that a school full of innocent children is well protected, both from the Yeerks and these dark wizards as a side bonus. Then we'll try to find someone who can help with the magical government part of it."

I looked around the group as I spoke, trying to gage the others' opinions. Cassie was nodding at me, completely in agreement. I couldn't read Tobias, but this was his idea so I assumed he was on my side. Rachel looked a little unsure, but she nodded her head anyway. I think that was more because she couldn't think of another solution than anything else. Marco just glared at the ground, mumbling about how crazy this was. No surprise there. Of all of us, he was definitely the most resistant to sharing the morphing power, but it seemed even he could see the need. If a single other option was available, he would probably jump at it. I was nervous about doing this too. It was definitely very dangerous. But then, Elfangor picked us at random and we turned out alright. We'll actually be selecting the candidates this time. It should turn out ok.

/Could we not just warn some of these wizards of the Yeerks' presence?/ Ax asked hesitantly. Turning to face him, it was clear, even on his mouthless face that he disapproved of the idea. Again that wasn't too shocking to me. Though he was fine with going against his people's law against sharing technology for us, he firmly believed that it should only be used on people we knew well, a sentiment that had only grown stronger in our whole group when we put our faith in David and got attacked. /These people already have power. More than we have. Do they really need our power too?/

"To fight Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, no." Cassie said, shaking her head. "However, they'll need a way to keep their identities secret from the Yeerks just like we do and with the Yeerks combining their skills and knowledge with a wizard host's knowledge and powers, they'll need any edge that they can get."

/You are most likely correct./ Ax muttered moodily, not really sure how to rebuff that. /If this is what Prince Jake decides, then I shall accept it./

"I can't think of any other way." I admitted, running a hand through my hair as a nervous feeling started getting to me. "Can anyone else?"

"Nope." Rachel said as the others shook their heads, some more reluctantly than others. It was decided then. "So when do we leave? And how do we get there?" She asked, turning questioningly from me to Erek.

"I can get us onto a plane no problem." Erek suggested. "Once we're in England, we'll meet up with another Chee over there who's pretending to be a squib. A person from a magical family, but has no magic of their own." He added as I frowned in confusion. "He'll direct you to anywhere in the Wizarding world that you need to go."

"Then we'll head to the airport right away and try to find the right plane." I stated firmly. The sooner this was underway the better. I have to admit that the idea of ruining such a huge plan of the Yeerks before it could even get underway was thrilling. If everything went right, our side would finally have a place where we could stand our ground. The school would be constantly protected and the disrupted technology would make capturing and holding large numbers of wizards very difficult elsewhere too. "Can you get the Chee to cover for us on the way?" I asked, turning to Erek.

"Already done." Erek grinned. "We can leave right now."

"Well then, let's do it." Rachel smiled confidently as she headed towards the door. Cassie and I couldn't help but chuckle as Marco groaned at Rachel's catchphrase. This was going to be interesting.