Dark Cloud! Is it Really?

Chapter 3

Calm Before

WARNING: Rated M for a reason. Will have blood, gore (general violence), and in later chapters romance.

'Thought'

"Speech"

~Mental Speech~

"Beast Speech"

Emphasis

-Letter-

Attacks

{Author notes}

Deathe has accepted the challenge for this story. They don't plan on posting their version until they have at least three chapters written.

It IS okay for more than one person to take the challenge. If you're interested, please let me know and I'll add it to the updates so others can check out what you write.

Voldemort:

Good - bastard whose only nice to his elite and wants domination over Britain = 2

Evil - complete and utter bastard who only cares for himself hell bent on world domination = 2

Snape:

Good - not loyal to Voldemort nor Dumbledore = 1

Dark - loyal to Voldemort = 1

Light- loyal to Dumbledore = 0

One Piece: Only two characters, possibly three, tops from the One Piece world. You have until chapter 8 (or chapter 7 depending on how you want to look at it) to vote.

Smoker - 1

Whitebeard Pirates - 1 = have to pick top two favorite crew members (Ace is alive, so is Whitebeard. It will be explained later on but Law got there earlier than in cannon which changed things. Akainu is dead and Blackbeard was critically injured but survived.)

Kid Pirates - 1 = I'm afraid I don't know much about the Kid Pirates and I can't really see them not attempting to kill the entire wizarding population or getting killed themselves by Doflamingo for doing something stupid to Law so he and his crew will be removed from the poll. I apologize to those who might have wanted to see them.

Luffy and Rayleigh - 0 = I think that this would end up funny as hell and you don't have to worry about Luffy snooping around for Laws past.

Chopper - 0 = I think this would be cute and you also don't have to worry about him looking into Laws past.

Bark!

The sound went unnoticed by most as a multitude of owls had filled the room not seconds before, delivering mail to their proper receivers.

Law looked over to the snowy owl sitting on his outstretched leg, having been the recipient of the bark. Quirking a brow in question, he ran a finger over the beautiful birds' head while he waited for her to continue.

"Why won't you let me bring the barrier down? It's only hindering your recovery!"

Law held back a sigh, knowing full well that if he actually did sigh then Hedwig would start attacking him. Again. She was less than pleased that he didn't take her with him, even though he really had no choice.

Though, Law was sorely tempted to just say to Hell with it. He was starting to feel caged in, but he was anything but stupid. He wouldn't put him or his crew at risk unless he was fully recovered. Even if he did have more magic in his little fingers than these people had in their entire bodies.

"We've been over this Hedwig. I would rather have a slower recovery safe than a faster one in potential danger. You know I don't trust anyone here, and I'm not going to risk my crew because those bastards are overeager. We'll just have to wait it out for a little while. Besides, I'm almost better. Just a little bit longer, and I'll be as close to as good as new that's possible in this situation. I promise." Law muttered reassuringly, speaking loud enough for Hedwig to easily hear him but low enough that even his crew would barely be able to understand. Hedwig seemed to huff, obviously displeased with the answer given but understanding why, before cocking her head to the side.

"I have to go Master. Someone seems to have a letter for you. I'll be back soon." Hedwig explained before taking off, disappearing in the mass of owls still about.

"Does she always do that?" Bepo inquired from behind Law, who was currently using him as a backrest to lean against.

"Hmm? Ah, I didn't know you were awake." Law mused.

His crew had apparently stayed awake the entire time he was out, so they were completely irritable and exhausted when he finally came to. They had quickly dosed off about an hour or so after Law awoke, wanting to make sure that he was fine. That was around thirty-six hours ago, give or take. "But, yes. From what I can remember, she's always had this uncanny ability to know when someone had something for me. It's odd, but I've learned to not question these kinds of things. Magic can't be explained that easily if at all, so I've just put that into the same category since it's basically a form of location magic anyway."

Bepo just nodded. "Okay. Hey Tou-san, when will we be able to leave? I don't like it here."

Law paused, before tilting his head in contemplation. His reserves were filling back up nicely, and quite quickly too thanks to Hedwig acting as some sort of support pillar for his magic. Shouldn't be to much longer, now that Law thought about it. "Well, about an hour or so and I should be able to bring the dome down if that's what you were asking about." He responded after a few minutes.

"Finally!" A voice sounded by Laws' side, indicating that either Shachi or Penguin had woken up. "I thought we would end up killing someone if we stayed here for any longer." Law looked over, highly amused by the reactions the simple claim caused by those eating lunch, and confirmed that it was indeed Shachi that was awake. Penguin was still asleep with his arm slung over his lovers waist, preventing Shachi from really moving anywhere. "Penguin was starting to get twitchy, and you know that's never a good thing!"

Law grimaced. He remembered a couple of times when Penguin got 'twitchy'. Between Shachi and Penguin, Penguin was definitely the more quite and composed of the two. Their tempers however, were completely the opposite. Both of them happen to be rather difficult to truly anger, but once Penguins' fuse has been lit, he becomes very volatile with an equally explosive temper, whereas Shachi just got knife happy. Neither one was really good, especially around allies, but Penguins' was definitely the worst of the two. The last time Penguin got 'twitchy', Law had actually hid from him. As well as most of the crew that was smart enough to take the hint.

