First and foremost, I'd like to apologise both for my absence, as well as the writing itself. Honestly, looking back at the last 20+ chapters of this story, I'm ashamed of myself both for writing completely out of character, as well as poor writing in general. Looking back, I really want to go back over and edit what I've made to fix the errors that I know I've made. I'm currently taking part in a musical, but once it ends and my schedule frees up again… I'm finding that I'm motivated to actually finish these stories and edit them to be better than they were when I started them in grade 9. I want to thank anyone who's still reading my content here on , and I'm really sorry to those of you who got frustrated with my hiatus. I'm a little rusty, and trying to get back into the swing of things. However, as I promised, I won't leave a fanfiction unfinished. So, without further ado,

Chapter 30: I told you Part 2

Gajeel's POV

"Then it's decided." Said Erza, pulling me from my thoughts and returning my attention to what was going on. Now that our new defensive strategy was established, the other members of the guild began to wander off one by one back to their dorms to go to bed. Wendy was the first to go – understandable given her age, I guess. Romeo was pretty quick to follow. Eventually, the only ones left were Levy, Juvia, Laxus and myself. I gave Levy's shoulder a final squeeze to warm her up before walking away to check up on Juvia like I wanted to during the meeting. As soon as I moved, Levy began her own trek back up to the stony castle to turn in for the night. My boots crunched in the February snow with each step I took, falling silent when I came to a stop in front of Juvia.

Her eyes were distant. She seemed… unfocused, like she was lost in thought. I brought my hand down in front of her face. She blinked several times like I'd woken her up from a dream, the glaze leaving her eyes. She looked up at me with a confused frown before finally starting to talk.

"Is something wrong, Gajeel?" She said as she cocked her head and began to rub her arms like she'd just noticed that she was cold.

"You tell me." I said, crossing my arms and looking up at the stars. I couldn't meet her eyes. Warm and fuzzy has never really been my thing. Yeah, sometimes I make big speeches or whatever, and you have to be sensitive to be a great songwriter like me… but leveling with people isn't easy for me. It never has been. Guess I can chalk that up to a pretty laid back relationship with Metalicana. I cleared my throat with an awkward cough. "Somethin' bothering you?"

Juvia blinked, her eyebrows arching as she raised her hands defensively.

"Oh no no!" She said, "Juvia is fine! Juvia… just… The lake scared juvia a little today is all." It was tough to miss the shame in her voice, as though she were embarrassed to be frightened. Hell, I wouldn't have wanted to be in that creepy-ass water… or water in general for that matter. Fun fact about iron, it sinks. Swimming aint fun for me. Never has been.

Once I knew it was nothing serious, I gave Juvia a pat on the back and turned to head back towards the castle. My hands returned to my pockets.

"Well… You know where to find me if you need anythin'." I said as I began the long trek back up to the castle. I paused when I noticed something out of the ordinary that hadn't been there before. The falling snow had nearly covered them up but… I crouched behind three sets of footprints in the snow that had stopped well beyond where the guildmembers met up. There was an area of disturbed snow… so someone had been standing around for a while…. My nose twitched as I tried to catch whatever remained of the scent attached to the footprints. My gut rolled uncomfortably from the familiar stench.

"Shit." I said. I grit my teeth and glanced back over my shoulder at Juvia and Laxus who had begun to walk back towards the castle after me. I gestured for them to come over as I pushed myself up from where I'd squatted.

"What?" Laxus said.

"Look." I pointed to the flattened snow. "Prints. Someone was watching."

"Could it have been one of us?" Juvia asked, looking between me and Laxus for an answer. I shook my head in response and tapped the side of my nose with my finger. I knew the scents of every person in the guild. The ones attached to the tracks weren't from home.

"It was the Potter kid and his friends, so he either knows, or he suspects." I said as I crossed my arms across my chest. Fantastic. Not only did we have to babysit the Potter kid and make sure he kept out of trouble and protect Wendy, we also had to convince the Potter kid that we were NOT from an alternate dimension in which these useless little wooden sticks aren't necessary for magic. Give me an iron sword over a little piece of wood any day.

"Gramps will want to hear about this." Laxus said. He didn't sound happy about it either. I guess that's to be expected. The old man's relationship with his grandkid was… rocky at best. I thought about that before shaking my head and crossing my arms.

"For now, let's keep it quiet. If everyone acts normally, it'll seem less suspicious." I said, looking back up towards the tower where the Ravenclaws slept. Even from the quidditch pitch where we'd met up, I could see a distant violet glow where he sat in one of the windows. "We'll tell Freed. Maybe he can set up a runic illusion to make us seem normal when we train. If I had to guess, he probably already knows that people are getting' suspicious." It made sense. After all, the kids at this school seemed pretty keen on using magic for just about everything they could—not too different from Earthland where magic lacrima had a similar purpose. As far as I knew, no one had seen us cast a single spell. That short kid who shrimp had been spending time with, - Hermany? Hermion? I honestly couldn't remember despite picking my brains—seemed like the type to ask a lot of questions.

'I should probably tell shorty to start coming up with excuses.' I thought to myself. Bunny girl could use similar advice. Then again, they were both pretty smart. By now they would have thought of something to say if someone questioned us about magic, but still, since I knew that the trio had spied on us, it couldn't hurt to make sure that everyone's stories on the magic situation lined up… Look at me, planning shit. Maybe I /have/ been spending too much time with Levy. She's the planner, I'm the muscle, right? That's why we work well together… tch, whatever. Not important right now.

"I'll talk to him." Laxus said, interrupting the lapse in quiet. "It'll be less suspicious if a teacher's out at night than 'kids'." I grunted to acknowledge him. Juvia nodded and walked over to my side to take my arm. I shrugged her off. She didn't take it personally, it had always been that way. She was touchy, I wasn't. We understood each other that way. To let her know that I was in a good state of mind, however, I gave her a light pat on the shoulder as I passed to start the walk back up to the castle to find my way back to the dungeon to get some much needed sleep.

For once, I passed right out. By the time morning came, I felt well-rested for the first time in a long time. No dreams, no nightmares, just rest. I sat up in bed and brushed the algae green curtains aside to get dressed and head down to breakfast. A few of the Slytherins from seventh year—the room where I was assigned—murmured their good mornings to me. I grunted. They weren't bad, honestly. I don't really like people, but the seventh years were pretty mature. They didn't get on my nerves like some of the snot nosed eleven year olds who kept pestered me with questions until Mirajane swindled them away to talk about something else.

"How's your champion feeling?" One of the older boys in the dorm—the head boy, Pat—asked. I glanced over to here he was sitting on the end of his bed in his pajamas with his legs crossed. He was a bit of an awkward guy. Tall, skinny, clumsy, with short black hair and a gap between his front teeth that these little metal pieces called 'braces' were trying to remedy. He told me he was something called a muggleborn after we'd known each other for a while, whatever the hell that means. I shrugged, pulling my shirt down over my shoulders before grabbing my pants from the trunk at the end of the bed. "I mean… she's pretty young, isn't she?" He continued, unfolding a pair of socks to pull on. "It's dangerous—and there's a lot of pressure."

"She's a smart kid. Stronger than she looks." I said as I pulled my armored shoulder piece on, "It's like Rumbleroar-"

"Dumbledore."

"—Dumbledore, told you pipsqueaks. We're different from you guys. We practice combat magic more then anything else. Or… defense against the dark arts, whatever you want to call it. She may be second year for you guys, but she's just as capable of the rest of us at our school." I said. It felt like he'd asked me every other day how Wendy was doing in the competition. It was good to see that he was concerned, but man was I ever getting fed up with giving him the same answer every day.

Once I was dressed, I walked out of the door and into the common room. I took a minute to watch the giant squid circle the lake through the large underwater window before I decided to go and get something to eat before my first 'class' was scheduled to start. I would be skipping Defense against the dark arts today since we were having what Mad-Eye called an "application day" where we actually used spells on one another. Besides, from what I'd heard of that class, I didn't want to be there on a practical day even if I could use a wand. Torture spells? Mind control spells? That shit is just wrong. Dark magic. I'd rather go to Care of Magical creatures where the most disturbing thing we do is feed these creepy things called Thestrals. Apparently you can only see them if you've watched someone die. The concept is creepy as hell, but the actual animals… not bad. Quiet, kind of shy.

"What-Ho, sir Gajeel!" I heard a voice call from behind me. Shit. He'd found me again. I turned to look at the paintings on the wall and watched as a fat little pony sprinted from portrait to portrait with a knight in shabby armor bouncing and jostling on his back.

"For the last time old man, I don't need your help!" I said as the knight came to a halt beside me in a painting of a nymph relaxing under an apple tree. "I know how to get to breakfast!"

The knight's mustache twitched as he sat taller in the saddle with a scoff of indignation. He drew his sword and pointed it at me. As if that would do anything.

"You dare insult the noble sir Cadogan?" He sputtered, mustache waggling as though it were going to fall off. "You're lucky that the lady who sent for you was a noble and honorable maid or I'd have your leg for that!" A woman? I rolled my eyes and leaned in closer to the painting, leaning one arm on the wall.

"Alright. What?" I said, and waited for him to reply. He made sure to straighten his armor and prolong the pause as long as he could before finally, with one last cough, he told me what I wanted to know.

"The lady Erza requests your presence at once in the astronomy tower!"