Before Law could respond to that, admittedly daunting, statement, the doors to the Great Hall slammed open silencing the whole room. The Headmaster stormed inside, huffing, red-faced, and . . . smoking? Dumbledore headed straight for the head table and sat down, immediately focusing on the food that appeared in front of him while completely ignoring everyone else. A few seconds later, everyone went back to what they were doing before, though occasional glances were still sent towards the head table.

Law just hummed in response to Shachis' previous statement instead of giving an answer, focusing more on the agitated . . . and still smoking . . . Headmaster. The man's clothes looked like he had decided to stroll through an inferno or something, which, in hindsight, looked to be an improvement.

Shachi suddenly busted out laughing, bringing Laws' attention back to him while simultaneously rousing a few of the lighter sleeping crew members and silencing the Hall once again. "Well, at least we now have an idea about the Polar Tang!" He roared in-between his gasping laughter.

Law smirked, before commenting with a side-long glance to the man in question. Dumbledore didn't look to pleased at being called out. "Hmm. Now that you mention it, the last person that tried to break into the Tang did end up with a rather similar appearance."

"Serves him right."

"Nosy bastard."

"Stupid."

"Suicidal fucker."

"Idiot."

"Has a death wish."

"Shouldn't have tried to enter where he wasn't wanted."

The enthusiastic, though sleep-layered, mutters over-lapped each other as the members that Shachi had inadvertently awoken forced themselves up, voicing their opinions on the man in question.

Law grinned. He loved it when everyone spoke at the same time. It's not only incredibly amusing to him, but he tends to turn it into a game of sorts with other members to see who can try and figure out what was actually said first. Law glanced over to Shachi, absently noting that Penguin had woken up as well and was now holding Shachi rather intimately from behind, to see him attempting to hold in his laughter at the jumbled responses. Seems Law wasn't the only one who found it amusing. Another glance towards the head table, however, showed that the amusement wasn't appreciated by the Headmaster, if the rather poor attempt at glaring was any indication. The slight twitching from the dour potion master and defense professor, though, indicated that the esteemed Headmaster was the only one who happened to share that exact sentiment for the situation.

Looks like Law might be able to have a little fun while he was stuck in this Hellhole of a world after all.

Deciding to focus back on his crew, Law looked over each member, both awake and still asleep. They looked healthy, if a little pale from the lack of food and water due to them refusing anything the magicals offered. Nothing that he wouldn't be able to fix when they finally got out of the castle and back to the Tang, if it was really brought with them. "Sleep well?"

Murmurs of acknowledgement came from those awake before Penguin asked the question on all their minds. "Are you still okay, Sencho?"

"I'm fine." Law reassured, a small genuine smile tilting his lips. "We'll be able to leave this room in an hours time, give or take. If the Tang made the trip as well, then we'll go to her. If not, then we'll just have to find somewhere secure to stay. I'd rather not tempt fate by trusting these people with our placement."

Law's crew made noises of understanding while nodding in agreement. They trusted these people about as far as they could throw a giant. Which was not at all.

After a few minutes of silence where the crew worked out their kinks from staying asleep for so long, they began reporting on what had happened while Law had been unconscious. He had already been given the test that the goblins had done shortly after their unexpected arrival and he wasn't pleased about it in the least. Law had never really liked the old manipulative headmaster, let alone trusted him. For good reason, apparently.

His crew had told him that their summoners were, with-out-a-doubt, completely stupid. The Heart Pirates weren't, in fact, the only ones these morons summoned, though for some reason he didn't know, and had a feeling he didn't want to know, they wouldn't tell who it was.

Law was desperately praying that it wasn't who he believed it was. He had been catching glimpses of pink at the edges of his vision that always disappeared when he went to look.

Thankfully, by the time Law's crew had finished their reports, Hedwig had returned with the letter that she had left for and he was finally able to bring down his barrier.

Now they just had find out if the Tang really did come with them. If she did then they would stay with her and they would be free to move about as they wished.

Law planned on reading the letter he got as well as finding the rule book for the damned tournament he was forced to participate in in the safety of his office. He had really wanted to kill everyone around him when he had learned of the latter.

Law had honestly never been so happy to leave somewhere than right then. He really didn't want to find out, first hand, if it was possible to get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from a color. The color pink, no less.

Finally finished! Yay!

What do you think?

I have gotten a review that I find makes a rather good point. Alexzandria747 has stated that if I were to add anymore people than what I already have from the One Piece world, then things could quickly get out of control, for lack of a better word.

Because of this I've decided to do two things.

One is to limit the number coming over. There will be at maximum two, possibly three, characters from the One Piece world or none at all, depending on what you vote for.

Two is that I will be making an alternative story. It will be the same story but not at the same time. The original, which is this one, will be continued as it is. If you vote for Voldemort being bad, then in the original he will be while in the alternative he will be good. If you vote for no characters from One Piece coming over for the original then there will be characters in the alternative. So on and so forth.

The alternative will be posted as soon as I get the second chapter completed. I hope that you'll like both the original and the alternative.

On another note: Does anybody know what the Polar Tangs' interior looks like? How many floors it has and what's on each floor? I haven't got a clue and I can't find it anywhere. I also need to that info to get the next chapter started so any help is welcome.